:: Tossed Salad and Scramble Eggs ::

:: Friday, May 28, 2004 ::

Music: Sundial Dreams - Kevin Kern

I rarely tell you, my reader, the emotional psyche of my well being simply because I rarely am miserable.

Apart from having a terrible fever and cold the last week, the weather has changed quite abit. Its been colder. Till now, I'm still wondering if it is part of my imagination, the atmosphere has changed, and I can't describe it's change. I felt a suddeness to jump onto the train tracks the other day because the atmosphere called for it. Its that same numbness when death is around, or at least I was half expecting it to be. I wish the weather got warmer because it really isn't helping my psyche. I felt like crap and wasted. I feel highly compressurized and bottled and I have lost my appetite. I didn't forget to eat on purpose, I just couldn't eat, and I hope its a passing phase and just part of my illness.

But over this week, I met pockets of friends here and there. Their presence cushioned everything that was becoming wrong. I didn't have to say anything or moan about what I was thinking about because there wasn't much point in doing so. No mortal energy could answer me and it was between me and God and mine to face. Well, I'm blessed with wonderful friends and family who underestimate their own worth in my eyes. Thank you for just being there, and for not knowing it.

:: Stuffy 5/28/2004 09:03:00 AM [+] ::
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Music: Penny and Me - Hansons (Hey, penny is the name of my pink round stuffed pig!)

Well, I just ended my career as part-time banker (how pretentious) and on a rather unexpected note. I had a terrible back sprain today, so I had to leave early to go to the docs. I suppose I'll have alot to miss. Orchard Rd, the staff, the customers.
What am I going to do for the next few months? Yes of course I will travel, tag along with my dad wherever he goes. I'm looking forward to my London trip with Mich and my Dad. But after coming back, then what?

:: Stuffy 5/21/2004 03:47:00 AM [+] ::
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Statues

When I was touring the St Petersburg Catherdral, Vatican, the tour guide said that the difference between the Greeks and the Romans was that the Romans believed in the present, the here and the now. The greeks believed in the ideal, the symmetrical and utopian world, which explains why their statues always have the perfect physical attributes (so to think that they were of a beautiful race would be in severe misjudgement).

:: Stuffy 5/13/2004 07:51:00 AM [+] ::
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Sense and Sensibility

This movie was long overdued, I finally got to watch it on tuesday. Typically, its just like any other Victorian feminist book, like Emma, like Wuthering Heights, like Jane Eyre. Though I thought Emma Thompson and Hugh Grant looked quite odd a couple considering that in most films, Emma Thompson is normally typecast as mellow, wise feeble forty-something while Huge Grant typecast as having a boyish charm with a gentlemen's wit to compliment. Its almost a haunting foreshadow of Kate Winslet and Leonardo Di, what were the directors thinking. I would have thought that she and Alan Rickman would have made a fair and better item.

But the issue of marriage was well evaluated for the particular era. As in any Victorian feminist book, the girl of lower class and status is portrayed as noble and naturally far more superior in the depth of her character than her upper class counterpart, and therefore far more deserving of her man. True, it tests and boundaries of marriage as a social pact, as a point of convenience (what is the latin term? someone tell me, I forget), but more importantly it highlights a hypothetical situation where love is taken into account. Is our society very much similiar? I believe in someways it is, but marriage has somewhat morphed into a less sacred and less sanctified realm.

Sigh. I'm too tired to continue, its 1215. The wet blanket shall have to finish this some other day.

:: Stuffy 5/12/2004 08:46:00 AM [+] ::
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I was reading my investment fund prospectus for Aberdeen Asian Equity when I came across the legal terms for Suspension of Dealing Section 15.1.7

"Any period when the business operations of the Managers or the Trustee in relation to the operation of the Fund is substandtially interrupted or closed as a result of or arising from pestilence, acts of war, terrorism,insurrection, revolution, civil unrest, riots, strikes or acts of god."

:: Stuffy 5/09/2004 08:50:00 PM [+] ::
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"When a man takes an oath, Meg, he's holding his own self in his own hands. Like water. And if he opens his fingers then - he needn't hope to find himself again." - A Man for all Seasons, Robert Bolt

Principles are a delicate thing and just how many are capable of such strong convictions? Sometimes I wonder if I were capable of it and when I ask myself such a question, it hits me like a rhetoric. No. I won't know and I'm not sure. There is no such thing as 'there is no choice', we do have choices but reverting them for what is presently practical deceives us into thinking that there is no other recourse in avoiding the consequences. Then those who boast and fall short of it have fallen short of their being. Its ironic however that those who stand by principles are considered foolish by worldly standards because their idealism leaves no room for rationality. And only after a conclusion (or a demise) of an episode that in retrospect they are seen as people ahead of their time, commendable for their principles and efforts.

:: Stuffy 5/09/2004 08:54:00 AM [+] ::
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Van Helsing
Tagged along with Jon, Lionel and Mark.

Sometimes, Epics and Legends are better left to the British to direct because the Americans are too dramatic and typical.

It annoys me. The Van Helsing I know from Dracula has etched an image of a wise, old, fatherly scientist. Van Helsing 2004 is a ripping young rugged adventurer who suddenly morphs into like Tarzan in one of the scenes. Other times, he looked like Lorenzo Lamas. It gets quite complicated when he turns into a Werewolf. Dracula? Well, he didn't look magnanimous and grand, he just looked as if he had it going all wrong for him. It got even more ridiculous when Frankenstein started quoting Psalms 23. But in terms of visual effects and general story plot, I thought it was powerful and dramatically creative, not too bad a show to watch. I think the witch sisters were done in the right way.

Naturally, very similiar to League of extraordinary Gentlemen where all the Victorian characters come into contact together. Alot of what ifs. What if Van Helsing met Frankenstein? What if Dorian Gray met other immortals prettier than himself? If you've read every Gothic book, this could either seem down right stupid or hypothetically creative.

Khairul, I think you'll like it hehe.

:: Stuffy 5/08/2004 08:05:00 AM [+] ::
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New new new

I got new HP computer which is working wonderfully well. After gallavanting around Simlim with Terrence, I finally decided on getting HP from funan. I even got a new thumb drive. This computer reimaging has been long overdue and I'm finally able to personalise everything into one fine computer. Happy.

So now I can tell you what I have been doing for the past few months.

Last week, caught up with a bunch of freshly booked out army boys who had nothing better to talk about army other than what ghoulish spirits loomed in so and so bunk and in so and so toilet, how impressive. I still think that if I need to make a few extra bucks, all I have to do is squat outside the ferry terminal at pasir ris, wait for the craft to come ashore and eagerly display a whole array of caps going for $5 each.

Also last week, finally managed to catch up with Sat, had a good dinner with her and we talked about future plans. Future plans, that has become a common topic.

Its been five months from the new year and 3 months from the A results, so everyone has more or less decided on where to go and what to do, except for those still waiting for the verdict from NUS law fac which is out in May. Best of luck to Sarah and Sat.

I have been thinking about my exsistence for the past four months. Not in a philosophical way (because that gets you nowhere), but what I have been doing and whether I have been 'constructive' in my own perception of things. So far, I have learnt alot from work, but at the same time, that leaves me less time to saucer around and languish in good food and company. Reminder to self: to keep that in mind before uni starts. I haven't taken my driving lessons as yet. Another reminder to self: To think over about driving and whether I'll find it necessary, useful and costly. I have, however, suceeded in annoying a certain teacher and somewhat rudely delighting in it.

I haven't however had the time to watch alot of movies or meet up often with people because of that barrage of interviews. Now that thats cleared and settle with, and I'm ending work in two weeks, I must reorganise my EZY Video membership card and maximise its potential. I must also travel extensively and London is a good start.

As for reading? I was reading Hamlet half way until I went to New Zealand and then when I came back I stopped and everything else came in one big snowball. Third reminder to self. I also picked up 'A Man for All seasons', a very good book but I would have thought that Arthur Miller would have wrote it. Either that or Arthur Miller must have been very good friends with Bolt.

:: Stuffy 5/08/2004 07:49:00 AM [+] ::
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At present...

I have just finished a tumult of interviews which have been going on continously week after week. Yesterday I finally came to my decision where to go. I won't tell you just yet what I have decided on, until everything concludes, I am on my way to London next month (trip which I am suppose to take off TODAY) with my cousin and my Dad. So before university starts in the next few months, I'm going to quit my job and find every oppurtunity to travel around, enjoy good food and much gourmet chocolates.

As for learning how to drive? I have to think about it, but I'll probably have to take it before I...

On other things, I am going to get a new computer (HP) for a good 1.6k with everything I need in it. Then I can blog more often and rant more often. So excuse me for my infrequent blog memoirs, I'll try to be more consistent after I've reorganised my new computer.

PS: Thara, would you please email me, I hope you've gotten my previous mail!

:: Stuffy 5/07/2004 06:18:00 PM [+] ::
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