Falling for .... Physics I went for my first Physics lecture after 5 years. (And after I swore never to step near that subject again.)It was pretty interesting. But I still hold on to the belief that girls are just not cut out for Physics!But oh, did you know, that if you point and aim a ball at a target before it falls, your ball will (in theory) definitely hit the target as it is falling?That's because both objects have the same free fall displacement. Or is it free displacement fall? Or displacement free fall?Argh. turning twenty-one In a few days, I'll be twenty-one of age.It's surreal.I feel like I'm just a little kid, trying to grow up in a big, big world.There are concepts I can't grasp.Struggles to twist fate around.Twenty-one.It feels so foreign. Yet so dear.Seems like reflecting about life, the past, the future, and myself hinges on everything I do lately. My nation's 43rd.. and what it means to me 1. I grew up thinking lah and meh was part of the English language.2. I also grew up with my relatives shunning Singlish, stating it was only for the "lowly educated".3. But when I'm overseas and I hear fellow Singaporeans, rich or poor, we never fail to engage in a conversation peppered with lah, meh, and hor.4. That was when I realized, what it meant to "belong".5. I grew up with the internet because the Government encouraged one computer per household.6. Ironically, it was through the internet that I got to know of the anti-government sites.7. I read on, and was convinced that The Straits Times was a bunch of crap.8. But at least, corruption doesn't reign in Singapore.9. We don't give up seats to the elderly and pregnant ladies.10. We ignore parents struggling with their prams.11. We pretend not to know our neighbours in the lift.12. We use tissues to reserve seats during lunch hour.13. But we gave $820 million to charities last year.14. We donated to fund the surgery of twins who were strangers to us.15. We may not have social grace.16. But we have compassion, and that's a start.17. We love to queue.18. We queue(d) for donuts, bubble tea and Hello Kitty sets.19. We love food.20. Char kuay teow. Chicken rice. Roti prata. Hokkien mee. Laksa. Bak chor mee. Bak kut teh. Nasi lemak. Prawn mee. Kambing soup..21. So we come from one end of the country to the other, just to ...queue for it.22. We are "One People, One Nation, One Singapore".23. So as one we are, that we all unanimously gave the Esplanade its new name: "The Durian".24. We love to complain.25. We complain about the service. The cleanliness of toilets. The efficiency of government agencies. Errant drivers. Carpark attendants. Noise levels. School sessions.26. But at least, we're not worrying big time about a roof over our heads, or tomorrow's breakfast.27. They call our government the People's Action Party (PAP).28. We call it the Pay And Pay.29. Oh, the rising transportation costs. Inflation. Increase in ERP gantries. Increase in ministers' pay. The rat race. The paper race.30. I grew discouraged.31. I stopped believing.32. Then the tsunami came.33. The earthquakes shook.34. And I'm here, in Singapore, unharmed, still in one piece.35. Rising food prices hit the rural poor the hardest, and malnutrition is on the rise.36. Here I am, in Singapore, and the noodles cost a dollar more.37. People are going on stabbing sprees and decapitating innocent passengers.38. Here I am, in Singapore, where crime rate is almost zero.39. It's your 43rd birthday today.40. I may not agree with you sometimes.41. I may hate the weather, the tissue papers on seats, and the smelly toilets.42. But this was where I was born, and my life will never be as colourful else where.43. So. Happy birthday Singapore! Want to catch Wall-E for FREE? 1. What Is This All About?A community event by Nuffnang! Bloggers who want to win their own "private screening" of Wall-E will have to take part in this Wall-E meme contest! 50 tickets will be allocated to the winning originator of the meme.2. How Do I Take Part?All you have to do is to complete the statement starting with:"The craziest thing I have done for love is...." and sign off with this line "Catch Wall-E in cinemas from 28 August 2008"3. The OriginatorLeonard is the originator of this meme, so he gets to decide what he wants to do with the 50 tickets if he wins!Leonard's quote:The craziest thing I have done for love is waiting for almost 12 hours below where your girlfriend stays and manage to see her in the end for 1-2 hours." Catch Wall-E in cinemas from 28 August 2008 (http://leonardpng.blogspot.com)4. Here I go...The craziest thing I have done for love is ... sneaking out in the middle of the night when I was just fourteen, and returning just before my parents woke up. (I got busted.) Catch Wall-E in cinemas from 28 August 2008! (davienne.blogspot.com) Scrambled Thoughts. Most of times now, I'm twiddling with my phone or bombing stuff on my PSP. So when the PSP and my phone BOTH died on me, I was forced to walk home alone without the company of my gadgets.I realized how long I've not been walking in perfect solitude. The times where I would have my own "me" time, where trains of thoughts would creep through my mind one after another; different and strange thoughts.And this time was one of those times.I wondered why my feet looked the way they did. Or recollect the times when the MRT station's resident cat was still a kitten. Mused at how, after many years of walking the same route home, I never once got scratched by the neighbour's cactus plant that snaked its way out of the corner.I wondered if people on the train are trying to pry into my thoughts, the way I look at them and try to guess what's beneath their expressionless demeanor. If the pearls in my pearl milk tea have been digested since they look rubbery.I wondered about my relationships with people. If things had a chance not to turn out this way. Regretted my actions and inactions. Wanting to change for the better, and grow as a person. Felt that life sometimes was pretty f-ed up. But sometimes, pretty swell.Sigh. I hate those days. Why Why do people struggle to make things right, when they know that the outcome would be a failure?Why is love sometimes so difficult, yet so simple?Why do we care about what other people think, and let ourselves down in the process?Why do leopards not change their spots?Why do beautiful things only last for the moment? The online realm as a game EDIT: Talkingcock.com likens the online spat to a Transformers movie!As I was walking to the bus stop, I had a floaty feeling, like my legs were doing the walking and my mind was shaking off the remnants of another world. Like I'd just returned from somewhere surreal, and I was in the state of adjustment.It was a familiar feeling. I liken it to the times when I'd just shut down my computer from intensive gaming. My head would be swimming with scenes of buffing up, battles and armour reparation. Riding across plains on a (very expensive to rent) Chocobo.But in reality, I had an early day off from work and had just finished reading up on the gossip that has been circulating in the blogosphere.So, yes. I liken the blogosphere to ...... an MMORPG game.Where bloggers are characters, differentiated into classes by their writing styles.Xiaxue, who writes freely and who, I suppose, has more bashing posts than other top bloggers ever have (not that it's a bad thing), is probably a Dwarf Mage. A mage because she causes a pretty high damage with her blows, and an dwarf because her words carry a lot of strength, and one can tell she's pretty stubborn in her indignant posts. And er, she's kinda short.While Dawn would most probably be suited to be an Elf Illusionist. An illusionist because people feel that she deceives others about what and who she is deep down. An elf because well, she is tall and willowy. Oh elves have beady eyes, don't they, so I guess she doesn't really fit in for that part.So in this game of blogging, Xiaxue the Dwarf Mage has attained the highest possible player level and gotten most of the best items in game. Dawn the Elf Illusionist is in second place, at a lower but still difficult to achieve level. Her items are pretty good, too.Here comes rumours that Dawn doesn't deserve her place, because *gasp*... she's been botting.The Dwarf Mage who has worked her way up fair and square, felt exasperated at being compared to the Elf Illusionist, and declared a PVP by slamming the Illusionist with a bolt of pink lightning.The Elf Illusionist, having magic powers on her own, returned the favour by threatening to use her Ultimate Power, which would probably injure the Dwarf Mage by a considerable amount. Furious, other characters in the game slammed the Illusionist for her actions, and form investigations to prove the Illusionist guilty of botting. And then, the Illusionist disappears by cloaking herself invisible.Now, the gaming world awaits the Elf's next move.P.S. IMO, they look cuter as Tarutarus than as an Elf and Dwarf, hence the header.P.P.S. In Kenny Sia's case, it's just two babes fighting for phat lewt. I've admitted it I am a perfectionist.I fret about details. I nitpick. I always feel that it's never good enough. I criticize this and that. I'm never fully satisfied with the end product. I want things to work out my way.And when they do, the praises that are sung are the fruits of my labour. I think sometimes, I only work hard to be recognized, even if my work benefits others more than it does to me. I love the glorified feeling, only to sink into self-reproach later when I realized I've worked so hard only to get "face".And lately, I've been experiencing it more than over, so much that I mash my feelings into anger, irritability and detest. Directed mostly at innocent people, but some at myself.Desperate for this to stop, I Googled perfectionism. (Sigh what will I do without Google.)I read many of the articles, and ohmygosh I'm a true-blue perfectionist. The articles have described ME. So uncannily it's eerie.One of them, wrote that while perfectionism can be a positive thing by setting the bar for high standards, it described how perfectionism can also create inefficiency.Frankly, I was appalled. Inefficiency! ME?! We absolutely do not run parallel! Then I read on, and I got more resigned.Pecfectionism creates inefficiency:You spend more time than you need getting something done. (CHECK)You procrastinate. (CHECK CHECK)You try to do it all yourself. (omg CHECK CHECK CHECK!)The article also recommended some ways to turn this obsessive behaviour into effectiveness. And the first recommendation, is to... Admit it!So there. I've admitted it, right at the top of this post. you'll never wanna play Taboo with us Round 10Ying: Superman has lots of ...Cheryl: Underwear!The Actual Answer: Powers***Round 14Carol: When guys wake up in the morning, they ...Huiwen: Have an erection.The Actual Answer: Shave the sun gave me some lovin' Went for my JC class gathering at Sentosa yesterday and am now sporting an extremely ugly tan line.The organizer managed to beef up the attendance by marketing it as a "Mega Outing". As for me, I was game for anything, especially so if it involved the sun. I love the sun!We played lots of ball. And reminisced the past by playing a kids' game. Made fun of each other. I laughed and laughed! Game time was choppy because of our laughing bouts.We were in the sun for about 2 hours but I was already burnt to a lobster red. Thankfully the dark clouds came and forced us (or at least, ME, since everyone slapped on generous amounts of sunblock while I, suntan lotion) to stop torturing our skins.Then we went off to get some beancurd, and I tried my hand at arty-farty photography by taking pictures against the white wall. We laughed some more at random topics. Ahhh everyone remained pretty much the same after 3 years. I love it when we get together - everything feels so familiar and comfortable like an old shirt, yet it can be so refreshing.Pictures up if I feel like it! I don't know how bloggers can post pictures after pictures in a single blog post, because it sure takes a hell load of effort for me to take and edit satisfactory pictures. Anyway, don't expect much because if you read my blog long enough you'd realize when I say "pictures in the next post" they generally don't appear. Ha! What I do when I travel I wear my ugliest, most comfy clothes. I don't put on makeup. I wear my worst pair of shoes so if they wear and tear, I can just throw them away and have an excuse to buy new ones.I pretend to be a local. I nod and smile when the locals speak to me. I catch some of their chatter and imitate their language. I say "yes" all the time when someone asks me something I do not understand.I become philanthropic. I drop coins to beggars. I tip the bellboys. I give extra to the cab drivers. I tell the shop keepers not to bother about the change.My relationship with my mum rises and falls like the tides. I laugh at her jokes. We argue about everything. I hate her traditional thinking. I marvel at her foresight.On the plane at every takeoff, I wonder what it would be like if the plane explodes right then. What should I do? Should I run? Will I be brave enough to save other passengers?Then, in the blink of an eye, I'm back in Singapore.Everything settles. Ah, there's no place like home. All bruised up and ready to go I'm leaving... on a jet plane...It's 4.30 am now.In two hours' time, I would be in the plane, waiting to be flown off to my holiday destination.And let's see... so far I'veFallen down the stairs and bruised my back so badly I have a big red patch thereFallen on my right ankle when I woke up and tried to stand. Heard a crack when I fell and now my ankle is all sore and awkwardHow am I supposed to go shopping like this!Anyway after much internal struggle I decided I wouldn't be bringing my camera. Because I've already got one camera down, it wouldn't make much sense for me to bring my existing one overseas and risk it being lost/stolen (although the former would be more likely).So, no pictures when I'm back! In the Press! I'm famous! "Doing the Karen Cheng" attracted loads of publicity, and it appeared in two publications - The New Paper and MyPaper!Karen and I got sprinkled onto a quarter of a page in the TNP hard copy.MyPaper: The girls in their lovely outfitsMore pictures I stole from the Facebook group!OK, who wants my autograph now? I'm famous! Secret's Revealed! On Wednesday I found out about something so cool I was giddy with excitement and went around asking people to guess what!I must say some of you in my comments and my friends on MSN did a pretty darn good job of guessing, but you guys still got it ALL WRONG!The "secret" is...I met Karen Cheng in person!(I actually typed that in Caps but it made me sound like her crazy blog fan, so I made it look normal.)I started reading Karen's blog way back in 2004. I loved every single post of hers. It was refreshing, very honest and I always felt like I was living life next to hers, watching her kids grow and watching her do up her garden.I never commented in her blog, nor sent her emails. I've thought about it, but I'm Chinese and I like saving face and I never found a way to make my emails not sound like I'm her crazy blog fan.Then she announced that she would be flying to Singapore for her birthday as her husband's surprise gift, and that she'd be "Doing the Karen Cheng" to raise funds for the Red Cross. She even created a facebook event for it, and so many people gave their RSVPs that I contemplated revealing myself as her crazy blog fan, and meet her in person.So I gave my RSVP as a "Yes".The next day, Karen dropped me a email inviting me to be part of her "crew" when the media comes earlier to take pictures! Meaning, not only would I be seeing Karen during the event, but I would be posing in pictures next to her! I was delirious.A few emails later, Karen invited me and a guest down for her birthday drinks the night before "Doing the Karen Cheng". It was awesome! She was so warm and friendly, yet a little shy at the same time. I heard her voice tone change gradually to a husky one and she talked to more and more people, haha.I only sat for about an hour odd, and I met and talked to so many cool people! I forgot some others, but I met her husband Andrew, Mr. Miyagi and the girls from Fashion Nation.The next day, I went down for the event. Because of licensing issues, it had to be marketed as a private function. Karen also requested us "crew girls" to dress up a lot, because she would be. Andrew also called in the morning and said he hoped that I'd be "daring enough" to glam up.So I did.I took a fast thus blurry picture before I left, because I was running late.I curled my hair, and I wore a blue dress which I've only worn once. It was collecting dust in my wardrobe because I don't have that many glam events to go to!Squeezed all my essentials into a little black clutch, and trotted off in my gold ballerina heels.Ooh, and of course, my camera which I will need to "Do the Karen Cheng".By the way, I had two cameras and I dropped my Sony in water. I was a little upset that I had to use my Nikon Coolpix which has really sucky battery life :(When I got there, the photographers had just started shooting. I joined in the fun. We did so much smiling that my cheeks hurt. Karen told us she'd never done this before but oooh I loved the way her dimple deepened when she smiled.Karen's husband, Andrew, was managing loads of stuff for her. He made sure everything was right, and even backed up as the reflector man for the photographer. Some of the girls were even giggling about how cute Andrew is and how nice his voice sounded over the phone.Met a two lovely girls: Sheena, self-employed, and Fran, a teacher. I have great respect for teachers because tuition twice a week is enough to make me never consider teaching as a profession.Guess who else was there!Kenny, Sher, Kexin and Zach!Even a dog showed up the do the Karen Cheng. Hold your horses! GUESS WHAT! Guess what.GUESS WHAT.GUESS WHAT!!!!!!!!!I'm so excited I can barely contain it!Oops, I couldn't contain it so I told a few people about it.BUT. I'm not gonna tell you! Teehee.Clue:- It involves blogging- It involves looking good- It's an eventGUESSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS!For those who know don't spoil it hor. Let me have all the fun can. Eight Years Later... Ying, Cheryl, Carol, Huiwen, MandyWhen I was in Secondary school, I hung out with a group of girls for two years. We were inseparable. We did everything together. We went to toilets, sleptin class, played ball after school, studied for exams together. We even gave ourselves a group name: "RAG" which means, "Recess Activities Gang", because we'd zip through our meals or skip recess altogether just to play some ball games.Within our 'gang' we had mini cliques, consisting of people whom we were particularly close to. My mini clique consisted of Carol, Cheryl and Ying.After secondary school, Cheryl left for Canada, and Ying left for the States. Our group kinda fell apart because we were just too busy to hang out and Carol shifted to live somewhere far away. Even though Cheryl's back for good now, we don't hang out like we used to because it's not a habit anymore.The amazing thing though, is that whenever Ying comes back from the US, we'd find time within our packed schedules to spend time together.2004, Ying crashed TJC. Huiwen, Carol, YingYing returned a week ago, two years after her previous visit. She decided that this time round, she wanted to do all the touristy stuff. Within 7 days and with the help of the tourists' guide, she has eaten Boon Tong Kee chicken rice, Geylang's duck rice, Bak Kut Teh, Satay, gone to East Coast Park, visited the Singapore Flyer, took a tour in the Night Safari, sat for the Duck Tour, visited the Fountain of Wealth, and ate loads of roti prata.Oh, and we clubbed! Bah! Weird messages on Facebook I've been getting weird inbox messages from random people on Facebook.Weird-funny messages.I wanna share but I don't think it'd be appropriate. I think I'm too nice. Most unlucky day: Prelude to Nuffnang's Wild Live Party I was down in KL last weekend for Nuffnang's Wild Live Party, at Modesto's.Initially I wanted to be a caterpillar. Then I was so swamped with work I didn't have time to make a fantastic costume. So I evolved, and I eventually went as a butterfly.Photo courtesy of Shaolin TigerI'm going to be lazy and just grab and paste pictures here but let me rant about my UNLUCKINESS first.#1 Woke up lateI stayed up till 3am making Wenqi's rabbit ears to cut down on cost (company was sponsoring cost of costumes). Our bus ride was at 7.30am. At 3am, I decided that I would wake up at 5.30am to pack my luggage and then leave from home straight away. I set my alarm clock to ring at 5.15am.It never did.I woke up at 7.00am to Glenn's call, asking me where I was. I looked at my phone and went, "Oh shit." I had only 30 minutes to pack and leave! I frantically called up Cherie and Ming to let them know if they could get the bus to wait a bit longer when I realized, oh shit...#2 I had Cherie's bus tickets with meBecause Cherie trusted me to be on time and left her bus tickets with me. I packed my stuff in 10 minutes, and asked my mother if she could give me a lift to Copthorne Orchid , about 20 minutes ride from where I was staying (if Mum was behind the wheel).She gave a grunt and went about doing her things so I when I was ready I yelled out, "Mum, let's go!" She said..#3 "What, no way am I driving you there!"Her reason: If she drove me I would make her panic and ruin her schedule for the day. I had no time to argue so I left quickly and grabbed a cab.#4 Cab uncle took his own sweet timeJudging from the tone of my voice, the number of calls I made back and forth to Cherie and Ming, any decent cabbie would know I was in dire straits and step up on his gas pedal. But I had the fortune to flag down a cabbie who was oblivious to my anxiety attacks in the passenger seat.And then I got THIS phone call from Glenn.#5 "Darling, I forgot my passport."I lost it."WHATDOYOUMEANYOUFORGOTYOURPASSPORT!!!!!!!! WEARELEAVINGFORANOTHERCOUNTRYWHYWHYWHYHOWHOWHOWCOULDYOU!!"#6 Cabbie's stupid commentsCherie called me and told me she managed to get the bus to wait for her for just TWO MINUTES ONLY. I reached right on the dot and was in a frenzy to pass the tickets to her.And Mr Cabbie has to say: "Take it slow, don't rush, the bus is there what it will wait for you one."OK he didn't say it in such a nice way it was so irritating that I wanted to smack him on the head. Moreover when I told him to stop he didn't and insisted on dropping me where he thought it would be the "best for me".Fortunately I reached Cherie in time to pass the bus tickets to her. But I had to wait for Glenn so...#7 Extra charge for changing bus ticketsSigh. That's $55 gone - a hefty punishment for being late. But I guess, I was lucky I could even change my bus tickets for a later timing at all.#8 Got a scolding from Hotel ManagerThinking back on this makes my blood boil. It was soooo ridiculous.When Glenn reached we were both mad at each other for flaring up at one another, blahblahblah. But we made up almost immediately and I was so exhausted by the ordeal, I laid my head on his shoulder and fell asleep at the hotel's lobby where the waiting area for the bus was.A tap on my shoulder woke me up. "Excuse me," came the annoying voice of the bald hotel manager, "Are you waiting for the bus?"We nodded yes."Then you should know this is a hotel lobby; a public area so please behave yourselves."He said, Please. Behave. Yourselves.And he tapped my shoulder oooh I hate people who tap my shoulder. But the point is, he asked us to behave ourselves.WTF IS THAT MAN STUPID OR WHAT. I wasn't even kissing Glenn, nor holding his arm/hand/leg/foot, nor touching any other part of his body. I only had my head laid on his shoulder, my mouth gaping open in the most unglamorous fashion, BECAUSE I WAS ASLEEP.I was so shocked, I just nodded to his dumb request and keep quiet, then spent the rest of my 30 waiting minutes thinking over better ways to handle that baldie. And one of them, was to go up to him, tap his shoulders repeatedly and tell him that he's just jealous because he's so ugly he doesn't have anyone to lie on his shoulder.RAHHHH. I'm so angry. OK Next.#9 Bus driver took 30 minutes to refuelThat's not really unlucky but I just want to make my list longer lah, more impressive like that. Also, that's an awful long time to refuel! Especially so when I'm already IN KL already, it doesn't help to know that I could have been at the Nuffnang KL office while Mr Bus Driver takes his own sweet time and wastes my time.#10 I was hard of hearing so I got cheated by KL cabbieA cab driver approached us when we reached and I asked him for a quote for a ride to Nuffnang's office. I could have sworn I heard him say ten dollars and I thought it was a decent price so I said yeah great bring us there!And then Ming called and asked us how long it would take and I asked the driver, and he said, 30 minutes. And then Ming started swearing and shouting on the phone and said NO HE'S CHEATING YOU TELL HIM YOUR BOSS SAYS GET YOUR ASS HERE IN TEN MINUTES I KNOW KL ROADS.So I told related that to the cabbie and he said alright he could probably do it in 15 minutes. Then Yee Hou called and I happily told him we were being charged ten bucks. When I hung up Glenn said, "No, he said twenty bucks." Then we started arguing about what the cabbie quoted and he must have heard because when he dropped us off I asked him for the price again, and he said fifteen.Bah Glenn was right and I got cheated willingly. But I was just relieved we got to KL at all and tried to give Yee Hou a call to pick us up, but I JUST HAD TO DO THIS..........#11 Lost my phoneI walked a whole street looking for a shop which sold phone cards. Then I bought one and called Estee, but I didn't know she didn't bring her phone to KL. Woohoo. Busted.Walked back to our office's building and went up to try my luck (I forgot which floor we were located on). I went up to 12A, and went in front every door shouting, YEE HOU YEE HOU YEE HOU!!!!!!! No answer, so I went up to 12B and did the same thing, YEE HOU YEE HOU YEE HOU!!!!!!No answer so I went back down.THEN... My first lucky thing in the day: Mr Cabbie returns my phone to me! So he wasn't really such a bad guy after all!Things started picking up from there. I was able to call Yee Hou to pick us up and then we went for yummy pan mee. Then we had a blast at the party. Sorry I'm gonna back out of the deal and not post any pictures. I'll leave it to the next post because this is such a long post already. Be Right Back. sobusysobusynotimetoupdate.klduringtheweekendandyingsbackforthemonthifyoumanagetoreadittillherewithoutgettingcrosseyedwoohookthxbye. I can't understand why... ... people think that looking like Chicken Little is fashionable. No, my ears aren't crooked. The glasses are. See, so Chicken Little. Look at me, I'm cam-whoring. A week ago, my colleagues sent me an email.To: HuiwenFrom: Nicholas CC: Yee Hou; FirdauzMessage: Hui Wen we just agreed in the office 2 minutes ago that you are PRETTY andshould camwhore more.thanks.I sent them back an email screaming about making fun of me and WHAT'S THE CATCH. In Nuffnang, if someone compliments you, THERE'S ALWAYS A CATCH.Then I thought about it and realized that yeah I don't really have camwhore pics on my blog and if I want to attract attention, camwhoring is the way to go, yeah??HERE GOES.I'll be monitoring my blog readership. How to speak like a Malaysian If you don't already know, I'm currently working in Nuffnang, which has three offices in Penang, KL and Singapore. Two-third of our offices are in Malaysia. Which translates to: I have alot of Malaysian colleagues.Communicating with them is part and parcel of office time. Useless office email banter, important proposals, helpdesk queries, MSN conversations - we function like a huge family, except long distance.I have slowly learnt to decipher the Malaysian internet-speak. I even internet-speak their way now. Let me teach you How To Internet-speak Like A Malaysian.1. Use "wtf" alot. You don't necessarily have to really irritated/angry.Eg: "I need to use the toilet wtf"2. "Already" = "ady" Eg: "I replied him ady" / "OK I'm free now you can talk to me ady"3. Use "di" to punctuate sentencesEg: "The dress very nice di"4. Mix Malay slangs into your sentencesI learnt a new word today from Timtam, "Celaka". It means unfortunate or disaster.5. Unlike Singaporeans, they use "wan" instead of "one"Eg: "Why like that wan??"This is not the full list. Feel free to comment if you want me to add more stuff, and help me learn Malaysian internet-speak to communicate with my colleagues better. Hokay I gotta rush for meeting! BYE! What a Week! I don't know where to start so I'll list down whatever comes to mind.#1 ScruffyThis dog has developed serious bad habits since joining us. I think my family and I are to blame for the way he's turned out, considering how much we're indulging him. One "serious bad habit" he has, is to dash out the gate when we come home, and sniff around outside before we chase him back home.And this has cost him and us dearly. A few nights back Scruffy scampered back to our home, HOWLING and SCREAMING. We rushed to let him in and when I reached to comfort him, he HOWLED and SCREAMED. I went out to check for cats (he's absolutely terrified of cats) and saw a lady comforting her Husky on the road.Scruffy, the stupid dog, ran out and tried to make friends with a dog ten times his size! The result: he got pounced on and trapped underneath, leaving him absolutely traumatized. I called up the vet and they asked to give him a few days.It's been three days now. Scruffy doesn't jump at treats like he used to. He hides in my room and doesn't dare to venture out. He looks at us forlornly when we talk to him. He doesn't even bark when the telephone rings, like he usually does. He's much better since the first night (he was shivering even in his sleep) but still not back to his usual self.The whole family has been worried for him. Even Mummy starts petting him and consoling him! She normally refuses to touch him and alleges that doing so will cause his fur to float around and that will in turn cause asthma.SIGH. To the real Scruffy: COME BACK SOON!#2 School HolidaysHere comes the 3 months or so after exams end. Speaking about exams, I thought they were quite horrid in my standards. I think I'd do okay. But "doing okay" sucks. Anyway, I thought I'd try working at different environments, so I went for several interviews, and passed some. THEN I asked to be given time to decide, and I realized that I wouldn't be that happy working at other companies so I told Ming about it, and he told me to come back to Nuffnang full-time for the time being.In essence, I'm back slogging at Nuffnang. I mean it when I say SLOG. Cherie and I have been swamped with work. The fun thing is, there will be many exciting things coming up for the bloggers! I think that's what keeps us going. The knowledge that out of all the hard work we put in, the results are that we're going to make (most, I hope) people happy.#3 Dumpling Festival Here it comes again! I've mastered the art of wrapping dumplings this time. They're still a little tiny because I haven't learnt the technique of maximizing the space of the folded leaves. They look more like pyramids now but they kept slipping off the strings because they were a little lopsided.And oh, when Mum eats one of my dumplings she starts complaining about me being a stingy dumpling-wrapper. Because I put NO salted egg yolks, only ONE meat. But, really! There's not enough space between those two leaves to put so many ingredients!Still, one must not forget the most important fact that my dumplings are EDIBLE!!#4 New "BBF Project"I'll explain if I ever have the time to do up the post. =DP.S. This stupid post took me 3 days to publish. Bah I'm a lazy blogger. Longing. Come to me in my dreams, and thenBy day I shall be well again!For so the night will more than payThe hopeless longing of the day.Come, as thou cam'st a thousand times,A messenger from radiant climes,And smile on thy new world, and beAs kind to others as to me!Or, as thou never cam'st in sooth,Come now, and let me dream it truth,And part my hair, and kiss my brow,And say, My love why sufferest thou?Come to me in my dreams, and thenBy day I shall be well again!For so the night will more than payThe hopeless longing of the day.- Matthew Arnold (1822-1888) Automated Service Mum asks me to print out a notification stating "Self Service" in Mandarin, for her hawker friend.So I type and printed out,"SELF SERVICE. 自动服务" (Literally, "Automated Service")Mum screeches at me. Laments about my highest education level as 'A' levels and still being unable to translate efficiently."自动服务. Sound alright what," I say, indignant.My sister comes home. I show her the sheet of paper. "What's wrong with this," I ask.She stares.She says, "You forgot to put a hyphen in 'SELF SERVICE'." Tagged! My Japanese Name I've been tagged!Normally I don't do tags. But I haven't been updating so this is my poor excuse for an update. Teehee!INSTRUCTIONS:Add your name to the list and simply spell out your name using the given Japanese letter- translations below. Tag six of your friends and inform them of the tag. Have fun.TRANSLATION: A - ka F - Lu K - me P - no U - do Z - zi B - tu G - ji L - ta Q - ke V - ru C - mi H - ri M - rin R - shi W - mei D - te I - ki N - to S - ari X - na E - ku J - zu O - mo T - chi Y - fuTRANSLATED JAPANESE NAME:Huiwen - RidokimeikutoREMARKS:What the hell, my name sounds like an illness. ("I'm sorry to inform you that you have the Ridokimeikuto disease. You only have 4 months left to live.")I TAG:No one because nobody really likes to be tagged! (I'm going to eat my words very soon.)Ok, I'm going to tag Skyler because I know you hate being tagged. HAHAHA. Bored in the middle of the night So I went to Photobucket, randomly chose a picture and started playing with their photo editor.It's pretty impressive, like Photoshop for dummies. I took pretty long to edit this photo of Nadia and I and as you can see, I'm not a very creative person because it looks like it can be done within minutes.Oh well. I was BORED.(Oh by the way, Nadia and I were flipping through Ming's stash of Europe porn in this photo.)EDIT:We do not have blackheads okay! It's the whole "old and dirty" photo look. Hmph. #263 Fact About Me I have a sweet tooth and I love everything Meiji. Online SCAM! If you have been following Dawn Yang's blog like I do (or perhaps stalking it if you're too shy to admit it), you would have noticed that she recently did an advertorial for www.designluxurybrands.com, which - wait for it - happens to be an online scam site!It appears to be a cheap copy of the site www.designerluxury.com. Pages like "Testimonials" have been ripped off the original site (See original and fake). Haha but at least fake site bothers to tailor their "Money Back Guarantee" page.Several people have been cheated of their money from the fake site, being lured by the cheaper prices of *authentic* luxury goods. Dawn has since taken the advertorial down but I wonder if she was being scammed of her advertorial pay, or how many referrals the site got and eventually cheated girls of their cash.When I took a first look at the site, I really thought they were pretty good deals! I'm lucky I don't have the thousands to splurge on designer items, or else I would have ended in the same hot soup as those who got cheated :( That being said, online scammers are really an irritating bunch!!OK I didn't really intend to blog about this but I was surfing around and this topic caught my eye, so bear with the dryness while I hem and haw about my newly found blogosphere gossip. Haha!Related Posts: http://xiao_jpg.blogspot.com/2008/05/designer-luxury-scam.html Red chamber and accidents Back in secondary school, whenever the long holidays approached, the school would force us to buy from a list of "recommended books" and complete a book review assignment for our Chinese class.One of the books I got was > or "Dream of the Red Chamber", because my mother was a great fan of Chinese literary classics and poems, and the "四大名著" or the "Four Great Classical Novels".I wasn't terrible at Chinese. In fact, I was considered alright with my As and B-pluses. (My school was historically a Chinese school so it was a culture to produce As and Bs for Chinese exams.) However, while I could regurgitate idioms, difficult words and structures of essays, I wasn't very good in speaking and reading. I remember struggling through the book and eventually getting a summary online, then translating it into Mandarin for my assignment. Needless to say, I don't really remember what the book's about.After secondary school, I did well enough to skip the Chinese exams in Junior College. So effectively, I haven't been practicing the language for 5 years. (Dad speaks English and Mum is on this whole "multilingual" thing so she speaks dialect to me.)A few days ago, I picked up > because I felt I was ready to appreciate the great work of fiction. I read every Chinese character in the book and after 2 days, I'm still at page ten. Not to worry! I'm sure my reading speed will pick up and I can finally claim that I've read one of the four (some says five?) great books in China history.***Last night I witnessed an accident involving a taxi and a motorcycle.There was a loud screech of tyres and the next thing I saw, was the motorcyclist groaning on the ground and his vehicle in a wrangled mess. The front of the taxi was smashed and pieces of the headlights dangled above the road. The taxi driver was hurriedly getting bottled water for the motorcyclist, as the crowd of onlookers grew.I felt a surge of emotions. "I pity the cab driver," I told Amal, who was with me when the crash happened. I felt nothing for the motorcyclist (in comparison to the driver), who was still sitting dazed on the ground, a patch of blood on his back growing.But as I watched the cab driver scurry from his cab to the motorcyclist, my heart went out to him. Is his insurance premium going to increase by tenfold? Will he get penalised by his cab company? How is he going to pay for the motorcyclist's medical bills? Poor guy, just trying to earn a living. How long is he going to take to earn this back?Amal looked at me weirdly and said that the motorcyclist was bleeding.Yah, I thought I reacted pretty weirdly too.