ΓΕΠ

The time has come for me to take down these symbols from the display after half a year of donning it. For those in the know of what it means, I'm terribly fed up with more than half of you lot. Its barely a month since I accompanied some of you, and the rift was already pretty obvious back since dunno when. Really, I dunno why I even cared. The absence, more than the bad, far outweighed the good. Today I call it the end to all your selfishness and cliques. Blasted cynics! With this, I lose a sedimented thought, something which I originally wanted to give a lot of people a piece of my mind about. Do not expect me to acknowledge any more of your nonsence.

To my right, I place a countdown timer to remind myself of a greater picture beyond the past. Zuwich, time to put a new perspective.

ai no uta

Roughly translates to love song.

How can a story about a suicidal girl and a dying man be so uplifting?

Originally had thought it did be another coincidental meeting of couples kinda drama, but am glad to say it is more than that. One of the most realistic portrayals of family and friendship love among more than just 2 individuals that I have ever seen. Story concept is fresh, humorous and heart-warming (really needed that). I won't tell more about it, watch it yourself.

Further commendation must go to Director for the excellent and deliberate cinematography. I shall explain why. The girl lead has a rather doodly and uncertain character, parts where she appears are done handheld and in a purposefully shaky manner to reign that in. It disappeared after she stopped thinking about suicide. Could tell it was deliberate. Darn cool and skilled!

青紅皂白

The strong undertones of yesterday's morning warranted nothing more than entertainment. Guess what it reminded me of?

"Things fall apart, the centre cannot hold..."

William Yeats

The world is changing faster than these hardline policies can catch up on. Want to take a step back in the reverse, you twang a madman's behind.

Quite a day of reflection, about how things were proceeding too smoothly (up the hill or down the bucket). I remised the demise of the Ace Team project, how things died out..

Technical abilities may have been our expertise, but the levels of bureucracies were not our playing field. The chains of command wrenched in my apathy, made my lot feel unappreciated and un-necessary. Ever so quick to retort and intolerant to failure, yet ever so slow to reward. The undersight disgusts me, and I maintain on steering clear of these prolific entangles.

Fog-horn

I arrived on train in the waning crescendos of the rain. The countryside fields hosted a misty world which I briefly knew. Mellow was the music, some of the best tracks of DAI. Steps were light-footed, spirits were hearty to the door. But the moment was fleeting, I was careless and it fled.

Update:
Guess I should have went for the Boston Pops concert BZ was trying to cajole me into. Listening to all that stuff really makes for some nostalgia.

午饭

The subject hit upon that missing meal called lunch. As far as my memory serves, that part of the day has always been filled with drudgery and inconvenience, robbing off the joys of lunch break. Yeah, so 2 meals constitute my day, great.

Today Never Happened

A comrade has left our midst.

I guess things went OK except for the ending pauses :)
Shouldn't worry myself too much.

On a happier note of curios,

I found Pepsi Gold!!

Malaysian product as usual, haven't tasted it yet. Guess I should do so while I'm in a good mood.

Mulling Morrows

The casualty tolls have been rolling in like boulders over the Nigera Falls. The aftermath, so catastrophic that some have grown numb. Spirits may be shaken but Resolve shall be awaken. Reality takes some time to set in on me, I pray it does.

There once was an island paradize
Where the sea merged with the sky
To form bliss I thought would last a millenia
Albeit my time there was on a lease

Then came the period
When someone thought couldn't be forgiven
A distant flare ruptured the horizon
the Blue skies above
threatened to leave my sight

We made a bargain twice.
I, Myself and the Sky.
Have much to mull over.

Foreshadow

Late afternoon, bellowing sounds of rolling drums emanated from the hall. I wonder if this was a prelude of sorts to tomorrow's conflict. The Cell discussion yielded conspiracy theories of chess pawns and battling bodies. Would it be a David and Goliath? Innocent bystanders, seek refuge!

妙手

A decimating sunset across the bridge to NUH, I wondered how our beloved Chinese teacher Mdm Loo was faring in that wayward hospital room. Just last week, I had raised the alarm among our lot after reading TheFacist's heart wrenching account. Today, as part of a much later impromptu wave, I made my passage there. The company brought life to the room, notably codename G4. She mentioned that the hours bored her, and I was glad that we made it bearable, even if only for the short span of an hour. She's one of the select few whom I truly acknowledge as an inspirational teacher. The gathering sure felt like the good (forgotten the bad) old times, albeit for the undesirable reason of someone temporarily bedridden. On afterthought, I have mixed feelings about returning to the past if ever given the chance.

一日為師，终生为父
(A day as one's teacher, mentor for life)

As aforementioned, the above phrase applies to a select few teachers of mine. Not surprisingly, some of my best teachers have been Chinese language teachers. I attribute it to their self-upheld sense of Confucian righteousness but also the strong bonding from multiple occasions of the whole class failing Chinese spelling.

Honey & Clover

Bang! Run past the glittering finish line!
Ding ding! Watched Pirates of the Carribean; Dun eat me!

H&C sure puts a new perspective to youth and cherishing friends. Time passes fast and every gathering becomes ever precious. Some things are also better left unspoken.

Teeta

Here's a break from the relentless labour.
I expect someone would be very pleased with this.

排名

My vision of Physics is as clear as it can get today this week. I recall a hilarious conversation with the eagle who appeared mind-fumbled over his test. Yea, the eagle had a lot to worry about for his test cos he could be either Last or Second Last, no matter how well he did! Well, that happens when you have only 2 people in your class. Haha, how uncanny that I'm in the same dilemna. Its not nice to be last, or the last few for that matter. I'm quite worried about the calliber of grass right now.

How Google might intend to make Money with Gtalk

Its less than half a year till 2007 from now. By then, the bigwigs at Apple and Microsoft are likely to have taken delivery of both OS X Leopard and Windows Vista respectively. Now, what do these 2 OSes have in common that would benefit Google Talk?

Nothing less of spectacular than we have been promised since the last decade: Speech Recognition.

But to give credit where its due, speech recognition is already built into OS X, while Windows Vista is just playing catchup. Now Google Talk + Speech Recognition would definitely be the holy grail for Google to integrate speech conversations into one's Gmail account, much like how Gtalk IM convos are being archived now. Being able to collect keywords beyond what we input manually to speech widely opens a whole new door of opportunities for Adsense and more personal information data mining. First regarding Adsense, I guess flashing couple of word ads by the side of convo window seems like the logical way out. So you could be yakking with your buddy about that TV show earlier and Adsense displays links to memorabilaes. But I hope it doesn't get as annoying as MSN, which is way too flashy for my liking.

The invasive aspect of this might be something to be concerned about. But if Google does things right according to its "Do No Evil" mantra, that's another cashcow in the making. Microsoft? Hohum...bummer.

A Cat's Life

While out brunching, a stray cat strolled right up to the hawker center drinks store, and lazily flopped asleep on the dirty hard cold floor. Now that got my attention!

Amusing isn't it. A carefree life which we all desire: its plain come and go for the dude. I find it hard to contemplate ever doing something that without the backups and gurantees. Sigh.

Aww.. Nah, I did not feed kitty. Some auntie did.


The encounter has also awakened me to the plight of these stray cats whom are being "humanely" put to sleep by the SPCA. I'm not without reservations, as there is a high likelihood of contracting toxoplasma gondii from these guys. But their right to live is just as much as ours. It just doesn't make sense.

I is Not Malaysian

I live across the Causeway (from you) in the city state
Char kuay tiao costs $3, not 3 riggit
I live in HDB, not kampung
My Toyota cost more than 2 Protons.

Public transport will soon have not 1, not 2, but 4 CCTVs.
Media freedom is ranked 147th, not 67th
There is one cable TV station, no (Astro) satellite.
World Cup costs $20 to watch, its not free.

I know English, Chinese and Singlish, but not Malay.
Our bridges are straight, not crooked.

My ministers are paid peanuts, not ketupats.

I sing the national anthemn, but dunno the meaning of the lyrics

There are 5 small stars on my flag, not one big one.

Nabeh, I'm just as rude as you.
I is Singaporean, not Malaysian.

Its your little brother's 41st birthday.

May we have more Good years ahead!

Afternote: This was written in the light of the mrbrown series of iamsingaporean podcasts. But I guess the impact wasn't there. On a more serious tone, the media silence on the mrbrown fallout has been appalling.

Sai-kang Warrior

Enter the round-table.

Failure to plan is plan to failure.

恆心

＿|￣|○
心情煩躁,差不多要擊垮了.
實在來得不是時候啊!
我不想再絆倒了啦.

ASCII Generators for everyone: here.

大無限

And so that time of the year draws close once again. A barrage of F16s and Chinooks boom overhead in the big blue sky. Yes I'm reminded. 夕阳无限好，彩霞正满天.

雷霆

Coffee + Coke = Pepsi Tarik

Anyone want one? Caffeine content seems to be higher.







I ended off the day at Dr 17, home of Sports School. Its a great place with many fields, my next hangout. I ran all the way up the hill and was glad with what I saw. Yea, its quite a rare find.


みなお守るの為に...