awol

haha it's a true sign of how dead/un-unpdated your blog is when you forget your userid to log in!

sigh, this month is the start of a particularly leceh and yet exciting, worrying time... yup. it's time for pupilage applications.
ugh.
if only it were more user-friendly and you could just get everything in your mailbox like they do all the time in law school.

and to whoever started the whole run down and hand submit your CVs at law firms on the first day nonsense, i have this to say:

MAY THE FLEAS OF A THOUSAND SEA-SICK REINDEER INFEST YOUR GENITALS. AND NOT JUST NORMAL FLEAS, FLESH EATING, PUS-INDUCING, FLEAS.

oh well, guess it could be worse. although i don't see how at the very moment.

that said here's a scenario brought about by exciting dinner the other nite.

if you were at a hawker centre/coffee shop, looking for a table, and some random drunk (or maybe he was just having a bad day) slapped your mom for no particular reason, would you:

a) slap him back
b) beat him into a pulp
c) offer him a high 5 (no, not the australia kids' show) and a 'wait to go! dude'
d) just stare daggers at him, call the police and try to ensure he doesn't run for it

ok disclaimer. it wasn't my mom, in case u were wondering. and the family involved went for option d.

now except for all u people who hate your moms, i'm guessing that it would be option a or b that you'd pick?

honestly i'd like to think i'd cripple the bastard. but hey, paul tells me that chainsaws don't solve all problems. bah pacifists. haha.

let's get a poll going people.

reality tv and luck

it has been a bad run of reality tv endings for me the past couple of weeks.

first, in Survivor (which i only started following in the last 5 or so episodes), the contestant i was rooting for got knocked out of the final 4 because of some lame fire-building contest because there was a tie in votes.

then, came the hippies winning the Amazing Race. don't get me wrong, i think they're people i could spend time with and have a good time. but it seems to me like they won alot based on luck. escaping elimination twice, generally sucking in challenges and stuff, they really seemed to have won by sheer luck. well i didn't manage to catch the finale so if they really kicked ass then more power to them, but i really would have prefered to see a team that had been consistently performing well win the race.

so let me digress here into a little side rant. why is it that 'good guys' always seem to need a little bit of luck to win the day? when it really comes to the crunch, to the penultimate moment, it always seems in fiction and sometimes reality, that the nice guys need some element of luck or final push to win.

i'll take the example of lord of the rings (movie here didn't read the books). when frodo finally reaches mt doom with the ring and his erstwhile companion he's faced with a choice: throw the ring into the hot, steamy volcano; or put it on and become a servant of evil and trample middle earth beneath his tiny, hairy feet.

so there he is, defining moment and all. on the crux of perhaps what is the most important decision in the history of middle earth (well save the time some dumbass human king has to make the same decision a couple centuries back). and what happens? the decision is taken out of his hands.

yes that's right, the ugly blobby thing comes flying out of nowhere, bites off his finger and leaps straight into mt doom.

wow. so much for heroism. so if i'm frodo i'm thinking, i flee from my village, get stabbed by black robed ghosty things, get into some seriously bad shite with this fat ass lackey of mine, nearly end up spider food and here i am with my big moment. and Oops. i guess i don't have to make that universe altering decision after all.

booooorrring.

in contrast let's compare this to other fictional 'bad guys' since a comparision with actualy 'villains' in history may make this post offensive. take superman's nemesis lex luthor. he's ruthless, intelligent and builds his empire through planning, strategy and cunning. there is no whoops superman just happened to fall in the path of my incredible destructo beam. villains have to actually work hard to achieve their aims. heroes on the other hand seem to hold the favour of lady luck in getting out of tight spots.

rant over.

anyway, to round off a series of bad reality tv endings (well i didn't really mind aras winning Survivor), now the final 2 for american idol are catherine and that freak of a semi-retard. not to be offensive but i can't help myself. he's a freak and a semi-retard.

admittedly he sings decently, but would it have been so hard to have an eliott and catherine finale?

worst of all i have a sneaking suspicion that he might win. and sadly if that happens i belive this will be another season where the runner up(s) overshadow the winner. (rueben-who? anyone?)

bah. how frustrating. perhaps it's time i rehashed my puke-green ribbon campaign. i think my kharma points just hit an all time low after that post.

cults

before i go on topic, would just like to say that it's been so long since i last blogged that i initially forgot my userid and password. yeah been pretty remiss about updating but well what's a guy to do when he gets writer's blog (sorry bad pun) and nothing really interesting or exciting happens.

anyway, watched csi tonite abt some suicidal cult started by a conman to cheat young, impressionable college students into giving him money on the belief that they would transcend their physical shells and be invited to a better place. he wasn't the killer. haha

why do people buy into this stuff? i mean gangs, drugs, secret societies, sure i can understand a lonely kid wanting to find a family that he or she doesn't have. but to somehow convince urself that a great spaceship will come down and take your spirit to a better place is just whack! my apologies to tom cruise. it's just plain dumb.

now i may be toeing the line on religious sensitivity here, so please don't seditionize me.

i mean why a spaceship? i mean if u really think about it the only reason why something like that would hold someone's attention, what more adoration and worship, would be because of the mystery of space. the unknown of what's out there. that said, i put it to you that i could set up a religion based entirely on say the great toaster oven of the sea or the divine blender of alpha centauri.

yeah i can see it now. boys and girls, before man had processed food and crsipy bread he lived a sad, culinarily-deprived existence. then one day arose from the depths of the ocean the great toaster oven of the sea. his message was simple: bread that was not only pleasantly warm but also crisp. the benevolent toaster of the sea brought new joy. never before had garlic bread or kaya toast tasted this wonderful, this revolutionary. all he required was obedience and worship.

but man grew greedy. he demanded more. he wanted to cook without fire. he turned to other gods. he placed his faith in the pagan microwave. and a great sadness filled the toaster oven of the sea. and so he left the poeple that he had come to love. his bulk once again sank beneath the waves, far, far below. no one knows where he went, for his body was able to sustain pressures beyond anything the humans had invented.

but hope was not lost for he had left these words of wisdom with his last 12 devotees, men of faith and integrity. he said "my children, you have gone astray and made me sad. i can no longer live among people who worship the evil of the microwave. therefore i must depart forsooth and hitherto. nonetheless i will return henceforth and bring new glory to breads everywhere. and my blessings up pastries shall be as the ocean covers like fish and stuff."

and he was gone.

and so his faithful followers went forth to spread the word. that indeed one day the great toaster oven of the sea would return and his return would be a 'shining chandalier, gloriously illuminating'1 the bread industry.

well that's all i have for now. hopefully i can continue to keep writing stuff here or it'll be pretty pointless to have a blog at all. take care all.

seacrest out.

1 Thanks to Prof Thio Li-Ann for this incredibly funny quote.

Chinese Blah Year

well far be it from me to be ungrateful, after all there have been a spate of good things that have happened pre-CNY, like i passed my driving. big relief there. and this sem seems to be passing by extremely rapidly, which is a thrill but somewhat distressing. but then CNY seemed to just come and go with nary a splash.

maybe it's symptomatic of growing older, but all the razzle dazzle holidays and festivities just don't seem as bright and wonderful as before. christmas, new year, cny, they've all seemed to have lost their sparkle.

whatever happened to the hmmm for lack of better term 'hallmark' warmth and fuzziness you're supposed to feel around these times? now they just seem to be another day, another day not to come to school or work, maybe to go out and also to relax.

oh well back to the usual school grind. until the next time whenever that might be...

tunnel at the end of the light

one useful thing about black nails is that people tend to leave you alone. like every seat in the bus will be filled before someone sits next to you, and when they do it's with no small amount of trepidation. i'm pleased.

u know how people who have near death experiences always talk about seeing a light at the end of a tunnel? well what about babies, that almost get born and then get shoved back in? do they complain to the other embryoes (sp?) 'whao dude, i like just saw this huge field of light and then the warm tunnel called me back and here i am. that was close dudes.'

first, yes, it's a well known fact that all babies are inherently american. it's just that when one is born one gets socialised into whatever society one is born into and loses the american accent. it also explains why many, many singaporeans attempt to regain this womb nationality, with various degrees of success. go ahead and listen carefully. as my friends and i have noticed there is always a tell-tale 'acherly' that gives away their game. case in point, none other than our very own vr man, james lye.

i'm beginning to wonder at the point of this post actually (see not acherly - but that's just me being snobbish, oops i mean elitist, must remember to keep s'porean terms after all). bah humbug. i feel disgruntled. it's only really impacted me recently that as an asian male, i will never build a stellar career outside of our sunny shores, unless i strike out on my own. what do i mean? well simply that it seems to me as discrimination goes, asian males are more discriminated against, than females in the ang moh territories. maybe because sociologically, an asian male succeeding is a threat to the virility of the caucasian. maybe it's just that we're annoying yellow skinned buggers with small equipment.

whatever the case is, it means that unless i want to work in a sweat shop, my best chances of building a decent life and having a career where i can feel i'm respected and making a worthwhle contribution is right here. well, not all bad. but i worry about any possible children i may have. see i think our school system is becoming increasingly ridiculous. by the time i have kids, if any, i bet pri 1 math classes will be teaching the theory of relativity, which my lil girl will come home and explain to her dumb dad who can only gawk. and then she probably go into the garden and build a nuclear generator out of 3 barbies and a hair clip.

ah. what a proud dad i will be.

it ain't pretty

so it's a new semester, some things stay the same and some things change.

being split into two groups for equity is an interesting experience. mostly because u see half empty lts, and somehow i prefer that to when we all get packed together. that's just me i suppose, people, especially en masse are somewhat annoying.

that said this sem feels good. call me masochistic, but i feel a charge from being back in the thick of things. feel more in charge, more directed than last sem, where it felt kinda like just drifting thru classes and like school was secondary to everything else.

now school has to be the no. 1 priority. i hate to sound muggerish, but i know i gotta make up for last sem to keep within the 2.1 bracket so i can end up where i wanna end up. think having people who have experience in practice really helps cos at least that gives u some sort of preview of what working with and in the law's gonna be like.

can't wait to start working. both for the disposable income as well as for putting the knowledge that i've been accumulating to good use. hopefully this doesn't sound insulting to arts people, but i honestly feel that what i'm learning now is so much more practical to what i'll be doing than what i did before.

PS was interesting and all, but it never really felt like it was giving me a direction to what i wanted to do, where i wanted to build a career/life. with law, at least there's a sense of purpose, of direction. it's a personal evolution. like i'm not a wide-eyed kid anymore and i know what i want out of life and for once how to get it.

i dunno about you, but it feels like this is the year, the sem, to go out and live life, with passion, with intensity. to squeeze every drop i can out of my remaining time in school, in life. like this is my destiny and woe to anyone who dares to stand in my way...

haha. watch out y'all hurricane andre has arrived.

new year, hopefully new start

in an attempt to get some sort of exercise routine going, some friends and i are gonna be attempting to run/gym at the src on a regular basis in the mornings before our lectures this sem. if u're interested drop me a msg. more people will increase the motivation for everyone to come down.

other than that happy new year. 8 days late.