Tribute in lights
Oddities of 2006
Read this in Berlin Reuters. Oddities include a spray-on condom. I want to know the science of that! Remember Dick Cheney shooting his friend in a quail hunt too. I remember that. Its been a year!?
30 December 2006
Just watched "The Last Castle" starring Robert Redford (Irwin) and the flag of US of A. A bit exaggerated, but nice movie! *edit Oh they use this video for leadership training! how cool!
Oh and then I was just saying this morning that some shoe bag has been smelly since i was in *J.. feels weird saying that. and thats weird cos I don't feel weird when I say I was from * High. Made me think that jc should be a little longer, cos I had more autonomy there, happier too. Curriculum needs more time anyway. Compared to the stupid english classes in lower sec.
Which, brings into mind Screwtape proposes a toast, where the "i-am-as-good-as-you" mentality brings this "democratic" educational system where there is no incentive to be better nor enough deterrent to not be at the lower rungs. Elitist? Maybe. But I do remember the dumb classes... On the other hand, in secondary school I appreciated the Chinese culture appreciation classes. and the Coaches from 'external agencies' who helped teach a lot more from outside the classroom too.. JC was reallly when (through GP and French classes) broadened my horizons too..
16 December 2006
Ageing population indeed
I suddenly realised that there has been a steady block of noise pollution where I live, and its really because of the chinese/buddhist/taoist funerals (marked by bright yellow canvases advertising the funeral parlours) and then about how the other races actually feel when their ears are ringing with trumpets and the big clang clang gongs on saturday mornings (or nights)...
So perhaps...(linking with my sociological imagination), this onslaught of yellow funerals could really be linked to how bedok is an old estate and the ageing population of Singapore. Don't see many young children around!
Japan has no VCDs!
what!!? A random street interview across Japan and they all go "shiranai!". 2nd amazing thing is none of them ever pretends to know too.
I normally don't like such stuff/think its crap. But I really like these. Nice.
The Keys to Your Heart
You are attracted to those who are unbridled, untrammeled, and free.In love, you feel the most alive when things are straight-forward, and you're told that you're loved.
You'd like to your lover to think you are loyal and faithful... that you'll never change.
You would be forced to break up with someone who was emotional, moody, and difficult to please.
Your ideal relationship is traditional. Without saying anything, both of you communicate with your hearts.
Your risk of cheating is zero. You care about society and morality. You would never break a commitment.
You think of marriage as something precious. You'll treasure marriage and treat it as sacred.
In this moment, you think of love as something you don't need. You just feel like flirting around and playing right now.
May 19 2006
Police Chase!
Phwoar! Was walking home last night with Sister. Then saw this black run out of the new block of flats. As he ran across the grass (gasp! how could he step on the grass!), he kept turning back to look. At us and also somewhere behind him.
Me: Wah that guy damn suspicious leh.
Sister: Yah okok let's synchronise. (looks at watch) 955 pm
Me: no, 9.50! ok, white basketball jersey, No. 14.
Guy sheds his jersey while running, balls it up in fist.
Both of us hear something seconds later. Turns around and sees 2 policemen running and gasping.
Heart thumps.
Cute Policeman A answers his mobile.
Policeman A: Hello? WHO ARE YOU!!!!
*Both continues running in the WRONG direction.
Me: You think we should tell them? *without waiting
Me to Policeman B (he's less cute): (SHOUTS) We saw a man running THAT way!
Policeman B: is it a black guy???
Me and Sister: YAH!!!!
Policeman A and Policeman B starts sprinting towards the other way. I turn around and see a young man on his mobile hurrying along. Me and Sister regrets not throwing our shoes at that guy. A neighbour sees us and says, "Wah, policemen run so slow! That black was already running so slowly (he was)!"
Labour Day, May 1
So happy when I find out someone knows Jesus too, and can spend eternity in heaven together :)
WP's truck came around a while ago, and its SOO funny!
The money is YOURS! The money is NOT FROM PAP!
Doh.
tang baos at ding tai fung!
*bliss*
Fireworks in Singapore
...
1. In a room @ Marina Mandarin Hotel
2. In a room @ Fullerton Hotel
3. And lastly, from my house
1 February 2006
River Ang Bao Festival
The lit peaches in the trees are so pretty!
At Chinatown Square
stunned to see Jie's favourite barbie doll puzzle and finger toy since we were, like, 7?! I didn't even know the finger toy is actually a popular character in Japan. We thought it was just a mass produced, made-in-China toy... And it wasn't even an array of puzzles in the shop, just that barbie doll puzzle sitting right there outside the shop. We gave it away, but Jie still has the finger toy sitting on her table now. (Which she wanted to throw away already I think, before we discovered its actually Sato-chan. Hah.)
Somewhere in Nov/Dec
Fake fish
Mother cut out a large colour print of a Jin Long Yu (Golden Dragon Fish??) from a full-print ad on The Straits Times and pasted it on the fish tank, giggle giggle and told me to keep quiet so she could fool Pa. Pa came out and started laughing. It really looked real, and it ended up staying on our tank for about a week...
Last episodes
I love watching last episodes. I was watching a serial, and then I wanted to say, I realised, that I actually like feeling..Sad for the character, then I thought back on a death of a loved one and realised I don't really, but I do like a good show. Last episodes are not really a good thing, especially if they're good serials, (like korean, taiwanese, or hongkong's TVB), But I like WATCHING last episodes because there's a closure, there's anticipation, excitment with a tinge of sadness. It's different from the last few minutes of a movie because the last episode of a serial show has "build-up"s. I can snuggle in a warm sofa with warm cocoa with silent cold rain outside, smile and laugh, cry alone.
Wednesday, 28 September 2005
Les Choristes
Topic: Movies I like
After blogging about Pirates of the Caribbean, I remembered this. Well...during the movie, I was really impressed. After the movie, I'm thinking, what was the point of the movie again? I mean...I couldn't catch it. Perhaps in other movies, there's some sort of ending, so after the movie the characters are immortalised in that happy/sad ending in their future. But Les Choristes started with 2 old men recalling their past, and ended with that 2 old men. Which meant that the children featured had no ending, or rather, ended with that 2 old men. I guess there was some sort of 'moral to the story' of the children though. and the songs are so good, its really worth the watch..
Pirates of the Caribbran (The Curse of the Black Pearl)
Topic: Movies I like
I just finished this movie, and I just HAD to blog it.. Towards the end of the show, all I was thinking was that Johnny Depp had, perhaps once again, saved the show. Hurh. It is a great movie, but Johnny Depp's character was strikingly similar to Willy Wonka!!! Ha..so I'm thinking that either it is a real coincidence, or that Johnny Depp made it like himself.
The second half of the movie became weird..ha. I mean, Jack Sparrow, oops, I meant Captain Jack Sparrow, transformed into a skeleton under the moonlight..While I was trying to recall if he had appeared under the moonlight before without transforming, I also got lost as to why he did. More importantly, I had already established him to be an honest, and the most honest character in the show! He had even thanked Barbossa for the mutiny before and that so he was not included in the curse! Now that, is willy.
Another part that I didn't like was that Jack Sparrow was saved mainly by Elisabeth, played by Keira Knightly, (who did not and would not save the show). I mean, when he escaped from the gallows...and Elisabeth stood between him and her fiancąŻ. And I would also have liked it better if Elisabeth just ran off with Will Turner to be pirates anyway. And then Jack Sparrow's crew had to talk about the rules being "guidelines", which just totally re-enforced the fact that Elisabeth really saved his ass cos she was the one who told the crew about rules being guidelines.
But I loved Johnny Depp. Also when he said "but a sin is enough to condemn" and "not all treasure is silver and gold". I've never seen him displayed not a bit of lust..even when he teased Knightly's character.. I imagine he would love his wife and children a lot. I mean like, his character in Pirates, his obsession is his ship, as Willy Wonka, chocolate, and as Edward Scissorshand, from my recollection, just plain weird and trimming bushes.
When Captain Jack Sparrow 'couldn't recall' "parler" (?), that was funny, especially when Depp lives between France and the US.. I liked Sparrow, but in real life I think I would not be able to stand his odour. and when I saw barbossa die, Celine Dion started singing "tout l'or des hommes ne fait rien..." in my mind. Ha. Elisabeth's father, the governer, said in the last scene, "piracy itself can be the right course". I imagine they would be too pleased if I were watching a pirated vcd. ha. (but I didn't).
Tuesday, 27 September 2005
The Lexus and the Olive Tree
Well, Thomas Friedman is a good writer...I loved these lines:
"Different weights to different perspectives at different times, a globalist understands the interaction of them all and order the chaos."
-Like, wow, its a paragraph in a sentence...
"To avoid globalisation is difficult as they [the government/ruling body] have to prove that their alternative can produce rising standards of living and do that in an environment which everyone knows how everyone else lives."
"Global integration has raced ahead of education. Thanks to globalisation, we all definitely know 'of' one another more than ever, but we still don't know that much 'about' one another."
-This is good..I've thought of it before...like, we Think we know but we really actually don't...and so its dangerous cos we become comfortable where we stand..
"Globalisation converts or transforms the citizen from an actor to a spectator, with illusions of participation."
-Like, totally! hah..I guess that's where people like me fit...
And this is really the best part I liked: (page 391 of my edition of the book)
"In 1997, I attended an academic conference in Morocco entitled "Globalisation and the Arab World". Most of the Arab participants were French-educated Arabs from North Africa and France. (To be a French-educated Arab intellectual is the worst combination possible for understanding globalisation. It is like being twice handicapped, since both of these cultures are intuitively hostile to the whole phenomenon.)
-heh. I wonder how many French read Thomas L. Friedman..I salute him for undertaking the task of trying to explain globalisation..I think I read something bout the French and globalisation in another book "60 million Frenchmen can't be wrong" (or something..) and it kinda made sense too. Hurh. I really liked this book..though it's a little old, but it still can be relevant..that's "the lexus and the olive tree" by Thomas L. Friedman.
Tuesday, 20 September 2005
Full House
Ahhhhh
This is So funny. This show makes me so happy everytime i watch it...
Tuesday, 6 September 2005
Oliver Beene Episode #18 Girly Dad
OMG! This is like, the wackiest show. haha. i like the show for one big reason: the Dad is like me!!! i have an obsession with stationery shops, and this Dad has an obsession with the 'office supplies' store, and then they showed a scene at the store where he was so fascinated with this glue bottle that had sponge on top...later on bringing back unnecessary stuff home to his wife too. I'm not too fascinated with glue, but the shop itself... Ha. Then the teenage boy looks like meng ze from 5566. and the way the father threw the baseball with a flick of the wrist. Classic.
Monday, 22 August 2005
there was absolutely no decent show to watch today. I turned to watch Channel News Asia, and was very traumatised by the news, watching the Gaza pullout and then a bull that raged and flung at people... Cable will be airing more ghost stories this month because of the Hungry Ghosts' Festival. But I guess nothing is more scary than... whats happening in reality.
Monday, 15 August 2005
National Libraries
Topic: I love Singapore
I love the libraries of Singapore.
I mean like, all you need is your id and you get to borrow books!! And if you're lucky, books as new as mint!
Monday, 8 August 2005
Topic: Movies I like
White Chicks (2004)
How could I have forgotten this movie?!?! I watched this on my pocket pc on a plane to France, I must have irritated a lot of other passengers because I was absolutely laughing my head off and crying, and had to pause the movie for me to stop laughing so I won't miss any good bits too!
That said, it has been quite a long time since I've watched it. I remember the vanilla ice cream part (that song!!) and also when they couldn't fit into the clothes, and one of them came out like a scarecrow, to me that was the funniest, because no one knows that better than a big girl in a dressing room who can't fit into those tight clothes.
I watched it on such a small screen, I can't say I caught on many things though. Like, I didn't find the farting part funny. But the Vanessa Carlton song bit was funny! hurh. Great Movie.
Topic: Movies I like
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (2005)
I cannot believe it! This is joining my favourite movies list.
Generally, at the end of the movie, the feeling is like...Johnny Depp is a really really good actor, astounding. the overall effects, graphics of the land was astounding. I mean like, the Oompa loompa...the guy was just...[ugly] but that makes the movie nice. I liked the book a lot when I read it when I was young, and this movie didn't let me think that it did the book injustice.
Admittedly, I felt dread creep into my heart when the movie started, because I never liked 'wasting money' to watch a movie, and the start of the movie was quite grey, I was sitting a little too near the big screen, and there was a little too much action in the audience (kids). But it turned out just fine =D.
So I haven't read the book in years (like, 6?) and when I saw the 4 grandparents in the bed the memories came flooding back. The Indian prince part was absolutely hilarious! and the humour was just great. I can't even find the best adjective for the humour.
I liked, the part when Willy Wonka announced that he was closing the factory, and the part when the puppets sang, and later, became burnt. It was a great way to introuduce Willy Wonka. It takes a lot to write a good book, a good poem, and a lot for a good movie too. It isn't the same.
i Loved Willy Wonka's character! I didn't remember Willy Wonka having this...attitude in the book. The I-can't-watch-the-show-if-I-were-seated-there and the I-can't-hear-what-you're-saying to the boy who wasn't mumbling!
The Oompa loompa were sadists! haha..like when Veruca went into the garbage tract, their dance was absolutely....sick and hilarious. I felt like I was watching a theatre production, a semi-musical...
Then I find the ending really cool too, because there were added parts that were never in the book (I hated the way Roald Dahl ended the book with Another book Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator. It didn't make any sense...) It added character to Willy Wonka.
One of the funniest was when Wilbur Wonka threatened his son "But I won't be here when you come back" and the next thing you know, the whole house was gone from the streets like it was torn out by the father and moved.
I also liked Willy Wonka a lot. He seemed to be a child too. When Violet Beauregarde's mother flirted with him, (endorphins..."you don't say...") His expression was....really good. I can't say he was turned off, yet he certainly wasn't turned on. He was so polite, like he didn't know how to handle the situation.
Willy Wonka also said he was having his semI-annual haircut (by that ugly guy too) when he thought of how he needed a 'hair'. That was hilarious.
I always wonder, is it the scriptwriter's or the director's credit...? (Or is it Johnny Depp's? heh..)
Watches
Just walked past a large advert with a slogan that said something like "I can tell about you from your watch" and that reminded me of how I think men should wear analog watches and not digital watches, because it tells me they actually know time, time management etc, and that they opt for the classic...?
guys (who wear digital watches) always give me some excuse to redeem themselves, like how their watches are from someone they treasure and how they would change their watches once they're, like, spoilt or something. Whatever.
Because like,
1>Why did they opt to give you a watch? Were you wearing a watch before that?
2>Why did they opt to give you a digital watch?
Of course, there're qualifying (and redeeming) statements. Like wearing a digital watch to jog Or a digital watch from TAG heuer. Heh.
Saturday, 23 July 2005
I love my Pocket PC!
Now I can blog wherever, whenever someone thinks me to be flat-footed...haha
I am not flat footed!
Actually...I debated posting this entry..
But I only write good in my written journal see, so after some time I actually forget the unhappy stuff, but this one is too good (bad?) to let go
And this would probably mean that if anyone I know chances upon my blog would know who this blog belongs to! (the probability of this happening to anyone else should be 0.00000001)
So I was in school, and this teacher, who is really nice, sees me ahead and tells someone else behind me that I'm stupid because I'm flat footed and I didn't know and that I'm wearing the wrong shoes, 'fashion shoes' he dubs em.
I dismissed him, because I KnOW I'm not flat-footed, I just have cuts on my toes from Wild Wild Wet so I'm putting my weight on my big toe instead when I walk...(I'm actually more pissed with the 'someone else')
Later on, I decided I should go home to rest 'cos I wasn't feeling well, and as I went to look for the teacher The Teacher saw me again and smirked...and told another teacher I'm stupid because I'm flat footed but wearing the wrong shoes..
I asked him why doesn't he approach me instead of telling everyone else? Like, I'm the one who's supposedly flat footed?
so he replies that he likes to make fun of me
later on he wanted me to walk in front of him and the other teacher so they can point it out or something
Somewhere here I must have forgotten that I'm not flat-footed! I must have forgotten that when Jesus died, surely he has taken away all flat footedness from me!
I stood there rooted and refused to move, actually cos i'm afraid that i'm really flat-footed and because asking me to 'model' around sounds degrading, humiliating? something like that lah. So later on he tells me that when a girl reaches puberty, the hips widen for reproductive reasons and the legs slant in so I walk wrongly. Really, in his words.
To his credit, he even demonstrated how a normal person should normal walk and how he saw me walk...(actually i was wondering how in the world did he notice my gait or something)
the more i think about it, it doesn't seem too terrible, but it sure seemed terrible for me cos I wasn't feeling well and then I couldn't get out of school cos I couldn't find the teacher to sign me out of school and I was feeling so miserable I went to the concourse to sleep listening to worship songs and tearing myself to sleep.
I went home after school, wet my feet and stepped around the tiles, and the shape told me that i was not flat footed. Still, why should I have believed that I was only not flat footed after seeing the footprint?
...Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed. John 20:29
In case u're wondering, I was wearing some Nike shoes, which is really worn out, but still. Why did he say i am stupid?
and actually, the worst was really still that 'someone' argh.
Where I Belong
Topic: I love Singapore
Actually a bit of a random thought.
You know how Singapore has the whole "this is where I truly belong" and "Singapore is my homeland" stuff? I always thought it in a cynical way, till I went overseas.. I mean, how can you feel like "Singapore is where I truly belong" until you've been elsewhere, can do a little comparison chart on your own and figure that Singapore is your homeland?
WHICH, is what happened to me actually, amazingly, considering that I consider myself to be a cynical person (i.e. "I must tie my Singapore flag outside my HDB flat during National Day, later government check..." (no I don't believe so)) (Actually, some old man from the Residents' Committee comes around this time every year to give (sell?) the Singapore flag and asks us to hang it outside our flat. This year my mother is doing a silent protest-the new HDB flats built in front of ours blocked the sea view and 'nobody can see the flag anyway')
So anyway, the Ministry of Education is really good. Nothing to say. After exchange programs, haunting nights of walking home alone thinking someone is going to jump on me, or people saying 'arigato' to me, I have come to appreciate, really, the low crime rate in Singapore. AND the weather. AND just knowing that I am Singaporean, not some cheesy wannabe. I am in the most globalised nation of the world!
I am Singaporean, hear me roar! (haha, now that IS cheesy. u know. the Singapore Lion)
Friday, 22 July 2005
Topic: Movies I like
My Sassy Girl(2001)
Windstruck (2004)
I put this 2 together because they seemed strangely linked, maybe because of the same actress and the special appearance by the actor from My Sassy Girl at the end of Windstruck (which I felt was weird but nice), and because I had watched both on cable within the same week without specially circling them on my suscription magazine.
I had always thought that My Sassy Girl was a movie that..maybe overhyped, too many wrong people liking it for wrong reasons. ha. Turned out to be really humourous, especially the part where they were on the train waiting for someone to cross the red lipstick line, and the girl's scripts.... BUT the love bit was a little.....overdone (at the tree)
As for windstruck, the first scene already showed her jumping down the building, so it kinda spoiled the suspense of whether her cute boyfriend would die or not (which he obviously did), and the second half of the movie...was absolutely too sappy. NOT to mention that her landing on some big balloon on her way down was too far-fetched. Its not a Walt Disney show, so it made it seem as though they (the scriptwriters, if it is their call) just had to save her. I like good endings...(which this one didn't have)
Tinkerbox (Hans Christian Andersen)(2005)
Its not a movie, but I loved it.
I watched the Hanna Barbara cartoon on Hallmark. I liked the dogs! Hans Christian Andersen is really good..
Out of the woods (2005)
Again, this was on Hallmark. One of the movies I liked that wasn't much on love, but just..life? Hallmark movies are great even without special digital effects.
Troy (2004)
This is one of the must-watch movies!
The Incredibles (2004)
This movie was cute, I think the graphics was especially great! Though I wonder why Violet's hair changed parting in one part..?