Serendipity

Why don’t I feel hungry even when I’ve not eaten for the whole day? Woke up at 4pm though.

The mind’s a blank.

It has been only 4 days, yet it feels like a hell long time. Hmm.

Soon Baby
I will cry my last tear
Soon yeah
I will be over you
Soon darlin’
All these tears wont be here
Soon yeah

Soon oh yeah

*****

Which is better to think? That you should be happy for the someone you care for? Or feel hurt that he or she is happier without your presence?

The song describes exactly how I feel right now. Was talking to a friend who faced the same predicament on the phone just now, and she asked me how come I keep laughing away. Perhaps my brain has mixed up the way to express myself.

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Today at work, I overheard a colleague talking on the phone. He was talking about a certain rude word, "minge", that has almost the same meaning as CB in Hokkien.

So local authorities like MDA [Media Development Authority] screens out those overt vulgarities like "damn" and "f***" yet leave words like "minge" uncut.

It also signifies that different people find different things offensive. If you’re unaware of the-four-letter-word-that-means-fornication’s meaning, you wouldn’t find it offensive.

What a trail of thought. Quite interesting notion anyway.

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Don’t you just abhor it when someone gives you things to do when you’re already 10 minutes late for lunch with a lunch partner? It was already 12.40pm, and I was halfway done with my things, so I rushed through it, only to be given work before I left. Sigh.

I don’t understand why I couldn’t be told those instructions after lunch.

What’s more infuriating is that at 11.20am, I passed documents for that someone to sign, yet that someone took a glance at it, and asked me to pass it after lunch.

If 40 minutes before lunch, you do not wish to receive stuffs, please understand that I do not appreciate an "order" after 40 minutes into lunch time. I’ve been going to lunch quite late recently!

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Something just came to mind when I was travelling on the way home. The best way to test the friendships of 2 best friends, is to add a guy [of their type] between them, and see how they deal with it.

I should have known better. I recognise that look.

Anyway, it was my involuntary reaction to shake it off. I don’t wish to be manipulated, and all those would only make me more confused.

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It’s funny how listening to sad songs make me laugh. I have the urge to binge on food.

qiang yan huan xiao bing fei wo de zhuan chang, dan xian zai que cheng wei le wo de "zhuan li".

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Lunch partner is on a diet, and isn’t eating lunch, but still meet up with me for lunch. So sweet! Though we may have many differences about the way we think, but still, better to have a lunch partner than none.

And today we went Giant in search for some Malaysian food stuffs. It’s amazing how childish we got, from choosing "cuttlefish strips" snack that gave out free stickers. Initially, she saw one without stickers, and later when we walked past another lane [or alley?], we saw a different brand, that included stickers!

Happily, we started choosing what kind of stickers we wanted, and even took out the whole bunch to get to the back of the tray. In the end we bought the one with Pooh Bear [2 different designs though].

Haha, quite stupid right? But I think it keeps the mind sane doing childish things once in a long while. =)

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I noticed that around 5 groups of people have asked me out since the "news", to which most of them don’t know yet.

CPF ex-colleagues: KTV outing in July
A buddy [Sec School]: Watch Batman
Another buddy [JC]: KTV outing in a few hours’ time
Friends from JC Chinese Orchestra: KTV outing in July

I think that’s about it. But don’t think I’m going to all 3 KTV outings. Too expensive! Haha.

Nothing much to post, so I shall post pictures.

I love this game. You’re a bus driver, and you kill kids to earn points before the police arrives. It’s kind a psychopathic (heck the spelling), but it’s a fun game. Nice for those who are in the midst of learning how to drive, or those who has just gotten their license. Haha.

This poster looks very 3-Dimensional? It is! Found it quite nice! It’s a "statue" standing outside Carrefour, Suntec.

Everytime I board this shuttle bus to work, I feel like I’m going on a trip to Genting or somewhere far. Sigh. Think no chance to go already.

This photo shows the stairs. And there’s only the top layer where passengers are seated. Not sure what’s below though. It’s a very luxurious and spacious coach bus!!

Mini pantry! We even have our private pantry services aunty! She refills the translucent water bottle with water from the water cooler, and for the blue and green flasks, they contain tap water, for pouring into the flask to boil.

At the top right side of the picture, that’s where the cups and utensils are kept.

Bottom right of the pic is where pantry supplies like biscuits, cookies, etc are kept. Bottom left of the pic is where the packet drinks and tissue papers are kept.

Quite cool right? Not having to walk one big round outside to get water? Hehe. I’m seated on the left side of the coffee maker (left of pic).

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Wonder if I can have the best of both worlds? Sigh. Singled out.

Nice montage!

I love this series of photos! Please click to get a bigger view and to do it justice! Hehe.

I’ve had Monday blues since Sunday afternoon and now I don’t even realise that my MSN’s not on! Haha. So funny.

I used to have this strange behaviour of mine, to forget [bad] stuffs that happened the previous night. Call it a bliss, because I was told that if you cannot forgive and forget, a lousy memory would help you to forget [bad] stuffs and naturally everything will blow over.

I was jolted from my pleasant dreamland [I was buying a black sling bag with strips of red!] by Miss Nokia Customer Care at 3.30pm today. I slept a little over 10 hours? After 18 days, I’m finally able to collect my [new] memory card! Yay!

The lucky and usual me would have woken up, and spend a while to lull and then realise that I would have forgotten stuffs which had made me so angry or upset, and thought to myself whether all those negative feelings were worth it [the bad health]?

So peeps, the next time you anger me or made me upset, the first thing you must ensure to do, is to knock me unconscious. And thereafter I’ll be having a more positive mood.

However, it was a totally different thing this afternoon. After sleeping for so long, I am ashamed to say that it was a different story from the usual me and my usual weird behaviour.

Feeling irritated about the incompletion of the [shopping] dream, I had suddenly flashbacks from the day before. I woke up in tears.

I wonder why? It must be the nice bags! Haha.

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Watched "Unleashed" yesterday with Bb and Gina. It was so derogatory to treat a human being like a dog [But I love dogs though!], that it was no wonder that China banned the show.

They didn’t like their Jet Li to wear that dog collar! I seldom read the papers, hence this piece of information was provided by Bb. Hehe.

It’s a little bit funny this feeling inside
I’m not one of those who can easily hide
I don’t have much money but boy if I did
I’d buy a big house where we both could live

*****

I was a total wreck on Saturday, so much so that I’m quite numb now. Don’t know how to put that in words, so I’ll skip it all.

Is it true that the longer you know a person, the easier it is for him or her to lose patience towards you?

That was uncalled for.

My lunch partner is a well-spoken lady and knows a lot about nutrition and the like.

Since we were on the topic of nutrition and dieting, she suddenly brought in a topic that being a vegetarian is better for health, for slimming down and also for looking young. The rationale she got, was derived from a colleague of hers who had just given birth and regained her figure only after 2-3 months [and she looks young!].

No doubt that changing to a diet without meat may bring in better health [provided you find other sources for nutrients and eat healthily], but the rationale was somehow haywired, in my opinion. I pointed out that there might be other factors which contributed to her regaining her slimness in such a short time. Like she might have exercised regularly, or she has a special diet.

Brought in the examples of people I know who are vegetarians but somehow, not able to control the speed of them losing weight and such.

Her point was that those vegetarians still take in processed food and fried beehoon, and only strict vegetarians are the ones who eat more healthily. My knowledge of strict vegetarians, are those who do not take eggs and milk, or any dairy products at all.

So I guess, all in all, it still depends on one’s diet, not whether you are a vegetarian or not. I mean, someone who takes meat without taking the skin, and take only organic foods and etc, is considered as having a healthy diet. And a vegetarian who takes in processed foods aren’t eating that healthily, right?

Doesn’t that mean that slimness and being a vegetarian does not link up directly, but rather, more directly related to having a healthy diet? Like what she mentioned earlier, that eating food with a lot proteins and little carbohydrates is the key to losing weight and such, because proteins burn off carbohydrates [anyone please tell me how true this is? I'm interested to find out!].

I don’t think she’s a vegetarian, but her whole family is, and she mentioned how they did research before deciding to become vegetarians. Good for them, because they are responsible enough to find out more information before deciding to become vegetarians by mere "rationale" or "belief".

Her idea is, that if you are a vegetarian and you eat healthily, you will have good health [and meat is not necessary]. My point is, that if you keep to a healthy diet and exercise regularly, it doesn’t really matter if you are a vegetarian or not.

In any case, I tried to soften my approach, and told her that vegetarians who eat healthily might also need extra nutrients that are found only in meat. If not, there are the supplements they need to take in, in order to sustain their vegetarian diet.

She disagreed promptly, and said that there are things like yellow beans which contain most of the minerals and nutrients that the body needs, and thus, meat is really unnecessary.

My knowledge was that every food is different from one another and would not have identical combination of nutrients and minerals, thus the need for supplements if you really cannot find the nutrient that is only available in meat.

She added that although meat might have nutrients that non-meat foods have, the nutrients may not be necessary for the body to function.

Too bad I don’t have enough reading to substantiate my argument, but later back in the office, I googled for my answers.

And it’s true enough that we don’t need to eat meat if [and it's a big if] we know how to choose other foods to get the nutrients that meats usually provide.

Protein:
We humans need 22 amino acids to build our own body proteins - muscle, bone, and other tissues. Of those 22, we can make all except 8 (9 for children). We need to eat foods which contain these "essential amino acids" - and animal proteins do. Plant proteins contain some amino acids, but no plant on its own has enough of the essential amino acids. We need to know how to combine them at a meal to get enough protein. Good combinations include rice with legumes; cornmeal with beans; wheat with beans; peanuts with wheat.

Zinc:
This mineral is needed for proper growth. Red meats are the best source of zinc. Grains have small amounts of zinc, but it is not well absorbed because we have to separate it out from the plant structure. Studies show that North Americans may not be getting enough zinc in our diets. It makes sense to eat foods that we know are a good source, like red meats.

B Vitamins:
(Riboflavin, thiamine, niacin) These have a role in helping our muscle tissue utilize the energy from food; so it’s not surprising that animal muscle should be a good source. Whole grains are also important sources of B vitamins.

Vitamin B-12:
Its role is essential for our body cells, particularly red blood cells, to divide and grow. There are no plant sources of vitamin B-12; so those not consuming animal proteins must take a supplement.

[source]

Those which I have highlighted in orange, are statements that substantiate my argument, that our body needs to have certain nutrients in meat that either cannot be found in other non-meat, or are not as well-absorbed when they are from non-meat sources.

I mean I understand where she was coming from, that eating vegetarian does have its own pros and it could be a healthier choice [provided you eat healthily and are informed of alternatives to meat-nutrients].

But everything has its pros as well as its cons. Meat-eating should never be attributed to having "bad discpline" [for instance, I'm someone who won't be disciplined enough to refrain from eating meat]!

That’s why I said you need to know other sources of those nutrients [only found in meat] or else you should really complement your diet with supplements.

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This entry is not meant to be offensive, by the way, just that it was interesting to talk about such information and to exchange them. No offence to my lunch partner, to vegetarians and meat-lovers alike. Just my two cents’ worth.

I’m not sure whether this is always the case, but outspoken and well-spoken people tend to speak their mind promptly, and they are really persuasive in the manner they bring out their argument.

I’m the exact opposite, I think through what I want to say [for a tad too long sometimes] and say it, and I might have already lost the timing!

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Anyway, Victor’s [at Marina Square] was quite well worth the money, $6.70 for lunch that’s inclusive of a drink. The price is after 10% service charge, 5% prevailing GST!

You pay more for Yoshinoya, and other fast food restaurants, and they don’t provide service at all! Haha. So this justifies. =P

The Channel U new program, Project Superstar was a big hit when it launched its first "episode" yesterday night at 8.30pm.

While there are no statistics to prove that it was a big success on its "launch", the number of mobile text messages that transpired between me and my friends, me and ex-colleagues, could last a person enough money for a day’s meals.

As you roll your eyeballs to show that white, gross, underside of your eyes, seemingly to tell me how exaggerated I have sound, I am tempted to link the URL of that CPF ex-colleague who took part in the said program, Project Superstar.

Together with her superb dance moves, trained vocals and good looks, she tried to impress the judges, but nonetheless, the show placed an emphasis on singing rather than dance moves. Kudoes to her bravery! Her clip was placed alongside those who dance more than sing at the competition.

Sadly, she didn’t manage to get into the second round. But it was still a shock to see her standing there, with her bright eyes and trained moves. Yes, I have seen her dance in person myself, and she was quite generous with the way she relaxed and performed for us.

Being a person who enjoys singing as well, I sincerely wish her all the best! If you happen to see this, you know who you are!

I’ve noticed that a lot of people can sing quite well, it was nervousness that brought them their unsuccessful attempt towards stardom. Main thing in this contest, don’t overdo things.

And stop saying, "Sorry, I’m very nervous…" to the judges. They have heard it over 4000 times, and everyone out there IS nervous. Be the one who is confident enough to stand out from the rest of those jittery human beans [beings]!

A contender had trouble opening the door after her short stab at stardom, and her hands were shaking non-stop. Although this show is very much like the Mandarin version of Singapore "Idle", their target is a potential star. Someone with the X-factor and can sing really well.

They did not focus much [if any at all] on the judges. So it’s kind of a good thing.

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Speaking of Friendster, I think I’m doing many people "injustice", in the sense that I stopped halfway after writing testimonials for the first part of the alphabet.

And a good friend’s new testimonial reminded me that I do need to go on. In the first place, I should have only wrote testimonials for different groups of people and not alphabetically. Anyhow, I hope she would not feel left out, it’s a mistake on my part though. =)

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My topics are somehow inter-related. You’ve always heard of how most people think children have more creativity than grown-ups because they are not restricted in terms of what they should or should not do, or in terms of a specific image to portray.

The other day I watched a variety show, where a child sang his favourite song loudly before he was being asked to.

People would expect lesser of a kid than an adult. A minor do not get the same punishments in the eye of the law when crimes are committed.

Is [young] age an excuse for juvenile delinquency? Though fairy tales only portray the extremes of either good or evil, the child would be furnished the grey area of how good people can have a bad character, and vice versa. I seem to be talking in riddles, but this is a random topic.

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I don’t know how true it is, but does one of your senses get weakened as the other gets "deminished"? My understanding is that usually the senses are piped up when any one of the rest gets weakened.

Like how a visually impaired person would have better hearing than the common man, and so on.

However, my senses seem to be quite closely linked when they work. The other day I was waiting for my feeder when a dainty, and petite girl poked me in my left arm. I was unaware.

I could somehow see her looking in my direction from the corner of my eye, but I was happily listening to my radio station to bother too much about strangers.

It turned out that she wanted to exchange shillings with me, and ever since I had a coin pouch, I seem to carry more coins than usual, and her luck was with her. She didn’t sound local though.

I want to learn French. =/ No, I’m not saying that the girl was French! Haha, it’s unrelated.

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Owner is waiting to be fined! It’s a Wednesday evening, and it is barely 6pm! Weekend cars are not allowed on the roads between 7am till 7pm on Mondays to Fridays!!

Saw this red car somewhere in town on a Wednesday evening, in broad daylight! It was 5.30pm when I left the office today, and it was not even 6pm when I saw the red car with the red license plate!

The owner must have felt that the plate colour was less noticeable as it could almost camouflage in with the car’s body. Haha.

A weekend car seems to be a real bargain for car-owners-to-be who travels between 7pm to 7am on weekdays, and the whole day during weekend.

It is a crime for the car to travel on public roads outside of that time frame!!

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The journey home is coupled with a lot of weird things, especially on public transport. I was stuck with the sudden notion of sending messages to strangers via my phone’s bluetooth, and my phone searched around for other bluetooth devices.

Indeed, there were 3 of them whose bluetooth were on, and unhidden! I’ve heard that Bluetooth drains battery faster, and you wouldn’t want people to disturb your network without permission, right?

So it’s kind of surprising that they kept it on all the time.

Imagine if my phone’s name was something like this: "A GHOST wants to befriend you"! I’m kidding, it’s too long a name anyway. Brushed off the idea after a split-second or more.

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Ladies, tell me if this shirt’s design make you feel irritated? It has a mild connotation of being demeaning to the female gender!!!

Saw this T-shirt design when I was on the feeder. Do any ladies feel offended, somehow? Does it make you knit your eyebrows!?

In case you are not sure, it is a graphic representation of a mathematical formula, where a guy + scissors = a girl.

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Excuse me, I have to write some Friendster testimonials now. =D

Life is fragile. It only takes 2 minutes [or less] to end a person’s life. He can be tough, he can have the strongest willpower, but once his fate is sealed, he has to move to a new world.

Think landslides. Those people who were trapped in it, dies within seconds or minutes. The smartest of all beings, or so we claimed, human beings depend a lot on nature, the air we breathe in, the water we take in, and etc.

Last night, I heard a real-life story from my Dad. He was about to hand a little token in Ringgits to his friend, who was rushing back to KL to attend to his brother’s funeral. He was diagnosed with cancer and was only a little above sixty.

The man [father's friend] lost his eldest daughter to cancer earlier this year and she was at the tender age of 22. Graduated from poly, she worked for a couple of months, once she fainted and later discovered that she had cancer, but it was too late to be treated.

How many would have the courage to live on if they had to survive such ordeals in barely 6 months apart? He attended my Grandma’s wake some months back, and it being Chinese New Year period, few came as "friends".

Heard from my Dad that it was life’s bliss to be able to befriend a friend like him. I wouldn’t know just how much he has done to have that title labelled onto himself, but I sure know that if someone feels so grateful to you for what you have done throughout his or her life, you are indeed a friend, a family friend.

Anyhow, this true story gives us some insight to how life’s minute details shouldn’t be taken too seriously. Why feel suicidal when you’ve lost someone in a relationship to another? It should be time to come to grips with it when that person is happily married with kids, that it should have occurred to you that she was meant to be with him after all.

Let’s all be stronger, and take the happier approach to life. After all, I quote the cliched phrase, "Life’s too short"!

On a lighter tone, I’ve got my [office] Internet access back! Or have I already mentioned that in my earlier post? Anyhow, I couldn’t get my lazy, fat arse moving [okay, now the tune from Madagascar keeps ringing] and do some constructive things. Basically, I repaid my sleep debts this weekend, and stared into blank space.

Not too bad a weekend I say? Haha. =) Mood ain’t too good lately. Hope the start of a new week’s going to be better. =) Wish me luck.

"Some people can be so rude as to switch off your telly while you are watching it with interest and intense. They don’t realise they seldom practise what they preach."

*****

On a lighter spirit-lifting tone, Gina came to accompany me for lunch the other day [was it Wednesday?].

We went Marina Square Foodloft, and the place is getting ready with all the shops opening. I can’t really recognise Marina Square anymore. Have not been to the upper floors, but hope they don’t change too much, otherwise it’ll be hard for me to relate to it.

Nice decor!

Have been wanting to take a photo of the nice colour-changing lamps above Centre Stage, but had no prior chance because lunch time was a rush when I was dining with Joleen and her colleagues because of their time constraints.

Blue! Is this nicer?

I reckon if you take a video of the changing colours, it might be better than stills. Because in my pictures, the stills are showing lamps of the same shades and colour, but in actual fact, they are much more colourful!

Took a picture together with Gina and edited it a little.

Who says you need neoprint machines to create this effect? This is NOT a toilet, contrary to your thinking!

I was playing with the brushes with the above picture. I discovered a new way to edit photos in a more natural way.

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Another day, I was on the train. There was this lady who used her long, dyed hair to cover her face while she acted oddly. She split her tresses into two, and place them in front of her chest [yes, it's that long] and then took a nap or something. I tried to take a photo of that lady, but my phone restarted on the first try, and had this red patch on her on the second try. It was bone-chilling, I tell you!

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Today, I ate Yong Tau Foo again. But what is happier to know, is that after lunch, I realised that my Internet connection was up again! After nearly 2 weeks of waiting and relentless enquiring, I finally can surf the net during office hours [when I have absolutely nothing to do, so technically speaking, it does not amount to skiving]!

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Earlier on today, I was on my way to buy my own dinner. I saw this Mother cat with 3 or 4 cute kittens which were pretty scared of me [no kitten is too trusting of a stranger]. I lowered myself and gave the mother cat a little massage!

I wanted to take a photo of the kittens, but they ran away. Either that, or they would run behind the pillar, and make it too dark for the camera to take a photo of them!

But I did manage to give one of those kittens a rub with the Mother’s supervision, of course. She had to protect the little bouncy kitty. Below’s a picture [apologies for the poor quality, it was taken in the dark] of the Mother Cat.