daphnemaia.com I’m moving! I got my own domain! Please update your links and visit me HERE from now on! Millions of thanks to: Uzyn for hosting my new site Weichiang for being my technical consultant Sabrina for helping with some of the codes Pingsters, please re-love my blog, okay? Haha… Thank you for loving me! Of “Models” and “Photographers” I completely hate and despise ‘photographers’ who claim that they go for “model shoots” to practise taking portraits and how to shoot people. I despise them. Such model shoots are there solely for 2 purposes: For male photographers to go and gawk at nubile bodies For attention-seeking ‘models’ to indulge in their own narcissistic desires There isn’t any real emotion in this photo, nor any artistic value, only that the girl is prettier (more photogenic) than the average girl you pick off the street. Big deal. You may argue that it’s only for practise, and they practice better under certain conditions. And that they have to practise so that they can take professional shoots of professional models and celebrities and what nots, in future. Alright, then please answer the following question, my dear friends: Do you think these ‘photographers’ would consider taking photos if the ‘model’ turned up in a nun’s garb? How many of these ‘photographers’ will actually go into this line full time in future, ala Russell Wong and Kid Chan? Chances are, the answer is none, for both questions. They are only using the name of such portrait photographers so as to be able to gawk at those ‘models’. It’s all about the sex factor, isn’t it? Pathetic, really. I don’t think Kid Chan became who he was by taking such shots. A true photographer does not only take photos of pretty faces. He would take photos of real people, who have real emotions on their faces, in real settings. Okay, so you may argue, but conditions in a studio are different. The lightings, the mood, etc. Yes yes, you’re right. But why don’t I see you taking photos of old men who have had difficult years and lines etched into their faces to show it? Why don’t I see you taking photos of middle aged women who have slightly sagging breasts and whose soft round bodies tell you, I have had kids and whose smile says, It’s been hard bringing them up but I love my kids? I’m sure they would make great subjects, too. But nope, it’s all about the sex, isn’t it? I hate to break it to all you pathetic photographer-wannabes out there, but having a pretty face in a photo does not make it a fabulous photo. It does not make you a photographer either. And btw, girls, being photogenic also does not make you a ‘model’. The really beautiful ones would never subject themselves to such ‘photoshoots’ because they don’t need to prove to anyone that they are beautiful. Besides, have all you amateur ‘models’ out there ever thought of what these male ‘photographers’ do with your photos? Unlike celebrity models who have managers and agents, you have no rights to those photos, and you will never know what kind of abuse it is subjected to. Maybe it will be posted on some sex-themed site for more guys to gawk at? Like sgGirls? Or worse, these pathetic ‘photographers’ masturbate to it, maybe? Have some dignity, won’t you. My Viable Options I’m so frustrated! I’ve been applying for a position at the Careers@NTUC website, and it keeps timing out or dying on me! I have filled the same form up 3 freaking times, and I’ve given up! I shall do it another day when my mood is better. This weekend has been a waste of my time. I have yet to do anything productive - my Law project seems to be on a standstill. It’s so stagnant that if it were water, aedes mosquito could breed in it. Boo. Feeling super frustrated now. I cannot wait to finish up my course and move on to the next step in my life. At this point in time, I’m not quite sure what that is, but it’s alright because I always believe that things will smoothen out somehow. I’ve been contemplating going to Australia to study Industrial Relations. But things are very unconfirmed at the moment, because I have to await the university’s reply on the module exemptions matter. It’s all just one big long wait. Frustrating. So my back up plan is to go ahead and apply for a job at NTUC as Industrial Relations Officer, and hope that I get an interview and a chance. But at the moment, the website keeps showing me error messages, so I am going to KIV until I feel like filling in forms again! I also want to say thank you to all my friends and the Pingsters who have been leaving messages on my blog, and sending me virtual hugs. It means a lot to me at this moment, and I’m just glad that I have friends who are standing by me. Hmm! Other than that. My mom is away visiting my dad in Indonesia! OK! I don’t have a dysfunctional family okay, we are together! We exist in the world of emails. Haha. I’m happy when I’m alone, but after eating frozen food for a while, after having no one to talk to when I get home, after having to walk home late at night from the bus stop, and after having to clean up after myself, I usually start missing my mom. Haha! I Don’t Get It I don’t understand people who stroll into class after half the lesson is already over, then ask me for my notes and expect me to spend my break time explaining all the concepts that the lecturer went through. I don’t understand people who don’t want to start early on their own projects, then ask me (when they finally realise it is time to start panicking) to let them take a look at my project so that they have an idea on how to start writing theirs. I don’t understand people who don’t take notes during classes, and at the end of the lesson, ask me if I could send a copy of all the notes that I took down on my laptop. I don’t understand people who even need to copy what I highlight on my lecture notes. I don’t understand people who actually feel that it’s actually okay to ask me if I can help them photostat a copy of my textbook (additional readings) which I took the effort to get from the library or from friends in other schools. I don’t understand people who ask me questions like, “How do you study ah?” Erm. I read. And then I think about the stuff that I’ve read. At the risk of getting flamed, I still want to say that I find the most insufferable people to be those who lack intelligence and still don’t put in the effort. Not all people are born equal, of course, but those who are stupid should put in more effort. Time I no longer mourn the loss of that relationship. I am happy and well now. It took me a month - a whole month. But I’m well now. I have been surrounding myself with new things, new people. I have been engaging in new activities and learning about new things, reading new books. I had good and bad memories and I learnt things about love, life and relationships. I saw new places and experienced new cultures. I made new friends (Gerald, Justin and Jindong). I ate new things and had new favourites. I was encouraged to pursue my dreams and I got the courage to take bold steps. I gained a lot, in fact. Yet, I didn’t lose a friend, I didn’t lose a boyfriend, I didn’t lose a partner. The only thing I lost was… Time. How to Spend a Cashless Day Pampering Yourself This requires a lot of ‘preparations’ beforehand, and some coordination and good luck. So please bear with me if you don’t find that my method works for you! Hehe. 1. Morning breakfast at McDonalds - redeem a McMuffin or Filet O Fish using the points that you have earned on your EZ Link / Macs membership 2. Armed with your laptop, head to the library nearest to you, and enjoy free surfing with Wireless@SG as long as you like. Pick up any books to loan with your library card. It’s free! (It’s called your NRIC card, silly) 3. Redeem a free facial or spa or massage with a voucher that you got from a magazine or contest joined. Some banks’ new credit cards sign ups also reward new customers with massage/spa vouchers. I love massages the most! Always feel very happy after getting one! Hehe. 4. Redeem free lunch from points accumulated for riding on buses and MRTs using your EZ Link card (SBS’ Ride & Redeem Scheme)! For example, 100 Transit Dollars for a Loy Kee Best Chicken Rice Special Set. 5. Redeem a free movie ticket with one of the movie tickets from a stack that you got from working as a part-time staff for Singtel’s Wireless@SG (haha) - I’m going to watch Hairspray! 6. Get a free hair cut at some hairdressing academy (Toni & Guy, etc) 7. Pay for any transport using EZ Link card (preferably not your own) Haha! Otherwise, if you’re living in the west, you can shuttle between IMM and Jurong East, Clementi or Boon Lay using the free shuttle bus There you go! Free day out (okay lah, don’t count the transport part. I said cashless, not completely free). Haha! Teaching Korean students English And I officially declare this hiatus over, until the next time I feel like I need another break from life. Well, not to say that I’ve recovered from the last erm, break. But I just felt like maybe I should write something here. I’ve been busy with school, with reading (at least 3 books a week), and with the 3 tuition students that I have now. I’m now committing about 15 hours of my weekly schedule to giving tuition - that’s like holding 1/3 of a job, in addition to studying full time. I have two Korean boys (Primary 2 and 4) and they are siblings, so I teach 3 hours in one sitting. It’s no mean feat, especially when they are boys who have really short attention spans. Well, it’s that, or they are just constantly trying to annoy me with their neverending questions, or their absurd answers. Examples from yesterday’s lessons: Question asked by student: “Why is it called a nursery and not a doctory?” Answer to sentence construction exercises: 1. I need some soil, seeds, and a pot to plant flowers. 2. I need one thousand books, two hundred pens and one million erasers to draw one picture. *breathe, Daphne, breathe* Boys are just so naughty. But these 2 boys of mine are also extremely adorable! So I forgive them. Haha. They are from Seoul, Korea, but went to Shenzhen, China, and study in an international school there for about 2 years, before coming to Singapore. Therefore, they are really outspoken, and actually speak good English, with a slight American slang. My other student is a Korean lady who has a PhD in Korean musicology (or something equally amazing). She is here with her husband, who is pursuing some doctorate course at NUS. So meanwhile, she is studying some post-doctorate course at NIE in Asian musicology. And that’s where I come in. I help her with her academic English (thesis-writing language, in other words). Anyway, we’ve settled into a comfortable routine now, of alternating between lessons in academic English, and discussive sessions, whereby we just sit for 2 hours to talk about world issues (economic, political, international relations, globalisation, etc.) and social issues (racial discriminations, social stigmas, women’s rights, education systems’ impact on the youth, etc). I must say that I really enjoy lessons with her. I learn as much from these lessons as she does. Hmm, so does that mean we should not have any payment of sorts? Haha, actually I feel a bit bad because this is something that comes naturally to me - academic writing and speaking the language - and yet I charge so much for the lessons, when it doesn’t even require much effort on my part. Seriously, who pays a tutor so much money to come and sit in her house (and even get served drinks and snacks) just to talk about topics of interest, or newspaper articles? Umm. In any case, I do feel very happy about the way the lessons are going now, for all my students. Although I’m very tired, and I actually have to study my school stuff on the bus, while travelling home to JB, or on the MRT, or during meal times, I feel like I’m actually doing something real, instead of just studying and studying and studying. Well, the drawbacks (besides that I’m perpetually tired) are that I don’t have time for friends or family now, and I’ve started speaking “funnily”. I tend to put on an accent when I speak now, because my students don’t understand me if I speak with the Singapore English accent (yes, I tried). And since my students are the only people I speak to these days, sometimes it gets kind of hard to break out of the habit of putting on an accent. So please don’t be overly surprised if you see me one day, and I start slang-ing. Haha. BTW why is it called slang-ing? By definition, Slang: Informal usage of vocabulary and idioms Accent: A distinctive characteristic pronunciation determined by regional or social background of the speaker I guess, in Singlish, to slang means to put on an accent? Odd. i carry your heart with me by e.e. cummings i carry your heart with me (i carry it in my heart) i am never without it (anywhere i go you go, my dear; and whatever is done by only me is your doing, my darling) i fear no fate (for you are my fate, my sweet) i want no world (for beautiful you are my world, my true) and it’s you are whatever a moon has always meant and whatever a sun will always sing is you here is the deepest secret nobody knows (here is the root of the root and the bud of the bud and the sky of the sky of a tree called life; which grows higher than the soul can hope or mind can hide) and this is the wonder that’s keeping the stars apart i carry your heart (i carry it in my heart) Hiatus I am going on a hiatus. Because I cannot handle my life. Because I don’t want to face those things any more. Do you know how much I fear waking up each morning? Do you know how I try to occupy my own thoughts so that they are not overwhelmed by negative thoughts. I’m going on a hiatus on this blog, on Ping, on Twitter. I’m sorry if I don’t reply. Maybe I just can’t bring myself to do it. I am lost, I am hurt, and I need time. I need a one way ticket to Africa, or death, which ever is nearer. Pingsters Gather at Secret Recipe Yesterday, after my seminar in school (Organisational Effectiveness Study and Employee Loyalty, Commitment, and Career Planning), I headed off to Orchard to meet the Pingsters for dinner at Secret Recipe at Forum. I really didn’t know where Forum was, so I had to ask Xiangying via SMS. Haha. She told me it’s next to Hilton. I was stunned for a while, thinking, “Now, where is Hilton?!” Haha. Finally found it, thanks to some kind souls and a map outside Liat Towers. Hoho. Was making my way there when Paced called - she was already there! I met her there (we were earliest, yay!) and we started talking about doughnuts and wireless and er… I can’t remember what else. But what I do remember though, is how quickly we warmed up to each other, just like old friends - although yesterday was the first time we met! Haha… Brennan and Arzhou arrived (separately) soon after, and then Jzin. Poor Jzin had to rush through his dinner, and go back to work, before coming back to join us again after 9pm. Anyways. People started trickling in one by one. Aaron, Sekling & Uzyn, Sabrina, DJLamb, NTT… Was very happy to see Sekling! She just started her first day at work, at SCB, and I feel like I haven’t seen her for ages! Although in reality it was just a month ago that we met up, at the Ping.sg anniversary party. Wait. It’s only been a month?! It feels like aeons ago! My gosh. Haha. I’ve been to a couple of other meet ups since the party - Hajah Maimunah dinner, and the Miss Clarity Cafe lunch. Anyway, new faces today were Paced, Aaron, Sabrina, DJLamb. Very happy to meet all of them! Though I kind of didn’t talk to Aaron, Sabrina, and DJLamb. Haha. I’m not very good at splitting my attention amongst so many people. Well, next time then! We started ordering our food (with the really confused waiter). And then Brennan wanted to order a whole cake (the banana chocolate cake) but the cafe staff said that if he ordered (and paid) for it now, he would have to hold on to the cake, as they cannot keep it in the fridge for him. What?! That means the cake would be melted by the time he was ready to go! Seriously, this is called bad customer service, and no-sense for business at all. Tsk. Anyway. Here’s what I had yesterday evening: Pan-Grilled Dory with Lobster Sauce Banana Chocolate Cake! The fish was really good, you know? I enjoyed it - every bite of it. The dory was grilled just right, and there was a buttery richness, topped off with the creamy lobster sauce (which I’m convinced doesn’t contain an ounce of lobster but still tasted wonderful nonetheless). And of course, the cake. Yums. Rich, creamy. I prefer a heavier brownie cake though. But still, it’s hard not to like this cake. Wish I had more space to stuff down some cheese cake as well, but alas, there was only so much that my tummy could take - albeit it was my first meal of the day. Haha. Okay! Photo with my girls! One of my best girl friends - Sekling and I Pretty pretty new friend - Paced and I And more photos! (Courtesy of Arzhou.com) Arzhou debunks the Minesweeper Myth From L to R: Jzin, Aaron, Uzyn, Arzhou, Brennan Sabrina and DJLamb Sekling and I Thereafter, DK arrived, and we all adjourned to McDonald’s! Haha! DK was actually in class, and he was being lured to Secret Recipe by us our Twitters about the food and the ongoings at the gathering: Daphne: Mmmm.. The banana chocolate cake from Secret Recipe is yummilicious… It’s really heavenly, you know? Mmmm… Arzhou: @dk come to the outing (wah very blatant and straightforward!) Arzhou: @tstar the choc banana cake is very nice Daphne: Brennan the Digital Terrorist needs to read Voxy to destress. Do you? (bwahahahaha, we extracted a confession from the DT!) Paced being disgusted amused by DK And Jzin trying to be Voxy trying to act cute I left soon after, so I don’t know what else happened. But it was a very fruitful and successful (smaller) gathering. I really was able to take my mind off certain issues, at least for a while, and I was able to eat properly! Ah, okay, and something vain… I wore a new dress today, and forgot to take a picture of it. So I set my HP camera to self-timer, and voila! Dress - $21 from C.O.A.X. Belt - $11 from Aries Bag - Price unknown from Chanel Anyway. Stay tuned to the Ping.sg forum for more announcements for gatherings! If you’re reading this, and you are not from Ping.sg, join us! We’re really easygoing and we just have so much fun meeting new people each time We don’t bite either. Haha! Click here for Arzhou’s entry on the gathering. Did You See My Appetite? I have no appetite. None at all. I’ve not eaten since dinner last night, yet I feel no desire to eat. I hear BB and his Mom’s words echoing in my head already - eat not because you are hungry, but because you have to - but I look at my food and I feel like throwing up. Even the thought of doughnuts and cakes do not excite me. BB’s Mom should have landed in Beijing already. I wanted to blog about the precious last few days that I spent with her, but Wordpress ate up my blog. So I shall blog about it later. For now, I’m going to unwind on the couch, read, and try to remember the 心境自然凉 mantra. I hate the weather in this part of the world. Justin, on the other hand, is in Zambia (Africa) and loving the weather. “WTF?!” you say? Well apparently not all of Africa has extremely hot weather! Haha. I know, it’s a misconception that everyone has, that Africa is hot hot hot! Well, according to Justin, the weather there is now about 15 degrees Celsius. And that a small bottle of shampoo costs about USD 10! Wah. So I guess people there do not use shampoo? Haha. According to Justin, people there are poor, but they are all happy, smiley and friendly. Sometimes I wish I was in another part of the world, too, away from all my troubles. Dealing with Depression What do you do when you are so depressed, so depressed that no one can help you? You cry alone. Then you go to your drawer and dig out that spare bottle of Escitalopram, down two, go back downstairs, and pop a feel-good movie into the DVD player. Then you go to bed. And if you can’t sleep, reach over to the night stand, pop a Lorazepam and get knocked out. You wake up the next morning and you go on with what you do everyday - smile at everyone and pretend that everything is okay. And at the end of the day, you go home. And you get depressed again. Then you cry alone. Then you go to your dresser, where the bottle of Escitalopram already sits. Reflections on Reading and Haruki Murakami Been reading the book Kafka on the Shore by Haruki Murakami, a Japanese author. Well, the one I’m reading is a translated version of his novel, by Philip Gabriel. I’ve been taking my time reading this book (I also took a long time with The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle) because this book is quite difficult to read. There are 2 main characters in the book, a runaway boy called Kafka Tamura, and an old man, who talks to cats, called Nakata. Each chapter in the book switches between 3 main scenes/themes: Kafka’s adventures after he leaves his home, Nakata’s search for a cat which involves a lot of dialogues with cats (I know this sounds weird), and interviews/investigations regarding the incident in Nakata’s childhood which led to him being the way he is now. With the end of each chapter, I, the reader, have to consciously switch my mind back and forth between the various subplots, making it a tiring read. In addition, Haruki Murakami’s style is none too easy on the mind - there are many philosophies of line intricately woven into the storyline, making readers stop often while ploughing through the sentences and paragraphs, to think about our own related experiences, or any other thoughts that might have been triggered off by his writing, whether relevant or not. Although his sentences are simple, and the vocabulary used none too fancy, reading his works definitely take a longer time than other books that I’ve read. While this is one of the reasons why I enjoy his works, I have to admit that I probably will not be able to read book after book by him, without any ‘break’ in the form of other types of books, unlike when I read other types of books. Murakami is, to me, an author who makes my mind exhausted, yet refreshed, through the strange yet logical philosophies he presents in his writings. I’m hardly a quarter of my way through this book, but I already have many thoughts on it, or which have been sparked off by it. And that is the way I like books to be - thought-provoking. Not to say that I do not read books which subsist mainly on its plot - I do, and I enjoy them too - but I derive most pleasure from philosophically elevated reads, books with an underlying general theme into which I can probe further and learn more from extended reading of other sources of information, and also books that deal mainly with the deeper psychological aspects of a human being. Reading is not just a way to improve your language, but also a training of your mind. Do you know that the more you learn, the greater the number of synaptic interactions and modifications, which causes your brain to increase its capacity for learning? In other words, the more you learn, the better you will be able to learn. So scoot off now, and go read Wikipedia. P/S: Coincidentally, that is one of my favourite sources of reading material, and it was reported in the Straits Times today, that Wikipedia averages only about 4 errors per article; an admirable feat, considering Britannica averages 3 errors per article and is compiled presumably by academics and scholars, while Wikipedia is written and can be modified by just about anyone who has access to an internet connection. Humour Came In the Mail Got this in my email, and I found it pretty amusing (and ingenious) so I thought I’d share!  DORMITORY: When you rearrange the letters: DIRTY ROOM PRESBYTERIAN: When you rearrange the letters: BEST IN PRAYER ASTRONOMER: When you rearrange the letters: MOON STARER DESPERATION: When you rearrange the letters: A ROPE ENDS IT THE EYES: When you rearrange the letters: THEY SEE GEORGE BUSH: When you rearrange the letters: HE BUGS GORE THE MORSE CODE : When you rearrange the letters: HERE COME DOTS SLOT MACHINES: When you rearrange the letters: CASH LOST IN ME ANIMOSITY: When you rearrange the letters: IS NO AMITY ELECTION RESULTS: When you rearrange the letters: LIES - LET’S RECOUNT SNOOZE ALARMS: When you rearrange the letters: ALAS! NO MORE Z’S A DECIMAL POINT: When you rearrange the letters: IM A DOT IN PLACE THE EARTHQUAKES: When you rearrange the letters: THAT QUEER SHAKE ELEVEN PLUS TWO: When you rearrange the letters: TWELVE PLUS ONE AND FOR THE GRAND FINALE: MOTHER-IN-LAW: When you rearrange the letters: WOMAN HITLER Twitter Troubles This morning at 4am I received a barrage of Twitter SMS-es. Seventeen in total! WTH. I finally got them - all the delayed messages from yesterday. Woke me up with the incessant ringing, one by one. Was so pissed off. And then it stopped, and there were no more Twitter messages again, so I had to check my Twitter home when I woke up this morning, to see who Twittered since 4am. What is the point of my having Twitter if I can only read it online? Stupid Twitter. Do you think it’s something wrong with my phone? I’m using a Vodafone Sharp 802SH. Do you think it’s something wrong with my service provider? I’m using a Singtel prepaid card, and I’m roaming in Malaysia on Celcom at the moment. Or do you think it’s just me? Sigh. I think it’s just me. Fragments Another rainy day. Makes me kind of happy. But happy is relative. Compared to last night, I think I feel 0.0001% better now, simply because it is raining. Last night I killed a cockroach using (maybe) about one quarter of a can of insecticide. Ended up with a really oily floor. And a dead roach which I left on the floor for my mother to pick up this morning. Sorry, I don’t touch roaches. Our friend Justin is going away to Zambia (and maybe Congo and South Africa) for work, for a whole month. Gonna miss him, but I guess he will have some really interesting stories to tell (and pictures to show) when he gets back! I seem to be unable to receive Twitter updates on my mobile phone. Why? Why God, why me? Checked settings, Miccheng double checked for me. Nothing seems amiss. So why? Why me? Why doesn’t Blogger save our information when we key it into comment forms, so that we don’t have to keep typing it in over and over again? It really is irritating. Why doesn’t Wordpress have a Twitter widget? I hate the RSS widget. It updates about 2 hours (usually) after I Twitter something. My results for the other 2 modules (Stats and Info Sys) are not out yet. I’m so anxious I think it’s affecting my sleep. I’m so worried. Is this normal? I have really severe mood swings. Is this something I should be concerned about? The printer at home is working again! I can now scan, print, photocopy and fax again! But I don’t know how to fax (I don’t even know what is my fax number). Hmm. I am having holidays now. So is my boyfriend. It’s rare that our holidays actually coincide. But I can’t see him now, and my mother yells at me each time I say I want to go over to Singapore. Kind of depressing. A Happy Post That Turned Sad I’m finally on Twitter. Seems like I’m always slow on the uptake when following trends online. Actually, I think I’m just lazy. I first got to know about Twitter a few months ago, when Uzyn started Twittering. I joined, but never began twittering myself, because I didn’t know how to put the updates up on my blog. Anyway, I’ve got it fixed now, using an RSS widget (see sidebar) but I’m still not happy about it - feed updates are really slow, and it doesn’t look as nice as the other Twitter badges that everyone else has. Yesterday (Sunday) flew by like a daze. I slept really late (or early, depending on how you look at it) - around 5am, after having a super long conversation with Ridz on MSN. I didn’t think I’d be able to wake up for breakfast at 9, but I did. My mother, Elaine and I, went to a dimsum place, which boasted a menu of over 100 types of dimsum, with Yali, Xiaoli, and their parents. It was a delightful morning actually, chatting over delicious food and Chinese tea, despite my lack of sleep. I think Xiaoli was really tired too. Haha. She had just attended a 5-day NTU Malaysian Society Camp, and would be attending the Hall 6 Freshmen Orientation Camp which begins today (Monday) and lasts for 6 days. It was fun seeing Yali again - our dear busy auditor has been away in China for work for a really long time. A month? Anyway, I didn’t get to talk to her much cos Elaine was hogging her (haha). It’s alright though, because Elaine and Yali don’t get to talk as often as I talk to Yali, I guess Didn’t take any photos of the place or the food, but I hope to go back there to review it soon. I realised that I really like writing about food. Haha. I got home and went back to bed immediately - not the wisest thing to do after a heavy breakfast. Still, I was really too tired, and I slept for about 6 hours till 4:30pm! Had a light meal, and then we went off to the airport. Elaine flew off today - have to admit that I was relieved. I know this sounds mean (she being my sister whom I see only once a year and all), but with the recent unhappy events pertaining to my overseas studies (my parents disapprove), I cannot help but feel resentful of the fact that everyone is still fussing over her when she has already finished her medical degree and have had her fair share of time spent overseas, studying and holidaying. She already has a job in Scotland, for goodness sake. I wanted to ask everyone why they were still fussing over her - but I felt that she would have felt indignant about it, so I didn’t. In any case, her presence at home this time only reminded me constantly of the unfairness of my family’s government. I guess everyone worries about the doctor’s future (ironic, because it’s already set to take off) while no one worries about this poor,  financially-struggling student who aspires to be someone important too. Now I sound bitter and jealous. But hey, maybe I am. No one cares anyway. Tears are blurring my eyes and I can’t see to type any more. Good night. ping.sg gathering at Miss Clarity Cafe Wow. Finally it’s over and done with, after 2 weeks of discussing where to gather! We finally decided on Miss Clarity Cafe (Purvis Street) near Bugis. I was famished (and rather wet no thanks to the pelting rain) by the time I got there, so I was kind of erm, expecting a lot with regards to the food. Anyway. Plus points: They were willing to accomodate such a huge group of us and it was an accessible place (near an MRT station). Oh, and it was great that they tolerated our noise level, haha. And! No additional service charge, and price was already inclusive of GST. I think this is where the good stuff ends. I ordered a Chicken Cordon Bleu ($8.80 nett) and a Hazelnut Iced Latte ($3.80 nett). Both gave me little satisfaction - the chicken was too dry (perhaps they shouldn’t have used the chicken breast) and the sides consisted of some sauteed cabbage (wtf?!) and potatoes, while the latte was erm, for want of better adjectives, like horse piss (that’s what my dad usually says of horrible coffee). Watered down and with no trace of hazelnut at all, it was quite a waste of my $3.90 which could have been put to better use for a short cab ride. Anyway, the rest found their food mediocre as well, so I suppose food isn’t one of the cafe’s strongest points. I was just telling Miccheng that had I made it known to the staff that we are a group of bloggers (who might review their cafe in our blogs), they might possibly have put in a tad more effort into the cooking of the food. Haha. That said, I still think that the place has good ambience for gatherings of all sorts, big or small, though we would probably not return for the food (nor the drinks) again. Whoops. Maybe they need to find a more attractive niche. At least, at Settler’s, they have board games, which more than makes up for the pathetic excuse they have for food. With such a great location and such a nice cafe set up, it would be a waste if they had to close down due to a dwindling customer base who don’t return because of the food. Well! Enough of the cafe! Today I had the pleasure of talking to some people whom I’ve not talked to (or not much) at the ping.sg party on 070707. Met Yuka (snowbiscuits), Miccheng, Jean (aka simplyjean), talked to Jiaying (surfslayer) for the first time though we’d met previously, had quite an interesting conversation on a variety of topics with Ridz, Yuhui and Eujzin (aka jzin), and got to eat Adrian’s (aka arzhou) cookies (yum yum! Thanks for waking up at 6 to bake for us!) but forgot to whack him for always teasing me. Lalala. I’m very happy to meet all these new friends - as always - and it really did perk me up a little, helped me take my mind off some problems for a few hours, and finally put a face to the nicknames of the people whom we’ve been chatting with (or whose blogs we’ve been reading) on the ping.sg shoutbox! I think Yuka is trying to be a contender for the Most Shy Pingster award (the first nominee being Christina aka uglyfatchick). Hur hur. Then again, it’s her first time meeting us, so it might have been a little overwhelming. Haha! All in all, I felt that it was a super fun gathering today. Certainly enjoyed talking to the 3 gentlemen whose conversation I (rudely) barged in upon during the last hour that we were at the cafe. Hehe. Thanks to jzin also, for giving me a lift to Clementi MRT! I have no pics, btw, cos my so hop on over to Claudia’s blog (she was the photographer of the day!) People who attended: Miccheng, Jzin, Chillycraps, Claudia, Sheylara, Nannywen, Tstar, Arzhou, Surfslayer, Snowbiscuits, Daphnemaia, DK, Uzyn, Simplyjean, Ridz, Yuhui, Uglyfatchick, Ethan. People who went missing at the last minute: Veron (tsk tsk), NTT (tsk tsk)and BB (tsk tsk), who accompanied his mom who is visiting from Beijing to watch the NDP preview thingie. edit: NTT came at 6pm, after they adjourned to Starbucks… Why This Country Cannot Make It Part II This is an extension to my previous post about “Why this country cannot make it”. Wah, people sing the national anthem until like that already, still don’t want to wake up. *shakes head* Anyway. Kudos to the writer and singer (if different persons) of this song - you’re brave; I applaud you! Self-pity I have no one to talk to. When I need it most. I can’t talk to any one. Protected: Why I hate her This post is password protected. To view it please enter your password below: Password: East Living vs West Living And so the boyfriend is finally moving away from Pasir Ris, away from the evil landlord and landlady, away from that house where internet connection is never readily available even though we paid $420 for the room, and where there is no usage of aircondition allowed. Seriously, $420, without aircondition and the place is so damn hot? And they only switch the router when they are at home. So at all other times, if we need an internet connection, well, too bad for us. Nevertheless, there are things that I will miss when we move away from the east: 1. White Sands! What? I’ve grown used to this heartland mall, okay. 2. The library being in White Sands, instead of outside, like Jurong Point  3. Cottage Pies only available at White Sands 4. The soon-to-be-opened Donut shop at White Sands 5. How near it is from Bugis (where my school is) 6. The fresh air 7. The double bed in BB’s room 8. Fat fat miaomi  9. Studying with Xin at Pasir Ris Library / White Sands McD’s. But BB’s moving back to Hall means a lot more good things too: 1. Ever-ready internet connection! 2. More cooling place (although more mosquitoes too) 3. Jurong Point! (Haha) 4. Familiarity 5. Friends (who stay in the west) 6. Nearer to Jurong East (where I depart for JB) 7. Holland V doesn’t seem so far away anymore! (Yay, Lis!) 8. Bukit Timah also doesn’t seem so far away anymore! (Yay, XY!) 9. Yummy beef hor fun from the coffee shop at Pioneer Rd North 10. We can make as much noise as we want! 11. Campus Calls on BB’s phone! 12. FTP! More movies! Haha. Oops. 13. Being near BB’s mom (who is here for 2 weeks and staying at NEC) A lot more good things! And I can’t believe that it’s all going to happen on Thursday! Yahoooo! I can’t wait to pack up and move *thinks for a while* Okay, maybe not the moving bit. Haha. But it’s okay, good things will come only after you put in effort. So I shall look forward to stretching my muscles, running up and down long flights of stairs while moving things, and perspiring! Haha! Yay yay yay!! Stepped on toes unknowingly All because of a heated argument regarding erm, Harry Potter. Hurt the feelings of someone I hoped could have been a friend, and well, her boyfriend. I’m sorry for all that I said and wrote, but maybe sorry is really too late. Nevertheless, I feel really really really really bad for causing trouble between them just because of some rubbish I spouted in the heat of the moment. I never meant for this to blow to such proportions, but of course, it did, and I didnt’ even know! I’m not an evil person, really. I never wish bad things upon people. And now I totally regret my actions. Will not link anything from here, because I don’t want it to become an even bigger issue. But those whose toes I stepped on, you know who you are, and I am truly repentant. Taking down the post and trying to erase the words won’t lessen the hurt, so I won’t try. But I am sorry. Satisfied Harry Potter fan Finished reading Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows just before 2am yesterday. I got the book at about 9am. Managed to read some in between running errands yesterday, and doing other things (napping, eating, bla bla bla). I’d say, not bad! Well, let’s just say that the retard’s spoilers didn’t spoil my read at all. I was completely truly fantastically satisfied with the ending. I thought JK Rowling was really considerate to include the epilogue to satisfy the curious *ahem38ahem* fans like yours truly. Hehe. Anyway it’s an exciting book. Heartwrenching, funny, and… satisfying Go read! Blogging for Me, Myself and I It’s been a long time since I blogged for myself. Since joining ping.sg, most of my blogs have a specific topic or theme; I blogged for an audience. But I was never this way, actually. Haha. I blogged for myself, and only myself. I would tell people who leave stupid comments to f.o. if they didn’t like my blog. I first noticed this change when Paddy posted an entry titled, How has ping.sg changed the way you blog? And then BB mentioned it to me, too. Ho ho. Anyway, enough of ping.sg for a while. I woke up pretty early today - it’s dimsum day with Mom and Elaine! Yup, Laine’s home from Scotland, and she’s here for only 2 weeks, so it’s like a mad rush to do everything she needs to do, and eat everything that she wants. We ate quite a fair bit this morning, but the total bill (with drinks) was only RM25. Pretty reasonable. Hehe. I love food! And since my sis is back, I can take this opportunity to go eat yummy food too *ngek ngek ngek* Other than that… since the exam on Monday, I’ve gone to the library to get 3 books by 3 of the inexhaustive list of authors that I like: Haruki Murakami’s Kafka by the Shore John Katzenbach’s State of Mind Jodi Picoult’s Keeping Faith Finished Keeping Faith just a day after my exams, and am now on to the other two books (yes, at the same time, haha). I love the libraries in Singapore I guess I’ve not been doing much else except read, sleep, and eat. Oh yesterday Laine and I went brisk-walking at the park (wanted to jog but we felt abit lazy ho ho ho). I’ve been rather bored at home, which explains this extremely pointless blog entry. I miss my BB! Dum dum dum dee dee dum. *drums fingers on table* Oh, tomorrow I’ve got many many errands to run! Run to Sim Lim Square to upgrade Elaine’s T42 RAM which is currently a pathetic 256MB haha! I really cannot imagine how she has survived with it. Well I guess she was a low-end user in the past, but now she has become slightly more tech-savvy and therefore needs a bit more RAM haha! Elaine needs a headphone/mic set too. Buy a portable external HDD for my eldest sis, Doreen. She says that the packaged one is selling at RM300 for 80GB in KL, but I checked online at hardwarezone and found that Sim Lim has 80GB ones for about S$100. Any cheaper sources? Is my source right? Collect my exam results! My course coordinator told me that the results of one of my subjects is out already (Employee Relations). I guess the rest will come next week. But I’m too anxious to know the results for this module. So I might pop by school tomorrow. It’s near Sim Lim anyway. Go collect the highly anticipated final book of the Harry Potter series! Yahooooo!! I’m super duperly excited, though Elaine will get first dibs on it (because she is flying back to UK soon). It’s fine by me anyway, cos I know she reads fast. Haha. Okay, hope I didn’t miss out anything. I’m so bored… Yes.. Please entertain me now. 7 Bloggers I Admire Most To spread some love in the blogosphere after all the negativity (and all the hate this afternoon), Rinaz has suggested that we post a blog with the above title. So I shall start the ball rolling, and hereby present to you, 7 bloggers I admire most! Doreen (aka Essentric) The thing I admire most about her, I suppose, is her flair for writing. She always manages to turn a simple episode in her daily life into the funniest thing. Perhaps it is the way she describes it, or maybe it’s just her. While she doesn’t blog daily, she still manages to have her small but steady group of readers happily anticipating her next entry. She muses about work, vain things (her hair, her nails), about her holidays, relationships, and family, and is probably the most underrated blogger in KL. Hehe. I kid you not. Even though she is my sister (haha, betcha didn’t see that coming, didja!), I maintain that I am not being biased or intentionally promoting her blog - I do (really) admire her sense of humour and her style of writing! * Blinkymummy The thing I admire most about her is her analytical mind, and how she picks thing apart and presents it to you in the most honest of ways, and still, be able to get you to agree with her, despite the controversy she sometimes kicks up.  This lady with her quirky sense of humour is definitely one of my favourite bloggers! She cusses like an ah lian, writes like a scholar, and loves her cats like a, well, cat lover. Blinky is one of her cats. I’ve been reading her blog since I was in NIE (mid 2005, if my memory serves me well) and have been a big fan since! She writes about topics that are close to our hearts but never mentioned in newspapers, about the funny episodes with her Good Fren (aka boyfriend) and her fascination with ah bengs (just look at her blog roll). I love the surprises she throws at her readers all the time. Smart, beautiful, and really really a good read. * Dorothy Ho   The thing I admire most about her is her collection of Hello Kitty things her life! No, really. She was a lecturer at NTU’s School of Communication and Information, and then she uprooted herself and moved to Seattle with her husband, Jay. She may not write fanciful things, just the things she observes in her life, but it is so very interesting to me! Simple things, portrayed in simple words, and many photos - that’s what won me over! I stumbled upon her blog through the blog of a friend someone I used to know. That was some time in early 2006 - and I’ve been a fan ever since Of course, she is also a big fan of Hello Kitty, and everyone knows I love Hello Kitty. Haha! * Veron   (Sorry I can’t really find any big photos of her!) What I admire most about her is her designing skills, and her knack for writing really interesting reviews! Any advertiser who is looking to promote their restaurant should definitely sign her on as a reviewer! She is honest about her reviews (sometimes she even gives one out of five stars), and her blog is such a visual treat for all. While not unknown in the blogosphere, I do think that she definitely has one of the best blogs around! Great writing, fabulous photos, interesting reviews, marvelous design, and really really intricate details - there’s nothing to not love about this blog. I first stumbled upon her blog when I was googling the Sun with Moon restaurant last year, maybe, and got linked to this post. Have been reading her blog ever since (and I even read most of her archives already, haha). I got to know her through ping.sg, and found that her personality is just as delightful as her blog * Yuka Suzuki The thing I admire most about her is her passion and her pride in her heritage - this shows clearly in the entries she writes, which really touched me at times. I first got to know this Japanese-Chinese girl on ping.sg, too, and the first entry I read was on her heritage. A relatively new blogger (I see that her blog began only in April, but I’m not sure if she has blogged elsewhere before), she writes on her life in Singapore as a half-Japanese, issues in Singapore, and often, on race, something close to her heart. Although she is barely 20, her view on many issues is definitely admirable and worth taking note of. * Leslie Tay (aka ieatishootipost) The thing I am most jealous admire most about him is how he is a doctor, and ye, still has the time to go sniff out all the great food in Singapore and write such mouthwatering reviews (with yummilicious photos) about them! One question, though: Doesn’t he worry about the unhealthiness of eating all those stuff, since he is a doctor? Haha. Yet another blog that I got to know through ping.sg, unlike the previous 2, I have never interacted with this blogger, though I read his blog almost religiously. He writes on, as you have probably guessed, food and only food! A hugely popular food blog, he has converted me the first time I laid eyes on his blog, to become a faithful follower. In fact, I love his blog so much that I refer to it each time I am looking for a new place to eat, or if I want to know whether a restaurant is worth visiting or not. He writes a very comprehensive blog, and even categorizes entries according to the location where the food item or restaurant can be found, the type of food, as well as the name of the food item! Just remember not to read this blog when you have an empty stomach! * Kevin The thing I admire most about Kevin is his insanely engaging blog! I am a closet geek, so I find many things he writes about very interesting. He also has many many gadgets! I shan’t even begin to try to introduce this guy and what he does or writes about, but I just love his entries, collages, and gadgets! Haha!  * Okay! I’m finally done with this whole “7 bloggers” thing, and I now want to tag the following 7 bloggers to write about the 7 bloggers they admire most! 1. Rinaz (how can we leave out the idea contributor?) 2. DK (and the one who seconded the idea?) 3. Sheylara (who tagged me but I had no time to reply yet) 4. Nicole 5. Wishbone 6. Tstar 7. NTT Yay! Go spread the love! We should ban retards from even existing After the disappointing Harry Potter movie experience last Friday, I was really looking forward to the release of the Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows book this coming Saturday. However, some random idiot whose opinion no one cares about had to just announce on the ping.sg shoutbox who was it who got killed off at the end of the last book. Damn it! Pissed me off to no ends. I think people should stop being so irritating and selfish, to announce the ending of books or movies that they have watched (or read the spoilers about) when all they actually want is to just show off that they know. Seriously. Who gives a flying fish about what they know or think? Thankfully for all my friends who read this blog, I’m not going to announce the ending here, because I don’t want to spoil the experience for you, although some idiot already announced it to me. Do you know how pissed I am? I waited so long for this book. And I was anticipating it with such trepidation. This book concludes the entire Harry Potter series. And it is a permanent ending. Now, my experience reading the book will be reduced by some 50 per cent, thanks to someone. People should really wake up, and realize that spoilers are never welcomed. Retards. We Finally Transformed! 0230 Finish reading Haruki Murakami’s Wind Up Bird Chronicle, sleep 0510 Wake up, shower, get dressed 0530 Breakfast 0605 Board bus to Singapore 0615 Legs start to ache because I have to stand 0710 Reach Jurong East 0720 Board bus 66 to school, fall asleep on bus 0820 Wake up and find that I’ve missed my bus stop 0825 Take MRT from Farrer Park Station to Little India 0840 Reach school, revise for HR Information Systems Exam 1000 Exam begins 1300 Exam ends, and I feel like I’m in a daze 1330 Accompany Xin for eyebrow trimming at Bugis Village 1410 Head towards City Hall by MRT 1415 Shop around with Xin at Raffles City 1445 Elise arrives, we have lunch at The Soup Spoon (Raffles City B1) 1530 We leave the restaurant with stomachs 2kg heavier and walk around 1700 Xin and I leave for Tampines while Lis goes home 1730 I meet up with Gerald and BB 1735 I get movie tickets for Transformers 1740 The boys have dinner at 避风塘 (Century Square B1) Some pickled vegetables appetizer 小白菜 (small white vegetable? haha) Claypot beef brisket with carrots Gerald’s roasted duck la mian BB’s Seafood fried noodles 1810 We finish dinner and pay the bill. No Service Charge! $37.34 in total 1815 We head to Century Cineplex, which is really cold (and we got frozen) 1820 The movie begins. Yay! 2045 The movie ends! We love the movie! We love Transformers! 2050 We love Optimus Prime! We love Bumblebee! Buy supper at Macs 2052 We head to bus interchange, and take bus 81 back to Pasir Ris 2057 We are still talking about Transformers through SMS 2125 We reach home, and I am still thinking about Transformers 2200 Showered, eat one quarter of a watermelon, feel like I’m full of water 2230 Whine about feeling full. BB downloads Transformers desktop wallpapers 2245 I decide to blog about my day. And about Transformers 2255 I am thinking that Transformers is the best movie of 2007! 2256 Have decided that Harry Potter can go and kiss his own ass 2310 I love Transformers 2315 I finish blogging. And I am still loving Transformers! Nanxiang Steamed Bun Restaurant Yesterday was a pretty unsatisfactory day. Exam was unsatisfactory. But let’s not go there any more, since I already briefly blogged on it here. Lunch was unsatisfactory. I ate with Xin, at Siam Kitchen. Xiaoli joined us later. The food at Siam Kitchen really sucks. My glass noodles with seafood was really really below satisfactory level. The glass noodles were clumpy, the fish wasn’t fresh and had a weird taste, the overall taste was as if it came from a pack of instant food. Movie was unsatisfactory. I watched Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix with Xiaoli. Let me begin by saying that I went in with pretty low expectations (though still rather excited, as I am a big Harry Potter fan, afterall) but this movie really was the worst of the 5 HP movies so far! If I were to rate it, I would have given it a mere 1.5 out of 5 stars. The acting was inadequate, but Dolores Umbridge and Luna Lovegood were pretty good. Plot cuts and absence of impressive special effects aside (imho), I felt that David Yates did an extremely lousy job. There was no transition between scenes, as it jumped from one place to another. There was no clear differentiation of which was dream, which was memory, which was reality, nor which was Voldemort invading Harry’s mind. The plot changes were also too much for me to swallow, having read each HP book at least 5 times. I know that movies are never exactly like the books on which they are based, but Yates and his team took it a little too far. I’m not going to elaborate on this any more, as I’m sure there are much better reviews out there, except to say that I came out of the cinema feeling upset, unsatisfied, and even a little angry! Shame on you, David Yates! High tea was good! Thank god, this actually saved the day! Nanxiang Steamed Bun Restaurant 200 Victoria Street #02-53 Bugis Junction Singapore 188024   We ordered the Deluxe Set high tea set, which cost us $8.80++ per pax. Although one of my favourite dishes, the chilled tofu with preserved vegetables was replaced by a rather strange tasting beancurd skin with preserved vegetables, the meal was still the best thing that happened yesterday. Beancurd skin with preserved vegetables This dish would have been more pleasing to the palate had it not contained so much of coriander. Not a big fan of this herb, I found the taste to be overpowering, and not at all a good mix with the preserved vegetables. Steamed soup bun with pork filling Steamed soup bun with mushroom Steamed soup bun with pork and shrimp filling I loved these 3 steamed soup buns (more commonly known as xiao long bao 小笼包)! Much better than their Crystal Jade counterparts whose skin breaks when you lift them up from the bamboo steamers, the skins of these little buns were actually thick enough to hold the soup in, but also thin enough to avoid that doughy texture of other restaurants’ steamed soup buns. While the bun with the pork and shrimp filling was my favourite, I savoured all three with equal enthusiasm. Xiaoli liked the mushroom filling the most. The soup contained in the bun was extremely tasty, and it was served to us steaming hot. We waited for a few moments to cool it down to a temperature that would have been safe for us to put into our mouths. Spring roll with crab roe Cake with sweet bean paste Steamed bun with vegetable stuffing Of the three, the cake with sweet bean paste was the most forgettable, to me. Xiaoli liked it though. I much preferred the triangular spring roll and the steamed bun with vegetable stuffing. This spring roll had a light skin that was deep fried to a perfect golden crisp. The filling consisted a savoury combination of tofu, carrot, shrimp and some sort of leaf. It was different from the usual spring roll you get, of vegetables filling, but this was very tasty. This steamed bun had the most perfect pillowy soft dough. It was pure delight biting into the bun, which was light and fluffy. The vegetable stuffing was also quite delicious, although the dough was the unarguably the highlight of this dish. Almond jelly with longan Perhaps the most forgettable dish due to its overpowering sweet liquid which masked the fragrance of the almond jelly, this cold dessert was still a good way to end the meal. All in all, I feel that this meal was a good deal, and for the price, it is pretty affordable, if not exactly cheap. The food I have had here is quite authentic in its taste (none of that fusion crap), having originated from Shanghai, and I would definitely recommend it if you’re a big fan of Chinese cuisine, as I am. Wouldn’t mind visiting it for this high tea set, although I’ve had it twice so far. For the three different high tea menus, click here, here and here. Item: Deluxe Set Cost: $8.80++ Rating: 4 out of 5 High tea is available at Nanxiang from Monday to Fridays, 2:30pm to 5:30pm. Horrid Stats Exam Argh. I don’t want to think about it anymore. Xin was very sweet, she tried to console me by saying that it must have been Friday the 13th at work, that’s why we were so unlucky! Well, I don’t believe in such superstitions, but good attempt, anyway! Haha. Shall blog some nice slash interesting things to read, when I wake up tomorrow. Promise! For now, I’m in need of lots of sleep. Aaah…