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!
