dec 2003

[021203] from some forum: 'women are nothing but trouble, men are nothing but trouble seekers' - wah can laugh until cry *grin*

[061203] laptop computers: another nice & warm place to snooze apart from e bonnets of parked cars....shut eye after shut down =)



[091203]

To Treasure Everything (in this moment) as All is Transient;
To be Unattached to Everything (in this moment) as All is Transient

- from Be A Lamp Upon Yourself

....by eliminating e wrong conception[sic] of permanance & e afflictive emotions which arise depending on it....mind becomes clearer & more capable of enjoying things for what they are....live more in e present, appreciating things as they are now, without fantasies about what they are or will be....worry less about small matters....become less ego-sensitive to every action other people do in relation to us

- from I Wonder Why by Thubten Chodron

[101203] something from e California trip - click on e images.

(below left) in e courtyard - Iris & B. Gerald Cantor Center for Visual Arts, Stanford University; (below right) in guess where? - Iris & B. Gerald Cantor Center for Visual Arts, Stanford University:



(above left) banana peel sculpture made to look like a dancer dancing across e courtyard; (above right) at e washbasin in e loo

(below left) sis + cat - Exploratorium, San Francisco; (below right) Moscone Convention Center, San Francisco:



(above left) glass panel doors of e Exploratorium entrance; (above right) if you can't find me here, I'm in e middle of e top row of glass panels - attracted a LOT of stares while shooting this pic *grin*

inspiration for these pics: an accidental self-portrait (below) taken back in May 2002 while fixing my camera in a ladies powder room in e National Museum for Emerging Science & Innovation, Tokyo =D



anyway so many many people have hit upon this idea before: www.mirrorproject.com

[111203]
corgito ergo sum - I think, therefore I am....

....NOT one of those dodos behind e culling of stray cats, e EZ-link system, e NUS admin, e chopping down of e Changi tree, e withdrawal of bus services running parallel to e North-East Line, primary school streaming exams, e incessant ringing of handphones on buses & trains, e censorship of Royston Tan's 15, e shrinking size of HDB flats, e CPF cuts, e NUS RHAPS system for readmission into campus housing, e anti-dialect (aka. communication breakdown with grandparents) policy, e building of more golf courses in land-scarce Singapore, e x*xxxx human resource policies....

christmas wishes: [1] that e transport minister & LTA bosses be banned from owning cars, but allowed to have as many EZ-link cards as they like to get around on public transport, [2] that e kids of e education minister & MOE policymakers study only in neighbourhood schools & local universities (this could apply to e dons of local unis too!! if they think their uni is world-cRass, why do they send their kids abroad?), & [3] that e MND & HDB bosses be allowed to live only in HDB flats =P

[111203]

The proud ones do not last forever, but are like the dream of a spring night. Even the mighty will perish, just like dust before the wind.

- quote from National Geographic article on samurai

[151203] like this Japanese woodblock print cos of how e waves tower above Mt Fuji, e sense of distance from e mountain & e closeness & fury of e pounding waves, & e contrast between e sheer power of e forces of nature (e waves) & puny man (e flimsy boats), who always thinks he's so great:



The Great Wave at Kanagawa (from a Series of Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji) by Katsushika Hokusai

[171203] got bored after finishing experiments for e day. damn boh liao, but here goes....



game can be found here

[301203] first few shots =)

[L] another of my papercuts; [R] mother cat + 3 kittens by a kerb @ Dover:



overnight in SPS - Huegesh, sootty, Gaurav, Boy, Kamalesh & e cat (Mahesh asleep thus not in either photo):



playing around with night scene mode while waiting for bus at Kent Ridge terminal:



[311203] found e Sony Ericsson tv advert song!! for once there's something nice & cute to watch on TV mobile - can listen to this song for hours *grin*
http://bay.no-ip.com:3000/SECentral - SonyAdvert.mp3 & Sony Advert.mpg



[ filed under: thewonderingstraycat + 9_lives_2003 + cats1 + music1 + art1 + california_2003 ]

nov 2003

[041103] once upon a time, I envied 4th kor cos he had his own bar of soap. e rest of us in e house of 11 had to share, whereas he had e luxury of having his own bar AND his own soap dish. one day, his half-used bar of soap was fished out from e dustbin. apparently he had used it until it was reduced to e shape of a dog's bone, & then thrown it away. in no time he was dragged to e kitchen & soundly beaten up for having e nerve to waste. more than 15 years later, in this age of liquid creme soaps in dispenser bottles, nothing can beat e satisfaction of having your own bar of soap. still feel happy whenever I get to open a brand new bar when e old one has been used up. & each time I do so, I think of how eldest kor tried to mould together tiny bits of soap into larger pieces so that they could still be used, & this incident comes to mind.

[071103 update] realised that e blue plastic dustbin that starred in e above episode is still around. over e years it has moved house with us twice. it now sits in my room, still with e Michelin tyre man sticker that 4th kor pasted onto it more than 15 years ago =)

[071103] according to one of those "419 scam" e-mails spamming inboxes around e world, this is my long lost ang moh twin sister living in Nigeria:



due to e threat of impending civil war, she is seeking my help to transfer USD25 million from her account with e Central Bank of Nigeria out of e country. she has promised to split e moolah between us (55% to her, 45% to me) if I agree to help her out by sending her, within 10 working days, my contact details, bank account number, & USD150000 to cover legal expenses & other costs that may be incurred during e transfer. this is provided she does not die mysteriously in a highway accident along e Sagamu/Lagos Express Road-To-Nowhere or in a plane crash over Sierra Leone. & yup I am supposed to keep a date free to fly over to London to meet up with an intermediary who will be handling e actual transaction, keep this entire transaction confidential, & not inform any US government official.

by e way, this supposed twin of mine practises witchcraft in Lagos, e former capital of Nigeria (FYI, it has been shifted to Abuja), & her work is shown live on national TV (MediaCorp Channel 5) in Singapore every Wednesday night at 10pm (+0800 GMT) in a drama series entitled 'Charmed' *grin*

[111103] http://www.eart-h.com/text/deathrow.htm: for all those who have enjoyed e view from e upper deck of e SBS 2 bus on our way to Changi Village & Ubin for Noordin camping & CJ trips.

[111103] non-MOE definition of 'mother tongue': e language that your mother scolds you in. seriously think most of my Teochew & Hokkien was learnt by listening to big fat scoldings & arguments. & think e fact that I was always yelled at in perfect grammatically-correct English heavily doused with chim words helped a lot in my learning of e language....how else would I have learnt words like indolent, insolent, incompetent & incorrigible? maybe JC GP tutors should focus more on scolding their students - rather than tearing up their essays - in order to brush up their vocabulary & prepare them for e verbal component of e SAT I exam. & yup this is in reference to a certain video clip =P

[151103] a few of e J-dorama with great soundtracks:



Aishiteru no itte kure - e first Japanese dorama that I watched, some time around 1995-6. about a deaf-mute artist & an aspiring actress. apart from sign language, they communicated by fax - like e scene where e artist flooded her fax machine with pages & pages that she joined together with scotch tape to form a drawing of a long snake. brings to mind my big fat cute snake from IKEA =D also remember a scene filmed in a beautiful art museum that first planted e idea of going to Japan in my head. no soundtrack but sis has compilation CDs of Japanese TV serial theme songs that includes e one for this drama, by Dreams Come True



Over Time - didn't watch this, but sis did & bought e soundtrack. it's now with her in California & I miss listening to it



Long Vacation - e best one so far, wonderful & hilarious plot & great soundtrack by CAGNET. e dorama where my sis pointed out e Rainbow bridge & other landmarks in Tokyo to me & explained at length e quirks about Japanese society after her month-long stay there.



Beautiful Life - another one with a great soundtrack, with music that TCS has used for trailers for other shows. 'Night Run' (track 9) makes for damn good listening while in e lab. also have e soundtrack for Kyumei Byoto 24-ji but can't find any pic to post here

[151103] there was this scene in some American show where someone died in a hospital at night, & e camera zoomed out to show e view of e room from outside of e window, & then e building, & then an aerial view of e big fat city with its neon lights, skyscrapers & expressways. struck me how e ward was just a tiny square of light on e building's facade, & how e building was but just a little structure lost somewhere in e mammoth expanse of e city, & how e city was just one of thousands around e world. & thought of how e hundreds of people in e same building were busy doing their own thing, & how e millions of people in e same city were going about their own lives - all anonymous, oblivious & far removed from that tiny square of light that barely registers a blip on e radar screen of e big fat world. & thought of how insignificant our own troubles seem when we take a step back & look at things in a greater context. life goes on, whether you like it or not - e world will not sit down & cry with you. used to imagine how we humans are just little specks on a little planet in a little solar system in a little galaxy in a cluster of galaxies in a supercluster in a big fat universe - makes us insignificant humans seem so ridiculous for e big fat fuss we kick up over anything & everything & e wars we wage. maybe if I were an alien I'd have died from laughing at this silly human race?

[181103] couldn't be a greater contrast: me telling Dr Ge back in 1999, based on e stuff that I'd been taught in secondary school & JC, that Cell Biology was a big fat BORING *yawn* (can still recall e reaction on her face - if looks could kill I'd have lost all 9 of my lives at one shot in her office)....& me choosing to specialise in Cell Biology for honours & postgrad research, & staying awake for every lecture (so far) of e TLL Cell Biology module....

[271103] when things reach e point where they can't get any worse, they can only get better?

if a tree falls in e forest & no one hears it, does it make a sound? - esse is percipi

[ filed under: thewonderingstraycat + 9_lives_2003 + music1 + labrat ]