Wednesday, October 18, 2006

This is sorta fun. And funny


HowManyOfMe.com
LogoThere are:
2
people with my name
in the U.S.A.

How many have your name?

Tuesday, October 17, 2006

Get out of my face

You. Now.

Monday, October 16, 2006

Souvenir from sailing

I cut a big, long cut down the left side of my right foot while I was in the water. I think it happened as my foot hit a sharp rock when I jumped out of the boat from the bow. What a brainaic I am. I wasn't wearing any footwear too. Simply genius.

It started stinging only after I got out of the water. And I wondered why I was hurting and I looked down and saw heaps of blood. grossssss.

Now I am hobbling and have to be bandaged up for at least a week. The upside is wearing Birkenstocks to the office.

Saturday, October 14, 2006

It's all hazy to me


Bow wow 10.06

It's been a long time since I stayed at home on a Saturday morning. I'm normally out getting brunch, or at a yoga class, or running errands.

So it's kinda nice to stay in and read a book. But look at how disgusting the air is. And it's been giving me migraines for the past three days. I NEVER get migraines.

Anyway, this week has been a bitch of a week. I had to go on auto-pilot just to survive. Cannot use brain anymore.

Ok, all, have a nice weekend, and I'm off to sailing lessons.

Tuesday, October 10, 2006

Conversations I

Me: Hello! Can you help me take a new passport photo? I need to apply for some visa thing la.
Him: Wait a min.
Me: *waits*
Him: Use this la. *shows me a photo taken 2 years ago*
You look so young then.
Me: ....

Monday, October 09, 2006

Change is good

I don't think I am the melancholy sort. Not usually, anyway. But I've been thinking a lot about my life lately. I think it has something to do with the birthday.

Most of the time though, I am just restless and can't stand being the same or doing the same things for a long time.

So now that I am 30, I've decided to STOP doing a bunch of stuff that hadn't really been good for me.

  • Wear heels. Damn those freaking blisters.
  • Read or buy fashion magazines.
  • Be bitchy about things, mostly people.
  • Listen to people bitch about other people.
  • Spend $5 on coffee.
  • Drink coffee.
  • Compare myself to that girl who works downstairs.
  • Not cut my hair.
  • Put up with crapshit behaviour, especially rudeness and childishness.
  • Do something just cos someone says I must try it.

I'm sure I'll come up with more, but this will do for now.

I also have a list of stuff that I'll start doing. Why? Because I say so.

  • Listen to more jazz. None of that Norah Jones crap.
  • Spend more time with the dog.
  • Own fewer things.
  • What I own, I must LOVE.
  • Live without clutter. Related to point 3 and 4.
  • Help animals and women.
  • Use my brain first.
  • Practise consistency.
  • Eat more.
  • Pray.

Friday, October 06, 2006

Bye, Bye, Review

What a long week it has been.

New responsibilities, more work, but a challenge that I am really enjoying.

So, Far Eastern Economic Review has refused to say sorry or withdraw their remarks about Singapore. They are now banned from the country. I'll have to get my copy when I am at a foreign airport. Some of my colleagues feel that the Review had gone too far cos they did not come across as objective. It was too biased, they say. I think there is no such as objectivity in news but that's better left for another day. I think that by choosing to carry a particularly story on any topic (and not another), the editors are in fact deciding what is important for them. And they don't have to explain why. That is the purview - and privilege - as well as responsibility of the press. To have an agenda. To have an opinion. The best reporters are those who have a mind of their own and not afraid to use it.

I applaud the Review's decision. Rather than give in and apologise like many other magazines/papers/wires have, they choose to have their circulation rights here withdrawn. That speaks for something. Press freedom. We have been so brainwashed by the system that we think it's ok to stop people from writing anything on grounds such as "national security" and "economic progress". We are so tame that we feel offended when a reporter does not mince his words when criticising Singapore. After all, half the time, people don't criticise Singapore or do so with euphemisms or phrases that don't mean what they really intend to say.

So, the Review has written a long letter to its readers in its latest issue to explain why they can't get it anymore in Singapore and Mr Lee has come out to say that in Asia, "the countries which have been most successful at improving the lives of their people do not always have the most aggressive media... Each country will have to evolve its own model of the media that works for it."

And what do you get? A national paper that is ineffectual, a local press that bristles against the suggestion that it is part of the government, but which refuses to be anything more.

I don't know what Mr Lee means by "improving people's lives" but I think China has also used the same argument, about 30 years ago. Is that what we really want to be?

Wednesday, October 04, 2006

Cambodia, Aug '06


Angkor 08.06

Finally!!! And apologies. I didn't know the stone temples would turn out to be grey in photos. But I assure you, they are very very pretty.

Sunday, October 01, 2006

Moving back...

Erm, ok, I'm back. Nevermind. I'll backdate some of my posts.