I can confirm that it wasn't the coffee that put me in such a rage this morning. I am still reeling in residual rage. Better not come near me with a ten-foot pole, or say anything stupid about the money being given to red cross is for reconstuction only and not for essentials like food and first aid (see webpage for refute). aaargh... When can I go home???
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(pause, exhale slowly) On another note, to continue in my duty as a blogger, let me fill you in on a few interesting sites of late:
On Singapore Bloggers
Mrbrown is an interesting read if you are familiar with the backstreets of Singaporean thinking. (I was going to write allies and backstreets, as in ally-s, but it looked like the allies, as in the group that won the war, so I decided against it. Spelling always determines word-choice for me.) Nice, easy-to-read format. Quite funny as well.
If you check out nominations for the best Singapore blog, you should be able to find quite a few interesting reads as well. There is sarongpartyfrens, singabloodypore (funny name)... Xiaxue is apparently the most popular, with the most hits in the country. If I'm not wrong, correct me here, Xiaxue has an expansive knowledge of photoshop and is able to make the fat, thin, the blotchy, smooth, the ugly, beautiful...
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Friend today wrote to me (after I wrote two or three very bo liao, a.k.a no content emails): "you need to get a real job, you crackpot." haha! What are friends for I say! I thought it was very funny.
Thursday, December 30, 2004
Second post of the day
The frenzy after the paralysis
Coffee makes me feisty, no doubt about it. The last two days I've been paralysed by the immensity of the disaster, and have been incapable of writing or thinking of anything else. Today, I am full of words, about the tragedy, about stupid people, about everything I can have a thought about.
Tsunami Tragedy
The latest death toll has reached 76,000. I cannot comprehend that number. I cannot imagine the dead and the mourning, the depth of sorrow and pain. I received an email today from a dear American friend based in India who was holidaying at Phuket at the time of the disaster. She was there with her husband, and a group of other friends whom I got to know really well while I was in America. I read her email with fear and trepidation, especially since I just read an email from another friend who lost 11 close relatives in the tsunami. But her email was nothing short of a miracle, and I was very relieved.
I want to collect some money from the office staff for the victims and put it together with the final collection that will be going to the red cross, and I got this response from my colleague, "Office is office." That piffs me. What do you mean "office is office"? Dang it, we are a church office for crying out loud! What is this mysterious entity called the "office" that over-rides our duty in functioning as a body of Christ? I had this argument with one of my Seniors in College before. He said, regarding the Christian group in the college, " We are not the church." I balked at it; I will continue to balk at it for the rest of my life. Go read this article by Chad Hall. A church is not just the Para 501.c charitable organisation as defined by the government. It is people! God's people gathered anywhere and everywhere! The institution is also a church (See this article) - being organised helps in efficiency and effectiveness - but it is not the ONLY church. Why are we so narrow-minded?
So I am going to do it anyway. It is actually not a big deal, because the churches are collecting money this Sunday anyway. But it says something of us as a whole. We are always collecting money for people's birthdays, funerals, dinners, etc, why shouldn't we collect for people we don't know, but are called to love?
About Stupid People
The older I grow, the more intolerant of stupidity I get. I don't know where all this self-righteousness sprung from, considering the meek and mild girl I used to be. Most of my old friends still think me meek and mild, but boy, they don't hear my thoughts. This morning, I was very angry at the stupid bus driver who stuck his third finger at the cyclists and proceeded to knock Mr Slyvester Ang down, killing him on Christmas eve. I was irritated at how colleagues kept comparing benefits, painting themselves as the poor victims who always lost out on half-days and bonuses; I was piffed at the statement "office is office"; I was full of disbelief when this lady refused to wait 5 minutes on the phone for me to retrieve a tel no from my colleague's file, who was on leave. Ah, someone recite to me what love is again? love is patient; love is kind.. love is loving stupid people.
Tuesday, December 28, 2004
Tsunami Toll
No I still don't understand. The death toll now exceeds 23,000, with more unaccounted for.
One of my friend's father and sister were among the 12,000 dead in Sri Lanka. 9 of his relatives are still missing.
Others are mourning grand-children, children, sisters, brothers, uncles, aunts, fathers and mothers.
The church is raising funds for this disaster. I think it is important to do so. If we cannot bring their loved ones back to life, the least we can do is provide food, water, shelter, and a dry blanket.
Monday, December 27, 2004
Tsunami in South Asia
It's disconcerting. After a wonderful Christmas weekend eating, talking and laughing with friends, I come back to the headlines "Tsunami death toll keeps rising". At last count, 4,500 dead in Sri Lanka, 4,400 in Indonesia, 289 Thailand, 2,300 India, 42 Malaysia, which comes up to 11,530 total. And this figure doesn't even include the injured and homeless.
It doesn't make sense. How can all of that devastation happen so close to us and for me to be completely ignorant of it? I almost feel guilty I live in Singapore, protected by the large land masses of Indonesia and Malaysia. Is it happy concidence, the blessing of God, or just the way the grain falls?
If you pray, please pray for God's mercy and for the recovery process.
Saturday, December 25, 2004
bubbling over
Have you ever received such good news that you couldn’t contain your excitement and had to run to tell everyone?
I had, when I found out that I got a 4-year scholarship to study in the States. I was so excited – it was such good news, so unexpected, such a miracle – that I couldn’t sit still on the bus. It was travelling too slow! I got off the bus one stop early and ran all the way home to tell my family.
I felt a little like that this morning. I was walking up the hill to church when I heard the choir sing out, “Arise Shine! For the Light has come!” and I was suddenly filled with inexplicable joy. I started to run part of the ways up the hill, ‘cos I wanted to be there, to be part of the moment, part of the telling of the awesome news – the Saviour has come!
It was an awesome Christmas Service. The sanctuary was packed shoulder to shoulder, but I felt like I couldn’t keep still. There it was, in the words of all the carols, on the face of the worship leader when he quietly wiped away a tear, in the passion of the conductor, in the scripture reading, in the smiles of the ushers – there it was – the good news of Christmas – everywhere – joy bubbling over. The promise fulfilled! The Messiah come! Baby Jesus in a manger.
Joy to the World! The Lord is come!
Let earth receive her King!
Let every heart prepare him room,
And heaven nature sing, and heaven and nature sing,
And heaven, and heaven and nature sing!
No more let sins and sorrows grow,
Nor thorns infest the ground!
He comes to make his blessings flow
Far as the curse is found, far as the curse is found,
Far as, far as the curse is found.
He rules the world with truth and grace,
And makes the nations prove!
The glories of his righteousness,
And wonders of his love, and wonders of his love,
And wonders, wonders of his love.
Merry Christmas everyone! :)
Thursday, December 23, 2004
The Blogging Phenomenon - Part III
On cool wacky sites
I hereby declare symbols.com the coolest site of the month. :)
Wednesday, December 22, 2004
Christmas Decadence
Items Consumed 4 days before Christmas
1 bowl fish ball noodles
1 cup teh tarik
1 buttered prawn
2 steamed prawns
1 piece sambal fish
2 chicken drumlets
4 pieces cauliflower
1 piece dark turkey
1 slice white turkey
1 bowl duck and salted vegetable soup
2 pieces duck
1 sip of onion soup
1 small bowl laksa (no noodles)
2 oysters
3 pieces salmon sashimi
2 pieces smoked salmon
2 pieces smoked cod
1 bowl cold soba
3 pieces crayfish
2 buns with butter
1 cup unsweetened tea with milk
2 spoonfuls pea sprout
2 baby tomatoes
1 piece kimchi
1 piece fried fish
4 pieces dark chocolate
1 piece ondei-ondei (nonya dessert), and
1 spoonful gui ling gao (herbal jelly)
Tuesday, December 21, 2004
The Blogging Phenomenon - Intro
Blogs handle information differently. Unlike newspapers which have to be politically correct, blogs don't have to be. Blogs are highly personalised, very opinionated accounts of life according to one person. It is perhaps better likened to a person with a loudspeaker rather than a group of inspired scribes working on the Bible.
While there has been much talk about the promise of the equalising force blogging offers, the fact remains that only those with loudspeakers, only those who are technologically saavy and have access to the internet, may respond. It is a limited medium, which would explain why on an average surf on blogger.com, half of my hits are blogs with authors under the age of 20.
Nevertheless, blogging creates a virtual community (perhaps limited, but still with the potential of spanning across continents). Bloggers comment on each other's blogs, and create new content and coversations. It is this ability to comment and link to other sites that transforms weblogging from being an introspective personal diary to something else altogether. This site recognises the significance of links - more links equals more readers equals more significance in bloggosphere. If you do a search on "mis_nomer" on technorati, you'll find that this site has 9 links from 8 sources. (Most of the links are my own blogs linking to each other, but what the heck.)
So I am going to do with blogging duty here and write about a few of the blogs of note I've stumbled upon recently. These will appear in the following posts.
The Blogging Phenomenon - Part I
On Running
I found an amazing individual online recently. Her name is Carine, she is 22 years old, and she ran the Singapore Standard Chartered Marathon in 4hrs and 11mins!! That is 42km at an average of 10.1km/hr! Crud, I can't even do that speed for 5km. I'm completely bowled over. I'm too ashamed to leave a comment on her site, and reading her blog makes me want to secretly go and increase all my mileage on my running log.
Another blog of note is The Lonely Runner. He is a Malay Singaporean who writes an interesting account of punctured tires and upcoming running events in Singapore, all accompanied by appropriate photos. His blog was the one I gleaned the information on the ultra-marathon from, and the one which made me think that streetdiretory.com had more powers than I knew. The only problem with it right now is that I am currently banned from leaving comments. What did I do to him? ;)
The Blogging Phenomenon - Part II
On Blogging
An interesting way to blog was spearheaded by Geof Huth in his site One Million Footnotes. He describes the content in his site as such: "Footnotes to a nonexistent book, a series of observations, a novel without the plot, the autobiography of an imagination, linked poetry of the everyday world, an impossible goal." His blog created the catalyst for the formation of other footnote sites, all of which may be found in the links on his sidebar. Recently, blogger.com featured his site as a "blog of note", resulting in a poliferation of comments. The comments built stories around the footnotes.
Taking this footnoting business one step further is 4thra in Finish This. She takes footnotes from other footnoters and weaves them into another story of her own. This creates an intricate web and the sentences take on complex meanings. It is hard to make it work though and I wish her the best of luck. I have a tribute to her attempt here.
On another less pleasent note, I realised someone block-quoted me in his site. It is a bit disconcerting because the site is titled "Helf Pent.. Short Jokes" and I'm not sure what is funny about that particular bunch of lines I wrote. I don't mind it though, it is not malicious, just a little weird. It is a complex web.
Monday, December 20, 2004
The Great Christmas Party
Loti and Nan and the Great Christmas Party. It is 5:10pm and I am in no mood to work. We had our office Christmas party today. My colleagues Loti and Nan (haha! Loti and Nan - get that? Loti - Bread in Hokkien; Nan - Indian flat bread.) Anyway. Loti and Nan did a great job decorating the hall with balloons, stenciled "snow", and a cool Christmas tree. I played the guitar, printed the programme, and made an animated invitation for the party.
So I am officially in a holiday mood. This is the first year I'm getting presents for the parents. Got my mum a long-sleeved top and a pair of googles that will correct her eyesight to a 1000 degrees. How cool is that? I've never seen goggles with 1000 degrees before, but there it was, with a 20% discount to boot.
(On a side note, why is "to boot" acceptable while "some more" is not? "To boot" was probably only slang once upon a time, just like "some more" is now.) Dad will also get a razor. My parents are getting so spoiled this year. :)
My family has never been big about celebrating Christmas. Never had a tree, never gave gifts, never had stockings, never had eggnog (who wants eggnog in hot Singapore though?). This year I'm piling their gifts on top of the tv beside the sprig of saga seeds. My mum is hilarious. The other day, there was a strong wind and the saga tree near my place shredded lots of pods of saga seeds. Mum picked a sprig up, put it in a large red plastic bottle (free from kit kat), and it is now our flower substitute. Will post a picture later.
Read More!
Friday, December 17, 2004
non-fat, low-fat, dairy-fat, fat
I was scrounging around the yougurt section in the supermarket looking for yakult when I overheard this, "NON-fat. Yours is LOW-fat. NON-fat has NO FAT. LOW FAT has FAT. You understand or not?" I turned around and saw this self-righteous woman brandishing a cup of yoghurt at an older lady, presumably her mother-in-law.
Shaking my head and rolling my eyes at the same time (quite a feat), I turned back to my friend to see if she caught that exchange. As I turned back, I caught sight of NON-fat woman's husband and daughter, which just about threw me off my feet. Her 3-year old daughter was as fat as a very pudgey dwarf, and she was being pushed around by the husband in an empty shopping cart, like the overfed heir in an overweight nation.
Unbelievable.
Wednesday, December 15, 2004
Monday, December 13, 2004
measured in strides
Kallang to Bishan. It was a great jog. It feels so much more productive than Barker cos you actually get somewhere at the end of it, rather than simply circling round and round and finishing where you began. We bumped into some friends and Bishan and they were suitably awed that we came from Kallang. It isn't really that far apart (unlike the distance between the infamous 12 Apostles and Waddling Penguins) but I think there is that perception because the train takes a longer and less direct route. I'll have to find some way to tuck an extra Tshirt to change into the next time I do this.
M25 Ultra Marathon. As many laps you can run (each lap 10km) in 12 hours. Unbelievable. Who are these amazing people?
Friday, December 10, 2004
bullets
This is going to be a bunch of short unrelated paragraphs.
I suck with CD Covers. Colleague gave me a CD for Christmas and because I wasn't too excited about Chinese Christmas songs, I left it on my desk for a week. Today, when I picked it up, I noticed that the cover was already cracked inside the unopened plastic wrapping.
My colleagues are inept. I spent the morning blazing my way through people left out of the loop in distribution lists, vague and "intuitive" organisation charts, complaints about dirty premises, typos online etc. After a flurry of activity and telephone-use (fuelled by coffee nonetheless), I'm left with 5 distribution lists and an attitude the size of Mt Kinabalu.
No one reads this site. Have you read the Born Loser comic where he installs a brand-new answering machine only to find that no one calls him anyway? That's me. I installed a spiffy StatCounter only to find out how pathetically unpopular I am. For those who are genetically destined for popularity, try out StatCounter. It's really neat - gives you the countries your visitors are from, entry pages, time your vistors spend on your site etc. For those like me, install it and then give me your web address and I'll visit your site to get your numbers up. :)
I am going for a run. Just because I can. At MacRitchie, in the setting sun, on a Friday night, with the turtles.
Thursday, December 09, 2004
Good night Cyberworld
It is night. Time to plug my brain off the CPU, and join the real world of nameless faces.
My office is a cocoon. And I wait for life to begin.
Wednesday, December 08, 2004
Monday, December 06, 2004
what a week! :)
I hit 21.9km last week. I haven't run more than 20km a week since July - it feels Good.
Monday at AMK
S and I ran towards YCK and then looped back to AMK on a 5km route. There were large raintrees by the side of the road we were running on. These trees are probably 30 years old - one of the first fruits of Singapore's green campaign - large, powerful, and magnificent. The concrete pavement was cracked into V-shaped hills by the powerful roots of these trees. May the trees live forever. This jog felt so good it gave me the itch for more.
Wednesday at Barker
Two rounds around Barker - 7.2km. Shaved a minute off from the last time I ran this route, but still not as fast as before. I ran with the handphone in my sweaty palm and didn't think too much on the run (except for how long the road is!). It put the miles in for the week though. Met the heartland hotties for dinner after run.
Friday at Spottiswoode
I ran this fast - faster than I've run on the road before. It wasn't very far - only 4.7km - but by the time I stopped I could feel my heart runing amok inside. It helps to run with the end in mind. Running loops of different distances helps too. Lay at the fitness area and looked at the night sky after the run until the mosquitoes got the better of me.
Sunday at MacRitchie
This was the compensation run, for not having signed up for the Standard Chartered Run in time. S and I left our backpacks in the lockers, then ran the 5km wooden-plank loop in the cool evening breeze. A shame J couldn't join us. It was a fitting end to the week. :)
Thursday, December 02, 2004
The Incredibles
I watched it twice. I'm such a sucker for Pixar animation. :)
Needless to say, the hair and cloth rocks. Every single time. Even Jack Jack's. :)
Elasticgirl has the most creative superpower of them all - and good for plenty of laughs as well. I like it that superheros get chubby in the hips. I like the little kid on the bicycle who watches in the driveway, and the old sobbing lady at the insurance company, and Dash at the running event.
The movie rocks. Better than Sharktale (I watched that too). Go watch it.
flickering images on my screen
Laszlo Balogh/Reuters
I love this pic! It was on the home page of New York Times today. The caption read: "Members of the opposition gathered in the tens of thousands in Independence Square in Kiev, Ukraine. " Now I don't know the first thing about politics in Ukraine - who the opposition party is and what the "sweeping organisation of political power" there amounts too - but I was drawn by the life, the excitment, the comadarie in the faces of these strangers. Well done, Mr Photographer!
It was exciting last night here in Singapore as well. It was the finals of the Singapore Idol - I came home to watch the results and the adoring fans scream their lungs out on tv. I think the sweetest thing about the whole thing is that it takes ordinary, run-of-the-mill Singaporeans and gives them an experience of something dreams are made off - right here in stuffy pragmatic Singapore. It was interesting to watch how they transformed and took on the roles of stars; how mediacorp carved their image like a potter with bits of clay. My vote wasn't with either of the two finalists though. I liked Olinda - she had spunk.
Read More!
Wednesday, December 01, 2004
No more granny panties!
I will and I am going to revamp my underwear selection. Things to go to the dump, prompto:
- All granny-styled, saggy-bottomed, pastel-coloured, waist-high, auntie-panties.
- All with flower patterns, little ribbons, and fake cotton lace.
- All in any shade of ugly brown - brown, dark brown, nude brown, even uglier brown.
- All those that cannot stay up cos they've lost all their elastic.
- All that ride up the crack.
Watch out. I'm coming home baby.
Read More!
Monday, November 29, 2004
Very confused
alright. i have questions for those who do their own web designs while squatting for free at blogspot.
1. Who hosts your pictures? I am using hello now, but i find that i have to load it as a post first to get the source before i can put it in my template.
2. Do you use a programme to design (eg dreamweaver etc) or do you hardcode your design?
Friday, November 26, 2004
morning musings
I meet a colleague in the mornings in the pantry sometimes. She is an accountant for a subsidiary of our firm, single-handedly handling over 4 accounts, 1 of which is a profit-making business.
I find her an interesting individual. She is tall, skinny, very slightly dumpy in the hips, and likes to wear a scarf tight around her neck. Very quiet, she rarely initiates a conversation. She doesn't even say hello if you don't say it first. But if you meet her in her church on Sunday, she will come up to you, smile widely, shake your hand and say that she goes to this church. Her brother is a principal of a leading school here.
She also stikes me as extremely meticulous and conscientious, all derived from her attitude towards food. When she makes her coffee in the morning, she'll first pour an inch of milk into a cup, cover the cup, heat it in the microwave before adding hot water (freshly boiled, not from our hot water dispenser) because she likes her coffee hot. Today we had this conversation:
Me: "The lady just now, she is a new staff?"
She: "Yes, she works for us part time on X account."
(pause. she heats milk, i put bread in toaster etc.)
She: (looks at my toast, says factually) "You know how to toast bread - just right."
Me: "Yah. Don't know how to cook, but know how to toast."
(quiet. I spread bread with butter and kaya. She leaves pantry.)
Which makes me think she is well suited to her job.
Tuesday, November 23, 2004
Life sucks
Life sucks like a giant sucking toilet sucker. It sucks like hope lost, thrown in the air, then caught again by the dog pound folks with a net, then brought to be shredded into a million trillion gazillion pieces then thrown in the air again, then breathed in by some stupid sea gull, who chokes to death on the shredded hope.
rock bottom? think again.
Every time I think I have hit rock bottom in the fitness level, I discover new depths of physical lathargy. The other day, while doing rounds in my neighbourhood, I jogged about 4km only and had to stop 3 times to catch my breath! Three times! Not once, not twice, but three!!! I finished at the awe-inspiring sub-seven km/h pace. You know, after you've stopped once, you might as well stop three times. The heart feels better for it.
I love my table of distances and times. S doesn't like it cos I think she thinks it is too boring, but I like the numbers, especially when I want to re-live the over-20k weeks (like today when I'm feeling like all I can ever do is a sub-seven km/h pace). I like watching the numbers rise and fall over the weeks. The rise and fall of the numbers is inversely proportional to the fat around my belly, and also inversely proportional to the amount of overtime I'm doing at work. Gotta love it.
The run at CCK was great though. After a rousing game of badminton with A (forearm, shoulder and butt ached the next day), I jogged 11 rounds on lane 3 of the track. It was a beautiful, crisp smelling night. There were kids playing street soccer in the court off the track; it was dark; the track was spongey; sweet tinge of red rubber in the air; two aunties sitting on the sit-up bar talking; and running, hanging in the moment, without a watch.
Monday, November 22, 2004
is this bliss?
Spent a happy week on course learning about flash, dreamweaver, and photoshop. The company was a 10 minute walk from my house, which meant that I was home by 5:30pm every day! The Parents got so used to me being home that they started calling me every evening to see if i wanted dinner which got on my nerves after a while, but i'm saying all that just to illustrate how much more "home" i've been last week than all year.
The course was alright. The people I took the course with were too slow though - and that dragged things out a little. I knew most of what they had to teach about photoshop, except for layer masks and creating logos, and flash was cool too. My manager whom i went with, who has a smile like exploding fireworks, got on my nerves by the last day, cos she talked too much and i kept having to undo her mistakes, but it was better having her there than being alone for lunch all four days. She was also alternatingly passionate and bitter about certain things - she told me that she thought that i was grossly underpaid and that they treated me no better than an `A' level student, which i would like to agree with on my worst days, and know that i have to take with a pinch of salt on the others. It is a virtue to be able to keep bitterness from taking root.
Now all i have to do with to spruce up this website, and see how i can integrate blogger and everything else. And of course get some work done.. eventually. :) Gosh I could be on course all year.
Monday, November 15, 2004
The World According to Garp
I finished The World According to Garp by John Irving today. It is a compelling and well-told story, but it leaves the reader fretful about the world. Irving paints a world sharply divided, senselessly violent, and fundamentally unsafe. Although there are comic elements throughout the story – for example the case of poor Michael Molton – the tragedy always overwhelm the comic, leaving a bitter aftertaste.
So I prefer The Cider House Rules, simply because it is cheerier.
Monday, November 08, 2004
stuck in parentheses
What is hardest to accept about the passage of time is that the people who once mattered the most to us are wrapped up in parenthesis. - John Irving, The Cider House Rules, 453.
What an excellent, true and perfect quote. I told LQ that I never compare myself to the characters I read in books, but I have to take it back, 'cos I do, and I'm doing it now.
Looking back at my life, I almost wonder if I'm in the business of collecting brackets. I hope not. Someday I hope all the brackets will fall away.
good morning sunshine
it is monday again. it always happens, rain, shine or sleet, monday always comes around, and surprises you with a jolt when the alarm goes off. "why did i set the alarm on a sunday?" and then it slowly dawns on you, it is not the weekend anymore.
i need to seriously start thinking about finding a new job. i'm afraid of failing, afraid of inertia, afraid of regret, afraid of not even getting started. these are my options right now:
1. journalism
2. teaching
3. copywriting
what shall i do? i will give myself till june next year. gosh i will miss my office but "a man's gotta do what a man's gotta do or what a man's gotta do won't get done and that won't do". Right.
Sigh.
Friday, November 05, 2004
email reply to a designer friend
Heya,
Thanks for your draft for the poster for the "Faith and Reason" seminar.
Personal opinion here - I like your second design. I like the statue of Christ rising out of the double helix as it implies that both faith and reason fit together in a sensible fashion, yet it requires a jump from reason to faith. Also, to me, it hints at mystery - that Christ is both human and God - that things that seem to contradict each other (e.g. faith and reason) can co-exist and make sense. I also like the geometrical scribbles at the back of the second draft (not sure why colleagues asked you to take that out) cos it shows man's attempt to make sense of the world in a rational manner.
Christians have failed miserably in this long quest to make sense of the world using both faith and reason - cp world is flat vs world is round theory. But even when we stumble and make ourselves the laughing stock of the world, Christ is always there, and cannot ever be disproved (or proved, for that matter) by reason - which your design adequately shows.
Just thought to let you know what I thought. You are good at what you do. :) All of this is just my personal opinion though - it doesn't mean squat as to what will eventually get approved. :) You'll hear from my colleagues soon.
Take care,
L
how well do you know me?
Was at may's blog clicking on her links when found a gem of a website - Quiz Your Friends. So went ahead and set a quiz about myself (what is my favourite bolster's name? which part of my body required 12 stitches? how many times have i been in love? etc. etc.) and sent it to my friends. These were their results:
- S -- 80
- TLC -- 60
- Sis -- 50
Read More!
Thursday, November 04, 2004
running in the rain
Well, I've finally updated my running log after weeks of sitting around, eating twisties & chocolate chip cookies, watching tv, and consolidating fat.
When we started out on our jog yesterday, the air was cool and crisp, like fresh bedsheets. It was good to have S's familiar company. The cool crisp weather quickly changed though - before long it was pouring bucketfuls of water. Truckloads and whole reservoirs of water - it's strange that I didn't even consider that it would rain before we started, even though it has been raining just about every evening. By the time we got back, we were both drenched to the skin.
S and I always attract rain. The rain yesterday cannot compare to the time when we went jogging at Bishan and got caught in the monsoon. That time, there were an entire river flowing down the jogging path! We waited for the rain to get lighter in one of the shelters but it never did. Made a mad dash for it to the bus stop, then had to take very cold bus back, with two shoefuls of water. We even frightened some poor girl at the bus stop cos we looked so wet. She put her hand to her mouth and said, "Aiyoh." Haha!
ps. we have a new pedometer! :)
Wednesday, November 03, 2004
can't put it down
A dead body ups the comic effect quite drastically.
I'm reading The Cider House Rules by John Irving right now and it is laugh-out-funny at some points. I am at the part where the gorgeous Wally and Candy drive to the orphanage. There is a dead body on the bed in the dispensary; outside, one of the orphans is sytematically scooping jelly and honey into his mouth; there is a dead featus reaching out of the enamel dish; a gleaming white cadillac among the squalar; Curly Day is having "a bad day" cos he wants to be picked by the pretty couple; Melony, the mean and biggest girl, does the first generous act in her life when she steals a book for Homer; the first quarrel between father and son; at the same time, an abortion and a live birth. Excellent stuff. It is like a crashing of life, ambition, hope and fear. Irving is a master at creating suituations full of pathos and intensity, but with just enough hilarity to tip it over so that it doesn't get overwhelming. It is somewhat like Angela's Ashes I suppose - that delicate balance. I just can't can't get enough of it.
If I taught English, I would set this chapter as prac crit.
I also read Bridget Jones' Diary over the weekend. Am reading so much cos trying to compensate for not being able to find a plot for NaNoWriMo - sulk. That was funny too - more light-hearted and irreverant. Her calling Daniel Cleaver and leaving a message she regretted, then homosexual friend Tom saying that he could call the number to get the code to delete the message, calls Daniel's place 12 times before figuring out the code, and on the 12th ring, Daniel picks up and Tom hangs up, making Daniel think that she called him obsessively, left a cheesy message, AND hung up when he picked up. Ha!
Monday, November 01, 2004
red and yellow, black and white
My colleagues are so unbelievably racist.
Once, my manager made the comment that Indians (she used a different term here) always liked obiang (loud cheese ugly) colours because she wasn't happy with certain instructions about colour from the Indian boss. Thought that was a little below the belt, so I flat-out told them what I thought about that comment. Over lunch today, my other colleague talked about Geylang being full of "black black" people, She once told me not to take a certain bus because it was crowded with the above-mentioned people, and therefore very "smelly". !!! What's up??
What's up with fair people thinking that it is their right to hate those who are dark skinned? All over the world! For a long while, I thought that racism was a problem with the older generation here in Singapore and that it would eventually die out with them. I guess not, since my colleagues have apparently taken up the cause.
Really, the term "multi-racial" is such a facade. How can we be "multi-racial" when we are more than three-quarters Chinese? It is a political maneouver at creating the idea of equality, primarily because we are surrounded by Muslim countries.
On a more flippant note, I could marry an Indian. I think they are rather sexy actually. :)
Friday, October 29, 2004
last day
The cleaner's last day is today. Why am I sad? She only worked here for a few months; I don't even know her name; but I am sad - perhaps for opportunities lost.
is the cloud lifting?
I spent the last four days seething with anger and inertia in my office chair. I got pissed with everything. The director put me in charge of planning the event but after I sent in a proposal to the boss, the boss went back to him instead and he is therefore taking over the planning of the major stuff for the event, leaving me with the crap work (like hanging up balloons and doing backup projection work). Why put me in charge in the first place? I can play my role as invisible office girl sold into cheap servitude very well without having the blame if anything goes wrong, thank you very much.
And so on and so forth. No staff welfare, no advancement, pay freeze, an organisation that give me all the responsibility without the pay - all of it made my blood boil. (What happens when you boil blood anyway? What do you get left when the liquid evaporates? A thought..)
In any case, I'm feeling better today. It makes me wonder about the validity of my emotions, but I'm sure glad to be rid of the cumbersome paralysing burden. Perhaps it is Friday? Gosh that makes me feel so cheap. Perhaps it is the coffee? Who knows? The inscrutable mind..
I would like to write a novel. November is National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo). It's way cool. You start on Nov 1 and finish on Nov 30, hopefully with 50,000 words written. The people at NaNoWriMo say it is quantity that matters, not quality! How cool is that? But I have no plot... Fiction is tough cos you need a plot. I could bull forever on a non-fiction topic, thanks to the premium education I received in college. But fiction? A whole different ball game.
Alternatively, I could write my life story and disguise it as fiction. I would be happy to do that, but I don't think I'm at the point of my life where I'm ready to come to grips with who I am as a person, and "expose" myself to the world. (Then again, who will read it?) I'm a little too old to be uncomfortable with who I am, but what can I do about it? The scary thing is, the older I get, the less I like myself. What a pain. I'm looking forward to being an extremely bitchy 80-year old ah-ma.
Wednesday, October 27, 2004
The Belly Rules
From my recent posts, it is quite plain that at work I am all stomach, no brain. Come 8:30am on a regular workday, my stomach takes over the helm, relegating the brain, heart, lungs, liver, and nameless kway chap bits to mindless manual labour. The arrangement works quite well for everyone actually - everyone likes mindless manual labour - and the only real inconvenience is stopping whatever you're doing to yell, "All hail the bwelly!" every fifteen minutes when the dictator growls.
And how well the dictator growls. It begins with a low rumble, deep and indistinct in the furthermost parts, and slowly rises and ripples with power and persuasion in a final roar. Who has heard and not obeyed? And what speed, co-ordination and grace the body displays when he growls!
Tuesday, October 26, 2004
believe it or not..
i went downstairs to get a document from the admin department and when I came up again, what do i see sitting in front of my computer screen? one original old-fashioned curry puff!
(and I have a pic to prove it)
i kid you not. this is the stuff that makes people believe in God. okay, i'm kidding about that.
Oats
Does anyone know how to cook oats?
I just had some half-past-six oats for breakfast - runny, sweet and milky. It left me craving for a wholesome AMK curry puff. Now, what's the point of making and eating oats if it only leaves you with a curry puff craving? (for the uninitiated, a curry puff is a deep fried pastry with curried potato, chicken and egg.)
see picture
see list - (AMK came in 4th in this curry puff list but I still think it rocks big time.)
Crud. Now I really want a curry puff.
(Pulling myself back to the point of this post) Oats. Does anyone know how to cook oats so that I don't crave a curry puff after I eat it? Do you cook it with sugar and milk, or salt and butter? Or anything else more exotic?
Someone DHL me a curry puff.
Monday, October 25, 2004
slide 537
.. and i'm done!
This past week I projected 537 slides of songs, 6 pdf files of petitions, 3 powerpoints of proceedings, 17 powerpoints of election results, 2 powerpoints of council reports, 1 winning logo, 4 working files of motions, 8 word and excel files of legislative committee decisions, and one 148-page document of proposed amendments. In addition, I printed and compiled one 32-page book of worship orders and lyrics, 1 document concerning "simple majority", and 4 lists of petitions.
it feels good.
Wednesday, October 20, 2004
Come, O Thou Traveler Unknown
John Wesley ended his obituary tribute to his brother Charles at the Methodist Conference in 1788: "His least praise was, his talent for poetry: althogh Dr. [Isaac] Watts did not scruple to say that `that single poem, Wrestling Jacob, was worth all the verses he himself had written.'" A little over two weeks after his brother's death, John Wesley tried to teach the hymn at Bolton, but broke down when he came to the lines "my company before is gone, and I am left alone with thee." The poem was first published in the brothers' Hymns and Sacred Poems of 1742, expounding Genesis 32:24-32, influenced by Matthew Henry's exposition.
Come, O Thou Traveler unknown,
whom still I hold, but cannot see!
My company before is gone,
and I am left alone with thee;
with thee all night I mean to stay
and wrestle till the break of day.
I need not tell thee who I am,
my misery and sin declare;
thyself hast called me by my name,
look on thy hands and read it there.
But who, I ask thee, who art thou?
Tell me thy name, and tell me now.
In vain thou strugglest to get free,
I never will unloose my hold;
art thou the man that died for me?
The secret of thy love unfold;
wrestling, I will not let thee go
till I thy name, thy nature know.
Wilt thou not yet to me reveal
thy new, unutterable name?
Tell me, I still beseech thee, tell,
to know it now resolved I am;
wrestling, I will not let thee go,
till I thy name, thy nature know.
'Tis all in vain to hold thy tongue
or touch the hollow of my tigh;
though every sinew be unstrung,
out of my arms shalt not fly;
wrestling I will not let thee go,
till I thy name, thy nature know.
What though my shrinking flesh complain
and murmur to contend so long?
I rise superior to my pain:
when I am weak then I am strong,
and when my all of strength shall fail
I shallith the God-man prevail.
My strength is gone, my nature dies,
I sink beneath thy weighty hand,
faint to revive, and fall to rise;
I fall, and yet by faith I stand;
I stand and will not let thee go
till I thy name, thy nature know.
Yield to me now - for I am weak
but confident in self-despair!
Speak to my heart, in blessing speak,
be conquered by my instant prayer:
speak, or thou never hence shalt move,
and tell me if thy name is Love.
'Tis Love! 'tis Love! thou diedst for me,
I hear thy whisper in my heart.
The morning break, the shadows flee,
pure Universal Love thou art:
to me, to all, thy mercies move-
thy nature, and thy name is Love.
My prayer hath power with God; the grace
unspeakable I now receive;
through faith I see thee face to face,
I see thee face to face, and live!
In vain I have not wept and strove-
thy nature, and thy name is Love.
I know thee, Saviour, who thou art,
Jesus the feeble sinner's friend;
nor wilt thou with the night depart,
but stay and love me to the end:
thy mercies never shall remove,
thy nature, and thy name is Love.
The Sun of Righteousness on me
hath risen with healing in his wings:
withered my nature's strength; from thee
my soul its life and succor brings;
my help is all laid up above;
thy nature, and thy name is Love.
Contented now upon my thigh
I halt, till life's short journey end;
all helplessness, all weakness I
on thee alone for strength depend;
nor have I power from thee to move:
thy nature, and thy name is Love.
Lame as I am, I take the prey,
hell, earth, and sin with ease overcome;
I leap for joy, pursue my way,
and as a bounding hart fly home,
through all eternity to prove
thy nature, and thy name is Love.
Charles Wesley, 1742
Tuesday, October 19, 2004
hmm.
so I am at this Conference right and I have my hp hanging on my lanyard (since I don't have any pockets, since I have to look respectable). When I go to the loo, I don't want the hp hanging into the bowl, so I take the lanyard off and hang it on the toilet roll holder. Only a few minutes later do i realise that my hp is peeping leeringly under the wall into the next cubicle!
Friday, October 15, 2004
defense strategy
I'm gathering and filing numbers like bullets in my arsenal in case of an offensive. It makes me feel very prepared, perhaps like how the Brits felt after they laid out all their cannons and ammunition and waited for the Japs to invade from the South.
Thursday, October 14, 2004
a short one
I've been remarkably busy. The kind of busy-ness that at the end of the day, your tummy feels queasy, and you feel like you would faint if you stood up too quickly. i've only one thing to say -- sleep works wonders.
Saturday, October 09, 2004
craving
a baked potato loaded with butter, sour cream, chives, bacon bits, and shredded cheese. why is it 10:30pm?
Friday, October 08, 2004
placid bully
I woke up late today. Friend msged and woke me up at 8:17am. Luckily my boss isn't coming in to office today, and I stayed at work till 8:15pm yesterday, so I kinda have an excuse.
My friend complained yesterday that I keep telling her what to do. I think that is a bad habit I picked up along the way, but never noticed it till yesterday. The other day at Cold Storage, I told my colleague not to buy 2 regular packs of M&Ms since she decided against the party sized pack (she didn't want to gain weight). I told her that it didn't make sense to get 2 regular packs, cos if you wanted 2 regular packs, you might as well get the large party sized pack, which was cheaper. Bossy eh?
It is terrible how I can be both bossy and placid at the same time. Most times when I go out with my friends, I don't have an opinion about where to go, what to eat, what to do, what movie to watch, etc. But when it comes to little decisions, the bossy twit in me comes out. Sigh.
My resolution:
To display more initiative in my work, relationships, and goals.
To be less bossy about stupid things.
Wednesday, October 06, 2004
Tuesday, October 05, 2004
Monday, October 04, 2004
Monday's To-Do List
- Make a cup of coffee. (done)
- Drink a cup of coffee. (done)
- Write a cryptic one-liner. (done)
- Find missing piece of paper filled with impt info. (done)
- Send the boss updated versions of everything. (done)
- Input 200 songs into powerpoint.
- File piles of paper on table.
- Start to start to plan office Christmas party.
- Watch The Motorcycle Diaries. (whoohoo)
- Procrastinate by writing a to-do list. (done)
Friday, October 01, 2004
gonna boogie till the chickens come home
the subject of this post has nothing to do with the title.
i went running on tuesday and it was pure torture. this petite girl with long flapping hair in a red shirt and short bermudas zipped in front of me. i overtook her at the downhill slope, but she zipped in front of me later on the route. she was a veritable evergizer bunny. how does she run with all that hair anyway? this was my miserable timing.
all the middle-aged housewives and girls were gaga over the Jap hammer gold medalist Murofushi when the Asian Gold medallists visited singapore this week. i say, what is Murofushi compared to 1.52m Noguchi, who ran 42.195km in 2hrs 26mins and 20secs? she is my real hero.
Wednesday, September 29, 2004
12:45am
It is so quiet at night. Everything gets magnified. Grief, love, sorrow, desire, brotherhood, loneliness…. all of it expands to fill up the dark.
Tuesday, September 28, 2004
Congrats, the Worst is over
Except for how I look.
I never can decide what to wear on Tuesdays. Every Monday i indulge myself by wearing my most comfortablest clothes - usually something involving a pair of cotton cargo pants. Tuesday, if I can't be bothered what my colleagues think of me, I'll put back on the same pair of cotton pants, otherwise I look for a bottom with less pockets and a higher percentage of nylon. Today I'm wearing a pair of auntie pants and stripey long sleeve top (which my colleagues always say looks like crumpled pyjamas), with glasses and track shoes too may I add; I look positively awful.
Saturday, September 25, 2004
Withdrawal Symptoms
My sister is a hoot. She sent me this SMS message yesterday:
I am assuming u are having another day w/o withdrawal symptoms from being away from yr ah mui, pls take a min to reflect on yr sis n all her wonderfulness.
It made me laugh. So I wrote back:
Ha ha! You’re nuts. I live with constant withdrawal symptoms.
And that is a fact.
Friday, September 24, 2004
No eggs
I repeat, there are NO EGGS in this country.
There is no egg in your ban mien, no egg with your nasi lemak, no sunny-side-up at the mixed vege store (nor scrambled with onions for that matter), no egg with your rosti, no soft boiled eggs with soya sauce, no eggs at NTUC, no eggs at "Sing Song", no egg in sight!
Last night, my friend's parents and their dog went over to their relative's place to deliver eggs. How sweet is that? It makes this place feel like a kampong.
Thursday, September 23, 2004
Wednesday, September 22, 2004
favourite things
I love being in the office alone and watching the sun set over Bukit Timah.
It is my favourite time of the day - the hour between 6:30 and 7:30pm - when the shadows grow long and funky looking in the changing light. Things look funny between 6:30 and 7:30pm - shapes get somewhat distorted and colours become richer. It is as if earth is harnessing all its energies for one last explosion of brilliance before it quietly succumbs to the encroaching night. It is also the hour when birds go home to sleep.
One of my favourite places in the world is a rock that overlooks the A- river. It is not exactly the most romantic or comfortable of places - it inclines backwards, and the river is frequented by barges and motorboats. But at sunset, it transforms into a living painting. I used to sit there by myself, torn in two cos I wanted to sit and watch the sunset, but reluctant to stay cos I did not want to cycle the hilly and arduous 50min journey back in the dark. Common sense usually got the better of me and I would make it back in time for dinner.
Tuesday, September 21, 2004
Signs that today is going to be a Good Day
- I am wearing jeans to work.
- The TV mobile unit was out of order in the bus.
- I had toast with mozarella cheese for breakfast.
Monday, September 20, 2004
Powerpoint Girl Saves the Day!
It is official. I've been appointed the illustrious position of Powerpoint Girl at the upcoming uber-important Central Conference. That means that that after a rapid round of clicking and butt-kicking, Powerpoint Girl will keep Churchville from certain destruction and chaos to save the day! Hooray!
Terry Fox Run
It was the Terry Fox run this past weekend. My friends and I ran the 8km and finished it in 45mins. I thought we did very well. Especially since one of my friends came down with viral labyrinthitis a week ago and her balance was still off-kilter on Sunday. She either has extraordinary will power and determination (true), or it must be the steriods she has been taking. It didn't feel like 8km though - more like 6 or 7km, but hey, who's counting?
The run marked a certain tentative return to normality for me. Things are still the same in some ways, but it looks like things will carry on. I am still praying.
Thursday, September 16, 2004
Somnolence
So Sleepy Slumberous
My weary droopy eye
Both eyes, didymus oculus
Or is that oculi?
I won’t be gone too long
Just a lee-tle shut-eye
For the split of the splat
In the sweet by and bye.
Have you been to the zoo?
I think it is the rain
Or played a zither?
On my window pane?
Mambo Jambo
New Orleans Jumbo
Jumbling Jumpers
Jab me again.
Breakfast treats
One cup of Nissin spicy seafood flavour instant noodles for me and one glob of live squirmy bloodworms for the fishies. This is the first time they are getting live food. I hope it doesn't spoil their taste for colour-enhancing dried flakes or they'll be a bunch of very discontented fish.
Monday, September 13, 2004
A Place
Write me a song and rekindle my hope
In a place far away and certain
A place by the stream in the wood
A moment full and still.
The robin will sing an ode to love
The waters reply in rousing song
Woods will echo deep to deep
Spring will glisten in the dew.
The sun’s journey in the sky
Blazes fiercely in the noonday glare
Shadows grow as the days trudge on
Bodies break with dark despair.
Come and play in the sparkling stream
Do cartwheels on the rolling hills
Water will wash it all away
At the quiet place
By the stream
In the wood.
Friday, September 10, 2004
Diversion from Article 1
Our God is far greater than words can make known
Exalted and holy, he reigns from his throne
In infinite splendour he rules over all
Yet he feeds the poor sparrow
And he knows when they fall.
His power is great and will ever endure
His wisdom is peaceable, gentle and pure
But greater than all of these glories I see
Is the glorious promise that he cares for me.
Our God is far greater than words or Articles of Religion can make known... The way we perceive and understand things around us is limited and restrained by the human instrument. (see Immanual Kant's refutation of the watchmaker argument for God.) For example, the ideas I can express to you now is limited by my command of the English language, and further by the words available in the language itself. In the same way, everything I think, understand and put to words is limited by the fives senses, the mind, the emotions, the memory, etc.
If how I perceive is three-dimensional, God must be four-dimensional. He is greater than what words can express, yet he exists perfectly in our dimension, and we can understand him fully, but there will always be mystery. It is like how a three-dimsension box has a point aspect (a corner), a one dimension aspect (a line), a two-dimension aspect (a surface), and also a three-dimension aspect (the whole box). In this way, our understanding of him is perfectly true, but at the same time not complete.
Thursday, September 09, 2004
Article 1
There is but one living and true God, everlasting, without body or parts, of infinite power, wisdom, and goodness; the maker and preserver of all things, both visible and invisible. And in unity of this Godhead there are three persons, of one substance, power, and eternity-the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost.
- God lives, meaning he is alive, meaning that God is not a concept or an idea.
- God is everlasting, meaning God is forever, meaning God does not die, decay or deteriorate.
- God is true, meaning that it is not a lie.
- God is without body or parts, meaning God cannot be split up, meaning that God is whole.
- God has infinite power, wisdom and goodness, meaning that God has the ability to do anything he wills, but this power is guided and restrained by wisdom and goodness.
- God is the maker and preserver of all things, meaning that God made everything both visible and invisible, meaning that this world cannot continue without God willing it to, meaning God has not left this world like an orphaned child, meaning all life is in his hands.
- God, in three persons, is of one substance, power, and unity, meaning the Holy Spirit cannot act apart from Christ, meaning that God can have conversations with himself, meaning God is very interesting and very powerful.
Read More!
Friday, September 03, 2004
one cup of coffee
How long does a cup of coffee last? This cup is lasting a long time. It is 3pm already and I am still sipping on my first cup. It's temperature is exactly halfway between a fresh cup of kopi-O and a glass of iced latte.
I've been making photo collages in my free time. I made one of my trip to East Coast Australia, and one of my great wacky heartland friends. I like them a lot.
Check it out. onemillionpictures
Tuesday, August 31, 2004
no comprehendo
I cooked myself some Korean instant noodles for dinner today. Everything on the packet was in Korean, and the only reason why I didn’t botch things up was because of the pictures that came with the instructions. The first picture showed a hand putting the noodles and the contents of the orange packet into boiling water. The second picture showed the noodles being drained, and the third, a big bowl of noodles with brown gravy and bits of mushroom on top. I figured (correctly) that the contents of the last two packets were to be put in at this step. Hooray! Perfectly cooked noodles.
The worst instructions I’ve ever read were for a game a friend gave me.
“Rules of the game – a game for two persons – KALAHA has simple rules, but many tactical possibilities. In each of the round pits are put six balls. Each of the two players has his 6 pits in front of him and his KALAHA and the larger bin to each player’s right. The first move is determined by lot. The player who begins with the first move picks up the balls in anyone of his own six pits and sows the 6 balls only to the right, one in the following pits and in his KALAHA. No. ball is put into the opponent’s KAHALA, If the player’s last ball lands in his own KAHALA, he gets anotherturn, also several times successively, in the case of repeating. Its’ now the other player’s turn, During the game the pits are emptied on both sides, Always, when the last own ball is landing as the last ball in an own empty pit the player can capture his own ball and all balls in the opposite pit of the openent and put them in his own KAHALA. The game is over when one of the both sides = 6 pits is empty and accordingly a player can not move anymore, The remaining possible balls are put in the KAKAHA of the concerned player. Winner of the game is the player who has the most balls in his KALAHA.”
I think I read it like 5 times before I decided to make up my own rules. :)
I wonder how large the illiterate market is? I bet it isn't very big (or at least not very important a vote) cos they took out the colour coding on the trains and replaced it with very confusing English. Have you ever used the LRT at Bukit Panjang? Just about impossible. It has trains leaving from the same side of the station that go to different stations so to know which train to get on, you have to look at the English sign above the train that will say something like “Buangkok 5mins” and then conclude that if you want to go to Buangkok, you must not board the train waiting at the dock, but wait five minutes for the next one. I'm so glad they are putting in multi-lingual signs. Now all they need is colour-coding and Singapore will be illiterate-friendly
People are important regardless of whether they can read.
Thursday, August 26, 2004
All things Coke-sher
Study: Soda linked to diabetes in women
CHICAGO, Illinois (AP) -- Women who drink more than one sweetened soft drink a day are slightly more likely to develop diabetes than women who drink less than one a month, according to a new study. To CNN article
ack! If I ever get diabetes, it will be because of Coke. I had a coke everyday since Monday, and it keeps tasting better and better every day. One of my favorite things is opening a can of coke, pouring it into a large glass of ice, putting my ear close to hear the fizzle, sticking a straw in so that the tip is just below the ice, and taking a large gulp. Ah..
I've heard all these awful Coke stories though. Have you heard the one about the tooth that completely disintegrated after being left in a cup of coke for a few days? In Russia, they believe that Coke can smooth wrinkles. In Haiti, Coke can revive a person from the dead; in Barbados, Coke can turn copper into silver; Coke mixed with rum is Cuba Libre in the Carribean, aguadiente in Bolivia, and goodness knows what else in other countries. Howes (in Globalization and Culture) calls the re-interpreting of a product (in this case a quintessentially American drink) in different cultures the "creolization of global cultures", that is, the formation of "third cultures". At least all I do is drink it ;)
Other Coke snippets:
- Flat coke is an excellent booster while running the marathon (according to Hal Higdon)
- The drinks store uncle always cajoles me to pay 20 cents more for a piece of lemon in my coke. In my opinion, that's bordering on the sacrilegious.
- Coca-cola was named for its two "medicinal" ingredients: coca leaves and kola nuts. Coca leaves contains an alkaloid that may be synthesised to make cocaine.
- Coke did not become cocaine-free until 1929.
Well, that's it for now. I'm having soya bean milk with my toast this morning instead.
Read More!
Wednesday, August 25, 2004
No guts!
I'm so chicken. I really want to go for this macromedia-java-all-in-one-course but i don't dare to ask my boss. I have the email all typed out already, and I know that the most he can say is no, but the email is still penitently sitting in my draft folder.
Read More!Monday, August 23, 2004
feeling blue
i'm such a wimp about letting go of the past. how do people cope with it? by looking forward to something else? i feel as if all enthusiasm for life has gone out of me, and all i want is for the hours and the days and the months to wash over me quickly, so i can get it over and done with.
Friday, August 20, 2004
LOTR vs Narnia; Catholics vs Protestants
I finished reading LOTR a few months back and am now starting on C.S. Lewis' The Chronicles of Narnia. I really enjoyed reading LOTR - was swept up in Tolkien's marvelous story telling. Narnia is taking a bit longer because of the intrusive narrator gets on my nerves, and the willful kids irritate me too, sad to say.
One of the differences between LOTR and Narnia is that Tolkien refused to allow any allusions to be made with the Bible (see his foreword), unlike C.S Lewis' work where you cannot miss the allusion of Aslan dying and then rising again even if you wanted to. I think the difference between LOTR and Narnia is similar to the difference between Catholics and Protestants. Catholics tell stories - they go through the stations of the cross, enjoy the sensation of the host on their tongue, and weep because Jesus died on a cross. Protestants are concerned with the meaning behind the stories - the atonement, the justification, the freedom from sin, the assurance of salvation - and tell the gospel in four bullet points.
Which is better? LOTR does not mention God a single time, yet speaks of the epic battle between good and evil, the leadership of men like Aragon who led by example and inspired their followers with courage to fight a battle they cannot even imagine, and the final triumph of good, hope against hope. C.S. Lewis pulls off a perfect allusion to the gospel in all its essential points in The Lion, Witch and the Wardrobe.
Perhaps they are like two harmony lines to a single song?
You know you have a butter fetish when..
- You forego having honey and butter on your toast and opt for butter and butter instead.
- The butter drops off your spreading knife onto the counter and you can pick up the whole slab of it and transfer it to your bread without making too much of a mess.
- You place your toast buttered-side-up on a piece of paper and you notice grease spots when you pick it up again.
- The middle of the toast sags.
- The cross-section of your toast is yellow all the way.
- When writing down the first five words that come to mind when prompted with the word "butter", love-handles, saturated fat, cholesterol, and clogged arteries don't make the list.
- You have to run to the loo 5 minutes after breakfast.
Read More!
Monday, August 16, 2004
i want to..
..crumple together all the pieces of paper on my table and the loose ends that have no resolution into a gigantic paper ball, light a sparkler and set it aflame.
Truth be told, I don't dare to put my thoughts online. I have many dairies - a paper dairy (the present book is one in a series that started circa 1991), an electronic dairy on my hard disk, and this online - and I've grown increasingly guarded in all of them. I use pseudonyms, drop miniscule pathetic hints about what really happened, hoping and crossing my fingers that somehow it'll all come back to me when I need it.
Who am I bluffing? I have a terrible memory! Sometimes I read my diary entries and can't even convince myself that the words describe my life. Sometimes I can hardly remember who I was 5 years ago.
I wonder if the me of the future will again become the me of the past in its wandering through life.
In fact, I think I'll give the me of the past some kindly (and useless) advice with the brillant help of hindsight:
(sorry. can't think of anything right now. ha!)
Thursday, August 12, 2004
blogging at work
one of the advantages of blogging at work is that you get free broadand access.
one of the disadvantages is that the subjects of your posts range entirely between "frustrated with powerpoint" to "what i ate to keep myself from utter boredom".
Wednesday, August 11, 2004
hot tea and nasi lemak
yesterday i did 6.2km in 36mins 15secs. that was slower and shorter than the run on Sunday, where i did 8km in 46mins 45secs. legs throbbed a little late at night, but they are fine this morning. had to prop them up on a bolster - like when i was a small kid and my mum would bring my sis and I out walking all about town and at the end of that long day i'll complain about my suan (sore) legs and she'll give me a pillow to put my legs over. i like bayshore. wish i lived there. but it also means that i'll be much further from where my friends live, and i'll have to deal with the morning and evening rush on the bus and train. so i guess spottiswoode is still better. :)
Running Log
Tuesday, August 10, 2004
tired
first day back at work after the long weekend and i'm cranky. first, the boss says that he wants the presentation to be "richer" in colour so that means i've to revamp everything and find some other colour scheme. i hate looking for colour schemes, especially when i think the current one is quite nice. Grr.
Friend (who owes me $1500 already) wants to borrow even more money. That frustrates me because 1. he hasn't changed his behaviour to get out of debt; 2. i don't really want to give him any more money cos he never mentioned the $1500 loan in the 2 years since; 3. I don't earn a lot of money, heck, i earn less money than everyone I know; 4. When it comes down to it, i'll still give him the money because he is like family to me. Grr.
i can't wait to go for a run and swim tonight.
Wednesday, August 04, 2004
Sandblow at Rainbow Beach. A live forest is slowly being engulfed by sand blown in from the beach.
Tuesday, August 03, 2004
6 things i did at work today
- Ate two meat pies P gave me in compensation for work I did this weekend.
- Resolved not to write about food for a week cos Friend told me I write a lot about food.
- Read allmylifeforsale. Brillant pictures and layout.
- Updated website to include links and web counter.
- Consumed Two cups sweet tea, One soggy banana.
- Broke one resolution.
Monday, August 02, 2004
great weekend
reality is always interpreted with the lens of expectation, sheer will in seeing what you want to see, and retrospect.
I had an awesome weekend.
I spoke to 50 people for 50 minutes on Friday. It was the first time I had given such a long presentation. It went well - probably spoke a little too fast - I found myself having to stop to catch my breath. At one point I also said, "different categories of youth have different characteristics, and these charactegories.." I was amused no one noticed or giggled. Hee. Went to MOS burger later to grab something to eat cos I was too nervous to eat the food catered earlier.
Saturday morning was full of rain. Woke up about 10am to a cooled house. It was the perfect weather for a Saturday morning with no plans! M cooked curry - tad too salty and no potatoes, but I ate it without complaining. You mustn't complain when people cook for you. Left the house at 1pm to "spy" at an event. It took me awhile to navigate through the imposing campus, but I eventually found my way and recorded 1hr 24mins of it from a microphone sticking out of my pocket. Brillant. I felt like the woman in "No one lives forever".
A picked me up after. We went to Beach Road with the hope of sliced fish bee hoon, but it was closed and so had mee sua instead. Drove to Bayshore after. Sat there for a while talking, and went for a run at 7pm. Ran 8km in 48mins 46sec. I've been reading this book titled "Marathon" and it is both spurring me on and putting me to utter shame at the same time. This book says stuff like the minumum distance any aspiring long-distance runner ought to run a week is 35 miles. 35 miles! That is like 58km a week! That is like 10km a day, six times a week! Elite runners do anything from 80 to 150 miles a week. There is a marathon mystique. It'll be so cool to do one at some point in my life.
It is funny how I'm doing all these things I didn't foresee myself doing 5 years ago. Research, for crying out loud. I hated research. And now, reading books on marathons, and saying with perfect sincerity, "It'll be so cool to do [a marathon] at some point in my life." Life is journey.
Went for a dip after my run while my stressed-out friend took the chance to snooze on the deck chair. After filling up our water bottle, we went to Marine Parade for Ramly burger and the famously wet char kway tiao. :) Got home about 11:30pm. Stayed up to check out how to clean my smelly running shoes online. It became really smelly after S and I got caught in a downpour on Thursday at Bishan park. We were soaked ot the skin, and I carried home two shoefuls of water. It was one of those experiences though - it started to rain when we were at Lower Pierce Reservoir and i asked S if we attract rain (cp Great Long & Wet Ocean Road). Read Ps 77 the next day about the clouds pouring down water, and the lightning filling the sky, and the waves rolling in fear of God, and yet his footprints cannot be seen and it reminded me of being caught in the rain, running and running yet completely soaked, completely saturated by the power and bigness of God and still not finding a trace of him. It was neat.
Woke up at 7:45am the next morning to go for a constituency Walk-a-Jog. Took a picture under the Spottiswoode Park sign. It was fun. :) Went to have breakfast at Tanjong Pagar cos got tired of waiting for the big shots to finish their speeches - had vegetarian beehoon, tau huay, and chicken pau. Back to CC to claim the goodie bag and then home to sleep another 2 and a half hours. :) It was a great nap.
Wednesday, July 28, 2004
14:37 Wednesday
I have to give a presentation this Friday and i am having trouble with everything. The colour scheme of the powerpoint bugs me, I don't know which findings to include and which to exclude, and of the findings I've finally decided to include, I don't know how to order them in a sensible fashion. Oh help me. It's a mess.
This is the rough outline of the presentation (for now):
Introduction
Focus Questions: Who are they? Why do they come?
Youths in Singapore: Shrinking percentage
M Youths: Changing structure in TR
Qualitative Research
Methodology
Findings
Characteristics of Youth
Needs and Concerns of Specific Categories
Secondary School
2nd Generation
(should I add Uni? NSmen?)
Youth & Church
Worship
Structure
Why Youths Respond
Leadership
God and Scripture
Relationships
Skills
Models of Youth Ministry that work
Conclusions
Suggestions & Recommendations
Tuesday, July 27, 2004
Monday, July 26, 2004
The Run
That's us grinning at the end of the run.
We finished the 10km in 1hr 8mins 51sec. The weather was fantastic - it's amazing how little you sweat - and we just kept on trudging along. The sun was pretty bright though - not used to it as I always run in the evenings here. They had pails and pails of water which they filled up with long green hoses. People were throwing water over their heads as they ran, and if you stood too close, you would get showered on too. After the run, we collected our medal, our orange finisher's T-shirt, a bananna, and went and joined a "cool-down" class. It was a carnival :)
Sunday, July 25, 2004
Sunday musings
I like writing. It makes my vague experiences concrete, validfying my existence.
I have three pieces of toast in the oven. One with tuna and cheese, one with cheese only, and one with nutella. The nutella flavoured ice-cream (called bacchio) we bought at Gold Coast was really good. Like the real stuff, but colder, creamier and less guilty. I had three spoonfuls of nutella from the bottle today. Bottle to spoon to mouth. Yum. I yearn for the ice-cream.
Zaphenath-Paneah was the name Pharaoh gave to Joseph when he made him in charge of the land. It was an Eygptian name - a name from a land that God did not choose. I wonder if it would make a difference whether the story was true or if it was only a metaphor. Is my faith affected if it was only a metaphor? Must there be eternal absolute unchanging truth? I fear becoming postmodern.
I am eating my toast in this order: cheese, tuna&cheese, nutella. What if there was no toast after all, and I am only telling you a story? Would it make a difference to you?
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
Thursday, July 22, 2004
I'm back, Part II
12 Things that have changed since I've been gone:
- Fish have all died. :( new crop of fish that look almost the same, but not quite.
- $2000 poorer.
- Swam with a sea turtle
- Saw 5 rainbows in a single day while driving on the Great Ocean Road
- Saw a wild kangeroo.
- Frollicked on a deserted beach.
- Found out that my friend likes ice-cream, choc, and all things sweet.
- Found out that same friend likes her pictures to be composed of "30% land; 70% sky".
- Two cows have missing rumps.
- Willing to spend $20 on TWO taxi rides in a single day cos tired of travelling.
- 3500km under belt (consequence, see above)
- Realised that I'm willing to hang out with my friends the day i arrive home even though half-asleep.
Tuesday, July 20, 2004
I'm back
Spent 17 lovely days in Australia and now I'm back. This blog looks ugly to me now. I think it is time for a make-over.
Tuesday, June 29, 2004
Saturday, June 26, 2004
Nasty Brutish Short
That was the phrase that went through my mind while i was ploughing through 4 Lonely Planet books on Australia - a book on the East Coast, one on Victoria, one on Sydney and one on the Great Barrier Reef.
It is past midnight, seven hours before dawn, twelve hours before nightfall, twenty four before the darkest hour, perhaps three hundred and seventy six thousand six hundred and eighty before I die.
Three Crosses. I took this picture in a cold graveyard in Farnborough, UK in April 2003. I like it because it is like the three crosses at Golgotha. 
Friday, June 25, 2004
blink blink
alright sleepyhead, you can get up now. it is after all 2:20pm in the afternoon and the sun is streaming in from the window, enticing the bald plant to grow more shoots. "grow more shoots! replenish your luxuriant leaves! i'll work my sunny disposition and convince the sleepy block to give you lots of prophylactic fish water! heck, maybe a fish will die and get buried by your roots! we can dream what we want can't we?"
we can dream what we want can't we?
erm, actually, no. sorry. you may not; you have not been cleared for access; you failed the qualifying interview; you are not cool beautiful awesome spectacular gifted perservering loyal determined smart lucky enough; you can however, if you wish, get an application from us for an ordinary sized dream. Hurry, 'cos Applications close in the next 26 seconds.
25..24..23..22..21..20..19..18..17..16..15..14..13..12..11..
10..9..8..7..6..5..4..3..2..1
time's up baby.
Thursday, June 24, 2004
breakfast
buttered toast with melted cheese, sliced tomatoes and chunks of sausage, and a cup of coffee. heavenly. :)
i would post a picture but i ate it all up already. hee.
Wednesday, June 23, 2004
echos
I've had the house to myself the last three days cos the parents are out of town. It has been quiet - my thoughts seem to echo off the walls.
Last night, I sat in front of the TV with a bottle of red wine and a bowl of instant tom yam beehoon. I still have no idea what was showing on TV. I think all I did was just to stare into space and listen to the silence. By the time I got off the sofa at 1:30am, the ground looked wonky. Interesting sensation. I've never gotten high before, and still haven't. I've got a long way to go.
I was thinking the other day what a conservative gal I am. I'm not into body piercings at all, or bungee jumping, or scuba diving, or all night partying, or wild drinking, or free sex, or anything like that at all. All I do is read, hang out with a few close friends, work, sleep, run, eat, and GO TO AUSTRALIA TO RUN THE 10k!!! hee. I had to put that in caps just for the effect.
Gosh, the paragraph above just proves the point.
fly away blue!
blue bottle fly!
Did you know that the last animal brought to court and finally executed by the church was a cow? Unbelievable. It is said that a certain St Bernard unwittingly wiped out all the blue bottle flies in an area by peevishly saying "Be Thou excommunicated" to a fly that was irritating him by flying around his head. What is this??? The locust (the woodworm in "The History of the World in 10 1/2 Chapters") was also excommunicated in 1338.
It is hazy outside today - it is that time of the year. Singapore has four seasons - hot, hot & wet, hot & humid, and hot & hazy.
Yesterday I ran for 30mins around Barker Road. Surprisingly, it felt short. :)
I've also started a new blog titled "Afterthoughts".
Thursday, June 17, 2004
Wednesday, June 16, 2004
training for the race
the thought of being able to complete 10k gives me a high. This evening I will work on my endurance. I tend to hit a psychological barrier at the 15min mark, 30min mark, and the 45min mark. A few minutes before I hit the barrier, I start feeling really really tired and I think that my heart is beating much too loudly, and that I ought to stop running. Then I get to the 16th, 31st and 46th min and then I think I can run for another 20mins at least. It's weird. I will have to get over the 45min huddle this evening. Maybe 50mins ;) Which means it will either have to be a slow level jog (say Botanic or MacRitchie), or a very very slow Barker hilly jog (oh awfulness!).
I just calculated my run the day before yesterday. I did 5.85km in 37mins 10sec at Barker. That's at a pace of 9.44km/h! Cool :)
For physical training is of some value, but godliness has value for all things, holding promise for both the present life and the life to come. 1 Tim 4:8
Wouldn't it be interesting if I worked at godliness the same way I worked at training for the 10k? When you run, it gets easier and easier after each training cos of the muscle and endurance you build up. I wonder when you "practice" at godliness, whether it becomes easier and easier to be more paitient, loving, kind, self-controlled, joyful, peaceful, good, and gentle?
I was at the receiving end of an unexpected kindness today. This lady from Wesley MC bought me lunch from the wanton mee store with the words, "It's the first time I'm meeting you." When I protested, her friend said, "Auntie wants to buy for you.." It touched me.
If I was giving a sermon, I'll end with this proposal - Let's test the hypothesis. Pick one fruit of the Spirit you want to work on (say kindness). Train at it and see if it becomes easier and easier to be kind to others. Maybe one day you will become kind.
Maybe one day I'll become a runner :)
Shit happens. I think the easiest way to get through life is to just clean it up and try your best to keep further shit from falling on you. Sometimes it's big, sometimes small, but mind you, it always happens. Where does God fit in this resigned theory? He would say, all shit happens for good, which comes down to the same message - wipe it off, get up, smile, and carry on. We are mere human beings who will never be able to comprehend fully the situation we are in, or judge what is fair. We only know what is, is.
The is-ness is a Buddhist concept is it not? But doesn't the "is" also contain the fullness of its past and the potential of the future? Doesn't that become Christian then? Because at any one point of is, I am the sum conglomerate of my past experiences as a forgiven sinner, and look towards the perfection of all things, even as I fully engaged in today because it says that his kingdom is here.
