tick.tock.tick.tock.

it's 10.30pm. only an hour and a half away to a brand new year.

to 2009!

i think i did it. it's coming true. my new year's resolution that i made exactly a year ago. i made it! well, almost. only less than a couple of hours away for it to truly come true. my first resolution ever to come true. unbelievable.

so before it hits 12am, here's a little list i made.

the top 10 highlights of my 2008:

10. watching the Beijing Olympics Opening Ceremony on tv. it was truly the most spectacular thing i've ever seen in an opening ceremony. truly.

9. jogging. i've finally started to actually jog on my own basis. finally. still slow like a tortoise, but finally.

8. hitting 20. "the big 2-0," like they said. it wasnt that much of a big deal for me, but at least now i wont be treated like a kid anymore.
okay, who am i kidding?

7. KT Tunstall live in concert. the woman is amazing. what else can i say?

6. hiding inside the toilet of the zoo for about an hour. literally.
note to self, and every other person who's stupid enough to attempt what we did: pay for tickets.

5. getting a job. no, getting paid.

4. my first wisdom tooth extraction. the stitches hurt like crap, but i got rid of that damn bugger...and it felt damn buggering goooooood.

3. graduation. ah the bittersweetness. it's still a mystery. but a highlight!

2. Singfest. definitely the best 10 hours of August. the best concert i've ever been to in my short life. worth every drop of sweat. really.

1. Australia. not the movie. the trip.
everything about it. the place, the people i met, and basically, the real experience. my first real experience. and my first flight abroad alone!

so hopefully 2009 will be an even better year for me. for you. for the world. okay, Mr Obama?

HAPPY NEW YEAR, everyone!
auld lang syne!

so...has anyone seen Mas Selamat?

walking in the winter...wiiinterrrr wonderr...land.

Merry Christmas, everyone. with love. :)

i want to be a nick carter. after christmas.

i watched Twilight today. or last night, to be exact.



it wasnt bad. but it wasnt that good either. certain parts were pretty cool, but overall, i thought it was just okay. then again, that's just my opinion. maybe all that hype earlier made me had higher expectations of it.

in all fairness to the movie, my bladder on the verge of explosion was kind of a distraction throughout. i mean, i already felt the urge to pee only 30 minutes into the movie, but i was bent on not missing any part. and the film was about 2 hours long. so, well, you can imagine. distraction. (i should check for stones.)

although... whenever Kristen Stewart and Taylor Lautner came on, i still couldnt help but think, "girl from Panic Room" and "Shark Boy" respectively. i wasnt thinking "Cedric Diggory" when i was watching Robert Pattinson, but i did feel like he could've used a little hair-wash in the morning.

nevertherless, i still thought that they were pretty good. yes, the young and the talented. the young and the talented who are making far more than just $7.50/hr, for sure.

anyway, i just caught MTV's TRL Finale and i loved that all the ex-VJs actually came back and attended the final episode. nostalgia! especially since Carson Daly was hosting(with Damien). it was like a high school reunion 10 years later. 10 years!

i also saw the longest lasting boyband around, the Backstreet Boys, performing the old-school piece, "I Want It That Way", and i thought my eyes were playing tricks on me, but they werent. Nick Carter actually looked waaaay leaner than he was a couple of years ago. in fact, he looked almost like how he was when the Backstreet Boys first came onto the scene.


(a gazillion years ago.)


(left: then. right: now.)

alright, that's it. proper diet. working out. i'm going to do it all. if Nick Carter can do it, so can i. it's time i stop being a teapot.

(although i know without a doubt, i'm cheating on christmas. shit.)

farewell, Total Request Live. and Damien Fahey.
it has been a fun ride.

the long weekend effect.

i love public holidays. especially when they fall on mondays.

it only spells, "l-o-n-g w-e-e-k-e-n-d!"

no work on monday = no monday blues.
sunday's perfect.

but it makes going back on tuesdays even harder.

and after all this typing, it's still only wednesday.

gotta attack the chocolate pudding.

what doors and guitars are for.

doors are for slamming.

and guitars are for strumming in minor chords really loudly.

that's how i deal with my frustrations.
because i dont drink.

"Silence is one of the hardest arguments to refute."
-Josh Billings

mother says the darndest things 4

at a family scrabble game.

mom: pass me the dic.

aint nothing wrong with that

imagine a song like this being played constantly on your mp3 player.



now, imagine trying really hard not to shake and clap along to the groovy beat.

the urge. the torture.

it's a good thing i sit alone at work.

holypantsonfire.

i saw something in the sky about an hour ago.

something strange. something very very strange.
i had never seen anything like that before. honest to god.

i dont know what it was. but this is the closest to what i know i saw. and it wasnt just me, because my mom was the one who made me run into the kitchen to look out the window. she spotted it first.

i am 100% sure it wasnt a plane. there were no blinking lights.
and for god's sake, it was vertical. and thin. and white.

i dont think it was a kite.
it couldnt be. not that high up. not past midnight.

i am a huge skeptic but what the hell did i see.
cant believe my mom tried to make a wish like it was some shooting star.

i hope i'm bullshitting.

the darndest things 3.

about a sharp pain in the lower left side of my abdomen.

mom: where's the appendics?
bro: the appendix is behind the report.

The Star-Spangled Banner

everyone, and i do mean EVERYONE, is talking about this. but just in case you havent heard the news because you've been living under a rock since 1995, the United States of America has a new president.

Mr. Barack Obama.

yes. yes. yes.

a change is gonna come.

dont say it doesnt concern you because let's face it- anything that concerns America concerns the rest of the world, whether we like it or not.

and honestly, Joe Biden makes a far less controversial Vice-President than Sarah Palin ever will be. it's a fact.

now i'm looking forward to the next general election in Singapore because this time, i'll get to vote. that's right, buy me over.

...although, i somehow get the feeling that i already know who wins.
and so do you.

literally serious.

2 entries ago, i wrote about "the pimple".

tonight, a friend of mine told me that that entry was a bit confusing because she wasnt quite sure what i was talking about. was it about someone? or something? it had to represent something. right?

i laughed. because she knew me too well.

except, this truly was about the pimple. a pimple.
what you get when you dont wash your face enough.

maybe i should've figured this out a long time ago, but it was only tonight that i realised that i've actually, never been a literal writer. looking back, it had always been about "apples and oranges". random words that were being used to express my feelings about something in my entries. you know. my kind of "metaphors".

which was probably why she felt that way, because indeed, the "pimple" sounded like the perfect word i would've used. and now i know. like i said, she knew me too well.

but for the record, it truly was about the pimple that grew on my face.
the pimple which i later massively attacked and destroyed in great delight.

with that being said, listening to "The Serious World" on 987FM had really kept me entertained over the past couple of weeks. the serious world is my world. it's a kind of world i would've liked to live in. a world of randomness. literally.

but they had their last show on friday because they got cancelled for some reason. perhaps some people just cant accept living in "The Serious World". everything has to, and should, make sense. maybe, for them.

not me.

stopping by.

i know i havent been blogging for a while.

honestly, i think i kinda lost the will to for a bit. and yes, i believe that work has everything to do with it. the truth of the matter is, working has deprived me from alot of things. and no, it's not going out. on the contrary, it's my time at home.

i am -and everyone who knows me to bits knows this- an extremely homely person. and my home, my room, is my sanctuary. i mean, i could die on my bed. i could. i hope to.

a long, hard day at work would mean staring at the computer for 8 hours and 45 mins. also, about 75% of my brain cells are being destroyed by the end of the day. i come home tired. with that little bit of energy. almost, but not completely, burnt. i read up on celebrities screwing their lives up. i'm not proud of that, but at least i know my life aint that bad at all. i crash on my bed. it's daytime. back to work.

but work is work. i like getting paid.

you see, i only write for one purpose. to express myself. to let things out because it always makes me feel better. it doesnt matter if anyone even reads it. i like talking to myself. and hugging my bolster. which is also why sometimes my words dont make sense. because i write as the words come to my head. they have no relation, but that's it. i am as random as it gets.

find me my will.

the pimple.

ever get the feeling sometimes where, you're in a conversation with someone, and that person seems to be talking to you, but is really talking to the pimple on your face instead?

like how they pretend to be listening to what you have to say, when in their heads, they're actually going, "if only i could just...just...oh i wanna squeeze that thing so badly." so when they nod, dont be mistaken. they're not actually agreeing with what you're saying. instead, they're nodding in approval to the image of the zit being squeezed by their own hands.

yes, something like that.

it's almost like, "oh please, no one cares about what you have to say. we'd much rather talk to that prominent landmark on your face." you know, sometimes, you wish you could say, "hellooo. eyes up here please."

but then the big-chested ladies are already using that one.

and so your mother tells you not to squeeze it or it'll leave a scar. but if you dont, that's who (or what, rather) people are going to talk to over the next few days.

the best solution? i havent figured that one out.

perhaps a brown paper bag.
that's right. subtle.

and yet another one.

apparently, suicide has become a 'trend' in south korea lately.

it's a very disturbing trend.

i cant seem to ever fathom why some people can bring themselves to end their own lives. while the dying are struggling to live, the living choose to die. it's just not fair.

perhaps they believe that it's a form of escape. maybe for them.
so what about the pain that they've brought about to the people who loved them?

suicide is nothing but an act of selfishness.
it's not escapism, it's stupidity.

it has been slightly more than a year.

give life. not give up on life.

mother says the darndest things 2

a conversation over mrs kim's stagnant weekday dinner that she makes for herself.

me: you always end up eating the same thing. rice and vegetables. just try something new! what are you, from the kampung?

(although thinking about it now, that did make sense because technically, she was.)

mom: you know i cant keep up with the times. even if you ask me to go to places like Coffeebucks to drink coffee, i wouldnt know how to order and all that.

me: of course you wouldnt know. you didnt even get the name right.

**Warning: a high dosage of laughter is expected when you live with the mother.

the mother is unintentionally deadly.

Singapore Grand Prix

dad made a decision to drive mom and i through Nicoll Highway after dinner, just to listen to the F1 cars speeding past below. you know, for a live feel of it. anyone who knew my brother, of course, would know that he was ALREADY at the race itself.

the engine sounds grew louder and louder. yes, we were almost there. it felt like a game show, where we were playing to guess where the sounds were coming from. and then we got onto Nicoll Highway, where the view of the tracks from the top was perfectly clear.

just when mom and i looked down from our side of the car, one of the cars ZOOMED past.

immediately, mom shouted, "ALONSO's car!"

and apparently, she was right(yes my mom watches soccer and F1), because the other car that looked like the renault had crashed earlier in the race.

wait, in other words... mom and i had actually both seen the winning car zoom past?

wow. talk about LUCK.

look, i'm not going to pretend that i know anything about F1 because i usually dont watch it(my brother's quite the opposite). but when i got the chance to listen to it live, and even saw one of the cars -and it was the eventual winning car, at that- drove past, boy, it felt GOOD.

there is no denying to that.

and so, lies the short phase i had with F1. it was fun while it lasted.

p.s.: congratulations to Fernando Alonso!

mother says the darndest things.

a conversation over a walnut cake.

me: this walnut cake doesnt look as good as the one i had in the office.
mom: no, you cant compare. it's a different one.
me: yeah, but by the look of it, it doesnt look as nice.
mom: cos this one is cheaper. but you cant compare them.

me: yes. the office one had more nuts.
mom: no, this one has less nuts.

bro: that's the same thing.

a little sweetness.

Jason Mraz ft. Colbie Caillat "Lucky"- Cover


i wanna play my guitar in the bathroom too.

surgical extraction- 9 hours later.

ouuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuch.

the needy v.s. the needy.

the needy: the need to fill up an emotional void.

the needy: the need to overcome poverty.

that's what's up.

they say that some friends come and go but family remains forever.

i dont know about the friends part, but i can safely say that family does remain forever. i mean, my poor family had to put up with my spinster crankiness over these past few days thanks to my tooth. mom's been brewing me cups and cups of herbal drinks while dad searched online to help me look for dental clinics that charged lesser. anna, of course, listened to my fed-up rantings about losing my faith in humanity, one person at a time.

unfortunately, when i'm in pain, i get pissed off with the rest of the outside world. unfortunately.

i sincerely apologise, family!

no, the tooth is still here. the good news is that it's not hurting as badly now, all thanks to the wonderful painkillers prescribed to me by the dentist i last visited. (in case you're starting to wonder... i am not a junkie.) the bad news? i've ran out of them.

it's okay. this golden tooth comes out on tuesday. and when it's out ima wrestle that thing to the ground and beat the crap out of it.

there shall be peace on earth. om.

the ache v.s. the real ache.

today was the inevitable visit to the dentist's.

everything else interesting that happened in the office today seemed to be overshadowed by the overbearring pain that i had to experience while i was at work. i've learnt to put up with pains over time but today's seemed worser than usual. to put it simply, i had urges to beat up anything that got in my way.

apparently, half of my wisdom tooth was "stuck in the gums" which was obstructing some shit. well, said the dentist. hence, there would be a need for an extraction. there we go. i thought i had been one of those lucky ones who didnt have to go through all that, but unfortunately, i've fallen into the damned 'extraction' category. it was only a matter of time.

mom mentioned words like "cut your gums", "pull it out" and "sew it back" while trying to explain to me what the surgery would be like. and then she thought that she'd attempt to send me some reassurance by telling me that anaesthesia would be used.

but here's the thing. none of that scared me. i really didnt care how they were going to take it out. none of that mattered. what really concerned me was the price of removal. the oh-so-heavenly-price.

a whopping $500.

WHAT IN HEAVEN'S NAME! that's almost half of my month's pay.

when i pay that kind of money, i expect to GET something, not get RID of something. it's daylight robbery and i shall not stand for it. screw the tooth and the ridiculous pain, i'm keeping the money. but i've been told i have no choice.

i'll kill somebody right now. i will.

mom always said that toothaches worst kind of aches you can get. true. until you experience the heartache of departing with your hard earned cash. now tell me what hurts.

damn, i'm cranky like an old spinster living with 10 cats.

not so wise.

really. how often in a year do i have to go through this?

just HOW OFTEN?

you've been giving me trouble since you first appeared. really. do you take pleasure in bringing me pain? do you enjoy watching me suffer? is that it? what the hell is wrong with you, you sick, sick bastard?

JUST WHAT DO YOU WANT FROM ME?

curse you, wisdom tooth.

curse you.

In Memory

Prince Rupert, my brother's american bullfrog, is gone.

he passed away a few days ago, but no one told me and i only found out about it when i noticed that the tank was empty yesterday.

normally, when frogs die, their arms and legs will spread out and they'll be floating flat on their stomach. not Prince Rupert though. he was found sitting on his rock, in a position that he would usually be in, staring out at our balcony. it was only when my dad noticed that he didnt seem to be breathing, that they realised that he was gone.

:(

it's kinda sad. we've had him for about 8 months and watched him grow from a tiny little thing to a big, fat, blobby bullfrog. he wasnt just a frog. he was our family frog.

but i'd like to believe that he died peacefully.

rest in peace, Prince Rupert.

(yes, only i call him that.)

puh-lease.

oh eff.

how did things get this out of hand?

take a look at where you're going.
your ego's bruised.
like bruce lee punched you in the face.
and it's no secret.
what hurts the most?
an asian man did it.
i say, "it's about time."

so this is what you resort to?

stop being an English fool. and take your damn foot out of your butt.

it ends now.

i will go all kungfu hustle on you if i have to.

Qld Photos Part 3: Movie World

singaporeans have been trained to stand in queues.


welcome back!

the Superman ride.


yes, it goes down on the vertical(left) side, not the sloped(right) one.
and no, we did not ride it.





this was real fun, but damn, i reaaally wanted to keep those ogre-vision glasses!



that's right. it's the Harry Potter shop.
expecto patronum.

and look what they sold inside?

the perfect halloween costume for kids who worship the ground the "boy wizard" walks on. mmhm.

i, on the other hand, would really like to go as a SUBWAY club.




the only ride we ever took(before wussing out on the rest).


why i did not notice the word "coaster" baffles me.



we had a pretty peaceful lunch there. now who said Gotham City's a dangerous place?


the door read "Children Welcome."






ah. the universal dessert.













the Batman Slingshot.


everyone's gotta love the Police Academy.

speaking of cars...

alright, i know the boy's adorable and all, but the main reason why i took this picture was because...i "drove" the exact same car(only of a different colour) 13 years ago! and i have proof!


seeeee? :O

fake chinatown.




the Justice League. or you know, men and women in tights. tight tights.

Warner Bros. characters.




Scooby Doo and friends.




this green ogre needs no introduction.


puurrrr.


"i just cant remember where i parked that damn thing!"


can you say, "Groooovy"?

13 years ago, i stood by this spot once.

(yes that tiny thing was me.)

stopping by... 13 years later.

"helloooo Neeew York!"
yatta.

and then i saw this flying outside.

it was a sign.

i cant believe it's been more than a month. dammmn.
i miss having cats.