Rantoms

Alright, it's time for another slew of random rants.


Even though I think that Rooney is a great footballer and will fortify England
at the World Cup, the press and attention he's been receiving isn't going to do the team
much good. Won't it be rather demoralising to the other teammates? From where the press
coverage stands now, it seems like they're implying that the rest of the England players are not competent enough to take on the World Cup on their own. So much for them proclaiming that the current England boasts one of the strongest teams since they last won in 1966. Doesn't help anyone at all, and Eriksson finally has seen that.

Anyhow, I've got a bad feeling that if Rooney plays at the WC, he may worsen... Okay okay shush.

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It's one month away from the triathlon. And 3 days of consecutive feasting. There goes whatever training I've had for the past few weeks... I'm just wondering how it'll be like at the start of the swim. What would most probably happen is that I'll get kicked and punched and thrown about like a rag doll in the sea. Sounds REALLY exciting! Plan B is that I'll bring scuba diving gear and the rest will be history.

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The saddest thing I've had someone say to me is that I'm 'brainwashed', when the ignorant ones are really themselves.

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I'm unofficially ambicomputerous! Um, I mean, I can effectively use both Mac and PC. Ha ha. Did you know that there're hotkeys for Mac Word that can change all your words to block letters and vice versa? I discovered it by accident, and I happily ran to my senior to tell him about it.

AK47: Don't you have a lot of work to do?

My bubble burst immediately, sigh. And oh, hold on to the Ctrl key on a PC and you can backspace words instead of just letters! Functions similar to that of the command key on a Mac. So I wonder, who copied whom.

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My eyes are going to dry up like prunes one day soon if I keep staring at the computer. They were struggling for moisture today. Ugh. Alright, my farts are stinking up the place. Gotta sleep. Goodnight.

jack daniel's three truths and a Lie

Cut the string wound around your baby finger
tugging, playing, twirling emotions
Throwing sand in her eyes; an attempt of malinger
reeking of burnt grass from a vial of denied potion
Which has not but once enfilade.

And defilade.

The funniest commercial I've ever seen.




I laughed my heart out.

There's a campaign of 3, but here's one first. I'll upload the rest next working day!

Billy Cobham: Culture Mix!
@esplanade

Yeah, he's really cool man. And we got great balcony seats too! Another open-handed drummer! Okay I'm kinda training myself to be open-handed too. Ha ha. Not very smooth yet, but moving somewhere I guess.

Lionel and I were trying to pick out all the weirdish instruments using with Joel's binos. There was this bow-like thing which gave out a really deep sound when played, and an abacus-esque percussion instrument! Amazing. Can't figure out what the big metal bowls with round indentations is called. Gives out a metallic tone, like a glockenspiel.

It was cool in the beginning and at the end, 'cos we got a little lost in the middle. All the fusion/funk were just barraging at us... So I was just soaking up the culture (ha so act) then. Ha. Van, Tim and his friend were there too.

And yes, Jo gave B.C. COW HORNS after he signed our tickets (B.C., not Jo). He'd better not see this!

argh

Haven't had the opportunity (or energy) to blog for the past
few days. Work's really busy, with some of the campaigns picking
up and some in FULL swing -- launch is set for Friday! It's a terribly
major one, and with something of a hundred-pages due, proof-reading is
making me cross-eyed. My mind now wanders at fluctuating speeds, and I find
myself being even more text-skewed ('skewed' is the 'in' word) than ever.

When I look at ads, I see words first. When I read brochures or (gasp) catalogues, I see tiny black ants awaiting their immediate execution should their heads be placed at the wrong area of their thorax. I... I...

But it has been an enjoyable week so far, albeit me going home past 10PM almost everyday. Inductive Bible Study, teaching piano, church...Plus Doreen and Rose overseas (sob) -- a nice BILLY COBHAM concert has made up for all the 'life' lost. I AM a homely person, for goodness' sake. Why does the whole world think that I'm HAVOC?!

Some of my relatives, a few colleagues, some of my parents' friends seem to think that way.

I. Am. Not.

The one and only movie I've seen this year is Jet Li's last gongfu show. The one and only time I've been to town to 'relax' is to Pastamania for a Cambodia group meet-up. The last time I went near the sea was to Wakeboard with my colleagues (no I've NOT been to Sentosa for a year). The most money I've spent any one time in a long while was for the Osim Triathlon relay I'm taking part in with my colleagues (S$90). The last time I went for a concert was on Tuesday, and it is the FIRST concert I'm attending in... 2 years. I think. My favourite hangout is church, and the runner-up is home.

Ok fine. I used to love going out... But only to certain places, and with certain people. And seldom, period.

Goodnight.

Oh yeah, I'm upgrading my laptop's RAM tomorrow!! Yippee my dad rocks. $2.8K for a 256mb RAM laptop was really not worth it. A nice MacBook Pro costs the same. A PowerBook too!!!!! ARGH. Nevermind, at least I won't be lagging during DotA anymoreeee. Wilson, take that. Ha.

agape

It was certainly heartening to see a very good turnout
for the church's first 'Prayer and Fast Day'. The feeling of
praying and interceding for matters close to our heart in a
corporate, yet personal manner made the 3 hour session seem too short.

From a brother's sharing of how his own brother feels estranged from the faith because of a bias from his parents towards his siblings. Silly a reason as it may seem, it still did substantial damage. A verse from John 13:34-35 spoke strongly to me. It says,

34"A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. 35By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another."

People have been sorely disappointed by those whom they've placed in regard or had better expectations of, especially when they claim to be Christians. When we do not display Christ's love, it may be wrongly interpreted as contrived action. In anger or disappointment, they may then turn their face away from the faith. It is too important to show love to each other, whether enemy or friend, with every action we make. The world is watching, biding a chance to rip apart the slightest mistake you make in sin and denounce you and your faith.

Didn't Christ heal the soldier's ear which was cut off even though they arrested him? And did He not show compassion to the lepers, Matthew the tax collector, and even the prostitute who repented? Even Pilate could find no fault in Him when He stood trial. But the crowd demanded His life in exchange for a new lease of life for a hardened criminal, Barabbas. And for all of us sinners'.

In love, there is no room for hyprocrisy.

Don't let affliction and prosecution get you down.
Love, because He first loved us.
Let us spur each other on to shine for Christ!

prenti

The company has kicked off a "DDB Apprentice" competition, ala Donald
Trump's "The Apprentice" reality show -- just not as cutthroat.
6 shortlisted students from LaSalle and NUS will have two months
(which I think is too short) to impress to grab the top prize of $2000,
plus a contract with the company. It kicked off on Monday with 3 art-based
interns from LaSalle checking in first. The other 3 from NUS will be coming in
on Monday and working with accounts managing.

Check out the blog set up for the interns.

Here you go -- a rather hastily done up montage of the
wakeboarding trip. The 'group' pic has about some of the colleagues
already-scooted off. The MoF is extending me an invitation to join them!
Which, which, which means........ That I may likely be able to go for
the company cruise!!!!!! AHHHHH!!!!!! :D

Doreen has gone to the States for a 3-week holiday, so I'm relief teaching her piano kids. Took them for the first time tonight, and I must say that I do kind of miss teaching. The joy of being able to inspire... Priceless. Okay it is rather good money. But tiring.

P.S. My colleague took the liberty to circle out patches of water where we once um, stood.

bake

Punggol Marina for wakeboarding it is! FINALLY the overly-due,
long-awaited wakeboard trip has come. My maiden experience of getting
dragged around by a boat and driving a boat (!).

Since I am an intern, I was not applicable for staff benefits, but yay, they let me
go along (heavy subsidising included) (: I did the in-house ad to publicise the trip, so maybe that's why they let me go along. But I'm not complaining, duh. My company set up a 'Ministry of Fun' recently just to organise recreational activities for the employees. So it was the first outing today! :) There were about 15 of us altogether, and I shared a boat with Benson, Tress, Cheok and River for 3 hours.

I could get up pretty easily at the first tries -- I actually enjoyed squatting and letting the boat drag me along, but I had to get up. And once I did, I could only sustain for a few seconds before losing my balance. Dang, I want to get it right the next time! My forearms feel like they've been through 5 hours of a crazy tennis game and I can't walk properly now!!! It was raining quite heavily in the morning, but the weather cleared, thank God.

The trick is to let go.

Pictures up once I get my hands on them!

Went back to the office with some of them from ULU Punggol (it was like emerging from the jungle to a concrete ghost town) and played a couple rounds of pool with Jimmy. Really pooped now.

Oh, an ad I wrote came out on Today, on Friday. Ha ha.

Pol

I was amazed at reports that over 8,000 people turned up for WP's
East Coast GRC rally. PAP must be upping their campaign efforts now.
But I must say that Gomez does not make much sense to me. Both actions-wise
and speech-wise. He rambles and makes no logical sense. And really, people are definitely able
to distinguish promises that can benefit the society from those that ascertain nothing .

The last thing a minor opposition group should ever do is to put down already-sturdy systems, give flowery self-discriptions which bear not much turf and claim financially heavy duties upon themselves.

Since they are most likely not going to be the party ruling Singapore, they should focus on how they can help the people broaden their options for law-making and solving problems on a community level -- not making 'fwoah' promises as if they'd already taken over the running of the country.

My Holland-Bukit Timah GRC is doing a walkover once again. Don't think the 'mini-Holland Village' that they promised 10 years ago is going to materialise so soon. Why, even sheltered walkways took 15 years to be built. "Which gahment is perfect?" -- yeah, yeah. As long as they are not corrupt and running the country well, I'm not complaining.


Why did I not dare look at him? Oh no...No, please.

torium

I was dragged along to my maternal granduncle's funeral this afternoon
despite my vehement protests. No disrespect, but I'd developed an
inner aversion towards all funeral processions and cremations alike
after that of my paternal grandfather's in '99.

Cremations, especially. It was at Mount Vernon, and all of us were stuffed into this
stuffy viewing room. Mourning sniffles and tears thickened the air in the cramped space. I clearly recall men hauling the heavy coffin roughly into the furnace, then slamming the door of the furnace shut with a cold, ominous thud. My relatives burst into a loud "Pa!", and that cut the air like a knife. Tears ran amok. Even though I'd controlled my tear ducts for the longest time, they opened. I hate to cry, but I did. My dad was the only one who was composed. I've never actually seen him cry till today. From then on I've always thought of cremation as the most heartless and painful way of saying goodbye.

They don't do cremations at Mt. Vernon anymore for some reason, so today's cremation was done at Mandai Crematorium. The place is weirdly zen, and weird is the keyword to describe the minimalistic design and colours of what is called a crematorium. I would have thought that it was a hotel lobby if I were none the wiser. Alright, in another freaky sense, it really seemed nothing like a place of the last mourn.

I'm scratching 'minimalist' out of my future home's design.

Some final Taoist rites were done in the service hall by a bell-wielding, shirt-and-pants-with-a-robe-pulled-over 'priest'. Later, I saw him carrying a nice Louis Vuitton bag and smoking like a chimney. Seems like nice money to make. Anyway. The service hall has this sprawling high ceiling, and so does the viewing room which we proceeded to after the rites. The viewing room is elevated and larger, which makes viewing easier and the tension not so thick. This time, the coffin was machine-moved across and a door opens automatically for the machine to bring the coffin into the furnace. Then the door shut.

It was much easier to breathe, figuratively. I think the mechanical process has actually removed so much of the emotional pain that revolves around cremation. No more of the sons helping to carry the coffin around. None of the cramped rooms which made everyone huddle for comfort. Or perhaps it was simply because I'm not close to them, but judging from the difference in responses which the venue makes, I guess cremation is not as painful anymore. Another take would be that the crematorium was designed specially to reduce emotion spillage.

I'll still choose a burial, anytime. A graveyard gives a much more calming peace than the eerie still a modern crematorium yields.