its RAINING!!!. its raining its raining its raining! big big heavy rain! omg *dances around madly* ha as i'm typing this the rain has "thickened" such that my bishan-park balcony view is seemingly covered by white gauze. i love rain- the more violent the better.

no more bush fires! ha! take that, mr. sun. the soil will also load up with moisture. green grass, muddy soil, cooler temperatures.. (its pretty humid right now, actually. plus the ozone smell. pwuew.)

alright. the novelty of rain has passed. get interesting news here.

do the quiz here. some i just anyhow click which one i feel looks nicer. heh.

Your Brain Usage Profile:

Auditory : 40%
Visual : 60%
Left : 33%
Right : 66% (i'm a left-hander! cool.)

Alexis, you possess an interesting balance of hemispheric and sensory characteristics, with a slight right-brain dominance and a slight preference for visual processing.

Since neither of these is completely centered, you lack the indecision and second-guessing associated with other patterns. You have a distinct preference for creativity and intuition with seemingly sufficient verbal skills to be able to translate in any meaningful way to yourself and others.

You tend to see things in "wholes" without surrendering the ability to attend to details. You can give them sufficient notice to be able to utitlize and incorporate them as part of an overall pattern.

In the same way, while you are active and process information simultaneously, you demonstrate a capacity for sequencing as well as reflection which allows for some "inner dialogue."

All in all, you are likely to be quite content with yourself and your style although at times it will not necessarily be appreciated by others. You have sufficient confidence to not second-guess yourself, but rather to use your critical faculties in a way that enhances, rather than limits, your creativity.

You can learn in either mode although far more efficiently within the visual mode. It is likely that in listening to conversations or lecture materials you simultaneously translate into pictures which enhance and elaborate on the meaning.

It is most likely that you will gravitate towards those endeavors which are predominantly visual but include some logic or structuring. You may either work particularly hard at cultivating your auditory skills or risk "missing out" on being able to efficiently process what you learn. Your own intuitive skills will at times interfere with your capacity to listen to others, which is something else you may need to take into account.

greetings! i haven't been posting much because there's nothing much i can post. life is pretty mundane right now. oh and i've started another blog! its called The SG Food Blog. charkwayteow.blogspot.com cos char kway teow is synonymous to s'porean food. hope you guys can see the pics there cos sometimes it doesn't show up and i'm too lazy to upload them elsewhere *sheepish grin*

go on, check it out!

the powers of photoshop, makeup, concealer and nice clothes. just to let you know, the absolute gorgeous, super sexy and "talented" britney is also human.

from this

and this.

to all this.

oh man. sometimes celebrities are really a league among themselves. photos courtesy of Go Fug Yourself. and look at her in the most viewed category. unbelievably gross. what happened, britney?!

still so hazy after the rain yesterday. the sun looks like the duck egg my mum puts in the mooncakes, so fantastically red in a sea of haze. wonder what's the PSI. i can still remember back in 1997 when they posted the PSI at the corner of the tv and it went up and down like the stock market. there was a strong breeze during the late evening though, it blew until the jigsaw puzzle picture in my room fell down. but still very hot. grr.

have you ever seen a real mint leaf before? well, i've seen the flower of the mint plant! power!

damn cool

anyway i was just cleaning out my drawer when i discovered many items that made me take that trip down the memory lane..

primary school stuff, those. remember the erasers? the guys used to play some flicking game with it using the thumb and the eraser that is able to flip on top of the opponent's wins. the 2nd pic shows my collection of those cool pencil thingys that you can refill but putting the "bullets" into the hole at the tip of the pencil. mechanical pencils? bah. anyway don't they look pretty :) and the third pic is the cards that i found in a plastic bag. real vintage stuff- there's old maid, donkey and happy family! hahaha those games are soo standard.

yeah and i found some star stickers too. used to crave for them on my assignments during pri sch just like every other kid in class. super vintage. 2nd pic shows a wonderous invention. an automated pencil-sharpener! how cool is that?! haha too bad i dun use pencils. love to try the rotating blade again. 3rd pic, the fishies are outside the balcony. liked how they look in the pic.

ok, late-night blogging done.

that's when hokee's buns come in.

the weather now reminds me of the times when i was studying for As. for some reason this yellow-hazy rainy weather and temperature brought me back to nostalgia. to times when we sit at the hard canteen benches, staring at the notes in front of us as it drizzled. to the times in the library, freezing but still trying to stare at the notes in front of us. to soft conversations between us admist the muffled noise in the library, the feeling of being right in the same pile of shit. this peace, the serenity, the calm of heart.

i miss my classmates and friends so much. staying Home Alone is like being quarantined from fun, laughter and company. all of them are busy with their own lives, busy earning money so that they can spend it on materialistic stuff, diving so eagerly into the working world when they are going to be there soon enough for the rest of their lives. i don't get it. why work? why not just, for once, take a breather from everything? if everyone can do it then this 7 months would be great. wat fun is it if you are the only person that is free during this long break?

but then again, its just one of my rants. i wish i'm working too. not because i want the money but cos i want something to do. but i'm so picky. guess i'm a person with high standards regarding everything.

tuesdays with morrie had been a joy expounding on the meaning of life. however, cynical me thinks that without working for money to accomplish a certain level of materialistic comfort, one will not bother to think about other stuff like community, relationships etc. that's why the book is more suitable for pple with too much money and no life to spend it.

my oh my, a new page layout! haha lets see how it goes. picture courtesy of deviantart. wonderful.

my ah ma there busy preparing for the offerings to mr. tnih gong (Sky God). its a yearly tradition for my elders (namely my ah ma and parents) to prepare for such an altar every year on the stroke of midnight of lunar 9th. it is supposedly "ren ri", meaning the birthday of mr. tnih gong and so everybody else's birthday. or something liddat. i'm actually quite fuzzy over these stuff cos most of the time they just do what they do every year and i'll look on with detached interest.

the smell of incense is getting to my nose. actually its quite sad how these tradition thingys are gonna be gone soon, since its very very unlikely that our generation is going to continue with such time-old practices. but such practices are tied with their religious beliefs and as such i believe young singaporeans are divided into 2 major groups. the christians and the free-thinkers. oh yar, there's another one about the tnih gong which was bigger scale i think. then my grandma will buy 2 sticks of bamboo and dangle it over the balcony. and burn loads of incense paper and contribute to the CO2. (incidentally the kyoto agreement started today. a good move!)

oh i really liked this ad on tv about drugs one. if i'm not wrong its directed by royston tan. very nicely done, sort of like a mini Fifteen (which i watched, btw, courtesy of kazaa. haha!)

oh yeah, Genius Loves Company by Ray Charles is real good stuff. as well as At the Movies by Nat King Cole. thanks jm! ha. 9.90 at That CD Shop. i adore the oldies stuff, they are so different from today's angry, metal-ish tracks. they are instead mellow, laidback and loving. a reflection of the change in times?

hahaha. Pic(g) of the day! OMG imagine taking a tissue out of a pig nose to wipe things coming out of YOUR nose. mwahaha.

i'm contented with life.

actually, really, i am. these days i have plenty of time to reflect (since i'm jobless again) and was quite amazed at how easily contented i can be. i may be bored sometimes, but the days pass by surprisingly fast. i go online, chat with my friends, shop, listen to music, read the papers/books, go for prata, blog.. and i also had time to think about what kind of future do i really want, or envision myself in. its quite hard and i haven't had an answer to it. what kind of job will i want to have next time? after university, then what? its still a big big unknown. its like the edge of a huge chasm. you are approaching the edge and soon you'll fall down to it, but right now you have no idea how the bottom looks like.

on a totally different topic, look at the amount of lip glosses i have! almost every brand conceivable is there. i just lack MAC's lipglass, stila's 2-ended gloss and lancome's famous juicy tubes to complete the collection. its amazing haha but i love them all. now i just have to go out more so that i can use them *winces*

just completed Amy Tan's The Bonesetter's Daughter. her style reminds me of Adeline Yen Mah, author of Falling Leaves and Chinese Cinderella. preferred this novel to Joy Luck Club. i quite liked this kinda asian writing, like Catherine Lim, Adeline and Amy Tan. the issues they talk about are closer to where we came from. liked Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd too, its in the era where the blacks in America are starting to gain civil rights. reminds me of To Kill A Mockingbird. anyway i've so many books that i wanna read.

Wild Swans: 3 daughters of China by Jung Chang
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon
The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger
Jasmine Nights by S.P. Somtow
From the Land of Green Ghosts: A Burmese Odyssey by Pascal Khoo Thwe
A Fortune-Teller Told Me : Earthbound Travels in the Far East by Tiziano Terzani
Vanity Fair by William Makepeace Thackeray
Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad
Tuesdays With Morrie by Mitch Albom
Angela's Ashes: A Memoir by Frank McCourt
Life and Death in Shanghai by Nien Cheng
Life of Pi by Yann Martel

i'm think there's more but right now i can't remember. anyway i'm thinking of listing down all the books i've read in my life but sounds kinda daunting to cudgel my brain for so much details. maybe i'll try.

i wish i can own every book i've read, sort of like what my lit teacher mr. dio had. its like owning some part of a person, the author, a bit of their life and experience. kinda like brain-collecting, in a more refined manner. its a worthy investment too. there's so much out there waiting for me to bring home. somehow owning and having a borrowed book is just different.

ladies out there, here's a treat :)

mr. pan

wing's hubby, mr. alexander wang

my fav. himbo and cutie, julian hee

keanu is sexy

depp is intense

utterly gorgeous! omg!

since its v-day, i've came up with a poem. its cliche but i think the metaphor is apt. hope you all liked it.

love is like a rose
slowly it grows
with thorny issues close.
watered with care, concern and nutrients overflow

it springs to a glorious bloom.
luscious deep dark red passionate without gloom.
in that instant it is petal-perfect
god showing off when he made it without defect

but love will wither like the rose
it will not be forever
it is a short burst of everything, of intoxicating scent, velvet touch and bursting colour. then,
nothing.

only brown shrivelled crumble
with seedlings to sow
waiting for the next love to grow.
nothing is forever.

it rained today! but the grass will still be quite yellow i think. so sad.

anyway work is fun, but not fun. the not fun part of work is when i have to talk to pple, after careful considering of their eligibility to my agenda. i have to persuade, cajole, even plead with them to get them to fill up a bloody form with only 3 questions. i have to be smiley and friendly even though i don't feel like it and it sucks.

then again, its fun cos i had rux with me, so we can pass time slacking, telling "jokes" (read her entry) and pple-watch together. and talk super funny stuff. here's a sample..

(rux commented something about a non-chinese)

ME: "eh, you should go and join track and field."

RUX: "huh?"

ME: "cos you are a racist."

RUX: -_-||| "lame la you!"

ME: "no not lame! lame already cannot run and be racist."

me and rux were laughing about how guys check out girls. seriously, its hilarious. the appraisal, the craned-necks, the ogling eyes.. *guffaws*

anyway happy valentine's day to all, in advance. i'll be in town on the 13th feb, working. feel free to msg me for my location and pop by with a nice v-day present for me. HA!

oh ya, did i mention? i'm doing a 2-day job. citibank rdshow. get pple to fill up name, ic and contact nos. then we get moneny. err. ya that's bout it.

its friggin hot! there's this huge bird who peed in town today cos we felt a drizzle but it was gone in seconds so we concluded that its not rain. just giant bird with huge bladder. omg. that means we are "blessed" with pee. whoopee.

i have to go concuss. love ya all!

ok i'm back to being kuai le! :) previous post is being entered in extreme boredom and feeling of inferiority cos i'm deprived of visting on CNY. but then again i figured i would be complaining even more if i'm to travel miles to someone's house to stone and watch inane shows on tv. plus, do you remember when's the last time it rained? it seemed like forever ago, seeing that all the grass i've seen are in a very unbecoming shade of yellow. haha this is definitely not chun tian.

today was quite fun. went out to meet geri and zq at PS with the intention of ogling at keanu reeves (ok, only me) in Constantine. wat's more, uncle brown raved about it, so i was really itching to catch it. but seems like there are plenty of pple out there who also don't have relatives to visit, since PS is literally crawling with pple though all the shops are closed. i think singaporeans' no.1 activity during public holidays is to watch movies. xmas, new year, cny etc. that's why i'm willing to bet mr.neo's movie is going make big bucks, even though it features sharon au, whose acting skills makes me cringe all the time. directors out there, be smart. release a low-budget, sitcom-ish movie with mediocre acting, bad language and a happy ending during the festive periods. nobody cares anyway, they are only looking for something to occupy their time.

its weird to take the mrt today. there seem to be a difference in the people's attire, the clothes they wear. actually its not really that obvious, but for some reason i can feel the "newness" of the clothes around. the clothes are definitely gaudier too, as if those in transit to the next place of visit are trying to grab attention, shouting "me me me! ang bow here!" definitely about a 30% increase in the number of red tops.

spent last night playing mahjong with my siblings. ah, the advantages of having 3 other siblings of sensible age. haha my youngest bro and sis are still learning though, so my dad became the "advisor" to them. its quite fun actually. dad gets to play too and so we were all not as bored. haha and i sort of won big-time, like 5-fold and 4 fold in 3 games, only we are not playing money! damn.

anyway, the lame caption contest thingy is closed. the 4 daring persons who tried it will receive a mandarin orange from me. if you want it, remind me to bring next time for u when we meet ;) thanks for taking part!

photoshop contest! interesting. oh yar, try the hardest riddle on earth!. its really... wtf.

CNY shd be renamed "Lets Get Fat Together Festival". the amount of sugar, cholesterol, fats, car-bo-hydrates (see? ur leg no water liao!) and permitted flavourings rockets sky-high during this spring festival. its a vicious cycle. first we have the reunion dinner, where it'll be rude and preposterous to NOT eat until your heart's content, cos its The Dinner of the year for the chinese. so its a natural pig-out. MSG? check. Salt? check.

then we have the snacks. lets see. out of the pineapple tarts, loveletters, mandarin oranges, bak gwa, mini spicy prawn roll, sweets on the 8-sectioned platter.. only the mandarin oranges bears any semblance to un-junk.

then we have the drinks. its all packeted drinks, can drinks, drinks from the bottle.. all sugar-infused and very bad for your kidney.

plus, weather very bad. never rain at all, so hot.

anyway i'm just complaining cos i got stuck at home all CNY. i actually dislike this holiday, but not too much cos its a holiday, still. all we do is stay at home and rot. my mum's relatives are in m'sia. my dad's relatives are in china. only my dad's sister, that's my aunt, comes to our house to visit, cos her mum is living with us. and that's end of story. hoW SAD :( i din even get to wear the new yr clothes that i painstaking bought.

maybe tmr will be better.

and due to the very lukewarm response to the caption contest, i'm all the more even saddddder :(

this was a sweet ending to a normal, small-scale homecooked reunion steamboat. feeling very satiated now and satisfied, of course. quite surprised at the quality of the ice-cream actually, it had surpassed my expectations and had tasted quite like venezia's r&r. some thailand brand called Cremo. their cone ones are going 2 for 1 buck, while these lil' tubs of heaven went 3 for 4 bux. pwhoa! and how did i know? haha cos i went last minute CNY stocking, or what we call ban nian huo with my dad at the nearby supervalue hypermart called Sheng Shiong at about 1am in the morning. actually its more of my dad telling me, "eh, we are going there to buy some stuff now, get ready."

so i went, like the dutiful daughter i was. (actually cos the rest of my siblings are safely in bed and had school. i was slave cos i'm still very much awake and unemployed. haha.) my dad's theory was that going at this time, you can find parking space, there's no crowd, and you can shop in peace. afterall, they are open the whole night. so we drove there and he started stocking up on the mandarin oranges (damn nice, they shd replace oranges. they are super sweet, juicy, and easy to peel.) and the kam jwui. haha i think he bought enough for an army. about 10 dozen. that's 240 packets of sugar water plus assorted cans of carbonated fizz and fermented wheat. and the ice-cream of course, going at such a steal. i think my dad's inner auntie is coming out :S

anyway, Happy Chinese New Year!

PS: the caption contest is still on! faster quick add ur entry. dun so hum!

i had a weird dream 2 nights ago. i seldom dream, but when i do they are such ridiculous stuff i wonder how i came up with them subconsciously. anyway, i dreamt that there was this pink dolphin in my toilet (not the drink, the real dolphin) and whenever i flush, it will not swirl with the water at the surface but be still in its watery depths. then something about my sis in the states having a swimming pool, so we decided for the good of the dolphin to transport it there. the swimming pool was enormous and filled with seawater so that the dolphin can frolick in its natural environment. then something about it giving birth to a few babies, then all the dolphins died because the weather there was unsuitable.

weird, huh.

my dad is spring cleaning now. helped him throw away loads of stuff but my house is still filled with junk. but well at least its slightly less cluttered now. my dream is to have a minimalistic home with a smooth black floor and blue windows. a white coffee table. a cream sofa. flat-screen tv. doors painted bright pink, green, yellow.

i wore my green-coloured contacts out yesterday. it was really quite alright, looked more natural(unnoticeable) than i had expected. it was a deep murky army kinda green. i was afraid i'll look like a cat.

i realised that i can't be bothered to capitalise my words when i type, ala e.e. cummings. for some reason i find small letters more endearing than capital letters. i especially liked the "i" and would die if you ask me to use "I". the small one had a dot on top, looking as if you are standing with your head on. the big "I" just looks like a poser no.1 and seem to emphasise big-headedness. gee.

i passed my guzheng exam. going to continue on to grade 7 after CNY.

was thinking in bed yesterday about principles that i'll live by, and i've come up with a few:
moral #1: if you are nice to me i'll be nice to you. if i'm nice to you and you take it for granted, well, screw you.
moral #2: i know who my real friends are, so don't try to bullshit and give me hypocritical crap.
moral #3: i want to try as many things as possible at least once in my life.

to add to the festive cheer, i'm having a Caption Contest! try to come up with the best caption for the picture below and enter your caption in the comment link. best caption will get a mystery prize from me. give me humour! give me wit! lame, funny, serious, corny, weird.. give it a shot! contest closes on feb 9th, CNY itself.

click here for chinatown! :) it was fun.

wanted to write but was distracted by mr.brown again, this time due to the "enlightened despot" (pronounced des-po!) issue. haha he's like the daily newspaper for me already.

i woke up at 9 today! as in, woke up and left my bed! OMG!

ya, so where was i? oh yes. i finally went out today! woooohooo! hahaha yeah so that's why i'm so cheery now. it was a good going-out day. the weather was slightly hot though but who cares. yep so i met rux and went to Cow Car Water (the stop after clarke quay mrt, savvy?). it was full of the new year atmosphere! ooh gonna return tmr again with rux armed with our metal snapping boxes to try and eat up some atmosphere for you guys!

anyway, i've cut my hair! well that doesn't seem that amazing, but the thing is, its my shortest ever hairstyle! hahaha. yep its getting shorter and shorter. lol i think i'm living up to the name of being The Girl With A Million Hairstyles that fab gave me. one day i shall do a pictorial chronicle of all the styles that i've tried, if i am that bored. but! back to my hair. yes. haha cropped it at Mine's Salon at chinatown. i like my hairdresser she rox. so, are you wondering what alexis' shortest-ever hairstyle look like?

*drum-roll*

ok, kidding! haha. but got similarity. if u look real hard..

tadaa! comments?

so after that we went to town so that we can smell bathing gels and bubble baths. dun ask me why. then we went to boat quay and sat down to a very very nice riverside dinner at a asian/seafood restaurant. too bad our wallets were limited, but rux's choice of food was spot on. taufoo and prawns in gravy sizzling on a pan, garnished with carrots, mushroom and egg stuck on pan. i regretted choosing the tomyam, it was not that yammy cos its spicy! but damn shiok eh. anyway its quite interesting too because we were flanked on both sides by tourists. one was a beer-guzzling, seafood-eating bunch of japanese men, the other side was a middle-aged european couple who seemed to get served by dumb waiters/waitresses. they should really get someone who can speak proper chinese for these kinda touristy restaurants. it sounded like a chicken and duck exchange. haha. walked around the whole quay area, saw debbie, saw SPGs, saw pple telling us its ladies night...

after that we went home.