i spent the past few days living in agony. i must have gotten food poisoning.. gonna spare you all the details of that. anyway, i was pleasantly surprised to find out that washing my hair at the salon also includes getting a head and shoulder massage. i swear that i will spend more time in the shower shampooing my hair from now on.

i'm quite sad that there is a k.d. lang concert on friday and i'm not going cuz a) nobody would want to possibly go with me b) those who would are probably not in singapore c) i also don't know if i can rush there from camp in time.

i'm sad that on saturday i felt like an island and everyone was just floating away from me. there wasn't anyone to go out with anymore. i ended up following my parents to my sister's dancing class, which is what i occasionally do when i'm not going out and it's just too damn depressing to stay at home alone and i don't want to pay for my own food.

i'm also sad because i only just got to see meryl streep play an old rabbi (with beard) in angels in america. i'm sad because sim wong hoo's anti-ipod shuffle speech gets ridiculed on the internet; he still doesn't get it. first the muvo, then the zen micro, now the zen micro photo? he needs to hire better people. like the people behind these absolutely gorgeous glassware.


molo

daniel and chee wee

daniel and chee wee
Originally uploaded by cwng.

i hate that all these photo blogs limit the number of photos you can upload.but anyways, i was really, and i mean really, trigger happy when i went to jb on monday. seeing that this is probably one of the last trips there together. flickr has great tools but doesn't allow unlimited photos. fotothing is worse, it allows 5 photos every day, which is perfect for say handphone pictures but not holiday photos. and don't even talk about fotolog, cuz only 5 new members are let in every day.

mcsweeny's more junk food for the internet obsessed. the funniest lists:

What Not to Be in the Middle of When the Earthquake Comes.
BY CHARLIE HOPPER
- - - -
A bridge
LASIK eye surgery
An embarrassing confession
Any place where you're the only one available to save a bunch of people
Picking your nose, because the quaking will make you poke your nostril lining and you will have to explain to everyone why you have a bloody nose
An expensive high
3-D IMAX movie about earthquakes

Really Boring Books for Children.
BY MELISSA BELL
- - - -
Springtime? Taxtime!
The New Drapes
Let's All Have a Bottle of Water!
The Two Weeks After Christmas
Staring at Your Shoes and Other Games
The Big Book of Paper Clips
One Wall, Two Walls, Three Walls, Four!
Mom Folds the Towels and Then Puts Them Away
B Is for Beige
The Long Drive to the Small Town to Visit Childless Relatives
Sally Finds a Stick

Most Common Recurring Dreams of the Cicada.
BY TRACY MOLLER- - - -
Digging and digging to surface, but never emerging
Mating with one's own mother
Being eaten by dog or other yard animal
Never-ending fall from tree as a nymph
Stuck in shell midmolt
Emerge from ground, only to realize that it's not the right year
Not knowing the song
Being chased by lawn mower
Slowly drowning in swimming-pool skimmer basket
Being captured and placed in mayonnaise jar with handful of torn grass, twig, and cup of water
Being captured and placed in same jar as above, only without air holes punched in jar lid
Uncomfortable extended existential conversation with one's own shell
Late for spawn—all the hot cicadas are taken
Mandibles loose and/or falling off
and, most common:
That one where you're flying

i spent most of today lazing on the bed.

• maybe i'm feeling dead broke and need to get a job.
• still undecided about going to jb tomorrow cuz i don't want to miss desperate housewives.
• but then there's great cheap food..
• don't ever eat the 20 inch pizza at modestos with less than 4 persons. it's as bleeping big as the table.
• all my conversation topics are stuck in a rut.
• more films like eurotrip please.

5 great january songs.

1. BRIGHT EYES - LANDLOCKED BLUES more than overhyped indie poster boy goes folk; gets his angst tempered by emmylou harris. "We made love on the living room floor With the noise in the background from a televised war. And in that defeaning pleasure I thought I heard someone say "If we walk away, they'll walk away."
2. NINA GORDON - 18 AND LIFE i always loved story songs about down and out characters who's got nothing to live for. "'Accidents will happen', they all heard Ricky say. He fired his six-shot to the wind - that child blew a child away."
3. MADALEINE PEYROUX - BETWEEN THE BARS strips the jaunty bounce of elliot smith's original; this is what you'll hear on radio if the world were black and white and there is velvet everywhere. "People you've been before That you don't want around anymore That push and shove and won't bend to your will.. I'll keep them still."
4. ALLISON MOORER - MOONSHINER there are songs about love, religion, death, life and then there are songs about alcohol. "I've been a moonshiner for seventeen long years and I spent all my money on whiskey and beer. and I go to some hollow and set up my still. if whiskey don't kill me Lord, I don't know what will."
5. K.D. LANG - HELPLESS like the rest of the songs in the album hymns of the 49th parallel, this brings to mind the wide open spaces of canada, the season autumn, the smoke from factories, the telephone wires. "Big birds flying across the sky Throwing shadows on our eyes Leaves us Helpless, helpless, helpless."

TODAY, i would have spent exactly 2 years doing national service. sometimes i wonder how i've been able to last that long, despite being manic-depressive prone and hearing bad news all the time. there's seldom good news but there were a few this week- we had our acct training.. no more breakfalls and pretending to stab each other with a dagger- i'm off till next friday and then there's a cny break and then atec and then it's time to pack up- i passed soc on the day the window closes- i got a "prize" for getting full marks in a tsr test but escaped the CO parade, during which i would be expected to scream "sir!" when my name is called and march up to the podium..
i think it boils down to how you adjust to the army life. i know some people no matter what will do their best given the circumstances. some people are forced to perform because they've been arrowed to. i'm so not one of them but i don't think i coasted along also. i just tried to learn the good things from other people and bitch about the bad things. i'm lucky that the people i'm with are genuinely funny and share mostly the same interests. being specialists we have an advantage in that we can bitch about both the men and senior specs and the officers since we work with them rather closely. there are people like waiyong who was in the same section with me for 10 m0nths and is one of the guys who make me go 'i'm in such deep shit but at least i have so and so in the same shit'.
but enough reminiscing.
especially when i still have 2 more major outfield exercises to get through, with lotsa smuggled canned food and bread no less.

xy, if it makes you any happier i shall not talk about movies.
in fact i really suffer from media overload. jefferson calls me a "magazine person". why else would i plough my way through wallpaper, res, idn, us weekly, the star, rollingstone, entertainment weekly, etc everytime i reach the rag stand. how else would i know that marissa is going to have a same-sex love interest, or that gael garcia bernal is working on a movie with michel gondry, or that W has spectacular pictures of julia roberts.

now more importantly, who wants to catch shirley horn in concert? it's 19 march sat at the esplanade. it should make up for my missing dee dee bridgewater in 2003 so i really must go watch.

i guess this week has been a week of interesting news. firstly, there was a report that said that the indonesian earthquake accelerated the earth's rotation thus shortening days by a fraction of a second. also, they announced that they're going to convert the supreme court and city hall into a national gallery of art. how metropolitan of singapore to refurbish soon-to-be unused buildings into places of tourist interest a la london's tate modern. and a priest told the court that he had a "loving relationship" with some woman, but "not the glandular kind". oh, i don't know what glands we can use to love people.

another dominic quote goes like this: "you know your life is a mess when the happiest thing that happened today was getting a drink from the vending machine using your handphone." i was even happier- i got 50 cents change too.

as usual, i've been going to the kcrw website to watch the morning becomes eclectic seesions, in which artists bring along their bands to give intimate performances. it's second best to seeing them live anyway. pj harvey looks really good when she smiles. kd lang just looks like a man but sings like an angel. patti smith and shivaree are pretty interesting. gary jules' mad world didn't sound as affecting. my morning jacket rocks so hard that you can imagine them swinging their hair around and grinding their guitars but they didn't. liz phair's songs are always cool and fun to sing along to.. 'why can't i' actually has a 'fuck' in it but i think it got cut on the radio.

i watched before sunset and i really liked it. more than any other film, it truly captures the feeling of being in the moment. it keeps me hopeful that every conversation i have may transpire into something greater or leave a permanent impact in my life, even those about the doomed state of our love lives. i just want to talk like that one day. i would fall in love like that.

F.K. is really pushing us beyond limits. for him, i have nothing but hate and anger.

i think i'm going to buy the vans sneakers at royal sporting house. so much for wanting expensive limited stuff.

cate blanchett i like.

went to ricciotti at riverside walk twice in one week, which really proves that many bored people read the 8 days food column.

morris' quotes are invaluable: when i was young, i wanted to live in a caravan and go around selling teppanyaki. at night, i will fight ghosts.

the movie bad education is not bad at all. drag queens, gay kids, catholic priest molesters, murder, lust, blackmail.. potent.

i just spent the past one & a half hour memorising the cantonese lyrics to a alan tam song. it's actually from the concert he did with hacken lee and i still don't know what the whole song means. i love canto concerts. the stars wear the most garish costumes full of glitter, fur and feathers and still have to sing and dance. they also deliver medleys after medleys, night after night and make full use of trap doors and pyrotechnics. it's superb entertainment and i dare say, beats watching norah jones sit down and play the piano.

the argument for continuing to buy chinese cds

i think the english music industry should try to beat piracy by improving the packaging of cds. i mean, just provide more value for money. before i buy any cd i always peek inside from the top to see whether there is a thick cd sleeve with lyrics and artwork and pictures or a grubby slip of hard paper. it just hurts when you get the cd and have to go on the net to look at lyrics. take a leaf from the chinese pop industry. the cds come in extra large boxes that don't fit into the shelf..take for example the 2 cds i bought recently. the sandee chan cd comes in a nice black box that opens to reveal a cd sheathed in a satin case, a couple of potpouri, a lyrics sheet that folds out to become a giant poster. the mayday cd is one-up: it has a cd with a bonus track, a music video vcd and a lavish photo booklet which features the guys even though they are hardly pinup material.
so perhaps britney could sell more of her greatest hits by including a mini rubber doll; the scissor sisters could pack in a make up kit and a guide to NYC's hottest gay spots.

the possibilities are endless.

i can only start clearing leave on march 7.

march 7 march 7 march 7 march 7 march 7. the mood is infectious. and then after that, there are just so many things to get done.

i'm sure i'm not the only one who looks into the wardrobe and thinks that there's nothing worth wearing or that "i've worn that too many times" or "i need to get rid of the old clothes" or "it's time to buy new stuff". i need at least one more pair of jeans (g star!), more t shirts (graniph!), one polo shirt (ralph lauren! Sale.), two pair of shoes (i need a shoe expert here.), a belt, a new wallet cuz the fako prada wallet i got from KL chinatown has a hole in the coin pouch, thanks a lot, shirts (jesus rodriguez!) and spiffy pants.

i think one of the possible places to work at after march is videoezy. i can then keep all the cheesy shows and take the good ones home. but it seems rather boring, staying at the counter scanning dvds and collecting money and worse, taking stock. i really hate "accounting" for stuff, i really do.

and then before it was time to count down, i fell asleep.

on wednesday, a few of us went to the new school campus in bishan. the thing that freaked me out most was that they got a huge number of RI boys tho line the street and as i walked past, they clapped and whooped and made noises with party toys. it was supposed to make you feel like a homecoming star, except you didn't.

the school has got a minimalist industrial polytechnic look going. it is huge. when the rjc students finally arrived, half of them came with coloured hair. ok, maybe that's an exaggeration, but most of them looked too cool for school. seriously, the kids are getting cooler. for a large part of my teenage life i always wanted to be the type who's too cool for school. but growing up is making sense of who you are and who you're not. i am definitely the school type.

on thursday night i went to cocolatte dragging a whole bunch of people with me. it plays mash-ups on that night and you can request the dj for songs. we wanted nirvana x kylie, but found out that he can't remix the song on the spot. slightly disappointed. some worked out great, like destiny's child x radiohead or nirvana x madonna.. but some fell flat.. admittedly, the song with linkin park and toxic was going nowhere.

the rest of the days, it just rained and rained.