boo! update
31/10/2009
It’s now 11:50pm, and the Halloween revelers are still well, howling outside. It’s another 3 muni stops to Castro, idiots!
Boo, humbug.
boo!
31/10/2009
Oh, guess what it’s Halloween again. This year it’s on a weekend, with a full moon, wonderful weather and the stock markets on their way up from the doldrums. The only thing working against it this year is the Bay Bridge is still closed.
I guess Halloween is the angmo 7th Moon equivalent. The problem is I’m trained keep away from the candy (much less give it out) and not open the door to strangers. If I had kids I’d have issues too – going door to door getting free candy. Psycho alert!!! If there’s one thing I learnt from my time here, is that while I’ve issues, there are plenty others with plenty more here.
True I am used to celebrating other cultures, so starting right now we’re going out to celebrate – with probably a nice meal, some shopping and a movie. We’ll be home late so don’t ring the doorbell.
back to the future
28/10/2009
As if heeding a chemical call in the air, my friends are, one at a time, slowly but surely, succumbing to the infliction known as pregnancy. It’s freaking ridiculous to see the number of babies and pregnant ex-classmates on Facebook. And of course, the million-dollar (these days, indeed) question rears its ugly head again. Am I missing out? Will I regret not reproducing?
I’ll admit that now I’m not as revolted by the idea than I am just unwilling to bear responsibility for another living thing. I like that I can just up and leave anytime I want. I like that I don’t have to worry about diapers and changing and nappies and night feeds. I love that I don’t have to work very hard. Yes, it would be nice to have a mini-me. But it’s a nice to have, not a need to have. At this point, perhaps I put my biological clock on snooze so many times it’s not going to ring anymore. I can live with that.
Just like all those years ago I declared I can live without continuing piano lessons. Some days I wish I can play something. Some days I wish I didn’t have to turn on iTunes for music. Most days though, I’m fine without it. My friends with kids tell me triumphantly that it’s different when it’s your kid. There’s something magical. It turns your life around, you’ll be happy. It’s natures way of dealing with post-purchase dissonance: instinct. No species will survive without instinct to multiply and ensure survival.
But it doesn’t stop me from thinking how I’d bring a kid up if I had one. (It often convinces me that I really shouldn’t, seeing how I took some 20something years to appreciate my childhood, and the even more severe lack of patience I have compared to my folks.) Theories swirl. I compare it to how I was as a kid. What I would do differently.
I will be the first to admit I led a semi-charmed childhood. No major complaints there. But I do wish I was more self-assured. I wish I was confident enough to disregard anyone else who didn’t matter. I wish I knew who really mattered. I wish I took myself less seriously. I wish I was confident of myself enough to have been more straight forward. I wish I was more steadfast. I wish I was more honest. I wish I knew myself better.
I wish I had said something to the bloke who sat next to me while we watched Back To The Future II. I wish I’d asked about him all those years later.
I wish I’d said something to the fat fella who gave me a clump of little blue rosettes. I wish I said something to the small-eyed classmate. I wish I could’ve called it quits with That Kid on my own terms. I wish I didn’t have to rely on The Geezer for growing up, but I suppose since I wasted my youth on him we’re even. I wish I took a stand with The Fanboy.
Ah well. What would growing up be, if it wasn’t rubbish to begin with?
So until I get hit in the face with an epiphany, the world’s best counter-argument or a heavy-handed case of hormones, I guess this status quo is what I am satisfied with.
Mr Sandman
22/10/2009
Mr Sandman,
Bring me a dream.
Make him the cutest that I’ve ever seen
Give a face like that Daniel Henney,
Would be nice if he had lots of money!
bracing for the remnants of a typhoon
12/10/2009
Raindrops on (not quite) roses, whiskers on kittens
The air has chilled and gone crisp, a stark contrast to the otherwise balmy weather we’ve had. It’s almost as if someone turned the A/C on again, suddenly.
It smells different. It smells of impending rain. It smells like this in December in Singapore. I love that, it meant Christmas and a lit-up Orchard Road, and days off, and the only time coffee ever smells inviting, and crowded malls.
Even when I’m 8,483 miles away, the sudden change in the weather triggers the same feeling. It’s actually very comforting, albeit a little premature this year.
Rain is a little different here than it is back at home. Rain here is usually a light affair, it sprinkles perhaps for the whole day, and is usually a forgettable affair.
Once in a while, it storms. That is what’s supposed to happen tomorrow. The remnants of Typhoon Melor that blasted through Japan a few weeks ago will pay California a visit, dumping snow on the Sierra Nevada and loads of rain everywhere else. Being from the tropics, storms don’t really faze us. We’re used to our tropical thunderstorms; we’ve probably even had to walk back from school through a few in our time.
Storms here mean something different. Bad traffic, really gusty winds going as fast as a car on a freeway, and my personal favourite – downed powerlines. I guess we’d never give it a second thought – blackouts hardly ever happen back home. The power comes back pretty quickly too. We don’t even see the power lines for goodness sakes! Over here, when it blacks out, it could be days before it’s restored, that’s if you live someplace rural. I don’t. But it’s also a little disturbing when you wake up in the morning and the tree you planted a few years ago on the sidewalk (that’s pavement where we come from) outside your home is now sprawled on the Prius parked in your driveway.
Don’t worry. I don’t have a big tree, and I don’t drive a Prius. I’m just painting sorta suburban picture of Lifestyles of the Green and Liberal.
Anyway. Long story short, it’s cold now. It’s going to storm tomorrow. I hope my power doesn’t go out, because I need my tv and my internet, but at least I am not worried about a tree falling over my car. Later, homies.
Yak! Deculture
09/10/2009
Spent a whole day watching Macross Frontier. I love the animation! Also I finally understand KF’s fascination to those Valkyries. Then we started on the SDF Macross* series, and man, it’s a throwback in time!
Anyway I found the traditional formula to successful Japanese dramas!
- Androgynous male protagonists
- Love triangle
- Lame-ass male with the unenviable task of choosing between two chicks and the lack of a spine rendering him unable to even try
- The shy cute chick
- The demure go-getter chick
The newer dramas are a little more quirky and less formulaic. Those are less predictable, blah. Anyway.
* Super Dimension Fortress. I just had to put that in to look all Macross geeky and cool.
groupy
02/10/2009
After being stuck in the late 80s – early 90s time warp for what seemed like pretty much forever, I finally found a band with my sort of tunes which is, wooo brace yourself, contemporary.
It also doesn’t hurt that the lead singer looks like Christian Bale (though it’s not a toss-up, I’d take a grouchy Brit Batman over a younger boy who sings in a fake falsetto any day).
Yay for me. Now I can listen to the Radio Ga-ga again.
