Singapore Idol, Part 2

Singapore Idol, part 2

Little 'ol Joan realised a glaring mistake after her postings yesterday. She spelt Olinda's name wrongly! Oh my God! How could she have done so?! Okay... So she thought something looked wrong with Oli's name, but she couldn't place the mistake and only after today's results show that she noticed those glaring mistakes and as we all know, Joan's a big lazy bum, so we really don't expect her to make those changes. Well, for the very least, I bring you all Joan's apologies to Oli.

So, here's my continued 2 more cents worth on the Idols which now left Taufik, Sylvester and Olinda...

I'm glad Daphne finally made her way out of the Idol competition. Since perhaps after Christopher left, she had the weakest vocals and her fan base seemed to be so over reliant on the support given to her by her alma mata. I don't think that being a popular school senior makes one an Idol. Just like Christopher, I don't think that having a rich family who can afford to make thousands of calls for him makes him an Idol. Ditto for Jerry with his Church members. And it's so coincidental that these 3 of them managed to steal time and remain in the competition. I'd call them having lived on borrowed time.

As I mentioned yesterday, I don't like Daphne not only because she can't sing, but because she has small eyes and a horrid whiny voice, but being the nice girl Joan is, she'd like to propose a couple of alternative career options of the ex-St Margaret's girl.

1. She can join Channel 8.
Channel 8 likes small-eyed short young girls with whiny voices and horrible Chinese as we can see in the casting of The Champion. With Channel 8 Daphne can also go on singing in English or Chinese, it doesn't really matter cos Channel 8 have been producing CDs for lots of veterans who can sing no better than Daphne. In fact, I can safely say, Daphne can kick all their asses.

2. Model for a cosmetic company marketing their eyeliner.
Daphne is in great need for good eyeliners to accentuate her non-existent eyes and this would prove a very good job of easy money for her. Of course, if the product doesn't work, then Joan can just say, I'm sorry Daph.

3. Carry on studying.
She's still young and stupid. More studying would be good for her. Pack her books, head off to school, she can always join singing competitions in school and with her Idol number 4 status, she can sway the judges to let her win the competition. But of course, if she doesn't have the grades to put her back in school, then it's not Joan's problem again.

4. Get married.
So we heard that she's dating Christopher, or not. It doesn't really matter, she can marry him and not worry about the next half of her life. Chris' family sure look rich enough to support her, if not they can always play a golf game less a week to feed her. Daph will be fine. That is assuming that Chris can tahan some serious whining, but looking at Chris himself, he looks like a whiner so Joan's assuming that he can tolerate other's whining.

5. Cut an album for her alma mata.
Since they like her so much. But seriously, I don't think they'd pay Daph to cut an album for them cos Joan's betting that their funds are in deficit from making so many calls for her just to sustain her in the Idol competition.

That's really about it liao. Daphne, good luck in your future just as long as you don't come back with an album to haunt. Okay, little Joan's a nice girl, so she won't just damn Daphne all the way. Daphne can sing, really, just as long as she drops the whine she's fine. You know, about Florence saying that she can write a book about losing weight, I think maybe Daph can put it off for a while. She still looks a bit pudgy on screen.

Comparing the 4 remaining Idols, indeed Daph ought to have left, but Joan had thought that it was Olinda going cos of her wrong choice of song, Qian Yan Wan Yu, and she just don't look like an Idol, and she has been hovering in the bottom 2 for the past few weeks. I was quite surprised to see her not in the bottom 2 today and this would mean that her rich family have started pouring in the big bucks, spending major money on keeping their dear child in the competition.

There should be a rule that family members cannot take part in the voting.

Right now, from the looks of the voting and talent, it seems like Taufik will be crowned Idol, if not, he is definitely going into the final 2 anyway. Between Olinda and Sylvester, I'd think that judging from mass voting, Sly has the upper edge, but if Oli mobilises her immediate family, young allowance claiming girls are no match with matured money rolling in big shots.

But Sly has always amazed me. He seems forever, every week, stuck in the bottom few, but he always makes it through in the last minute. This would mean only two things, 1 His fan base is growing with every week, or 2 His fans are able to predict the number of totals votes and just vote enough to let him through. Personally, I would think that the most plausible answer would be the former, but than again, are there really enough screaming young nubiles with adequate cash to put Sly through?

Well, I can just say safely that even if Sly doesn't win this Idol, or even if he does and become our first Idol, he will be definitely be offered with a singing contract. On a very very personal opinion, I wouldn't want Sly to win the contract given as the prize for being Singapore Idol. He can only become very very big if he's offered a regional contract by a Taiwanese label. If on a local contract, Sly's main priority would be producing English albums which can't sell further than JB and even if the record label lets him producing a chinese album, they wouldn't let him fully develop the marketing potential outside Singapore with his much commitments to the local scene.

If I were Sylvester's marketing agent, I'd have him sign as an artiste under a Taiwanese artiste management and have him set up a foundation in Taiwan first before bringing him back to Singapore. This has been tried and tested with Stefanie Sun, A-Do, JJ Lin, and the likes of them. Then I would get him to act in a couple of Taiwanese idol dramas, yes, and by then fans would be really eating out of his hand. The only thing seriously lacking in Sly is his height. But then again, Taiwanese aren't very tall, so I guess he'll just do fine.

Going on plotting career maps for Olinda, well, I can just say that she, with her red hair would make her a decent looking mamasan and with her strong vocals she can accompany her guests at the KTV lounge all night belting out her power numbers. Well, if not, Olinda can always get her family to sponsor the capital for her to cut an album.

When this whole Singapore Idol thing started, a couple of my friends and I were saying that we bet that lots of Malays would join. I mean, if SI is like a contemporary version of Talentime (which attracted lots of Malays) we guessed that it would be so for SI. Well, we thought that there were other avenues for the Chinese to gain fame and cut albums. So I was quite surprised that there weren't really many Malays in the competition.

You know, I can think up of all the weird weird stuff for everybody to do if they can't make it as an Idol, but I just can't think of any that would fit Taufik to a T. Umm... Am I losing my touch? Or am I just reserved over him cos I don't really want to pass more racist comments and piss more people off? Nah... I just want Taufik to win the Idol cos I don't think that Malays can ever get other chances to win singing contracts.

So all the best Taufik! I hope you win though I will never buy your album.

Singapore Idol

Singapore Idol

I've just caught it on tv, then I made it down to the Idol Forum Website http://www.singaporeidol.net/forum/ to check out on how Singaporeans are reacting to the show, and the Idols. Well, my 2-cents worth...

I'm a potato fan of the Singapore Idol (ie, a person who regularly watches the show cos she has nothing better to do and not necessarily liking that show) but I don't seem to like any of the Idols. At the start of the competitions, I was actually supporting Sylvester cos he looked like an Idol, sang like an Idol, and had the appeal of an Idol, but as time went by, I must say, Sly, you really disappointed me.

From the start of the studios round of competition, I thought that Sylvester would shine, especially with the sudden boybands, pretty boys craze brought in here from the crazed land of Taiwan, but he didn't make it. Luckily he got through as the people's choice in the Wildcards, and I had sincerely wished him (from the comforts of my armchair towards the big shot of his face on the tv screen) all the best and to continue to impress me. But I don't know which spectalular was it, that I realised the Sly isn't really ready to be an Idol.

Why not Sly?

He's not ready.
If you look at his posture and his expressions when the camera is not closed up on him or if it's a group shot, he doesn't really smile much and his face when not smiling is quite serious, not the kind of serious serious, but the kind of I'm not confident but I must stay focused kinda serious, so it was quite putting off. An Idol must be confident, especially when faced with immense pressure from the audience and the media, and our dear Sly can't do that yet. And as long as he isn't confident, I really think he should just sing to his fans. Or anybody without ears, not older than 17, has nothing better to do than screaming at some pretty boy faced guy.

I refer back to a Taiwanese reality show quite similiar to the Idol, it was called Top Idol, incidentally. There was this girl I really hated cos she cried at the slightest negative comment directed to her and every time the results were out, she would shudder in fear and despite the results being in her favour or not, she would burst out in tears. I mean, as an Idol, you will need to face much more criticisms and pressures by the media and the audiences. You can't get the liking of everybody! And to combat that, only by one's confidence. There is a lack of confidence in Sly. I cringe everytime I see his face filled with anxiousness when part of the bottom few. An Idol should not feel anxious about results. Win or lose, they are always Idols as long as they think they are!

But looking at the other Idols left in the competition, I'd say, if not for Sly, I wouldn't even want to be a potato fan of SI.

Not Olinder.

She's fat.
Too fat to be an Idol. And hearing her sing a Teresa teng number in a Tsai Chin voice just now, all I can say to her is that, if she doesn't have the looks why not just play to her strengths and not give them all away like that. I don't like her hair too. I'm not really so much against that butch-length hair, but more against the ah soh-colour of her hair. Really, like who still does their hair in that ghastly red?! Only the ah soh selling chicken rice downstairs!

Oli, please, just get voted out next week and spare me the agony of staring at your hair!

Not Daphne.

She's whiny.
Her voice sounds so putting off that it's comparable to the sucky voice of Fiona Xie and Jeanette Aw both put together. I really can't imagine anyone buying her CDs in the future to hear her whining. Maybe tonedeaf fans and some deprived chee ko peks who got tired of Britney Speares whining and want something fresh for a change. And another very putting off thing about Daph, her eyes. There are so miniscule that I'm wondering if she can actually see her screaming fans? Okay, that's just me. I hate people with small eyes. Not hate, just think that people with small eyes don't look that nice, and shouldn't be Idols. Yup, I don't like other small eyed celebrities like Sharon Au, Sandy Lam, so shoot me won't you?

Not Taufik.

Even though he's the most talented person in the competition, I don't like him.
Friends would know why.
If you read my blog from first entry to last (but if you really do so, then I guess, you really have got nothing better to do, sad...) you would know why.
I'm sorry to those I might have offended.

So, if it's not Daphne, not Olinder, not Taufik, then I'll have to be supporting Sylvester, by default.

Political Science 1101 Exposure Module

Political Science 1101 Exposure Module

For people now piahing for this module, perhaps I can provide a little help. I've just got back my term paper and it was very well done, so I'd like to share it with everybody, hopefully some sense can get through in you if a similiar question or a question on Federalism comes out.

Presenting, Joan Ang's grade A political science paper...
(with end notes too!)

Is federalism the only option for governing multi-ethnic societies? Why or why not?

Federalism according to Andrew Heywood “refers to legal and political structures that distribute power territorially within a state”[1] and according to Cynthia H. Enloe it is “a solution to ethnic fragmentation”[2] hence it would be an option for governing multi-ethnic societies. However, to say that it is the only option would be a sweeping generalisation. I think that even though federalism is an option for the governing of multi-ethnic societies, it is not the only option as it is also possible to govern a multi-ethnic society under a unitary government. In some cases, these minority ethnic groups too fall under the rule of the central government but in some cases, there can be an autonomous rule within the unitary government. Still, a federal government might be more effective in dealing with ethnic issues thus it can be a preferred option of governing a multi-ethnic society. Nonetheless, the type of government which suits a state most also depends on what type of state it is as in some cases federalism might not be the best option of government. In fact, E. O. Awa thinks that ethnic and cultural forces “do not appear to be particularly important in inducing territories to form themselves into a federal union”[3].

Federalism is not the only option for governing a multi-ethnic society as some states with multi-ethnic society is under unitary governments and these strong central governments are successful in ensuring peace under their form of rule. This can be seen in the case of Britain where although it has a relatively large number of minorities living within, it remains a unitary state with the central power, the Parliament having “unrivalled and unchallengeable legislative authority”[4]. However, according to Enloe, “a unitary system [in multi-ethnic societies] may be feasible only in the presence of exclusion, coercion, or inequality”[5]. This can be seen in Britain where minority races are assimilated into the British society at the cost of their culture and identity and in some cases still deemed as inferior to the majority of whites. Still, even though this assimilation policy might undermine the minority races’ culture, these minorities have been living peacefully alongside the majority whites. Another unitary government alternative to federalism was the granting of autonomous status to the minority groups as a “tacit acknowledgement of the limited capacities of the central government”[6]. However, the central government would only do so as a last resort. For example, in China where the central government granted special autonomous statuses to the “non-Han Chinese peoples along the northern borders of China”[7] only because it was far out from then central and that these minorities had little to do with the majority of the other Chinese. With these other options, we can see that federalism is not the only option as government of a multi-ethnic society.

However, when there is a strong central rule without the government granting autonomous status to the minority races, other problems may also appear. For some other states especially the larger ones a strong central government has led to uprisings and rebellions of the various ethnic groups seeking independence or autonomous rule. This can be mirrored in Indonesia where despite a strong central government, there are many cases of rebellions and uprisings in various minority outlying islands. In such examples of multi-ethnicity and government, I think that perhaps federalism might suit Indonesia better than the present situation where outlying islands like Aceh and the already independent East Timor used force to attempt to achieve independence from Indonesia. Even so, it must be noted that Indonesia had started out her independent government as a federation and it was due to the rise of rebellions and freedom calls that forced Indonesia to turn to a strong central military government and used force to clamp down on these rebels to establish a unitary state. The failure of this federal system could be an inherent failure of federalism in general and hence it can be seen quite clearly that it is not necessary for a multi-ethnic society to have a federal government in power.

Under federalism, these individual states after experiencing a degree of self-government might fall under the impression that they can govern themselves independently and hence attempt to break free from the central government to form a new state. This was the reason for the failure of the Republic of the United States of Indonesia in 1950.[8] However, for Indonesia, it seems like even under a unitary government, it cannot fully control its various minority states from wanting to break free from the central government, hence, this might not be totally a failing of federalism but of problems pertaining to Indonesia itself. Still, federal rule can lead to ethnic fragmentation as the diverse ethnic groups do not have the chance to mingle freely with the other ethnic groups. This could lead to the eventual splitting up of the state as it was the case for Czechoslovakia where neither the Czechs nor the Slovaks was willing give in to each other for a compromise.[9] Other than such mutual disharmony, mutual suspicion and prolonged clashes between the various ethnic groups can also lead to a failure in federalism. This was part of the reason that Singapore was expelled from Malaysia in 1965, when there was disharmony, suspicions and clashes between the Malays in Malaysia and the Chinese in Singapore.

While large multi-ethnic states expose the failings of federalism, we might induce that perhaps smaller states would have a better succeed rate in federalism. However, for small multi-ethnic states like Singapore, it is clear that it is also possible for a unitary government to rule the state with little “exclusion, coercion, or inequality”[10], but this is not a very widespread opposite to the general norm as Singapore is really a very small state and a history of general peace and stability among the different ethnic groups. Even in a successful multi-ethnic federal state like Malaysia, ethnicity was not a consideration when the choice of government was made. According to Awa, “the Union of the Federated Malay States [which led to the formation of later Malaysia] formed in 1895 was largely a result of the demands by the various commercial, agricultural and mining interests”[11] and not due to ethnic diversity. When the Federation of Malaysia was faced with ethnic conflicts between the Chinese and Malays, she reacted by the “expelling [of Singapore] from the union”[12] to relieve ethnic tensions between the two dominant races. In many cases of federalism being seen a tool for the governing of multi-ethnic societies is not so in reality as there might be other reasons for a federal state and the diverse societies can always be under some other form of state rule.

Even so, federalism can still be a good way to govern a multi-ethnic society as it gives the various ethnic groups “a range of autonomous powers and enjoy some measure of representation in central government”[13] while still under the large umbrella of a stronger state. Under this government, the various ethnic groups can draw up different sets of laws and legislations in accommodation to their culture and beliefs. This can be seen Quebec where its French speaking population differed with the majority of the other English speaking population. The federal government of Quebec under this system can thus exercise its difference without assimilating into the general population. However, such federalism without a mutual consensus between the central and federal government might lead to the “growth of separatism”[14] which might estrange ties between the two parallel governments as described earlier in the case of the split of Czechoslovakia.

I think that federalism is not the only option for governing multi-ethnic societies as examples have shown that multi-ethnic societies can also be governed by unitary rule, either by assimilating the minorities into the population of by means of granting a special autonomous rule to the minorities. In fact, in some circumstances like that of Czechoslovakia and Singapore, federalism not only did not alleviate the problem of ethnic conflict but also aggravated it thus forcing the ultimate decision for a split. Ethnic problems by itself is very complicated and the type of government to best govern a multi-ethnic society would be based almost entirely on the society itself. However, this does not mean that a unitary rule would be better than federal rule in a multi-ethnic society as there are also many problems that would afflict the unitary rule as seen in Indonesia where both federalism and a central government have failed to contain the separatist sentiments of ethnic groups in the outlying islands. Multi-ethnicity is a problem by itself. Perhaps the only way of solving these problems is to grant each ethnic group independence which would be also be unfeasible as these new states would be small and weak. In saying this, we must also note that it is not only multi-ethnic societies can be governed by federalism. Federalism can also be used to govern a single ethnic society like Germany.

End notes:
[1] Andrew Heywood, Politics, 2nd ed. (Great Britain: Palgrave Foundations, 2002), 161
[2] Cynthia H. Enloe, Ethnic Conflict and Political Development, (Boston: Little, Brown, 1973), 89
[3] E. O. Awa, Issues in Federalism, (Nigeria: Ethiope Publishing House, 1976), 35
[4] Andrew Heywood, Politics, 2nd ed. (Great Britain: Palgrave Foundations, 2002), 165
[5] Cynthia H. Enloe, Ethnic Conflict and Political Development, (Boston: Little, Brown, 1973), 135
[6] Cynthia H. Enloe, Ethnic Conflict and Political Development, (Boston: Little, Brown, 1973), 140
[7] Ibid
[8] Damien Kingsbury, Indonesian Military, (London and New York: RoutledgeCurzon, 2003), 18-19
[9] Jim Seroka, “The Dissolution of Federalism in East and Central Europe”, in Evaluating Federal Systems, ed. Bertus De Villiers (Dordrecht/ Boston/ London: Martinus Nijhoff Publishers, 1994), 210-211
[10] Cynthia H. Enloe, Ethnic Conflict and Political Development, (Boston: Little, Brown, 1973), 135
[11] E. O. Awa, Issues in Federalism, (Nigeria: Ethiope Publishing House, 1976), 24
[12] E. O. Awa, Issues in Federalism, (Nigeria: Ethiope Publishing House, 1976), 19
[13] Andrew Heywood, Politics, 2nd ed. (Great Britain: Palgrave Foundations, 2002), 164
[14] Andrew Heywood, Politics, 2nd ed. (Great Britain: Palgrave Foundations, 2002), 165

So, this is my most pleased essay to date! And a grade A one too! And please give your comments about federalism, can drop me an email anytime.

I know that I do write well, but this grade A still came as a pleasant surprise as it can now be acknowledged that other people (like my dear tutor) do like my writings too. When my dear tutor read my essay outline, his comments were like I'd probably have trouble structuring my essay together to for a sustain argument, but I did it.

But before you guys start thinking that wow Joan's actually one smart girl contary to your thoughts, look at this,

Stupidity Symptoms 9
Joan was supposed to do her readings one night, and without thinking, she picked up a yellow ballpoint pen by her bed to highlight her readings and make notes. After completing the reading, Joan decided to continue to formulate ideas for her presentation of the readings the next day, so as usual, she did not do much thinking when she used the same pen to write down her points for her presentation. The next day, while doing her presentation, she realised that she can’t make out much of her writing. The reason was due to the fact that Joan forgot that she has astigmatism problems and she was wearing her astig-powered glasses the night before but wearing non-astig-contacts when she was doing her presentation and without the astig-powered glasses, the yellow was so light that words weren’t words, but yellow glob.

So there you see, she doesn't really have much common sense in her.

Is it? Not?

On a long bus ride home, she decided to take a nap. She knew she won't oversleep cos the ride was just too long. Even waking from her nap, she knew she would still be far from home. The ride was bumpy; her head became groggy. The nap wasn't that peaceful, but it was better than nothing and she had badly needed some rest.

After an hour of the bumpy bus ride, she awoke to see herself still a distance away from home. But she couldn't go back to sleep, the ride was getting bumpier than before, that stretch of road was under major construction. She knew that it was another half an hour away from home and she had a splitting headache, but she couldn't get the rest she badly needed.

She looked out of the window despotedly, watched the trees and cars going by her. Everything seemed so foreign to her after being away from home for so long.

Then her bus stopped by at a bus stop. Staring blankly out of the window, she saw a familiar figure. She seemed to have seen those eyes somewhere before, and that crop of hair, but something was different. The body was more matured than she had known. He looked a lot older. He looked 17. He was wearing an oversized black tee, seemed to have just ended a game of basketball with his friends who were around him at that bus stop.

His eyes turned towards her. He stared at her for two seconds before his gaze faltered away. It was as if he recognised her and wanted to take a second look at her, but was afraid that it seemed rather rude to stare at people, especially if he had mistaken. When he noticed from the side of his eyes that she wasn't looking in his direction, he brought his gaze back to her, holding it for another two seconds before she noticed him too, and he brought his gaze back to his friends. As the bus turned out of the bus stop and started to leave, he looked up again at her watching her bus leave but there was nothing he could do.

It wasn't until the bus pulled away from the bus stop that she noticed that she was doing exactly what he had done. Staring at him for two seconds and when he noticed her, she lowered her gaze to his feet and when his gaze faltered, she brought her eyes back to his face, searching for more familiarity.

The person she knew isn't that old, she thought. He's only like 13, isn't he, thoughts went through her mind. Wait, he was 13 four years ago. So, isn't he supposed to be 17 now? Exactly the age that she thought he was?

How he has grown. He used to be a small boy, scrawny and quiet, but now with the company of a group of friends and the nurture of sports, he has become a jock. He always had these big round eyes, rounder than herself's and a cute boyish look on his face with his floppy hair framing it. All these were still present in the image of him she saw.

How fast time flies, she thought.

It seems to most of us that certain images we have locked in our minds can never be removed. A person will always be how he was the last significant time you had seen him and it never occurs to you that over the years, you both have aged. You both may not be what you had remembered.

Of course, she may be wrong. The image of him she saw could probably be that of a person who happened to look similar. After all she knew of another person who looked like him.

But then again, she thought, if it was a case of similarities, why did he stared at her like he too knew her?

It was just a passing thought to her. Not long after, she was again groggy from the long bus ride. Her mind wasn't clear on what she was thinking. He just became one of nature's unsolved mysteries and a fleeting ripple in her monotonous life.

Was that you?

The Bush

So, Kerry did not manage to chop down the Bush!

Personally, I would prefer John Kerry to have become the President instead of our dear George W Bush, but I'm not American, so I can only just rant here how and why so. I mean I can't even vote in our next elections.

Like most Asians polled by various media, I prefer Kerry to Bush mainly because I believe that it would be to our regional advantage if Kerry came to power as he seems less hard on our region than Bush. Not only that, I think Bush has a ridiculous stance on Iraq and his methods against terrorism seems rather debatable, and basically, Bush just looks like a pathetic president. The latter reason being purely a personal judgement and you can blast me for it, but I don't care.

Okay, now thinking a little bit more in depth, all my reasons are personal judgements. Personally, I'm against war and American occupation in Iraq, thus I think the Bush is ridiculous. My dear European Studies lecturer has labelled me as "revisionist" liao, so I don't think I can be any more radical by my next couple of remarks. I don't think Osama really has that close links with Iraq, so I'm really skeptical about the Bush using that reason for his occupation of Iraq, and I think it is stupid of Americans to just because of that Osama video change stance from Kerry to Bush at the very last minute. Well, actually, other than Osama driving the plane crashes, I don't think he is that of a terror. Yes, many people lost their lives in the 911 incident, but more people died in Iraq than at WTC, so I don't think Bush really validated his point of curbing terrorism. Cos, there I think there isn't much difference between war and terrorism, both kills people by hordes, it's just that war SEEMS more jusified than terrorism, yup, the keyword is SEEMS, cos I dont agree with it.

I don't see a difference between Osama and Bush (okay, so shoot me! I've already been shot my that lecturer who called me REVISIONIST, so...), they both make use of other people's lives to achieve their own utopia. Not saying that I'm for Osama, it's just that I'm against Bush and I think that Osama is just like Hitler, misguided about their ideals. It a way, I think that it is the same for Bush. Yup, for those who don't know, I was labelled revisionist due to my comments on Hitler...

On another note, this US election result is interesting in that we can see that Asians really see things in different perspectives from Americans. For Kerry, even though he lost, he can take pride in that he is more popular in Asia than the Bush. Okay, so my point is that why are Asians different from Americans? Maybe to Asians, Islam isn't that foreign and scary to us that we need not the radical methods of the Bush to counter against it. Really, I think that Osama video really did skew the election results just like the bullet incident skew up the Taiwanese election results.

Another could be that, the polls done were before the Osama video was shown, so the Asians did not see the need for more Bush security even though they are really scared of Osama.

On a very personal note against Bush is that I really can't stand his daughter. I mean who in a right mind would wear a dress that would go transparent under flashlights to a function knowing that she would be photographed without wearing a bra? Her brainlessness can only be accorded that she has bad genes. Man... Don't Bush know how to teach his children?

But then again, US presidents, or presidential candidates, all seems to have rather screwed up personal lives. Remember the Bill Clinton uproar when he did his intern? If our dear Lee Hsien Loong ever do a Bill, or his daughter do a Bush, they can forget about continuing their lives in Singapore much less remain our dear Prime Minister. It was already scandalous enough that his first wife commited suicide (remember, it's against the law to commit suicide in Singapore?) and that he actually got himself a second wife. At least his second wife was clean and not someone whose first husband died and left her with a huge business empire (think: Kerry, ha!).

Ending the gossips on a nicer tone, here, via the vast Internet, I'd like to extend my congradulations to Mr Bush for winning a second term to serve his people just as long as he maintain current relations with Singapore. Cos other than that, I don't think he will actually affect me that much, so whoever it is who wins, by all means I will accept you (like what else can I do?). Serve you people well, Bush, and try not to do anything stupid, little Joan here wishing you best of luck in the next couple of years and hopefully after that, Kerry can succeed you much against your wishes.

Ever notice that after every elections in whatever country, Singapore will try her best to send out letters of congradulations as soon as she can to the winning party? And she would state that she is very pleased that [insert name of winning party] came out as victors and would wish that party all the best. I bet the letter is saved and reused every time a party wins elections with just alterations to the part after "dear".

That is what I'd call, politically correct.

The Champion

The Champion, Channel 8 9pm on Monday-Fridays

This is what one can consider as a typical idol drama. It has a stupid girl, a slow guy, a vindictive girl, a single-minded guy, a dashing guy, a commitment-phobic girl, a married guy with kid in tow, and the ku3 qing2 girl with cripple sis in tow. What more would one need in a drama?

I hate it so much that I think I actually love it. So far I've only missed half and hour of the show since it started running. Maybe it's because I've got nothing better to do so I squat by my little tv screen waiting for that show to screen like almost every day.

Okay, there are some pretty good eye candy in the show that compiled me to start watching it. There's Yan Xingshu. Tall, athletic, decent features, and a damn good bod. hehe... He isn't a national basketballer for nothing, but putting him in a swimming drama seems a bit wasteful of talent. Then there's Toro who I just can't seem to get myself to like his character. If I ever get to know a guy like his character, I'd probably hate him man. Okay, ya, some people say I'm SM, I like the chauvinistic kind of guys, but, that's me, so don't shoot me.

Actually, I think I can't stand like all of the characters. They all seem to be flawed in some way or another, especially so that I can't stand. I hate wishy-washy people, I hate women who steals other people's boyfriend, especially when the guy doesn't even like her, I hate girls who think that they are superior to guys, I hate guys who won't admit their own feelings, I hate girls who have nothing better to do than worrying about who like or don't like them, and I hate girls who keep guys at their beck and calls. So basically, I don't like any one of the characters in the show.

What's worse is the quality of the actors and actresses. Fiona Xie! I mean, her voice is so pathetic, just looking at her pitiful face and hearing her that voice, I know I won't like her. Okay, she fits her character very well. And when compared to Xiaoqiao's character, she is an angel, but still, I think I just got something against Fiona Xie. Jeanette Aw! Another person who can't speak well. She speaks in so broken up pieces that I just feel like calling her to shut up and just act nice. Ya, and put her voice beside Fiona Xie, she's just great. But what's worse is the horrendous mix of different accents in the show. How can you explain a family who speaks totally different from each other? A father who speaks Singapore accented Mandarin, an elder sister who speaks Singapore English accented Mandarin, a brother who speaks Taiwanese accent Chinese, and a younger sister who speaks jiang3 hua2 yu3 campaign Mandarin.

To a prerenially deprived girl here, the highlights of the show seems to be the better qualitied guys. Yup... Yan Xingshu, Qi Yuwu... Qi Yuwu too has a good bod, but his hair is so terrible that he seems to be having bad hair days every day, and although he has a good bod, what's up with not giving him any shirts to wear?! I think he's like 40% of the time topless, 40% of the time in an unbuttoned shirt and the rest more decently dressed. Yan Xingshu is in much better taste. A nice haircut, nice shirts, and only going topless once in a while. The Chinese have a saying, wu4 yi3 xi1 wei2 gui4 meaning the lesser quantity of a commodity, the more precious it is, I think the same would apply to these guys bods.

The other two imported guys, Toro and Huaien are so ... The pale pathetically compared to Yan Xingshu. Toro is like so scrawny, and short, and well, diminished in stature and that doesn't go well on screen with Fiona Xie. Not saying she is fat cos she isn't, but she is big on her top half of her body and that makes Toro look much smaller beside her. Huaien, well, if you remember what I wrote about Zhang Ziyi in 2046, then that would be Huaien's problem. Apparently Singapore's tropical climate didn't really do well with his complexion. But, giving him some credit, aren't there like good make up artists in TCS? Close up scenes of Huaien's character see his concealler in a different shade as his foundation. And any girl would know that this is a big big no no.

Although I can't think of any good thing to say about the show, I don't know why I'm so addicted to it. Maybe I just have nothing better to do. hehe...

Russian Literature

Russian Literature

I just finished reading this book of abridged collection of Russian short stories by celebrated writers. And from my previous knowledge of Russian tales, I must say that Russian writing is certainly not my cup of tea.

My only previous knowledge of Russian writing before reading that collection was the tale of Ivan and the Firebird. I don't know if any has heard it before cos I'd mentioned it to a group of people before but they never heard of it even though I thought that that was quite a classic.

Well, the story goes that once upon a time in Russia, there lived a Tsar with three sons, Ivan (apparantly, in Russian it's pronounced as "ee-farn") being the youngest and his favourite. This Tsar had a prized apple tree which grew golden apples in his large picturesque garden. However, one day, the Tsar found out that one of his golden apples was stolen. Someone had entered into his garden and picked the golden apple from his prized tree!

The Tsar was so angry that he summoned his eldest son to guard the tree the next night hoping to catch the thief if he returns. That night, his eldest son fell asleep in the middle of the night and when he awoke, another golden apple was missing. The Tsar was so angry with his eldest son that he dismissed him and ordered his second son to guard the tree the next night. That night, his second son too fell asleep while guarding the tree and when he awoke, another apple was missing. On seeing this, Ivan stepped up and volunteered himself to guard the tree the next night. The Tsar was pleased that his favourite son was son anxious for him and granted his wish.

Night came, Ivan sat by the tree forcing himself to stay awake to catch the thief for his father, but he found his eyelids getting heavier as time passed on. Ivan went over to the pond by the tree to wash his face and chase away his urge to sleep. Just as he arrived at the pond, a huge, bright bird flew past Ivan towards his father's prized tree and plucked off an apple with his beak. Ivan ran after the bird, but the bird soared high into the dark sky leaving Ivan grasping of of its tail feathers.

The next day, Ivan reported the matter to his father. The Tsar was very amazed with Ivan's tale and when he saw the feather that the bird left behind, the Tsar thought of a Firebird that a neighbouring King owned. He wanted the Firebird for himself.

Immediately, the Tsar called for his three sons and told them that whoever catches the Firebird and presented it to him would become his successor. With that, he dismissed his sons in search for the bird.

Ivan took his best horse and rode in the direction of the neighbouring land where it was rumoured that the king there owned an extraordinary bird called the Firebird. As night fell, Ivan found himself deep in the woods and right in front of three paths, one turning left, one turning right, and the last one heading up front. Besing the crossroads, lay a sign that read: "To the left, you will lose your horse; to the right, you will go hungry; to the front, you will die."

After thinking for a moment, our dear Ivan decided to turn left and hurried down the path. Not long later, a grey wolf pounced out onto Ivan causing him to fall off his horse. Sure indeed, his horse cantered deep into the woods and disappeared. Ivan was left without his horse.

The Grey Wolf came up to Ivan and apologised to him for scaring off his horse and offered to carry Ivan on his back to his destination. He brought Ivan to the land where the Firebird came from and advised Ivan when stealing the Firebird, touch not its cage. Ivan promised to do so.

However, after Ivan stole the bird, he caught sight of a beautiful gold cage by the side of the bird. Forgetting the Grey Wolf's advice, Ivan reached out for the cage, thinking that only such a fine cage was fit for such a fine bird. The moment Ivan's hand touched the cage, he heard loud ringing of bells sounding. Then out rushed the guards and the king himself. The King on seeing Ivan threatened to send his troops to invade Russia unless Ivan promised him something in return. For the sake of his reputation and his country, Ivan agreed to the King's threats. The King wanted Ivan to get for him the fine horse that could travel a thousand miles in a day for him from another neighbouring country. In return, the King would let Ivan have the Firebird.

Upon learning about Ivan's failure, the Grey Wolf brought Ivan to the land of the fine horse and advised Ivan when stealing the horse touch not its briddle. Again, Ivan promised to remember the words of the Grey Wolf. However, after stealing the horse, Ivan noticed the golden briddle with many precious stones set around its sides. Without thinking, Ivan reached out for it thinking only such a fine briddle was fit for such a fine horse. Once his hand touched the briddle, the King and his men came rushing out to the stable seeing Ivan with the fine horse. The King agreed to let Ivan have his horse if he could win the hand in marriage of the beautiful Princess in the next country for him.

Ivan went in search for the Princess with the Grey Wolf's aid and finnally found her. This time, the Grey Wolf went in to steal the Princess instead. And the three of them continued their journey backto the land of the fine horse.

However, on the way back, Ivan fell for the Princess and upon reaching the land, he refused to let the Princess go. Seeing this, the Grey Wolf decided to masquerade himself with his magical powers as the Princess and present himself to the King in return for the horse. He told Ivan to leave as fast as possible and when the next time he thought of the Grey Wolf, it will return back to Ivan's side.

The plan worked well and Ivan took the horse back to the land of the Firebird, but Ivan liked the horse too much that he didn't bear to exchange it for the Firebird. On seeing this, the Grey Wolf agreed to masquerade himself another time as the horse in exchange for the bird. Similarly, the Grey Wolf promised to return to Ivan's side when he thought of him.

With the beautiful Prinecss, the fine horse, and the Firebird with him, Ivan made his way back home. Along the way, Ivan decided to take a nap. While Ivan was alseep, Ivan teo elder brothers passed by and saw him with a Princess, a horse and the Firebird. Immediately they felt jealous of Ivan and plotted to kill Ivan and sieze his stuff. Their plan worked and they headed straight back home leaving Ivan dead.

When Ivan did not think about the Grey Wolf again, the Grey Wolf felt something amiss and came after Ivan. When he saw Ivan dead, he summoned a passing crow to bring him some water from the end of the world to revive Ivan.

Together, the Grey Wolf and the revived Ivan quickly headed back home. Upon reaching home, Ivan heard of news that his eldest brother was next to be the Tsar while his second brother was getting married.

Ivan quickly went to the Tsar and related his account of events to his father.

Thereafter, Ivan lived happily ever after as the Tsar with his bride, horse and the Firebird.

Well, I never liked Ivan. And I think that he's not worthy of all the glory, everything was given to him by the Grey Wolf. This sort of anti-Hero, I think, applies to most Russian writing,from what I've read. It seems like all Russian protagonists are all of dubious character. Even the celebrated Pushkin whom I've heard so much about when reading Angles of Russia [look back in my previous book revie] writes about such pathetic protagonists.

I don't know, but I don't like these kind of characters. It makes me wonder though, are all Russians as such? So anti-heroic...

Then again, the only Russian that I know is probably Roman Abramovich who is well, you can see him as anti-heroic the moment he bought Chelsea as though it was a commodity and the way he buys his players.

Okay... I'm exaggerating. He's not the only Russian I know. I know lots of other Russians, like, ya, Stalin and I must say, he seems very Russian. We can see a little shadowof Ivan in him.

I have nothing against Russians, in fact, I like Russia, but I just don't like the anti-feelings I get after reading a Russian character. I think I'll just stick to my usual stuff...

Try reading some Russian translated pieces if have the time. Russian pieces are rather thought-provoking, especially in terms of human character although it is rather biased, but can still try it and let me know if you liked it.

Parkway Parade

Parkway Parade

From a list of suburban malls' ranking done by The Straits Times, my dearest favourite mall came out 4th. The top mall was Causeway Point, then United Square, followed by Tampines Mall. Seeing these so called top malls, I'm like come on, I'm pretty sure Parkway can beat them flat any man! And Parkway came out 4th?! Oh my god! Do the judges know how to shop?! Like where the heck is United Square? So shoot me! I've never heard of that mall, so does it derserve to come out 2nd? And Causeway Point, I'd been there once and hated it. The moment I stepped into that mall, I felt as though I went to a mall in Malaysia. The whole decor of Causeway Point is so JB! And Tampines Mall is just so bland. Parkway would beat them flat any time any how!

So, for an in depth analysis of Parkway, and yours truly slamming of the scores given to Parkway, this follows...

Family oriented, Parkway was graded 4 out of 5 which is just pathetic! From baby stores to granny shopping, Parkway has it all. For babies, there's Mothercare, growing children Learning Fun, housewives the two supermarket and hypermarts, for men there's like all the electrical appliances shops Best Denki blah, bargain shops for the grannies and gramps, shops that were there since the opening of Parkway long before the three top malls. Parkway is indeed a place for families to go to chill and get together.

Child friendly, the blind judges gave Parkway a 3! Parkway has children toilets okay... And the store that allows children to do handicrafts. And the arcades. And before its removal, there was Parkway's trademark Octopus. Pity it now lies beside NTUC, out in the open. I missed those days when I would go to the Octopus to play, and there were also other little sea animals around, but my favourite was still the big Octopus. But they do have the Waterfall area for kids to play now. Oh yah, and Parkway has those Children Cab or something like that which parents can rent to push their kids around. Always thought that that was fun. I mean with Kinderland just around the corner, Parkway has to be child friendly.

Baby friendly, Parkway also scored an atrociously low grade of 3. Yup, there's the changing table for babies in the toilet though there isn's a nursing room, but those judges shouldnt give Parkway such a low grade what.

Handicap friendly, another low grade of 3.5. I mean, there are adequate lifts around Parkway and there isn't any steps in Parkway to stumble the wheelchaired. The Waterfall area has also been renovated to allow wheelchaired people to get around the area easily, so why the low grade, blind folks?

Accessibility. I'd think that this grade of 4 is pretty fair. Parkway is not the most accessible place around. There isn't any MRT stations but this isn't the problem of Parkway, it's the problem of Marine Parade. It seems quite ironic that during the 11 years ex-PM Goh was in office, he never once lobbied Marine Parade to get an MRT station. But then again, Marine Parade is the most dense estate, the will never be space to build a station. Then thinking again, Marine Parade does have a very varied range of bus services, just not the buses that come by my house. Sad...

Carpark facilities, Parkway too got 3 which is totally uncalled for. What's wrong with the carpark?! There will always be space for cars to park as the 7th level carpark is always empty. Aren't all carparks the same? From the longest time ago, Parkway's carpark already have those electronic signs that tells you the number of lots available at each level. And the stairs are near cos the carpark is small, so what's up with the judges?!

Food courts, a 5 for Parkway. No other mall can come close to Parkway with 2 food courts, one very very large extended one and one halah food court with an open air barbeque annex. It beats any other mall flat flat!

Restaurants, a pathetic 4. Okay, we all know that the judges were blind when they went into Parkway and hence did not see Crystal Jade, that Thai restuarant I never knew the name but has been there ages, that Indonesian restuarant too Khartini or something like that, and Jack's Place, Swensons, Sakae Sushi with Teppanyaki(!), yup the judges are sure blind. And to give a little more credit to Parkway, with a big name Sin Leong, now called Roland's, the is indeed lots of competition in that area.

Cafes, another pathetic 4. The blind judges maybe forgot that Parkway includes the open air cafes of Water-something selling pancakes, Gelera, Starbucks, Swensons cafe, Delifrance, the little coffeehouse inside MPH, yup... Blind judges...

Snack outlets, a good old 5. I mean with Anderson's Ice Cream, Famous Amos' Cookies, that other ice cream shop, Aunt Anne's Pretzels, my favourite Cold Storage stall that sells cooked meat and dounuts, and the chocolate stall that sells chocolate and chocolate dipped strawberries... Yummy... Makes me feel hungry...

Entertainment options, an decent for 4 since that there's no cinemas in Parkway, there's that lod lao pok dao bi one around the corner. hehe... There's no Karaoke facilites since K-box is situated across the road, so it makes no sense for another chain to open one in Parkway. There's an arcade though...

Ambience, a low low 3.5. The unfeeling judges seemed not to like waterfalls since there the most beautiful glass waterfall in Parkway. Savvy Parkway Mall rats know that there is this verenda where you can look out of the top of the waterfall. A definite romantic site where lots of uniform-cladded students like to make out. And the lovely view of a large grass patch now sadly turned to a lovely view of construction site, but nonetheless lovely place to chill. And the overall feeling when you step into Parkway is one of friendly and long-established. I bet it's like one of the oldest mall in the list man. Give me any day, I'd tell you I prefer the ambience of Parkway to that of the JB-feel Causeway Point or that unfeeling TM.

Ease of navigation, Parkway scored a deserving 5. Need I say any more? I can go around parkway blindfolded and still know where I am.

Financial facilities, the blind judges gave Parkway a 4. With DBS, UOB and OUB branches along with POSB and OCBC ATMs around, what more do you want to ask for? Maybank, POSB and Standard Chartered are across the street, so you can't expect Parkway to have those as well, can you?

Speciality retailers, a 4.5. Umm... What do they mean by speciality retailers? So, John Little, Marks and Spensers, Isetan, Cold Storage, Giant, Courts, Best Denki, Esprit, Levis, Americaya, Bata, insurance agencies, slimming and beauty centres, Addidas, OP, 7th Heaven, medical centres, tuition centres, all these can't give Parkway a perfect 5?

Mobile phone services, a well-deserving 5 for Parkway with Singtel, M1 and Starhub all having stores there.

Information counter, Parkway was given a 4. So they think 2 -3 people manning the counter is not enough? The Kiddy Cab is not enough? Sistic outlet there is not enough too?

And the last comments by the judges, "... Unfortunately, it's toilets are either too packed or under repair." So the judges think that spoilt toilets are better?! And the number of people in the toilets are a good gauge of the popularity of the mall. An empty toilet would mean that the mall is empty and pathetic! Parkway can't help itself that its shoppers have weak bladders can it?

I just love Parkway. Since primary 4, I've been visiting it regularly after schools and during weekends with my friends. It used to be a 1-2 days a week average till secondary school. It's the best place for a student to hang out after school to just chat and chill and stone. During my first 3 months, I was at Parkway 5 times a week and even after that a 2-3 times a week average. Even though I'm now staying in NUS, I will still visit Parkway once a week when I return home. There is just no other place for me to go.

Even before primary 4, Parkway was my favourite place to go for say Saturday dinners with my family. I loved the Octopus there. Sadly, the Octopus has moved its resting position, but I still love Parkway.

I'll never forget the secondary school days with the dance people. We would have lunch there after our tiring dance practice and talk about school, about dance, about our lives, about our future, about everything possible. Our favourite hangout, the place outside Learning Fun, facing what was a green patch of grass, on the benches there, or at the benches outside the verenda of the waterfall, I remember once we sat around to benches and someone commented that we looked like we were having a cult session, or Long John's, the only place where we were assured of seats in crowded Parkway, that's the reason why it's gone now, occupied by Crystal Jade which is totally the opposite. hehe...

Parkway holds beautiful memories for me. And as long as I'm still living, I'll always visit Parkway on a regular basis. To me, you will always be the best mall ever! Even Orchard can't be compared to you...

hehe...

I must be neurotic to say this, but Parkway, I love you!

2046

2046

There is something wrong about it but I cant exactly pinpoint what is wrong. Yes, the story is thought-provoking, the acting is perfect, the atmosphere is there, but what went wrong?

Unlike other Wong Kar Wai's movies, 2046 attempts to tie in three central stories and spawning another two more stories instead of his usual one-two central theme. 2046 is also unusually long at 2 hours with Wong saying that his version of 2046 was actually 5 hours long. Maybe what went wrong was that he was working with such a long time frame that he needed it to be as short as possible. Paradoxical? Wong is not used to making such long and complex movies that to him, 2 hours is not enough to fit everything properly.

The editing was also rather unlike most other Christopher Doyle's works. Doyle and Wong are both sticklers for smoothness and flow which seemed to be almost non-existent in this piece, but I suspect that the jarringness of this piece can be attributed to the censors and not them though it really didnt do them any justice.

But this film depicts William Chang at his best. Im so in awe with him, his charaters all seemed to have become another person with a life of themselves and I must give him due credit. He was blasted in In the Mood for Love for the overdressing of Maggie Cheung, but in 2046, his characters were supposed to be very well dressed and he really did a good job. Still, one thing that didnt really go well with the visuals was the haircut of the female characters. It made Tony Leung look pathetically short. This is in context that the female leads arent Taiwanese (show hosts, ha!)(can you get the joke? ie. short).

Tony Leung really became Zhou, his character. I didnt see any trace of Leung in the film, he was all of Zhou. The making out scenes were also well shot, he was all natural that I really wonder how he could actually shoot that scene without reacting. hehe... But there was one thing lacking. Height. Stage presence. His female counterparts were not only tall and had high hairs that he was made dwarfed by comparison. Big pity...

I was amazed by Takuya Kimura's performance. What I can say to him is that, all the years waiting and all the time spent on shooting the scenes were all worthed it man! I never knew he could act from his heart. All along I thought that he was some pretty faced Japanese actor/singer/entertainer/money-making-machine/female-attracting-magnet, but he is more than that. Wong really squeezed Kimura dry emotionally! If only Kimura could act just like how he did in 2046, he would not only sell shows he can also start winning acting awards. He also had great chemistry with Faye Wong that, well, I really hope I can see more of them collaborating in other projects in the future.

Faye Wong. We all know she cant act. She can only stand around and be herself. Her character is just like her and perhaps that was the reason Wong wrote her in. But I liked her better as the robot. There is a sad feeling that she emits out from her eyes and that gave the robot some sort of an emotional edge. In comparison with Carina Lau, the other robot, Faye Wong the robot seemed much sadder and more of a character.

Zhang Ziyi was rather disappointing. She looked really professional in all the making out scenes with Leung, but there was something very distracting about her. As we all know, Wong likes to shoot his actors close up so as to capture the slightest change in their facial expression, but he didnt take into account that pimples can be very distracting. That was so for Zhang. I spent more time thinking that her pimples were damn ugly than thinking that she had acted well. And the funny thing was that shots from different time periods show different pimples.

And the whole idea of the elarborate dressing did not do any justice to Gong Li either. She and Zhang looked pretty much the same as they shared the same types of flat Chinese face. And the use of this sort of white makeup only flattened their faces even more. And without the distinction of other features, they dont look much different from each other which might not spell out good for Zhang as she was made to look much older as she should be.

The only person in the whole show that looked really good was Chang Chen who sadly had very little screen time no thanks to the censor who made a mess out of the montage. If it werent the fault of the censors then I shall conclude that Doyle just dont know how to do a good montage. Sadly disappointing...

Another very bad thing about the film was the pathetic Mandrain dubbing. Why cant we just watch the film as it is instead of having to endure some other person delivering Leung's lines?!

Still, there are many subjects to ponder over in this Wong outing...

What is it up with the reference of Singapore? And when in Singapore watching the film, the reference just seemed rather funny too us and drew quite a bit of laughter, but I strongly suspect that there is a deeper undertone to the meaning of Singapore in the film. Especially when we realise that 2046 is not the future but a place. Could Singapore be the opposite of 2046. Leung's character goes to Singapore in search of Su Lizhen but goes to 2046 to forget her... And while Faye Wong's Huang Jingwen want to go to 2046, Zhang's Bai Ling want to go to Singapore... Think about it...

On the whole, maybe it was because I had too high hopes on 2046 that I cant help feeling disappointed with this piece, but its nonetheless a fresh piece of Wong Kar Wai trying to be innovative yet true to himself. I would disagree with all those saying that Wong is pretentious and his movies are all made with the Western art house critics in mind cos it is so NOT true! Just watch all of Wong's movies and you can see that he is being himself and really wants to do what he wants to do!

Id take a leaf from here and go back in thoughts of 2046, I still think that there is something up with Singapore...

The height of procrastination

I cant seem to start doing anything.

The height of procrastination.

Okay... This is sad. I cant make up my mind which of the two above statements I wanted to use as the heading, so I put them both down. And now there seems to be something wrong with my sentence structuring. I dont know, but I dont really mind if a person writes in broken English with pathetic spelling, but I really cant stand it if I read a passage with wrong grammar usage. Especially if the tense is wrong. Haiz...

Okay... Im digressing. Back to my main point, I cant seem to start doing anything due to my extreme procrastinating habit. Usually things can get going once started, but if I cant start, I can never get my stuff going.

Ignore my disjointed writing. Im not thinking straight today. Im not even thinking.

How am I to write my essay if I cant even write my blog properly?!

And this blog entry was supposed to be a photo blog entry. I just spent $88 on a Nokia data cable supposedly to transfer my photos from my handphone over to my computer. And then I could upload my photos online and post it on my blog. yup... But the thing is that with Joan's extremely limited knowledge of computer technology, I can only put up that pix by the side, I cant put it up here! Help me... I kept getting error messages which were basically incomprehensible to me. Help...

And the funniest thing that can happen to my pathetic pathetic computer, it refused to allow to to access the internet from the lounge today, but I can use it from my room! Okay, if you dont understand this, well, its a very long story. For the past couple of weeks, my computer just refused to allow me to use the internet from my dighy liitle room, but I could use it in my residence lounge, but today, its the opposite, I dont know why...

Anyone can help me?

Eternal Happiness

Eternal Happiness
chU 9pm

Main storyline is about Meng Lijun running away from the guy she was supposed to marry, Huangfu Shaohua, and later falls in love with him. A Mongolian prince, Tiemuer, and a couple of baddies and the daughter of the baddie, Liu Yanyu, seriously complicated matters.

Why I started watching the show?
Because it features two of my favourite TVB actors, Lin Feng and Ma Dezhong. (My other favs include Jiang Hua, Lin Wenlong, Lin Jiadong, hehe...) So the plot goes, Meng Lijun was betrothed to Huangfu Shaohua much against her wishes, but by a quirk of fate, she disguised as a man became sworn brothers with him, Tiemuer and Marco Polo. She had started falling for Tiemuer in the early days but as Tiemuer had to conceal the fact that he was a Mongolian prince, many a times she failed in letting him know of her real identity (that she is a female in disguise). Fate has it that she had to fail in getting together with him.

And by another quirk in fate, Tiemuer's absence let to her falling for the so deeply in love with Meng Lijun Huangfu Shaohua. Huangfu Shaohua is the dumb but loyal kinda character which didnt go too well with Meng Lijun at first, also because he was Huangfu Shaohua, but later deeply touched by his love for the person he thought he had never met (Meng Lijun). Some comic relief in the show of Huangfu Shaohua show of him deeply disturbed that he thought that he was gay (Meng Lijun was supposed to be a guy in his eyes and he was so attracted to him/her/whatever).

But things complicated when Tiemuer had suspected that Meng Lijun was a female and too fell in love with her/him/whatever and that he bacame the Emperor. By then, Meng Lijun had taken the imperial examinations and became the top scholar. As she had became well aware of her love for Huangfu Shaohua and Tiemuer and made it known to her that he strongly suspected (but Meng Lijun denied it flatly, though) that she was a female and wanted h/h/w to share his riches (he IS after all the Emperor).

So, our dear Meng Lijun is faced with the toughest choice of any women's life, is it the dumb but loyal who will stick to you forever or the strong and powerful who can provide you with anything you want (but Tiemuer does have an Empress whom he doesnt really like)? As Tiemuer put it to Meng Lijun, "Do you want to spend the rest of your life with Huangfu Shaohua as a boring commoner or do you want to share half the world with me?" I would so melt if smeone asks me that question, not that it is a question of marriage but the words of sharing half the world is so so strong by itself. (Tiemuer IS after all the Emperor)

Who do I want Meng Lijun to choose?
As we all know, Meng Lijun will end up with Huangfu Shaohua and this remake of the story of Meng Lijun wont change history, but still, it is something good to choose... hehe...

Side track a bit...
Stupidity Symptoms 8
During the first few episodes of Eternal Happiness, Joan found that the character Meng Lijun was so familiar, so she asked her younger sister where she heard her from. The reply, "You have a book about her, dont you remember?" This is in the context that Joan is supposed to be better read than her YOUNGER sister and is supposed to be smarter, but well...

Back to Tiemuer and Huangfu Shaohua,
Tiemuer IS after all the Emperor, he IS the most powerful man on earth and Meng Lijun did fell for him first, but he has a wife. It is interesting to note that he fell for Meng Lijun even though he didnt know for sure that she is a she and when he had to marry against his wishes, he had many a times tried to wriggle his way out from spending the night at his Empress place. And there is this other sorta funny scene (funny only if you do remember that Meng Lijun is supposed to be a male) where Tiemuer forced himself on Meng Lijun and then the Empress suddenly appeared, greatly disturbed by what she saw. Then the next scene showes her and Tiemuer in the same bed facing opposite directions and she tearing. I do want to feel sympathetic for her, but my heart went all out wanting Meng Lijun to be with Tiemuer. Haiz... You all know Joan, the person who thinks that power is aphrodisiac.

But then there is Huangfu Shaohua the big blockhead who was so distrubed that he might be gay that he ran away and got himself entangled with Liu Yanyu whom I think is just too good a person. Another thing about Joan, she doesnt like people who are just way too good. One absolutely disgusting thing about her that Joan and her sister thought was this line which Liu Yanyu harboured "I want Huangfu Shaohua to be reunited with the Meng Lijun he loves so dearly, and I dont mind staying by him on an equal basis as Meng Lijun." Hello, do you know where you stand, Liu Yanyu?! And you still want to share an equal status with Meng Lijun??! But like all diehard loyals, he is so hard to resist after a long period of time being with him. He may be dumb, but dumb people are easier to get along with.

Basically, Joan likes both Tiemuer and Huangfu Shaohua very much and will support whoever who appears on TV together with Meng Lijun. As an observer, a person like Tiemuer is great for romancing, he is the pinnacle for a perfect boyfriend, but never would one want to marry an Emperor, they just have too many wives and life as an imperial concubine or even as an Empress really sucks. In a later episode, I found out from magazines that Tiemuer would use to status as Empress to entice Meng Lijun, "Just one word from you and I can immediately depose the present Empress and make you the Empress." Oh, man, I would just MELT!!! Okay, so NOW you all know that Joan is a stickler for male chauvinism. (someone commeted that Im SM, but, well...) The other side of the story is not very pleasant to the Empress who happened to hear what Tiemuer said to Meng Lijun, especially that she just found out that she was pregnant and wanted to bring that news to Tiemuer (and for the ten tousandth time, Meng Lijun IS supposed to be a man!).

But Huangfu Shaohua is indeed damn cute. Actually, I think its just Lin Feng. Maybe if someone else acted as Huangfu Shaohua, I wont support him that strongly as I do now... This brings me back to another period drama by TVB. Luo Shen... Cant remember the English translation of the title... In it, a smart woman (note the similarity with the smart Meng Lijun) is torn between two men, one holds power, one holds the gift of literature. Right from the start I was on the camp for the guy holding power and when he turned out to be not so good by means of, well, history, I gave up watching that show. My heart pained for him man... So, it seems like TVB scriptwriters dont like men with power... Well...

You know what, now that Im thinking of it I think that if Huangfu Shaohua wasnt acted by Lin Feng, I would have boycotted this show just like how I boycotted Luo Shen.

With Eternal Happiness coming to an end liao, Id grade this drama series with 4-stars. One to Lin Feng, one to Ma Dezhong, one to the soundtrack (esp the dizi and qin music, and the title and ending songs), and one to power. Yup... Do try and catch the last few episodes of it!

Procrastination vs Pathetism

There is a link between the two P-words that I always use, using them both in theory and in practice.

Procrastination

I procrastinate anything and everything, to those who have yet know. Procrastinating studying and doing my work is like waking up everyday, so natural and innate. But that are not the only things I procrastinate, more often than not, I procrastinate the most everyday things, like waking up, bathing, eating, sleeping. I cant wake up as in opening my eyes and getting out of bed immediately, I will have to hit the snooze button a couple of time, laze around for some time before I can actually pull myself out of bed fully refreshed.

As most people would know by now, Im not a person who likes to bathe. I only bathe when I have to go out, so that would translate to procrastinate bathing until I almost run late.

How can one procrastinate eating? Well, apparantly I can. When Im running late, I would forget that Im hungry and only eat only at the end of the day, after Im done with all my stuff and before I sleep. Sometimes, I can go without eating anything the whole day, but not very often. That is why when I eat, I make good use of eating and stuff myself with lots of food.

At night, even when Im dead tired, I surprise myself by finding excuses not to sleep. I can hang around on my bed, reading magazines that Ive read 20 times over or flipping channels on the tv without actually watching anything or I can just stone. Oh man...

Pathetism

Joan is pathetic.

How so? She can well up in misery, thinking that she is the saddest person on earth, provoking her tears to be at her beck and call but not allowing them to flow freely so that her hurt is accentuated. She likes being emotionally pained. By thinking that she is worthless and that nobody likes her, everybody hates her and she should in return hate everybody on earth.

Joan is lonely. Pathetically lonely. Nobody understands her, nobody can understand her, nobody will understand her. She is like vines on a tree, looking, seaching, finding a support, but everybody just looks down on her cos she is so dependent. But then again, is she really that dependent? Sometimes, she just isolates herself and shuts herself out from the rest of the world so that she can feel lonely, so that she can look for support, like asnake who has a home at a particular tree but not wanting to go there, but wanting something he doesnt know what.

So, am I lonely cos my friends cant make time for me or do it avoid my friends so that I can be lonely and so that I can wallow in my misery that my friends cant make time for me?

I havent noticed this, but everytime I feel pathetic is when I have lots to do but dont want to do anything, in short, when I procrastinate, I feel pathetic. Or it is the other way round? When I feel pathetic, I will tend to procrastinate doing my stuff...

I dont know...

I just read the screenplay for Lost in Translation. Images of the two lonely characters anve resurfaced in my mind. I feel like both of them, in somewhere foreign. NUS is foreign to me, going for classes, writing essays are not what I want, I dont want to be at where I am now, squatting at the lounge of my hostel, tying on my laptop all by myself, with a window of my essay minimised at my toolbar and me not wanting to open it, and worse, with my msn set at online status but nobody wanting to talk to me. I feel like both Bob and Charlotte. And so unlike them who have each other for company, I have just my blog.

Sucks...

And the pathetic thing about me is that i know that I will feel even worse reading the screenplay for Lost in Translation but I still went ahead and read it cos I felt like feeling bad, and sad, and pathetic...

Arent I just so pathetic?

I Need More Time

I need more time. And friends who have time.

I need more time and less procrastination to actually start writing drafts for my 4 essays/term papers/whatever you call them. I also need time to actually go shopping. Not shopping for things I do not want but shopping for things I need. Then there is that great movie coming up The Motorcycle Diaries that I really feel like watching. Well, even if I do manage to squeeze out some time, my friends, loads busier than this poor girl, would not be accompanying me anywhere. Sucks man...

So where have I spent my time on?

Really, I have absolutely no idea. Tests? Maybe. I had EU test which totally sucked. I had never come across a worsely written test paper, never in my 19 years of life. There was my Deutschsemestertest. Yes, those Germans really just put all the words together to form a longer word. All I can say about that test is that learning a new language from scratch is definitely not easy. But we all remember those times memorising is was been; come came come; has had had had; lie lay lay; lay laid lain; go went gone; blah blah blah from our that Primary English book. Then there are those time wasted on that chU 9pm show which Im hooked. And football. Waking up at unearthly hours disrupting my already spoilt bio-system, luckily those matches were not what I consider disappointing performances. I actually enjoyed it comprimising some more important stuff.

Im losing more weight and emotionally wrecked.

Im not eating properly due to the fact that I dont seem to have common breaks with my friends so I dont bother eating. Im like subsistencing on sandwiches from Coffee Club Express and Fuzion every night, and when Im really hungry it will be hot dogs from the snack stall. I had 4 hot dogs on Monday, and another 4 on Tuesday, Wednesday I didnt have any but I had 3 both yesterday and today, so that makes it 14 in a week, not counting that I have a bbq tmr and I probably wont be eating chicken, just stuffing myself with loads and loads of hot dogs. Funny to think that with all the hot dogs down me Im still losing weight.

With no one to go out with me and me being cooped up in my room 24/7, its no wonder that my Stupidity Symptoms seems to have closed down for good. And without me doing stupid stuff, I feel quite sad. Not the boohoo kinda sad, but more on the sad kinda sad. Sad of life; sad of studying; sad of not getting what I want; sad that I got what I want... Geddit? Sinking lower into pathetism... Ya, Im sad, the pathetic kinda sad...

Then there is my pathetic infatuation with a certain German footballer. Pushing the parameters of Joan's emotional limits to saturation.

Blah Blah Blah

Miroslav Klose

Internet surfing used to be a leisurely hobby of mine, but recently I have taken to surfing the net with a dictionary on hand. My dear German-English dictionary. For whom did I slog for? The above mentioned fussballer.

From my meagre knowledge of German and my inadequate dictionary, and English webbies from Yahoo!, I found out that he had just did a hat-trick in 20 min after coming on as a substitute in the second half.

My fettishes (is it supposed to be -es or just -s?)

By now, all my dear friends should know about my fettish for Aryans.
The blond-haired blue eyed defined facial features kinda guys.
This stemmed from some neo-Nazi sentiments... Ya, BUT THEN AGAIN, I must reiterate this point, I AM NO NEO-NAZI!!! many people think Im neo-Nazi, but I cant be one due to my Communist beliefs. Ya, hard to think that this girl is pro-Stalin, right? But I am... I still love Bismarck though, but Im drifting further and further from my original point. The blondes. Owen (and NOT Luke) Wilson, Brad Pitt, Leonardo DiCaprio. All Americans, probably of English descent, but I still like them. If you want an example of an SS kinda Aryan, that will be Oliver Kahn, German (to-be-retired) national goalkeeper. Now you know the reason for my soft spot for him.

Another fettish, the height.
1.82m or 6ft0.
I dont know why but I always thought that an ideal guy should be 1.82, no more no less. Anything more than 1.82 would be too tall, lanky, blah, and anything lesser than that made the person plain short. Maybe it is because 1.82 translate directly to a clear 6 feet and I like round numbers so that became a sorta fettish. Okay, after so much, the main topic, Miro is just nice standing tall at 1.82m. Okay, I liked him even before I found out that he was exactly 1.82, but anw...

Authoritarians.
Joan just has this thing for dictators!
From ancient Chinese emperors to dear Hitler, Joan does have a soft spot for them. Maybe its because power is aphrodisiac. Bismarck was also an authoritarian figure. The father of Deutschland, domineering even the Kaiser then. Stalin. Napoleon Bonaparte. Recently, I have also taken a liking to Robspeirre. Another thing about the authoritarians that make me like them even more, they are all dead. hehe...

The Eternally Depressed (or rather, Repressed)
Think Tony Leung in Wong Kar Wai movies. Those sad eyes and moody feel, that are all knee-droppers to little old Joan.
2046

All of Joan's fettishes, it is of no wonder she doesnt have a boyfriend...

5 Year Egg Plans

The price of chicken burgers in Fong Seng has risen by $0.50. No thanks to eggs...

As we all know (if you dont, 1-you are not Singaporean, 2-you have been living in a hole, 3-you are a strict vegan), we are currently facing an egg crisis. The prices of eggs has risen to such an exorbident amount that you might as well be eating sharks fin, okay, that is an exaggeration, but I think it really comes close. Not only eggs have become so expensive, even with money, you might also not be able to purchase them. Families are hoarding them; hawkers are snapping them up; big players in the food industry have their regular suppliers to count on, so where can little Joan get her daily dosage of 2 eggs?!

And it is not just any egg that I want, although I am getting more desperate by the day, I want to eat Seng Choon eggs! Or Chew's eggs! I want to eat Singapore eggs. I dont want to eat that tasteless Farmer Brown's eggs or whatever New Zealandic weird eggs, nor do I want to eat those disgusting Malaysian eggs, so poisoned with bird flu or Dr M disease. Okay, I am supposed to give Malaysia more face on the account of Badawi, but nothing can stop my passionate hatred for what is across the causeway... lagila...

In light of this crisis, this little egghead drew up a series of five-year plans to build up an egg-pire in Singapore, and if it's highly successful, I can export my eggs and one day replace all the egg farms there distributing eggs in Badawi's territory! hahaha! I will be Queen Mother Hen!

1. Accumulate capital
In the first of my five-year plans, I will be concentrating on the accumulation of capital for the start up of my egg farm and the scouting of interested parties to joint-venture with me. In these first five years, friends, dont be too upset with me if my mind is only on money, money and more money. It is actually quite expensive to start an egg farm. An egg farm is not really a high cost business, but start up costs is much higher than other businesses, just think that later costs would then be at a minimum.

Of course, there is an alternative to this five-year plan. The alternative version is to spend this five years snagging a rich rich husband who can provide me with the capital to start my Mother Hen Egg Farm. That way, the egg farm can wholly be mine and I need not worry about being cheated by unscruplous business partners.

2. Infant care for my dear Mother Hen Egg Farm
In this following five years, my dear egg farm would be at its most precarcious position and special care must be undertaken to ensure the survival and expansion of the farm. With the capital earned from the previous five years, I will open that farm. But I am prepared to to stay in red for these five years. Revenue earned from the selling of whatever eggs I produced will be channelled to research and development. I will be experimenting to produce the cheapest, healthiest, virus-immuned hens and eggs. And by the end of this five years, I shall be successful and finally be able to break even.

3. Aggressive expansion of my farm
This five years will be devoted solely to the expansion of my egg farm. Instead of a little egg farm, at the end of this five years, there will in place be a multi-storeyed high-rised egg farm built. This farm will house 5 million hens, produce more than 4 million eggs a day, enough to feed an egg to each Singaporean every day. This egg farm will be quite unlike other normal egg farms. My hens will be living in clusters of 150-200 in a cubicle, so I will be having 50 000 cubicles spread over 60-over floors. Maybe I can build it to say 80-90 floors with the ceilings to be lower than our normal ceilings since hens are much much shorter than humans. The hens will be allowed to roam freely in their clusters so that they can remain as healthy as possible. For the reproduction of little chicklings, I will have put aside another set of hens and cocks to do the job, they will probably be housed in another wing of the building and not be counted with the 5 million hens.

4. Crossing the seas and oceans
The next of my five-year plans will see me expanding my farm overseas. I will not only be exporting my locally-produced 4 million eggs a day, I will also be setting up egg farms all over the world, or maybe, just currently in the region. In the meantime, I will also be investing on further research and development to stay at the top of the egg industry. By this time, anyway, my net revenue would be billions a year, considering that eggs are an important aspect in our diets.

My eggs would not be affected by regional viruses and diseases as they are all quarrantined in their own clusters hence free from other birds either from the region or from the other clusters. Even if my hens developed some kind of virus or disease, I can just have that whole cluster of hens destroyed and thus eliminate the spread of virus to other hens in my farm.

Singapore will never have another egg crisis ever again!

I will never go without my 2-eggs-a-day ever again!

Hail to all egg-lovers in the world! May all egg-lovers in the world unite!

That Handphone in Your Pocket

Handphones as part of our lives

Do you think handphones have become an integral part of our lives? Or do you think we have become over reliant on them?

Im sure many times, we are all guilty of whipping out our phones to check the time even though we are wearing watches because we also want to check if we have any new messages or missed calls. And when the friends we are meeting are late for 30 seconds, we would without hesitating pull that trusty Nokia or Samsung out to text a whr r u message; and if they are late for like 2 minutes, it would be a verbal where are you question.

This evening I stood at the entrance of City Link Mall and counted the number of people who were using their handphones as they entered or exited the mall. In 15 minutes, I counted 176 people. And this number is excluding the people who were using their handphones around the MRT station but did not enter the mall, and it also excludes those people who held their handphones in their hands but did not use it. Use it as in either talking on the phone or messaging or reading a message.

Actually, Im also guilty of doing so. My handphone not only connects me with all my friends, its my alarm clock and watch; it also provides me with entertainment via radio and games, and when I figure how to use it better, it will also be my camera, video cam and mp3 player. Sometimes, I would also blog short messages of my feelings, my sights ot my emotions to later transfer over to my diary cos I can carry my handphone everywhere which I cant do that to my diary.

But to speak up for those 176 people I counted, the place where I stood could also be considered as an MRT station and there were many people waiting there. It is only natural for those people to call up their friends to rush them.

I didnt expect there would be this many people in city hall this evening. The steps were all occupied and the pillars and walls all had people leaning against them. I had a hard time finding a spot on the wall to lean.

Soci people, many you would like to do a project on handphones among teens? I cant do it cos IM NOT DOING SOCI!!! haha... I dont know why but everybody seems to be thinking that Im doing soci. So Im making it clear that Im not doing it and dont think that I will ever be doing it. haha...

Updates

Updates in Joan's life...

I havent been doing anything that I can include in Stupidity Symptoms.
I havent been able to access the internet from my room in PGP.
Wubai has a new album.
Wubai is staging a series of concerts in Taiwan. Someone fly me there!
Im back at home doing homework for my sis.
My sis lost her Samsung E700.
I have fallen in love with Lin Feng, a rich Hong Kong actor. He didnt get rich from acting, he got rich from his father. Like how envying... My dad says that since he couldnt provide me with luxury, I will have to find it myself via a husband. That is very sad... Cant I achieve success with my own hands? I dont know...
I love Dicky even more. He is better than even the little pink pill.
I have taken to eating sanwiches every day. Goumet sandwiches I mean, and its taking a toll on my little purse.
Champions League is back.

Shall We Dance?

Shall We Dance?

I just watched the trailer for the aboved mentioned film, starring Richard Gere and Jennifer Lopez. It seems like a really good movie, but will I spend $8.50 to watch the film in cinema?

Shall We Dance is a remake of the Japanese show of the same title, I can't remember who acted in it, but that show touched me deeply. The script was good; the acting was good; the dance was good; the soundtrack was good, so much that I can hardly find fault in it.

The story tells of a middle-aged, middle-class, white collar, mid-ranking average man who lives his days in a routine until one day while on the train home, he noticed a pretty, young girl dancing by a window. From there, this man developed a hugh curiosity of that dancing girl and would notice her everytime his train passes by that window. One day, he finally summed up courage to check what lay behind the window and the identity of the dancing girl. It turned out that behind that window was a dancing school, the girl was the instructor there and she taught ballroom dancing. In a mist of confusion, the man signed up for ballroom dancing lessons and learnt dancing without letting his wife know. There was actually nothing going on between the man and the girl, but well, most human thoughts are corrupted and we would always tend to think in a negative way.

In the Hollywood remake, Richard Gere plays the man and Jennifer Lopez plays the girl.

From the trailer I watched, it seemed that this remake was trying to follow as closely to the original as possible, but somehow, I didnt experience the feeling of being touched by the show, there was something seriously lacking in this remake.

Yes, Richard Gere's acting was stoic and I could feel his lonliness and craving for something new and different, Jennifer Lopez was as pretty as the original actress and I could feel her passion for ballroom dancing, so what went wrong?

After much thought, I think fault lies with Hollywood. As Shall We Dance is a show focusing mainly on ballroom dancing, it has a limited appeal among the audience. And we all know what a money-minded practical world it is like out there in America, so to widen the audience range, they pulled in big stars to act in the show and they will sell it as the show starring Richard Gere and JLo.

I am not condemning Richard Gere and Jennifer Lopez, to give them credit, they are good actors, but are they really suited to act in the show? The male protagonist in Shall We Dance is supposed to be a very very average Japanese middle-aged guy, so he should have equally average looks and my dear Richard Gere is just too stunning to take on that role convincingly. I mean who would believe that Richard Gere is lonely?! As for Jennifer Lopez, she is a great dancer, but she doesnt have the body of a ballroom dancer. No offense to her body, its great, really attractive, but too curvy for a ballroom dancer. Or maybe its because the original actress looked like a ballet dancer that I think that Jennifer Lopez is too big to take on that role...

I havent got the chance to hear the soundtrack for this remake, and for this show, the soundtrack really plays a very important role in dertermining its success, so I shall not say it straight out if this show well-worthed the $8.50.

But if you have yet watched the original version, I would go all out and recommend this film to you. Not for Richard Gere, not for JLo, not for anything other than a really good script.

So, Shall We Dance?

A Thank You and an Apology

Ummm...

Little old Joan forgot something really important... And that is to thank the person who created my problem and tried to solve it, spending much time burning little grey cells. Luckily, its solved for now! Thanks, Zhangting!!!

Another thing, I just realised that some people missed out on my public apology to Eugene in the gaedus yahoo group. So, Joan will make another public, this even more public than the one in the yahoo group, apology.

Joan Ang hereby sends out her deepest apologies to Eugene Leong for all the hurt and ridicule that she unsensibly caused upon him. She is now in deepest regret.

Ummm...

Netscape

Here is Joan posting for her first time from a netscape browser.

Before this, I have never even heard of Netscape, so I guess that is how ignorant I am.

So, what was the problem Joan encountered? Really, Joan still dont even know that answer. She only knew that there were some websites that she couldnt read, namely chinese ones, but the funny thing is that she could read some other chinese websites, so where did things went wrong? Ummm... Point to ponder. And there was the problem where Joan couldnt post her messages on her blog using trusty old Internet Explorer, so here she is at Netscape...

I hate computers.

I thought they were some objects that were made to make our lives easier, but after getting this laptop, I seem to be encountering more problems than before. But Im not saying that the trusty old PC I have at home is free from giving me trouble. That obsolete machine cannot connect to my wireless at home! It's like so amazing. I have a computer that cannot access the internet. And my sis com is not XP, so there was this whole lot problem that occurred ytd when I wanted her to send me a word document.

Note: It is just a WORD DOCUMENT

Basically, my sis couldnt transfer the file over to me via msn or email, then she realised that she couldnt even open the file on her outdated ME since my old com was also an XP. Enter dad who did something, I dont know what, and he managed to open that file. But he still couldnt sent the file to me via email. He even tried to copy the words from the doc and paste in his composed email, but poor me only received a blank email. Then he found out this ingenious but tedious way to send me the doc.

My dad made my sis copy and paste my word doc one paragraph by one paragraph on to msn to me. So I received my doc in conversation form, one para by one para. This is so absolutely pathetic!

Joan's plan for the rest of the month: (contact me if interested in joining me)
The Terminal (after a few months of agony, but Yanling, you still onz, right?!)
Raising Helen(a Kate Hudson show, nice and light-hearted, anyone???)
Kitaro (that musical genius is coming to Singapore!!! Anyone interested in going down to catch him in Suntec Convention Hall??? Tix $68, $108, $128, $148)

Somebody please save this girl from becoming a no-life entity!

TJ Revisited

I went back to TJ today.

I went back supposedly to get my stuff from my dear junior, but in fact it was to say hi to all those teachers I missed and wish them a happy teachers day, although its like rather belated, but anw... I met up with Chen Laoshi, Yan Laoshi, Mr Hasim, Ms Lim, Mr Thompsom, and Xu Laoshi. Missing from the list was Ms Leong. I just couldnt find her! How sad...

Security has been beefed up in TJ. The teachers room is now out of bounds to all except the teachers. There is this auto lock system in the door that can only be activated by a programme pre-programmed into the teachers ezlink cards. This makes me wonder, what about the teachers who drive? Anw, now in TJ all the teachers are carrying a card holder either around their neck or somewhere on their body.

Back to the teachers, Im pretty sure most of you are more interested in thow are the teachers rather than the degrading of the school. (apparently the new security system was proposed by the least favourite person in TJ, OM Chan, sorry Sheena) Well, let me start in order of time I met the teachers.

Chen Laoshi
She becoming prettier, cuter, and younger. I look older than her, makes me feel quite sad... Whoahahaha... She has this new hairstyle with bangs enhancing the brightness of her eyes and framing her small face, so cute, like a hamster... haha...

Yan Laoshi
I really dont feel like commenting about him. I mean, would you if you went to sch and this guy says hi and oh ya have you signed in?! Like come on?!!!

Mr Hasim
He is still as slack as ever. He was making his way away when I went to sign in at 1230, like how slack?! Apparently our dear Hasim is now relegated to teaching GP, but he says that it will only for this period of time, he would be back to teaching History soon (like in about 2 years time). And he is involved in planning of social studies and the history programme for the Temasek Integrated Programme. Well, wish him all the best in trying to worm his way around his apparent busy schedule... haha...

Ms Lim
She changed her specs again. It is now red and as eye catching as ever. Chatted with her about the dress code in uni and apparently, I failed her test. haha...

Mr Thompsom
Actually I was quite shocked when I first saw Mr Thompsom. He had a lot more lines around his eyes and on his forehead, and he seemed to have less hair than I remembered. He looked aged. Quite sad to think of it as so as it was only like 10 months since the last time I saw him and he looked a good say 3 years older. Anw, it seems like his history paper will be scraped in 2006, so its still an open ended question if he will still be around after that. Well, according to him, there is still other stuff he can teach, especially with the new integrated programme and such.

Xu Laoshi
Like all other Chinese teachers, after the revised Chinese language requirement, she has fewer and fewer students now... haha...

Really missing the school and all the teachers there...