6.24.2004

 

[fated]

despite the really angsty and foreboding title, i must hasten to qualify that i was really struck by the whole fated-ness of sthg that happened to me that i just have to title the post that..

was passing by citylink HMV when i suddenly had a strong feeling that i should go in and look for the Futon CD (the band is Futon, not the Futon, just to clarify a bit) - titled "Never Mind the Botox" - that i'd been searching for since late last year on. so i scour the shelves looking for it.. went thru the entire pop/rock section and din find it. but i eventually found it tucked away in an obscure corner of the dance music section right next to the hip hop / r&b section. it was the last copy too! words just can't describe how i felt - if you can mix equal parts of elation, release and feeling completely at ease together maybe you can approximate it.

anyway Futon is absolutely fabulous.. realise i've been gushing about many bands in the past few posts, but they really are deserving. futon has an attitude - like zircon gov pawnstarz, only less political and more hedonistic (if you can imagine anything more hedonistic than ZGPS!) for those who have had the privilege of hearing both tiramisu and ZGPS, they ARE a sort of lovechild between the two.. elements of rock, dance, punk, everything. well maybe not so much punk as in punk, but punk as in attitude. Futon is played regularly on our airwaves - particularly the single "Bangkok Chemist" and their cover of The Stooges' "I Wanna Be Your Dog". but you know i REALLY REALLY cant get "Gay Boy" (I wanna be a gay boy/ And all fun and play boy/ Look at my tight top/ Fake tan and short crop) out of my head now.. Samples and lyrics here: http://www.rehabisfab.com/eng/head/RIFtracks.html good stuff.

in other news, i never thought i'd ever experience it, but i finally hit a stage that can only be described as 'corn jamming': the corn equivalent of a musical jam session where the whole is truly greater than the sum of its parts. everything comes fast and furious and it synergizes into a single entity.. i never thought i'd reach that level. go, me! =P

Perry Como - Papa Loves Mambo
from the Ocean's Eleven OST

---

Papa loves mambo
Mama loves mambo
Look at 'em sway with it, gettin' so gay with it
Shoutin' "ol" with it, wow! (ooh!)

Papa loves mambo
(Papa loves mambo)
Mama loves mambo
(Mama loves mambo)
Papa does great with it, swings like a gate with it
Evens his weight with it, now!

He goes to, she goes fro
He goes fast, she goes slow
He goes left 'n' she goes right
(Papa's lookin' for mama but mama is nowhere in sight)

Papa loves mambo
Mama loves mambo
Havin' their fling again, younger than Spring again
Feelin' that zing again, wow! (ooh!)

Papa loves mambo
(Papa loves mambo)
Mama loves mambo
(Mama loves mambo)
Don't let her rumba and don't let her samba
'cause papa loves mama tonight (ooh!)

(Papa loves mambo)
(Mama loves mambo)



(Papa loves mambo)
(Mama loves mambo)



He goes to, she goes fro
He goes fast, she goes slow
He goes left 'n' she goes right
(Papa's lookin' for mama but mama is nowhere in sight) (ooh!)

Papa loves mambo
(Papa loves mambo)
Mama loves mambo
(Mama loves mambo)
Havin' their fling again, younger than Spring again
Feelin' that zing again, wow! (ooh!)

(Papa loves mambo)
Mambo papa
(Mama loves mambo)
Mambo mama
(Don't let her rumba and don't let her samba)
'cause papa--
Loves a mambo tonight

(ooh!)

---

been broadening my musical horizons again (not that they were narrow to begin with, but that's very bhb on my part), as you can see!

also: zircon gov pawnstarz finally get featured in 8 days' fashion section. what i can say is that x'ho just doesnt look like his usual self (perhaps the point was that this was his alter ego), and yeow overdid the eyeliner. but other than that i guess it's a sign that they've finally made it, to be able to be featured in 8 days.. (it's truly ironic, but then again what isn't these days? everything has to be taken firmly tongue-in-cheek. which is an oxymoron in itself.)

just realised my blog hit the 2 yr mark.. time to whip out the candles and cake!

timestamp: anonymous 14:17 0 comments

6.16.2004

 

[*boing boing* (TM)']

' *biong biong* copyrighted by peiling (PP). no, that's not a typo.

i must've said this at some point over the last couple of posts: i feel like im on a rollercoaster. to cut a needlessly long, boring and pointless story short, every few days i discover something that i overlooked previously that threatens to nullify my entire project. nullify as in, renders it unworkable. and i'm always a hair's breadth away from disaster (that's 100 microns on average, if you're counting), bumming around on major low-moods for about a day or two til i stumble across some haphazard workaround. then everything's peachy. i don't know how much more disaster-turnaround scenarios i can take before my mind snaps, it's fast becoming a regular occurrence. that's not really very healthy.

i've also recently discovered how expensive air travel is. the advertised return fare on CX from Singapore (SIN) to London Heathrow (LHR), stopping over in Hong Kong (HKG), is SGD$1099. but the catch is i can't get reimbursed for the tix if i purchase a return ticket, for my 'to' trip anyway, so i need a one-way ticket. so i click through to Cathay's online website. the fare for the same flight is SGD$1953, and that's on economy restricted. 'full' economy (if there ever can be such a thing) is SGD$4685. interestingly enough that's more than half of first class - SGD$8819. ouch! i can only get reimbursed SGD$2000, so if i can't get economy restricted then i need to start dipping into savings. how on earth can a return ticket be less than half the price of a one way ticket AND still include a 2D/1N hotel stay in HK?? to save money i'll prob wind up taking a ship to the UK. or sealing myself up in a cargo box and FedExing myself over. then again, given the recent delivery fiasco i've been embroiled in, i might not end up there alive and kicking..

Dashboard Confessional - As Lovers Go
From the Shrek 2 OST

---

She said "i've gotta be honest,
You're wasting your time if you're fishing round here."
And i said "you must be mistaken,
Cause i'm not fooling...this feeling is real"
She said...she said "you gotta be crazy,
What do you take me for? Some kind of easy mark?
" No, you've got wits, you've got looks,
You've got passion, but I swear that you've got me all wrong."

All wrong.
All wrong.
But you got me...

I'll be true, i'll be useful...
I'll be cavalier...i'll be yours my dear.
And i'll belong to you...
If you'll just let me through.
This is easy as lovers go,
So don't complicate it by hesitating.
And this is wonderful as loving goes,
This is tailor-made, whats the sense in waiting?

And i said "i've gotta be honest
I've been waiting for you all my life."
For so long i thought i was asylum bound,
But just seeing you makes me think twice.
And being with you here makes me sane,
I fear i'll go crazy if you leave my side.
You've got wits...you've got looks,
You've got passion but are you brave enough to leave with me tonight?

Tonight.
Tonight.
But you've got me...

I'll be true, i'll be useful...
I'll be cavalier...i'll be yours my dear.
And i'll belong to you...
If you'll just let me through.
This is easy as lovers go,
So don't complicate it by hesitating.
And this is wonderful as loving goes,
This is tailor-made, whats the sense in waiting?
This is easy as lovers go,
So don't complicate it by hesitating.
And this is wonderful as loving goes,
This is tailor-made, whats the sense in waiting?

---

tired. just so tired of everything. maybe im just not meant to be confident. whatever i've built up over the weeks (it's a recent phenomenon, possibly related to the civilian conversion course) just breaks and shatters when given the slightest push.

inexplicably, i also feel really bad now for being such a rotten friend. to be honest, nothing in particular has triggered this, so it's not a guilty conscience: rather a dawning realisation that im not doing enough for my friends. whenever there's a crisis, or what's really eating them, i just don't know. maybe it's because im too caught up in my own stuff to pay any attention. i just don't feel like a true friend, and that makes me feel horrible. i'm so very sorry.

timestamp: anonymous 13:43 0 comments

6.11.2004

 

[2.5 years in the making]

i meant to do a proper long post on this, but considering that i've blogged so many long posts in the past few weeks its time to take a break - a long and well-deserved one, I might add.

when you first enlist it's as though you'll never see the light at the end of the tunnel. but you acclimatize quickly and then all of a sudden you realize that you don't really miss civilian life all that much; it's not all it's cracked up to be. (either that, or i hadn't really started all the hedonistic stuff that i now do!) you go through thick and thin, rain and sun, all sorts of unimaginable crap (for want of a better word), and find that you develop bonds forged in blood, sweat and tears with those who have weathered the storm with you, for better or for worse. then the time comes when you have to leave - and it's hard to leave all those you've been through so much with together. to all those who i have had the privilege of serving with, thanks for bearing with me. i salute you, from the bottom of my heart. ^^;

but i still look really weird in my pink IC. do we get to update the photo? i so do not look like that anymore.

also wound up having my wisdom teeth extracted.. so now im only half as smart as i was before. *sigh* had it done at NUH, which is a teaching hospital.. so there were like 5 final-year dentistry students in the room watching the procedure. how can i mind, i'll be doing that myself in a couple of years' time.. did i mention eye candy? but i digress. i really really miss solid food now. you know the conventional wisdom (ho ho unintentional!): you never miss something until you lose it. it's all my chips and fried stuff, mostly ^^;

The Streets - Fit But You Know It

---

'Scuse me girl, I know it's a bit embarrasin',
But I just noticed some tan lines on your shirt there...

See I reckon you're about an 8 or a 9,
Maybe even 9 and a half in four beers time.
That blue top shop top you've got on IS nice,
Bit too much fake tan though - but yeah you score high.

But theres just one little thing that's really really,
Really really annoying me about you, you see,
Yeah yeah like I said you are really fit
But my gosh don't you just know it.

I'm not trying to pull you
Even though I would like to
I think you are really fit
You're fit but my gosh dont you know it.

So when I looked at you standing there with your hoard,
I was waiting in the queue looking at the board
Wondering whether to have a burger or chips
Or what the shrapnel in my back pocket could afford
When I noticed out the corner of my eye
Looking toward my direction
Your eyes locked on my course.
I couldn't concentrate on what I wanted to order,
Which lost me my place in the queue I waited for, YEAH.

I'm not trying to pull you
Even though I would like to
I think you are really fit
You're fit but my gosh dont you know it

Whoa!
(Background: Leave it out)
Are you smoking crack or something?
Mike, just leave it, just leave it.
We cannot have that behaviour in this establishment.
S'not worth it Mike, just leave it.
Dont Touch Me! S'not Worth It!
Dont Touch Me, Don'.. I'm Alright, Dont Touch Me.

For a while there I was thinkin' - yeah but what if?
Picturin' myself pullin' with bare white hot wit
Snarin' you as you were standing there opposite
Whether or not you knew it I swear you didn't tick
And when that bloke in the white behind us lot queuing
Was clockin' onto you too yeah I had to admit
That yeah yeah you are fit,
And yeah I do want it,
But I stopped sharkin' for a minute to get chips and drinks.

I'm not trying to pull you
Even though I would like to
I think you are really fit
You're fit but my gosh dont you know it.

Now I bashed my head hard earlier due to the brew,
But I am digressing slightly so I'll continue.
I didn't wanna bowl over or gaze around rude
Not rude like good but just rude like uncouth,
You girls think you can just flirt and it comes to you
Well let me tell you, see, Yes Yes you are really rude,
And rude as in good, I knew this as you stood and queued
But I just did not want to give the satisfaction to you.

I'm not trying to pull you
Even though I would like to
I think you are really fit
You're fit but my gosh dont you know it.

Oy, just as you started to make your big advance
With the milkshake and that little doughnut in hand
I was like nah, I can't, even though you look grand
But you look sharp there smilin' hard suggesting and
Gleaming away with your hearty hearty lookin' tan
But I admit the next bit was spanner to my plan
You walked towards my path but you just brushed right past
And into the arms of that ****in' white shirted man

I'm not trying to pull you
Even though I would like to
I think you are really fit
You're fit but my gosh dont you know it.

Oh what do I give a ****, I've got a girlfriend anyway
(whoa, we've all had a drink mate)
We're all a bit drunk, yeah we've had a few, fair play,
I got this stella I bombed from that last cafe
This night's not even begun, yes yes oh yay.

I did fancy you a bit though yeah I must say
I would rather I hadnt mugged myself on display
But this is just another case of female stop-and-play
In an otherwise total result of a holiday.

I'm not trying to pull you
Even though I would like to
I think you are really fit
You're fit But my gosh dont you know it.

You're fit but you know it (3x)
I think I'm going to fall over
I think I'm going to fall o.., ****in 'ell.

---

The Streets - one man, Mike Skinner, really, despite the name! - is absolutely wonderful. His first album, Original Pirate Material, was released to great critical acclaim. This is from his second album, A Grand Don't Come for Free, which is actually a concept album: it tells a story of how he loses a grand (pounds, so that's gotta hurt) on a day where everything goes horribly wrong, then how he meets this girl and everything looks up, then they have a fight (Dry Your Eyes, perhaps my favourite on the album) then .. the ending (don't wanna give anything away). It's like.. a very british brand of hip-hop, only slower and ridiculously funny to boot, if you actually listen to the lyrics. *bliss*

UPDATE: i've found a more accurate source for the lyrics and put it in instead. you'll notice the song is actually more (mildly) R-rated than the earlier version of the lyrics suggested. here's an album review of A Grand Don't Come for Free.. with track-by-track plot summaries. haha!

timestamp: anonymous 16:59 0 comments

6.10.2004

 

[always when you dont need it]

ive spent the past few weeks of my life searching high and low for quotations. quotations for all sorts of stuff i need for my project(s). and since i have absolutely no idea which of the Big Pharma companies have set up local offshoots on our fair isle and which companies are being distributed by whom, it's been pretty much a wild goose chase. did i mention that the yellow pages are no help either? all they have is a measly 'chemicals' section. and that encompasses just about everything from industrial-strength pipe cleaner to commercial plastic. someone should really overhaul the yellow pages and make it something that people will really use. how can we ever mature into a proper scientific nation if the phone book lumps all the science-related and industrial companies lock stock barrel into a PKL 'Chemicals' heading?!!

it's really mind-boggling, the kinds of stuff you have to wade through on google before you find people that actually sell what you want. and let's not go into the whole process of *getting* quotations. chances are if the site has online shopping, you can forget about them replying to your request for a quotation. i've emailed and faxed hundreds of letters requesting for quotes, many sent on the home fax at mine own expense, and NONE come back. the response rate for faxes still stands at a phenomenal 0%. emails.. well i've had some success over the last couple of days. which brings me to my next point.

today i FINALLY settle all the quotations and purchase requisitions. this is a long and complicated process involving a lot of complicated data entry and repetition, cursing, swearing, followed by rapid mouse clicking, squinting at the screen, before calling somebody for help. i always thought well of SAP (the software company).. until now. today, i finally realise how evil, counter-intuitive and downright user-unfriendly enterprise software is. why can't anybody devise a proper purchase requisition system that people can actually use? not to mention the fact that the people who really need the stuff don't have the time to wade through the system and its goodness-knows how many levels of alerts and errors. they actually get other people to key it in for them - and sadly the other people don't always know the full details of the purchase (say - why this product is needed, why not the lowest quote, why there aren't 3 quotes, etc). thankfully im doing mine own, so if i don't know the answers to the a/m questions i only have myself to blame. not to mention all the trouble i went to to get competitive quotes for the same items - the 3 quotes rule.

so it's only AFTER i settle all the quotations and purchase requisitions (a process that took up virtually all of today) that another 2 - 3 quotes come streaming in by email. (one company was nice enough to offer me a sample of what i wanted - that's genuinely nice of them, considering that they aren't even based here, i was talking to the head office in Mumbai; the second says what i want only comes as part of a kit and they would like to call me with regards to the request; another's still being held up because the local distributor is awaiting pricing instructions from the head office in the states) i don't really know what to say..

timestamp: anonymous 14:21 0 comments

6.06.2004

 

[My Little Big Adventure]

ever since i started work, seems like all i ever do on weekends/offdays is go gallivanting all around our merry little island - a far cry from what i used to do. maybe it's a sign that i'm finally growing up. or that i just can't be bothered to just idle around at home - especially given the hours im working these days, though on second thought that's probably not surprising to those who know me [and my style of working!]. which incidentally leads me to the question that PP posed recently - what is it about [me] that makes me gravitate towards working in high-stress environments (or something like that).. but truth be told, i don't choose these places, they choose me! *bhb* nah, really, i think its coincidental, plus im kinda high-strung myself so when you put two and two together, the whole winds up being more than the sum of its parts.. anyway im trying to become more laid-back, to take things easily and as they come. by necessity, though, that also entails becoming more confident, which may not necessarily be what i want.

so today i had the practical of Public Transport 101 trying to get to, but mainly from, the PC Show at Expo. met a lot of people there as usual (hello!), most of whom were working part-time, and hence can land better deals on equipment ^^; (what are friends for, right.. =P ) but didn't really buy anything other than ink refills for my printer, since i'm not exactly leaving yet, and the prime rule of technology always applies - if you don't need it now, you can always pick up a newer, faster, better, cheaper model a few months down the road. i wasn't expecting any laptops at the show to meet my stringent (as always) future-proof criteria - fast Intel processor, 80GB HDD, 512MB RAM (must upgrade to 1GB), 128MB dedicated mobile graphics card, DVD-ROM/CDRW drive, etc - but there were! the prices were astronomical, of course, to match those specs. but im sure by the time i leave the price will normalise somewhat.

so my dad decided to impulse-buy a HDD/DVD recorder to replace the VCR for taping shows and stuff, and that wasn't exactly a good idea because the box was HUGE and from noon onwards the entire exhibition hall was a thick, viscous mass of people trying, with varying degrees of success, to shuffle in their intended direction of motion. boxes and tiny luggage trolleys (mode of transport of choice, helpfully provided by printer vendors to assuage people that their printers are portable via whatever public transport they choose to take) just get into the way of elbows, faces, shoulders and the like.. sorta like one of those "living experiments" that are the rage these days, on brownian motion. *jostle* *squeeze* sorry! excuse me! *shove* *squish*

if the hall itself was bad, the queues at the eating places were far worse. when i arrived at 1130, fresh out of bed and hungry, the queue at the Expo BK stretched just past the glass doors and took half an hour to hit the head of the queue. not to mention the fact that the service was slow (i dont blame them, mind, anybody doing a $5-an-hour job would be intimidated by the unending hordes of ravenous shoppers, straight out of some zombie B-movie) and i didn't get to have what i wanted because it was either sold out or "there was something wrong with the french fry machine". needless to say i was sorry i didn't have a full meal while i had the chance, because when we came out again at 1400 hoping to beat the lunch crowds, the queues were thrice as long as before. we hightailed it out of there are hopped on a bus to bedok food centre to eat (yes, opposite TJ.. and im sorry to say this but it does look rather run down from the main road). the japanese food stall there's pretty good, far better than yoshinoya. *stamp of approval* if you're keeping count, thats the warm-up exercise to the practical part of Public Transport 101.

on the way back from bedok, we passed something like a km-long tailback of cars all trying to turn into the Expo carpark. i don't know how many of them finally made it in (my guess is not much), but my dad wound up parking at Changi General Hospital, near Simei station. and yes he's as clueless about public transport as i am. =\ so he took a cab down to Expo. but taking a cab *out* of Expo necessitates a $2 surcharge. so we decided to take the train down to simei (insert tale of struggling to get a ticket deposit refund out of the single-use-ticket dispenser), and finding no shuttle bus from the MRT station, proceeded to take 38 to CGH. which was a horrific mistake, and 5 stops later, in some remote part of tampines, after asking directions from the 38 bus driver, passengers, a condo security guard and waiting at the opposite bus stop for bus 9, we eventually flagged down a cab, and - to our horror - sped down the very same road we had came, past Simei station for another 500m before we emerged at CGH. ^^; that's cutting a long story short, but if you add in struggling with a box half your size.. this almost ranks up there with the time i took the east/west train to kallang when i intended to take it to jurong east (sorry pris!)

in unrelated news, my 256MB thumbdrive mysteriously died on me in the commute between work and home - aka it was working fine when i took it out of the work computer, but it was dead by the time i plugged it in at home, leading to a lot of ranting and raving (well, mostly ranting). it was 6 months into its 2 yr warranty, and luckily both the local distributor and the taiwanese HQ were prompt and helpful with their email replies; managed to get it replaced with a spanking new one off-the-shelf after they determined that they couldn't coax it back to life again. that went on far more smoothly than expected, and im a happy bunny now.. ^^;

also finally decided on my gmail nick. you can now email me at floetry at gmail.com. probably won't integrate the new contact info into the layout of the site - that's a long story. it's not as though im uncomfortable with CSS and stuff (i'm not [uncomfortable]), it's just that im too much of a perfectionist that it's gonna take way too much effort and more time than i have on my hands to really revamp the thing. not to mention that many people don't want me to link to their private blogs. so if i've said it once, i'll say it again, im really sorry i don't link to anyone on this blog.. but if you go back deep enough in the archives i provided a post with the links. ^^;

wow that was a long post. i had a lot to say! anyway i totally adore the Shrek 2 OST now, the good songs on the OST are really good, though the bad ones are downright irritating (for one, i don't like all the Fairy Godmother songs). ranks up there with Baz Luhrmann's R+J OST.

Counting Crows - Accidentally in Love
from the Shrek 2 OST

---

So she said what's the problem baby
What's the problem I don't know
Well maybe I'm in love (love)
Think about it every time
I think about it
Can't stop thinking 'bout it

How much longer will it take to cure this
Just to cure it cause I can't ignore it if it's love (love)
Makes me wanna turn around and face me but I don't know nothing 'bout love

Come on, come on
Turn a little faster
Come on, come on
The world will follow after
Come on, come on
Cause everybody's after love

So I said I'm a snowball running
Running down into the spring that's coming all this love
Melting under blue skies
Belting out sunlight
Shimmering love

Well baby I surrender
To the strawberry ice cream
Never ever end of all this love
Well I didn't mean to do it
But there's no escaping your love

These lines of lightning
Mean we're never alone,
Never alone, no, no

Come on, Come on
Move a little closer
Come on, Come on
I want to hear you whisper
Come on, Come on
Settle down inside my love

Come on, come on
Jump a little higher
Come on, come on
If you feel a little lighter
Come on, come on
We were once
Upon a time in love

We're accidentally in love
Accidentally in love (x7)

Accidentally

I'm In Love, I'm in Love,
I'm in Love, I'm in Love,
I'm in Love, I'm in Love,
Accidentally (X 2)

Come on, come on
Spin a little tighter
Come on, come on
And the world's a little brighter
Come on, come on
Just get yourself inside her

Love ...I'm in love

---

sometimes the more you run away from something the more it just keeps coming back, whether you like it or not. just like (*sigh*) public transport. its not true that i don't take it at all. just not often enough to constitute an easy familiarity with the system, especially buses, since i no longer refer to the bus guide. heck, most of my friends drive whereever they wanna go, though when it comes to expo the car should either be left at home or parked somewhere really far away. whatever it is, ive decided that i need to lug the pocket mighty minds around with me when i go out, it's not just for drivers anymore.

(my sixth sense of navigation works a lot better when i have a map to recognise telltale landmarks and orientate...)

on radio now: Morcheeba's "What New York Couples Fight About". haven't heard that in a long while, it's just as good as the first time i heard it. respect. ^^; also cool: Nick Holder & Gemini - "No More Dating DJs". wicked tongue-in-cheek look at DJ culture..

timestamp: anonymous 13:37 0 comments