Taiwanese snacks

Taiwanese snacks
Originally uploaded by Applecow.

Applecow took this picture of me smiling in front of the Taiwanese snack shop along Joo Chiat Road some time ago. I like this smile. I looked happy. Too bad I was in a grubby museum polo and nothing fancy.

We were just mucking around when R wanted to go eat smelly tofu. In the spirit of investigation, we decided to go in and try it out.

Verdict: Looks deceptively harmless. Mild. But I can't say I like it very much, or am even ambivalent about it. The tofu reminds me of Phuket. The fish port to be exact. Its another gray smell. I close my eyes and see heaps of rotting fish with their juices flowing out in the tropical heat. Flies buzzing around and settling on random slimy fish. Wellingtons squishing on mounds of marine creatures whose only mistake was to be in the wrong place at the wrong time.

Smelly tofu is depressing, man.

Mush flush crush

This is one of the nicest things anyone has said to me recently:

"You know.. we'll all be smiling at your funeral."

And I don't think he means it in a "Yay! The cow's finally gone! Time to paaar-tay!!!" way.

Before you panic, I'm not going anywhere for the moment. Like I always say. There are things to do, places to go. All after the thesis, dammnit. As Robert Frost puts it, I have promises to keep, and miles to go before I sleep.

Its just a nice revelation that friends think that way despite me being myself. Remember to have fun and don't moan! Oh yes. I'll be on that aeroplane over the sea.

You've been great. What would I do without you.


Awww... I have sweet friends. I love you too.

It also helps if I imagine Sir Ian Mckellen telling me in his Gandalf voice, "This too, shall pass."

So my dear cousin is in town this weekend. I haven't seen her for ages! She's here hoping to enrol in some Merchandising and Retail Fashion course at NAFA. I hope she makes it. Its fun having her around. We were lamenting about over our lack of (slim) ankles, which upon close inspection, seems to be inherited from my mom's (and her dad's) branch of the family tree. Dangit.

Dad keeps mistaking her for me. Just yesterday, while everyone was waiting at home for me to come home, dad cut a plate of fruits and offered her some. After half an hour. He looked at the clock and asked ma.. "Its almost 6pm why isn't PY here yet"

Erm.. hellooo?!?!?! My old man can't recognise me. "-_-

We even have matching spots! LOL

Do we look similar? I reckon its the glasses. Its new by the way! Picked out by Mingko and Reuben. Because I can't be trusted with my own taste, even if my life depends on it. They said its time to go metal despite my initial partiality to brown tortoise shell frames. Being geeky is out. Apparently the side design bit is all the rage now. Yay. Hip quotient goes up by .24 points. My prescription went up to. Not so yay... :(

Words to live by

...And one day we will die
And our ashes will fly from the aeroplane over the sea
But for now we are young
Let us lay in the sun
And count every beautiful thing we can see
Love to be, in the arms of all I'm keeping here with me

What a beautiful face
I have found in this place
That is circling all round the sun
And when we meet on a cloud
I'll be laughing out loud
I'll be laughing with everyone I see
Can't believe how strange it is to be anything at all

In the aeroplane over the sea ~ Neutral Milk Hotel

Over tea with A earlier, we got talking about our childhood electronic games. He's not heard of Western Bar! Oh, the travesty. He does own the classic 2 panel Donkey Kong Game & Watch, so I guess that's kinda cool too. I used to own a Popeye Panorama Screen Game & Watch. It was the bee's knees! Colour screen! If I had known you can sell it for so much money 15 years down the road, I would have kept it. :(

Anyone remember this?



The first game I mastered on my Sega Genesis!

I also played Shadow Dancer, the really lame (not to mention gay) Moonwalker and Sonic the Hedgehog until the machine could no longer withstand the daily rough and tumble tussle of three kids fighting to gain control of it and died.

Mom decided that she didn't want to deal with that, and having to lock it up during critical periods (exams) because we'd always find its secret hiding place and did not get a new one. It also didn't make us smarter like we promised. Boo.

I'd love to play Golden Axe again! Who has it?

I don't feel like dancing

OMG. The new Scissor Sisters single is out and its blardy brilliant!

A fun mish mash of camp 70s disco rock, with catchy chorus and disco laser sounds!

Yay! Can't wait for the album! :D

To preview (and make up your mind whether I am right or simply loony), click here.

Remember the mysterious pong?

Well... guess what I found today while looking for something on my desk.



AAAAaaaaargh!!!!!!!!!!

Its a good thing I haven't been sitting at my desk.

This reminds me of the BBQ newt in Spirited Away.

Now excuse me while I go spray more lysol on the spot.

Think I'm falling apart.

Ill today. Sore throat.. head ache, feel like puking.

And my eyesight has gotten worst. Was standing 50m from the LCD display on the train platform the otehr day and I couldn't make out the numbers on the screen!

Am off to Queensway to get my eyes checked. I wish I can afford Lasik. Would be nice if I can wake up and see clearly for a change. I've had myopia as long as I can remember. Glasses since Pri 1, and many of my baby pictures show me squinting, forehead furrowed. I'm almost blind without aid now.

Hope I won't end up doing a DW. She was in the midst of thesis writing when one of the vessels in her eye popped!!!! Damn those mircoscopes and endless photoshop editing.

Guess its not a priority now. Got to pay debts and save up for Life After Graduation.

Anyone got a get rich quick scheme?

The easy peasy 5 min Machiavelli cheat sheet.

Sounds familiar to me.

Science for the busy person

Up till a week ago, I've only subscribed to two pod casts. The MrBrown Show and Gilles Peterson in Brasil

The other day, Fat Freddy forwarded to me a New Scientist Podcast about a new theory regarding the collapse of Easter Island civilisation. He knew I'd be interested since the last book I read was Jared Diamond's Collapse.The podcast series can be subscribed and downloaded via itunes! I may be a latercomer to the scene, but I think it's brilliant! 30 minutes, science news on demand, and very general topics. Since then, I've investigated Nature and Scientific Amercian podcasts, but I am partial to New Scientist. Not surprising, since I do prefer New Scientist magazine over the other two.



Enough of science news for the day now.. I'm hoping over to BBC radio.... I'm sorry I haven't a clue!

Its that time of the school year again, where groups of bright eyed, bushy tailed freshmen are taking part in all manners of 'orientation' activities throughout the campus.

Yelling at the top of their voices, playing stupid camaraderie building telematches. And generally having fun. Bah.

Is the matric fair still on? Walking from the AYE, I was approached by a girl holding some printed leaflets.

"Excuse me, are you a freshman?"

*cough*

"Nope."

Maybe they're instructed to let no one pass before a verbal inspection.

This reminds me of another time a couple of years ago when I was having lunch at YIH with SP. We shared tables with two undergrads who asked tentatively mid lunch "excuse me, are you a senior?"

SP and I almost choked on our noodles.

"Er.. yeah.. I'm in year 7 Science"

"Oh, ok (*confused look. got 7 years degree course one meh? must be stupid*).. we're studying engineering"

"Erm.. well done."

That's what the orientation camps do to you! They welcome you to this big uni filled with faceless names and nameless faces and make you feel like you're just what the university is missing, where have you been all the seniors' lives etc etc. The poor dears then try to strike up a conversation with some grumpy old people who just want to get on with lunch and realise that beyond the 'Let's all be friends!!! orientation camp', no one's really into you.

Welcome to University. ;)

P.S Don't go hogging the seats at Spinelli's at Uni building dressed in your moth eaten hall clothes and smelly slippers!