Karma Chameleon
30/03/2006
Did you catch My Name is Earl?
The half hour comedy with a very ugly Jason Lee playing some loser called Earl trying to reverse his karma deficit. Nice premise, we’ll see how the rest of the season works out.
KF has taken ill, and I feel a little flu coming on. It’s starting with my throat, it’s now a little sore, and I’m a little sleepy and tired, but I should be able to get through this.
I realise people only say “payback’s a bitch” when they’re 1. on a reality show and 2. on the losing end. Otherwise, someone else is the bitch.
Lately
29/03/2006
Had dinner with my friends from college today
And we were talking about old times – and how from each stage of our education, we kept in touch with a handful of friends.
I haven’t been too good with friends – I hardly see my primary school friend. I have not kept in contact with any of my secondary school friends. I only did reasonably well with my JC and college friends.
I’m one of the reasons why Friendster, Classmates.com, Facebook.com aren’t going to be superhits.
On a sidenote: Facebook should’ve sold out for $750million while they had a chance. They’re not worth $2billion. Not by a longshot. They’re not even worth $750m in my book.
The only reason why my friendlist on IM is populated is because I use it for work. It goes for my 360 profile – they’re mostly my work friends there.
Someone I knew some years back said history and geography don’t make a friendship. And he was absolutely right. I think that’s why I made friends at a faster rate outside of school – with my work/previous work friends, I found common interests. You don’t really have to interact for prolonged periods with people when you don’t want to, mostly because there is little social pressure to. Also you tend to realise that it’s just a job, and you can turn it off at the end of the day. So the people you hang out with, are the people you have fun with.
The people I met in school – though numerous – often fail the test of time. And when you distill it you’re left with the ones you enjoy your time with. Because you have things in common, or because you have similar views or priorities.
The problem is most times, people don’t re-evaluate their relationships. They rely on history. We forget that relationships evolve along with people and not everyone’s path is linear. Sometimes people grow apart. Which kind of explains why we end up asking ourselves what posessed us to spend our time with some people for years. The answer most of the time is it probably didn’t start out that way.
The way I see it, there are only so many things I can and want to focus my life on. And what I doesn’t simplify, I let go of. Sometimes it’s hard, sometimes it’s easier than we think it is. All you need to do, is make up your mind and do it.
Shedding baggage is the best thing you can do for yourself. And then, you’ll have time and energy for the people you really care about.
Anyway, Happy Belated Bday Mrs Chang, who doesn’t read my blog. See you and Sue in half a year.
Caravan
25/03/2006
It’s still a bad day
But it’s been made better with the Ricky Gervais show podcasts that KF downloaded earlier. It’s hilarious – but it’s not for everyone. Fans of The Office would probably find it interesting, though. Fans of our regular Itchy and Scratchy show at the office will also enjoy this. There are no fist/rocket/nerf gun fights, though.
The other amazing discovery I made this week was Yahoo! Answers. It’s really hard to describe why this product is so “addicting” – as some of the users call it – but let’s try.
The basic premise of Yahoo! Answers is this: someone asks a question, everyone jumps on in to answer it. To incentivise people to answer well, you get 10 points for getting picked as the Best Answer, as judged by the person who asked the question. The person who asks the question has to pay 5 points to ask, so that there are more answers than questions. Scratchy says that’s so that the product can be called Yahoo! Answers, not Yahoo! Questions. So crever hor!
You get points for participating in silly things, like casting a vote for what you think the best answer is, or for giving the best answer a thumbs up. If you’re the answer that got a thumbs up, you get points again.
So at the end – your score gets tallied – and you collect points to move on to the next level of expertise. So for example, everyone starts with 100 points. You need to get to 250 points to get to Level 2. So if you answer 15 questions and get picked as Best Answer for all 15, you’re there! Simple enough, innit?
Not until you see the questions that are asked.
And yet, I’m quite glued to it – mostly because I want to keep my score ahead of Eeevahn. We made a mad dash to Level 2 over the week, and now that we’ve reached it, and we need another like 800 points to get to the next level, we kinda lost steam. We’re just like cruising on now.
It’s sad, and juvenile, but it was sure fun. I get to go, hi – I’m so and so, Yahoo! Answers Level 2. This will bring positive effects to my sad life I’m sure.
Bad day
25/03/2006
I lost my mobile phone
Don’t call me from now till April, while I enjoy my time without a phone/sim.
In other news, I still have my iPod and a wicked heart, so all is not lost.
Beware the Ides of March
15/03/2006
How was your day today?
Happy Together
15/03/2006
Moving on
A bunch of people at the office are moving on. I can’t say categorically that I’m always sad about it, sometimes I’m elated. But the batch that’s leaving this season I’ll probably miss.
It’s a necessary part of life, I mean why shouldn’t people keep pursuing what they want anywhere else? It’s like growing up – it’s hard sometimes, it’s gradual and we do it in varying degrees. From switching service providers to breaking up, moving on happens all around us.
The fact of the matter is, when there is a bigger benefit somewhere else, people move on. It’s not mercenary, it’s not calculative. It’s just how things are. A bigger benefit is a relative concept, and that’s why sometimes it’s hard to move on – because the comparison triggers some sort of guilt.
I think it’s important to understand that there is always the option to move on. In relationships, in jobs, in phases of your life – it might not always be elegant, but to do it is what counts.
Free will, baby. Take it, it’s yours.
Sweet Home Alabama
12/03/2006
Went to the IT Show again today
Conclusion: I’m not going to get a Compaq. I probably never will.
Why: Because they advertised a notebook for $1,099 – some guy with a large signboard plied the hall – but when I got to the booth, it was nowhere to be seen. I kept being given the run-around by the salespeople. It’s there, said one. It’s back there, said another. It’s was freaking ridiculous.
What else: Saturdays are by far the worst days to go to fairs like this. Really.
Anything else
I’m looking forward to voting this year! Yay! Please, please someone contest in my ward.
I Wanna Be Around
11/03/2006
I was just minding my own business, listening to my music at work today when I suddenly started to pay attention to Tony Bennett who was crooning so sweetly. He sang me the funniest thing.
I wanna be around
To pick up the pieces
When somebody breaks your heart
Some somebody twice as smart as IA somebody who will swear to be true
As you did to me
Who’ll lead you to learn that misery loves company
Wait and seeI mean I want to be around
When he breaks your heart to bits
Let’s see if the puzzle fits
So fineAnd that’s when I’ll discover that revenge is sweet
As I sit there applauding from a front row seat
When somebody breaks your heart
Like you broke mine
You just gotta love a song like this.
Stuck in the middle with you
09/03/2006
This is going to be tricky – I’ve just one thought in my head – and I’m trying to upload another bunch of old pics onto Flickr. Ahhh… times gone by. Good times, though. I’m a happy camper.
Ever the telly-loser, I’m watching A Light Affair right now and I have to admit, this is tottering along the edges of my threshold for uncomfortable nails-on-a-chalkboard moments. It’s way worse than Curb Your Enthusiasm. Really. And the competition at the end is just the biggest anti-climax, ever.
But this is the interesting bit – do foreign men have an edge over their Singaporean counterparts?
I’d fear an angwee mob waiting for me if I answer that, but then again, my buddies who read this blog are happily adjusted, mature, dignified men. Hee.
Lemme just put it this way: my Singaporean born and bred male university classmates were probably shortchanged when they handed out sparks in the personality department. And this was fine and dandy, the norm.
Until I got a job in an MNC – and then I realised that the guys on tv with personality did actually exist! WAHHH!!!
Anyway, here are a few handy tips for a lost Singaporean boy:
- Get a sense of humour. Not the Stephen Chow toilet humour kind, please. Think The Office, The Tick, Arrested Development, Scrubs – ok. If that’s too hard, start with Friends, but don’t dwell on it.
- In fact, watch The Tick, Arrested Development, Scrubs and Friends. And for live examples of what to do or not do to impress a chick, watch The Bachelorette. Give A Light Affair a miss.
- The world does not revolve around NS. No one really wants to hear any more about your bunk mate, or RT, or what unit you were from or posted to, or whether you saw a hantu while training.
- The world also does not revolve around you. Don’t presume to be smarter or more sophisticated than some chick you’re going after, and don’t load up on the wine and cheese and expensive car and house trivia. Don’t insist on winning a conversation just to be right.
Instead, be attentive, and listen in on someone else’s opinion for a change. Just cos it’s a woman doesn’t mean she doesn’t have an opinion. And if you wanted company without an opinion, you should get a chia pet.
- Be interested in the world outside cars, football, golf and yourself. Read something other than Tom Clancy, John Grisham or Dan Brown. I’d recommend for Roddy Doyle, Salman Rushdie and my all time favourite Neil Gaiman.
I consider that my contribution to nation building.
Live long and prosper.
Minor Swing
06/03/2006
Been uploading some old pics onto Flickr
Man, time sure flies. But some things always stay the same.
Like how despite spending five years together, KF still can’t get my birthday right.
Getting cheap
I love shopping in Chinatown – you can get close to anything there, like
- Toilettries: dotted along Eu Tong Sen Street are tons of little toilettries stores which sell soaps, powders, shampoos and cosmetics for something like 20% or more less than what you’d get at the supermarket or the department stores. People’s Park Complex houses another truckload of them, and the newly refurbished People’s Park Textile Centre (the one behind Chinatown OG along Upper Cross Street) houses another bunch. It’s a fun place to visit especially if you’re the kind that needs retail therapy.
- Chinese herbs: the stuff you put in your soups for herbal teas can all be found here. It’s a no brainer, right. But the lovely bit is, the further you walk, the more choices you have, and the cheaper it gets. Always shop around. KF likes to get Luo Han Guo from the stores here. They store owners have varying opinions about which fruit are better, but generally, dark coloured fruit are riper, and they should be sort of bouncy. Anyway, you can get good ones at the medical halls down Smith Street, small ones cost $0.40 cents a pop, and medium ones about $0.50 each. If you like the drink, just wash one fruit, crack it in half, and leave it in a pot of water to boil. The longer you boil, the darker the liquid will get. 20-30 minutes is all it takes. You don’t have to add sugar, because it’s sweet. You can add in a couple of slices of American Ginseng (you can get it where you get the Luo Han Guo – sliced up, 400g or so for $16) into your cup as you spoon the hot liquid in, or boil the fruit with Chrysanthenum. KF drinks it straight. It is very low in calories despite the sweetness, and is suitable for diabetics, apparently.
- Household items: CK Department store has loads of neat plastic household items, like the little suction hooks, soap holders, dispensers, sponges, shower curtains, I’m sure you get the idea. I like getting those suction holders for holding up sponges and stuff in the kitchen. Those go for $1.90 each. I usually get my batteries (button cell, alkaline, that sort of thing), tissues, liquid soap (shokobutsu!) there. What you really don’t want to get there would probably be like shoes, underwear or bedsheets – stuff you really don’t want to skimp on.
- DVDs: during Chinese New Year, you can get some of the older Hong Kong movies for $7 a pop. Most other times they cost between $7.90 and $12.90.
It’s a good thing I work a couple of streets away from Chinatown.
