Nice Picture Which I Never Knew Existed
But alas, while they look good, I just look chubby.

(Sniggers. Sorry Jon, but you'll always look like a monkey to me.)

Picture taken before I left for Beijing.

In other news, last Friday I closed JM's car door on my right thumb. He almost drove off with my thumb caught in the door.

Despite the bleeding under the nail and the swelling, it's mending well. It still looks pretty gross though. I was going to upload a picture of it but I've decided not to, just in case you're eating when you read this.

Still, every cloud had a silver lining. Because of my resulting Miserable-Like-Anything face, Jon agreed to watch My Girl with me - yes, the Korean drama serial I was so enamoured with in Beijing. I caught it again on Channel U, and decided that I liked it so much that I had to have the DVD.

The downside is, because it's been digitally mastered for sharper images, Lee Dong Wook's lack of acting skills have become glaringly obvious and I cannot avoid that fact any longer, even though I would like to remain in denial because he is dishy. Even Jon agrees.

There's also horrible subtitling. It would have been funny if the conversation was in Mandarin, but I cannot understand Korean at all. Yes, I can watch it dubbed, but what's the point?

The Sad Lives of Lawyers To Be

Even though we're now at PLC, L - the Fellow Suffering Pupil who sat opposite me the first month of pupillage - and myself still cannot stop talking all manner of nonsense to each other.

She sent me this SMS yesterday:

Omg you ah mah. Confirm got ah mah taste. I jus saw e bow top from south haven tat u bought on an ah mah!

And today she FB-ed me the following:

AUNTY. i tink i saw ur le range top at robinsons. HUR is it boat neck, chiffon, and got like pleats around the neck???? hahah

When I said Yes, indeed it probably was the top I had bought, she said:

ZOMG. my aunty radar is damn sharp. can detect ur top immed when i saw it. and i was like 'CHLOE' eh u nv come for class today ah, never see u around. tsk tsk

I was watching Martha at home.

Guess I should just be resigned to my Aunty fate.

WHY MUST YOU DO THIS TO ME?!

Just when you thought your favourite Asian singer of all time (I mean that, even though I'm constantly singing Zhen Zhong Ji's Jie Qing Ren and Yu Guan Hua's Qiu Xin Fu, both written by the great Liang Wern Fook) was going to remain NORMAL, in a world where Chinese pop is getting curiouser and curiouser - to quote Alice - she decides to pull the carpet right from under your feet and do THIS.

The latest music video of the new song by Chang Hui-mei or A-mei, "Hei Chi Hei", is shockingly filled with scenes of kidnap, sadomasochism, assassination and sexual connotations. Besides the Taiwanese MTV channel, other Taiwanese TV stations have declined to broadcast the music video.

A-mei's new album AMIT (based on her aboriginal name) has a strong vengeance theme, and "Hei Chi Hei" is a contemporary hard rock song with six foul words in the lyrics. Her record company has taken initiative in censoring those words to produce a standard version, and planned for the "original restricted" version to be broadcasted after 9pm starting Thursday night. However various TV stations have said that the vulgarities were but a minor problem and that the gory scenes and sadomasochistic images made the video undesirable for broadcast.

Overwhelming response to the music video on MTV channel boosted the record company's confidence in having wider promotions, but the TV stations' rejections were unexpected.

In considering A-mei's persistence in retaining the purest concept of the album, the record company would not consider snipping any more of the music video to cater to broadcast requirements. Instead they are currently exploring other less stringent avenues to allow fans to watch the uncut video.

A-mei "transforms" into "Amit" in the video and had to spend four hours in the image creation. The black crystals used cost NT$100,000 per set (about S$5000). Male lead in the MV, Chen Chu-xiang was dressed as a sadomasochistic King, top naked with leather straps around his body. The accompanying dancers are also dressed in dominatrix outfits.

The songstress thought very highly of the concept by famous MV director Bounce and described it as "very cool". - From Yahoo! News, 7 July 2009

Please, A*Mei. I am planning to watch you the next time you come to Singapore. Please, I beg you, don't make me change my mind. Not now, when I have memorised the lyrics to so many of your greatest hits and am dying for a chance to sing along with you live.

Vaguely Porno



But I guess that's how they made MTVs last time.

And it's a great song, so who cares? Plug in your earphones, open another window and play Typing Maniac. Unless of course, it's so inspiring that you want to sing along. In which case you have to look at the lyrics. And the vaguely porno bits, of course.

Never Too Old

My Cupcake Tree in Pet Society finally bore fruit.

I am Very Pleased.

Today, Suffering Pupil #1 told Suffering Pupil #2 that Suffering Pupil #2's new chair was akin to a Lamborghini in the world of swivel chairs - and the rest of us were stuck with the equivalent of a Toyota.

I pointed out to SP #1 that our chairs were more analogous to Suzuki Swifts.

SP #2 told me I could take his chair after next Wednesday, and I think he said that because that's our first day of PLC; however, he did say after next Wednesday - that means when we come back for our second tranche of pupillage I'm still entitled to it. SP #2 with the new chair, if you're reading this, this means you.

There's one thing I've come to realise in the past month - there are a good number of lawyers who don't deserve at all to be the butt of those awful jokes about lawyers that people seem to enjoy telling.

In fact, many of them work hard and work honestly for their keep, and are unpretentious, genuine, and family-oriented people.

Which was a nice surprise.

Just like my cupcake on my cupcake tree. It sells for 85 coins.

Annoying Post

With plenty of office and legal jokes to keep you amused, or else annoy you greatly because you're not clued in. Neh neh ni boo boo!

Like how today Judicial Manager Ho JM (JM Ho JM, geddit?) who is even lazier than Bart (I hesitate to say 'anti-social') sent out an email asking the pupils at the Law Firm Which Shall Not Be Named to have a gathering next Tuesday. I almost fell off my chair in shock and awe when I saw it, and hastened to dial his extension to find out whether someone had hijacked his computer.

No la it was ___ who asked me to plan!

Or how yesterday the DisConnected pupil from my department - the only one who has to sit in the library - got a new chair, because they changed the chairs of all those sitting in the library. He promptly emailed me to say I got a new chair!!!!!!!!

And when I told him I was really excited for him!!!! he said Yah. . . Come over for a chair-warming party soon!!!!

I want to steal the chair, but it'd be pretty obvious who did so.

The email which really made my day though, simply said (and pardon the French):

Omg

I fell asleep

Zzz

***
In other news, there are no more Lexus cream cheese biscuits in the pantry. They have been replaced by the Cowhead Milk The Only Calcium Biscuit ones. Which aren't too bad, less oily than the aforementioned ones.

Also, if you've been wanting (needing, more like) to go to the loo for a little rest, just to sit on the throne and stare into space or close your eyes momentarily, but you've been thwarted in your attempts by that Very Useful Invention called the automatic flush, just stick a post-it over that annoying red dot that keeps foiling your plans.

Lest you think we're not earning our keep, we are. Trust me on that one.