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.

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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.

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motto for the day..

do, don't think.

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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.

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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.

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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?

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You know you have a butter fetish when..

1. You forego having honey and butter on your toast and opt for butter and butter instead.
2. 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.
3. You place your toast buttered-side-up on a piece of paper and you notice grease spots when you pick it up again.
4. The middle of the toast sags.
5. The cross-section of your toast is yellow all the way.
6. 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.
7. You have to run to the loo 5 minutes after breakfast.

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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!)

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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".

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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

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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.

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Sandblow at Rainbow Beach. A live forest is slowly being engulfed by sand blown in from the beach.

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6 things i did at work today

1. Ate two meat pies P gave me in compensation for work I did this weekend.


2. Resolved not to write about food for a week cos Friend told me I write a lot about food.


3. Read allmylifeforsale. Brillant pictures and layout.


4. Updated website to include links and web counter.


5. Consumed Two cups sweet tea, One soggy banana.


6. Broke one resolution.

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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.

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