Saturday, July 30, 2005

You think you know who you are. You have no idea.

"Its the sense of touch. In any real city, you walk, you know? You brush past people, people bump into you. In LA, nobody touches you. We're always behind this metal and glass. I think we miss that touch so much, that we crash into each other, just so we can feel something."

That's how it all starts. A simple accident between two vehicles and a flashback which lasts for 2 days. Ample time to show how so many randoms can affect each other in profound ways. The film takes time to build up on each character to make you want to give a damn about them, and the story too takes time to weave their sad little lives together. There is obviously tension when these flawed characters meet and with tension comes drama, suspense and a whole lot of apprehension. Apprehension on which path these characters would take when faced with the situation they were put in. Personally I think what's amazing is that they all arrive at such dramatic crossroads and to take either path would have resulted in very different outcomes for each of them. The first half of this film can be a tad confusing but it does build up on one's emotions. I could literally feel anger at some of the characters forming to a stage of WTF. You'll really feel these emotions wrenching you inside, until at one one absolutely brilliant moment I was literally tearing at the expectation of an unfolding horror, only to be cathartically released unexpectedly. It was just the start of the rollarcoaster ride that is CRASH.

Did I mention that all of them are racist in one way or another? No wonder I could relate to them. The bastard cop and his redemption. The good cop and his huge mistake. The rich tai tai and her realization of who her true friends are. The poor misunderstood locksmith and his angelic daughter. The Persian mistaken for an Arab exacting his own revenge. The black man whom doesn't want to be black. (You embarrass me. You embarrass yourself.) The other black man whom finds his own redemption. The runaway kid that ironically gets into trouble when he's actually trying to go home. Good guy becomes bad, bad guy becomes good. It all links. It all hits home. This is the real world. Interesting stuff. Really. If you think you know who you are. You have no idea.

The conflicts which these people experience can only fully be enjoyed in the cinema. A tv screen cannot do this wonderful work justice. Note that this is a directorial debut by Paul Haggis, whom adapted the screenplay for Million Dollar Baby. He's not just good at adapting. He can write his own stuff too as examplified by CRASH. $9.50 worth every penny. WARNING: This is not a movie to watch if you want to escape real life. It has, due to summer blockbusters like THE ISLAND and STEALTH, been overshadowed and overlooked. If you do have time, check it out for yourself. You'll probably be checking yourself out after the credits roll...

I believe I did.

Friday, July 29, 2005

Last bit of break before matric week

It's uncanny how a slack day becomes a packed day. Phone calls after phone calls and for a moment, it seemed as though I would be reaching home past 2am again. Thankfully other things cropped up which allowed me to squirrel myself away home earlier and start blowing the dust off my Half-Blood Prince. It's time to see who dies.

Perhaps tomorrow I shall CRASH myself in some reel life before coming back to reality on Sunday when I move back to hall. There are no fairytales in real life. There's precious little time left to start dreaming.

Chapter One: The Other Minister...

Some updates on current affairs

We've had a fun dry run. Things look promising if I get to have what I want done on the actual day. As a large majority of the people reading this know, I have just returned from a 6D5N Bangkok trip. Again. Many would say third times the charm. I'd say that each trip had its own merits and were all fundamentally different from each other. The only similarity between all three were that I got back with a rounder and fuller belly. Not very desirable. My first BKK trip was via Airasia. The second and third were by TigerAirways. I must say that if you do have cash to spare, do splurge on comfort. Meaning get a decent air ticket. Or you'll end up like me. Cramped up in my seat for 2hrs+. Not very comfortable.

Food this time round was much better than the previous two. Hotels meanwhile got worser and worser. But for the price I was paying, I didn't really mind. From a 5* hotel to a 4* to a 3*. Alright la. But seriously I think the hotel misreped us. Dammit.

We were smack in the middle of the mini-red-light district with raunchy ang mohs and questionable females prowling the streets every night. Too bad their clubbing ends at 1am. But at least that gets the ang mohs off the street. If anyone's planning to go, it'll be nice to check out Q bar/Bed Supper Club. 400baht/500baht respectively. I know. Melanie thinks it's very expensive. Ge gao.

I think there's nothing much to blog about Bangkok other than it was quite a fun trip. At least I got to know more people. That's always fun. I guess.

On a lighter note: Cheebye

You're Beautiful

My life is brilliant.
My love is pure.
I saw an angel.
Of that I'm sure.
She smiled at me on the subway.
She was with another man.
But I won't lose no sleep on that,
'Cause I've got a plan.

You're beautiful. You're beautiful.
You're beautiful, it's true.
I saw your face in a crowded place,
And I don't know what to do,
'Cause I'll never be with you.

Yeah, she caught my eye,
As we walked on by.
She could see from my face that I was,
Fucking high,
And I don't think that I'll see her again,
But we shared a moment that will last till the end.

You're beautiful. You're beautiful.
You're beautiful, it's true.
I saw your face in a crowded place,
And I don't know what to do,
'Cause I'll never be with you.
You're beautiful. You're beautiful.
You're beautiful, it's true.
There must be an angel with a smile on her face,
When she thought up that I should be with you.
But it's time to face the truth,
I will never be with you.

Wednesday, July 20, 2005

The Girl I Can't Forget

Well, she picked me up in a German car
And she took me out to an Irish bar
Where I drank some beer in a plastic cup
'Til I had some trouble standing up
And then she drove downtown to a strobeless space
Where all the guys wore chains and the thumping bass
Was so intense I could barely feel my face
Then I think I asked her back to my place

But that's all I recall
And when I woke up in the hall
I was alone and softly groaning
And I lost my keys, and I lost my phone, and
I wondered what I did or said
That I might soon regret
It was the night I can't remember
With the girl I can't forget

Well, I was reeling, watching the ceiling spin
The next evening when my friends walked in
And when I asked them if they knew where I'd been
They didn't speak at first; they only grinned
You see, I'm not the type to get in fights
But that might not have been the case last night
Because they heard that I had a word or two
With the man who asked, "Is she with you?"

And if I took it the wrong way
I guess that's not for me to say
Though it seems I may have slipped up
When I offered him some grooming tips
But at least that helps explain
The cuts and bruises on my head
From the night I can't remember
With the girl I can't forget

And it's all coming back now
Don't know how to react now
Guess I'll let it go
I'm not so sure I want to know

Well, I was back at work at 9:15
When a message popped up on my screen
It said, "Pick me up at 8:45
And we can give it one more try"

And now that I'm with her
The whole thing seems a bit absurd
Though she never fails to tell the tale
Of the time she had to post my bail
And for giving me a second chance
I'm forever in her debt
Since the night I can't remember
She's the girl
I will never forget

Tuesday, July 19, 2005

My value to KR

Sometimes I think I am not contributing enough to KR. I'm about as significant to them as a pap smear on the wall. That's thanks to my non-participation in most of the hall activities. Heh.

Nice gross visual?

NEWSFLASH

Just got a call from someone in KR to ask me whether I was going for KR Flag Day. Apparently this year master decided to make it compulsory for all seniors to attend flag. If not, our stay in KR will be jepordized. Effectively they are saying that we HAVE to choose KR Flag over Fac Flag.

I find this lack of choice... disturbing.

Monday, July 18, 2005

1 out of 4 isn't all that bad

Anglican High's Chinese Drama Society had their once every 2 years public performance today at the Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts Theatre. I've actually been to almost all the public performances after I graduated and well... as an alumni (Yes. I'm a Chink), I'm obligated to purchase tickets once every 2 years. Which isn't all that bad considering I'll be watching fellow alumnis' contributions as well. I'm actually only there for them. Don't really give a shit about the current sec school brats. Sorry I digress.

There were four plays presented. 2 by the juniors and 2 by the alumnis. Needless to say, the juniors were forgettable. To some extent, even highly annoying in their renditions of current affairs. Or rather trying to. I recall the days when effects in the scripts were written based not on how it can help the storyline. But rather based on what the venue had and what they could utilise. It's still the same 7 years on. Basically the production became an overkill of UV lights and projection screens. Oh. And a cock revolving stage. Highly unimpressive and totally totally annoying. A theatre isn't always about the sfx one can pull out. They fucked up even the most basic lighting and positioning. How hard can it be to mark your positions during dry runs? I expected a certain decent level of professionalism since the tickets are going public. But I guess kids will be kids. They can't run a show by themselves. They had pretty nice props but it was under utilised. Or rather it was damn fei. Coz they didn't interact with it at all. I need not comment on the scripts. I can't even remember them. I need not comment on the actors. I was covering my face going 'no no no' most of the time. It's harsh but somebody has to tell them that sometimes being natural and not over-enunciating everything might be a better option than trying to fake that fucking accent. Morning Glory mumbled through everything. These kids over-pronounced everything and the emcee made me wanna take the mike and shove it down her throat with her over-enthusiastic greetings. My ears still ring.

Au contrary, the alumni put up a better show (duh). They didn't rely on any fancy special effects but rather on a solid script. Which sadly isn't universal in both plays. One sucked eggs and the other was quite solid. But only because the idea was interesting. One still had to suspend a certain level of disbelief but hey. It's theatre. It works thanks to the interesting interaction between the actors and because it wasn't trying to shove some moral value down your throat. It was more so an observation kinda thing about reality. I would say it's better not because it hit home (it didn't) but rather it just gives you an opinon. Whilst the juniors are about as subtle in their views as Jack Neo, the alumni try to just tell you a story and leave it as so. One story came out quite nicely. The other came out as an elongated mess with cringing moments and sad to say, it disappointed me. You know sometimes somebody wants to do a comedy? Yet they wanna add a serious side to it? A moral value mayhaps. So they have like stupid scenes peppered with serious moments. It just doesn't work. It can work. But it's hard. (as said by wmx) I for one found that it was TRYING too hard. Trying to be something it wasn't. As such, it degenerated itself to be on level with the juniors production. Pretty sad. But hey. You suck you suck.

Sometimes such writers are really just pretentious little fucks (I like the sound of that. PLF) with huge egos, thinking that they're the best in the business and that whatever they churn out is gold. Not so really. I'm surprised it even got the green light for production. Maybe they were desperate. Maybe they didn't know better. But hey. For an alumni, it's quite a bad attempt. Please stop writing. Save us all. Thank you. (I tried to like it. I really tried. But in the end, I still hated it)

Overall, 1 out of 4 isn't that bad. But if the alumni aren't coming back for 2007, I think they're better off performing in school. Less of an embarrassment I'd say.

Saturday, July 16, 2005

There's something about Harry

It's here. In 3 more hours, Singapore Post will deliver my Half-Blood Prince right to my doorstep without me having to leave the house. How to find such convinience plus 10% off you ask me? Heh. Sure. I might regret it 1 year down the road when it's in clearance for $7.95. But sometimes it's just worth that extra effort and money just so that you don't lose out. We all know that we hate losing out.

Afterall, what's $40.16 when certain individuals can win $57 in a single night of mahjong? It's like a source of income, mahjong. Except for me and liangwei, it's more of a bottomless pit whereby we just dump our hard-earned moolah and watch it swirl and swirl and swirl before vanishing with a loud 'HU'~! Or worse. 'ZI MO'~! I wonder if there'll actually be a crowd at SingPost tommorrow morning in anticipation of the arrival of Harry Potter. Would there be a queue? Maybe. Would it be on the papers? Most definately. I'm awaiting the arrival of the morning papers in which Harry Potter would probably be splashed across the front page. Headlines.

Do you realise that as one reads Harry Potter, the character of Hermonie is on extremely good terms with Harry but over these 5 years, they've been nothing but very good platonic friends? There's food for thought. If there ever were a better example of platonic friendship, you need not look further than Harry Potter. The ideal illustration would be Harry swooning over Cho and ignoring Hermonie. Interesting. 1 year and he's crazy over her. He watched Hermonie grow up and fill out and he doesn't even consider her? Tsk tsk tsk. How blind is he. Oh well. Ideal platonic relationship. I'm sure we all can learn from them.

As one might realise I have to be extremely bored to type that crap.

That I am.

That I am.

Friday, July 15, 2005

Journey of Faith

Fittingly after viewing the JOURNEY OF FAITH: ART AND HISTORY FROM THE VATICAN COLLECTIONS exhibition, I felt that I should go to Rome. In 2025. Afterall, that's the next year of the Jubilee and all my sins would be magically erased. So called la. That's the cheapskate method to get a clear sheet. Downside is, I'll be 43 years old then. If I don't manage to live that long due to unforeseen circumstances (touch wood!), I can pretty much be having a glorious tan (or burn) everyday for the rest of my friggin afterlife.

On a related note, as we were walking along east coast road last night searching for boon tong kee chicken rice, I pointed out to grace (yes law, no, not favian) that by turning right along joo chiat road and at the junction of marine parade road she can find my ex-church. Church_of_Singapore (Marine Parade). I last stepped foot in there like 4 years ago. Then she asked a general question which stumped me. 'What was your denomination?'

I scratched my head. I knew my secondary school church's denomination was Anglican. But for a good minute I just couldn't remember what my denomination was. I couldn't answer and I felt ashamed. (Read: Paishe) I went to sleep that night with this issue on my mind. Tossing and turning. Tossing and turning.

This morning as I sat on the crapper contemplating life, I recalled the conversation again. And also trying to remember what the hell turned me away from the church. It was a long thought process perodically intersparsed with knockings by my mum on the door with 'are you done yet?' But as with all things, the answer was found in google. My church had no denomination and they were proud of it. Problem solved. It's not my fault I couldn't remember any denomination. It was that there was none to remember at all. Whew. I feel a little less guilty.

to be continued...

Asian Civilisations Museum, Empress Place
Special Exhibitions Gallery
18 June - 9 Oct 2005

Time flies when you're having fun

I discovered ang siang hill today. Only to find it polluted by all the cosmopolitan crap that is the CBD. I discovered a bunker atop pearl hill park today. Only to discover that it was a PUB reservoir catchment structure. The last time I blogged was a week ago and many interesting observations have popped up since then. However, thanks to my goldfish memory, I have trouble remembering them. But I'll try.

On Sunday, I learnt that Singaporeans are inherently stingy. As opposed to the ST article recently, they're not budget conscious. They're just stingy SOBs. Many a time asking me to drop my prices to below retail value. I mean. How thick skin can they be? Very. If not for my final sale being my final sale, I wouldn't have given a $46 discount. You heard that right. $46 discount. Bloody cheapskate #$%^&. With the huge discounts I threw around, many might wonder whether I actually made any profit. I estimate it in the region of $500-600. Alright for day's work. But it could have been better. At least $100 better if I didn't slash the prices so much to move my stock. But we all learn I guess. Thanks to the sale I didn't manage to catch the evening showing of the Admiral's Odyssey. Quite a waste but I guess it's better than falling asleep. I did however manage to learn that big-budget+mediocre storytelling+flashy cast = B- grade movie at best (FF4). Only good for 1 screening and I recommend you to be sufficiently drunk in order to look past the bad dialog and limping plot.

A minor sidetrack. I read online that some people in the states have been going to watch Batman Begins and War of the Worlds stoned. Yeah. Stoned. They also described the scarecrow scenes as 'trippin' and 'freaky' and it made them 'cry'. Ditto to the alien scenes in War of the Worlds. Both have been highly recommended to be watched stoned. So... maybe those wanting to test it out can try glue or smoking some other form leaves other than your usual rolled up cancer stick.

If JB taught me anything, it's that piracy pays. The downside of piracy is that you get your usual yada yada affecting of sale and artist royalty shit. The upside which nobody really considered is that it gives small low key indies a chance to be circulated and actually let people pick them up. Albeit unsuspectingly. How else can one explain Napolean Dynamite and Layer Cake selling out at pirated DVD stores? Amazingly the pirates themselves were able to give me a pretty accurate summary of each film and their recommendations. If these indie films could touch them and make them want to push them out to the general public, I'd say it's pretty good publicity. Now everyone will learn about Matthew Vaughn's first foray as director and see for themselves why the studio execs were confident enough to hand the reins of X3 over to this talented director. It's just amazing. (One will also learn why Napolean Dynamite's license has been picked up by McFarlane Toys for a new line come December)

There was a guy I know named Jackson (not law). He told me that they changed the name from Kentucky Fried Chicken to KFC because they don't serve real chicken any more. It's become this genetically modified mutant thing, like a giant centipede with no head, just segment after segment of legs and breasts and wings. It's fed through nutrient tubes. This guy said the government wouldn't let them use the word chicken. Another guy said they changed the name because the word fried had become a bad word. Maybe they wanted people to think that the chicken cooked itself.

Jackson, the same guy who had sworn to the truth of the Kentucky Fried Mutant Chicken creature story had also said that the CIA used the Reader's Digest as a front for their branch offices around the world. He said that every Reader's Digest office in every country was really CIA. Which leads us to the joke. 'How can we be certain the CIA weren't involved in the Kennedy assassination?'

Well it happened didn't it?

Ending on a totally different note: Good food is still found in the east. To all those staying in the north, south and west, I have but one word. Move. Trust me. Move. Your stomache will thank you for it. Now if you'll excuse me, I've gotta sleep and dream of my UOB Tigerairways card arriving in 1 week which will allow me to book tiger airways air packages at obscenely low prices.

Friday, July 08, 2005

A politician needs a good voice

Switching on Channelnewsasia during durian time resulted in me being entralled by British PM Tony Blair speaking to a crowd of reporters about gas emissions and how China and India are consuming more energy than the other more well developed countries. Normally i'd just switch myself off when faced with such boring (no longer taking Geo so it doesn't matter!) issues. However, the voice of Mr Blair just made me sit down as I munched my durian and basically my eyes were glued to the television set for the next 1/2hr.

Blair has an excellent narrator's voice. One that would sound great as a DJ or as a movie narrator. He could probably even get away with being an actor thanks to his pretty boy looks. I kid you not. It's a shame that our local politicians kinda lack the ability to hold our attention. The current Lee almost made me fall asleep during the last Labour Day rally. Or was it some random PAP thingy that just happened to be showing on tv? Either way, I wasn't interested in what he had to say. Probably the only local politician that could hold my attention would be SM Lee. Ex-PM Goh almost made it. Almost. But SM Lee takes the cake la.

But still, they can't be compared to Blair. Blair's there already and I'll vote him for President anyday.

Bush on the other hand is just a monkey.

It's Thursday right? Random thoughts.

Ever since I destroyed my Samsung S200, I've lost track of the day and date. I'm so used to flipping open my phone and seeing the calender page just there. Easy to plan stuff. Easy to keep track of what day it actually is. In fact, no need to flip also can. On the cover there's a window that has the day, date and time. Not so for the Nokia 8910 I'm currently using. It's a hand me down. Before people start commenting that it's a nice phone, I'll have to say first that it's faulty. The spring's very excited to come popping out of the cover. (No xh, it's not just happy to see you...) and the phone will periodically switch itself off. Quite jialat la. But useable. Better than my Samsung which doesn't ring and depending on its mood allows or disallows you to make a phone call. It's kinda like tikam. With my luck, it usually doesn't work when it matters. Only good for sms.

Had a really really weird dream this morning. I dreamt I was back at Chicago. I was at some sort of sale. Clothes sale I think. I was like in the guy's section and was buying some clothes then I remembered that I had to help Mel buy some clothes too. So I made a long distance call and got her measurements. Surprisingly, once I stepped out of the store, it started snowing. I did get caught in a snowstorm in Chicago when I was there and it wasn't very comfortable. With snow going up your nostrils and into your eyes, you're basically squinting and walking... and you can't see much but whiteness. This was worse. I could barely stand. My brother and a friend were infront of me but I just couldn't catch up. Suddenly after walking a block we reached OSCARS and the snow stopped. It became sunny and that was when I woke up. Quite a silly Rick Vetch moment really.

Today was yet another day spent outside of my humble abode. Not intentional, but things just happen. Had to make a very tough decision today because Jailani played me out again. I swear I'm gonna string that melayu up someday and beat the shit out of him. Then again, that's not exactly me. I've had quite a lot of people testing my patience these past few days and I'm happy to say that its still very much intact. i've discovered that having low expectations really help. It's what gets us by I guess. We're ready for disappointment. So when it hits, it's not that bad. Not that I'm disappointed with stuff going on generally. I'm just surprised at how different people handle the same things differently. I mean has anyone heard about Bob's dirty-dancing with an okay looking freshie? Neither have I... until today. Then I realised that I'm still going nowhere. Heh. As I said to Mein over chicken rice, I'll probably turn gay and be a god-father to all their kids. That'll be fun. Except the gay part. No real intention to do that. Sorry to disappoint.

Unlike some, I know preceisely what I want. Except that I can't describe it until I see it. So that's pretty much the same as not knowing what I want ya? Figures. It's the same for mahjong. I can sit at the table and lose $7 (not as bad as Liangwei. Lost $17) in a span of 5 hrs. I won only a few times and most of the times I could have won earlier if not for my hesitation in asking for help to check whether I can actually HU the game. Most of the time I don't even know what suite I'm playing. Blur... (Just PONG all the way) Heh. Oh well. All in the name of fun. Kudos for Shoo for organizing. We really do need one more night before school starts. But maybe the table with BL shouldn't play money. Very painful losing $6.30 at a go. Ouch.

But before all that, we actually celebrated kitty's birthday. With what else but a HELLO KITTY PRESENT and HELLO KITTY CAKE. Super overkill. Even though we spent $124 at Coffee Connection (Can't remember the name. 3 second memory kicking in...) they refused to let us CONSUME the cake on the premesis. We can sing the birthday song, blow the candle, cut the cake, but we can't eat it. Amazing eh. What's even more amazing was that before I reached, someone messaged me asking me to turn on the telly. But I couldn't coz I was driving. So I called Jailani to check out the tube and sure enough, there was a breaking story. London tube kenna bomb. Even though April said it was expected (thanks to her BL), I certainly didn't expect it. Why would a fucking terrorist want to bomb London just because they won the bloody vote to hold the 2012 olympics? Are they jealous Afgan or Iraq didn't win (or not considered)? Weird. Logic given was that it was revenge for the British soldiers kiiling their brothers in Iraq. Ah well. As usual, fucked up logic. I've had enough of terrorist or near terrorist activities. I recall just days ago when I drove past the IOC area using my handphone. For a moment forgetting that it was chock full of policemen. Luckily my passenger was able to remind me in time that 1) there were many policemen and 2) I was obviously driving whilst talking on the phone coz the phone was facing the driver side glass. They couldn't have missed it if they were looking my way. Luckily they weren't. They were too busy strip-searching the people heading into Raffles City. Too busy looking for potential terrorists. Heh.

As the days draw nearer to RnF (which has been postponed for 1 more week!), I find that I am constantly telling myself to relax, cool down and think less. Ah yes. Less brain-work, more satisfaction. This weekend's gonna be great (think positive!). Will be setting up a stall at CSC. Hopefully I get to clear stuff from my house (thinking VERY positive). A large portion of it. Not in it for the money. I'm more in it for the space. Since I have nothing on tomorrow, I just might start packing for Sunday. In any case people wanna tompang their stuff to sell, just pass to me or Victor. Anybody wanna sell their BKK stuff? Heh. Talking about BKK, I'm going again. Hopefully I can get to hit the beach and do a bit of WSF. I wonder if they still have it there. I wonder alot tonight. Maybe because I had a big cuppa coffee to prevent myself sleeping at the wheel and it proved too effective. Can't sleep now. Don't laugh. You do I curse you. Humph.

I wonder how insominacs feel. This reminds me about the German film fest. Or was it French. Maybe it's french. I had the priviledge of watching this amazing film about an insomniac and his life. Quite interesting really. Maybe the interested people can find the review in my older posts. Maybe.

Eyes threatening to shut. I think it's about time I turned in.

(I still dunno how to JUSTIFY the post~)

Thursday, July 07, 2005

I dislike motorcyclists - generally

As I was driving home today up the ECP, I realised that there were blue and red flashing lights in my rearview mirror. Checking my speed, I discovered that I was only at 80 and going up the slope at beach road hitting the ECP. Hmmm. They can't have been after me. As the TP came nearer, I made out that he was signalling for me to stay to the extreme left lane of the 2 lane slope road. After they reached the top of the slope (and the bridge), they started stopping traffic. To let 3 cars pass. IOC cars. Not bad. They could do waving with one hand and the other on the handle bar at 100km/h. Respect.

Melanie (not Law) was sitting in my car and she too was awed by the sight of the TP clearing the road. Soon our conversation drifted to the Taxi hit motorcycle case that gripped the headlines recently...

Mel: Do you know about the recent case? Taxi knock down the motorcyclist.
Me: Hur? No ley. Dunno. But usually the motorcyclist asking for it la.
Mel: But he died ley! Won't the taxi driver feel guilty?
Me: If the motorcyclist like to anyhow cut in front of me, I got no chance to avoid and I end up killing him, I won't feel guilty. If his parents look me up, I'll square off with them and tell them straight that their son had it coming. And I want the money to repair my car to boot.
Mel: But he died ley! And as a car driver, don't you have the duty not to knock him down? It's unfair right?
Me: Well, you know it's unfair. He also knows he's at a disadvantage. So isn't it even more obvious that he's asking for it? You know car langa motorcycle motorcycle sure die. He also knows that. Yet he still don't care and ride recklessly.
Mel: He expects you to give way.
Me: He's taking me for granted. I don't like that. It's not fair that because they're disadvantaged they can expect us to give way to their antics and reckless behaviour.
Mel: But don't you see that it's wrong? A life was lost ley.
Me: I have no qualms running pedestrians down if they are prone to throwing themselves infront of my car. Really. Case in point (I point to a Bangra cyclist on the road), check out this guy. Not even motorcycle. Yet still dare to come second lane. I'm going to go close and stick to him. (I go up to behind the cyclist and brake till I'm tailgating him)
Mel: .... (covers eyes with hands)
Me: Nothing la. See. Passed already. This kind of people you have to scare. Let them know that they should stick to the pavement or something. No motor still so ya ya.
Mel: okay... but you know the taxi driver is purposely hit the guy one...
Me: Oh. Well. If you swerve into my lane I try to avoid then I hit you might justify me hitting you. But purposely abit hard. The guy must have pissed him off. But him purposely is like there already. Certified nuts.
Mel: Maybe it's a guy thing...
Me: *mumble*

After that conversation, we went on to talk about marriage.

I will not complain

about the people that cut the book signing queue today leaving hundreds of people having to wait till 11pm+ just to get their books signed. I will not complain about the management's lousy organisation of the entire event which resulted in the ability of the queue cutters to easily jump the queue. I will not complain that for a full hour, the queue didn't move whilst more and more people were added to the mass at the entrance of Borders. I will not complain that I could not get my personal 3 items signed before I was forced to leave at 8pm as I had 4 people waiting for me to start the evening events rolling. I will not complain that the management didn't help when I requested and gave them ideas on how to improve the situation at hand and instead just shook their heads and repeated sorry. I will not complain about them because it's not their fault that some people just don't have the moral values or basic decency to realise that others have been here since like 2pm just to ensure that their items get signed and personalised. Yet they dare to stroll in late at 6pm and simply cut the queue leaving hundreds of law-abiding people to rot till 11pm before Gaiman got to them. I shall be nice. I shall not curse.

And the wine did calm me down.

Note to self: Wasabi Chips do not go well with wine.

Wednesday, July 06, 2005

FF4 = F4?!

Despite what my idiotic brother says, FF4 is not F4. And the 4 statues erected (heh) around cineleisure and heeren's will not burst into life after the first screening and start singing meteor garden/shower songs.

Thank you.

Things just happen

I've decided that making plans probably isn't the smartest thing to do right now. Somehow, things will just happen such that I'll have another busy and packed day. Not that I mind being busy, but it's quite a bitch driving back at 12 or 1 in the morning 1/2 asleep at the wheel. Especially after my ECP incident. A simple phone call can eat away my lunch time. An sms can literally force me to return to school. A verbal request to queue up with a beer today means that I'll be booked solid from 1-6. Stupid? Sometimes I think so. But the usual reply is: WORK. Ha. Still uncertain as to whether the mates are curling up for a movie tonight (or family guy) or going clubbin. I'd prefer something closer to home. Inertia.

One might say I should exercise descretion when agreeing to go somewhere, anywhere or attend any silly event. True. I did. When Ah Lim messaged inviting me to his birthday party on sat, I replied "I might be free" and left it as that. That was monday. Today, my calendar for sat is still empty. Heh.

Ah well. Time to run.

A tiring day

It was quite a tiring day. Not a bad day. But a tiring day. I had spent 4hrs standing in line for more autographs which weren't meant for myself. Again. It's not so bad though, managed to chat with some others standing in line and found out that some had brought his earlier work (MIRACLE MAN) and some totally know nothing about Gaiman other than his SANDMAN run. In fact, some of these are the very same people (if you go browse friendster) whom think that the only worthy comic to be associated with is SANDMAN and they refuse to read anything else. Our conversation went something like this: "So what else do you read?" "Er.. I only read SANDMAN" "Only read SANDMAN?" "Ya.. friend intro one. Say it's very good..." "So you don't know stuff like FABLES? Y-THE LAST MAN? TOP 10?" "No la. Neil Gaiman only write SANDMAN right?" Other than 1602, other than his NOVELS and his CHILDRENS BOOKS yes. For those whom think that SANDMAN is the only comic worthy of perusal by your adult minds, I'd say that you're all pretentious fucks. I do not deny that SANDMAN was good. Or IS good. But there have been equally if not better stuff coming out which people shouldn't be missing. Other than the above mentioned books, we have more stuff like 100 BULLETS. DEUS EX MACHINA. Brilliant works. Better than SANDMAN? Maybe. As Gaiman himself joked when mentioning Alan Moore. PROMETHUS is another title which supposedly caters to the SANDMAN crowd. But well. Lost its drive.

You know what's the most amazing thing other than the PFs talking excitedly about Gaiman and SANDMAN? (For heaven's sake he's got other books!) The fact that I saw 2 different people buy SPIDERMAN and HULK comics for him to sign. Really throw Singapore's face. I hope they realised their mistake before the queue reached them.

Which reminds me. I should be sleeping now.

Tuesday, July 05, 2005

Gaiman, Me and Kbox

Now I want to stress that Rachel being the new Kian Teck isn't a bad thing. Loyal Rachel supporters please do not come after me with a parang. I meant that her blog is probably the most read blog in the year 1 cohort. (and attracting quite a bit of attention from the year 2s as well). With that out of my hair (or what's left of it), I shall go on to give a small recount of the short meeting between Gaiman and me.

Monday July 4th 2005 - 1630hrs
Carrying a shitload of books and statues (one), I made my way up to the 6th level of Orchard Cineleisure from the basement carpark where had I spent the last 15mins tearing open carefully wrapped pristine condition books just so that I could facilitate the signing. There was already a bustle of activity outside the cinema. COMICSMART had set up a booth and were selling Gaiman books like hotcakes. Nevermind them. I brought my own. Amazingly, they were holding the signing in the cinema as well. Which meant that we had to tear our tickets like regular cinema-goers and this gave me a chance to scoot around the various other cinemas to see what was showing. Imagine my surprise when I saw FF4. I thought it wasn't supposed to be out till Wed?! Ugh. Anyway I digress.

As the tickets were only purchased the day before, we had very bad seats right at the end of the cinema. Ordinarily it wouldn't be so bad. However, the toilet was malfunctioning and there was an overflow of pang sai water. I didn't know that. I put my books (in a bag) right on top of the wet floor. Not a good way to start the event. I glanced around the room and discovered that there was a bunch of young, possibly sec school girls in the center row. Normally I wouldn't notice them, it's not as if they're chio or anything. (Insert pedophilic jokes here) it's just that they were bloody noisy. Rowdy. Noisy. Were they in the wrong cinema? I was thinking along the lines of how the hell would they appreciate AMERICAN GODS, NEVERWHERE or GOOD OMENS (well... MAYBE Good Omens)... then I realised that Gaiman also did CORALINE, THE DAY I SWAPPED MY DAD FOR TWO GOLDFISH and WOLVES IN THE WALLS. Still, I was shocked to find that kids would actually pick up those 'children' books. If anything, they read like Tim Burton's Oyster Boy. Hardly a kiddie read. Oh well.

Gaiman came onto the stage 5mins after that. He was surprisingly funny. Unlike the stuff he writes. He cracked a joke about how people figured out how the collaboration on Good Omens was done. Him doing a serious book with Pratchet over his shoulder throwing in the funny bits. He gave an interesting opening regarding his upcoming novel (sequel to AMERICAN GODS) the Anansi Boys. Frankly speaking, without reading the program, I thought the bloody twerp in the next aisle kept repeating NANCY BOYS. Ala Nancy Drew - Hardy Boys (also see the 3 Investigators). Apparently the opening went along the lines of somebody's father (Anansi) dying in a karaoke bar in a most embarrassing fashion. He tripped up after suffering a heart attack (?) and as he fell, he grabbed out at the thing nearest to him and it happened to be the top of a woman and he pulled her tube top down exposing her breasts. Hence his son was then sent away to a home or something where he had a conversation with someone associated with the family, with her saying that his father was a God (continued from American Gods) and the boy was going "No..." She insisted "Yes..." And he replied "If my father were a God, wouldn't I have some powers or something inherited from him?" And she just said "Oh. Your brother has all of those." Interesting, funny and like totally weird. I seriously don't know how much of this is true, since he made up the crap about Dave McKean and the masks in the interview, this might be fake too. Ha.

The supposed highlight of the event was a screening of an extended trailer for MIRRORMASK and several behind the scenes shots. Truth be told, Dave McKean's visuals were nothing short of amazing. It's just that... I was confused. Confused by the complexity of whatever the hell was going on and the fact that there was no trailer but just a few cut scenes which lasted all of 10 minutes, I felt slightly disappointed. But hey. Never watch the whole thing cannot give comment ya. What I can say is that it's visually stunning and well... remember the Carpenter's song CLOSE TO YOU which was also used in the Shu Qi chick flick? (in an attempt by the director to seem artsy, since everybody's doing it these days...) Well, CLOSE TO YOU just got a whole lot weirder and scarier. Eerie.

Finally we had the book signing and it was irritatingly slow. Gaiman did his best to please everyone and my brother got a Sandman statue signed. Gaiman put a #1 on it as he said it was the first Sandman statue he signed. Impressive. Today I shall bring a Death over to Kino. Alex (Name dropping alert!) got a nice HC signed for G. Happy Birthday~ (not that she'll actually read this la..) Sad to say, I didn't have anything signed for myself. All for friends, birthday or whatnot. Oh well. I'll try today. If still don't have. LAN LAN. It's just a signature anyway.

Before I left the cinema, I heard something that really made me feel like killing the sec sch girls. Apparently not only did they try to cut queue for the signing, they were also the reason why the trailer for NEVERWHERE didn't screen. Coz there was nudity. SCREW THE MGS GIRLS. Ugh. Underage still come for what. Irritate adults only. This only goes to show that kids should be seen not heard. In extreme circumstances they shouldn't even be seen at all. (case in point, here)

Sadly, the signing ended long after the projected timing. Which meant i only had 5mins to get to Tampines for a Kbox session with Wayne (from the states - yes I will go read your blog) and Yuanz (from aus! - stop being so horny!) Obviously I couldn't make it on time. So I was late. But the session was nice. I managed to destroy my already destroyed voicebox. Ended up with a mix between a croak and a (insert horrible sound here). Did not manage to reach high notes and basically massacred every single song that came my way. I shall try harder next Thurs.

Now a short statement from our sponsers...

Rachel is the new Kian Teck.

Monday, July 04, 2005

NUS LAW CAMP 2005

GENERAL TAKE ON LAW CAMP

Law Camp was interesting. I was actually the UNOFFICIAL photographer for the camp. Self invite. And you'll see how much one can get away by walking around with a decent camera. But I guess the downside is that I'll have to distribute the photos out to everyone. Which I don't mind. But I plan to photoshop most of them first. My philosophy of taking 100 shots to get 5 good shots was correct. Unfortunately I lost the LCD screen on the 2nd day and so it was more of 100 shots 1 good one instead. But we'll make do with a bit of photoshop.

Universal Studios my baby was ok. I hope. I didn't manage to see any footage of the NUS stations in the final video. But Starwars was ... alright la. The councilors were really terok and simply couldn't listen to instructions. Over dinner today Melanie commented that I've become prone to losing my temper after law camp. I found this bit to be a little true. There's only so much one can take. Hopefully I'll be back to my impeccable self for RnF.

I'll be uploading some shots of Law Camp soon. Meanwhile people can just check out my MSN pictures. Rotate one. Most of it's the new Law Camp stuff.

It's also come to my attention that OG 8 has already got a contact list up and I'm not on it. Interesting ah xh.

STUFF AFTER LAW CAMP

I went around to Peninsular Plaza to fix my camera. It would cost me a hefty $300-400 for a bloody LCD screen and all. Damn pissed. Contemplating not sharing the camera anymore and getting my own. But it'll be around 1.3K at least. Dammit.

I had a pretty bad after-camp feeling coz I was sick. Even up till today. Only good thing was that I've got tickets for the preview of MIRRORMASK tomorrow. Plus a book signing by Gaiman. That should perk things up. Following which is Kbox at TM. How i'm gonna sing with this fucked up voice I dunno. But I've been deprived of it for damn long la.

Other things I'll like to do before RnF:

Mahjong session
FF4
Get 26% off petrol again

Had a talk with Azmin outside OO before we were interrupted. Bottom line: I think both our lives are quite screwed up. We need rehab.