eat your words

Image via Wikipediafor some weird reason, i had a sudden mental outrage against lip sync-ers. i used to be neutral on this issue, or rather apathetic. because let's face it, it's pretty pathetic and not really worthy of the effort wasted on processing an idea as daft as that in my head.

but today i just felt... angry. so i was watching the evening news, on the chinese channel, and they showed these bunch of celebrities (in the chinese community) at tian'anmen singing. apparently they were celebrating the "milestone" of 100 days before the official opening of the beijing olympics.

firstly i just thought it was stupid to waste money on such a publicity sham. it's not like the olympics has already started. no amount of positive publicity is going to change the public's perception of all their other daft ideas such as the "flame protectors" who were really plain clothes police exercising their non-existent jurisdiction in foreign countries. they might as well have sent some fighter jets over just to be "safe" right? in case some terrorists tried to steal the olympic torch to create some terrible weapon of mass destruction.

ok so these singers were obviously lip sync-ing. i mean they weren't even trying to make an effort to sync it. it was so obtrusively out of sync that i was flabbergasted. i mean if they were gonna spend that kind of money inviting all those people, they should at least give the people who turned up there to see it their money's worth right? why don't they have faith in their own vocal prowess? i'm not sure if i remember correctly, but the last time i checked, those people sang for a living?

imagin eddie vedder, robert plant, ian gillan, etc. lip sync-ing, it would almost gurantee to cause an instant riot. so can someone remind me why are these people lip sync-ing again?


+listening to: monkey business by bonnie raitt

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free cone day

went to get my certificate of non-criminal conviction at the police cantonment complex in the morning. i must say the building sure looks pretty big and grand and all, but nothing much seem to be going on. there was literally no one inside save for the security people at the entrance.

contemplated on going to town for a free ben and jerry's cone, but then decided against it. besides the fact that i have not fully recovered from my cough yet, i have a problem of going up to the counter at the scoop shop and telling the nice lady behind the counter "hi can i have my free cone please?" it just seems rather... vulgar. i dunno why.


anyways for those of you who are going to get a free cone, good for you. just so you know, satan created ben and jerry's, ben cohen (co-founder of ben and jerry’s) already had a quintuple bypass at the age of 49, burt baskin (co-founder of baskin robbins) died of diabetes, and you're probably gonna die the same way too. now go have yourself a nice free cone.

Bon Appétit!


+listening to: soul serenade by the derek trucks band

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same old same old

woke up feeling the monday blues again, i think it's in a diminished minor key too. that basically sums up the overall tone.

there's homework piling up: yes i have to complete a stack of ludicrous tutorials before i can even attend classes in uni, that's on top of the placement exam they're gonna throw at me once i get there. and i thought going to uni would be fun, looks like the real "fun" hasn't even started. bleh...

and then there's all the immigration nonsense that i have to take care of, the F1 visas, the I20 forms, financial statements, health/immunization forms, blah blah blah. the list just goes on. i'm staring right at it and i have absolutely no intention of doing anything about them until the absolute last minute. i'm not being lazy, if you were me you'd do the same.

i still have a week ahead of me of rest before my students return from their mid term vacation. i don't feel much energized at all. in fact i'm dreading every moment that i'm awake wasting my life away. i need to go to sleep, at least i won't feel so guilty that way.

watched P.S. I Love You yesterday. a pretty nice flick though love movies are not really my type of thing. i just saw it out of curiosity. and iron man comes out on wed 30th april, can't wait any longer. i hope it doesn't disappoint like some of the previous big name adaptations.

that's it i'm going for a nap until dinner. in the words of the velvet revolver song slither (with certain words substituted):

yeah, here comes the nap
it' comes to wash away the guilt of you and i
this time i sleep...

peace.


+listening to: light of the moon by steve vai

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the end of a chapter, beginning of another

tourney season official ended today. what can i say, it's been one hell of a ride. as with any good roller coaster rides, there are ups and downs, but overall i'm pretty happy with the outcome.


it's by no means measured with scores. they mean nothing to me, only the indication of certain temperaments on match day. the team has come a long way since the beginning of the year and i'm really glad that i could play a part in helping to mold this team. like i've said this is a sport where you can only go forward if the line has your back, you either play as a team or you die as individuals.

apparently some of you read this blog so let me say this: i am mighty proud of you guys even though all the odds were against you, yet you didn't give up trying. and all the harsh stuff i've said, all the days when i whacked you hard, i meant no harm. it just had to be done. you have also taught me a lot in the process, and i certainly hope you've learnt something from me too.

one day it will happen, one day. never stop believing...


+listening to: life before insanity by gov't mule

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lost for words

now i know being a professional translator isn't easy.

i just translated 6 full pages of words from english to chinese for my godma in the morning. it could have saved me a whole lot of trouble if she could read more english. she can only read chinese and french (well a bit of english too). so yeah weird combi huh. after i'm done with translating the english passages from english to chinese, she's gotta translate it again into french for her work. i foresee that some things are bound to be lost in translation, oh well can't really help it. but no good deed goes unrewarded, she'll be treating me to dinner at meritus mandarin!


come to think of it i haven't utilised my mother tongue skills since... erm when i graduated form high school. man i feel so rusty i was almost ready to eat my own head after i was done. it was that agonizing. i feel utterly ashamed that i now suck so bad at my mother tongue.

and when i say mother tongue, i mean it. it's not some kinda shit deal where people in india claim that english is their mother tongue. it's not my fault that christopher columbus screwed them over by ditching them, which of course resulted in them getting Effed in the A by the british, hence i suppose the claim that english is their mother tongue is somewhat justified. you can probably guess where they call their mother land - where else but england. so you see, you can't get any more chinese than i am, i was born on the mother land for pete's sake.

on a more serious note, i'm feeling ambivalent towards everything that has gone on lately. too much has been said. time to just stfu and do it.


+listening to: stressfest by steve morse band

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the final straw

the last straw that broke the camel's back: insignificant it might be by itself.

sometimes i ask myself again and again and again why i do the things i do. i've always avoided answering it. maybe there is no reason, i just feel compelled to do it. so when seemingly trifling events happen that negatively impact me, i simply look the other way and trudge on. i didn't think it would hurt, how wrong i was.

these little things do matter, and they will get to you given enough time. it's exactly how the mighty grand canyon was carved out by tiny pebbles and streams. i only just felt it today, i felt the full brunt of those little things chipping away at my integrity. it really hurts inside.

was it really worth it? did i give too much a damn?


i want to scream, but when i open my mouth all that burst out is silence.


+listening to: nothingman by pearl jam

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the things people do

one of the more bizarre things i've come across lately: a priest went flying and disappeared. act of god? maybe.


apparently he set off in a bunch of helium filled party balloons and tried to fly to another city to raise funds for charity. while i must applaud his courage, his stupidity amuses me.

it's simply the stuff you dream of as a child, not actually carry out as an fully grown adult. what was he thinking? but then again, it's still pretty cool. i never thought it was possible! the inner child in me is dying to give it a try. seriously i'd give a leg to have a go if it can be guranteed that i come back in one piece. yeah i know, a bit paradoxical.

and on the now full-blown personal war against boredom front, i've also just finished the first 2 seasons of the wire. pretty good drama. hbo is always spot on in making their tv series look incredibly "real", something that other networks haven't been able to do. shows with too much special effects are kinda lame, i'll take the heavy on character types anyday. like the sopranos, which still remains my favourite show of all time, even though i'm heavily biased towards them gangster themed ones.

and facebook has a new chat feature! don't get me wrong i have not gone facebook mad, neither have i swallowed an elephant. i just find it quite a coincidence that right after i complained about starting a conversation with someone on their wall, they came up with an ingenious idea. kudos to facebook.


+listening to: under the bridge by red hot chili peppers

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ok facebook rocks... for once

i've always thought that friendster, facebook, et al. are synonyms of aimless social circle-jerking: largely targeted at formulating a mass illusion to make people feel good about their status/popularity in their "social network" based on how many friends they've got.

but how many of them actually matter?


then again that's besides the point, i'm not going to tread down that path. i want to thank facebook, at least for today, for helping me find a very good childhood friend who'd seriously gone MIA, whom i haven't heard from in 6 years.

i have tried various methods of tracking him down, but to no avail and then this morning all the stars seemed to align together - all it took was a few key strokes and simply hitting the search button and bam! the name popped up with photo id confirmation to boot.

literally within hours we started a conversation on the wall (you're probably more than familiar with that) before we realised it was quite retarded since there's msn, and the rest was history. lots of memories, lots of catching up to do.

so maybe these aimless social circle-jerks do serve useful purposes? i wouldn't know, i'm just a social conformist who sometimes does what everyone else does, albeit a rather thoughtless and occasionally unwilling one at that.

oh and before i forget, it's april 22 again: salút! to earth day.
peace.


+listening to: for the love of money by the o' jays

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