de·fi·ance

fa·il

2011-09-02T01:11:00.003+08:00

continuing the trend of once a month posts.

#sophail

in·fec·tion

2011-08-01T07:32:00.003+08:00

Weekend was burnt nursing a bloody fever. Got a little scary on sunday morning to mom and the gf rushed me to the hospital. and then again a few hours later cos i developed a allergic reaction.

insane.

at least the fever has broke. im going to be in a drug fueled daze the next few days.

Havent worked out for a bloody week. Supposed to start RT today but now this this damn fever thingy just dying down not sure if i will be in shape.

ah what the hell.. see how i feel at 4ish 5. Some running can't be bad for me.

edit: just when i said that i don't want to turn this into a boring slugfest of my daily bowel movements.. i do just that. sad face.

day·break

2011-07-21T07:00:00.003+08:00

Another night of gaming, reading, watching various movies. The whole "job hunt" is turning out to be one big sloth fest. At least i've been running regularly.

I've got to do better then make this place into a boring journal of all the random stuff i do.. Sometimes when reading the old posts, i am amazed with the prose i can come up with.

oh how angst drives..

r·u·n

2011-07-13T02:28:00.003+08:00

just got back from a run and feeling all melancholy.

Been spending way too much, well at least the partying has ground to a halt. I'll write that off as post exam blowing off steam. But the new computer was definitely a whim rather than a need. Its mindblowingly fast but way too high end. I guess it will be worth it once Diablo 3 comes around the corner.

Reminds me of that day i decided to buy a car. wasn't planned or anything, was just sick of driving the damn van. Also didn't want to be labeled like those rich kids that get dad to sign a fat cheque to get them a car. Was actually planning to get something pretty banged up and cheap. But the moment i saw the damn bimmer. I swear the the salesman just already cashed the cheque in his head. Didn't even test drive the damn thing. Been a year now and its taught me tons. It's still got till March 2012 to keep running around before it goes to the scrap yard and i already miss it.

come on, everyone misses their first car. and this i got with my hard earned cash. Should have seen dads face when i drove it up to see him the day i collected it. lol.

I realised i've gone through one of those friend refreshes. You know when you wake up and you realise that you have a completely new set of friends? Your quickdials all changed etc. Its not a bad thing and you always have that bunch of evergreen friends who you keep in touch with once in awhile, but i mean the everyday friends. You know the kind you text at least once a day? over something completely random. I wonder if it will happen again once i start work....

Talking about work. Bumming around doing nothing is annoying as hell. For real. I hope something crops up soon enough before dad simply conscripts me into the business. Everyone doesn't understand why i don't simply work for dad, collect a fat paycheque and live life happily ever after. Its like signing your soul to the devil. everything you own and ever will own will indirectly be because of him and when you fuck up, he will definitely remind you of that fact. Anyway, lucky for me my 2 brothers did use daddys cash for an expensive overseas education, so i'll let them pay their dues and i can skip town with no guilt.

Everyone is on tumblr nowadays. I still don't quite get it, you know with the followers and all that. I'll just stick to this, knowing that since its been complete ages since i did any updating here it it highly likely this post will go unseen for sometime. So what the hell.

I'm trying to run at least 3 times a week. So i'll try and blog each time after i run. That way i kill 2 birds with one stone and do somethings regular for a change.

hi·a·tus

2011-06-07T20:16:00.002+08:00

Oh gosh this is long overdue. My final exam ended sometime back but i've been pretty remiss in doing anything useful.

Too much partying and too many hangovers.

Time to get serious.

un·plug·ged

2011-03-09T00:46:00.005+08:00

The time has become.

My entire room is based around my superawesome built from scratch computer. It takes up almost 65% of my table space (printer / subwoofer / gamingkeyboard / gamingmouse . andmousepad ) Studying in front of it has become impossible, I've got 22inches if high definition screen, 2 Tera bytes of stuff to watch and do. I mean i just downloaded 16 seasons of Top Gear and i spent 2 hours just now on used car sites trying to find my next bmw.

ridonculous

therefore. i'm filling up on the last few episodes of house, gossip girl, big bang theory, Mentalist and HIMYM among others.

and then i'm getting unplugged.

computer is off the table, into the corner.

we·ak

2011-03-04T02:43:00.001+08:00

i must not let this affect my exams.

Suck it up and get your head in the books dude. If not you're heading into a world of shiet.

re·for·m

2011-02-26T02:56:00.005+08:00

More disappointment from what i thought was the best bet for the Opposition this coming GE. The timing could not be worse and the character assassinations of Secretary General Kenneth Jeyaretnam (both direct and indirect) even though come off as half assed and immature, definitely cannot be discounted.

It is just the sad testament that Singapore Politics is still Personality based rather than Policy Based. Image and Stance weigh much more then merit and character. Personally KJ had appealed to me since stepping into the Politcal Scene. Here is someone who doesn't bother with trying to associate with the common man and the ground artificially (Reference LSL "Mee Siam Mai Ham"). He has got the education and background in economics and believes that the Economic stance of the PAP Govt has led to most of the social and financial woes faced by the common man and has come up with credible alternative policy. Finally someone who actually seems to comprehend and manipulate alternative policy rather then spew coffee shop rhetoric.

That bunch of morons that walked out should be blacklisted. Atrocious behaviour that is just pouring fuel on the flames of Opposition Infighting. Its bordering on ridiculous. I applaud the WP on standing above the fray, but their position seems more of Political Survival rather then to enact any actual change or effect in government, explaining their very ~~neutered~~ neutral presence in Parliament. That bunch of 9, 10 or 20 nimrods deserve no place in politics. Any Political Party that takes them in will be worst off and welcoming a Trojan Horse in their midst.

I honestly look forward to how the Reform Party is going to get better from this and i honestly wish KJ at least get into parliament to help make sense of all the economic hullaballoo the PAP throws at us.

i.e

Step 1 Grow Economy Massively by Bringing In Foreign Labour

Step 2 Proudly Show Off the Massive "Kitty"

Step 3 Use said Massive Kitty as carte blanche to enact all Policy.

Repeat Ad Infinitum or till Singaporeans are priced out of Basic & Public Goods at which point start blaming the world economy or CSJ.

Superscale Salary begets them Superscale Ideas

On a much happier note. The passport finally is ready for collection and i can head to the land of the cheap for fuel, food and fun. (also the bimmer needs a tune up)

m·o·m

2011-02-25T00:41:00.001+08:00

the last time you used mom as an excuse. it was Bangkok not hatyai, I wonder how many times she called.

re·form

2011-02-24T01:15:00.002+08:00

Dammit. What i thought was actually the best thing to happen to the opposition party landscape just imploded. The reform party just had a mass exodus of people and honestly it will be a very ugly affair and i highly doubt the actual reason behind will show itself anytime soon.

Well kenneth, you had hope but looks like the Opposition Curse isn't getting lifted anytime soon.

de·ci·sion

2011-02-23T02:27:00.002+08:00

Biggest one of my life.

Do i know if i am making a mistake? I don't know at all. Somewhere someone guide me. Cos i've come way too far to fall.

di·vide

2011-02-09T01:57:00.004+08:00

This is the real hardtruth about Singapore thats missing in that retard book i cannot get a copy of.

This chick took her bulgarian boyfriends car out for a spin, beat a red light. Well she got a 1.9k fine for that. It sounds low but its in the ballpark. (Cody got a 2k fine for driving his dads car without a license)

The kicker is this. She roped in a serving Deputy Superintendent of Police to try and get her out of the mess. That dude then found some random lackey to take the blame for 1k. Make no mistake, this cop was a serving DSP in CID when he did this. He only resigned after almost definitely under pressure from the top dogs when word got out about his transgression. Now 2k fine for that? Thats just ridiculous.

Reminds me of this. Random chick with connections beats a red light. KILLS a pillion. And gets away with one day jail and a 2K fine. Seriously. Makes me want to puke.

keeping it real

C·N·Y

2011-02-07T15:43:00.004+08:00

This CNY was pretty awesome. The bak kwa farming was slim and only saved thanks to the awesomeness that is Biyi. The amount of goodies and bak kwa and for the first time in my life abalone bak kwa. I think chah is right on the money when she says that biyi's parents could be the best in the world.

Mings place was great too. Won a bundle at the blackjack table, even after i lost my pants playing the house for 3 lousy rounds. Elmo is close the edge, only sad news on CNY.

Went to Neverland on the 2nd day of CNY and it was awesome. Everyone was dressed in red and all drama with flags and everything. Lotsa new people and i miss hortie shortie terribly. The pint sized Mariah with the blinged up microphone.

The Soccer weekend was mental. Manchester United lost to the Wolves (yes who?) but to be honest if they HAD to lose to anyone it might as well be the damn wolves. Besides, Utd needs a kick in the butt to wake up their idea for the final run up to the title. They were getting sloppy with all the easy wins. Arsenal got a big surprise with the the magpies shrugging off the 4 goal deficit and climbing back to make it a even steven 4-4. The biggest news is obviously Chelsea losing 0-1 to Liverpool. Now don't get me wrong, Liverpool fans are like the most emotional bunch of you know whats, which make them mostly unbearable. But Chelsea losing is the best thing for a United fan. Liverpool have got to worry about relegation anyhow. Let them keep this one.

im hungry.

keeping it real.

DJ·XL

2011-01-27T20:47:00.018+08:00

I'll be starting a food column at Swappe and I thought i will do a double whammy here as well. I don't think i can be a proper food blogger to be honest. A proper food blogger will require some skills that chefs require, actual concern for the customer or your expected readers. Thats something i simply am bereft of. The only thing i care about in my meals, the one i cook or eat, are my very own tastebuds.

But that can't be a bad thing right? anyway there is one rule to food critiques. Never trust a skinny one. In fact, don't trust a skinny chef. I guess you can trust me. Trust me many many.

Then came to the next important thing is to get a proper moniker. Since the Zak-man during one of our drunken stints deigned in his almighty wisdom granted me the title DJ XL in the attempt to pick up a random chick at the smoking corner. Well its stuck. Not just any Disk Jockey, thats too easy nowadays with even ex playboy bunny's just taking their tops off and becoming headlining DJ's. No my friend, I am your DISH Jockey. Yes people, i'm that awesome.

I realised my first post has to be critical. It sets the tone for the entire column. Normally it would be bacon, but since its hard to have an entire meal with just bacon (okay fine, challenge accepted) i went for the next big thing. Practically a one dish meal. The ultimate comfort food.

All Killer No Filler

This is one of those places you will smell before you actually see. I think the people behind this place actually recognised that aspect and gave it an idiotproof name. I mean you smell something awesome, obviously your stomach gets turned on and when you see that sign, WHAT else do you think its all about?

I'll be honest, it was a impulse decision to eat here. Thankfully i wasn't with some airhead chick that i had to act all ~~gay~~ Metrosexual and pretend like i had to watch my calories. We just did the typical "DUDE!!" and the rest was the mental shifting of gears and settling on 6th.

So that decided where we are having our grub. Time to pick what to eat. The menu is pretty diverse, lots of options for the grill and then we came across this gem:

One look at the menu (its just a simple one page A3 sized affair) and its was clear as day what we were having. I mean, they named it the Brontosaurus. Why would ANYONE have anything else to eat? It does take almost 30 minutes to do so order up and take a short stroll around, work up an appetite. It says for 4, but it will prolly feed 2 decently manly hungry blokes. Skip the next meal to make it ceteris paribus. Worth it, Trust Me.

Work of Art. We were the envy of every bloke populating the 4th Floor of ION. It took 2 nice little ladies to actually carve the thing up, they were quickly dismissed because we wanted to thoroughly enjoy the experience (also because they didn't seem to be know what they were doing) The chef who made this obviously knew what he was doing. It was divine. We got all the sauces they provided, they gave us some pretty bland ratatouille and yummy thick cut fries. All of which was completely unnecessary.

Look at that. Perfectly done, amazingly marbled, buttery charred on the outside beautifully pink all the way through goodness.

At $108 bucks. A bloody steal.

ION Orchard #04-12

#cheomingshen

2011-01-20T04:07:00.006+08:00

I just got back from the yearly thing where i help Dinesh's dad fix up his Kavadi. Ive got to be up later at 830am but i so HAVE to get this of my chest.

this @bossming dude is a class A moron. Seriously. He got trolled a couple of times by the very unflappable @rocksontan and went completely postal. I think postal is an understatement.

After that very embarrassing tweet-diarrhea, he called on support of his ~~muffnang~~ nuffnang "bigwigs" @xiaxue and i think that lousy eat and run

foodblogger @ladyironchef for support. I mean, both have the "i serve nuffnang" thingy on their blogs. What ELSE did you think they were they going to say? to be absolutely honest, i was surprised that xiaxue rolled over so easily, one would think the dragon lady of the blogging world would have at least have some sort of backbone. The affirmation was too formal to be genuine, too clinical. GRATEFUL?! lol. What a joke.

Temasek Review and Mr Brown have decent coverage of the whole event, but being on twitter and watching the whole thing go on and on made my day. I blame ST for this. By painting this dude as a non partisan supporter of LKY when in fact he is an invested stakeholder painted a huge target on his back.

keeping it real

flash·back

2011-01-18T00:19:00.004+08:00

Non alcohol fueled weekend. First one in a long time. Oh stop judging yes its a big deal. Spent the time mostly slothing. I did however go uber foodie. Hitting chinatown for awesome dim sum buffet followed by karaoke (im tone deaf.. for real)

I finally did the drivearound the childhood area. Back to JI (its still a swamp).. went back to the old hood.. Bukit Batok. Then down to bukit view secondary school which has become a MASSIVE like really legit secondary school with a bloody indoor sports hall no less, It has come a long way from the gangster cesspool it once was. Even dropped by the ancient premises of the now defunct bukit batok primary school, where i spent the first 3 years of primary school pretending i knew how to count. Was a thoroughly enjoyable 2+ hours.

Commuted to school today. Took the bus, the iPhone app SGnextbus is really awesome. I mean i minimise my waiting time at the bus stop to like 5 mins max by planning which bus i'm going to take and know when exactly it comes. I take this 74e which is supposedly a premium service. Basically it skips alot of stops and takes the PIE all the way to the clementi exit. Pretty brilliant cept that today there was a major accident on the PIE that turned it into a parking lot. 3 lanes were blocked out by an accident involving a bike, a car and a lorry. No prizes for guessing who was the biggest loser. Spotted a deployed dead body tent. Will look out for it in the press tmrw.

TOC is taking the order to Gazette in its stride, showing the pedigree that sets it apart from the the rabid mess of online blogs that sometime resort to the fairytale to put down our glorious leaders. I guess that final political discussion where all the opposition bigwigs came down was the final straw. But seriously, Kudos TOC.

ST on the other hand is getting its arse handed to it by brilliant ~~googling~~ researching by the very thorough "PAP Trolls". They are these group of highly trained assassins that dissect most of the propaganda that invariably fills the papers nowadays in the run up to the elections. So far ST has shown to obviously hide or attempt to ignore affiliations to the PAP should it not suit their purposes. If the people involved were affiliated to opposition parties instead, i believe big bold letters would have been the theme.

I did try and attend the Reform Party rally. The rain pretty much ruined it for me. I did make it down albeit way too late and they were all packing up. Its a pretty big deal for me. First opposition rally i've been late for.

Only made it to the gym once last week. On a sunday, which i capped off with dinner at the ever brilliant Islamic restaurant. Mutton heaven. I'll try to hit the mill at least 3 times this week. It gets easier the more and more i do it. I guess the intertia is getting left in the dust.

i think i'll stop rambling and get to bed. Its back on the bus tmrw and i want an early start. The blogging itch bit but i've yet to him my stride. Gimme another month i think. The drivel should taper off by then

keeping it real

H1·N1

2011-01-14T00:02:00.002+08:00

Looks like i might have it. Lol. the humanity.

anyway, latest greatest other the TOC getting gazetted (big up yo) is the new Thaipusam rules. Which to be honest, i think is an awesome idea. I mean the part without the music and the drums suck, cos ive been there and the music can be a good thing when fact that you've got a ton of stuff on you, in you, waving in the wind.. you need a reason to remind yourself why on earth would anyone do something like this.

But then again, the real people that should be blamed is the morons that spoilt the market in the first place. Walking around with beer cans and making a disgrace of themselves. Some people might say that its part of the experience. But honestly its one part i rather do without.

i think this weekend will be spend at home trying to NOT sneeze my lungs out through my nose.

keep it real

day·light

2011-01-07T11:40:00.006+08:00

i cannot remember the last time i did a blog post whilst it was day. I always get that itch to blog in the dead of the night, when i am craving creative input but none is forthcoming and when the angst start creeping in, i just need a blank slate.

Whats that coming over the hill/is it a monster/is it a monster

So anyway, Dad got through the heart bypass with little issue, doctor says he should be fine in a few days. He's out of the ICU but still in a high dependency ward. But he'll pull through, i know it, that man is gonna live forever.

In the attempt to get my attention back towards the books i had reformatted the PC and gotten rid of all the games, but the massive amounts of TV series i have downloaded have proven to be my undoing. I mean other then the usual weekly dose of the usuals, i ve got the entire what 8-9 seasons of Monk downloaded and for some fuck reason i keep watching it!

This weekend is the birthday party of one of my favourite people in the world - COSX. Helps that its being held at the very awesome neverland. best part, the brilliant Lady M would most prolly be there, been ages since we clubbed together.

7 more hours to bbq buffet dinner, time to distract myself from all possible food inputs.

keep it real

Time·ta·ble

2011-01-05T23:54:00.002+08:00

The timetable is out. The deadline is set. The end of days is here.

exams

keep it real

20·10

2011-01-04T23:23:00.002+08:00

omfg.. i just realised i skipped the entire year of 2010 for blogging. Damnit i should have at least done a token post =(

cole·slaw

2011-01-04T21:30:00.004+08:00

The only reason i have 124 posts in the year 2007 is prolly cos thats when i was at the peak of angst? no wait, that would mean i was a angsty little cunt at the mature age of 22? okay i'll go read some of my posts and revisit this theory..

I tried to make coleslaw today. I guess on the american websites when they said food processor, they prolly meant some specialised equipment that is able to grate the carrots and cabbage to a nice consistency. When i put all the stuff into moms "Sumeeet" mixer, i got cole-mush. It tasted awesome, but with the consistency of fucking mush.

School was a snorefest today. I even did the whole pendulum head swinging thing. i couldn't take it anymore halfway through the second class and headed to giant turf city to grocery shop for the ill fated coleslaw experiment. Why would people actually pay parking to grocery shop anywhere else boggles me?! Here is a perfectly good joint with free ample parking and you dont have to dig deep for dollar coins for them trolleys!

Human Resource Management tmrw morning. There is something about SIM, all the LT's on the 3rd floor are super cold, but this dudes lecture in the boondocks of level 2 in some random corner is always frigging stuffy. And after 2 days of freezing my ass off, i subconsciously like add an extra layer or thicker polo on the wednesday only to end up sweating my ass off in the LT. Today i will break the cycle.

I have to go through the bloglist and remove like dead blogs of past reading pleasure, i guess the instant gratification of facebook and twitter has almost removed the need of having a blog unless ur still an angsty cunt or you wanna sidewinder the gov. yes yes i am still talking about myself here.

Who would have thought i would have missed our late night ramblings to a point when she went overseas i almost went crazy trying to get in touch. so wise the moron who came up with that little nugget about only knowing the value of something once its gone, i was in ignorant bliss till now and this fact is annoying the hell out of me.

keep it real

Pre·tend·er

2011-01-04T01:10:00.003+08:00

Now that i'm back to school proper, i've got no more job responsibilities whatsover and i'm living off my fast dwindling savings which therefore rule out the massive amounts of retail therapy / magnum bottles at various clubs around town, no wait.. its only been Attica and New Asia Bar recently. But still, the credit card bill this month was ridonculous. i've been waaay to easy with the whipout-swipe-signandsmile thingamajig.

Thank god i would rather die then roll over credit. So i start the new month one a fresh slate and all my cards out of my wallet and under the bed.

Flavour of distraction for the coming few months will be endless mugging and TV sitcoms to let the brain hemorrhage. Of course there will be odd makan jaunt, a birthday or 2 is coming up which i cannot avoid but the plans remain solid, till end May, i am going to be a nerd with no social life.

And thus my second coming to the blogosphere (okay 3rd.. mebbe 4th).

keep it real

Oc⋅to⋅ber

2009-11-15T21:43:00.000+08:00

I can't believe that I missed a whole month without blogging..

ac⋅a⋅de⋅mi⋅a

2009-09-30T23:32:00.005+08:00

Finally my work stint is over (fingers crossed).

I've already missed 2 weeks of school.. hopefully the lecturers started slow and i will be able to catch up by next week. Sad thing is 3 hours of prime saturday time is taken up by lecture now.. sad face =(

One more year people, I don't think I am going to go on straight to my Masters or any other further studies tho that seems to be the flavour of the week at the moment.. further studies and getting married..

This entire holiday, cept for a few out of country jaunts, has been pretty much all about work and taking up professional competency courses.. Not really a holiday well spent in the usual sense of the word.. But its a like a very important step in the crossover from student to working adult. Alot of my peers will be heading into the rat race with pretty much no experience whatsoever. I've never been fond of the rat race.. working hard for someone so that they get a monster bonus package just rubs me the wrong way. But thats the capitalist market system and jobs in the financial sector is still looked upon the as crème de la crème when it comes to remuneration packages and career progression..

And i here i am seriously contemplating a career in the security industry. Its an interesting one, pretty hard work, pays well and never boring. For the most part Dad has done the job by getting himself ridiculously decorated while he was in the Force.. All i got to do is run the day to day stuff...

Anyway.. will be back with more stuff from school.. the good thing about school is there is tons to blog about.. There will definitely be some source of amusement.. most prolly be an international student.. sometimes they just are too damn clueless..

cheers..

Comfort·Food

2009-09-24T20:41:00.002+08:00

What do you do when the work piles up like nuts, school starts and you are noway near the frame of mind for it..

cook.. lol.. swung by swiss butchery for that mean piece of meat.. medium rare goodness..

Here come the weekend where i will have no time for fun whatsoever and i've got to spend all my time in front of this pc churning out a 300page report.. My life..

No time for angsty outbursts.. no time for reading social commentary..

i need my life back =(

Denny·Crane

2009-09-19T21:43:00.003+08:00

Wow.. its been awhile since i've blogged.. No kidding..

The end of my holidays are near.. School starts coming Tuesday and here I am working my ass of churning out a 300 page report for Dad's firm. Couple that with the fact that i'm hooked on Boston Legal.. i've gone cuckoo for cocoa puffs..

Holidays is ending.. work is piling up.. and i'm taking 5 subjects for my final year.. one of which i will be going to be self studying.. hope that doesn't go down the drain..

not enough hours in a day for me..

Sawadee·Kwa

2009-06-24T21:37:00.007+08:00

Upon landing at Suvarnabhumi Airport everything changed. Even tho the whole place was sorta on alert cos of the Swine Flu and everytime someone coughed or sneezed you did get some wary looks, it was still a land of smiles.. It was almost 11pm.. Stayed at a transit hotel for the night and headed to Bangkok Central to check it at the hotel we were going to stay at for the entire trip.

Next morning we checked into our snazzy suite.. It pretty interesting, Tenface Suites which is named after this mythical person in Thai Mythology Tosakan which happens to be an intepretation of this Hindu legend Ravana.. That explains the dark themes and intricate sculptures.. Going to put a few more photos of the room..

The hotel even gave me like a complimentary sim card to use, a BTS (their version of MRT) card, and even this very useful cards to flash at taxi drivers to get you to the popular spots in central bangkok..

And it came in this very neat box which the called Tosakan's heart.

Now what is Thailand without a Tuk Tuk ride.. thing is, M would rather die then voluntarily sit in one of those here.. Lucky for me the hotel had one of their own and they gladly took us for as many rides as we wanted..

The hotel also had this old school merc which was our limo for a day.. Quite a head turner.. Best paint scheme i've seen in ages.. lol..

These guys are so awesome.. were more then happy to accomodate anything we asked them.. and didn't even expect to be tipped.. Tho on the last day i gave them all the remaining baht i had.. together with the booze and cigs.. Note to self.. don't over buy at Duty Free..

Lunch the next day was at Noble House at Swissotel Bangkok.. We messed up the time zones and arrived there an hour late and the place was already closed, but they actually still served us! we had the entire place to ourselves.. And the food.. omg... best dim sum ever.. Lotsa really unique concoctions as well..

After that amazing lunch we headed to the famed Jatujak Market.. It was a MASSIVE place with like sections for antiques, clothes, acessories, food even pets!! M got a little teary eyed after seeing all the pooches on sale.. But cheered up pretty soon after entering this shop..

Every chance we had we went for a massage.. Bone breaking goodness.. Tiny little thai auntie folded me like a pancake.. wasn't really a PG sight..

Sunday Brunch was at the Four Seasons.. Best Sunday Brunch EVER.. Steak, lamb, lobster and prawns were grilled on the spot to your required doneness.. Instead of just a choice of beer/champagne/wine, we could have everything! including cocktails.. I stuck to the Kir Royale.. M went nuts on cosmo's, appletinis, Mimosa's and Bellinis.. And this place had the best foie gras steaks EVER.. never ate that many pieces of liver.. Heart clogging stuff..

Omg talking about all of this just makes me want to go back there.. honestly one of the best holidays ever..

hol⋅i⋅day

2009-06-15T00:24:00.001+08:00

Bangkok here i come.. Massive post after that confirmed =)

ex·ac·er·bate

2009-05-05T15:44:00.006+08:00

Since i have chosen to break my exam-imposed-silence i might as well compound it. Been mugging non stop the past 2 days. Sorta regretting my uber long posts regarding the whole AWARE saga.. What was i thinking trying to get involved in a women's mud fight?.. (never thought i would say that without innuendo rofl)

Anyway i guess the main you know "whats-in-it-for-me" is basically the whole thing about how people actually believe in their votes and actually want to make a difference in something. I guess the word "political apathy" will apply less to whole lot of women now.

I mean.. try and like"supersize" it to a General Election. I don't see the PAP being overthrown or anything, that's just unrealistic and a little dangerous if you ask me. We need the PAP and any transition of power will be a slow and probably painful one. What i want to see however is enough opposition seats in Parliament so that constitutional amendments won't be a farce anymore. Is that really too much to ask? For the PAP to be satisfied with a slightly less then 75% Majority so that the democratic mechanism can actually be practised rather then just put for show.

In a free market (the corporate parallel of a democratic gov?) Young monopolies are tolerated because the market at large will be worse off without them even though they are inefficient and make self serving decisions over the greater good of the economy. That parallel could be drawn to the PAP as they dominated election after election. Yes early on granted they were critical to the growth of SG and all that stuff they teach us in ~~propaganda~~ social studies. But now its 82 out of 84 seats. Thats 97% of 'market share".. Anti-trust Legislation is there for a reason you know. And please don't tell me that SinGov isn't a profit making "company". That flew out the window when LHL promoted Singapore INC and gave themselves salaries only fundies could be proud of. 82 out of 84 is obscene (i am disregarding those bullshit NMP and NCMP "for-show" seats" Exacerbating the whole thing is the facts that have been popping out that the Govites (Government Elites) have been pretty much screwing the populace over and throwing a whole lot of cash down the drain and not taking any responsibilities at all. So when things are good (because the US Global Economy is doing well) they pat themselves on the back for ~~increasing the divide between the rich and poor~~ fiscal awesomeness in growing SG's economy and give themselves a monster pay rise. But when SG's economy goes south, they blame it on the world.

Pay Cut? You Wish.

Back to mugging..

rea⋅son

2009-05-02T14:59:00.002+08:00

The author replied. Same link as my previous post. This is mine, prolly the last one not much point arguing once I have stated all my points.

Maam / Sir

Firstly, the programs were conducted in Secondary School. Which mean that the target group of students are in the 13 to around 18 years old. The statistics show that that the average age for teenage pregnancies and STD's are falling in this group. The quantum incidence is rising each year while the age group is falling each year. I will substantiate my claims with the following facts.

1. Channel NewsAsia | Posted: 07 October 2007

"Associate Professor P C Wong, chief of Obstetrics and Gynaecology Department at the National University Hospital, said: "The statistics speak for themselves. Every year, as I said, 1,300 to 1,500 teenage abortions occur. The numbers have not dropped. And STDs (sexually-transmitted diseases) have gone up, more than double. So we have to sit up and pay attention to the statistics."

"And in 2005, 678 teens aged between 10 and 19 years sought help for sexually-transmitted diseases, compared to 256 in 2001."

There are actually more facts and figures but a quick search on google will prove the point i am making, which is that this target group of people NEED guidance. Even if you believe your daughters don't need them, their classmates, their schoolmates maybe their CCA group mates might. (I might add that these selfsame schoolmates play an important role in the devepment of your child morally or otherwise.)

These statistics show that simply preaching “Singapore home values”, IS NOT WORKING. Going up to a kid and saying. “Don’t do this, Don’t do that” is not working anymore!. Kids respond to this kind of approach by simply “tuning out” or “zoning out”. Its sorta like Civics and Moral Education back when i was in secondary school. Majority simply wrote what the teacher wanted to hear and none of it actually sunk in.

AWARE and MOE are trying to reach this target group by accepting them for who they are, specifically people who deviate from social norms, and give them facts and figures and scientific advice on how to modify their behaviour to their own good. If you have a foolproof method of picking them out from a general secondary school population then please contact MOE and let them know, because the only way they can safely cover this target group is to make it the average and provide the information for all. For parents like yourself, there is a exclusion form yes?

Instead of simply telling MOE to take away the program, maybe you can come up with an alternative how you can adress the problem as delineated in the figures? Figure out how to give a kid advice without rejecting who they are first (ie; homosexuals, kids who practise anal sex, kids who practise premaritial sex, kids with STD’s, kids who have unprotected sex). You must understand that when you reject this kids actions and give them the impression that they are ALREADY committing sin.. they are NOT going to open up to you and NOT going to listen to good advice.

The whole excercise of naming stuff as “Neutral” is not to promote the act or behaviour but to prevent kids who are ALREADY involved in those act (refer to statistics) to NOT zone out and actually listen to good advice. Not as you put it “MOE capturing young, immature minds and filling them with subversive rot.”

You are assuming, wrongly, that all kids in the public school system are as fine examples of teenage girls as your daughters. Sadly that is not the case. Many social factors for example, poverty, lack of parental guidance or where bread and butter issues at home take precedence over moral development contribute to this. This program attempts to coax this group of people out of hiding and actually give a listening year to some good advice.

I am making an assuption here.. but kindly consider it. Assuming that all girls are split into 2 groups. One where they are like your daughters, the other where they participate privately in socially deviant behaviour. When MOE and AWARE place their stance as “Neutral” they are in fact trusting parents like you (refer to your opening sentence ”Together with the home, our schools have to work carefully and painstakingly to shape the morals of our children”) to tell your kids “School says its neutral, but here under my house and in our culture its not”, and being the fine examples they are, these group of children will listen. On the flipside, now the entire deviant group is now open to discussion and advice rather then simply zoning out!

In essence they are now able to to address the problem as shown in the statistics above!

@your second comment.

I agree that anal sex being healthy is quite contentious. I was simply replying to Anony commenter @ May 1, 2009 5:40 PM that it is not illegal. Once again the point of this exercise is not to promote or okay homosexuality and its acts. Rather to not exclude kids who already participate in these acts and to give them sound facts and advice. The point is not saying homosexuality is okay.. but the point is to adress this group of homosexuals and advice them.

I also disagree that AWARE old guard is “a rabid feminist organisation pushing a homosexual agenda”. The EOGM will settle this matter of contention.

Respectfully
R Selvaraja
Age: 25
Current Undergrad at SIM
Operations Manager @ an Established Security Firm
Well Wisher =)

oh god i'v got to spend more time mugging =(

os⋅trich

2009-05-01T16:49:00.008+08:00

Came across this persons blog.. Terrible the way he/she argues. So one sided. I just had to play the devils advocate. lol =P Not sure if my comment will be put up.. So putting it up here..

I think its because of clueless parents like these who simply pretend to ignore a problem like this that the MOE and AWARE programs are needed.

such a one sided argument.

Neutral means NEITHER good NOR bad.

It is your job as a parent to inculcate values.

If your child goes and hears that being homosexual is NEUTRAL and somehow decides to join the other team is simply shows that you've been doing a terrible job inculcating values.

12+ years at homewith YOU and 10 minutes spend on the topic in a sex ed class turns ur kid LGBT... Not really rocket science to see who holds more blame.

The facts and figures speak for themselves, No parent wants their kid to engage in premarital sex or to become LBGT, BUT STILL there are a significant number of kids that do that.

Why are there so many teenage pregnancies and kids having unprotected sex or turning LBGT?

I have 2 theories..

1. Bad Parents
2. Parents who go the Ostrich way and pretend the problem does not exist and simply thinks that their children are angels who happen to not watch ANY TV or any non local news on the internet where LBGT-ism and premaritial sex is espoused? Whereby the kids are unable to turn to parents(like you) cos they know they will be treated with holy fury and treated like a sinner for even THINKING about it.. and then simply go ahead andexperiment anyway.

AWARE + MOE fills this void with cold hard SECULAR FACTS so that informed choice can be made. If you think your child is to stupid to make decisions then go ahead and sign the exclusion forms, its there for Ostriches like you who rather ignore the problem. But i think there are kids out there with more sense and intelligence to make the right choice when faced with facts and are in the position where they are unable to speak to their parents cos their parents like you are simply too one track minded to offer the right kind of guidance they need.

Wake up and smell the coffee, go look at the numbers of teenage pregnancies and abortions. It is scary! Even if you think your child is perfect and needs no further guidance from you, her classmate could be one who is engaging in premaritial sex and maybe experimenting in lesbianism.. and maybe SHE could influence your daughter. How are you going to handle that? Homeschool your kid?

If you want to send your kid through the public education system you mustunderstand that selfsame public includes children from different home with different values. MOE cant come up with a system for only your kid, but a general one.

Its common sense that MOE has seen the numbers of teenage pregs and abortions and feedback from teachers where kids come up to them for advice and realised that parents arent doing enough.

So have a heart for all those kids (maybe yours) who need the guidance and the provision of facts and good secular advice to make a decision cos they are in a position where they cant turn to parents cos they need more reason to change rather then "Cos God Said So"

Dammit.. with hindsight.. i should have added something about children who do not have the guidance of parents either cos they are absent or orphanes... anyway.. my point is there.. Don't blame MOE or AWARE to try and help solve a problem that won't be there if all parents were perfect.

be⋅ware

2009-04-29T01:12:00.002+08:00

I subscribe to the belief that for every one lie you find out about... There is like ten you didn't... the covert nature of the coup and the many inconsistencies springing up daily is simply unbecoming of leadership of such an organisation especially since there is strong behind-the-scenes puppeteering from a closet feminist with a LKY complex who deems AWARE unworthy of her presence on the EXCO.

The cavalier attitude in the many dismissals, a very dramatic lock change and a press conference where they asked more questions then answered simply show that these people have a hidden agenda and since they have not deemed it necessary to let it be known, speculation has gone amok.

At the very bottom line, even before ANYONE comes to the door to get some help from AWARE, the new guard seems to be putting up notice that LBGT will be exempt from any help whatsoever. What happened to helping "all"?

About the sexual education angle, I find it stupid to think that a hour long workshop where one of the many points covered include setting the tone that LBGT tendencies and actions are "neutral" will suddenly PUSH young impressionable minds into invoking LBGT-ism. I mean, if any parent comes up and blames this program for turning their kids into a LBGT, he/she is going to turn into a laughing stock. Here is someone who is SO clueless about their kids actions and behaviour when they spend their entire childhood at home and completely miss the signs that the kids are exhibiting LBGT tendencies. Yes I am saying it, if your child turns LBGT cos AWARE says it’s neutral to be it, then its your fault... You should have seen it coming and handled it. Not blame the school sheesh... (Disclaimer: am not saying any LBGT come from bad parents, just that they are painting themselves as bad parents for blaming it on a sexual ed workshop). Anyway, if you feel so strongly about it, there is an option to not send your kids for the workshop?

So instead of educating parents on the program and highlighting the exclusion form, "Mentor" took over AWARE and change sex ed to say LBGT = BAD? Old-AWARE should be applauded for having trust in our intelligence to make the right decisions, the new guard on the other hand seems to want to rather insult our intelligence it and use its position to spoonfeed some prejudged and slanted information.

Someone should put Josie in the same situation as Constance was put in, where she faced a hostile group of lesbian and bi women who felt that AWARE had virtually ignored that group of women and see how she fares or rather flounders.

Oh wait, actually I can imagine it, she will start with something like “It’s a very complex and controversial situation we are in now…” then pass the mike to Maureen...

ROFL

sta⋅sis

2009-04-03T21:40:00.002+08:00

No the blog is not dead. Exams are like 3 weeks away and after that i will be back in all my blogging glory..

cheers..

stu⋅di⋅ous

2009-02-23T00:17:00.003+08:00

The mugging has began. Prelims in T-minus 7 days. Finals in T-minus 45days. And its 3 more weeks after that to the end of this years school timetable. The ankle is healing properly and ive got my fix of good ol heart attack bbq food at kevs.

back again after the exams..

thai·pu·sam

2009-02-09T20:03:00.004+08:00

Another year.. Another Thaipusam...

re⋅serve

2009-02-04T04:12:00.007+08:00

Update: Turns out the vaunted Jobs Credit Scheme wasn't all that new after all. Its a reject idea of the new US presido Obama.

The real reason for huge reserves is job creation. But it is job creation for the elites. There is no better job in the world than managing the funds of people to whom you don't have to answer to for losses.

-Lucky Tan

I am a regular follower of this dudes blog. And this little morsel struck me. Brilliant isn't it not? I don't want to look a gift horse in the mouth and gripe about the budget especially since it throws a whole lot of cash at us as well as helping manpower intensive businesses (like mine). Also we finally get to see the much vaunted "kitty" being used. On the surface it looks pretty fine and dandy and we all should be grateful citizens and thank the heavens for giving us such prudent leaders who saved so much of our money for us and now using it to help us during this recession.

The thing that rubs me is that, even though the budget has it merits and all that and it does honestly help, its still fails in doing what its supposed to do. Lets call an Orange a freaking Orange alright. This is a just a big fat hong bao thrown at us to shut us up an the gov flexing its muscles saying "See we care for you! We even raided the reserves!" All those words like "Stimulus" and "Resilience" are all bullshit. Its cold hard cash being used and very little control over whether it will "Stimulate" anything. Honestly.. for their amazing paychecks one would think they would actually bother to come up with something which actually DOES what it says rather then hook on fancy names to a obvious attempt to stuff money at the populace to stop them from clamoring for some actual WORK from overpaid members of the SinGov. The unsophisticated nature of this budget is quite appalling to be honest. The biggest most lauded and most expensive component of the budget triggering the draw from reserves is simply a employer CPF cut. Instead of calling an Orange and Orange.. a nice new tagline is created and wah lau, The Saviours are Here.

Heck i'll take the money.. and i'll say what everyone feels.. The gov have no clue how to handle this so they are sticking to the tried and tested. Throw a wad of cash and say "Job Done". They actually get paid to this. Bestest job in the world.

Fuck accountability, Fuck control, Fuck transparency. Ignore all the stupidity that actually brought us into this turmoil (and other moves like pumping reserves into major fail citibank)

Bravo Singov. The budget was a work of intellectual art. And oh that smokescreen of creating a brouhaha over the usage of reserves to cover the actual simplicity of this Budget was brilliant.

2009-01-20T15:22:00.003+08:00

The Mugging has Begun

hol⋅i⋅day

2008-12-22T22:25:00.004+08:00

The last time i was there was almost 4 years ago.. and I vaguely remembering being dragged up the stairs of this place after a crazy night with ming, git and my 15 year old cousin.. come to think about it.. it was prolly the only time i clubbed with my brother as well.. lol..

It was as good as LiquidShadow said it was. Its almost half the price of the similar serving at Lawry's.

Christmas is around the corner.. no plans as of yet..

bleah.. 80 pages to finish before i really get to enjoy my holidays... Work Sucks...

Zouk·Out·08

2008-12-15T01:08:00.006+08:00

Well.. another year.. Another ZoukOut..

a very much quieter affair compared to the previous few. Just M and myself this time. Whilst we definitely had fun.... It wasn't really the music that contributed.. lol. This years line up was so.. i don't know.. weird.. the Frenchies werent really all that awesome.. I mean.. they had energy and were jumping around here and there.. Electrico was soso.. the hiphop/Mambo arena was ridiculous.. Last year DJ Craze and MC Armaani headlined there and it was awesome.. seriously.. this year.. there werent any international acts till past 2.. and even then nothing really hiphop.. just more trippy beats.. There were times when all the 3 stages had pretty similar music playing.. But hey.. its ZoukOut.. if the music isnt your cup of tea.. People watching never fails to amuse =D

Also.. if Siloso Beach Resort wasn't spitting distance from ZoukOut i would NEVER have booked it.. Its not even in the same league as the Beauforte but they cost pretty much the same.. I really feel for the suckers that forked out 850 bucks for the top floor rooftop "suites"... I don't even want to start about the Breakfast.. and the entire staff there are like direct imports from china and myanmar who have no idea what tabasco, honey or corkscrews are.. -_-

The demographic has also gone awry this year.. VERY much less locals.. LOTSA foreign school students.. Singtel had a really cool idea with their pool thinghy.. just wish they had been a lil more selective about who they let inside there.. that thing was a cesspool my god..

and btw.. those hotshot burgers are awesome.. Seriously.. Even though they use cheese sauce instead of real cheese.. The beef was still pretty meaty.. much better then i expected to be honest..

Nothing much left on the events calendar till the new years.. Initially planning to head to the yearly event at Kevin's... Has been real fun the last 2 years and basically what got me started on poker in the first place. Thing is this year my cousins from UK and Aussie are going to be spending new years here and they "cool oldies" are planning some kinda countdown at Zouk. tsk tsk.. got to get that figured out... tho honestly it not really such a tough decision.. Kevin is an awesome dude.. but i got to know him actually thru Ming and Git.. and those two are practically non existant nowadays..

Damn I need some new friends..

mor⋅a⋅to⋅ri⋅um

2008-11-30T00:12:00.005+08:00

Not really a good time to be mugging for exams so that you can work in any industry related to finance... There goes motivation out the window..

I wonder how long is the Gov gonna keep silent about all the retarded investments made by GIC and Temasek. Ridiculous amounts of money have been wasted already... In a way its a good thing.. cos you can fuck with a Singaporeans right for freedom.. you can fuck with a Singaporeans right for democracy.. you can fuck with a Singaporeans freedom of speech.. but ONE thing you canNOT fuck with Singaporeans about..

Is Money....

ohhh i wanna see PM/SM hold a "Forum" Session with students or at least a portion of the informed (read: people pissed off that the gov got a payrise for screwing up majorly).

I guess i should define "screw up". Increasing costs ALL across the board for everything even when significant profits were still being made, eg: SPower 1billion profit margin needs to be increased? Looking at the current market climate and the slow revelations of GIC and Temasek making mad losses.. Town Councils and other Stat Boards screwing up their investments as well.. I mean.. when i head that MAS made some investments in minibonds I was dumbstruck!.. i mean.. here we are blaming the poor part timer dudes hanging around banks and MRT stations for misleading the old and the uneducated when even MAS and Stat Boards have screwed up?!

What i don't seem to understand is that, So far.. not many companies have started to make losses... Profits have fallen yes.. Some significantly.. some a lil more.. But actually SME's and some of the larger companies are quite able to ride out this market turmoil. My Dads company even got a business loan recently.. not bad in this "credit crunch" scenario.. (interestingly it was Stan Chart and not one of the local banks that had given the loan.. note that the local banks should be more forthcoming for credit to stimulate consumption..) and these companies are not raising prices.. oh no.. they are offering more competitive prices to stimulate ppl to still consume.. Singaporeans can never refuse a good offer..

In fact the only people raising prices significantly.. are the monopolies. Now i know all these monopolies have the "Pte Ltd" behind them and technically they are simply working out an efficient solution to the market right now... but i think thats all bullshit. Most of the monopolies in Singapore started out as Goverment monopolies.. Then the whole privatisation bullshit came along in the spirit of Capitalism and free market.. So private individuals bought shares in these companies right? WRONG. it was still the goverment in the form of GIC and Temasek(using funds that are or derived from public funds) being significant shareholders in all these monopolies. The very same entities that have made significant LOSSES investing in other countries.

I mean.. lets think logically.. what would cause companies who are already making significant profit.. start making drastic cost cutting measures and price increases not at all proportional to their decline in domestic profit margins..

simple.. Major Shareholders include GIC and Temasek. They have made crazy losses in foreign investment. Things have changed recently that they do after all have to account to the Singaporean Public and let us have access to their accounts... But lets be realistic.. all that get published in the paper is that "GIC earnings down by X%"

So whats happening now is that they are squeezing every drop of profit out of the domestic monopolies to offset the major losses made by them so that at the end of the day when they splash out numbers in the front pages.. it wont look so bad.

Simply.. they screw up. We pay. We pay more for food, electricity, insurance every fuck thing. We get laid off, our salaries get cut, our bonus vanish.... Nicely pad up the profit margins of these monopolies so that their shareholders get to hedge their losses.

And what do they get? Pay Rise.. For doing a "good job" and still getting decent returns when the economy is doing badly...

Thats SG Government 101- Use public to generate funds for investment. DONT invest in domestic companies.. Invest in foreign companies.. When investments dont pay off.. Squeeze local companies to cover losses.. Congratulate themselves on a job well done.

No wonder China wants to learn from us.. They used to be communist right? Oh wait.. they still are!

i·Phone

2008-10-15T00:40:00.003+08:00

Yes yes =) I finally got it =D

Was fooling around with bro's new Canon 450 EOS. Its an awesome camera la.. puts my Sony T200 to absolute shame.

Adding a few other pictures here just got posterity.. lol

School and work is sucking up ALL of my time. Have been having quite a few late nights with the dudes playing poker.

Ok.. a very generic photoblog. I honestly am tight for time. God knows when this is all gonna ease up. Should have known working for dad would come with endless strings.

cheers...

J·ade·d

2008-10-10T00:09:00.000+08:00

My time is not my own =(

Non·Seq·ui·tur

2008-09-18T03:30:00.003+08:00

I'm at a loss right now.. I mean.. i have only so much "incredulity at the stupidity" to go around.. Right now the Courts and the Press are really gunning for the Honour..

No·v·eu

2008-09-07T22:49:00.003+08:00

I is Quad Cored..

Seriously awesome gaming/~~porn~~-appreciating/dvdpwning rig set up. With a screen so big i honestly don't need TV anymore.. Did i mention High Definition? =D

I guess waiting for Diablo 3 and Age of Reckoning to get on some real good gaming.. Will get some pics up once i remember to bring my damn camera to the house from the car... i is hate multistorey carparks..

Starhub has been listed as one of those "Bad ISP's" that "traffic shape" their internet traffic to curb Bittorrent users. Their whole marketing approach for the Ultimate plan which i subscribe to was awesome dll speeds, always on connection and home networking. I pay more the 100bucks a month for that and now they frgging cut the juice. I used to hit like 1200kbps and now after all the major tweaking and encrypting i only putter along at barely 100kbps.. I hope there is some online pettition.. Will definitely get on it, Singapore is setting a bad precedent by doing so much to curb net freedom -_-

I was considering simply switching to SingNet cos they don't do traffic shaping, but that would be like letting LKY into my PC. Imagine that.. my brand new rig getting raped by Big Brother. I guess i'd rather be neutered that raped any time of the day. (C: Deja Vu eh? loll.. )

Bros got a SLR each.. Spent 5k at Comex in total and my new rig without the monitor was like 2k.. Doing up your own PC is awesome.. For one its prolly pretty unique and you get awesome value compared to similar priced computers from retailers. That said, i still wish i had gotten the Acer Predator... Its just.. GodLike..

Am winding down the work for Dad as school approaches.. Still have one project to complete that has been taking up all my time.

Sad that GN got pwned. But honestly we sorta know it was going to go that way anyway.

Lotsa Interesting stuff in the papers.. especially this pretty bold piece from this Chan Mei Kuen (Ms) person.. Damn funny, i wonder is she really thought that suddenly all the Kiasu singaporean are going to suddenly "give face" to the PR's? lol.

The Serangoon Garden dormitory thing is also another farce. I guess they are worried they would lose the HollanV-esque angmophile vibe. As long as Astons still churn out their steaks i honestly dont give a damn.

Will prolly be blogging more often now that school is gonna start

Cheers

Phillips Ave

2008-08-15T00:36:00.004+08:00

You know all those times you here about accidents and shoddy info from witnesses. When you think "number plate also cannot remember issit?!? Use phone take picture loh!"

I feel like a retarded fish.

I saw a car plow smack right through 2 people.. First thing i froze. Then i so garang completed the u-turn, parked the car the whole quick stop yank handbreak style.. Walk to the place.. see the dude bundling the worst off one into the car..

Yeah..no climax.

I just walked there and started blubbering like an idiot.."Shouldn't we wait for a Ambulance?" "Are you sure its a good idea to move her like that?". I guess i was invisible.. cos not only did the driver not acknowledge me (no brainer there.. the dude just drove into 2 people.. prolly blind or something) he simply bundles the 2 girls into the car and tells them that he is bringing them to the hospital.

So what do i do? I walked back to the car.. Moved a few more metres down the road to Al Madhinatul and got the murthabak mom wanted for dinner.

It sorta hit me like 5 mins later.. Only then did i call the police and tell them everything.

i am a retarded fish... Just standing there like an idiot with random thing going thru my head.

"What if that was me driving?" "What if that was malini on the road"

God i hope the 2 of them are alright. At least i got the number plate right. When i went back to the place it was lying on the road.. not sure if he left it there or it came off when he hit the girls..

And that one red shoe.

i am a retarded fish

god i hope those 2 are ok.

Sto·ck·holm Syn·dro·me

2008-08-03T02:46:00.009+08:00

Stockholm syndrome is a psychological response sometimes seen in an abducted hostage, in which the hostage shows signs of loyalty to the hostage-taker, regardless of the danger (or at least risk) in which he has been placed

I believe majority of Singaporean are suffering from this chronic ailment of the mind. I can find no other reason why they still blindly accept all that befalls us. So many civil liberties were given up for economic prosperity and safety for ourselves. Now, terrorists are making fools of the much vaunted civil service, inflation is at a all time high, costs have risen astronomically, Murders and other capital offences are gaining 'popularity", suicide rates have also risen in tandem, freedom of speech on the Internet have been curbed and what does out government do?

Allowed inflation to continue unabated, give out jobs to more and more foreigners, putting more and more relatives of the youknowwho family in top corporations both government owned and so called "independent" companies such as Temasek even though it is publicly funded. The upper echelons of these companies take home obscene pay packages from basically profiteering from the hard earned CPF funds of Singaporeans oh and this takes the cake.. at a time where the entire globe is experiencing economic recession, the Gov decides to up the pay packages of Ministers and the like to further obscene levels.

One day the MM says the International Bar honored Singapore, the next moment the Law Ministry ridicules the report from the very same society identifying serious flaws in the legal system here in place in Singapore.

The more i read about it, the more sick i feel. More i wish there was something i could do. Sigh.

Why did I make my blog private? Most of my friends don't feel the same way about the government as i do. They seem more involved with school, clubbing and other social/commercial activities. There are very few people for me to actually engage in some sort of constructive conversation about this. Suddenly merely talking about how the government "might" actually be engaging in activities that are detrimental to the well being of the general population is taboo.

I couldn't just keep it all in me. I need to vent. I am under no pretence that i have a large readership(if any readers for that matter) for this blog. I am not aiming for Xiaxue fame or mindlessness.. I have faithfully commented and many random aspects of my life ever since this blogs inception a few years ago. Every now and then i go back to some random month and read my thoughts.. its quite an interesting thing to do.. Have spent many an hour just slothing in front of the monitor thinking "what would have july 2005 Selva have done?"

So this is my vent and my outlet. No one is probably going to read the post until much later when i see the outcome of the Gopalan Nair trial. Message to Future Selva: You prolly did the good thing even though it looks like ur pussying out. Live to fight another day. Learn from the mistakes of the other "dissidents" and don't let their efforts go to waste. Dont let our efforts go to waste.

And as always after the above vent, a little more about my everyday life and those ups and downs. The results from SIM are out. I was pleasantly surprised. I didnt do awesome or anything.. pretty average cept for the distinction in Econs. Actually passed maths and stats. thank god. For some reason i am just retarded when it comes to quantitative calculations just for the sake of quantitative calculations. Anyway.. am moving on to year 2 of my Bsc Economics and Management UOL degree pretty comfortably. Things at home are pretty decent, after spending the first month of my holiday basically killing the liver and heading on a backpacking trip to Koh Samui with the gf, settled down to work for dad. Its been a month or working for him and its actually been alright. Did 2 major projects and pretty much streamlined the whole IT system in place there... right now temping as a frigging security guard cos some asshole didnt turn up for work. I tell you, these security guards are the scum of the earth la. I mean there are some pretty decent ones. But most of the rest treat this as some odd job and basically work for a few days then get some advance and disappear to batam. And so poor undergrad me has to sit in this dusty guardroom... i tell you.. merely sitting here and slothing has been killing brain cells.. I brought my laptop and have been watching endless videos.. House, 30 Rock, the Office and at the moment wrapping up Las Vegas. Only just a mins ago managed to figure out how to circumvent the admin restrictions on the guard room pc and actually get online. Owning =D

On to more good news... Delivery of the car is happening on Tuesday. May my ezlink card days be over. =)

Cheers

Dr·ive

2008-07-13T12:07:00.006+08:00

The end of the Daihatsu Charade era came and went. It was fun zipping around in a car almost as old as myself.. Dads MPV isn'n as fun, more because of the fact that if i ever scratch it i am majorly screwed... Anyway, the company car will only be taking delivery in September. Most prolly i will be the one driving most of the time. Other then the non glam factor of it being a commercial vehicle chugging on diesel, its a set of wheels man and thats good enough for me.

The Gopalan Nair Saga has taken another ridiculous turn.. Though i guess it may be time for me to cease commenting on those episodes. I will say without any doubt in my mind that the turn of events that started from that initial blog post, which spurred me on to read more about the circumstances surrounding the whole issue.. One thing lead to another, and soon enough i was listening to court transcripts of our dear leaders in court and reading articles after articles of thought-provoking ideas and pieces of information that slowly removed wool around my eyes.

Neo: Why do my eyes hurt?

Morpheus: Because you have never used them before

I may not be a yet another one of those countless sheep blindly following the "faith" of our dear leaders.. yet i do not wish to follow in the revolutionary footsteps of people like CSJ, CSC Chia Ti Lik and even Gopalan Nair even tho without their actions i wouldn't have been spurred out of my comfort zone and actually do some of my own research and make up my own mind about certain things that i have been taking for granted. Primarily taking the words and actions of our dear leaders as gospel and actually believing that our media was the scrupulous free market minded liberal kind so glamorously portrayed in The Insider.

House: Everyone Lies. Everyone

And i guess so do our dear leaders. In the never ending quest for financial stability that has brought us "so far since 50 years ago" at the horrid expense of the basic rights of being a free thinking human being. We have been fed lies and deceits and this has been going on for so long that it has become the "Singapore Rut". Because our dear leaders have absolute power over the populace for they have brought us unto financial salvation from pathetic poverty and to go against their guidelines we will all quickly degenerate into retarded fools with no capacity to manage our own lives, finance and morals.. Very quickly all the hard work of our dear leaders will be undone. Singapore's prosperity owes itself entirely to our dear leaders without whom we are merely brainless idiots.. And current Singaporeans are more then happy to claim idiocy and let our dear leaders run our lives for us then actually try to take some credit for ourselves and prove ourselves worthy of our own achievements.

I beg to differ. I am not stupid. I can make my own decisions. I can make educated decisions. I don't need the government to tell me how to lead my life. Law and Order is one thing, but 1984 is too much. Dear Leaders, you brought Singapore prosperity yes, but for all those civil liberties you take away from us in return, one would think we were given eternal nirvana in exchange. Your elaborate wall is crumbling. The first chink in your armor has appeared. You are but fallible. You are but human. You are but like the rest of us.

And like the rest of us. You must end.

When you are no longer alive to sue. Your name will be dragged through anal canals longer and more convulsed then all the subway systems in the world put together.

I wait with bated breath.

Pr·oo·f

2008-07-06T22:47:00.001+08:00

Plainclothes Officers in Marked police car.

ridiculous..

w·o·e

2008-07-05T01:37:00.008+08:00

Joined the work force officially on July 1st. Working for dad hasn't been as bad as i thought i would be. Helps that i got my license.. cos dad recently got a new car.. and the salesman sorta threw in another car for me to use for a while to sweeten the deal.. lol.. Not bad right? Dad got a gadget rich MPV and i got a almost 20 year old rustbucket.. not that i am complaining.. i mean.. i've not taken public transport ever since i got my license.. so thats a good thing.. Well.. all the way till today to be honest..Until i got 60 bucks worth of parking fines in about 2 hours today... bleah.. thank god managed to psycho dad to cover the tab.. paying for petrol and ERP is already sucking me dry.. Practically missed the good old days when 20 bucks in the EZlink lasted a week plus plus.. I think this is like Dads MasterPlan to make me stop bugging him to get me a car.. Typical government style action, make me realise i won't be able to afford the upkeep of a car and splurge on beer, food and the gf at the same time.. brilliant..

Dad isn't really working me to the bone.. But he's keeping me on my toes..Was doing some employee database records thingy today.. And look what i stumbled upon..Still trying to figure out if its some sorta typo or is that one happy bhai who had awesome parents..

Gaa i gotta be at the office by 9 tmrw.. and traffic in the morning is terrible..

added almost as an afterthought - I hope GN knows what he's doing. He's in a pretty cozy legal position at the moment.. i mean the dictionaries sorta support his version of the usage of verbiage.. But i just have a sneaky feeling that the whole point of the Gov trying to run him dry would be to push him to do something stupid and then put him away for that..

And whatever he is planning on doing on July 7th is exactly what they might be waiting for. Sigh. I really hope it doesn't end this way. I'll be there definitely.. but i guess i would have to leave my intentions ambiguous.. another of Dad's dictum's.. "Live to fight another day"

Okay that was me just chickening out.

Whats that coming over the hill?

Is it a Monster?

Is it a Monster?!

e·piph·a·ny

2008-06-25T22:59:00.003+08:00

It always bugged me. Was Nair asking for it? challenging directly in such a manner? Did he deserve what he got in the end? It has been like a little parasite gnawing at my glib stand that Nair did nothing wrong.

His update recently which i will quote a little here put my doubts to rest.

I did say in my blog that since Lee Kuan Yew had said, in no uncertain terms, during the 3-day damages hearing recently in the High Court, that if anyone defamed him in a blog, and if they were identified, he will sue them; I had therefore challenged him to sue me as he had threatened. Instead of suing me, he goes on to order his police to arrest me on some dubious charge that I insulted a judge in my blog. Is this a sign of a man in control of himself or that of a man who is so unsure of himself that he has to resort to bullying each time someone challenges him?

There.. bright as day. He isn't stupid. He knew what he was doing all the way. LKY would have an uphill battle to try and get any form of damages or even prove that whatever Nair said could constitute 'defamation'. It will be tantamount to LKY VS The Entire Blogosphere.

Brilliant as Nair was to instigate him with this challenge, I am sure even he was blindsided when the police showed up. Its like a lone knight, lance in hand challenging to a joust to settle honor.. And then the entire cavalry shows up and beats him senseless.. Its just so wrong, If Nair defamed him, there should be a civil suit, not a ridiculous arrest and even more ridiculous charges that they cant even make up their mind about. Some people are claiming Machiavelli in LKY's intent, but all i see is a knee jerk reaction to scare a populace into submission.

And its backfiring. On many levels.

1) By concentrating on just the fact that he 'insulted' a judge. Its tantamount to saying LKY having no issues with whatever else Nair said. His entire blog derides LKY, and he get charged with insulting a judge?

Lesson: Don't "insult" a judge. But go ahead and mock LKY.

imagine if they cannot make any of the ridiculous charges stick, then even the Judiciary/Police will be fair game.

2) The World is Watching. and Laughing.

3) Every single blogger in Singapore will take this personally. How many blogs do you know that sing praises of our government?

I was checking out some forums, as well as comments on the many blogs discussing this issue. I think the "cyber-police" are in overdrive, insidious propaganda machines comparable to Nazi brainwashing, so subtle in context but blatant in ideology. They are everywhere. I was under the impression that only Stomp was the platform for pro gov rhetoric, i recently realised that even Hardwarezone has been bought over by SPH, you can see the signs of propaganda there already. Someone should like start a anonymous proxy service here in Singapore. They will make a bundle up until they get shutdown by Big Brother. Right now the only reputable proxy service here in SG is run by singnet. No brainer right? lol.

So bottom line. The forums are compromised, even Sammyboy i bet. Blogs are the last bastion of hope of any sort of freedom of expression without regulation here in Singapore.

I pray.

dis·si·dent

2008-06-19T23:23:00.003+08:00

The man is back with updates.

The cops are in a pickle now. They can't even make up their mind on what to charge him with.

and i think he either is going stir crazy or trying paddle his way to freedom. I'm guessing the former..

I wonder when the U.S Embassy is going to intervene.

Now that would be a drama worth watching eh?

Sa·mui

2008-06-18T21:51:00.004+08:00

The view from the room. Behind tinted glass and in the cool comfort of the air con. Rest of the pics are on facebook. Wierd huh, i have a paid flickr account and yet i still nowadays put most of my new pictures on facebook.

Did the usual touristy stuff. Third time there so nothing much new, except the room which was worth every baht! Angela's for awesome yummy food, hidden beaches that took required half an hour of off road biking. Standing up for the King before watching Narnia. Lousy jap food that cost a few hours in the toilet.

And my FIRST traffic ticket. 300 Baht for not wearing a helmet while riding. brilliant.

Driving test in a weeks time.. this is NOT a jinx

I should blog more often now that its my holidays.. But i'm too busy slothing

cheers

dis·si·dent

2008-06-04T22:11:00.008+08:00

you have got to read the dude.. He says it clearly on his blog what he did. What he is trying to do. No grey areas here.. And calling that a 'threat' is just clear transparent bullshit. And so is 1 week of remand to 'investigate' Took the better part of 2 hours to read almost all his posts... Oh who am i talking about?

Gopalan Nair

He recently got arrested.. and a minute column in Today newspaper which for some reason seems to have changed the headline..

This is the controversial line that got him in hot water.. I have taken it here with the whole paragraph to give it some context.

"The following transpired during the last 3 days in court. The judge Belinda Ang was throughout prostituting herself during the entire proceedings, by being nothing more than an employee of Mr. Lee Kuan Yew and his son and carrying out their orders. There was murder, the rule of law being the repeated victim."

I mean.. look at that.. how is that possibly a threat??!! Alright it was kinda rude but we all know the point he's trying to put across.. he explains it in the very sentence.. "being nothing more then an employee"

Update of the case on Todayoneline

Well.. wonder how this is going to pan out.. The Case Of the Chees' are seeing them got to jail according to AFP

Every foreign news thinghy i have read about these two cases always have some pun or hint of humour.. probably sarcasm.. but you get my point.. The Judiciary is fast becoming a laughing stock..

Brilliant..

in·som·nia

2008-05-29T10:40:00.003+08:00

Well.. it has been 9 days since my exams ended.. And i think finally i am slowly coming out of my sloth marathon.. I have been downloading and watching ridiculous amounts of movies, serials and gaming like my life depended on it.. Add to that 2 bbq's and one beer and poker night and last nights monster drinking.. oh god..

Just finished season 4 of the O.C. the final season. Had it for months but have been putting it away for ages.. Sigh.. if there is ever one season spanning tv series i will miss.. this will be the one.. Greys anatomy just got ridiculous after season 2/3. The only other series that comes close to the interest i have on O.C will be Life and Chuck.. The dude behind the O.C is also behind Chuck.. Lotsa similarities between the series as well.. the music.. curly haired jewish dude as one of the main protaganists.. recipe for success for Josh Schwartz

I think i am going to try and reset my biological clock.. i have been sleeping at like 7 am for the past week.. waking up after dusk.. stuffing my face before flopping in front of the computer again.. Done with Max Payne 2.. memory block 5 on Assassins Creed.. A coupla more weeks before a new rank on battlefield 2...

Oh and movies.. lol.. old school currently the flavour.. Rounders... Donny Darko.. Kill Bill.. All the Dune flicks.. even tron! I really hope they do some monster warhammer 40k movie la..

its 1050 in the morning.. and after staying up the entire night.. oh god.. i just wanna curl up and not wake up till its dark... mmm mussstt reesssisstt..

oh who am i kidding..

nocturnal is the new cool..

Re·li·ef

2008-05-23T03:38:00.002+08:00

Well.. the exams are finally over..

reached home after sunrise the very next 2 days after they ended. lol. Beer and poker at gits place and then the 3 hours Champs League Final.. can't believe Ronaldo bungled another penalty.. Maybe real madrid will forget about him now and he can remain at Man Utd. lol..

Am down to 4 and a half cartons of beer..

really thinking of cutting my hair.. but i see a failed experiment in the offing.. dreadlocks from thailand~! if it screws up i'll be coming back to singapore bald..

Have been doing some 'movie' research.. i have 3 months of holidays and a awesome computer rig set up.. So time do immerse in visual gluttony.. Not forgetting the odd 5 hour stretches of gaming.. Assasins Creed and Max Payne 2 have been installed and waiting.. thats like about 20 hours minimum of rpg gameplay..

and then i am thinking of getting a part time job.. working for dad is one option.. tho it has rarely worked out well in the past.. Teaching will be a bore even thou its good money.. i decent haircut and wearing formal clothes is just too much starch for a holiday...

clubbing after ages is on later tonight.. sigh.. good times =D

cheers..

Tr·e·nd

2008-05-19T04:29:00.004+08:00

there are a lot of trends going on nowadays.. some are really worrying in my book... some are just random..

People getting married

Okay i mean really married/engaged not those 'married on facebook' people... Nowadays people get married and THEN figure out the house/kids/finance like a couple of years down the road... And here was i all along thinking that you only got married once you are able to figure out those issues... i mean.. whats the point of getting married when you are still staying with your parents, you've not even on the never ending queue to get a HDB flat... don't even have life insurance.. no career.. i mean.. there are exceptions la.. but at the ripe age of 19 - 23.. i don't see many set for life types around.. whats the rush!? its setting a bad precedent man.. Marriage is serious.. you don't use marriage as a 'promise'... "Oh lets get married now.. i'll promise to settle down with you after i move out of my parents place and get a decent job." thats just ridiculous.. plain ridiculous..
but on the other hand.. if it makes you happy and you sleep better at night at your parents house while your technically married wife is sleeping at her parents place.. hey.. its a free world

Civil Disobediance

Its about time i say... but no matter how much i identify with these guys.. i seriously lack the nuts for this.. armchair critic i will remain... anonymous(hopefully) behind my ip address..

ps: you guys HAVE to watch the Nation Under Lee video.. At least for General Knowledge's sake eh..

i think i unknowingly created a pun up there.. tho its kinda abstract.. lol.. wonder if anyone will notice.. hmm..

oh and this video is also interesting..

Clubbing Bashing

Hey i'm not some pro clubbing activist or claim to spend my weekends/life/time at random clubs around Singapore.. In fact the last time i went clubbing was Halloween.. But suddenly is seems the general consensus that clubbing is for lifeless irrational people.. and all i wanted to do was to de-stress after the crazy mugging sessions i went through for the exams ending this Tuesday =D Back in the day.. if you hadn't been to Hendrix or... okay i can't really remember the name of that underage clubbing place that was hot at that time.. was it creamz?... anyway.. back in the day.. if you hadn't been to those places. you were a noob.. and now.. just for wanting to club after ages.. i get the whole "i think there are better rational things to do then club" Sigh.. damn hard to have fun nowadays without getting judged..

Supporting Obama

Hey if you are American.. well good on you.. its your country and you pick the leader.. but if you are NOT american.. why the fuck do suddenly go all "Vote Obama"!!?? suddenly random people in coffeeshops think its cool to support Obama while remaining utterly apathetic to the political climate here in singapore... but hey free world..

sigh.. i feel much better.. not supposed to blog till after the exams.. but.. the feeling is awesome after you let a load off your chest..

Information Systems and Sociology here i come

cheers

Ex·am·s

2008-04-29T12:04:00.002+08:00

This page will be blank till may 20th..

wish me luck for the exams people..

2·3

2008-04-14T00:00:00.004+08:00

Birthday has come and gone =)

Notice the visibly smaller wish list.. Mont Blanc from malini.. Chah got me the crumpler! she's awesome la.. Suresh and the rest got me a cigar they painstakingly smuggled across the border.. Ming and co got (actually in the process) of getting me the Razer keyboard.. awesome =D not forgetting shanker who got me the cake =D

The kebab idea was kinda

alright.. when i was typing that.. Arsenal scored with a cheap hand of god.. and manchester united evened up with a penalty after a handball by Gallas.. tsk tsk.. damn frenchies.. its football people.. use the feet.. no hands..

anyway.. back to kebabs.. it was a good idea.. but a lot of people were too impatient to (or hungry) to skewer them properly.. lol.. The burger pattys were a disappointment.. i really should tweak the recipe.. not used to using handchopped beef compared to the store bought mince we are used to..

Managed to polish of 5 cartons of beer..

christ i really got to start mugging.. its not even 3 weeks till my exams and

GOAL! lovely free kick by hargreaves.. i though ronaldo was gonna take it.. and i think lehman thought so as well.. he was rooted to the spot!

so yeah.. 3 more weeks till my exams.. i really need to buck up for my stats and sociology..

anyway.. back to the game now.. cheers..

dr·ive

2008-04-05T05:00:00.002+08:00

Well.. its been more then 2 years since my last formal driving lesson.. And it showed today. lol..

I mean its not so much a problem of getting the car moving from point A to point B (yes i was hoping it would be as simple as that..) but more like re-learning procedures of checking blind spots and all the other random almost useless but necessary skills so to con a driving assessor that i am actually not a liability on the road...

Next lesson this Sunday.. Driving test on 28th June 2008.. Singapore roads after that will never be the same again..

jesus Christ.. I'm turning 23 and I'm crowing about getting my license.. boy am i slow..

birthday is around the corner.. and i still haven't got any idea what to do.. I certainly don't want a repeat of last years party... hey.. it was great fun and all that.. but it was a bitch to plan and went waaayyy over budget..

I'm thinking much smaller scale this year.. that coupled with the fact that my exams are plus minus a month away..

i still do have a significant amount of beer under the bed.. can't let them go to waste can i?

man i need inspiration...

band·width

2008-04-03T23:24:00.002+08:00

the net upgrade kicked in today... All my torrents are like dlling uber fast i'm running out of hard disk space..

This speed test was done with bit torrent still going on at full tilt.. gotta love bandwidth..

up·grade

2008-03-30T23:51:00.001+08:00

An entire sunday burnt... For an exceptionally good deal.. got the new hubstation thinghy + upgraded the net to the 100mbps plan..

the real juice hasnt kicked in.. they told me my speed will only be upped in like 3 working days.. have been speedchecking my bandwidth every other hour..

tsk tsk.. sad.. the new plan hasnt kicked in..

anyway.. am now going to get some studying under the belt.. 11 Days till my birthday.. and i've got to spend 7 hours of it sitting in a lousy stats lecture.. wunnerful..

akan datang...

ca·rous·al

2008-03-29T01:15:00.002+08:00

this entire week has been one sick day to another.. Monster 7 hour lectures.. pill popping and tissue diving.. not to mention the crazy weather.. sunshine to rain.. back to sunshine.. repeat that twice in a single day? my god.. too much expansion and contraction of my skull..

Hopefully i will get better over the weekend and be more useful.. actually get SOME studying done.. my final exams are like in a months time and i am still buggering around..

some good news.. my IPPT window is actually just opening this april instead of ending.. so i have another blissful year before i have to step into a army camp for any random reason..

Did i mention that i have collected the second half of the one years supply of Erdinger i won last Oktoberfest.. All stuffed under my bed now.. gave away 3 cartons.. but about it.. the rest is all mine.. MINE! i was pretty easy with the first half.. giving away tons.. so i am perfectly justified to be miserly with this batch. =D

will be heading to Sentosa tmrw with the rugger guys.. thinking of bringing some beer down.. but not much point if no one has a cooler right?

Hope i get well by tmrw morn...

cheers..

Fla·sh·ba·ck

2008-03-16T22:42:00.006+08:00

I cant believe i am still here doing this when i have 3 assignments due tmrw... anyway.. in chronological order. First up was Beer Burgers and Poker at Gits place.

Following that was part 3 of the Johore Bahru invasion by the ex JI ruggers.. Where we went past the usual cheapo cigars and cheapo seafood/ramly burgers and explored the Zon nightlife.. and usual we had to do something that got us a whole lot of attention..

We promised ourselves the next time we went up there.. We're gonna do something way over the top..

And what do you know.. barely 2 weeks after that.. we were at it again.. At the top floor of the Zon Regency.. having been upgraded to a club suite for reasons i am still unsure of.. LOL..

Yeahp.. you are seeing cuban cigars.. Davidoff ciggies and good ol single malt scotch. Living it up eyyy...

The gang.. The craziest vid of the day goes to Steve for this gem...

After that it was a ~~muthafuckinglong~~ barely decent ferry ride to the little Island of Batam. Was really a last minute thing and in the charmer in me won us another upgrade to a family suite.. lol.. That meant Suresh and Navin actually had beds to sleep in this time..

Highlight of the trip, the amazing seafood at this placed called the Golden Prawn.. Seems every Singaporeans must stop when they head to Batam.. tho we were still sore at getting continuously ripped off by taxi drivers.. we had ourselves to blame for picking a hotel resort 45 mins from the city centre.. bleah..

Can you actually believe each of these didnt even come up to 20 bucks?!?! ridiculous right!?!

Choosing how we actually wanted the food to be done was serious business.. No kidding..

The next morning was a visit to the swimming pool where we actually played random water polo.. kicked kids off the slide and almost broke my nose going headfirst down it.. and ~~chilled~~ steamed/sauna/bath at the Tea Tree Spa over at the Holiday Inn.. had a whole villa thinghy to us.. 2 hours of bliss and nice smells.. seriously recommmended.. i can see why they were best spa in indonesia.. albeit 4 years ago.. which would also be the reason why the prices are dirt cheap at the moment.. Just try not to get ripped off by cabbys like we did..

Having said that.. the damn exchange rate is simply ridiculous.. we were carrying frigging millions around.. yeahp.. so many zeros it was mind boggling.. i had 3 currencies in my wallet.. and juggling 2 different exchange rate is really taxing trust me...

Forgive me for this extremely rushed and random post.. lol. back to regular blogging akan datang...

cheers..

Sp·ee·din'

2008-03-02T22:26:00.001+08:00

Finally a rap vid without a 6 pack hugging gym rat rapper..

the·o·ry

2008-02-29T17:45:00.003+08:00

Its been awhile eh? Been spending most of my time ~~sleeping~~ mugging and ~~eating~~ cycling..

photoblog for a lil.. =)

this is Brain from "Pinky and the Brain".. He's finally been caught.. but not giving up the fight to take over the world..

Check out these AWESOME slabs of nougat.. Courtesy of Jones the Grocer and Culina at Dempsey Hill.. these 2 gourmet stores are HEAVEN.. makes you wanna simply grab everything..

The smell from this cheese room was simply divine.. so many cheeses in one small "airtight" room.. lol.. there was even a 300 buck bottle of preserved white truffles.. tsk tsk.. i wish..

And then while driving to back to a homecooked meal of burgers and smoked salmon we passed by the now famous ridley park place with the ridiculous amount of horsepower available..

Took some more pictures of the food we finally cooked.. but those are in the camera and malini still has the cable thinghies.. all these pictures were taken with my new Razr2 V9.. pretty decent eh? =)

mu·se

2008-02-24T00:14:00.001+08:00

The muse had fled at the onset of the examinations.. But todays travesty cannot go unrecorded... After spending an entire sleepless night mugging my ass off.. Econs is like my only chance of having an A on my score sheet.. And after my 2 feel good tests which i aced.. (almost perfect scores ok) today was a 3 hour long crash back to earth..

The first half an hour was spent simply diciphering the lingo.. arghh.. i'll be surprised even if i get a borderline pass on this one..

Seriously not helping the fact that Maths is on Tuesday..

god save me.

con·tem·po·rar·y

2008-02-14T23:53:00.005+08:00

Okay.. exams are in one week.. i'm COMPLETELY unprepared... Mindfucked by the sheer amount of sociology readings that i have yet to complete... A 25 mark 800 word essay is due tmrw and i have yet to even start on it..

On a lighter note.. the johor trip was awesome.. (i'm going to cheat code and photoblog.. too lazy to even put this stuff on the photostream.. facebook should suffice for the rest)SO got to love Malaysia balls...And we got all arty farty and checked out the museum.. with Git cheking out his childhood haunts in the backyard cemetary/Fort Canning green.. no more saga seeds left tho..

And of course.. its V day =D After 3 years of serving the commercial machine.. we did things abit differently this year..( we still served the commercial machine if you ask me -_-) no expensive dinners.. no flowers.. just pizza.. cards.. oh and we got each other new phones =P. I got her the moto v8 gold lux edition.. its sweet.. seriously sweet phone.. and she got me the new razr2 v9.. it'll suffice.. lol.. other then the phones itself.. the boxes they came in were pretty rad... like folding out tranformer-like.. aiyah.. photos in the next post after the exams..

akan datang..

Thaipusam

2008-01-25T01:44:00.000+08:00

my 3rd year running that i have been helping my friend Dinesh and his Dad with putting together their Kavadi and walking with them the route.. (photos of Thaipusam 2007 in the photo stream.. this years take HERE) These guys are like old school, not the erm.. more "modern" versions of Kavadi's we see more and more off each year.. His dads one is particularly awesome as instead of being mounted on a belt wrapped around his waist as is the more common variety, His is instead mounted directly on piercings around his waist... The pictures say it all.. This year was very different to the experience i have had over the last 2 years.. It was somewhat "muted".. Compared to last year where there was like a long line of Kavadi's throughout the entire route. But this time.. there were gaps where ours was the only Kavadi in sight... It was pretty much an uneventful journey from Tekka to the tank rd temple... Too uneventful if you ask me.. it seemed almost like a solemn event.. Every single step it felt like i was being watched not by god but by Big Brother... I am trying very hard to make this experience as positive as possible and not be a my usual self and point out flaws in everything.. But Aarthi's post on her Thaipusam experience put me in a reflective mood.. (always happens when i do 2am posts..)

Year after year more and more constraints are piling up.. I would never have imagined Thaipusam to be such a "non" event... Compared to last year and the year before where i can remember almost the entire journey i walked from Tekka to Tank Road, observing the many other Kavadi's... Watching passionate bhajan groups sing.. Even laugh about the "chicago jango" types.. This year.. all i seem to remember is the beginning.. and the end.. and of course the "Om Muruga" announcements telling us that if we litter we're gonna be fined... Brilliant.. The saving grace were the few "Thanneer Pandhals" that were playing loud music that kept the Kavadi carrying devotee's fervor up.. I wonder if that too will be taken away come thaipusam next year..

All in all, even though it was a muted affair.. i made my peace with god.. felt much better on the way home.. and look forward to it next year..

fli·ckr

2008-01-22T00:40:00.000+08:00

Well.. another Sunday on the very picturesque East Coast Park.. Ming was late (whats new -_-) but i guess it was a good thing cos we missed the afternoon shower.. We kinda cheated.. We made it all the way to Changi Village of course.. But we didn't cycle back cos it was already getting late.. but during one of my "illegal" pit stops where ming and git thought i like crashed and died i took a few nice shots.. even one of the unforgettable Pulau Tekong.

Now the best part of the the whole trip HAS to be the damn Nasi Ayam Penyet i had.. one way to really appreciate food.. biking 20 clicks just to get to it.. The guy was nice enough to be really generous with the chilli this time.. amazing stuff.. i think all that chilli played a very large factor in us deciding to stuff 3 bikes in a boot of a cab and pay 15 bucks for a ride back to the car parked in east coast.. I was so eager to dig into the food i forgot the take bloody picture of it.. i actually carried my camera all the way to take a picture of the damn food before i stuffed myself.. but KWA i forgot.. -_-

Oh and i almost forgot the reason we were rushing.. Dinner at Relish!!! It was awesome la.. tho git and all were complaining a little about the price... The burger itself was awesome.. I had the Wild Rocket burger. The patty is the same all round for the beef burgers i think.. Its awesome.. one of the best.. even better then the one from wine garage.. The sundried tomato relish was ok la... not really remarkable.. the bacon (which was an add on.. but of course =) was purrffect.. what really 'made' the burger was the cream pepper sauce with that little bunch of rockets beneath the patty.. Awesome stuff.. they should be a little more generous with it.. or provide some of it as dipping sauce..

BUT

the "fittings" were abit sad.. The burger was accompanied with a bunch of fries.. thats it.. very normal bunch of fries.. no salad.. no "rockets" NOTHING!?! i mean for a 17 to 19 buck burger.. give a little extra you know what i mean? Condiment choices were also lacking.. they used cold guacamole on Mings mexicana burger.. i mean.. you put jalapenoes, onions and a nice hot patty promising a nice mexican spice thinghy and they dump a dolop of cold guacamole on top of it.. not smart..Did i mention the ant/random creepy crawlie problem they have? One of the staff actually grabbed some kinda bug with a tissue paper on the table across ours.. proceded bang/squish it a coupla times.. and proceded to show it to the rest of the serving staff to loud "eeewwss".... like wtf!??! Dessert was hit and miss.. Chahs molten/lava/generic choc cake looked like it was microwaved.. My strawberry cheesecake thinghy was awesome.. tho a tad makeshift and the serving was seriously small.. SERIOUSLY. I should have taken pictures.. but i left the camera in the car.. I'm going to try this place one more time.. Maybe because we were a little late (ten minutes before last order.. and the fact that Git just watched this movie Waiting... and telling us what waiters did to people who gave last minute orders.. I'll go for lunch this time.. lol..

back to mugging..

Dark·Wing·Duck

2008-01-20T12:47:00.000+08:00

my hero of the younger days.. together with Tailspin and Chip and Dale Rescue Rangers and Duck Tales.. going back even earlier would be Smurfs(someone pls make a movie about them) and the Gummi Bears..

In 2007.. what do we have? Presenting.. the Adolescent Radioactive Black Belt Hamsters which i am sure alot of kids these days would LOVE watching/reading about..

Heading for the Sundays cycling at eastcoast/changi village and getting my fix of ayam penyet in exchange for cycling about 40 clicks.

andandandand heading to Relish for dinner.. will be bringing my camera.. so akan datang..

cheers..

Req·ui·em

2008-01-19T02:57:00.001+08:00

How i spent a lazy friday evening on my own.. M's down with chicken pox so i guess its just mugging and eating this weekend for me... Oh yes.. cycling on Sunday.. cycling 15+ clicks to changi village is worth it cos of the nasi ayam penyet. I'll try to take pictures of the cycling this time..

Dvd rentals.. Finally caught spiderman 3.. That superman doomsday movie is awesome.. tho i still think the comic book was way better.. and of course fight club..

Finally got my bacon fix.. check out the burger man.. awesome stuff..

These are the Double up chicken and IeatBurger from Astons Express at Serangoon Gardens. They beat botak jones hands down if you ask me. Seriously good comfort food.. Noel's no carbs after 7 plan for me lasted all of one day.

owning..

Vi·rus

2008-01-16T21:05:00.000+08:00

Its been almost a week of battling random viruses and backup woes and like FINALLY am back in the game. The ipod sadly has been the cause of most of the problems. It's somehow infected and i wasn't able to use it to backup my data. 5 gigs of my life = 7 CD-R's.

The good. Well.. computer is now super fast and everything works well and smoothly. No games to distract me.

The Bad. I lost ALL my games and songs and chat logs and all that crap. gaa..

I think i really need to go for a hair cut..

M is down with chicken pox... which means i might be too.. but haven't shown any symptoms as yet..

man.. such a random post.. Virus killing is tiring biz..

m·u·g

2008-01-11T00:32:00.000+08:00

Yeahp.. its barely into the new year and the mugging has to begin... This weekend is like the last weekend till my bday where i am gonna kick back and take a break to actually do anything "random". 6 weeks to prelims and 4 months to the exams..

Good news is i did pretty well for my tests.. Improved from a pass to a merit on socio.. maintained a merit on Infosys and got a distinction for econs.. Am going to be studying in school most of the time... Simply too much distractions here at home.. Just too easy to click that Call Of Duty 4 button and log on to some serious gaming distraction (have hit Major on COD4.. Owning..)

I better get some hours in the sack before socio lecture tmrw..

cheers..

u·n·o

2008-01-01T23:45:00.000+08:00

First day of the new year.. and i'm fucking sick. Must have been the dip/throw/dunk in the pool and/or spending the rest of the night in soggy boxers.

i SERIOUSLY have to learn how to use my camera. It works amazingly well in daylight situations but indoors and soft lighting/low light situations i really have no idea which settings are ideal and end up taking blurry or pixellated pictures. Someone help please.

photos of the fun at Kevin's place on facebook.

I am seriously NOT looking forward to school.. It does not help that i did not study even a single bit during the holidays and have more then a few assignments due...

christ.. i need to get well and get back to mugging..

e·n·d

2007-12-31T04:06:00.000+08:00

Wrapping up a pretty decent year.. nuff said =)

Collected·Visions

2007-12-27T21:57:00.000+08:00

Thats another one off the list =)

Le·gend

2007-12-25T04:13:00.000+08:00

Its was so-so. I feel very neutral towards it. I think if anyone other then Will Smith was acting in it. I would prolly have trashed it straight away. I feel like i am betraying my movie sense.. bleah..

But Will's good.. reaaaalll good.. And he made a pretty crappy movie bearable.

I have been completely slothing this entire holidays. Sleeping and gaming and watching movies and watching serials online and more cooking.. lotsa eating..not forgetting gaming... Lucky i have run out of my first batch of beer.. Will be taking delivery of more next year..

Monster is finally toilet trained and has the run of the house.. Tho we are keeping him mostly in the kitchen where he wont find many cables to gnaw.

The rebonded hair has settled into a comfy wavy state.

My bicycle has been replaced and its working awesomely.. tho i need a frigging better seat. The current one is like killing my butt cheeks.

This year i have successfully quit smoking

man.. life is so boring without school..

Hu·bris

2007-12-19T12:34:00.000+08:00

How can anyone with intelligence NOT see past the hubris being spouted across the border? Mind boggling. Thankfully i am not alone in in my views.

RIGHTS-MALAYSIA: 'Neo-Liberal Policies Fuelling Protests, Not Race'
Analysis by Anil Netto

PENANG, Dec 18 (IPS) - After a series of street demonstrations in recent weeks top analysts and activists say the government is not tackling the economic roots of grievances among marginalised Malaysians, but appears stuck in its old mould of race-based thinking.

On Nov 10, some 50,000 people rallied in the country’s largest city Kuala Lumpur to call for electoral reforms in an initiative spearheaded by Bersih, a coalition of civil society groups supported by opposition parties.

Two weeks later, on Nov. 25, close to 30,000 Indian Malaysians participated in a huge protest over the community’s economic marginalisation and what they perceived as racial and religious discrimination. The protest was led by a group calling itself the Hindu Rights Action Force (Hindraf). Indian Malaysians make up 7 per cent of the country’s population.

There have also been a series of much smaller "walks", vigils, temple prayers for those arrested, and submissions of memorandums on a range of pro-democracy issues.

The administration of Prime Minister Abdullah Badawi has responded by hauling dozens of demonstrators to court on charges of ‘illegal assembly’, ‘causing mischief’, ‘sedition’. Murder charges pressed against them were, however, withdrawn on Monday.

Five key Hindraf leaders have been in detention since Thursday under the draconian Internal Security Act.

Analysts looking at the profile of the two large demonstrations found common threads. ''There is a simmering discontent in the country played out in different ways,’’ said economist Charles Santiago of the Monitoring Globalisation research centre. The Bersih and Hindraf protests were a culmination of an outpouring of demands for justice and accountability, he told IPS.

In the case of Bersih, most of the demonstrators were low-income Malay Malaysians upset over what they perceive to be electoral manipulation by the Malay-dominated political elite.

In the Hindraf protest, many of the Indian Malaysians, once seen as compliant and supportive of the ruling coalition, were low-income ethnic Tamils. Earlier, low-income urban workers, many of them ethnic Malays, had also protested in support of trade union demands for a realistic minimum wage to cope with the increased cost of living.

''All this, put together, suggests there is a lot of inequity being felt,'' said Toh Kin Woon, a senior member of the Penang state government known for his independent thinking. ''They are worked up and prepared to take action to press their case.''

Santiago sees the protests as largely coming from a post-New Economic Policy generation of youth, especially Malay and Indian Malaysians. The NEP was a 20-year affirmative action policy favouring Malays and other indigenous groups. It expired in 1990, but its race-based thrust has been extended in various forms.

''These youth are trying to send a message to the government that their voice is not being heard and they don’t have a place in the Malaysian sun,'' he said.

‘’Working-class Malays are increasingly seeing the elite Malays in the ruling United Malays National Organisation (UMNO) as their exploiters and no longer their protectors,’’ agrees opposition political activist Jeyakumar Devaraj.

According to some analysts, sections of Indian Malaysian youth experience marginalisation on a daily basis. They assert that Tamil-language schools have been neglected: many pupils drop out and become unemployed, some turn to gangsterism or end up in prison, and occasionally, there are complaints of deaths in police custody.

''The Indian Malaysian poor perceive themselves as lacking opportunities to improve their life chances,'' Toh told IPS. Unlike their Malay counterparts, they have no state support, and unlike the Chinese Malaysians, they have little financial support from the larger Indian Malaysian community, he added.

Deveraj told IPS that Indian Malaysians often feel discriminated in scholarships and government jobs. Fuelling the resentment further has been a series of disputes over civil-sharia jurisdiction cases involving Indians converting to Islam as well as a number of temple demolitions.

However, others point to the existence of many other Hindu temples, which they say are evidence of the government’s commitment to supporting a multi-ethnic, multi-religious society.

Devaraj feels the economy is a bigger factor fuelling the grievances, especially neo-liberal policies and the continuing exploitation of the working class within the capitalist system.

According to some analysts, the government has increasingly been transferring its responsibilities to the profit-driven private sector and dismantling elements of a welfare state. Under a neo-liberal regime, tariffs for essential services have risen, while wages have been kept low, driving up the cost of living for low-income workers. Jobs are no longer secure and the import of cheap migrant labour has suppressed local wages.

Other commentators assert that the Hindraf leaders’ exaggerated claims -- including that of "ethnic cleansing" -- have actually played into the hands of the government, giving it ammunition to criticise Hindraf leaders and portray the group as anti-Malay/Muslim. The multi-ethnic, though Malay-based Bersih movement, meanwhile, has been accused of being used by the opposition.

Government leaders are also playing to the Malay racial gallery, turning the Hindraf issue to their advantage, says a leading public intellectual Rustam Sani, author of books on Malay nationalism. ''UMNO and the ruling coalition have been playing the ethnic game for years and they are old hands at it.''

The government should have investigated the causes of the grievances rather than attacking the language use by the Hindraf leaders and demonising them, said Toh, a senior member of Gerakan, a ruling coalition party.

''A better approach would have to been to engage with the Hindraf leaders and talk to them about their grievances rather than with groups sympathetic with the MIC."

Toh said that he did not agree with Hindraf’s racial and religious approach, but stresses that they were not the first ones to use it, alluding to the government’s own race-based approach. He added that the ISA detentions of Hindraf leaders have actually aggravated the unhappiness among Indian Malaysians.

UMNO itself is in trouble, unable to chart a new more inclusive direction: cracks are emerging in the ruling coalition, which is increasingly dominated by one party, claimed Santiago.

The premier’s leadership qualities have also come under fire. Abdullah Badawi is an out-and-out administrator, muddling his way through and not providing answers to the real long-term problems of society, said Rustam. ‘’He hasn’t articulated any vision, but merely reacts in an administrative way. And those around him are not socialised in democratic thinking.’’

There’s also a sense of anger among certain sections of society over what they perceive to be betrayal by the leadership. They sense that the leadership lacks direction over the future and how to defuse social issues differently, said Rustam. ''People are restless -- and that’s progress.''

Weep for Humanity.

2007-12-14T01:05:00.000+08:00

I left these comments at Dan-Yel's and Zewts blog after reading their posts. Felt i have more to say, but wouldn't have been in context and way too lengthy if i did it all there.. thus the continuation..

Anonymous:

Welcome to 1984 my friend. Peace and Harmony is a social concept that is being imposed upon you? Is peace and harmony a status quo or a form of social control to be enforced by the powers that be?

The Law is the epitome of the democratic system, flawed in some areas it may be.

Charge them for christ sake. Let them have their say in court! If they are found guilty of something.. put them in jail!!

Dont stuff them in some black hole and pretend not to hear what they are saying. Malaysia is a country of democratic humans.. Not Ostriches that bury their heads at the first sign of trouble.

Dan:

i feel very saddened by this turn of events. To be really honest, HINDRAF kinda screwed up by taking the Martyr's approach by courting this possible ISA action by the govt. IF the whole movement fizzles out now, at the end of the day it is going to be the common man that suffers tragically. The movement must take a more indirect approach of rather then highlighting the faults of the system, highlight the plights of the people!

Every government is flawed in some way, Ur not going to get much ears telling everyone "Oh you know.. my govt is f***ed up!!" Everyone in almost every country has gripes with his or her own govt, its part and parcel of living in a multi faceted society.

Tell everyone that we are sitting on a major crisis, and there is nothing being done about it! People are being swept under the carpet! The media blanket on HINDRAF has unofficially become the media blanket of the plight of the common man, 20,000(or whoever that demonstrated, or cried at home or is suffering) pleas for help being ignored!

Plea to the humane side of people!! because in the end.. humanity without race, religion or government is still one self serving entity that looks after its own..

They(the world) may not care that the voice of 5 have been quelled in the quest for progress..

But no reason at all can justify the silencing of more then 20,000 pleas for help my friends.. That is something no ISA touting goverment or any humane person at all can sweep under the carpet..

It is not a sad day for Malaysia or democracy or the Indian diaspora if this is allowed to go condoned..

It is a sad day for entire HUMANITY if the plight of all those poor people is going to be ignored.. To be discounted by some mere technicality..

Please.. don't think you are helping a fellow Malaysian, or a fellow Indian or a fellow friend. You are helping a fellow human being improve his life...

A fellow human being needs our help. 20,000 and more human beings need our help.. Are we just going to stand by the side and watch?
I love my food =)

The way i look at it, this is not a racial problem at all. Its primarily an economic problem. The have nots should be given equal opportunity to excel and progress..

It is sadly a by product of governmental policy that the problem has become racially stratified..

and it really sad that the government is using this racial sensitivity as a tool to bury evidence of economic instability..

"Problem? where got problem? the troublmakers are in jail. No more problem. Malaysia is a multi racial society where there is cohesion among races"

Its like Bush starting the Iraq war to draw attention away from the economic crap happening in the Big A. And the dollar has been slipping ever since.

i know i am putting what is happening in an abstract light. But the way i see it, to avoid all that racial "tension" is to make it problem that everyone can associate with. An economic problem.

Regardless of race, religion, country height weight what ever.. As long as you are not given sufficient opportunity to put food on your own table and provide for your family and live comfortably.. Something is really wrong, and it is the governments prerogative to make it right.

Selva =)

Firstly, my disclaimer. I am NOT anti government or anti Malay/Malaysia/Muslim or anti anything you can think off. I am a peace loving pacifist that counts the hours/days/years to till the next time i will be allowed to eat another 450 grm steak with permission from the "Fat Control Board" run by the "Skinnies" that make up the majority of the waistline watching Dystopian society i live in.

Orwell is a genius. Oh how his books put things in perspective eh?

I envy the Malaysians. Just by their actions these past few days, people from both sides, i envy them all. You know why? I live in Singapore. There is no "side". Govt says jump. You bloody well jump. If you wanna hop, well.. report sick.. or migrate. You fight the govt, you are well and truly fucked.. Over here.. the common man has a vested interest in the government. Which sane mind would put years of savings in his CPF account in risk by taking to the streets? Which sane man would risk losing his HDB flat? (Especially since the private property market has gone cuckoo with "Luxury prime property" with "Prime" prices.)

To the governments credit (and of course what makes me sleep better at night after knowing all these facts) is that they have done their best to make this society as ideal as possible for every Singaporean. Ours is a model government for the fact that they can do anything and everything they want and yet they choose to take care of its citizenry regardless of cultural and quantitative makeup. Hey its not perfect, but tell me... what is? Where is that perfect "model" government that we are supposed to compare it to?

Yes yes. you are hearing me defend my government. A first on this blog too.. lol.. But the issues in Malaysia have put things in perspective for me.

Oh yes, technically they can make my life hell, use the many so called "un-democratic" tools in their arsenal to keep our population a docile, productive one.

Am i proud to be part of this productive docile population? hmm.. nope.. I just tolerate it.

Why? Because nothings broken. Nothings need to be fixed. Oh well in my small little social "bubble" perhaps, but generally.. nothings broken, nothing needs fixing. i mean..you can dream about having the privileges or opportunities a "Lee" enjoys of course, but in terms of education and job prospects, getting rich, eating good food watching movies living comfortably, its pretty much a meritocratic rat race that i have been given all opportunities to participate in. What more can i ask for? We're like comfortable subjects under a benevolent monarchy. Most of the gripes is that the Monarchy calls itself a democratic republic. But we're still generally comfortable subjects right?

So why "shout" just because you can?

I might be asked.. "So what will you do if the government imposes quotas and race/weight/height gender stratified wage ceilings?"

imagine that.. the heavier you are the lower your wage. I would be well and truly fucked.. lol

But seriously.. i guess i don't know.. I'll cross that bridge when i see it i guess.

I am just sad to see Malaysians being made to cross that bridge now. No responsible government should allow its citizenry to face a choice like that. To see its pleas go unheard and belittled. To invoke measures that quell 20,000 voices(isn't there anyone who knows exactly how many people were in that rally? or are being marginalised?)

Ok back after dinner. Just caught the news flash on Channel NewsAsia. Badawi seem to be worried more about the fact that hotel occupancy has dropped by 10% rather then the more serious problems in his country.

Some Malaysians are having trouble putting food on the table or a roof over their head and he is worried about hotel bookings and tourism. Guess he's got his priorities all figured out ey?

I applaud HINDRAF for taking up the cause. But did they have to be so drama and antagonise the Govt? Why take the Marty's way out and tempt the government into using the ISA on them? From day one they have been saying that they are prepared? I can only logically think of 2 reasons they would do this.

1) They have tried every other possible avenue and was met with closed doors. And the only way to highlight the plight of the people was to act in this way.

If they had done so, try all avenues, try to work with the government and failed, and they are doing this for selfless reason, To highlight the plight of the people. Then i applaud you HINDRAF. I really do. And in a perfect world, the rest of the world would put just enough pressure for Malaysia to pull some face saving act and at the same time rectify the problems in its society.

but consider my second point.

2)They DID NOT try every other avenue. They pulled a stunt worthy of Bollywood. They risk everything to be known as the people who "Took BN by storm" and "Sacrificed" themselves more for self image then by virtue of representing the common man who want them to address their problems. And in the process divert the whole issue from the people who actually need the help, to themselves! To end up being squashed beneath the heel of the Govt, who then proclaims "Problem Solved"

If that is the case HINDRAF. Then shame on you. You have let down all those who have vested their trust, hopes and dreams of a better future upon you.

Question: Did they really try every other possible avenue? Did they rush to try and solve an issue that is decades in the making in a few weeks? Did they step on too many toes that now all that is going to happen is that they are locked up indefinitely while the govt pretend to have handled the issue for the well being of the society?

and the biggest question of all. What of the poor marginalised people of Malaysia?

Time will tell...

Diamond·Cut

2007-12-12T21:02:00.000+08:00

Finally found enough reason to go to Lawry's and splurge. M's bday lunch. As well as put on like half a kilo in less then half an hour. That piece of meat was AWESOME. The rest of the pictures HERE.

Got no time to blog much else. Test in T minus 3 days.

ap·a·thy

2007-12-11T02:16:00.000+08:00

Guess what.. Singapore is pwning in the SEA Games. Lotsa gold medals in gymnastics, swimming, shooting i think.. Oh and lets not forget.. table tennis.. I'm supposed to feel proud right? That my fellow countrymen are getting us accolades and honors.. And then i find out who "really" won us medals.. To all those singaporeans who did us proud. Hey good on you =) But some of those people who we call singaporean are so UN-singaporean it leaves a bad taste in the mouth. I mean.. when they say "foreign born" talent. It gives this impression that - oh.. they came here when they were young.. grew up here.. kinda assimilated into our society.. developed a talent in a sport.. and lo and behold.. are now using their talent to earn their adoptive country accolades. But these "Foreign born" talent we are talking about here.. are here for one and only one reason. To get us medals, in return for a fat load of cash and a pink or blue IC.. basically citizenship. They dont look Singaporean, dont talk singaporean, dont behave singaporean, prolly dont eat singaporean.. hey i wont know.. but from what i see on TV.. those are definatly not singaporean. How on earth to feel proud that they are earning us Gold medals? Some table tennis players did comment on the fact that 7 out of 10 of our entire table tennis cohort were from the FTS (Foreign talent scheme?) And you know what the coach of our team said? Somehting along the lines that its perfectly fine and normal.. maybe next time the entire cohort would be of chinese born players.. - wunder if he will feel the same way once they outsource his job to some foreign born coach talents...

This "cheat code" approach is casting a pall over the genuine singaporean acheivements being made. And earning us ridicule. Too high a price to pay for a coupla Gold medals if you ask me.

On another note. I have been following the HINDRAF events with alot of interest... Wanted to blog about it for a long while.. But for some reason the events have not elicited much response from Singaporeans or the government for that matter. Only a seriously retarded headline by the New Paper that was really misleading people into thinking HINDRAF was going to incite violence.. Further stresses view that tabloid trash should just concentrate on soccer news then trying to sensationalise current affairs..

While trawling the web and having stuff emailed to me via google alerts.. which is a damn nifty tool i must say.. i stumbled upon many malaysian blogs spouting bumiputra rhetoric and "kill the kellings" attitudes.. Was a refreshing change when i stumbled upon the very objective Daniel Bong. His eyewitness accounts are sometimes in stark comparison to the news we hear/read in the media..

(Pictures courtesy of Screenshots)

I mean just look at this picture.. People are getting all pissed off when a church is used as a arena for conflict in a fictional video game.. Now imagine that was a church instead of a temple. Is the world simply going to look on and do nothing?

On a personal note.. HINDRAF have gotten hold on an issue that is close to heart to many people in Malaysia, i just hope they do no fuck things up by missing the whole point that this is about people who are being marignalised and discriminated and politik their way into ignomy.

Back to studying.

Zouked·Out

2007-12-10T01:01:00.000+08:00

Clubbing bliss =)

For some reason Carl Cox and armin didn't really get me all worked up...Techno and Trance not my thing man.. and the only thing close to house i actually do like instead of just tolerate is D.a.v.i.d's drum and bass set.. So Mel and i split from the group and hung out at the hiphop arena.. And i must say.. DJ Craze and MC Armanni were AWESOME. After all those years of listening to boring hip hop DJ's simply join music together and pretending that there is some skill involved.. this was like an awakening.. The duo put together really kept things going with obvious crowd favourites and nice slow stuff -perfect for me and M to get a breather or to start necking.. lol-

I was shagged by like 5plus already.. and the thought of fighting through the massive crowd at the Armin set was not on my mind.. like i told you.. i just tolerate house/techno/whateverelsegenrerelated.. i dont really like it all that much.

Oh and i almost forgot.. Once again the "false-info-of-the-Ming" reared its dumb head and Calvin got the time slot wrong for the Electrico gig.. We all thought we missed it.. LUCKILY we were lucky enough to leave the other stage early and happened to catch their last coupla songs..

I have no idea why i am blogging this in like non chronological order but i guess i havent really slept off all the effects.. the pre-party at the beaufort didn't really go according to plan. Firstly as unlike last year where it was all me.. this time a coupla of us were actually sharing the cost of the room and all that.. so i didnt want to be a party Nazi and like tell everyone what to do.. Instead everyone ended up mostly slothing and watching TV.. lol.. And then Nasrul almost pulled the carpet from under all of us when he stunned me with his "grand entry".. dude.. we agreed on who's coming.. You bring ppl i've never seen in my life abit too much right? The whole point was that i wanted to avoid the social awkwardness that stems from some ppl not knowing some other ppl -_-

anyway what the hell.. i had fun.. alcohol was sufficient.. and overall was within budget =)

till next time.. and i'll upload the only decent video later here once Youtube approves it. Oh and that subject.. i trully need to figure out how to use the camera man.. i screwed up the settings and almost all the pictures were trully well fucked up.. bleah. thats the only wet blanket.. Not much pics to show.. The ones that i managed to salvage are on facebook anyway

time for school.. exams in T minus 5 days.

Dim·Sum

2007-12-08T03:33:00.001+08:00

Late night dimsum ftw..

ps: that picture above also says that i got the camera I wanted. Technically bought it for Malini for her bday. But you get the picture eh? =)

m·o·n·o

2007-12-05T01:14:00.000+08:00

Zoukout incoming

F·A·T

2007-12-02T13:55:00.000+08:00

Lifestyle - Reflect

Stop eschewing the fat

Ignatius Low

951 words

2 December 2007

Straits Times

English

Svelte girl meets fat slob and falls in love in the Hollywood movie Knocked Up. Fat guy in, lean metrosexual out?

THOSE who caught the American romantic comedy Knocked Up in movie theatres will probably agree with me that it did not quite conform to the rules of its genre.

Yes, true to form, boy meets girl. Boy and girl act a little crazy, have a relationship crisis and break up, before later coming back to their senses and living happily ever after.

But boy was lead actor Seth Rogen fat.

And the amazing thing was that even though he was paired with the beautiful and svelte Katherine Heigl (who plays Izzy on the popular TV show Grey's Anatomy), the script never made his weight an issue at all.

He never had to slim down to win Katherine back and in fact, the audience was treated to 'morning after' scenes where his chubby body was really quite naked.

I thought that it was a bellwether of sorts. And it only confirms a trend I've started to observe as I walk around town in Singapore.

Fat guys are 'in' again.

Or, at least, they're not automatically 'out'. In fact, many of them have pretty, slim girls wrapped around their beefy forearms.

When I tested this hypothesis on a few female colleagues, I was met with the usual knee-jerk derision.

'Eew!' said one. 'Fat guys will never be 'in'!'

'You mean you're actually going to write about this?' asked another. 'How credible is that, given that you (a) are fat, (b) want to get even fatter and (c) are attracted to fat people?'

I persisted, with a few qualifications this time.

Okay, I said, not wobbly fat or 40-plus-inch waistlines - but burly, stout guys with a few extra pounds, and who aren't afraid to show it.

Hey, some of them even wear tight clothes, I joked - eliciting an even louder 'EEEWW!'.

But then came the payoff I was waiting for.

'Actually my friend is going out with a fat guy, and she's quite pretty,' admitted one colleague.

Within the next minute, she had pulled out another example. And then another.

I rest my case.

ALWAYS up for seriously investigating a thoroughly unserious trend, I asked people around me why they thought this was happening.

Lean, muscled guys (who have no doubt spent most of their lives honing their fine physiques) said that I had fundamentally misunderstood the so-called 'trend'.

'If I were you, I'd look more carefully at the chubby guy's watch. Check out labels on his clothes, his shoes and what car he's driving,' said a friend, who works as a personal trainer in a gym.

'Singapore girls are basically realistic creatures. Being rich definitely overrides being fat.' Ouch!

Another popular but less painful explanation was that, increasingly, Singapore girls are being left with 'no choice' but to date chubby guys.

Economic prosperity has meant that the young of today are growing up extremely well-fed on all sorts of high-grade chow, so the gene pool in Singapore is churning out fatter kids.

On top of that, the brightest - and potentially most successful - kids aren't exactly playing football and losing weight in their spare time.

Instead, they're sitting at home eating oily food and slaying monsters on their computers online, together with a whole bunch of other fat friends.

So if you agree that fat guys now constitute a larger proportion of the pool of eligible guys, it follows that you are - statistically speaking - going to see more fat guys with pretty, slim girls.

My take on this, however, is slightly more serious - but only just. I think this is happening because society's views of what defines masculinity could be changing again.

To be sure, a penchant for chubby guys isn't at all widespread yet. And it remains a niche attraction for a niche crowd.

But as was the case in the gay community, it represents the start of a very real backlash against currently popular notions of the metrosexual as masculine.

In the late 1980s and early 1990s, 'bear' culture began to take off among gay men in the US. It was a reaction to mainstream gay media portraying only lean, muscled, hairless bodies as sexually desirable.

Supporters of a burgeoning 'bear' scene began eroticising large, hairy men with a rural or working-class look seen as more authentically masculine.

That movement has now spread to Asia where, in cities like Tokyo, Taipei and Hong Kong, a similar 'bear' subculture is flourishing.

Its members sport crewcuts and goatees, and go to the gym not to lose weight, but to model their bodies after off-season bodybuilders and pot-bellied rugby players.

Not to put too fine a point on it, but it's likely the same type of thing could be happening with straight men as well.

Thanks to the metrosexual revolution, men are becoming more urban and sexually ambiguous. They are slimmer and leaner, and actually bother to colour-coordinate their clothes.

They obsess about better skin and designer hair, and go for facials and manicures to look better groomed.

As the goalposts continue to shift along the spectrum of what's considered masculine, there are bound to be those that hanker after the old extremes.

And even if a fat, unshaven slob isn't your cup of tea, it's nice to be able to hug something fairly solid to sleep.

So excuse me as I leave to vacuum up some more fried chicken. With extra fries, please.

ignatius@sph.com.sg

Hell·Gate

2007-11-27T04:19:00.000+08:00

Well.. the obsession with that game lasted 2 days and has fizzled out... Much to the joy of M i must add.. Its just too.. i dont know.. same thing packaged differently i guess..

Anyway.. some news that THQ is planning some Warhammer 40k mmorpg.. now that would be uber awesome.. Space Wolves ftw..

Still having issues with my damn insomnia.. i guess it will help in the run up to the exams and Zoukout.. lol.

Actually studied in school all the way till bloody 930 today.. Maybe the indo's are not that bad an influence ah Ming.. if you likes stayed awake instead of snoozing -_-

Plan for the rest of the 19 hours left in this new day..

Wake before 12
Dont forget to brush my teeth before eating... again..
Read half a years worth of Sociology readings..

i is pwned

Dr·u·nk

2007-11-24T00:55:00.000+08:00

Remember all those times when you were nice and happy when drinking and you make a fool of yourself without even noticing..

crashed and burned baby..

noc·tur·nal

2007-11-21T04:09:00.000+08:00

Looks like i am at it again.. bloody hell..

Its like already 4am.. no point going so sleep now or i will like miss another damn Infosys lecture. And since i dont have anymore maths and stats and school week has been reduced to only 3 awesome days.. I guess no more reason to skip school.. Bleah.

Ordered 4 dozen donuts from Donut Factory for ZoukOut and M's bday party. Donuts and beer.. What more do i need ah?

Waiting till 6 before i pop open another beer and cook myself a heart clogging brekkie and watch Simpsons..

Dont you just love sleepless mornings..

cheers

Zouk·Out

2007-11-19T17:28:00.000+08:00

Yes it has been ages. Ming bday was great.. As usual i was chef extrodinaire.. i'm going pro already balls.. Beer is neverending.. I is Love it...

Played Call Of Duty.. finished the single player campaign.. and got a decent score on the multiplayer one.. So i guess i am officially done with being preoccupied with it..

Till i get the Dawn of War anthology set that is..

ANyway... I guess its mugging all the way till Zoukout..

Oh and i is love my new 3 day school week..

There IS a god..

C·O·D·4

2007-11-14T15:00:00.000+08:00

Call Of Duty 4

awesom...

Af·ter·math

2007-11-09T02:02:00.000+08:00

KJ is already sleeping on the couch.. Pala is finishing off the last of the pizza. We didnt really drink as much beer as we planned to.. lol... got too filled up on pizza.. At least we didnt make any mess and/or ruin any of my moms furniture..

For some fuckkng reason the damn toilet fucking kwa-ed on me again.. CB.. my brother and i spend half a day running back and forth from the hardware shop trying to fix the bloody thing.. we managed to make it function it normally enuff.. though there are still some stuff to tighten -_-..... Selva and sathiyaraja.. Plumbers on deepavali.. owning..

Back to the beer.. hope i make it to school tmrw.. lol

night..

Be·er

2007-11-07T17:21:00.000+08:00

He·re·sy

2007-11-05T00:59:00.000+08:00

The book was a disappointment la. WHAT on earth was Scanlon thinking?!? After the epic that was Fulgrim and the spark created by Dan Abnett in the first book.. this is like.. Sigh.. Some random nonsense filler. It was more like a wikipedia entry then a work of fantasy fiction... It does nothing to carry on the series.. I just hope Dan will redeem it all in Legion.

Havent read the Space Wolves omnibus by William King.. I think will leave that for later. Have really been laggin back in school.. Missing lectures and all that.. Christ.. Nothing to ring any klaxons yet.. but enough to be worrying and be a little behind. And i wasted my weekend reading and re-reading Descent of the Angels..

Watched stardust again.. Awesome

Watched the Game Plan. should have waited for it to come out on tv..

Ate 25meatballs from Ikea.. and duck rice..

Beer·a·thon in a few more days..

owning

Hor·us

2007-11-02T21:37:00.000+08:00

One more off the list =)

Et·Tu

2007-11-01T00:07:00.000+08:00

Sigh.. i really need to get back to mugging.. Especially since ive got another round of tests roughly a month away... Halloween was fun la.. but it was all.. you know.. liqour.. What a man needs.. is beer, thus this little thinghy to take care of that.. besides.. it is deepavali.. Those of you who got that invite thinghy on facebook, send a reply ok.. lol. I'll call all you guys up to confirm.. Suresh will be bringing a whole host of DVD's.. anyone coming who has a multi code dvd player!?

Oh and i got rid of my friendster account.. i think facebook is the social nightmare of the times.. Chah you win.. *kowtows*

Have blogged more this year then any of the previous years.. Tho when it comes to actually anything of note or sense.. this years crop fares poorly.. There has been this paradigm shift from this blog being a facade to the outside world.. A way to make ppl think i am this sorta person or that sorta person.... to becoming simply an outlet to vent and or to record things of note.. So that when i read all this shit again a years time from now... i'll look back and say..

" Daym i was Retarded "

cheers

i·want

2007-10-29T23:41:00.000+08:00

Regret buying that damn casio exilim.. barely lasted a year an now all it takes are hyperexposed photos.. Had to rely on Jo's camera to take any pictures.. Most of them are like on Facebook so check them out. Not going to add them to the photostream cos thats for pictures i took myself.. i SO need a camera.. and this Sony is simply a work of art.

Anyway.. Halloween was awesome.. Not really as fun as the year before for some reason.. i think was the lack of random camera madness.. The spending on the drinks was NUTS la.. Crazy number of shots.. 3 bottles.. i think 800 bucks btw Git, Ming Suffian and I..

Obviously sherrie got drunk and we had to go.. She sobered up pretty quick when she found out Git and her won first prize for the best ourfit.. A damn trip to Greece would you believe it?!?

Well.. another amazing halloween but with no pictures to show.. Next up.. Zoukout/M'sbday... Definatly need a cam by then..

cheers..

oh and btw.. Stardust is like AWESOME.. pure Gaiman..

Hall·o·ween

2007-10-22T23:43:00.000+08:00

Owning..

Uber·bad

2007-10-20T14:37:00.000+08:00

Yes yes.. super bad was awesome.. So was today brunch at Wine Garage.. I even got myself a six pack from Brewerks to last me the weekend... Next big thing on the events list.. Halloweeenn.. gooawd.. its been ages since i've gone clubbing..

Fridays 2 papers effing bad balls.. was brain dead and nothing was coming out.. will be damn sad if i flunk both stats and sociology.. Zzzz..

Nap time..

lazy weekend ftw..

burn·out

2007-10-17T21:10:00.000+08:00

Gaaa.. its been too long since i've mugged like this.. correction to my earlier post... Halloween would be held at Zouk on the 27th Oct.. Looks like i wont be skipping any school after all.. Beer is arriving on 8th November.. all 180 bottles of it... Plan is to finish it all by Zoukout.

Am going to sleep early and let bullshit my way through information systems..

Cheers..

ru·mi·nate

2007-10-15T00:20:00.000+08:00

I've spent the entire doing nothing but integrating random useless and crazy functions together.. I have NO frigging clue why its so important to know all this crap... I can understand why we're learning sociology, econs, all the rest.. even stats.. BUT WHY SO MUCH math gaaaaaaa...

I've just got to hang on till wednesday.. then i'm gonna go get drunk.. long overdue.. sad i only get the first half of my years supply of Erdinger sumtime in November...

On the "having a life" side of things.. October 31st is Halloweeeeen.. Will be clubbing at Zouk.. awesome.. hmm.. then will be Mings bday.. prolly some bbq thinghy but at 80 bottles of Erdinger will be consumed. And the final highlight of the year.. M's bday and Zoukout.. It should be at Sentosa again i guess....

Back after test week..