Wednesday, October 31, 2007

My WTF Moment

Behold the glory of Celine Dion, the worst actress in what is possibly the worst MV in the world:



Yes, my WTF moment. Is this MV supposed to be comedy? Is it? If it is, it's really very painful comedy. And why does her face keep scrunching up like that? Or is it just the natural alignment of her features?

Ok ok, just to be fair, she does have a fantastic voice. Melodrama aside. Very funny melodrama aside. Very funny and corny melodrama aside. *chortles*

Tuesday, October 30, 2007

conceptual terrorism

This is just too funny.

Conceptual Terrorists Encase Sears Tower In Jell-O
CHICAGO—In what is being called the first conceptual terrorist attack on American soil, the landmark Sears Tower was encased in 18 million tons of strawberry gelatin early Monday morning, leaving thousands shocked, angry, and seriously confused.

"Your outdated ideas of what terrorism is have been challenged," an unidentified, disembodied voice announces following the video's first 45 minutes of random imagery set to minimalist techno music. "It is not your simple bourgeois notion of destructive explosions and weaponized biochemical agents. True terror lies in the futility of human existence."

Oh just kill me before I die of laughter.

Tuesday, October 23, 2007

Almost quarter-century

I debated whether to type this, then I was like, heck.

Somehow against all my expectations I'm what you could call blissfully happy. There's really nothing I lack. Well, I'm not high on money supply now, but then I never needed much money.

Sometimes I feel slightly bewildered because it's been so easy. I think I wandered through 24yrs wondering when exactly it is that life is supposed to become difficult, and somehow it just hasn't. I know I've been crazy/weary/sad/furious/a total wreck at some points, but for some reason it just hasn't been too bad. The usual suspects didn't get me. Not much trouble in the BGR area, no problem with family, all clear in academics, only a few disastrous exceptions to the relative calm in friendships, and career hasn't started so let's not count that in for now. In fact it's been so effortless that I often worry whether, untried as I am, I'll be able to manage when the going really starts to get tough. Ya, spoilt girl whining about getting everything too easily heh. I simply can't believe that it's been this easy so far. I hear your hate.

I'm so content that it feels like a golden period of my life, and I'm half-afraid to take the next step for fear of shattering what I have now. All my life I've felt lucky. The lot of you have told me so yourselves. I simply seem to scrape through just about everything. And I keep holding my breath waiting for my luck to run out. As of now I'm hoping my words don't jinx everything. *crosses fingers*

Anywayz, I just wanted to record that when I turned 24 I was really blissfully content. Somewhere down the line I kinda hope to remember how happy I was when I was 24.

So happy belated 24th!

You all love me. I know you do ;)

Saturday, October 20, 2007

Fiction and Music

I fell into a book instead of sleep, and woke from the book a few minutes ago to realise that I'd made the wrong trip, and had landed in the wrong hour, the last discovery particularly alarming because I'd expected it to be 3am instead of 6.

(P.S. I'm particularly proud of above sentence. Pls convey your admiration to me at suitable time.)

I love Robin Hobb. Dammit. I'll explain my undying love some other post. When I can fully convey the depths of my affection without sleep deprivation interfering. Damn you, sleep deprivation.

It's been so long since I last indulged in fiction, and I'd forgotten how thoroughly oblivious to everything I can be once I start reading. I remember once when I was in primary school, my mum snatched an offending book out of my hands and threw it at the wall because I'd been ignoring the world for days due to my obsessive reading.

I say I 'indulge' in fiction not because non-fiction is a chore, but because fiction (or at least the non-arty/non-literature type of fiction + the popular non-fiction - damn it's so hard to define) is much easier to be entertained by than what we'd call serious non-fiction and 'literature'. It's so easy to sink into popular fiction because you don't have to work to appreciate it. Not saying that it's therefore inferior, no, I fully admire the authors I fully admire. It's just different, that's all. It's somewhat like the difference between non-popular classical music and popular music, including popular classical.

Damn these categorizations are hard.

I think that it takes effort to appreciate classical music - less effort as you become more familiar with it, but for someone the equivalent of a musical tabula rasa, pop music is obviously much easier. And songs (ie. music + lyrics) are much easier to understand than instrumental pieces because most people are more accustomed to communicating with words.

Perhaps there're some to whom appreciation of and communication through music comes much more easily. Not to me lar. I'm not very talented musically. Yes, I know I have 2 Grade 8s, but anyone with enough money and determination, or rather, enough inertia to continue learning once they've started could achieve the same. I'm not very good at music. I know my violin teacher is of the opinion (probably) that I can be taught, but it doesn't come naturally to me. Playing and appreciating music is much easier for me than listening to music. There're also times when I think I'm better at interpreting a score than realizing that interpretation, perhaps partly because I'm too lazy to practise. But actually, very often I view piano/violin practice in much the same way as some other person might view aerobics. I give my fingers something exciting and slightly strenuous to do while my thoughts are engaged elsewhere. The practices in which I view my playing as music are few and far between and very much treasured. But music is another indulgence of mine. Learning and playing music (even badly) makes me happy, and I pursue music purely for enjoyment's sake.

Ok where is this post going?

Oh, and people who read and/or collect Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time series out of genuine appreciation or simply because you collected 4 books and it's getting a little draggy but hey, you figure you might as well collect the next because the series can't go on for many more volumes, and who would have guessed it's still not finished by the 11th installment: (ok mouthful) the author upped and died. And I know it's callous to care more about getting to the end of the damn series instead of the passing of a... well, very persistent and wordy person, but dammit I started reading the damn thing 10 years ago fully expecting to see an ending, which it now seems I'll be cheated of.

Yeah. I think I'm rambling. And contradicting myself. Should end here.

Thursday, October 18, 2007

Somewhere over the rainbow

If you want happy stories you shouldn't study history.

The stats are tossed out so casually. 20 million dead here, another 100 thousand there, yet another 250 thousand in that, then another 28 million. I can't even visualize how many people 100 thousand is! And it doesn't end there.

I wonder how long it would take if you had to write a biography for each casualty of every 20th century war.

Doesn't anyone think these figures are staggering anymore?

I find it difficult to read history books on war because it's almost impossible for me to just read through without being floored by what I see as so many immense tragedies, tragedies beyond imagining, shoved into the confines of a tiny matter-of-fact book.

How can people just browse through these books without registering a thing?

LENA HORNE Sings Moon River

Argh that was - urgh I hate to say it - beautiful.

I need yet another CD. Sigh. My life is a series of unfulfilled CD wishes.

Tuesday, October 16, 2007

Playlist blues

If I am what I listen to, then I shouldn't be sitting in t-shirt and shorts in the sweltering heat of 11pm Singapore. I should probably be dressed in slinky cocktail dress, smudged mascara, tossing a few in my dimmed New York penthouse in the middle of the night, utterly destitute and desperate, thinking of my (various) failed relationship(s).

Here are a few high (hehehe) points in my playlist:

- Sorry seems to be the hardest word, Joe Cocker. You might think you don't know this song, but it goes What do I have to do to make you love me / What do I have to do to make you care... Yeah, you see.

- Till it happens to you, Corrine Bailey Rae. I used to hear those violins playing high strings like a symphony / Now they're gone away / Nobody wants to know the truth / Till their hearts' broken...

- How can you mend a broken heart, Michael Buble. How can you mend this broken man? / How can a loser ever win?

- The party's over, Nat King Cole. The party's over / It's time to call it a day / Now you must wake up, all dreams must end.

- Only the lonely, Frank Sinatra. And never let love go / For when it's gone you'll know the loneliness / The heartbreak only the lonely know.

Sigh. I want a penthouse.

miserableness

I hate being sick :( When I'm miserable I don't stop whining. I think I make a very lousy patient.

Saturday, October 13, 2007

Channelling the blonde

Ya, sometimes I'm kinda bimbotic?

Me: I really wanna buy eye shadow... cos they're colourful and stuff.

Friend commented on the bimbotic-ness of above statement.

Same friend asked: So you really rejected XX company's job offer?
Me: Well... I said no, but actually I meant yes, and they should know that and contact me when I'm feeling better.

Hmmm maybe I was just channelling the female there.

I get a tremendous kick out of Cute Overload as well. I visit the damn site every single day. Strangely enough, I found a Soviet posters site today and I seem to get as much of a kick out of a poster featuring Castro & Khruschev as I would from smooshy puppies and kittens.

I also have an automatic perfume-shopping response that kicks in whenever I enter a departmental store. Hmmm.

Sometimes I think that the only way I know I'm not a bimbo is cos there's an inner voice, this really true, deep and intense voice that wails in despair everytime I act bimbotic. Like, really sadly it cries. Like the rain. Yeah. I like poetry.

Also, check out the huge controversy raging in the UK over the (in)appropriateness of kissing. I'm Asian, and that means there's only a small, select group that I kiss - my soft toys, my LSB, sometimes my mum if it's a big occasion, my soft toys. But I've totally been in that situation, and have been supremely uncomfortable. Kiss or handshake? How many kisses? How do I not cringe away from slurpy kisses? When will this hug end? How do I not get the cooties? Yeah, like, totally.

Thursday, October 11, 2007

Men...

http://perfumesmellinthings.blogspot.com/2007/02/from-mouths-of-husbands-true-thoughts.html

I never really believed all the guy stereotypes you hear. But why does the evidence accumulate like this? Are all men truly like LSB? Is there no hope left?

Wednesday, October 10, 2007

Scariness...

I've been watching scary anime... *cries* I really shouldn't have, but it's all cos I was bored doing LSB's stupid interview! *points accusing finger at LSB*

And then the 1st few episodes were full of suspense and mystery, I just couldn't stop watching because I Had To Find The Answers!

But the whole thing was just so full of gore! Like people being dismembered, disembowelled while conscious, stabbed, beaten to death etc! And people acting weirdly for no reason! And disappearing! And coming back to life after being murdered and buried!

I got so scared I kept MSNing people, who Promptly Ignored Me And Laughed At Me. Hmmpf! Well, if you ever get stalked by a cleaver-wielding psycho, don't come to me. I'll just ignore you and laugh at you too. Same goes for other psycho-stalker variations, eg. cannibalistic stalkers, gun-wielding, torture device-wielding, sinisterly-laughing, seemingly omniscient or omnipotent psychos. Oh, and I'm ignoring you even if all you have is a creepy feeling that you're being watched. Hah! Serves you all right!

I've also been watching animes with interesting formats. There's one where the episodes are broadcast in non-chronological order, so you get to see the 'last' episode somewhere in the middle, and the last episode broadcast is something that happens in the middle of the story. But somehow it all makes sense.

Current scary anime has main characters killing each other and dying violently and mysteriously, then coming back again in a slightly different world and dying/killing in different ways. Though again if you sit through it long enough, you get more clues in each 'arc' and then you finally understand the whole darn thing. It is tremendously satisfying to finally(!!!!!) understand what the hell just happened in the last 20+ episodes that you watched.

Argh last night was so scary, I scrambled into bed and under the covers, but struggled against sleep because... who knows what might happen if I fall asleep........ *sobz* I actually stayed awake through 6-7 tracks on my mp3. (yes, I was playing music to soothe my nerves, but I also had a long debate myself as to whether it was better to stop the music so I wouldn't miss any strange noises in the dark...)

But it's better tonight, because I finally understand what happened! yayness! It's still gross and sick, but I'm no longer (as) afraid!

Monday, October 08, 2007

Saturday, October 06, 2007

more dreams

Last night I dreamt that I was in a rowboat at this huge lake that looked like a swimming pool. And the water was swimming pool-clear, so I could see a HUGE crocodile - it was bigger than my boat! - lying at the bottom of the lake! And there were other crocodiles in the lake as well! And dolphins too! And the dolphins kept butting my boat wanting to play, but I was terrified I'd capsize, and I was terrified the huge crocodile at the bottom of the lake would notice and swim towards me...

Anywayz.

That dream reminded me of another dream I had some time ago. There was a huge lake in the hills behind my house, and there were people playing in it. I waded in with my clothes on, and when it got too deep I swam. And I went as far as I could till finally I'd left the noise behind. Floating in the water, I could only hear the wind and the leaves on the bank, and there was only water around me, and the sun was setting. It was so peaceful and calm, it was like an almost-nirvana experience. And it felt so cathartic to wade out to the middle of a lake in my clothes on a whim. I've never experienced anything like that in real life, so I'd dearly like to go back to that lake again.

Sighz.

Of course after that I realised that it was getting dark and most of the people had left the lake. So I waded out of the lake and made my miserable, drenched way home through the hills. Then I discovered that the paths were covered with little red, green and yellow snakes, and it was impossible to avoid stepping on them. So I squashed millions of those snakes and hoped to hell none of them would bite me. Urgh.

Argh! I just remembered another dream I had last night! A family went on a vacation to hell (literally), which looked like this huge dim underground city with escalators everywhere and (!!!!) an MRT system. Then they were tricked into eating something (a la Persephone) and couldn't leave the place. And there was stuff about time travel to undo the unfortunate ingestion, but no matter how they tried, they could manage to save the parents, but couldn't prevent the kid from eating the food! And it was really difficult, because they couldn't just go back and tell themselves not to eat (you can't meet your past self whilst time-travelling else the universe would collapse), so they had to try to prevent food from reaching their past selves without letting their past selves see them!

Maybe I should write a book based on these huh.

Wednesday, October 03, 2007

I have strange dreams.

My dreams last night included:

1. A blindfolded archery performance where the objective was not to shoot the apple on a person's head but to shoot the person's forehead. And amazingly enough, after each successful shot, the 'victim' pulls the arrow out of his dented forehead and smiles.

2. A big shopping mall which houses a night market with thousands of exotic small fish.

3. A museum set up by a vengeful actress to detail her turbulent marriage to some guy, and the museum was stocked with arcade games.

4. A small child who survived an explosion, but as a result, could only use 1 of her 5 senses at any one time.

5. A lizard that had been treated as a pet for so long, it started looking like a dog. It grew to poodle-size, grew fur, and had a tendency to bark, beg and wag its tail. However, it retained its lizard tail, albeit covered with fur, and we were always afraid its tail would drop off when it wagged too hard. It also liked to sit on people's shoulders.

The last nightmare I had was about vampires. They were attacking us, and you couldn't kill them except by thoroughly burning them. I was attacked in my house, and resorted to burning the vampires on the stove. It was so nightmarish. :( Pushing the screaming vampires on the stove and making sure they continued burning... And the vampire bodies waiting to be burnt kept stacking up beside me, and they kept waking up and trying to eat me. :(