Serendipity

Very oddly, nowadays I find blogging as a mundane activity that I have to engage in every once in a while. Hence I don’t really blog as frequently as before. Then people will say I’m lazy [which I am], and being the famous procrastinator that I am, it’s alright for me to think in this way [as if]!

Or perhaps because of my job, I go online lesser during the week days. Even if I do go online, it’ll be giving bite-size blog posts instead of one long chunk of interesting stuffs [Not that the stuffs I write are interesting, though].

Few days ago [age has impaired my memory, please bear with me =P], I was watching Zodiac with Yuhui at Lido. Apparently her friend’s friend had complimentary tickets, hence I was being invited! Thanks dear.

Someone was surprised that I went to watch movie at Lido, since I’m starting to frequent JB’s movie theatres for cheap affordable movies. Then she "cheh" when she knew it was complimentary tickets. Hehehe. =P

We went for dinner first before making our way down to Lido, and on the way there, we happened to see Yuhui’s ex. Coincidentally, I used to chat with him online in IRC [without knowing who he was], hence he’s somewhat like an online acquaintance to me. It turned out that all of us bumped into him at the snacks area, and he was watching that show as well, with complimentary tickets.

As soon as I got into the theatre, I knew that some big shot company [something related to MediaCorp] should have booked the whole theatre for the movie screening. Then Liyi [93.3FM DJ] came onstage and greeted the audience, many of which were clad in business suits. Surprisingly, Fann Wong was there, along with Chong Qing [93.3FM DJ], both cast of the show. While Fann did the voice-over for the snake and the mean cat [which didn't get its place in the 12 Zodiac signs], Chong Qing did the Rooster, one of the officials, and something else I can’t remember.

When the screening started, it was akin to some award presentation event, where different people in the audience clapped when the movie credits rolled [they clapped at each company's logo and such].

The animation was pretty good, but I thought the voice-overs were a little overdone. I particularly like the part where they made use of the idea of pop-up cards to do their little skits. The jokes in there were quite good, I just didn’t like the idea of the exaggerated voice-overs.

We watched the Chinese version, which I thought would be more appropriate [not that we had a choice in the first place] since this is about a Chinese tale. =D

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By the way, I’m going overseas [Malacca] to visit my relatives. Will be away from the 28th till 31st of January. If there’s anything urgent, I’m contactable on my mobile. You are welcomed to send me SMSes [to keep me entertained] though.

I doubt I will have any angbaos, not that I’m yearning for much from my Malaysian relatives though. Hehe, since I’ve not been back for 4 years or so. And let’s hope my resolution [to lose weight] would not get thwarted over there with so much good food to binge on. =P

See ya, and have a Happy [Lunar] New Year!

My dear friend Yuhui and I were so bored we started to write a story together by taking turns. Each person would write 5 words each, and below’s the completed story.

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Once upon a time, there were a few kids who love to eat candies and one of them decided to open a shop. One fine day, there was this old man who came into the shop, looking at Elise the popular candy. His eyes widened, and proceeded to rip open Elise Candy. And inside it, he found maggots, worms, hair and coachroaches! Screaming, he dropped the candy and tried to find the boss of the shop. When the boss, Esile appeared. She screamed at the old haggy Silee and said, "Why did you not throw away this damn idiot thing?" Silee slowly replied, "Huh? I cant hear you, speak louder!!!!!!!" Meanwhile, the evil witch Yuhui tried to turn Big Elise, which is a soft toy into a new ELise Candy. This new version would taste like a teddy bear to most kids, but is actually a yucky medicine to most adults.

Few days later, someone complain to Tan Qiao Yen, the most beautiful girl around, accusing her of poisoning the evil witch. A pair of eyes watched and decided to punish the girl, and it turned out that the girl vomited and died the very next moment! -END-

(Okie, so she died. =p) <– This post-note was written by me, because I desperately wanted to end the story! -.-" Hehe.

I must seriously cut down on my expenditure. I am very shocked and perturbed at the rate which I spend money, and the problem is, I hardly know where exactly those money went. =/ Since the day I left Citibank, I spent more than $1.5k in total. Of which some amount was spend on the Malaysia trip [$300], food [$200], transport [$200], nutrition [$200], bills [$100], JB trips [$200], clothes [$200], hairdo [$100] and miscellaneous stuffs [$100].

One and a half months was all it took to spend one and a half months of my previous salary. I spent what I earned!

No one seems to believe me that I’m hardly having savings for myself. People who know the new pay seem to doubt me when I said I’m broke, and that was even before I started work. Now I have to pay $2 to the bank for administrative charges. =/

Anyway, I’m not trying to act poor or anything else, I’m just very disappointed with myself at how I spend money, when in the past I used to be thrifty. =/ Frankly, X-amount is the same no matter how you look at it. Whether it was being increased to X-amount, or being decreased to X-amount, or whether it’s the pay of a degree holder or diploma holder.

Difference lies wherein how the disposable income is being distributed. Henceforth, I shall add one more resolution - to save more money. I must save at least $400 each month from now onwards. I shall put the past behind me. Like what Regina’s aunt said, "Once you’ve spent the money, just leave it… Don’t bother about it. Money is meant to be spent anyway."

Alright, at least I am contributing to the economy’s GDP [while being unemployed], which is good. And this experience gave me an insight to think thrice about changing jobs, since I’ll spend more during my unemployment. -.-"

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On a more positive note, I’ve started work at my new MNC. The colleagues are quite alright I supposed, since I have very little chance to mingle with them. Sitting far away from them makes it hard to talk though.

At least I don’t feel the distinct hierarchy like I’ve felt back in my old company. Let’s hope I’ll be happier working here, despite the distance being a killer [feeder, train, followed by shuttle]. On lucky days I’ll get to go home in one hour flat. On unlucky days I’ll take nearly 1.5 hours.

Well, I’m more or less enjoying the workload here for now, since I only need to concentrate on the upcoming conference, and nothing else. =D

My boss, upon seeing my draft slogans and logos, said, "Wah, not bad, I think we employed the right person!" I only smiled, and she continued, "I’m not trying to stress you, by the way…"

The only not so smooth part about this job is that I am still new, I know nothing about the operations of my company as well as my department, transport is not fun at all, and that face-to-face communication is not easily accessible.

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Went to watch Memoirs of a Geisha last Saturday at JB with my babes Meifang and Yuhui. It’s better than I expected, because I was rather disappointed that a lot of characters didn’t get mentioned in the spoiler [which I've read a few days prior to the movie].

Highly recommended. =) I like Gong Li’s approach to her role, it totally kickassed! And Mameha seems to be a Fairy Godmother in disguise, no? Or maybe it’s the Chairman who’s the Fairy God mother Father. One far-fetched thing was that the Chairman never looked older even when Chiyo grew up to become Sayuri.

Sayuri had another danna [sugar-daddy in present terms] prior to her "engagement" with the Chairman, but he was being unmentioned in the movie.

My first time to watch movies adapted from books, and it feels great! Hehe.

Buying clothes in JB for CNY was supposed to be on our itinerary, but ended up Yuhui was the only one who bought. I had to lug my Singapore purchase [2 skirts] around though! O_O

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Looking forward to going Malacca next Saturday!

If you stream music on your blog or website, you’ll scream your head off when someone issues you a bill of $1,000.

BLOGGERS who stream the latest hits to their websites will not be able to do this for free any longer.

Announcing this yesterday, Dr Edmund Lam, chief executive officer of the Composers and Authors Society of Singapore (Compass), said: "Currently, the trend is that we see an increasing number of bloggers that copy music into their web pages without obtaining the legitimate corporate licenses."

[Read more]

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It’s not all bad, actually. For people armed with snail-speed computers, it’s good news to know that you can now surf that favourite webpage or blog [without the existence of background music], without having to worry about your laggy computer. =)

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On a lighter note however, I was at NTU last evening, supporting Claire in her EEE Superstar competition in my own little way. I was holding complimentary tickets, and queued up at the counter [long queue, a la Hello Kitty style], but later realised that complimentary tickets holders, need not queue at all, but instead just need to enter from another entrance. -.-" Waste time leh!

There were 8 contestants, but they had intervals for every 2 performances by the contestants. Simply put, a dance was performed after every 2 contestants had their go at grabbing the mic. Yeah, the faulty mic. But it didn’t diminish the first contestant’s [his name is Lee Hin, whom Claire said was her idol!] singing prowess. =)

Everyone sang pretty well, but there’s no WOW factor that made me go "OMG! She’s got the singer’s voice!" Or something equivalent. Everyone was good, but there’s seemingly no explosive factor in anyone’s voice at all.

Anyway, it was an interesting experience, because the "boring" [as labelled by most people] engineering students were such jokers when it comes to playtime. They implemented a live SMS chat, where students would be able to send in their SMSes for them to be displayed on the screen. If I relate what some of those messages were, it’ll prolly not be half as interesting [must be there to find it funny!]. So I’ll leave it as that, but there were more sabotages than anything else. =P

Then we were informed that there was SMS voting, and no judges. -.-" The thing about 100% judging by the audience, is that the results will tend to be skewed towards the side of unfairness. Unless you’re one of the appended types:

1. You’re Mr/Ms Popular (with half the audience in the auditorium as your friends)
2. You’re Mr/Ms Cutie Pie (naturally people will vote for you, since they’ll be too mesmerised with you to care about other contenders)
3. You’re Mr/Ms Singer (you are a true blue singer, one verse from a song is enough to WOW your audience to drop their jaws or whatever)
4. You’re Mr/Ms Filthy Rich (you get your 20 domestic helpers to vote for you, WITHOUT having to be physically there at the competition)

You’ll confirm win if you fall into more than one of the above categories. =) Incidentally, I heard that the winner, contestant number 8, didn’t have most of his friends physically there. He texted his non-available friends what number to vote for, and that’s all it takes.

Nonetheless, Claire enjoyed herself and the experience, that’s what counts, isn’t it? Winning isn’t that important, if you have learnt something from the experience. =D

Anyway, Kelly Poon was there as a guest performer, and she sang 4 songs, one of which was from her new album. I must say that although she needs more stage performing practice, her singing was superb. That’s the difference of a trained voice.

The last time I was at TalentQuest 2005 [at NUS] as part of the audience, the contenders sang much better than the guest performers [Mimi & Gu-Er]. -.-"

Damn. I miss those times. =/ Sign me up for TalentQuest, anyone? Kidding.

It’s Friday the 13th, and I’ve just woken up from my little nap from 3 in the afternoon, till 11 in the night. Do I hear a gasp from you? =P

Anyway, just the other day I was reading Memoirs of a Geisha at TheMovieSpoiler, and I finally understood why Harry Potter fans were a little disappointed with the Goblet of Fire movie episode.

I would still have to watch the actual show for its wonderful [?] cinematography and terrific [?] casting though. Initially I have forgotten bits and pieces of the story in the book. But after reading the spoiler, I actually recalled certain plots and scenes, but which were not being included in the movie. =/

The movie seems a little short, and characters which were somehow important, were played down. An example would be Mr. Nobu, who was the principal character in Sayuri’s [previously named Chiyo before becoming an apprentice Geisha] life. I’m seriously contemplating watching a downloaded version of the movie instead of watching it at the cinemas.

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The title suggests that I’ve only less than 3 days to my actual start work date, and I’m freaking out, really. =/

Dropped by at Queenstown today, and took bus 51 to Jurong East interchange. Just wanted to confirm where to take the bus [since that time I took taxi from Queenstown to attend the interview] to reach Saint Andrew’s JC, which is opposite Alexandra Technopark. But too bad I didn’t find out where to take the shuttle bus. Hmm.

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Have been very hooked on Yahoo! Auctions. Somehow or rather, it’s causing a hole in my pocket before I start work. -.-" Gotta stop being such a spendthrift. Bah.

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Later today [Friday the 13th], I’ll be watching Claire [from IguanaMobile] sing in the finals at her EEE Superstar in NTU. =D How I wish to take part in schools’ Talentimes and small scale competitions all over again. =/ All the best, Claire!

P/S: A month that starts on a Sunday, will have Friday the 13th.

You Are 23 Years Old [Quiz courtesy of Yuhui]

Under 12: You are a kid at heart. You still have an optimistic life view - and you look at the world with awe.

13-19: You are a teenager at heart. You question authority and are still trying to find your place in this world.

20-29: You are a twentysomething at heart. You feel excited about what’s to come… love, work, and new experiences.

30-39: You are a thirtysomething at heart. You’ve had a taste of success and true love, but you want more!

40+: You are a mature adult. You’ve been through most of the ups and downs of life already. Now you get to sit back and relax.

What’s your age?

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How apt. I’m 23 going on 24, with backeggs and tummyeggs as my recently acquainted pals. Help.

Why would people draft up resolutions if they don’t intend to keep them? I’ve never had the habit of doing up resolutions, yet this year’s pretty special, in a way that I feel that I do have to work towards some of my goals. Hence the entry for today. =P

Happy New Year! Spent the last day of the new year playing Mahjong, with me winning many rounds of the games, despite the rest of the peeps calling my wins "beginner’s luck". =P No money involved though.

Can’t believe I’m 24. 24. TWENTY-FREAKING-FOUR! Gone are the days where I’ll be able to get away with it by saying "I’ve got youth to waste what", or something to that effect. *sulk*

I think I’ve said it a number of times, but I’m gonna mention it yet again. Usually people born in the first part of the year will tend to think of themselves as being a year older once the previous year ends. Whereas for the peeps born in the later part of the year, they would think of themselves as being a year older, only when their birthdays arrive.

So by December 2005, I’ve already started to convince myself that I’m 24. Oooh, how exciting [insert sarcastic tone]!

My resolutions for year 2006 are as follows [in no way are they in any order of any preference]:
1. Lose at least 5 kg
2. Exercise regularly [by regularly, I mean at least once a week. And no, exercising the fingers isn't considered excercising at all]
3. Pack my room [I could sense disbelieving looks]
4. Revamp my blog
5. Work smoothly
6. Be less anti-social and "shy"
7. Slap anyone who ask me for my resolutions when I don’t make any! Be proud and firm with my resolutions
8. Spend less money [by MY definition! =P]
9. Research about degree courses
10. Get a lot of presents for my birthday in March [this is not a wishlist, you say?]
11. Not to slack through the first 11 months of the year and wait till December to fulfil all my resolutions!

So I guess that’s about it for the time being. I have exactly 2 weeks left to rot at home before I start work in my new job in an MNC. It’s scary how I keep having nightmares about this new job. -.-"

They were looking for someone to fill the post for the past 5 months to no avail, and have gone through many rounds of interviews [both internal employees, as well as through agencies], yet not finding who they want. I am very honoured to be chosen, honestly. Yet I’m having the creeps to know that I’ll be expected to fulfil so many expectations.

Somehow or rather, I tend to breeze through interviews, yet when it comes to the actual job, I don’t perform as well. I don’t perform well under stress, I suppose. During an interview, one has nothing to lose [only an opportunity, perhaps] if she doesn’t perform well. During an actual job, one has the stress to perform well or she’ll face the loss of her source of income!

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Anyway I’ll be joining my Dad to visit my Malaysian relatives this Lunar New Year. I wonder whether they’ll be able to recognise me since we haven’t gone back for the past 4 or 5 years.