Pensive

Recently or rather these three days, I’ve been quite lucky.  I won a substantial amount of money the past two days playing mahjong which is more than enough to buy that River Island shirt I was eyeing the other day.  I decided not to play mahjong today because it seems excessive that one should spend his time gambling for three consecutive days. Luck came in the form of a mobile phone on the ground.  That was the beginning of a series of actions in which I am currently evaluating within the capacity of my skull.  To be precise, that was not the actual beginning.  I had seen the phone fall out of the pocket of the poor boy’s pants.  I was walking across the road when I saw two boys riding a bicycle towards my direction on the opposite end of the road.  I noticed clearly with my very own eyes the phone dropping out of the Malay boy’s back pocket.  My first reaction was to continue walking and observe if the boy had realised what had happened.  I felt that it would be silly of me to attempt to stop a bicycle cycling  halfway across the road.  I crossed to the other side of the road and halted as I approached the phone on the ground.  I was hesitant, wondering what to do next.  I looked around me and discovered that the people who had crossed the road together with me did not notice the phone and the two boys had already cycled too far a distance for me to call out to them.  Furthermore, that would look stupid.  I cautiously picked up the phone and stared at it.  As I had expected, it was not something I would use myself.  It was a pathetic Samsung two megapixel phone which was in a very worn condition with the paint at the corners scratched off.  I wondered how much the phone would be worth if I sold it to a second-hand dealer, then I thought about my moral obligations as an upright citizen of our glorious nation.  How would I feel if I had lost my phone?  Wouldn’t I be cursing the person who didn’t return it to me?  However, the devil repossessed my mind again by implanting the thought of how troublesome it would be for me to meet this person just to return him his phone.  I turned off the phone.  

I was still on my way home when I decided to turn on the phone and await for the boy to call me.  Alas, there was a password for the phone to be fully functional.  It was the boy’s demise that he had placed a password to lock his phone and prevented a fickle person like me from returning it to him.  Perhaps it was the higher being/s manner of punishing me for even harbouring such sinful thoughts in the first place.  A pang of guilt permeated my soul.  But just as guilt ran through my veins, loathsome thoughts pervaded my mind.  I wondered that maybe it was a blessing in disguise that the boy was looking for, this might be the most appropriate reason for him to get a new phone.  However, my conscience was still intact and I surmised that he would probably be disciplined by his parents all because of me.  

After my lunch, I started on the pile of laundry that I had not ironed for two weeks.  Possibly it was my way of repenting for lazing around these few months before my enlistment and for knowingly taking away somebody’s possession by doing the things I ought to do.  Honestly, I do not comprehend the depths of my soul very well and cannot conclude that I did that out of repentance.  It could be that I did not want to collect bad karma that would result in poor A level results.  Yes, I can tell that all this sounds absurd, but life is complicated yet beneath all these complications, there is no meaning.  Everything is meaningless, even these words that I am typing.  Words are just names we created ourselves for the matter that surrounds us.   That is what I’ve concluded.  There are no real goals, maybe we are all just pets under the care of higher authority that we do not see.  However, it is only natural and instinctive of us to just carry on living and do what we are “supposed” to do.  Only because we are human, we think too much and wonder what meaning there is to life.  Meaning itself is meaningless and if you ever think about such things, you would just go in a roundabout motion and perhaps even end up in an asylum.  That is conceivably why religion was created with it’s purpose of pacifying such unanswerable thoughts.

I think I’ve droned on for a tad too long already.  Anyway, I’ve to give tuition in half an hour’s time and I shall end my mad thoughts here.  I’m finally getting my first month’s pay for tuition today!

Stormy Sunday

  Usually, Sundays (to me) are sizzling and really drowsy.  However, today it is vastly different.  There’s a torrential downpour happening just outside my window and I got drenched in it just a while ago.  I was buying lunch and my favourite tapioca cake from the pasar malam right beside heartland mall and was returning when the stygian clouds began tearing.  Anyway, I didn’t really end up getting totally soaked because the rain had only just commenced, but the walk from heartland mall to my house is rather far because my house is kinda smacked in the middle of this estate.

  Before I go on describing the events that have happened this week, I would like to apologise to my dear friend Yishuang.  I’ve pang seh her twice if my memory is correct and I’m truly sorry for causing her displeasure.  Sorry!  

  I can’t exactly remember everything that has happened in sequence.  I remember I played mahjong on two days and Chia How came to my house to play PS3 on Wednesday.  I can’t recall if I went to Xiuru’s house this past week or the previous one.  Her nephew, Cassius, is adorable but a small little brute.  He engages in violent activities.  Haha.  Maybe that has something to do with his name.  I wikied “Cassius” and found that Cassius was one of the people who conspired in the assasination of Julius Caesar.  He had a tragic ending after he lost a battle.  

  I had the most activities lined up on Friday.  First, I went shopping with Chia How at Vivocity.  Then I had dinner with the Power clique at Tony Roma’s.  It has been quite awhile since I met some of them.  After that, Nono, Xy and I went to Kbox for overnight karaoke.  Haha.  It was fun!  We didn’t want to waste money on cab fare so we sat on the benches around the Fountain of Wealth and waited for 6am to arrive.  I slept for 12 hours after that.  This is such a unhealthy lifestyle.  I mentioned in my last post that I would talk about the tree climbing day I had two weeks ago, but I’m too lazy to talk about it now so just check out the photos on facebook.  It was quite retarded. 

By the way, Slumdog Millionaire is a really good show.  It’s slightly humorous, sad and heartwarming.  Don’t watch New In Town, it sucks.

Ominous Presence in the Air

Just in case you didn’t know, today is Friday the 13th.  There will be another Friday the 13th next month, a day after I enlist into the army.   Since I have some time before I go out to meet Fabian and Terence whom has just been released from his two weeks of confinement, I shall blog.  It has not been a good day at all.  I can’t exactly say it has been a bad day either, but I have been feeling terrible.  Xiuru feels the same too.  Her sentiments might be the result of her illness though. For me, I have been feeling like this since I found out something horrible last night.  I woke up extremely late today at about 1pm because I had been watching dramas and an old film, Indecent Proposal, the previous night. Sometimes I wonder if it’s because I love listening to dispiriting songs these days that emanates my sorrow.  I remember times when I was younger that I thoroughly enjoyed listening to light-hearted songs like those from S Club. It’s kinda embarrassing to mention that but it’s a fact and I won’t shy away from it.  However, I don’t like happy songs nowadays.  Wilson occasionally sends me such songs and I would just leave them in “My Received Files” or delete them.  I feel like a sorry miniature person within.  I hope this unhappiness in the marrow of my soul would just vacate.

On a less depressing tone, Kelly Clarkson has a new single!  It’s called My Life Would Suck Without You.  It was No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 on it’s second and third week on the chart.  I think it sounds rather pleasant and it seems like she’s making a comeback from her flop-of-an-album My December.  She looks so relaxed now and she doesn’t look like she’s trying to hard to be a rocker-chick anymore.  I’ll probably buy her album which is due for release next month. Check out her video for her new single below.  I went to Pasir Ris Park yesterday and I’ll probably write about that another day.

A Guide Of What To Do When You Have Nothing To Do

As you can see, I’ve nothing to do other then giving some kid tuition.  Thus, I’ve created a list of things to do if you’re unemployed or bored on weekends and have nothing to do.

Step 1.

Wake up really late.  When I say late, I mean super late like 12pm onwards.  You’ll totally be skipping lunch, but that’s ok since you won’t be doing much vigorous activities for the day.  

Step 2.

 

 

Head for the toilet and spend an extremely long time in there grooming yourself.  First, take off your clothes.  Second, step into the shower.  Third, shampoo your hair and apply hair conditioner after that.  Fourth, soap your body thorougly.  Next, wash off all these products on your body.  [An alternative to steps 2, 3, 4 & 5 would be to soak in a bathtub.]  Sixth, wash your face with facial wash.  Then dry your body with a towel.  Shave, brush your teeth, apply serum on your hair, rub toner onto your face and lastly, moisturise.  Don’t forget to put on your clothes.  Haha.  Now that you’ve wasted loads of time in the bathroom, you can step out of it.

Step 3.

You’re now hungry and have to go out to buy lunch.  You can spray some cologne or perfume if you want to attract some aunties or uncles while you’re out.  Take the longest route to the hawker centre, food court or fastfood outlet of your choice.  You have all the time in the world to squander, so stroll at a leisurely pace and feel the warm rays lightly descend upon your face.  Maybe you could take a detour to the bank to deposit some angpow money or to withdraw money to buy your lunch.

Step 4.

When you’re done with your lunch, head home and turn on your computer.  There are lots of things to do when you have broadband internet access and a computer that has at least windows xp.  For starters, you could log onto msn messenger and do some site-surfing such as spying on people using facebook, checking out blogs and reading news or gossip blogs (fyi, i don’t do that).  After that, you can go on to the hardcore stuff.  Some guys will play DOTA and they could just go on forever.  For me, I watch all sorts of dramas be it Japanese, Taiwanese, Korean or American.  I’m always on the lookout for new shows.  Below, I’ve produced a list of shows that I’m currently watching.

American TV shows

1. Gossip Girl (available online every Tuesday*)

 

 

This is the ultimate guilty pleasure available from the whole bunch of American shows being broadcasted in the US this season.  It is scandalous, the twists are just crazy, the people are hot and the soundtrack is fabulous.  Too bad the episodes are being inconsistently released.  Season 2 episode 18 will only be coming out in March. 

2. Ugly Betty (available online every Friday*)

 

I don’t think she’s ugly at all.  It’s so freaking obvious that her braces and ensemble of clothes are purposely done to make her seem unfashionable.  How could there be anyone who would dress like that?  It’s a really humorous show and I like watching it.

3. Desperate Housewives (available online every Monday*)

 

Ok, I know most people have given up on this show and I’m nearly giving up on it too.  It’s over-dramatic and the last episode was simply BORING.  It was about some unknown neighbourhood fix-it-all man called Eli who had touched all of their lives in some way.  It bored me so much that I didn’t watch it till the end and I had to fast-forward through the parts that I did watch.  Well, I’ll still be watching this series because I have nothing better to do.  Haha.

Korean Drama

 

 

Korean dramas are really lousy these days, so I hardly watch them.  I’m only following the Korean version of Hana Yori Dango called Boys Before Flowers.  It’s available online every Tuesday and Wednesday* with English subtitles. One thing about Korean fansubbers is that they’re really fast, unlike their Japanese counterparts who can take more than a week to release English subtitles.  The Korean fansubbers only take one day to come out with the English subtitles for this show.  However, I find that Boys Before Flowers isn’t a good show at all, but it’s watchable.  The plot is so typical of Asian dramas and I think the lead girl isn’t the least bit pretty.  Watch it only if you’re really bored.

Japanese Dramas

1. Akai Ito

 

 

I normally don’t watch sad dramas, but this is an exception.  I quite like it and I think the leads are compatible, even though it is a rather predictable show.  The guy is kinda silly though.  Haha.  It is about two people who are supposedly fated to be together but have to overcome obstacles before their love can fully blossom.

2. Mei-chan No Shitsuji

 

It’s about a girl in a school for rich girls where each girl has her own personal butler.  It’s an average show and based on a manga as usual.  

3. Hachi-One Diver

 

I really have nothing better to do such that I’m willing to watch this show about a Shoji (Japanese chess) player who failed to become a pro and his journey with a female Shoji champion to beat other expert players.  The lead is the same guy from Akai Ito and he’s only one year older than me.

4. Love Shuffle

 

I only just started watching this show so I can’t really pass a verdict on it since I’ve only seen episode 1.  However, I think it’s a show that I’ll give up on watching even before it reaches the halfway mark.  It’s a drama about some people exchanging partners.   

Taiwanese Drama

My Queen 敗犬女王 (available online every Monday* without English Subtitles)

 

 

There are hardly any Taiwanese dramas airing now.  Furthermore, Taiwanese dramas usually have lame plots and bad acting (nevertheless still better than mediacorp dramas) but there are always a few good ones.  This one is not bad and has Ethan Ruan as the lead.  He’s the guy from Fated To Love You.  It’s about a woman in her early thirties and her romance with a guy 8 years younger than her.  It’s rather hilarious.

{*times are GMT+8}

Step 5.

 

If you’re done with your dramas and still have plenty of time to spare, call up your friends and ask them out.  Organise a mahjong, guitar hero and/or poker session.  Try to plan this a day in advance as most people are working and there are few friends left that are unemployed.  You can also meet your working friends for dinner or shopping.

Step 6.

 

It’s at night and you’re back at home with nothing to do once again.  Turn on your computer and continue watching your dramas.  If you’ve nothing to watch, upload photos on facebook, chat with friends on msn, finish that game on your ps3 or blog like what I’m doing now.  There is an infinite number of ways to idle your time away.

Step 7.

Step into the bathroom again and repeat step 2.  This time don’t apply serum on your hair and don’t rub toner and moisturiser onto your face.  Instead, apply pimple gel onto spots on your face.  Make sure you sleep late so that you can wake up late the next day to carry out your daily ritual.  If it’s still early, read a book or play some stupid handphone game.

Optional Steps

You can organise a cycling, rollerblading, bowling or pool outing.  If you are health concious, you can also include jogging into your daily routine.

ALERT:  I just found out that Coldplay’s coming to Singapore, but guess what?  I can’t go!  Why not?  Because I’ll be bloody f***ing serving NS!!!  I should’ve passed my napfa so that I’ll enlist in April and be able to watch the concert on 23rd March.  Damn this stupid small dot! 

Recapitulation of the Week

Once again I’ve been kinda lazy to update my blog.  I invited the class to come over to my house for a Chinese New Year gathering later this evening, but I regret having bothered to organise it.  Most people are unavailable and everyone is coming at different times.  I just came back from sending my brother off to stay at the ACS(I) hostel.  Apparently he claims that he can’t concentrate on studying when he’s at home, so he decided to stay at the hostel in order to give due attention to his work with the help of his Thai scholar friend.  I was highly annoyed by his nonsense just now.  He was playing games on his laptop this morning instead of packing his stuff and he couldn’t find his hostel room key when we were leaving.  He had left it in his pocket and that pair of pants was in the washing machine. Furthermore when we reached his school, he couldn’t find his key again.  My mum found it in the car boot.  Next, he brought us to the wrong hall.  He is such a moron.  Anyway, the rooms are really small and four people have to share one.

I was looking around his school and the compound is really huge.  They have lots of empty space.  What a waste?!  Just look at that picture below.

Let’s see what I’ve been doing this week.  On Friday I joined VJ’s orientation at East Coast Park (sea regatta).  It was bloody hot.  Then we went to somebody’s house opposite VJ to play mahjong which resulted in me only winning enough to pay for that day’s transport.

 

In the evening, I joined Mong and a few others at Suntec’s Fountain Of Wealth for the annual mass dance.  I didn’t dance at all.  I remember skipping all the mass dance when I was still with VJ.  I had a long dinner chat with Mong before going home.  You can check out the photos on facebook.

Yesterday, I went to Parkway to have lunch with Ian and other friends.  Ian’s dad and mum paid for everything, even the cab fare.  However, I lost the $10 note aunty Irene gave me so I had to pay for the cab using my own money. Himbo incident no. 2 happened when I realised that I had left my camera on so the battery was dead and we couldn’t take any pictures with it.  We used Kon’s phone to take two photos but he had some problem with his bluetooth so I don’t have the pictures with me now.  Later that day, I had dinner at my grandparents’  house to celebrate my cousin’s seventh birthday.  I bought him a Ben 10 DS game cartridge which wasn’t cheap.  

I started giving tuition last week and I think it’s quite enjoyable.  Too bad I’ll be enlisting soon.

and so the Spring festivities continue…

There are quite a few things that happened these three days.  I bought my new camera, Lumix FX520 at Mustafa on Friday before meeting Xiuru for dinner at Vivocity’s White Dog Cafe.  My new camera has partial touchscreen capabilities.  I decided to try out Lumix because I’ve tried my friends’ and it seems better than cybershot. My previous camera, a cybershot, was stylo and fully touchscreen but it doesn’t take good pictures under poor lighting and the picture turns out blur if my hand shakes a little while taking a photo.  After dinner, I brought my guitar to Sarah’s house so that we could play Guitar Hero World Tour.  We played two mahjong games after that and I only had a net gain of 40 cents.  I went home at about 9am to sleep.  Yesterday (Saturday) I went to Nono’s house for a Chinese New Year gathering with the choir people.  I saw a few baldies.  We played taboo, poker and mahjong (without money).  It was fun.  Thanks to Nono for organising this.  I reached home at about 2am.  I will be having overnight mahjong at Carol’s house tonight.  We’re aiming to play 6 games and beyond.  Haha.  Wish me luck.

Here are photos taken at Nono’s house.