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i know it's crazy to be blogging three entries at one go but i have so much to write that it will be super messy to be writing all under one entry.

i was shopping with aaron a few hours ago at bugis street. as usual, the place was freaking crowded and carrying a guitar on my back didn't help. as we walked past each shop, i glanced around and contemplated taking my time to look at the clothes in the stores. or maybe in the stalls. but the crowd was so bad and the plethora of shops made it impossible to stop at every shop. besides, most shops were selling only ladies' wears so it didn't make sense for me to go in.

there was one shop, however, located near the exit which wasn't as crowded. but interestingly, i had no interest to step in. because of the music it was playing. it was then i realised, no matter how trendy or nice the clothes you sell are, the music can destroy it.

bugis street is a place for young people. if you play a poppish or trendy song, you cast a ahead-of-the-fashion-pack image of your shop. that particular shop near the exit was playing some old and unpopular new year-ish sounding song and it made the shop feel like it's selling some obiang clothes. even the thought of stepping in made me feel like i'll appear obiang.

unsurprisingly, the shop was empty other than the clothes and the sales person. to be honest, i didn't even bother to look at what they were selling.

so shop owners, do choose the songs you play carefully. if you don't know what song to play, then don't play. because playing the wrong song makes things worse. after all, we're there to buy clothes. not to chill out or soak in the ambience. much less to listen to the songs. besides, you're most probably playing a cd full of illegally downloaded mp3s. if your song pisses me off, i may rat on you.


the asian culture of being humble may be capping our abilities. since young, we were taught to be humble. the parent goes, when you get praises, never agree. always say, "no la, i'm not that good".

because we say it so often, after some time, you start thinking it. and when you think it often enough, you start believing it. and when you believe it enough, you start being it.

that's not to say we should be boastful and brag about our abilities. but the law of attraction says it all. our minds shape our actions. mind over matter. think and grow rich. they all preach the same thing. what you think in your mind is what you will become.

there are many ways of showing humility. you don't have to say you are not good. you can always say you still have a lot of room for improvement or simply just thank the party who complimented you.

if all these don't work for you. you can shut your mind to it and slash ignore each time you hear a praise. after some time you no longer have to deal with it. because to others, you have become so arrogant, people no longer want to befriend you. =)


i'm getting quite disturbed by singapore's #1 citizen journalism site stomp. unlike what its facade projects, it is more than just a citizen journalism site. it's sort of like a neighbourhood watch thing. a kind of public policing. on top of that, it makes me feel like a prisoner in the panopticon. someone is watching you sometime somewhere. every little thing you do. but you will never know who, when or where.

it's kind of running our lives and potentially ruining it. a picture can speak a thousand words. but no one ever reminded us that those thousand words may not necessarily be true. like the picture pulitzer prize winner, eddie adams, took of general, nguyen ngoc loan, executing a vietcong prisoner in saigon, it destroyed the general's and his family's lives. the thousand words that the picture spoke was of a cruel and merciless general indiscriminately and ruthlessly killing an innocent victim. this picture irreparably destroyed the general's honour who had to live in verbal abuse and criticism from the public.

in actual fact, general loan upheld his integrity by killing his fellow vietnamese who killed a few americans. i'd rather choose the word murder.



in spite of that, i enjoy visiting the site and i believe it is due to our sick fetish with voyeurism. like i've always said, human is a voyeuristic species. or perhaps i'm just a paranoid and insecure being constantly checking to see if i got on candid camera.


the english has a very simple idea of "normal". i do not necessarily refer to the british. however, in english, when one is normal. one is normal. the formula is simple:

normal = normal = normal

when one says "you are normal" or "you are very normal", it may not necessarily be a compliment but at the very least, it's highly unlikely to be criticism. the chinese on the other hand, makes very distinct differences between the two.

which two?

the good normal (正常) and the bad normal (普通). 你很正常 is good. 你很普通 is bad. the former referring to the normal state of mind or behaviour while the latter emphasizes the inability to stand out or to outshine. this can be seen in the individual characters of mandarin. 正 suggests a state of being correct, and 常 suggests a common state. so 正常 really tells you if you are otherwise, you are not correct. or not in the right state of mind. 普 suggests simplicity while 通 suggests a common state as well or what can be said as something that is observed throughout the sample population. so being 普通 means you are thoroughly simple.

though both can be more or less simply translated as "you are very normal".

perhaps then that the english think normalcy is neutral while the chinese think normalcy is more than just normal.

but despite having english as our first language and the medium of instruction, our education system suggests otherwise. being in the normal stream is not very normal. being in express stream is being normal. while being in the special stream is special but it is really just an express class.

the taiwanese have a simple streaming system in education. being in A stream means being in the best stream. B means the common and normal stream. while C refers to those who take a slightly longer time to absorb materials.

when our taiwanese friends heard that our streaming system calls it special, express and normal, they were laughing over it.

are you normal? no.

are you special? no.

i'm express.


perhaps in singapore, the problem isn't that serious. afterall, we do not have privacy laws. at least not as comprehensive as the US judicial system. but it's odd how people create uproars over "invasion of [their] privacy" over little things others do. especially in a world soon to be taken over by commercialism.

we hurl abuse at companies selling our data to other businesses who buy our information in order to target their advertising campaign to the right people the right way. we send in complaints to the media, sign petitions, organise protests just 'cause some company google us or plant data mining spywares in our pcs to track our surfing habits, once again for commercialism. except that we don't organise protests. need to apply license leh. it's a bit like the james bond vibe.

007: license to kill.

except less like a liberated crimefighter and more like a grounded child who gets to tell your parents what you think they did wrong.

while we curse and swear at the idea of employers googling our information online, we must stop to think... and realise that we are the ones posting our personal lives online. as if having a search engine to locate us is not enough, google has allowed me and millions others to render ourselves more vulnerable by posting entries like these.

speaking of which, i realised i have a chinese book on google, which i'm too lazy to read because it's in mandarin. but if you are a potential employer who is thinking of hiring me to read some mandarin documents, i love to read mandarin.














as much as i'd hate to admit it, more often than not, i'm inclined to believe what the horoscopes say. or rather, what the astrologers say your horoscope says. it's pretty much like someone putting words in the signs' mouths except that they don't all have mouths and they can't really talk.

i do not fall under the addict category yet and no, i don't need to join a horoscope anonymous. i don't check the net everyday or buy the papers or mags just to find out what the horoscope says. it simply doesn't make sense. but gradually, i realise i'm living a self-fulfilling prophecy. at least the negative ones. i follow the not necessarily good advice at times and i rejoice at the good prophecies which never come to fruition.

after some time, the idea of freewill is lost. i'm not a christian but i trust in the concept of freewill. at times, i do believe in destiny. it's a complex issue about how it can be "at times". but disregarding the inconsistencies, destiny is what it is. it's a destination. which is probably why the importance of process is so often reiterated. yet, in the subconscious mind, something tells us it is bullshit - the destination is more important than the process. if by chance you succeed, you are successful. if after hard work you still fail, you're a failure. but the staunch believers of spirituality will beg to differ (and those who try to hard to console the failures but let's not talk about them here).

success by chance is success in material and physical form while those who learn and grow via hard work are the true winners even if you fail.

it's like when one attains nirvana, all things material will cease to be of importance. and when one is able to clear one's mind of all things material, one will attain nirvana. wow... i just made it into a chicken-and-egg problem.

oddly, some weeks ago i heard on radio about fossils proving that the egg came first.

and the chicken goes: what the fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck?


like every other voyeuristic human, i enjoy watching reality shows. at least some of them. among those that i've seen are survivor, the amazing race, american idol, temptation island, the bachelor, average joe, the biggest loser, i survived a japanese game show etc.

and i've always thought what i enjoyed are the program content itself. like in the amazing race, you get to see so many countries and the games they play in survivor, and the great vocals you hear on the american idol really upped the interest level.

i didn't enjoy i survived a japanese game show after watching the first episode. i thought the show was dumb and the games, even worse. but due to work, i had to watch the entire season of it and as i watched, i began to enjoy and got involved in it although my impression of the lame games didn't change. in spite of the many dumb games which i thought were the reasons for my disinterest, i realised that reality shows are created like that because that's the catch. the fun and interest is not so much in the games. it's how the participants interact especially when you get an evil character. it's back to fiction all over again. or maybe fiction is really based on reality.

the hypocritical characters, the alliance, the back-stabbers, the cunning players, those are really the ones who make or break the success of reality tv. the editors cut out the goody-two-shoes in some of them and choose to portray only the devil at work. at the end of it all, reality shows are really semi-reality. afterall, what we can see is what the camera chooses to show us. everything is manipulated, including the viewers' perceptions. the fact is, reality shows aren't really real.

but the sadistic part of us still enjoy the bickerings and in spite of all those manipulations, the consolation we have is that the babes participating in the shows are real.

i don't know about their boobs.

after 1 year, this video is finally up!

to be honest, i think chestnuts should release all their fullshow dvds.

it was damn funny, especially when you watch it live and i actually watched it twice in 2008. below is one of the funniest parts of the entire show. rihanna's umbrella in hokkien!

if you're wondering why yeo yann yann insanely stripped herself at the end of the video, it's 'cause she's playing annabelle chong who become the new papaya after small papaya died in the 881 movie. =)

the choreography is great!

not to forget the girls...

number 1 on my wishlist is to go on a spontaneous trip to japan this year!

ok, gotta start planning already...


having taken so many foreign languages (none of which i am exceptionally fluent in T_T), i've come to notice a particular trend.

i've attended more asian languages than european ones and being in my current spanish class, i realised there are more ang moh pais than chinese pai. on the contrary, classes for the asian language classes i've taken are attended by almost 100% chinese. it does seem that the ang moh pais are less interested in asian languages except the more exotic ones. and this translates to an equally lower chance of the classes hanging out at ktv. because it does appear that the chinese pai have more tendency to arrange a ktv session than the ang moh pais. just look at our el clique and you'll realise this is no bull.

looking at the demographics, my spanish class has an american, his wife, 3 authentic indians, a girl who stayed in america for a year, and his guy friend both of whom can only brag about their mandarin skills to a pre-primary student. i guess i'm the best at mandarin in the class. no, actually i don't have to guess. =)

there's a reason why i chose spanish other than the fact that i think it's a beautiful language and that it is the 3rd most spoken language in the world (god i hate my linguistics knowledge sometimes), it's also 'cause having learnt 2 asian languages and 1 european language, i guess it would make more sense for me to add another european language to my arsenal. and i am not including thai and malay because, i don't think they count as languages i speak. i can barely remember anything from the lax1201 classes.

the spanish group i'm hanging out with likes spending time together at someone's place watching spanish shows. or rather, watching english shows in spanish sub. it's something we figured. for beginners, that's really the best way to pick up the language. imagine listening to something in spanish and you can't even catch what they're trying to say. most of the time, you'll probably just be reading the subs.

so if you are one who is imagining a great ktv session with your new foreign language classmates, choose an asian language. if you'd prefer the comforts of someone's home, choose a european one.

and if you're taking the above advice, you're probably not the language person...

who the fuck chooses a language based on ktv sessions!

fastidiar!


having faced siege by countless financial planners, i've begun moving towards what a particular friend does. he never gives his real phone number. i always gave mine. somehow, i just can't say 'no' and my ability to lie, or the lack of, is not helping. thankfully none of my friends made me smoke or take drugs.

even so, i've barely given a fake number. i've tried giving something close to my real number and just altering one of it. sometimes i have this fear that they may try calling me on-the-spot. they always pretend to say, "i'll give you a miss call so you know when i'm calling you mah!" but c'mon, i'm no fool.

sometimes, i give people my old number which my mum is using. she used to tell those who look for "jh" that i've changed number and she'll say "wrong number" to people looking for "ljh". but i've since told her to say "wrong number" to whomever calls her because i've notified everyone of the number change already and if they don't bother to update, then don't bother looking for me.

through the years of meeting the new age of insurance agents, i might've written myself into the blacklist of the financial planning industry because some people are just looking for it. so i give it to them. there are those who are so pesky, they insist i sit down when i insist i simply have no interest and that i've heard of their plans for the nth time already. but they like to play the smart aleck and test me on what i know, whom i've heard it from and the likes. with these people, i always end up sitting down with them and the more i sit down with them, the more i start to play the offensive game. these games also made me realise that many of whom are not very financially literate either. they just recite what they were taught. and also...

they are not interested in helping your finances.

what they are interested in is to close more deals to up their own commissions, win awards, get promotions, and reap higher commissions. in a nutshell, financial planners are really just planning for their own finances. most importantly, with the influx of youths obssessed with being self-employed, many don't know their stuff well enough to help you.

a very memorable financial planner from a very prudent company once made me this offer: save $70 more a month and get a samsonite bag worth $300 free!

and as if to transfer the excitement by osmosis, she said excitedly, "you see, $70 only and you get $300 worth of bag. worth it right?"

i asked to borrow her oversized calculator and she proudly handed it to me. i double checked while keying the figures in, "$70/mth right?" she said assuredly, "ya!" so i keyed:

$70 x 12 months x 25 years = $21000

i was like, "wah! $21000 for a $300 bag."

the next day i went past the same location again, her colleague behaved the same way she did the day before.

"hi! can i talk to you for 5 mins?"

"er... yesterday your colleague talked to me already"

"is it? ok, which one?" she said smugly, 101% certain i was lying.

just then, my victim from the previous day came up and told her, "no, no" and i was like, "there, this one." and i left...

i understand their persistence but many a times, it feels more like they are challenging the wits of their target more than trying to clinch the deal. interestingly, both times i was in my army no. 4 uniform and i very obviously tried to avoid them but as if by magic, they always manage to phase through the crowd and appear in front of me before i can travel 30cm.

there's a reason why women should go ns. their phasing skills are a few levels higher than the men.

i suspect the reason they like targetting ns males is cause of their age and their circumstances. at that age, their hormones are usually hyperactive and being in an environment where the males outnumber females by 100,000:1, they are quite predictably more horny and thus, will sit down and listen to the rare female breed on the streets.

i have to admit, males in ns are horny. but the truth is, we are not indiscriminately horny. so don't take us for animals...


my breasts are shrinking~

not that they were huge in the first place but hey! small breasts have the right to shrink k... oh wells, i haven't been working out for some time already and being down with sickness this past week gave me even more excuses not to work out. the cycle begins.

they always say "you have to decide to do it!" whatever "it" is. it can be working out, saving money, making your bed, practising your musical instruments etc. i don't know who "they" refers to but all i know is, making the decision is not enough. i know that much because i have made the decision to work out countless times and they never last.

the first thing to do is to do! deciding is not enough! the second and crucial thing is to hang on. so before you make that mundane list of meaningless resolutions for the new year, make sure you will do what you are going to list and most importantly, make sure you hang on.

don't come crying when your breasts start shrinking.


that's the alphabetical version of this year. looks like it's gonna be a great year for zouk (zoog).

went to club for the very first time in singapore on christmas eve but it has nothing to do with what happens early this week. i fell sick on monday and been trying hard to recover since. yes, i'm still feeling unwell today so no party on new year's eve, no party on new year's day and no ktv with colleagues tomorrow. maybe no haircut at aaron's place either.

it's a magnificent way to start a new year though with this illness and discomfort and missing out on all the party. it's like a recession, except that it's on your health. and guess what? things can only get better right? hopefully. i don't want my health to deteriorate any further. prices of properties can nosedive for all i care.

yes, i had contemplated going into property part-time. but the working hours are not helping. i can never make it for the classes in time if i knock off at 6pm. classes start at 7pm and i have to whizz through traffic to make toa payoh from loyang in less than an hour. i've tried it before. i was 15-20 mins late and also, i need my dinner you know?

as of today, i have 365 days to go before my contract ends. and i shall risk all my savings to do some biz if i can think of what to do before the end of the year.

yes, i shall risk all $1,000,000 i have. wow, i'm already day-dreaming from day 1!

i think as long as depression doesn't set in, a year of recession is good. but people don't seem affected much. the bto projects are still selling and restaurants are still packed. thankfully we're less similar to americans. the american dream is a beautiful term. but, native speakers as they are, they don't realise it is only a dream. at the end of the month, there's still the ridiculous credit card debts to pay back.

which is exactly why i never understood the purpose of a credit card. if you can't afford to buy it now, wait till the end of the month!

happy new year~