Land of the Free, Home of the Brave

Oh Adam, you really shouldn't have sung with KISS and justified White Christian America not giving you its vote.

There are political undertones, I tell you. Stereotypes or not, the Conservatives are still unhappy about their loss.

Maybe Matt should have been American Idol after all.



Or not. At least he now gets to develop himself as an artiste on his terms. But please Matt, no more Coldplay or The Fray. Give me blues any day.

I also found the link to KF Seetoh on Martha. I watch Martha almost every morning I can, even though I cannot for the life of me understand all this lifestyle schtick. But it's therapeutic looking at pretty things, and watching other people do things you know you'll never have the time, money or energy to do.

Click here for the video, but it loads in weird bursts so make sure you have a good connection.

My favourite part is when he calls tau pok tofu puffs, like edible sponge.

And I think Martha's impression of Singapore is somewhat like a Fighting Spiders one, all street food, albeit with portable stoves - KF Seetoh did inform her that charcoal fires aren't allowed anymore.

No hum in the laksa, I see.

OH COME ON

Kris Allen? America, you have got to be kidding me.

Half-Price Gelare Waffles On Tuesday

Nope, no pictures of the waffle with three scoops of ice cream which we ordered - we scoffed it down much too quickly for that, dispensing with such niceties. And we didn't get whipped cream on it, nor the fruits which the cashier entreated us to add, for 20 cents, so it wasn't that pretty-looking anyway.

But there are pictures of two lovely people, and here is one of them:

Just like old times, except that today I was the one who suggested we have waffles. Joe is, astonishingly, on a diet of some sort. Quents jia mian-ed at lunch and wasn't very hungry.

And I still didn't understand half of what the guys were talking about, even though I've graduated. There are only so many things Law School does for you.

But it was very nice, watching Star Trek and wandering aimlessly around PS and poking about Daiso, having absolutely nothing better to do.

So Far Away

Never did we expect that one of the destinations for our local grad trip would be a factory in Ubi, because there's a tailor there. Let me know if you need the address. Jon and I actually took the MRT to Eunos, and once the bus from the MRT headed into the Greater Ubi Area, it really felt like we weren't in Singapore anymore.

In fact, it felt a bit like a village centre in Shaanxi province which I visited last year.

(That isn't the factory we went to. But when you travel, you've got to take pictures at 'special places.' You know.)

Zhiwei told us yesterday that his girlfriend's father isn't letting her go up for our day trip to Malacca after all because of swine flu.

I told him it was okay, because there are places in Singapore that don't feel like Singapore at all, anyway.

My mother entered a gardening phase a few months ago, which explains the mini-jungle right beside my bedroom windows. It'd be quite cool, if not for the fact that the ants which populated the leaves of the papaya plant liked to use my windows as a sort of pedestrian crossing, and there was a bird's nest a little too close to my bedroom wall for comfort. And, to top things off, today I found a Very, Very Furry, Rather Long Caterpillar Cocoon in the place where the headboard of my bed touches the wall, meaning that he (she?) took the liberty of crawling all the way across my headboard. And there was another one in the window sill.

Ugh!

I whinged my father into removing both of them, which he did - and then he said, Wasn't that cool? City-dwellers don't often get to see wildlife so close to them!

We also proceeded to chop down parts of the papaya plant and remove the bird's nest, which is why I wrote the above paragraph in past tense. No more will those pesky ants use my windows as a pedestrian crossing.

Funny

How we, or rather I, tell myself and others how we'll be able to just get through things - some things you just have to do, you know? - I'll say, confident that it'll happen.

And so I blunder on and in the midst of doing whatever it is I realise that it's not as easy as just having to Do Things, and that's why people make considered decisions, and pray so much.

Hopefully I'll be able to do that in the coming years.

Oh, and I just realised I posted the wrong YouTube video yesterday! I've changed the second one. Happy listening :)

Descent Into Heartlandom

Generally I don't like posting Youtube videos, but I've just discovered the awesomeness of xinyao, and, as I've said before, Good music must be shared.

Sorry about the weird slideshow, wasn't me!



I really wonder who puts together these MTVs.

If you like these songs too please let me know, so I don't feel like a weirdo. And don't tell me you don't remember Kit Chan's 担心, because we practically grew up on that rice advertisement.

Fantastically Amazing
Jon and I watched If There're Seasons last night, and it was a wonderful experience.

Sure, the storyline was kinda lame and we had cheapo tickets but the songs and the arrangements and the band and the singers (yes, even Joanna Dong who was a little screechy more than once!) more than made up for it.

We walked out of the theatre feeling suitably happified, which I've concluded is a feeling only solid, old-school Chinese pop brings. Electric guitar solos, real violins, kick-ass drums, piano introductions to every emo song - and the loveliest chord changes in the world.

I don't like posting things in another language without a translation or a guide as to how to read it (Jolie, are you reading this!) but I've chosen tonight for my teeth to suffer - I'm wearing my retainers after a few weeks of not doing so, and it hurts like billy-oh; I'm in no mood at all to provide a good translation to a Chinese song which has become a new favourite. So you'll have to make do. If you can't read Chinese, I'm sorry. Blame your elitist blue and white education.

秋心賦
海無邊　天無際　無邊無際無盡期
風淒迷　雨絲密　殘淚滴
人遙遠　心思念　思思念念只一個妳
不回憶　又回憶　空回憶

心上秋　何年何月漸漸染上眉頭
眉上秋　早已積成心上憂
心上秋　何時再與那年的妳聚首
等是愛　盼是愛　望是愛
問年月　何年月　恨年月

It's in fan ti, so happy guessing. To me and you, both. But it's a fantastic song, especially Bang Wenfu's arrangement (vocals and instruments) for the musical. You can always copy and paste and Google the title of the song. Qiu1 Xin1 Fu4 (that SHOULD be it).

***
Alright, I've decided to take pity on you (there goes the pot calling the kettle black) - and good music must be shared. So here's a cover of it I found on Youtube.



I have never been prouder to be a Singaporean!

***
I was just reading through some of my old entries and I realised I never let on about how I caught up on all the episodes of The Little Nyonya which I missed when I was on my family holiday!

It was Dear Abi who set her DVD recorder to record all those episodes, and who sat through them all with me - laughing very loudly at the saddest, most dramatic bits.

How I do seem to love putting exclaimation marks at the end of my sentences nowadays.

I tell you, it was that Teo Cheng Wee article about how using '!'s in SMSes has come to be a sign that one's "OK!", and '.'s, a sign that you're not!

Saturday

The AWARE saga has been blogged about and commented on ad nauseum, and further, because I was there at that Long-Max EGM, for almost all seven hours of melodrama (more than a Channel 8 drama) I therefore feel no qualms telling all who see this (like I've done on Facebook) that they should all Stop Talking About It Already, and get Pet Society - so I can visit more pets for more coins.

Rui told me last night that the Mystery Boxes hold something new everytime you buy one, which has led me to keep buying them just to see what I get. It's Very Exciting, but I need more coins!

So I shall not say anymore about AWARE beyond that this must lead us to think of our own Christian response to matters in an ever-changing world, and that the most frightening thing about it would be if TSM came out of it feeling like she was a Christian martyr. Because she was most definitely not.

In other news, the fact that I am now Unofficially Unemployed has given me the freedom to watch Bad Local TV. Gary Beh (go on, say his name many many times in quick succession, it'll sound like a bad word. Very fun! I'm surprised he hasn't strangled me yet for doing that everytime I see him) induced me to watch The S Factor yesterday, and it sucks even more than Red Thread. Which is saying alot. I've been gleefully paraphrasing and repeating some of the best lines from the latter to people I've met all week.

Celest Chong: Today, I did a terrible thing.
Friend: What?
CC: I rejected a nice guy...
F: Why?
CC: Because, I'm damaged inside.
F: You know... The Japanese use gold to aggrandize the cracks in damaged objects.
Mother and me: Who talks like that nowadays?

Kong Wah (played by that old, slack teacher on First Class): Li-ann is like my flesh and blood - and if you hurt her, I will destroy you (to Alex Sung, played by Adrian Pang).

Shades of Masters of the Sea and that infamous cockroach line, anyone?

Alex Sung: Mr Kong, don't you think you're mixing the personal with the public here?
KW: I AM KONG HOLDINGS. EVERYTHING IS PERSONAL (you could see the capitals when he delivered those lines).

That being said, I'd probably watch it again this week, if not for the fact that I have various dinner outings planned.