the Samsung office

this is the first time i've been near a in PC in 24 hours, and the Internet just got a whole lot emptier.

but first, a sideline [and this's well worth the distraction, too. it's an Aaron Has A Heart moment]. celebrations for my mother's birthday [today] begun [like with Christmas] twelve days ago, with the pubbing and the clubbing and the dining. i'm just thankful that she didn't drag me along. today, i got white lilies delivered for her. they're her favorite flowers, and she loved them. [apparently she got married with white lilies as well - i should know, i was there] i think that one moment when she got them was worth the week-and-a-half's allowance i spent on the flowers.

i had to spend $9.10 on a cab ride to school this morning to avoid tardiness. but to sweeten the ordeal of the morning, i got called in to the P's office, together with Matt and Dax. it was diffcult for the left side of my brain not to point out that there was this [zen/meditation? not for me, but one man's meat...] device spurting out random jungle sounds [much akin to one of the polyphonic ringing tones on the Samsung A800] in his office. the left side was trying hard not to burst out laughing, especially since he kept pausing for the monkey to stop screeching. the right side of my brain took over and responded in those even tones i tend to use when i get really... emotional?

naw. that's not the right word. one doesn't speak in even tones when one is emotional or passionate about something, does one? maybe that says something about what i'm emotional/passionate about [nothing?]. to sum up, here's a lesson in Cause & Effect:

Cause 1 - the P doesn't like the photo of Pat And His Fingers on the homepage of Dax's blog, because he was being vulgar in the Victoria School Uniform. [which i find understandable, believe it or not]
Effect 1 - Free Open Diary screwed up and he can't remove the photo, so he's locked his blog.

Cause 2 - the material on Matt's blog is found to be objectional, for obvious reasons
Effect 2 - all that remains on Matt's blog is one solitary full-stop

Cause 3 - i walked along the seventh-floor linkway.
Effect 3 - Ms Ernie stopped me and quipped that she could get my Billabong duffel bag for seven dollars in Thailand. first person to make me smile all week.

one thing he said really took the piss, though. Ang questioned my comment on Mr Tan and Mr Lai two entries ago. asked if i was, by my comparison, an extremely macho man/person. i told him i couldn't define myself, which was true. but it doesn't take a genius to know that i definitely do not consider myself prime, grade A, alpha-male. i, who hates PE? i, who hates soccer? i, who hates mindless physical exertion [aka "insert sport here"]?

you'd have to know very little about me to think that.

"I never claimed to be your savior
I said I had a dirty mouth
I've got to keep myself together
You know I hate to disappoint
A masochistic lamb to slaughter
Maybe you missed the point

I'm feeling small
I'm climbing the walls
I don't let it show

Now that you know what you know
I bet you wish that it'd go
You'll never come sucking your thumb
Better off dumb

Maybe I could write a letter
To help me with my self-esteem
You should get to know me better
No one's ever what they seem

I'm feeling small
Climbing the walls
I don't let it show

Now that you know what you know
I bet you wish that it'd go
You'll never come sucking your thumb
Better off dumb"

- "Dumb", Garbage

whatafish

to the four i had lunch with yesterday: if you thought i was, i wasn't kidding about the anti-depressants.

"When I saw the break of day
I wished that I could fly away
Instead of kneeling in the sand
Catching teardrops in my hand"

- "Don't Know Why", Norah Jones

Movie by CLIE

hah. if it's honest responses they want, it's honest responses they'll get. i got called down for the NE Quiz for the third time in five years. it was being run by three female teachers, two complete fairies, and one disgraced fish-cage contractor. i did not accept Mr Tan's explanation that it was a random selection. I Think I'm Paranoid.

i missed the Black Stripes concert [a cleverly-disguised mock UN conference in drag] because:
- i didn't know the when and where
- my mobile line was cut [my father ran up $700+ of charges, and my mom would only pay it with his money]
- my sister was hogging the phone, and i wasn't going to bitch with her to talk to Matthias
- Dax couldn't lend me his Ixus, anyway.

a shot of Hongxuan in his costume, together with an explaination as to why he was/is gay, made me wish i had bothered. i cannot even begin to imagine what Matthias wore, and what he was doing in liason with a cow. plus the fashion/strip show sounded interesting, as per the picture Matthias painted for my benefit.

also, Streats is quickly becoming Singapore's Hello!/The Sun. [Of Monks and Mercs?]

"Victoria principal faces parents' ire - School head Ang Pow Chew defends $200,000 eco-garden, justifies high costs"
- Streats, Front Page, Thursday, July 10, 2003

we got blasted by Mr Ang for that. goodness know what it had to do with us, except to provide entertainment. plus, today's Streats published a comment by Lee Han Shi, which makes direct, personal digs at Mr Ang. this is how you sell papers. this is how you get my attention. not with some twins' death, or some device that converts piss and shit into water.

Khooky seems to be having fun with having his own classroom. besides the "Land Mines Are Not Toys" posters [i'm all for people not killing themsleves with discarded lands mines and cluster bombs, but do they really need huge posters that look to me to be saying "NO" in whatever language they're in? aren't they a bit patronizing? wait, hold that thought. yeah, the posters fit Khooky very well.], there are now Mao-era posters no doubt framed with 50x70cm IKEA RAKET frames, and

- "Hollywood", Madonna

snotty, shitty, five-year-old

i am in the fucking-thirteenth-level-of-taoist-hell. my sister is having a birthday party, and this boy, one of the snotty, shitty, five-year-old classmates of hers, has a SonyEricsson P800.

fucking bastard. and what the hell is he doing with the Symbian UI OS? drawing happy fun scrawlings on his equally-snotty-shitty-five-year-old-friends' photographs, taken with the built-in VGA-resolution digital camera.

i will likely report on the better half of my day [including Ms Ernie's wedding], when i have backed down from:

A - the emergency vasectomy session
B - the mirgrane caused by ten screaming kids whom i would LOVE to murder
C - the window-ledge of my thriteenth-floor Chuan Park Type A Luxurious Condominium [Special Offer - one month only - 17 parking lots ONLY $1]

"I came to cut you up
I came to knock you down
I came around to tear your little world apart
I came to shut you up
I came to suck you down
I came around to tear your little world apart
Tear your little world apart
Tear your little world apart
And break your soul apart"

- "Vow", Garbage

shut up, you annoying little poseur, Part II

i had to go out into the world and help people today. yech. i had to schelp into poor people's territory, where schools like Bedok View Secondary were a literal stone's throw away. it was funny watching the poor. some didn't even have doorbells on their doors. i gave up the idea of asking people for donations and just carried stuff, lest i break out into delirious laughter at the so wonderfully retro time machine we've unconvered in Bedok South Avenue 3. i even managed to get a glimsp of intra-family backstabbing. see, Bedok View Secondary School was scheduled to do exactly the same thing [collect old newspapers, clothes, etc] four days from today. their operation, apparently, is approved by the police and their town council. i was sniggering away after i read they notice posted at the first lift lobby we were at. my group shamelessly solicited donations from a flat which we all saw a Bedok View Seocndary student walk into. the poor bugger looked on helplessly as his father gave away the donations of canned food, old clothes and newpapers. he even had the letter we spammed their mailboxes with. i had to laugh and laugh and laugh.

there was a PAP Community Federation right next to the blocks our class was doing. this, combined with the MOTOMORPH bus that we got onto to get there, was prime teaser material against Matt. however i made no more than a few lame attempts. wasn't really in the mood, and it wasn't helped by the anti-drug and pro-family crap they tried to push onto me at school. yech. maybe i should start the anti-depressants like my doctor recommended after all.

later, when a groups of us marched towards civilization, we were accosted in the Tanah Merah MRT toliet. this American kid pulled something i assume to be straight out of Jackass: The Movie. thankfully, i had watched clips on MTV, and went along with it.

Nick thought i knew him.

Alvin thought he was insane.

if there's one thing i've learnt from my tuition teacher, it's to avoid provoking the insane. hmm. i think i should work for Mammon Inc.

- "The Rafters", Moby

shut up, you annoying little poseur.

it's cute when stupid people are angry.

look at Matt's blog, that letter from Linkin Park Land

then, tell me: is this the kind of student we are trying to bring into the real world?

sends letters to oneself, speaks the ubiquitous mother tongue of the sk8ter bois, and is the prefect Victorian. that means he's been blindly conned into the idealism of being a gentlemen, professional and sportsman. sheep. baa-bloody-baa. does he use a Nokia too? i assume the typical 8250. 8310? 6510? [nah, too tasteful, even for a Nokia]. he's the exact type of human being that my father depends on to make his huge profit on his illegal gambling business in Paupa New Guinea [incidentally, neither of my parents are grateful to the government. my father evident isn't/cannot be, and my mom always votes opposition at the GEs, and railed endlessly at the PAP as they drove past in their lorry in the recent one, because the consituency we were in at the time experienced a walkover. she also hollered at me when i brought up a PAP poster/banner thing, which i did for a lark]

one thing: how many Brians could Matt possibly have?

i think i'll print the letter out, annotate it in red marker, and then scan it back in on my CanoScan [oh! i have my scanner set up! how about that?], after which it goes onto the internet. i'm not giving up such a good oppotunity to laugh at the stupid and lift my spirits.

hey, wait, i'd love some hate mail too: garbage@singnet.com.sg don't bother with the porn and spam. i get enough of it, what with my dictionary-word userID.

postscript: after a harrowing conversation, i decieded to remove this entry. however, 5 seconds later, after re-reading it, i changed my mind. Matt, what do you expect of me? NiceAaron? of course you get AaronTechBitch. so does everyone else.

"I know how to hurt
I know how to heal
I know what to show
And what to conceal

I know when to talk
And I know when to touch
No one ever died from wanting too much

The world is not enough
But it is such a perfect place to start, my love
And if you're strong enough
Together we can take the world apart, my love"

- "The World Is Not Enough", Garbage

good evening, mr president.

The Victoria Challenge.

a huge grammatical error that's so attended to and ignored, all at the same time.

it started yesterday, the day after our Resiliency Training, where much sex was talked ["watching porn together is good for you"], and i was taught that nothing is my fault. whilst i was briefing the cameramen and registering their cameras, cell phone numbers and routes, it came to light that one of the groups didn't have a camera. i was going to explode, but i went to see if the AV could lend us one of theirs. i called Miss Ernie, but she needed help, so i ran over and asked later.

turns out the School Hall's Epson projector's control panel was jammed from over-manupilation [or at least i think so. i didn't take the time to diagnose] i had to use the remote control and switch the input mode from the stage. which gave me an excellent oppurtunity to break in/show off my new Ericsson HBH-10 Bluetooth Headset. all while Mr Maran instructed the students on silent behaviour, mere seconds before the Guest Of Honour was due to arrive. A very hairy situation. exactly the kind i handle well.

Mrs DeSouza complimented me when i ran into her later, while i was walking about, saying that i was about the only one who knew what they were doing. while one might not be able to dispute that, i do not expect Miss Ernie to be familiar with the new equipment, what with the teaching, planing, and other things she has on her mind. however, AnnaTechBitch's mind seems to be completely devoid of anythng substantial. what they paying her for? is this how tax money is spent by the government & The MOE? i couldn't borrow a camera from the AV Department because she hadn't unpacked anything yet, but she isn't familiar with the new equipment, either! what has she been doing for the past month?

clearly, AnnaTechBitch wasn't doing her job again. but, then again, what do/can you expect from a transferred office clerk? i expect they were desperate for someone to fill Mrs Tan's position, so they plucked out the first person they saw in the general office. [there was a nice opening for a racist shot right there in that last sentence, but i will not take that shot, because her incompetence is more than enough to poke about, without having to resort to racist remarks]

AnnaTechBitch has wanted to quit since Speech Day 2001. and December 2001. and Speech Day 2002. and December 2002. and pre-move-Marine-Parade-is-too-far-for-me March, April, May & June 2003. yet she is still here, bungling up the AV Department, long after having me "let go" from the department.

Case In Point: she was asked to get a replacement cable for the rostrum condenser microphone [also at the VC Launch] the standard is a female floor port and a male microphone port. so, those still following me would be able to tell that we needed a male-female cable [those of you who think that i'm talking about transsexuals or sex, Jonathan Dax's blog is the one for you. go away] AnnaTechBitch provided a male-male cable. Miss Ernie was mad. but not in front of AnnaTechBitch, with is what puzzled me. why be so [fake] nice to her, instead of telling her to warn of her next

menstruation WAV/AIFF Select an audio format to hear this word.
men·stru·a·tion [ mènstroo áysh'n ] noun

monthly discharge from the womb: the monthly process of discharging blood and other matter from the womb that occurs between puberty and menopause in women and female primates who are not pregnant

"My class' challenge was to give out greeting cards and copies of the school magazine to 127 establishments in the East Coast area, so in this way we're not just doing something that only involves the school, but the community itself, by saying 'hello' to the neighbors in our community"

i gave that speech all night long at the gala event [VS Cremonial Move Guest Of Honor: President S R Nathan Saturday 28th June 2003 05:45pm] The President was warm and easy-going, interested in our challenge, and shook my hand twice. i didn't expect it because i was told not to attempt physical contact, but he offered his hand, and i shook it before anyone could think/see that i was contemplating it. he didn't stick to some standardized hello-what-did-you-do-that's-nice-thank-you-goodbye. he asked me why we didn't stop my his house. i wanted to say that it was because this anti-PAP friend of mine planned the stops, but instead i told him that we were right opposite, at the Eurasian Communty House.

he started to go after thanking me, but almost imperceptively turned back and shook my hand again. Miss Toh and Mr Hazrin later asked me if it was cold or wet. it was neither. it wasn't like i was meeting Enzo Ferrari or Shirley Manson, but how many people got to shake the hand of their own President? twice? i just wish someone took my photo.

after tending to more guests, and as the night slowed down, Benjamin, James, Jerome, Dax, Matt, Pat, and etcetera came over to disturb my booth. Benjamin tried to play the SARS-vivor rap over the speakers, from his Apple iPod. he succeeded on the third try, while i was in the toliet. i grabbed the power outlet and unplugged the speakers. how he got the SARS-vivor rap onto his iPod, i do not want to know.

final word on the Ericsson HBH-10: some said it was ridiculous, Matt said it made me look like a geek, [probably relative to him, one who cannot set up a scanner to save his life] quite a number said it was cool, Edgar Chia's group on the seventh floor thought i was rich, and one of my AV juniors said i would look like a bloody airplane at night.

so there isn't a final word. hmm. i miss the past two days already.

"In a modern culture
My friend you must be careful
They've a million
Ways to kill you
In this dangerous world
There's an art to growing old
Taking chances
Magic happens

One mistake's all it takes
And your life has come undone
Walk away 'cause you're breaking up the girl
It's a drag
I know it's hard
But you're tearing her apart
Walk away 'cause you're breaking up the girl"

- "Breaking Up The Girl", Garbage

the white stripes, and Siglap Link

i read the paper yesterday, as i always try to, so that i can keep up with the latest developments in propaganda, when, lo and behold, at 02:45pm, [i had been awake for only fifteen minutes]? i found the Next Phase Of The Victoria School PR Plan!

Solar Panels! EcoPond! Biodegradable rice-husk-and-bamboo KarmicWare! "A school in the garden!" "I heard we can even have PE lessons at East Coast Park!" A Hyundai Tuscani two-door coupe [i refuse to call it a sports car] in the Principal's parking lot! [oops. how did that ever get in there?]

Victoria School Goes Green - New Siglap premises to have biodegradable plates, solar power, green projects - PAGE H9

raise your hands, those who are sickened. i wonder how PR will help us, acadamically.

today, i awoke at 9am, because StarHub Telescope touted MTV's Five Night Stand featuring Garbage at 11am, and i wanted to record it. i forgot my rule to Always Go To The Source, and blindly trusted it. i ended up recording some crap music videos on Non-Stop Hits [on my head]. the MTV Asia website stated calmly that Five Night Stand was due on the 28th at 12 noon, even as i railed at it endlessly for not informing me.

while in my mom's cheerfuly red Suzuki Swift GL, i was listening to New This Week, this crappy segement on P10 where "Dan The Man" goes all demented and introduces the tracks that've been served up on a platter to them, for them to murder. Seven Nation Army by The White Stripes was on the list. the short clip demonstrated that Seven Nation Army was thrashy, but then i remembered that Matt listens to The White Stripes. you can imagine his reaction when i told him, can't you?

it was a surprise to him because he doesn't listen to the radio [except the BBC World Service, not unlike Mrs Raj], and rightly so too. to answer "Why do You listen to the radio, then?", here's a list of all the radio stations that ever feature on my mom's Kenwood car stereo:

91.3 Mhz WKRZ 91.3 [for the techno]
95.0 Mhz Class 95 FM
98.7 Mhz Perfect 10
98.0 Mhz Power 98
93.8 Mhz NewsRadio 93.8 [strictly for traffic info only]

"Shut the damn thing off" is never an option, which is why i splurged on my Palm Tungsten|T, so i have music i can put into my pocket, as opposed to bringing an entire haversack because a smaller bag looks silly [those sling-type Discman-sized ones i used to carry around until i realized it was a male equivalent to a purse. you might argue that the haversack is one, or the shoebag is another, but i don't carry a shoebag because of that, and the haversack was my last option]

"I won't take you as you are
Please don't take me as i am
Find your lonely life bizzare
You'll see this in love
You'll see this in life"

- "Above You, Below Me", Badly Drawn Boy

fan nokian

i kinda promised myself that there would be no more confusing splash pages for my blog, but that was too good to pass up. if you look closely, [i work in 1280x1024 hence i had to dumb it down, for those not using 17" Flat Panel LCD monitors, on the splash page] you'll see it's apparently Matthias Yao's blog, proudly brought to you by aklwIncorporated.

when i turned on the TV after i got home at 10:21am this morning, i saw, in this order, while channel surfing:

-> credits for The Price Is Right
-> some Cheena kid's programme trying to teach physics [i'm not kidding]
-> an Avril Lavinge video
-> another-

i shut the damn thing off.

"Come see what we all talk about
People moving to the moon
Stop baby don't go stop here
Never stop living here
Till it eats the heart from your soul
Keeps down the sound of your
Silent sigh"

- "Silent Sigh", Badly Drawn Boy

Ow-Cowabunga!

i really wanted to go in-depth with my account of The Days Between Last Friday And Today, but too much has happened, and something that really took the piss out of me cropped up today, so it's a quick run-through before i move onto today.

Saturday the 17th
-> my mom bought the About A Boy VCD for me. i've watched it four times since. it's That good. and i re-read the book, also for the fourth time

Sunday the 18th
-> birthday of one of my mom's friends. went to Costa Sands Resort, where they wouldn't let us in at a gate closer to our chalet because they wanted to screen everyone for SARS
-> my mom and my aunt [birds of a feather] called up the management and told them [in so many words] that their system was screwed up, as they didn't take our temperature at the door or when we collected the keys, hence if anyone in out party had SARS, so would the Costa Sands Resort staff by now
-> CSR staff persist in making us lug three carfuls of stuff through the front gate, the full length of the resort away from our chalet
-> by three carfuls, i mean one Toyota Ipsum [MPV used as a hatchback], one Honda Stream [MPV used as a hatchback] and one Suzuki Swift [hatchback used as an MPV]. guess which one belongs to my family? only the Cheenas would lug a mahjong table and stand fan everywhere they go
-> we went through the front gate, having no choice as all the side gates were locked, snubbing all those asking us for our SARS declaration forms. we also breezed thorugh the temp-checking station, because no-one bothered to stop us
-> i had a crap time, after shifting the stuff around i spent the day in the upstairs air-con room, watching TV, reading About A Boy and having four Cokes, one Tonic Water and three packets of crisps until it was time to go home
-> however we didn't leave until three hours after the pre-set time, and i found myself wandering in the painfully hip 'restored' 'old-town' area of East Coast Park. if i had my wallet i'd be in The Coffee Bean, but i didn't and my sis' boyfriend very kindly paid for refreshments
-> oh, and me and my aunt stopped to admire the New Victoria School on the way to CSR. it looked fantastic, and i wondered why she'd never noticed it. she actually did, but never believed anyone [except me] who told her it was a school

Monday the 19th
-> Cheena Paper One. 'nuff said.

Tuesday the 20th
-> English Paper One and EHistory
-> crapped up my SBQ becuase i was distracted by the sudden change in question 1c, where 'more' was changed into 'less'
-> i was doing the sections backwards and was already on 1b, i panicked, hastily reworded my answer, five minutes later i realized that all i had to do was change all my 'more's into 'less's, but it was too late
-> was extremely distracted after that, and chose the wrong SEQ to do - World War One impact
-> didn't realize i had nothing to say until i was into my first paragraph of 3a, with ten minutes left on the paper
-> also realized i had Much more to say about The Pacific War, question 2a and b, as it had been harped to death after we went all Cumulative on our Pacific War CA1
-> i gave up on the paper.

Today
-> i clearly did not sleep enough, because i went all snarky on my CME MidYear and will probably get a 0 for it, unless whoever marks it has a sense of humour, is not pregnant/married/has kids/dating/engaged/elderly, or less they'll be seriously offended. but i don't think having a sense of humour will help me much, as no marks can be awarded for my snarkiness. well, at least no one can accuse me of not being honest. plus, in all my years of experience with the OMM [Optical Marking Machine] in the AVMediaResouce [spanking new name, eh?], it's never laughed at any of my jokes, hence i really don't think it'll appreciate my answers
-> my lack of sleep was also noticable because it took ALL of my energy to concentrate on my Cheena Listening Comprehension, and my Geography Paper also horrendously suffered, as it took even more of an age to recall anything, and i, as usual, only managed to complete 3 out of 4 questions. this's what happens when you devote more time to your books and less to sleep. hmmph.
-> had to schlepp down to Olympus Studio at High Street Center on Hill Street to collect my broken C-2020 Zoom. i decided it wasn't worth the $200 to fix a camera that only speaks Japanese, so i will be shameless bothering my father for a C-750 UltraZoom when he comes back. it costs over a thousand, which is where i drawn the line for spending my own money for my own things
-> i took the bus in the wrong direction there, ended up in Eunos. i also took the bus in the wrong direction a few more time after that:

School > 61 > Eunos Interchange > MRT > City Hall > Funan Center Coffee Bean > Olympus Studio > 61 > HaborFront Center > 143 > Trellis Towers > 105 > Chuan Park

it could have been:

School > 61 > Olympus Studio > 61 > School > 107 > Serangoon Interchange > 105 > Chuan Park

I Need A Car! And A Driving Licence!

finally, what really took the piss out of me. these past few days, there have been one or two letters written into newspapers asking for the MOE to relax the education regime in Singapore. what interested me was the one in Today about Mother Tongue, and how it really wasn't a Mother Tongue, as most people find it as alien as Yiddish, and how a pass should be mandatory but not hellish to obtain, and how no-one's going to notice, anyway

i was all for it, and happy that people were [once again] taking notice of the failure of our mothers' tongues, until this Duman High Bitch wrote into ST to say the the Cheenese were having it much worse in Cheena, and how her life is all 'work' but she thinks it's all good, so that our future leaders can compete with Cheena's future leaders, basically going on about shit that the Ministry and the Government wants to hear, but no-one needed going on about.

who does she think she is?!

she is either a govermental spy meant to brainwash us all into being good Confucians, a brown-noser trying to get into the [young] PAP, seriously delusional, a spy for the Cheena government trying to bring about the downfall of Singapore by turning us all into slavedriven muggers, or is having her period.

if any of you out there happen to see Rebecca Lim Sin Mei [Ms] on the streets, would you be so kind as to hack her to death for me?

- "S.P.A.T.", Badly Drawn Boy

we love SARS

KarmicWare thermometers were given on wednesday
-> cheapo looking [read; Made In Cheena]
-> also called Becton Dickinson Europe 521807
-> proudly proclaims MADE IN CHINA [sic] ?on the back
-> ?Becton Dickinson Europe must be damn proud that they took advantage of stupidpeople
-> said people are stupid enough to manufacture poor-quality devices at dirt-cheap prices
->called KarmicWare thermometers because they bear more than a passing resemblance to the recyclable, biodegradable, save-the-fucking-world crap they're using in place of actual cutlery
-> these thermometers will used to conduct VS's largest PR project so far? [the KarmicWare job was a flop]
-> our dear Doraemon will grace the event by embrassing the school with his three-act dramedy play, entitled How To Take Your Oral Temperature
-> thank goodness i don't have to be in school today.

went out with more 1987-ers after that
-> pat wouldn't stop his drop-thermometer-on-floor-and-put-it-back-in-his-mouth-immediately routine?
-> the lot wouldn't stop making obsence remarks in the b??ack of the bus
-> the foodcourt at Le Merdien was zapped out of Golden Mile Complex. all Thai.
-> matt dragged us all to Books Kinokuniya to look for a book he later decided to order from Amazon.com because the one they had on sale was to expensive [what's that? i hear a little bird chirping! and it's going: Cheap! Cheap! Cheap!]
-> after giving up on the Age Of Reason by Thomas whatshisname, he procceded to look for a photography book
-> this is disturbing because it wasn't "Photography For Dummies - A Reference For The Rest Of Us!", and as we all know, he can't work anything more complicated than his Nokia 8210, Jonathan's Canon Ixus, my defucnt Olympus C-2020 Zoom, and his Packard Bell PC, so what is he doing looking for a professional photography book? ??
-> the afternoon wasn't a complete bust, though. i'll have to admit that watching matt try to work the KinoHelper was hilarous, which goes to show that matt simply cannot work anything that runs on AC current, let alone a touch-screen terminal with non-QWERTY on-screen keyboard

had a party later in the night
-> had a great time. saw people i haven't seen in ages, and set me up nicely for my long weekend

"I hear you say it
Play it smart girl
Win the game love
Give’em what they want
What they want to see and you could be a big star
You could go far
Make a landmark
What have you been reading you smart girl?
Win the game love
Give’em what they want
What they want to see and you could be a big star
You could go far
Make a landmark
Make a shitload"

- "Shut Your Mouth", Garbage

somebody get me out of here, i'm tearing up myself

the sad state i'm in can be defined by the fact that i've promised myself that my webpage should be up by now. and though it is, it isn't in it's full glory.

why's that, you ask?

well, here's a sampling of Shit That's Happended To Me Since My Last Entry:

- i had to ship my PC to Papua New Guinea [no, MSN addicts, i wasn't kidding. and i built the damn thing myself.]
- i ended up buying a Dell to replace the PC now used for illegal stuff [becuase i'm rich and lazy]
- i had to transfer my data over to my new PC without destroying it [not a success. i accidentally reformatted it, and some, meaning most, of the files are gone forever]
- i''ve dropped my Palm Tungsten | T. Twice.
- my brother got a Nokia 7250, and my mother subsequently got a 6100
- the new Ericsson T610 is Nokian!!! [more on that later]
- MidYears are here, and i'm not sure if i'm ready.
- people are still calling each other x-Kiat [eg. Peng-Kiat [Matthias Chew] Boon-Kiat [Benjamin Keng] Sng-Kiat [James Sng]
- people are still calling me Khoo-Kiat, which i do not respond to
- i'm trying to organize a class gathering, but the class is uncooperative. no RSVPs? people assume that we have a food synthesizer that'll serve any number of people, surprise guests or otherwise?

matt apparently had his birthday on the 11th. i had no idea i was actually sending him messages about his birthday [or so it seemed]. i was just having a really crap mothers' day dinner at Swensen's, and needed a snarkish break.

to add to that, i spent monday after-exam with matt and this kenneth guy. he had to go to his place near one of my old houses, at Jalan Besar. as is expected, they ended up having a great time with Monopoly on my Palm, while i sat there trying not to encourage the crazy loon [no, really, he was insane] sitting near us to continue being excessively vocal [i do not mean matt, at least not this time]

and then hongxuan, jondax and patrick went over to thrash matt's house some time after we three split ways. busy day for matt.

i'll end with three questions [hey, like i did for my cheena compo! or was that two?]

1 - why did matt open the door?
2 - should i even ask why there exists a photo of matt gyrating in front of Tweety Bird?
3 - why, Ericsson, why?!

oh, and i need photos, people. don't tell me you went all the way to Tampines to wreck matt's house and didn't bring a camera.

"somebody get me out of here, i'm tearing up myself
nobody gives a damn about me, or anybody else"

- "Medication", Garbage

The Cheap, DECT, Panasonic, Phone

so my mum's screaming at me about the new cordless phone. she can't seem to grasp any new technology more complicated than her Nokia 8850 [which brings up the interesting point of how she's going to cope with the 7250, but that's another story] IT'S NOT MY FAULT YOU WANTED TO BUY A CHEAP DECT PHONE. i told her the Phillips one was of better quality and much easier to use. she chose to save the money and go for the Panasonic one which came with two handsets. i don't see how any of that's my fault.

- "Stupid Girl", Garbage

7250 + 8850 + S57 + 8910 + iPaq + T|T - T68m

the morning started with a wondrous symphony of my parents' voices. in A#. they were arguing about money again, my father having spent his half of the $10 000 he brought back from PNG at the horse races. my mom spent most of her half on the house mortgage and a replacement bed. which my father ordered and was supposed to pay for. when my mom asked him to transfer more money here, he said he couldn't/wouldn't/shouldn't. but within 12 hours of losing that $5 000, he immediately transfers more over.

he wanted to go visit his father this morning. my aunt, who lives with my granddad, wanted me to help her install her HP LaserJet 5L. i didn't think it was a good idea, what with the war going on and all. [hint: NOT gulf war 2] besides, the drivers were generic and hence the same as the old ones'.

thankfully, StarHub Center did not have to suffer the embarrassment of my father today, us having separated from him when he decided to head to my aunt's on his own. my mom dropped me off to queue first, but there were only three people in the queue, who disappeared the moment i got near. kudos to StarHub. however, i still ended up in one of the most unpleasant situations this year. queue for a fashion-victim Nokia. at a half-price promotion.

the grey one looked less offensive, hence i got my mom to buy it. we had lunch at Sushi Ondo, a budget spin-off of Genki Sushi, where all but three plates of sushi are $1.50 each. the rest of the day involved me being dragged in and out of bra sections, sitting for ages in the Giodanos of Centrepoint, and turning down a Coffee Bean Ice Blended on account of a queasy stomach.

"I bit my tongue and stood in line
With not much to believe in
I bought into what I was sold
And ended up with nothing

This is not my idea of a good time
This is not my idea of a good time
This is not my idea of a good time
This is not my idea"

- "Not My Idea", Garbage

severe whatever whatever syndrome

things can get really crappy when everything grinds to a halt. some parents panic, and all schools shut down. i'm thankful for the extra sleep and non-homework time allotted to me, but i could do without the ignorance of adults. including my parents'.

my useless father's back in singapore [since thursday], btw. back to terrorize the population and talk about 'typical singaporeans' when he is so clearly one of them. Nokia 8910 Midnight Edition, remember?

it being I-Haven't-Been-To-Pay-My-Repsects-All-Year-So-I-Might-As-Well-Do-It-Now Day, [Qing Ming Jie] the six of us squeezed into the Suzuki Swift GL and made our way to Lim Chu Kang. an entire hour late.

see, we were supposed to arrive at 0700-0730. i woke at 0600. i was ready by 0630. the rest of the family [aka the females, plus my father, surprisingly] was ready by 0715. my brother had time for a nap before we left.

we spent two hours or so entertaining the relatives, fake smiles, witch-like laughter [male:female ratio was at least 2:1], and my father embarrassing all of us, acting like the ringmaster of an absurd circus. my first aunt had the guts to lash out at him, subtly, which i've always admired. however, he either did not understand it, or was to involved in talking about himself to pay attention.

later that evening, we had half the [very long] queue at StarHub Center staring at us as my father wondered out[very]loud if the phones were being given away for free.

my mom was taking advantage of an offer for half-price Nokia 7250s. this is one of few instances when i would advocate the purchase of a Nokia. half-price. it must be really too ugly, then, even for the singaporean [buy... Nokia... cool...] population.

the thing is not only ugly, but has a crappy camera and keeps in with the Nokia tradition of monomedia MMS. which, incidentally, means not being able to send/forward sounds in your multimedia messages. i told her to buy the gray one, far, far less offensive than the "Plum" cover.

going back to my father, he exclaimed that he would not wait the estimated two hours for the phone, and would rather fork out the extra $500 than have dinner another minute later. i was trying very hard not to bonk him on the head.

my father being back means that my SIM is in his ridiculous Nokia, which WOULD NOT PAIR WITH MY PALM TUNGSTEN|T, EVEN AFTER I THREATENED THE DAMN THING WITH A THIRTEEN STOREY FALL. pairing, btw, means to set up two Bluetooth devices to 'trust' each other and accept connections without prior authorization. so why does it not surprise me when the Nokia asks for permission EACH BLOODY TIME I TRY TO DOWNLOAD MY MESSAGES?! i had to find the fucking buried setting and turn it off.

his shopping list this time is roughly $15 000 long. this includes [but is not limited to]:

a plasma TV

a $1 000 Mont Blanc pen, sorry, penmanship instrument [he lost his $300 one on the plane]

a new set of living room furniture

a laundry dryer [condos do not provide bamboo-pole-perching facilities. isn't that wonderful? now we can be civilized and properly dry clothes]

woo-hoo. let the flaunting begin.

- "The World Is Not Enough (U.N.K.L.E. Remix)", Garbage

i came around to tear your little world apart/and break your soul apart

i bought Garbage [their first album] when i was out helping Matt find a gift for someone. [intelligent guess says Jamie, whoever she is] The entire album is simply raw energy, blended with the strong, sharp beats of Garbage. Supervixen and Vow are so damn addictive, i've been listening to them back-to-back for days now. if you'd noticed the 'lyric' link below, i even wrote out the lyrics to Supervixen. for no reason at all.

Fun Fact: HMW stocks about any CD you could possibly want, but charges abysmal prices for them.

these few days, besides many other things, i've also experienced the true extent of how annoying 4J2003 can be, online and offline. i've more or less had it with most of the lot. and matt? sleep more. at night.

- "Vow", Garbage

make a whole new religion/i will be your religion/bow down to me

"It’s a strange thing about choices. People always like to think they’re making them, when in fact they are not. They like to think they’re deciding which movie to see, or which orange juice to buy, or where they’ll be taking their next vacation. And they are truly unaware that pages and pages of demographic studies, and tests, and focus groups have predetermined their “choices” long before they even get to the stage where they can decide. They are blissfully ignorant of being manipulated by a machine much, much larger than they.

Of course, I think that in some part of their subconscious mind, they have an awareness of the fact that they’re being “helpfully guided” through life by powers far superior to them. I think they need that guidance. I think they’d feel completely lost at sea without it.

Gaia needs my guidance right now. Just as she needs to feel that she has chosen to seek it out. She’ll make her choice as to whether or not she’s going to join me abroad, not understanding that the choice has already been made. All according to a plan.

Control. There are so many misconceptions about it. All this foolishness about how there’s no such thing. People love to convince themselves that they have some kind of free will and that this free will plays any roll in their choices. It’s really quite ridiculous. But I am eternally grateful for the illusion.

Because the illusion of free will is the one essential element in maintaining complete control."

- Loki

- "Supervixen", Garbage

can't you see the futility of it all?!

well. here we are. five days into 'spring break'. what has been accomplished so far?

>> item 2 on my holiday to-do. my Olympus is now in the hands of Olympus Singapore. the say it'll take about two weeks for quotation. their showroom looks like a Olympus exhibit, by the way. what seems like every modern Olympus every made is on display there. it was blissfully empty, though.
>> four EHist and four SStudies source-based questions.
>> two EMath worksheets.

so, contrary to my all-conquering theme today, i'm a bit of a lazy arse. business as usual then.

- "The World Is Not Enough", Garbage

missing: one Nike squirt water bottle

the times when i leave more than a week's gap in my blog are of five main types:

A: there's nothing happening worth writing home about
B: there's too much happening to write home about
C: i was just plain lazy
D: weekday computing is being frowned upon by my mother
E: all of the above

this week, it's E - A

plus, i lost my Nike water bottle, which cost me $13 and was bought together with the guys when we bought our class jerseys last year. i'm sure someone in 4H picked it up. whoever found it, please return. dump it unceremoniously at the desk i sit at during MT class, or whatever. just. return. it.

if there's nothing else, sod off. go find something else to do. i'm not in the best of moods now.

- "GHV2 Thunderpuss Megamix", Madonna

island life. love it.

Qn: why was the annual inter-school cross-country event moved to Sentosa [island life, love it!]?

An: so students and teachers alike can rediscover the charms of $3 iced teas, $12 fish-and-chips, getting sand everywhere, a monorail that's more believable as a a few six-seater rickshaws strung together and dragged along a rusting green track, mingling with Jappy and Cheena tourists in said rickshaw, the New Blazing-Hot-Fantasy-Carpark, etc.

in the usual disorganized-Victorians tradition, we were left to find our way to Wherever, and matt+pat showed off their anti-war banner everywhere they went. i was mortified. the P saw them and wanted to see the banner. somehow, they squirmed out of it.

i wasted three fucking hours of my life mucking around the monorail and the Southernmost Point Of Continental Asia. i did not purchase the abovementioned beverages and food products, making it a full 24 hours of non-nutrition that day. i tried to take some shots at Palawan Beach, to try and prove that i'm not completely useless behind a camera, but the damned Olympus failed me. i can't really expect it to work well with a damaged lens aperture, but i was pretty angry with the little runt anyway.

and all i had to do to gain free reign of Sentosa [island life, love it!] was to walk over to the VJC cohort [who, incidentally, were not forced to go] in plain sight of the instructors. i spent five minutes acting like i was one of them, talking to those i knew, and was outta there when some of them were moving.

i got back on the monorail again later, and was two stops past the arrival/departure center, when matt called and said he'd left. instantly i knew i was doomed to stuck in human traffic, and tried to make back to the center before the masses, but it looked like Sentosa [island life, love it!] was giving away Hello Kitties by the time the blue line bus pulled into the arrival/departure stop.

i had to float around the crowded mass-transit system for an hour to get to tuition. i bummed sandwiches and two coffees from my tuition teacher to keep me going [breaking my fast], but by the time tuition ended i was so tired i hailed a cab home.

funny how all cab drivers seem to know where Chuan Park is.

"This is the noise that keeps me awake
My head explodes and my body aches

Push it
Make the beats go harder
Push it
Make the beats go harder"

- "Push it", Garbage