the kill bill vol 2 trailer is out. watch watch. it's as tantalising as they come.

within the span of the last month i have managed to popularise hey ya (the funny outkast song - shake it! shake it like a polaroid picture!) and the term mental masturbation, which didn't come from me at all. it's from placebo. hurray for me.
another magical night happened again. clubbing in the bunk. nah, it was more like sitting around on green chairs waving cyalume sticks in the air shouting 'must be the money' and 'what's cooler than being cool? ICE COLD!'

also watched the golden globes live. rather boring. could also be known as everybody loves sofia. uma looked lovely but did not win. nicole looked lovely too. tom cruise did not win. as for the golden boy,..

nah johnny depp won't win best actor. even though he seems to be the favorite among yahoo users. he hasn't got enough wrinkles on him et. lotr will win many oscars. but i'm actually rooting for city of god. i've seen some of it yesterday and it is exotic and funny. and lost in translation is surprisingly, PG, considering the posters and previous ads rated it ra. it's a tough fight for best actress. i haven't seen all 5 films and i dunno how good they are. but voters won't be able to resist an ugly transformation. but the reallly big surprise is the failure of miramax's campaigning machine to get a nod for best picture and best actress. the studio has, after all, propelled shakespeare in love and chicago to the fore against all odds.

i am reading neal stephenson's quicksilver. it's rather deep but so far so good. he makes isaac newton sound like a wuss. when i finish reading it i will write a short story.

i passed the basic theory test. so what's the next step huh? it's just real inconvenient to go down to bukit gombak again.

i'm gonna draw a list of musical influences over the years. it will be colourful.

JUST came back from a very lonely saturday in camp. in between answering phone calls and reporting to the ops room i was reading straits times, vernon god little, first magazine and banter magazine (in that order) and dozing off on the sofa and finally at around 8pm ran out of things to read. meanwhile everyone was out live firing in the rain. it rained from last morning to today. apparently everyone barely survived yesterday. today when it was time to book out many of them went to sleep in the bunk instead.

i finally finished reading vernon god little. it's really not as funny as what everyone thinks.

also wanted to put a countdown timer to ord on the blog but it requires me to put a file on a server which is unfortunately not available, so sorry.

i always tried to keep this blog a happy one but today, i'm not feeling very great again.

it's the second day of the lunar new year.. am feeling superficial again. sorry to morris- can't make it to your parade. all the best! hope you get to slack the rest of your ns away at ncc hq. i, on the other hand, have to book in at 6 tonight.. and book out on sunday. ruined the plan to watch peter pan on sat.

sat through the extended dvd of the two towers at my uncle's house. that would be the third time i watched the show. it's a classic.
satc: 5 more episodes only! samantha has breast cancer. miranda gets married. how exciting. see what i mean.. i'm superficial.

the picture on the left disappeared. dunno why. one day when i get absolutely bored i'll paint this blog in neapolitan colours.

i am forever stumped when i'm asked 'what do you do in your free time?'

this is fun!

HOOTERS is a damn bloody ex place in clarke quay with waitresses in tight wedgie shorts doing hulla hoops. it's ridiculous how 8 guys can spend 350 dollars on a dinner. ok, maybe it was the beer and the 50 chicken wings. anyway i'm not gonna go there again.

after all these years it still amazes me how people go down to chinatown to mingle in the crowds, way late, during this festive period. i was on the bus home just now and there were still like thousands of people walking around. somehow this year, i can't feel the new year mood. like how christmas was an non event. maybe things will change when i get my angpaos..

and the whole battalion went to big splash today. so there were about 500 guys and i only saw 3 girls. the big slide was very fun. especially flying up into the air and bumping back on the slide. made everyone's arse hurt. still got an uneven tan from the COC parade rehearsals. luckily today go big splash. cuz my mum saw me looking red. could have been the sun, could have been the beer, i dunno.

i hope i finally pass my BTT. cannot be more than 4 mistakes again.

i dunno why i sleep so much in the army. army just makes me feel lethargic. when you are free you either talk cock or sleep what. my friends can't believe i do well in my exams despite sleeping so much. they don't know what a mugger is like. i still remember what muggers always complained about.. that they didn't mug the previous day. and you say: yeah right.

most oft quote heard these days:: i wanna watch the last samurai.
i swear it's over rated/hyped. most tom cruise movies are.

zhenjin has the kill bill dvd.

[today's soundtrack] outkast - speakerboxxx/ the love below

i bought my new year clothes... funny why i didn't buy clothes that were on sale.. you'll see them soon enough.

i just can't seem to study the btt book. i just keep getting distracted.

my new theory is that my bunk is haunted. it spreads cough and flu viruses extremely fast.

anyway last week i was doing parade rehearsals from wed till sat. while waiting for the guests to arrive, they would play these interludes.. one song is soldier of fortune by deep purple. the lines are stuck in my head already. it goes like: and the songs that i've sung, echoes in the distance.. i can hear the sound of windmills going roundoundound.. guess i'll always be a soldier of fortune. very catchy. very classic slow rock. very school of rock. the other song has an androgynous singer.. but the tune won't stay in my head and everyone is desperate to find out who sang that song. dunno the title either. it's not because the song is good.. we just wanna download it and play it in the bunk to annoy everyone else.

i have a line that goes: and then the curtain fell. could be the start to a short story perhaps.

cost of a truffle, hanrd on the outside, with mandarin orange bits, chocolate shavings, coffee and sauce

14

cost of a souffle, light as air, vanilla ice cream, strawberries, icing and chocolate shavings

14

cost of a chocolate cheesecake, cold milk, strawberries and more chocolate shavings

14

cost of a week coughing on the bed and during parade rehearsals

priceless agony.

i'm feeling tempted to buy the new alicia keys album just to hear some good old r&b. after all, i regreted not buying her first album. also it's good to have a popular album in one's collection once in a while.

JAN 10's straits times
Goodbye to good Sex

Ong Soh Chin

When the last episode of Sex And The City airs in the US at the end of next month, I will be losing four good friends who have never been welcome in this town

UNLIKE most of the world, I have no time for reality TV.

Maybe I'm missing a gene or something, but shows like Survivor, Temptation Island and The Bachelor would appall me with their venality if they didn't bore me to tears first.

But I do not begrudge the fact that other people enjoy watching them. I also understand that I am painfully in the minority, if the shows' ratings are any indication. And I'm certainly not here to ask that they be banned.

But I do want to know why many of these tawdry programmes have pride of place on Singapore TV when a programme like HBO's Sex And The City is still nowhere to be found.

While the recent Censorship Review Committee has lifted the ban on it, there is still no word as to when the series will actually be shown here, and whether it will start from Season One or the current Season Six.

Life! understands that HBO is currently waiting for the Media Development Authority to get back to it with screening guidelines for the series.

Fans know that Season Six, which is ongoing now in the United States, is the last one. The final episode is expected to air on Feb 22.

So, ironically, by the time we finally get to have Sex here - if we ever do - the moment would probably have long passed, the lifting of the ban rendered meaningless and the victory hopelessly pyrrhic.

Those of us who wanted it bad would have found ways of getting it over the last six years of its existence.

After all, we may not be able to have Sex here, but we can in nearby countries like Malaysia, the Philippines, Taiwan, Hong Kong and Thailand where the series is shown on HBO, albeit censored.

And you can be sure that we will be watching the final episode, all misty-eyed, smoking our post-coital cigarettes in a dark place off the beaten track; while those who never cared for Sex will still remain shiny happy virgins, beaming under the bright lights of this city.

But after all the sturm und drang, after all the reams of editorials that have been written here about the series - quite a lot considering it's not even shown here - one question remains largely unanswered.

What is so awful about Sex And The City, really?

Nobody in it takes drugs, kills people or beats up small children.

If I didn't know better, I'd say its ban was an entirely misogynistic decision. Its four lead characters are attractive single women, all gainfully employed, who meet and date many men.

Their biggest crimes? Being picky about the men they date (Carrie), realising that happiness does not necessarily come with a wedding ring (Charlotte), being a single mother (Miranda) and enjoying guilt-free sex like a man (Samantha).

The series also boasts some of the best TV writing in recent years - honest, sexy, witty and insightful. It makes you laugh but also think, which is more than can be said for some of the duds on TV which make you do neither.

The four women all try to do the right thing and they are always there for each other. That's much more than can be said for a lot of the people on Survivor.

I sometimes wonder, if Sex And The City had been a comedy series about four single men who date and have sex with women, would there have been an issue?

Maybe not. Maybe not even if it was about four married men who date and have sex with women.

As Sex And The City approaches its inevitable conclusion, I am left feeling the same way I do when saying goodbye to old friends at the airport, or when a relationship ends amicably.

There is a sadness, born of the realisation that all good things must come to an end, but tinged with the knowledge that one will always have fond memories.

As with the best relationships and friendships, one also becomes better and wiser as a result.

For me and the many others who love it, Sex And The City has been groundbreaking in many ways. While some grinches - women included - may decry its heroines as shallow girlies who are concerned only with shopping and finding the perfect man, I think otherwise.

For me, the series is important because it blows the traditional female stereotypes out of the water - stereotypes which have long depicted single women as neurotic old maids, whores or nuns.

At the same time, it also allows that single women can be funny, silly, buy lots of shoes and make mistakes when it comes to relationships. In other words, it shows that single women are not perfect. Just single.

But the biggest lesson I have learnt has been gleaned, not from the series, but from Singapore's banning of it.

While Sex And The City's worldwide popularity has been nothing short of a phenomenon, the powers-that-be in this town, which wants to be a Renaissance City and an information hub, have remained coldly resistant, until its bittersweet end.

If our TV programming is any indication, these are the messages we may be sending out to our young minds:a) Real single women (not spies, witches or vampire slayers) are personae non grata b) Unless they end up married or want to be married.c) But watching real people at their worst - cheating, lying and backstabbing just to win a contest/husband/millionaire/hot babe - is okay.

Is it any wonder these days that I don't watch TV? There's too much reality, not enough creativity, too much that is mundane, not enough that is aspirational.

As far as local programming goes, I am invisible. As far as local morals go, single women can't have Sex.

I don't know about you, but I think it's time we all learned to think outside the (goggle) box.

...one day i'll be a media critic.

oh gosh, i spent the past few hours sourcing for new blog template after seeing how fab the class one is.. this is the same author but i customised it a bit.. at first the picture was two lesbians kissing, presumably t.a.t.u.. if u go to the archive i think u can still see. i don't know how to get rid of it..i'll work on the colours cuz i don't like red.

i don't remember where i got the picture from but it's scanned from a magazine long ago and i've always meant to put it on a website.. yeah it was from the night at mustafa...

it's been a long week. i was dying to book out since monday. i only got to read the driving book once, and only made it to page 70 something of vernon god little. i watched school of rock with my fellow slaves on wednesday, for the second time. to those about to rock, i salute you.

it's new year soon and i haven't got anything new to wear.

i'll write some more after i get a new skin.

i think one of the best things i've done last year was to buy a mogu thing. if you don't know what a mogu thing is, well, it means you haven't been shopping much in isetan stores. it's actually a pilllow-cushion filled with tiny little beads; mine is heart shaped and i bought it for my mother as a belated birthday gift. but since it's so huggable it gets passed around a lot. i think it's a comfort pillow. i'm holding it and i feel like squeezing it to er, death.

argh. and so the first day of the year is over. the first baby born in singapore has a dad who isn't even working yet. how to provide? i don't know who started this brilliant idea, but they got a 2000 dollar cheque. makes you want to time your act of conception precisely.

i'm fresh off a round of blog voyuerism. and yet again, i'm thinking, how do they manage to write so much? do they write really fast or do they just write anything that comes to their mind. *carrie bradshaw moment* i couldn't help but wonder,

do most bloggers censor themselves?

like me. i would love to put my really personal stuff out there but i think it'll just come out the wrong way. have i said that before? i've done my research (see below).. the first time i did, i was the hot blogger with the latest links and gossip but nah, it's not true at all. so this is it after i did it again.

OUR GUY NEXT DOOR:
You tell about your life and thoughts honestly and
without pretending. This might at times come
out pretty dull and boring. Never mind - those
who know you will be coming back day after day,
week after week.


What kind of blogger are you?
brought to you by Quizilla

i don't know what's with the frog. fresh ideas seldom appear here. if they appear fresh they must have been rehashed from somebody else. i'm gonna cut and paste something which is really funny, and in someways true. he says:

Haha.. honestly, i can't imagine myself having sex with anyone man.. I mean, to me sex is a dude with a 9 inch shlong getting it on with a hot babe with huge tits.. normal people like us?

One of my friends said "Sex isn't really that great" and when I look at him and his (ex) gf, and imagine them getting it on, it's like.. yuck seah.. sticking your little brother into your gf's .. it's like, what? (eh bro if you're reading this, this is totally my own opinion of the act, not saying about the looks of both of you ok? peace.)

I like girls because of their personalities.. and I really can't imagine having sex with any of them man. I mean, I haven't had the opportunity of meeting someone both pretty and nice personality, but till then?

I'm supposed to what? Take off all my clothes and stick that thing in until I what? Huh? That's the reason why half of the guys chase girls? Get outta here..

haha.. not gonna draw any conclusions.. another new year resolution this year is to blog in proper sentences so that my level of english does not deteriorate further and quit using the dots dots dots to connect sentences. it's an absolutely lazy habit.

emotional honesty distilled into 2min 45sec. don't worry.. it's not dolly parton.