blog sponsorship? why not! i just signed up for a blog sponsorship program organized by the nice people at icalvyn and myexhost. eh? what’s this all about? i used to own my own domain and web space - herlostnovember. and then scrapped it all because i was finishing uni and didn’t have as much time to pretty it up with the photoshop tennis with the guys over at abstractinfluence and my own blog (that had more protected than public) entries. why get one now? because quite honestly, wordpress rocks but a free account doesn’t give me much leeway to do things. like add random widgets and the like on my sidebars or even advertorials (which sucks, majorly). with my own space, i can do just about whatever i want and i promise this site won’t turn into an advertorial pasar malam. true enough, domain names are getting cheaper by the minute. unfortunately, not a lot of places offer a decently-priced pacakage for domain names and webspace. or when they do say that it’s cheap, you actually have to pay for a year’s worth (which can chalk up to a lot) and be stuck with a bunch of things you prolly won’t really need because you’re using the site mainly to blog and maybe upload a picture or a video or two. i guess my googling skills still ain’t that savvy that i’m able to find a provider that really just lets me choose what i need and still give me a good price once i’m happy with my package. which is the reason why i jumped on this blog sponsorship program. so i’m hoping for more freedom in customizing my blog (lemme blow the cobwebs off my css skills) and making it easier to put sponsorship and advertorial banner. much thanks to calyvn for giving me this opportunity! not funny, at all Your result for The 3 Variable Funny Test… the Ham (43% dark, 65% spontaneous, 32% vulgar) your humor style:CLEAN | SPONTANEOUS | LIGHT Your style’s goofy, innocent and feel-good. Perfect for parties and for the dads who chaperone them. You can actually get away with corny jokes, and I bet your sense of humor is a guilty pleasure for your friends. People of your type are often the most approachable and popular people in their circle. Your simple & silly good-naturedness is immediately recognizable, and it sets you apart in this sarcastic world. PEOPLE LIKE YOU: Will Ferrell - Will Smith The 3-Variable Funny Test! - it rules - Take The 3 Variable Funny Test at HelloQuizzy stationery fetish i have a fetish for stationery. pens, notebooks and pretty paper. i can’t bear to scribble into a brand new notebook. my penmanship is about as legible as chicken scratchings, if i did write, it’d be blasphemy! i don’t want to ruin the pretty book with my messy scrawlings. it’d be even more of a shame to have to tear out the pages just because i’m not happy with what i’ve written. i’d be hurting the book! think it’s mad. which is why i cannot buy notebooks that cost above 5bucks. i’ll just hoard it in my cupboard and never use it. occasionally i might bring it out once in awhile to see how pretty it is and marvel at its pristine pages and then back into the cupboard it goes. sick. stationery wise. it’s like i can never have enough. there has to be a certain kind of ballpoint pen that i’d need to use. those by bic and only bic because it makes writing so smooth and easy and sexy and almost flawless. like i’m writing on air. sometimes i really really wonder why some people punctuate their sentences with de or worx oe bah. i tried to ‘talk’ it out but it just sounded so weird, so alien and foreign and not the least bit… fun. i don’t believe it’s a subset of singlish or mandarin. or perhaps it’s a chinese kinda thing and hence i can’t comprehend nor appreciate it. like how malays have ke or tak. but that’s actually part of the sentence? or that it’s appropriate in that context? or i’m just really picky and because it’s something that bothers me and i don’t understand why anyone would want to butcher the english language to that extent. i mean singlish is perfectly fine. even the occasional nerve-grating grammatical mistakes but all the de and worx and bah is where i draw the line. tak faham and never will! primary school teacher practises racial discrimination i had to think about the way i was going to write this. if i was going to let the whole world see this, i wanted to be sure that it was logical and rational. not something spurned from anger and disgust. eventhough this whole issue just tastes so bad. there’s been about 3 arrests about racial discrimination in blogs. the fragrant prince and some other weirdos i can’t remember and honestly don’t quite care. it’s a good thing that the netizens are quick about this, quick to point out that what that person was doing, was wrong and that they understood that our country was one that promoted racial harmony. not dischord. but this is online, reality is a completely different story. i found out about how a teacher in a particular school (if you want to know more and the exact name and everything, just drop me a mail) was very blatant and upfront with regards to racial discrimination. which person in their right mind would say the following things: if he were to attend friday prayers, who would cover for him? (we) were expecting a chinese. the role concerned was that of an IT coordinator. now whilst this individual was eventually hired (and here on you may think, big deal you complain for what? read a bit more), his role became not of an IT coordinator but more of an administrative personnel which included him looking after things. i don’t understand how administrative work + being the jaga for things equate to being an IT coordinator. do you? because to my knowledge being an IT coordinator usually involves things to do with computers and the internet and the servers and whatever that’s got to do with IT. i geekspeak, not IT speak. now, even i can understand the concerns brought about by the first issue. but i’ll have to let you in on this. the school involved was a primary school. so unless you’re extremely high-tech (omg, having a horribly disgusting flash-overloaded page for your school website does not make you high-tech) and have to get your tablet PCs (what? everyone these days is carrying a tablet pc? no wonder we’re all so friggin’ myopic) or your what-have-yous processed insantly then i see no reason what an hour can do. you’re not the internet, a downtime of 1 hour will not affect productivity. i have been a relief teacher and the only time that i have seen teachers in the staff room get flustered with using a computer is when it’s exam time. then they have to key in numbers and input stats and draw up with charts and the like. uhm sorry but for any other time other than that would you need the IT coordinator 24/7 at your beck and call to help you with doing menial you-coulda-googled-it stuff? i bet even the kids know how to. so yeah that’s ok. but it’s the second part that gets to me. it’s like. you barely even know the guy and yet you’re already stereotyping him. why, WHY do people still base another’s worth based on the colour of their skin? if they have the same credentials and if they’re both equally hardworking. what are you? nazis? you can’t play the whole white (or in this case, yellow) superiority. if it’s a personal distaste, fuck off and keep it to yourself. but this is for the school and not for your personal benefit. every morning for 5 days every week when you repeat the pledge: we, the citizens of singapore pledge ourselves as one united people regardless of race, language or religion to build a democratic society based on justice and equality so as to achieve happiness, prosperity and progress for our nation do those words mean nothing to you or do you recite them because it’s mandatory? to think that racial harmony day passed by not too long ago. you ought to be slapped with the trout of hypocrisy. you don’t practise what you preach. now i come to the killing blow. the finale. said individual had to go for reservist (we girls are lucky aren’t we?) and in the meantime, the school found a replacement who (you know this was coming) is chinese. by the time individual gets out of reservist, he is informed that the replacement is made permanent which therefore leaves him without a role and without a job. i’ve heard that some companies do the same thing. male employees are forced to take leave from work to complete their national service obligations. next thing they know when they come back, they gotta clean their desk and find another pond to fish in. i can almost imagine the glee on her face when she told him this. i just feel so disgusted, so jaded and cynical to think that a teacher would have done such a thing. that others condone such a travesty. this is a teacher, one who is moulding the minds, psyche and lives of the younger generation. are we putting across the message that we should discriminate others based on the colour of their skin? that we judge them for their beliefs and not by the merit of their hard work and character? is she even fit to be a teacher? to be the one moulding the future generation? is this what our society is coming to? to indulge in superficial denigration? to be selfish and ignorant? like i mentioned, if it’s personal preference then keep it personal. in your working environment, you’re meant to be professional - verbally and physically. what she just did, crossed way over the line of racial tolerance to full-blown prejudice and discrimination. so is she going to get away with this? just wait and see. when thoughts lead to something else in the midst of cleaning up my room i chanced upon a letter my secondary 3&4 form teacher sent us. it was a letter and an ice-cream stick. he was reminding us to read our lit text - romeo & juliet - and to decorate the ice-cream stick. this guy was by far one of the most colourful, illustrious and charismatic person that i had ever met nor known. mr andrew miranda. he drew death from gaiman’s sandman on the wall above the entrance to class. he talked to me about tarot spreads and tarot reading. he inspired us, made us fall in love with literature and is the one person i’d thank so much for giving me that boost, that spurt into getting an a1 for lit. i haven’t been back in crescent in years. things have changed. there are new additions to the building, there are definitely new teachers. i don’t even know if it’s the same principle or someone new. i have to be honest and say that i didn’t have the most awesomely radical time of my life back when i was in school. self-confessed/professed social outcast, at the fringe and in the midst of it all. so utterly confused and completely misplaced. it felt like i was there but missing at the same time, my mind fragmented. somehow… trying to drag up the memories of yonder i kinda got sidetracked and ended up smiling to myself watching this ad. trust me to have such a short attention span. not that it’s adhd… just that there are other things to think about instead of reminiscing (because sometimes that just makes things worse). always remember to use protection. intermission love i’ve never really had a hangover kinda hangover. the night before… now that was sick. yesterday my head only stopped spinning right before the meeting at 5th avenue. when i wasn’t burning braincells, i almost lost my balance. but it’s over and i actually got home about 7:15ish to have dinner and then concuss. 4 lovely hours of unadulterated and uninterrupted sleep. the sister was pretty stunned that i was home early until she heard me snore a couple of minutes later and rolled her eyes. damn. i honestly thought that my brother left for reservist which meant that the car would be free (like final-fucking-ly). unfortunately, what i thought was like 4 in the morning was actually only 12ish and he usually gets back about this time from work/reservist/whatever thereby dashing my hopes and making me feel like a complete idiot. hmpf. in anycase, it’s the weekend!!! no partying, loads of rest and running please. i’m not sure if i should sign up the net4all course. first lesson is next thursday. hmm hmm hmm. zombierockstar! pissed off with how slow my laptop was, extremely tired and suffering from horrible seating posture. this was the best that i could do. damn i miss the zombie days. in the meantime, will upload shots of senseless camwhoring from tonight… when i feel less like a zombie. think it’s about time that i got back to manipulating photos and updating my very very outdated photoshop skills. pale pretense; a lost memory when i attend gigs and let myself sink into the crowd and the live sounds, it brings me back to when we were still pale pretense. when we’d spend 2 hours every weekend coming up with new material in the studio and arguing with each other and coming up with a way to finish a song or make a chorus sound catchier or figure out words to it. prata and teh peng sessions that come thereafter and senseless rambling chatter that occasionally ambled its way to topics like tits and sex. i adored those boys; they were my big brothers who watched me grow from shrieking squealing little manic to something more. come september this year, we would have been 4 years old. 4 years together. 4 years of nonsense. things change, people change and time passes. viv is in uni and finishing his psych degree. fir’s working for the ministry and jet sets around the asean region for trade meetings and the like. isk is working and i think contemplating furthering his studies. and me? bound to my desk from 9 to 6 and waking up on mondays wondering just what the hell happened to me, to my life and fuck, what did i do over the weekend! not that i complain bout the weekend-bonding session with the boyfriend. i tell myself its because i’ve grown out of the phase. the mates in the (marginally) new(er) band are all so busy and caught up in their own lives and have no time for jam sessions. i can’t always be the one to have to round everyone up together when no one seems to make an effort to start something. sigh. i miss singing. miss being on stage. miss messing around with the guys and the stories and jokes and reminiscing old times. dunno if you guys read this. but if you do. i miss you all loads and hope someday we can just go back to making music and having fun. love, lin. no use what use is a voice, a mouth, when you cannot speak. when your words fall on deaf ears. when your pleas are struck off and brushed aside like trivial frivolities. review: the dark knight when it rains, it pours. here i am home typing really slowly with my right hand as the left tries to take over the keys the right normally makes use of. this is what happens when you don’t do the proper wamr-ups and training and shit like that. the body protests by hurting. this also means that since i’m stuck at home, i have to clean up my very messy and hurricane-like room. clothes strewn everywhere. piles and piles and piles of magazines that i was meant to go through over the weekend but never did because i was never home most of the time. yet even yesterday when i was home, i just spent the day sleeping or mooching on the computer. seriously bad habits. so let’s do somethinga  wee bit more productive today. like say, talk about batman: the dark knight and other assorted movies that i managed to catch in the past week or so. the dark knight everyone i know who has caught the show has been ranting and raving about it. to sum it up quite shortly, it was good but just a bit too long - my butt was aching from sitting too long and trex even went here we go again when we thought what was the ending but turned out to not be the ending. ok, that may not have made sense. christopher nolan did a pretty incredible job giving us the sequel to batman begins with christian bale (the machinist) as the centerpiece. yet for everyone else who’s caught the show, they know otherwise that it wasn’t bale who caught the attention and maybe even the hearts of those watching. a friend said that the late heath ledger’s acting in this show was over-rated. quite personally, i thought the australian captured the essence and charisma of the joker down to a finely-calligraphed T. the mannerisms, that sketchy schizophrenic instability. the licking of the lips and the shifty eyes. the way he walked (or staggered and swayed and strutted) and the way he manipulated the minds and psyche of those around him. you know he’s a mad man and at the same time, you know that he’s a man. a man without morals and who has absolutely nothing to lose. i suppose christian bale was his usual dark morbid scary and often misunderstood self. never really got what the whole hype was about him. i’d drool more for james mcavoy than mister bale. he is very… baleful after awhile. hurhurhur. now aaron eckhart as harvey dent (and later, two-face) was brilliant. although really, lighten up. rachel dawes (maggie gyllenhaal) was pretty much just plot fodder, a lil’ push into the dark side. apart from having shagged both man and sleepy eyes, i didn’t really see the point of having her in the show. not that i don’t like her, i just found her a waste of film space. also for a bit, harvey dent’s sunshiney goodie-goodie naive character occasionally got a bit too tedious and painful to swallow. till he morphed into two-face and then, that’s where bits of the fun part comes in. realistic make-up and digital enhancing plus play sure puts the real in reel. i literally cringed when harvey showed his other side - bone, sinew and the eyeball. does this mean he never sleeps on the other side because there’s no eyelid covering the eyes? was even worse than the sand-guy in the first hellboy. characterizations aside, what’s the best part of this movie? the whole bang bang explosion AND when bruce wayne’s lambo got trashed. my heart wrenched. WRENCHED i tell you when i saw that beautiful machinery just… turn to tin can. but that’s alright. not much display of gadgets and i keep wondering if christian bale gets a horrible sorethroat for needing to speak in that raspy growl each time he turns into batman. like… that should really really hurt. morgan freeman’s lucius fox who’s a genius but sadly a straight and righteous genius but that’s alright. there is one thing i have to admit. the marketing they did to promote the show (not that it needed that much promoting, word of mouth spread and things took a life of their own) was trly incredible. read more about it on wiki - viral websites, pixels that slowly moved away to show the joker’s smile, the decomposing jack-o-lantern with batman’s logo as its mouth etc. a pretty decent movie to catch. not personally a huge fan of DC comics and batman but this book-to-screen adaptation is pretty good and provides a certain sense of surreal realism combined with a more realistic look at the workings of the human mind and heart that no amount of captions and pictures in a comic book can detail. i might catch this again if i were a fan, to absorb and immerse myself in the essence that is batman but other than that, at least it was worth the $10.50 i paid. one final note, our own ng chin han played quite a pretty big role in the show as the hong kong accountant who works for the mafia and gang. his role was even bigger than edison chen’s! haha take that pretty boy! i could be wrong in my summary of the dark knight but, to each their own. it was a good show. acting, props, setting and plot was pretty stellar. just that there was too much hype generated and though you pretty much got the whole cake, it made me leave the theater feeling as if i was cheated out of something more. hmm… my time perhaps. one hell of a weekend what happens when you don’t train at all for a 5km run and only had 2 hours worth of sleep the night before? A MAJOR BODYACHE! HOOOOAH! yes. it’s so shiok that i’m rolling around laughing and wiggling my butt and feet. actually, no. it hurts like a bitch and for a split second earlier on i must have pulled a muscle or a nerve or whatever it is and started screaming because it just hurt so much to breathe. but! it’s over and done with and next up: great eastern women’s run! another 5km and this time, somehow, i’m gonna actually train a bit more so my timing won’t be like utter crappers. don’t think there’s a running chip this time round but who cares! nessa will be running with me! no more running alone! could always do with more running buddies though, makes it easier and faster to collect bags and assorted goodies. last night we caught dark knight with the dyl-ers. tho josie thinks the late heath ledger’s acting was a lil’ over-rated, i personally felt that he captured the essence and madness of the joker beautifull. dare i say, even better than when jack nicholson was the joker! i still don’t understand the fascination with christian bale also, apart from being the sorta catalyst to harvey dent going psycho and make bruce feel like he ought to give up the bat mantle, maggie gyllenhaal who played rachel dawes, served no other true purpose. but i still like her and her sleepy stoned eyes. i think i really should do a review of this. but only when my dominant arm doesn’t hurt that much. right now, typing is putting a strain to it. could be because of the wii tennis and boxing that we were doing in place of actual badminton (courts were booked till 3). so we played that in the end and then endless rounds of mahjong where i won! and quite a number of times too! trex’s mum is damn zai la. she won a great majority of the rounds and kept having a lot of those flower-thingies turn up. i only understand that if you get an animal, you can game anyhow. else, you’ll need to pong or game in sequence. no pictures as of late. trex wonders why we never take photos and why i never send him any of our shots. uhm. butbutbut i gave you the link! and it’s not my fault if you don’t check it out! still, love you dear. thanks for picking me up and dropping me off for my run. now. to rest my arm and finish off gen x cops. hair today, gone tomorrow i get impulse urges. not just the shopping kind. i’ve had the “i need to run now” urges and then there was the “i’m gonna go donate blood” impulses. today, i decided to go and get a haircut. trex brought me to this salon that was a stone’s throw from his office and i plonked my butt in the chair and told the hairstylist i wanted to cut my hair. lemme indulge myself and tell you bout my sad, unfortunate but occasionally happy moments with my hair. truth is, i wanted to get rid of the dead, fried ends after the nasty rebonding session at kimage. i was wrong to believe ‘big names’ would do an awesome job and make me feel like i had commercial-worthy hair. i was so friggin’ wrong. i paid so much and was sure i would get the senior stylist to tend to my every need. well, she only did the cutting and putting on the gunk that was to make my hair straight. it was the frickin’ student who ironed my hair and everything. i know the girl needs to learn and what better way to get experience than to do things first hand. but she almost burnt my scalp and after the whole experience, there’s this chunk of hair closer to the nape of my neck that pretty much looked like twister fries - only brittle, black and d-r-y. swore never to get my hair cut or rebonded there, ever again. my old hairstylist was actually a friend of the sister’s. she got married then moved over to KL. i loved her haircuts, they complemented my face (big, squarish and ugleeeeh) and made me feel, dare i say it, more girly? though the rebond was pretty pricey it was every cent worth it, my hair was not dead. not fried. soft, smooth and sleeeeek to the touch! i loved it! and then about 8 months later and thanks to my lazy hair-caring routine, the kinks started to settle in. so i decided to go and rebond my hair at kimage. they were having this offer at $168 for a cut and rebond. without the promotion, i may have to fork out close to $300 to get my hair rebonded. i kid you not when i say my hair is thick. the junior stylist took forever just to iron out my hair. the hair on the floor could easily have been made into a wig or extensions. not only that, my hair is damn coarse. no amount of conditioner can permanently make it like the hair of those girls in shampoo ads. damn jealous la! pause the text and i bring you, pictures! original stylist hair reached the shoulderblades. long fringe. smooth and tangle-less! kimage weird kooky bangs - sloped to one side and then was just blunt on the other. ends at the back were fried. and now, lookie lookie! kudos that would be the name of the salon. loads shorter, concave bob. i get to keep my fringe and grow it out! do pardon the rather uncharacteristic pink pjs and messy room. and oh, the cheesy ‘V’ sign. this is about the same haircut i had right after i broke up with psychowankerfromhell (who stressed me out so bad friends said that i looked like a bloody skeleton in this shot). so there you have it. longest and most image-intensive entry i’ve done yet. been too lazy to put photos up since i basically have no time after i get back from work and the camera’s battery needs to get some juice. it’s friday already! week went by in a flash, mind is still in a mess. now, time to plan what to wear tomorrow. this new do makes me feel edgy-geek - capris + sneakers + tanktop + hoodie. oakleys and glasses interchangeable. nothing stays the same i spent a long time trying to decide what to write about and realised, that i couldn’t write anything. been a fair number of things on my mind - work, home, social life (or lack thereof), people and the future. 23 is an age where everything hits you at warp speed leaving you winded and blinded. so many things going on all at once. so many sights and sounds. so many people pulling you in so many directions. overwhelmed, i don’t seem to be able to prioritize anymore. makes me wish guility for the time when things were simpler. when bills, plans, committment and responsibilities were just something to laugh about because ‘the adults’ had to face it and we were still caught in the throes of naivete and deluded youth. nothing ever stays the same because the only constant now, is change. like now, i think i’m going for a haircut. you just made an ass out of yourself so many things to rant about and gripe today. all infuriating and aggravating. 1. bunch of drunkards outside the pub at the bus stop where i usually take the bus to work. waving madly as i alighted the bus from across. suspected they were drunk, making a lot of noise to call me out and attract my attention. then as i was walking away i heard a guy shout the most obscene and insulting thing ever. i wanted to call the cops right there and then. get charged for sexual harassment. a resident who has lived in that area for more than 10 years, being harassed on her way home. excuse me but do i look like one of those kinda girls to you? if and ever this happens again by the same group of guys, i’m going to make sure they learn a very hard lesson with regards to respecting women. 2. i’ve met some cab drivers who think i’m working at one of those sleazy bars just because i tell them that i’m heading to tanjong pagar. just because i’m a tanned girl and you automatically assume that i work in those kinda environments? i reveal less than they and i sure as hell don’t have an accent nor speak in a dominant native language. bloodyhell really. pisses me off. happy birthday dear. HAPPY BIRTHDAY KRISTOPHER MARCUS TUNG! i hearts you manymanymany. *mwah* rubyrubyruby! let’s see if i can make this anymore vague-er. an obsession with grammar and spelling, the correct use of words in the context of a statement. grates my nerves a lil’. like fishes nibbling on my toes during a foot spa (not that it has happened, yet). so i need to inject some newfound hobby into my life before i fall into the cataclysmic throes of insanity - which is not good. rollerblading or cycling? thanks to carrefour, either seems reasonably-priced. though i can’t be too sure bout the quality and calibre. but at least it’s better than nothing. if he doesn’t let me have a go at the wheel, i’ll grab my own set. even if it’s just two and manually pedalling like crazy. plus, very useful if i ever decide to sink my teeth into the triathlon pudding. which seems unlikely at any given point of time given that i can find 1001 excuses for not going for a run. there’s something lodged at the back of my throat. i have to play nice. i must play nice. call me morbid or weird, i’ve always fantasised the perfect ending. my dramatic finale. the emotions, the angst, the outrage and tears. days of yin’s life if you will. too much drama and japanese soap operas. now, to spend more time playing cradle of rome; the seriously addictive bejewelled-ish game that sees me glued to my ds for hours on end. although since i was so smart to leave the house without it, will have to make do with solitaire for the trip to clementi. kaiser chiefs & the great britian ukelele orchestra - ruby quite a funky concert if you ask me. RUBY RUBY RUBY! first signs of guitar hero withdrawal symptoms, listening and singing to the featured songs. on repeat. to the dismay of anyone sharing your earphones.