I s O t O n I c

一首简单的歌

2007-04-05T21:17:00.000+08:00

这世界很复杂,
混淆我想说的话
我不懂,
太复杂的玩法
什么样的礼物
能够永远记得住
让幸福别走的太仓促
云和天,蝶和花
从来不需要说话
断不了依然日夜牵挂
唱情歌,说情话
只想让你听清楚
我爱你是唯一的倾诉

写一首简单的歌
让你的心情快乐
爱情就像一条河
难免会碰到波折
这一首简单的歌
并没有什么独特
好像我
那么的平凡却又深刻

我一直在思考
让你了解我的好
却忘了
常常对你微笑
失去的忘记的
我会尽力去弥补
你是我最珍贵的财富

简单的歌
好像我
那么的平凡却又
深刻

Time and Space

2006-08-31T15:01:00.000+08:00

Time is like a gas, it will fill up whatever space that you allow it to.

好久不见啦，朋友

2005-11-29T00:41:00.000+08:00

Loke Yew 是我大學最好的朋友之一，要知道這個名字的由來，得搭時光機回到三年前的馬六甲小鎮才能解開謎底，也許問問賣熱炒的大肥嫂或那隻在深夜裡獨自滑行的鬼狗還能理出點頭緒。

Loke Yew 才華洋溢，英文好，中文也好，會攝影，還會寫歌。不過最重要的是，她有一顆很善良的心，每次我跟她講很多奇奇怪怪的想法後，她都不會用異樣的眼光看我，也願意陪我做許多奇奇怪怪的事，比如說夜行獅城五小時，爬宿舍的牆，深夜坐計程車去吃 prata，或是拿鍋碗瓢盆到籃球場拍照；她脾氣很好，不管我們怎麼鬧她，她都只是抿著嘴笑，不管我怎麼詆譭她的偶像周杰倫，她都不會動怒；她很有耐心，總是願意不厭其煩地教我麻將和橋牌，只是我都沒有好好學，暗自想會大老二、心臟病、吹牛和摸鼻子應該就夠我玩了〈是個沒志氣的孩子〉；她對朋友很真誠很貼心，知道我也喜歡羅嘉良就燒了一整套的流金歲月給我，雖然還加了一些我不想看到的羅嘉良扮醜的片段。

每次想到她的時候，腦海裡總會浮現一些畫面，首先出現的是每次 potluck 她那一千零一鍋快滿出來丸比湯多的魚丸湯，TH 舞台劇時她坐在燈光音控室裡認真專注的樣子，她要嘗遍全新加坡的魚片米粉的決心，一起坐在 TV lounge 看名牌愛情和重慶森林的日子，拖著行李走在吉隆坡她力排眾議執意要看雙峰塔的堅定神情，還有後來眼睛裡倒映出雙峰塔時的滿意的表情，我們一起跳 "Dying inside to hold you" 的歡樂氣氛，在 K Box 裡她很認真握著麥克風唱歌的樣子，她那很有趣很可愛喜歡花花草草還拿肉粽給我吃的媽媽，還有還有，就是有一次我重感冒她買魚片粥來宿舍找我的情形，每次想起來都覺得很感動啊〈該不會是 Loke Yew 自己想吃吧‧‧‧XD〉。

這幾年來， Loke Yew 在工作上和各方面都有很大的成長，可是她還是一直保有她最純真的原貌，我很喜歡這樣的她。我不會隨便祝她所有夢想都實現，雖然我真心希望如此，可是這樣的話太矯情也太不切實際，我只希望我們都能勇敢、認真而努力地朝自己的夢想前進，在疲憊的時候可以從對方身上支取一些力量，在沮喪的時候可以從彼此的鼓勵中找到一點信心。也希望我們再聚在一起的那天能夠快點到來，再一起去看午夜場的電影，去吃 prata，一起做盡這世界上所有奇奇怪怪的事。

Dear Loke Yew，祝妳生日快樂〈記得放生日歌來聽喔〉。

圖：丁善本啊丁善本，世界上真的有這種人嗎，沒有的話警界羅密歐也不錯啦 XD，妳說是吧，阿 Loke。

一千年以後

2005-11-25T00:31:00.000+08:00

詞：李瑞洵　曲：林俊傑

心　跳亂了節奏　夢也不自由
愛　是個絕對承諾　不說　撐到一千年以後

放任無奈　淹沒塵埃
我在廢墟之中守著妳走來　喔
我的淚光　承載不了　喔
所有一切妳要的愛(所有一切妳需要的愛)

因為在　一千年以後　世界早已沒有我
無法深情挽著妳的手　淺吻著妳額頭
別等到　一千年以後　所有人都遺忘了我
那時紅色黃昏的沙漠　能有誰　解開纏繞千年的寂寞
(纏繞千年的寂寞)

HIGH - Lighthouse Family

2005-11-12T12:57:00.000+08:00

若干年前曾有人向我提起这首歌。

~ Lighthouse Family ~
HIGH

When you're close to tears remember
Someday it'll all be over
One day we're gonna get so high
Though it's darker than December
What's ahead is a different colour
One day we're gonna get so high

And at the end of the day remember the days
When we were close to the end
And wonder how we made it through the night
At the end of the day
Remember the way
We stayed so close to the end
We'll remember it was me and you

Cause we are gonna be
Forever, you and me
You will
Always keep it flying high in the sky
Of love

Don't you think it's time you started
Doing what we always wanted
One day we're gonna get so high
Cause even the impossible
Is easy when we got each other
One day we're gonna get so high

And at the end of the day remember the days
When we were close to the end
And wonder how we made it through the night
At the end of the day
Remember the way
We stayed so close to the end
We'll remember it was me and you

Cause we are gonna be
Forever, you and me
You will
Always keep it flying high in the sky
Of love

Cause we are gonna be
Forever, you and me
You will
Always keep it flying high in the sky
Of love

And at the end of the day remember the days
When we were close to the end
And wonder how we made it through the night
At the end of the day
Remember the way
We stayed so close to the end
We'll remember it was me and you

Cause we are gonna be
Forever, you and me
You will
Always keep it flying high in the sky
Of love

Cause we are gonna be
Forever, you and me
You will
Always keep it flying high in the sky
Of love

Cause we are gonna be
Forever, you and me
You will
Always keep it flying high in the sky
Of love

Cause we are gonna be
Forever, you and me
You will
Always keep it flying high in the sky
Of love...

All Quiet on the Blogging Front

2005-10-21T21:00:00.000+08:00

...or it seems to be.

Hmmm...

'Stay hungry, stay foolish' -- Steve Jobs

2005-10-12T23:55:00.000+08:00

Weeks after first reading the Chinese version on anna's 小步舞曲, it is still interesting to have a look at the original English version:

"Thank you. I'm honored to be with you today for your commencement from one of the finest universities in the world. Truth be told, I never graduated from college and this is the closest I've ever gotten to a college graduation.

Today I want to tell you three stories from my life. That's it. No big deal. Just three stories. The first story is about connecting the dots.

I dropped out of Reed College after the first six months but then stayed around as a drop-in for another eighteen months or so before I really quit. So why did I drop out? It started before I was born. My biological mother was a young, unwed graduate student, and she decided to put me up for adoption. She felt very strongly that I should be adopted by college graduates, so everything was all set for me to be adopted at birth by a lawyer and his wife, except that when I popped out, they decided at the last minute that they really wanted a girl. So my parents, who were on a waiting list, got a call in the middle of the night asking, "We've got an unexpected baby boy. Do you want him?" They said, "Of course." My biological mother found out later that my mother had never graduated from college and that my father had never graduated from high school. She refused to sign the final adoption papers. She only relented a few months later when my parents promised that I would go to college.

This was the start in my life. And seventeen years later, I did go to college, but I naïvely chose a college that was almost as expensive as Stanford, and all of my working-class parents' savings were being spent on my college tuition. After six months, I couldn't see the value in it. I had no idea what I wanted to do with my life, and no idea of how college was going to help me figure it out, and here I was, spending all the money my parents had saved their entire life. So I decided to drop out and trust that it would all work out OK. It was pretty scary at the time, but looking back, it was one of the best decisions I ever made. The minute I dropped out, I could stop taking the required classes that didn't interest me and begin dropping in on the ones that looked far more interesting.

It wasn't all romantic. I didn't have a dorm room, so I slept on the floor in friends' rooms. I returned Coke bottles for the five-cent deposits to buy food with, and I would walk the seven miles across town every Sunday night to get one good meal a week at the Hare Krishna temple. I loved it. And much of what I stumbled into by following my curiosity and intuition turned out to be priceless later on. Let me give you one example.

Reed College at that time offered perhaps the best calligraphy instruction in the country. Throughout the campus every poster, every label on every drawer was beautifully hand-calligraphed. Because I had dropped out and didn't have to take the normal classes, I decided to take a calligraphy class to learn how to do this. I learned about serif and sans-serif typefaces, about varying the amount of space between different letter combinations, about what makes great typography great. It was beautiful, historical, artistically subtle in a way that science can't capture, and I found it fascinating.

None of this had even a hope of any practical application in my life. But ten years later when we were designing the first Macintosh computer, it all came back to me, and we designed it all into the Mac. It was the first computer with beautiful typography. If I had never dropped in on that single course in college, the Mac would have never had multiple typefaces or proportionally spaced fonts, and since Windows just copied the Mac, it's likely that no personal computer would have them.

If I had never dropped out, I would have never dropped in on that calligraphy class and personals computers might not have the wonderful typography that they do.

Of course it was impossible to connect the dots looking forward when I was in college, but it was very, very clear looking backwards 10 years later. Again, you can't connect the dots looking forward. You can only connect them looking backwards, so you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future. You have to trust in something--your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever--because believing that the dots will connect down the road will give you the confidence to follow your heart, even when it leads you off the well-worn path, and that will make all the difference.

My second story is about love and loss. I was lucky. I found what I loved to do early in life. Woz and I started Apple in my parents' garage when I was twenty. We worked hard and in ten years, Apple had grown from just the two of us in a garage into a $2 billion company with over 4,000 employees. We'd just released our finest creation, the Macintosh, a year earlier, and I'd just turned thirty, and then I got fired. How can you get fired from a company you started? Well, as Apple grew, we hired someone who I thought was very talented to run the company with me, and for the first year or so, things went well. But then our visions of the future began to diverge, and eventually we had a falling out. When we did, our board of directors sided with him, and so at thirty, I was out, and very publicly out. What had been the focus of my entire adult life was gone, and it was devastating. I really didn't know what to do for a few months. I felt that I had let the previous generation of entrepreneurs down, that I had dropped the baton as it was being passed to me. I met with David Packard and Bob Noyce and tried to apologize for screwing up so badly. I was a very public failure and I even thought about running away from the Valley. But something slowly began to dawn on me. I still loved what I did. The turn of events at Apple had not changed that one bit. I'd been rejected but I was still in love. And so I decided to start over.

I didn't see it then, but it turned out that getting fired from Apple was the best thing that could have ever happened to me. The heaviness of being successful was replaced by the lightness of being a beginner again, less sure about everything. It freed me to enter one of the most creative periods in my life. During the next five years I started a company named NeXT, another company named Pixar and fell in love with an amazing woman who would become my wife. Pixar went on to create the world's first computer-animated feature film, "Toy Story," and is now the most successful animation studio in the world.

In a remarkable turn of events, Apple bought NeXT and I returned to Apple and the technology we developed at NeXT is at the heart of Apple's current renaissance, and Lorene and I have a wonderful family together.

I'm pretty sure none of this would have happened if I hadn't been fired from Apple. It was awful-tasting medicine but I guess the patient needed it. Sometimes life's going to hit you in the head with a brick. Don't lose faith. I'm convinced that the only thing that kept me going was that I loved what I did. You've got to find what you love, and that is as true for work as it is for your lovers. Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work, and the only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven't found it yet, keep looking, and don't settle. As with all matters of the heart, you'll know when you find it, and like any great relationship it just gets better and better as the years roll on. So keep looking. Don't settle.

My third story is about death. When I was 17 I read a quote that went something like "If you live each day as if it was your last, someday you'll most certainly be right." It made an impression on me, and since then, for the past 33 years, I have looked in the mirror every morning and asked myself, "If today were the last day of my life, would I want to do what I am about to do today?" And whenever the answer has been "no" for too many days in a row, I know I need to change something. Remembering that I'll be dead soon is the most important thing I've ever encountered to help me make the big choices in life, because almost everything--all external expectations, all pride, all fear of embarrassment or failure--these things just fall away in the face of death, leaving only what is truly important. Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose. You are already naked. There is no reason not to follow your heart.

About a year ago, I was diagnosed with cancer. I had a scan at 7:30 in the morning and it clearly showed a tumor on my pancreas. I didn't even know what a pancreas was. The doctors told me this was almost certainly a type of cancer that is incurable, and that I should expect to live no longer than three to six months. My doctor advised me to go home and get my affairs in order, which is doctors' code for "prepare to die." It means to try and tell your kids everything you thought you'd have the next ten years to tell them, in just a few months. It means to make sure that everything is buttoned up so that it will be as easy as possible for your family. It means to say your goodbyes.

I lived with that diagnosis all day. Later that evening I had a biopsy where they stuck an endoscope down my throat, through my stomach into my intestines, put a needle into my pancreas and got a few cells from the tumor. I was sedated but my wife, who was there, told me that when they viewed the cells under a microscope, the doctor started crying, because it turned out to be a very rare form of pancreatic cancer that is curable with surgery. I had the surgery and, thankfully, I am fine now.

This was the closest I've been to facing death, and I hope it's the closest I get for a few more decades. Having lived through it, I can now say this to you with a bit more certainty than when death was a useful but purely intellectual concept. No one wants to die, even people who want to go to Heaven don't want to die to get there, and yet, death is the destination we all share. No one has ever escaped it. And that is as it should be, because death is very likely the single best invention of life. It's life's change agent; it clears out the old to make way for the new. right now, the new is you. But someday, not too long from now, you will gradually become the old and be cleared away. Sorry to be so dramatic, but it's quite true. Your time is limited, so don't waste it living someone else's life. Don't be trapped by dogma, which is living with the results of other people's thinking. Don't let the noise of others' opinions drown out your own inner voice, heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.

When I was young, there was an amazing publication called The Whole Earth Catalogue, which was one of the bibles of my generation. It was created by a fellow named Stuart Brand not far from here in Menlo Park, and he brought it to life with his poetic touch. This was in the late Sixties, before personal computers and desktop publishing, so it was all made with typewriters, scissors, and Polaroid cameras. it was sort of like Google in paperback form thirty-five years before Google came along. I was idealistic, overflowing with neat tools and great notions. Stuart and his team put out several issues of the The Whole Earth Catalogue, and then when it had run its course, they put out a final issue. It was the mid-Seventies and I was your age. On the back cover of their final issue was a photograph of an early morning country road, the kind you might find yourself hitchhiking on if you were so adventurous. Beneath were the words, "Stay hungry, stay foolish." It was their farewell message as they signed off. "Stay hungry, stay foolish." And I have always wished that for myself, and now, as you graduate to begin anew, I wish that for you. Stay hungry, stay foolish.

Thank you all, very much."

如此庞大之灯饰

2005-09-18T00:40:00.000+08:00

多谢 Uncle Wesley　&　Ｚｅｐｈｙｒ姐姐的入门票，我才能拍到这些大大的、（恐怖的？）东西... ... 哈哈，是裕华园的灯饰啦。

快来看一看，投选您心目中最恐怖的灯饰！

编号　１：

编号　２：

编号　３：

编号　４：

－－－

不知道有去这次裕华园主办的灯笼展览的朋友们有没有注意到售票处的黑肤色Auntie？没想到她会说华语。可是比较奇怪的是，她的算术不是很好（不知为何可以当售票Auntie...），而且还因此闹了一点小插曲。排在我们前面的游人有2元的礼券，原本13元的入门票，游人付了15元，Auntie硬要找 3块钱给游人（少了1元）。游人教她算了又算，她还是不肯找4元，还拼命以离奇的数学程式按计算机。结果后面的人等得不耐烦了，也帮忙讲解，Auntie仍非常怀疑。最后还是聪明的游人提议“重新来过”，将钱收回，再从头以比较简单的方式“演”给她看，她才信服。

Ah Hong 的近况

2005-09-18T00:33:00.000+08:00

多谢Ah Hong 的网友关心，Ah Hong 的近况还算不错。

在此附上一张近照：

想要一头有七种用途的秀发似乎已达成了，可是不知为何 Ah Hong 有点“脸黑黑”... ...

The Flu which Helped End WWI

2005-09-16T19:06:00.000+08:00

The flu virus that jumped from birds to humans... is it linked to the recent bird flu? Are we facing another epidemic?

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/3455873.stm

被爱的女人

2005-09-12T18:18:00.000+08:00

先不说伟联了。Kelly 唱得这么用心的歌，怎么能不再回味呢？（虽然我比较喜欢欣卉的歌声 :p）

非常好听，且高难度的--

被爱的女人
原唱：Coco Lee

在镜子前面我是个被爱的女人
他就在门外这个周末我可以依赖在他的胸怀
在情人面前我还是单身的女人
爱若缺了缘份我想我只能用情至深但不能太认真
为什么被爱有时却觉得悲哀
为什么我还是害怕一个人醒来
为什么相爱日子却仍然空白
为什么你走不到我的未来
让爱固定下来我不会永远青春可爱
我的美丽要你的温柔帮我保留下来
让爱固定下来我和你不要不要分开
我不要爱一再一再彩排
＊我不是每次失恋后都能重新再来

Pls vote!

2005-09-11T22:35:00.000+08:00

Hehe... I love creating polls :)

Nowadays ezsend seems like very quiet, guess everybody is too busy to reply.

Just for fun, pls vote for your preferred tourist spot on the right hand side below!

其实你不懂我的心

2005-09-05T00:32:00.000+08:00

词：陈桂珠曲：童安格

你说我像云捉摸不定
其实你不懂我的心
你说我像梦忽远又忽近
其实你不懂我的心
你说我像迷总是看不清
其实我用不在乎掩藏真心

怕自己不能负担对你的真心
所以不敢靠你太近
你说要远行暗地里伤心
不让你看到哭泣的眼睛
怕自己不能负担对你的真心
所以不敢靠你太近
你说要远行暗地里伤心
不让你看到哭泣的眼睛

不是非常喜欢这首歌的词，不过陈伟联的演绎让我喜欢这首歌。嘻嘻。

Big Scary Thing

2005-09-04T11:58:00.000+08:00

anna this is for you, haha...

Guess what this is :p

picture courtesy of pc

Smoker's Rights?

2005-09-03T23:59:00.000+08:00

Recently, it was announced that the smoking ban will be extended to certain sections of hawker centres and pubs. This is an atrocious argument (by a youngster in the street) against the ban that I heard on TV just now:

"It all comes down to personal choice.
smoking is a choice people make.
you cannot tell someone what to do or what not to do..
it infringes their rights."

Let's start off with the concept of "rights".

Smokers can keep to places that would not affect non-smokers that much. By granting smokers the right to smoke anywhere, we have also infringed upon the rights of non-smokers who have the right to clean air. A person has the right to do something provided the rights of the people around him/her are not compromised by that person's action. Imagine a world where everyone insists upon having his rights without consideration for others.

An example to illustrate the above point: A person chooses to end his life by bringing explosives onboard a plane. Some may argue that his has the right to his own life, but by jeopardizing the lives of the rest of the passengers in the plane, he has infringed upon their rights to live. It is entirely not acceptable. (By the way, suicide is illegal in Singapore.) Out of point? Smoking, being proven to lead to increased incidences of death due to cancer, can be considered as a slow form of suicide.

Consideration is the key. Probably such regulations would not be necessary if most smokers have the consideration to smoke somewhere so as not to subject others to their second hand smoke.

********

I believe most of us have come across friends and even family members who smoke. I have nothing against considerate smokers, who try their best not to implicate others with their choice to smoke. In fact, many of them are aware of the harmful effects of smoking, and some have tried to quit, but the withdrawal symptoms had proven too difficult for them to overcome. However, whenever I see parents smoke in their own homes, in front of their children, it really makes me wonder, why would they want to subject their children to this health hazard if they really care for their children? How responsible can such parents claim to be? This view may be a little extremistic. On the other hand, I believe (or would like to believe) that these parents really care for the well-being of their children. Perhaps they don't understand the dire effects of second hand smoke, despite the many campaigns that try to draw attention to them? Or is it just that while regulations have been effective, their target audience have failed to understand the reasons behind the regulations?

It's 陈伟联 for Superstar

2005-09-02T18:39:00.000+08:00

It's old news but, for the benefit of those who are not watching the show, Kelvin 陈伟联 has become the winner of the Channel U Project Superstar Competition on 1 September 2005.

A summary of the competition (warning: the description is going to be quite boring, coming from someone who doesn't know much about music and singing)

Round 1: 压场
伟联：男人海洋
嘉丽：颜色
Kelly's voice at the start was relatively soft as compared to Weilian's, and appeared to be drown by the loud music. Kudos for Kelly for trying out the Bohemian wig though. As for Weilian, his stage presence wasn't diminished by his inabilty to execute fanciful dancesteps onstage due to his visual handicap.

My choice: Weilian

Round 2: Acappella
伟联：我真的受伤了
嘉丽：沙滩
Weilian managed to sing the front portion correctly without music at all. Comparatively, Kelly only sang a short portion without music, and I wonder if she could carry it through if that part were to be extended to as long as Weilian's solo part. (后记：they both sang solo almost equally long, but don't know why WL's part sounded longer during the first listening.) Nevertheless, Weilian's harmonising angels performed much better than Kelly's, giving him an edge. Singing with minimal music suits Weilian's style. (后记: It was a close fight. )

My choice: Weilian

Round 3: Duet with JJ 林俊杰
伟联：一千年以后
嘉丽：木乃伊
合唱:被风吹过的夏天
Weilian started off 一千年以后 really well. He brought out the mood of the song. When they reached the chorus, Ｉ even felt that he had overshadowed JJ. As for Kelly, 木乃伊 was o-k, but paled in comparison - in terms of projecting the mood of the song. However, in the trio song 被风吹过的夏天，Kelly had a meaty part of the song, in which she performed well with JJ. (后记: I forgot to say that JJ had the meatiest part :p) Weilian was led onstage much later into the song, and only had some harmonising part to sing, which was quite out of place as Kelly's and JJ's voices were too high-pitched.

As a result, the judges harped on how much better Kelly performed than Weilian in the trio song and paid no attention to the earlier individual duet, and ruled in Kelly's favour.

My choice:　Given the unfair circumstances, I think this round should not even be counted. My speculation from looking at the individual duet is that had it been a fair duel in the trio song (either get a female singer to sing with Weilian or let Weilian and Kelly sing, and forget that JJ since he's not even competing), Weilian might have gained an upper hand over Kelly.

Round 4: Specially tailored songs to expose contestants' flaws
伟联：了解
嘉丽：On My Way
I suspect that beginning from this round, Weilian might be affected by the negativity in Round 3 or that he had used up too much energy at the beginning, as some people who had watched the rehearsals said that his performance was not on par with his performance in the rehearsals earlier. Lee Weisong made a rather out-of-point comment that the song he wrote for Kelly was to help her show off her strengths and techniques. Some argued that Weilian's song was more diffcult to sing. However, I think Kelly performed very well for an also difficult-to-sing song.

My choice: Kelly

Round 5: Contestant's own choice of song
伟联：其实你不懂我的心
嘉丽:被爱的女人
Kelly cleverly made good use of this segment to show off her versatility, completing her performance of fast songs and acappella with a slow and sentimental song. Weilian, on the other hand, chose a touching song that suited his vocals, drawing criticism that his range of song choice was not diverse enough.

My choice: Kelly

In the end, the audience chose Weilian over Kelly.
(后记: Probably most people who bothered to vote believed that Weilian's true capabilities were not displayed completely in the finals.)

* * * * * * * * *

OK, maybe just let me end off (and dampen the spirits) with a statement of guilt...
How privileged we are to have the time and energy to muse over such reality TV programmes! I'll like to feel that I've learnt something from it (whatever it is), and we should treasure this time and energy we have to do meaningful things so that we would not have any cause for regret.

Quiz: What Kind of Friend Are You?

2005-08-30T00:35:00.000+08:00

Regretted spending my time on this...but...the main point is...

The kitten is cute hor?

What Kind of Friend Are You?

"Autumn Cleaning"

2005-08-27T15:38:00.000+08:00

*Cough cough* ahem. Is it the haze from the forest fire of Indonesia? The burning of joss paper for the Hungry Ghost Festival? Or is it the dust from my room?

I want to do a big, big cleanup of my room. However, the garang guni instinct in me is at work again. Shall I throw away all the University course brochures I collected last time, as well as the various college/University/Hall/Faculty publications like The Ridge, etc? Somebody help me!! :p

是是非非 - 绝对 Superstar AGAIN!

2005-08-25T00:00:00.000+08:00

绝对Superstar在新马引起轩然大波，八卦报章甚至为了刺激销售量针对男冠军大肆作负面的周边报导。先不谈报章是否应该着重于光明面或者唯恐天下不乱。让我们来看看一些让人拍案叫绝的观众意见：

1）

对于被淘汰参赛者洪俊扬的父亲在男女冠军签唱会现场说的这番话：

优频道网站新闻
“...

俊扬的家人（父亲、母亲以及妹妹）在人群中，拿着俊扬的巨型海报，让粉丝和海报合照。没有虾（真人），鱼（海报）也好，粉丝热烈捧场。洪爸爸和俊扬后援会的互动良好，签唱会结束时还留在原地和粉丝“小聊”了一下才依依不舍地离去。提到伤心事（俊扬出局），洪爸爸眼眶泛红，还说：“你看连老天爷都为俊扬难过，下起雨来了…”

...”

Hardwarezone 网民的回应：请点击

2）

第二评判叶佩芬明显偏袒洪俊扬和潘嘉丽, 而且给予评语时好像在paraphrase前面第一位评判黎沸辉的话, 被批评为没有主见（除了对于参赛者的穿着与身材之外）。例如：

对于潘嘉丽的表演：
黎：今天你的造型我很喜欢...
叶：我很高兴看到Superstar的诞生，你的穿着散发出星味...

黎：虚音方面需要加强...
叶：唱虚音的时候太虚、太薄...

对于石欣卉的表演：
黎：唱快歌的时候，你的低音的缺点就显露出来了...
叶：唱快歌时有点像在追，尤其是在低音的部分...

黎：就如水上漂所说，要避短扬长...
叶：一句话，要扬长避短...

如果将两人的位置对调，让叶当第一评判：
叶：... ... ???

甚至有人开玩笑说，怀疑主办单位之所以把方钟桦从第一位评判调去第四位（原本叶排第三位），是为了避免被叶抄袭。

Insomnia? Part 2

2005-08-24T03:13:00.000+08:00

I think the zaobao.com reporter has telepathy with me. I forgot to mention I tried deep breathing too... so that'll make it the 11th item on my official list.

副刊 2005-08-23

走出失眠困扰

31 Aug'05: the link has expired, but...

I can assure you I didn't sell my story to him. Oops... cold until snowing liao... :p

Project Superstar Audio/Video Links

2005-08-23T23:58:00.000+08:00

Project Superstar 战情介绍

男冠军陈伟联 performance audio and video links

http://launch.groups.yahoo.com/group/Weilian_Fans
Under "Links" -- all the reorg permanent links section. From audition 1 to finals including judges' comment.
(Need to join group with any Yahoo! id, quite fast, can be done in a few clicks.)
recommended: pls 慢慢看, too many to recommend :p

Outdated News:

Homecoming for a Superstar

女子组亚军石欣卉 performance clips

http://savefile.com/projects.php?pid=186316
recommended: 温柔的夜，遗失的美好，心痛

女冠军潘嘉丽 Kelly

http://asia.groups.yahoo.com/group/kelly_fans_club/
Under "Files"
recommended: 美丽笨女人

Offical Superstar Website

....

10 Fast Cures for Insomnia

2005-08-22T18:03:00.000+08:00

No injection or medication needed.

1) Turn off all routers and modem in the house.

2) Draw the curtains, keep the room as dark as possible.

3) Close the window to shut out early morning traffic noise.

4) Think of happy happenings and relaxing thoughts.

5) Picture lambs in your head and count: 1, 2, 3, ...

6) Chant "Phenobarbitol".

7) Resolve to develop a regular sleeping pattern from the next day onwards.

8) Picture a blank screen in our mind. Clear all thoughts.

9) Adopt the most comfortable sleeping posture.

10) Skip one night's sleep.

The last one worked best! :)

范玮琪 -- 一比一

2005-08-21T23:20:00.000+08:00

01. 就是你
02. 一比一
03. 不眠
04. 一直到最後
05. 多麼多麼愛你
06. 如果的是
07. 沒那麼愛他
08. Cold
09. 鞦韆
10. 親吻寂寞旅人
11. 全世界失眠

1.就是你
詞：王雅君　曲：張國璽/脫拉庫

你 就是你 對你從來就沒有懷疑 為了要遇見你
我用盡我所有的力氣
就是你 就是你 除了愛自己我更愛你
沒有鑽石華麗 卻有獨一無二的魅力
喜歡你 的個性 喜歡你 的反應
遇見你 不怕難題 相信我自己 答案就是你


2.一比一
詞：李焯雄　曲：陶吉吉

La~ 兩顆心同步愛 La~ 你和我分不開
什麼都還沒說 但我想的你都說中了
當你感到寂寞 你第一個想到我
有太多 快樂慢動作重播 每天默契更多
我愛你 難得你也選擇我 同樣愛那麼多
我愛你 一天一天更確定 一步一步靠近
一點一滴 一比一愛
像羅馬一天一天建立 一點一滴 一比一 愛
不經意就像呼吸 想(愛)你就是必須 你的明天我不缺席 Yeah
愛是一步一步在累積 同步愛

La~ 兩顆心同步愛 La~ 你和我分不開
謝謝你懂得我 可能比我了解的更多
若親愛的你感到難過 答應陪你到最後

愛是一步一步在累積
愛是一點一滴 清晰 甜蜜 一點一滴慢慢滿溢
愛是一步一步累積 同步愛


3.不眠
詞：陽明學　曲：范瑋琪

7點10分 清晨時分 慵懶的氣氛 睡不著
醒不了 我又失了魂
我枯坐著 望著日輪 卻以為是黃昏 鳥嗚聲
讓我回神 才發現 已經過了一生

浮浮沉沉 假假真真 為誰辛苦 為誰認真
為何努力 為何犧牲 拼了再拼 忍了又忍
還是欲望 這種本能 會讓人忘了 有多心疼
只是不知 無論如何 到了最後 還不是一個人
到了最後 才發現不是 一個人


4.一直到最後
詞/曲:深白色

在黃昏的街頭 你握著我的手 過了今天以後 一切不再相同
為了什麼理由 對話變得沉重 你氣得轉過頭 我的眼淚又再流
距離分手就只剩一個路口 我們怎麼還是 在爭吵中度過

一直到最後 我們還是沒看透 愛情是溫柔的接受 而不是嘶喊著要求
已經到最後 才突然想起最初的時候 是想擁有彼此更多 卻走到什麼都沒有
連只是想靠在一起 也不能夠

一直到最後 你都還是不能夠 靜靜的放手看我走 而給另一次難受
已經到最後 你還是不懂 我要什麼 有太多話想對你說 你為何要讓我說不出口
連只是想好好再見 也不能夠


5.多麼多麼愛你
詞:朱敬然/王雅君 曲:朱敬然

我們之間到最後 面對面了也沒話好說 你要不要 說清楚了再走
你送我的音樂盒 只剩寂寞 在旋轉唱著 最愛的歌 怎麼聽都囉唆
別以為任何藉口 就能遮掩不被看透
我的愛 不要你來揮霍 淚不再為誰流

你想離開 就快點走吧 我沒有辦法 把你留下
不要說 下一個 會更好的 你不是真的愛我
我也想放開 我的雙手 我對愛 已經沒有把握
我再沒有力氣 開口對你說 我有多麼多麼愛你

我們之間到最後 面對面也沒話好說 你要不要 說清楚了再走
你送給我的快樂 怎麼變成 最累的負荷 我從天堂 掉進地獄門口

我付出一切 毫無保留 只想要一個
永遠真實承諾 事到如今 無處可逃 讓我徹底瘋吧


6.如果的事
合唱：范瑋琪/張韶涵  詞/曲:王藍茵

我想過一件事 不是壞的事 一直對自己堅持
愛情的意思 像風沒有理由輕輕吹著走
誰愛誰沒有所謂的對與錯 不管時間
說著我們在一起有多坎坷
我不敢去証實 愛你兩個字 不是對自己矜持
也不是諷刺 別人都在說我其實很無知
這樣的感情被認定很放肆 我很不服我還在想著那件事

如果你已經不能控制 每天想我一次 如果你因為我而誠實
如果你看我的電影 聽我愛的CD 如果你能帶我一起旅行
如果你決定跟隨感覺 為愛勇敢一次 如果你說我們有彼此
如果你會開始相信 這般戀愛心情 如果你能給我如果的事
(如果你會開始相信 這般戀愛心情 我只要你一件如果的事 我會奮不顧身地去愛你)


7.沒那麼愛他
詞/曲:徐婕兒

你有權利情緒化 你不一定要堅強 但有些事情
不能偽裝 別為自己設了框
我懂失去的悲傷 也懂進退的掙扎 但想起過去
都是失望 又何必要放不下
是習慣還是愛 不放心 還是不甘心 只有你自己知道解答

其實你沒有那麼愛他 真的不需要那麼想他
編織過的夢想 自已也可以抵達 誰說一定要有他
其實你沒有那麼愛他 沒有深陷到不可自拔
認清了真心話 你就放得下

深呼吸 抬頭望 發現天空很寬廣
這世界那麼大 幸福總會在某個地方

其實你沒有那麼愛他 真的不需要那麼想他
擁有過的計劃 留給值得的對象 你知道 不會是他
其實你沒有那麼愛他 沒有深陷到不可自拔
認清了真心話 你就放得下


8.COLD
詞:呂學涵/陳偉  曲:陳偉

一句話 就當作是理由 假裝什麼事沒有
悄悄轉身 就把我拋腦後 連 sorry 都沒有 說都沒說
難道我就應該 獨自默默的承受是否讓自己解脫

You leave me in this world that's so cold
you keep on saying I need to let go
是否我能把一切都 做得好讓你懂
讓你能重新回頭 i know my love能感動
You leave me in this world that's so cold
you keep on saying I need to let go
是否我能把你的不安 轉變成自由
讓你可重新回頭 i know my love能感動
電話都拔不通 不要把自己捉弄


9.鞦韆
詞:藍又時/施立  曲:藍又時

那年夏天 煙火表演 一場最美的愛戀
今年冬天 無人樂園 雨水停留空的鞦韆
我們說要等到再見那一天 相信真心不改變
鞦韆搖晃我們青春的笑顏 浮雲飄過的藍天
鞦韆上 你拉著我 抬起頭 看著天空
有一種 美好的感動 圍繞著我
那時候 你背對我 靜靜說 記住天空
會擁有 更美好的夢 留在心中 長久
我們說要等到再見那一天 相信真心不改變
鞦韆搖晃我們青春的笑顏 浮雲飄過的藍天
相信等到我們再見那一天 只有真心不改變
我們擁有青春的笑顏


10.親吻寂寞旅人
詞/曲:游家豪

你臉上幾件 包裝得完整 精致的歉意
我不想收下 卻要裝做它 是份貼心的禮
欺騙的話語 卻捧在手心 還那麼動聽
我只能安靜 若笑著沉迷 一場無聲的冷雨
只是 我能負載多少對不起 和虛偽的暖意
怎麼能怪你(不想怪你) 無心親吻了我 寂寞旅人的心
何必 流著眼淚說你也傷心 費心裝飾別離
回到原點 反正我本來就是一個人旅行


11.全世界失眠
詞:林夕  曲:陳偉

想起我不完美 你會不會 逃離我生命的範圍
想著你的滋味 我會不會 把這個枕頭 變得甜美
想起白天的約會 忘了晚上的咖啡
只怕感情如潮水 遠離我夢中的堡壘
一個人失眠 全世界失眠 無辜的街燈 守候明天
幸福的失眠 只是因為害怕閉上眼
如何想你想到六點 如何愛你愛到終點
一個人失眠 全世界失眠 無辜的街燈 守候明天
幸福的失眠 只是因為害怕閉上眼
如何想你想到六點 如何愛你愛到終點
想起我的時候 你會不會 好像我一樣 不能睡
想像你的曖昧 我會不會 數不到綿羊 一雙一對


cnp from a hkmusic site...forgot the link liao.

张智霖 -- 《爱与梦》

2005-08-14T00:16:00.000+08:00

01 相愛無夢 (電視劇"西關大少"主題曲)

跟你抱著未等於愛上
不再抱著未等於不想
你我在這分鐘
說過無緣再見
下秒鐘再湊巧碰上

*即使一起貌合卻又神離
分隔兩地日夜掛著愁眉
再各自結新歡
卻暗地拿你去比較現有的
始終偏袒你

#有心愛你卻愛不到
抱緊了你卻又未想終老
再等到與對方失散之後
就會知原來誰最好
愛不到至會更想愛
抱緊了你我又無心裝載
我跟你也破不到
男與女之間愛情的定數*#

一個過活恨抱著情人
一對過活又掛念誰人
到了話要分開
你我尚有惻隱
又再探聽對方新聞
repeat *
repeat #

浪漫抒情新歌，very radio-friendly + 悦耳。

02 有緣更好
誰說愛戀仿似比賽還未到終點怎麼可預告
那一對迷途那一雙終老
難道要花一生去尋寶

* 曾試過很多次戀愛而我到此刻終於都知道
緣份要由天方可以終老
苦苦強求沒法愛得到

愛念如幻化輕煙決定隨緣沒訌訢
要是仍然在圈圈裡轉只得到
無窮無盡無助的孤單我好

必需有緣才能共舞珍惜今天所愛方能同步
等待與追討失去和得到
再沒困惑心中沒苦惱
要是緣盡亦當一種劫數
笑笑面對揮手告別
沒有悲哭必須不惜勇敢或會得到
(沒有悲哭必須不惜勇敢或會找到 ) *

Repeat *

此曲有罗嘉良一贯的风格。

03 未婚妻
當終生約定漸成為默契愛已信任維繫
這公開秘密若無人議異我決心守一世
你與我有甚麼關連舉世亦已心照
何必抱著上街招搖在派對內炫耀
肥皂劇那般公告世上經已沒有需要
拖著你不行進教堂仍然沒那樣少

但旁人始終不會明盟約是著重在心境
早已認定是對方亦不必一張紙定情
用悠長的初戀証明能夠共渡各種困境
若幸福的結局顯得脫俗無名份但更溫馨
百萬對發過誓愛侶最尾各自引退無緣份同居
地老天荒或會只得我們仍能愛下去
(沒有分析但卻只得我們仍然愛下去)

想怎樣作實為情人負責看個個在疑惑
雖可依照著舊時人做法你覺得非解答
與你愛到第幾多年親吻亦會心跳
無需請客那麼招搖在宴會上炫耀
肥皂劇那般展覽故事一向沒有需要
因愛會給時間証明融人別在自擾

Chorus 让我想到陈奕迅的《K歌之王》。

04 好情人
沒有最貴禮物去　討好妳
沒有最闊角落去　保管妳
就算多麼愛妳　他一吻妳　都比我更加細膩
就當我過去犯過　不少錯
就當我發奮圖強值得獎我
若妳都不愛我　我再好都有錯　就錯於他較我差得多

*如何做妳的好情人　自問我口講無憑
　然而總有可能　能令妳偶爾開心
　誰來做妳的新情人　莫問有幾多傳聞
　他可深得妳心　即使他不懂得愛人　
　能叫妳盲目地啞忍　忘掉我無論有什麼吸引*

大概愛這個字已經足夠　讓妳解釋妳為何要什麼自由
任我怎麼戰鬥　任我多稀有　但你貪新卻要討厭舊

repeat *

這個壞人　能令你盲目到被他吸引

延续前面三首抒情新歌的曲风。很“电视剧”，可是不错。

05 有關過關 (電視劇"談判專家"主題曲)

作曲: 林慕潔作詞: 陳少琪

平靜裡藏暗湧
世事看通卻沒法通
懷著笑談判中
我像放鬆措詞如朗誦
但專家都有太多惡夢
自己將困難歡送方會有天空

有關過關(就似一發子彈)
有彎過彎(沒過不了一晚)
有關過關(讓腦筋急轉彎)
跨過患難挑戰極限
心跳未慢都算是賺

危難裡沒有法子
你讓我知我為你醫
長路既然到此
怨地怨天已是無意義
大醫生都會間中染病
亦必須強顏歡笑忍痛你不知

全部歌曲中最富动感的歌，让人耳目一新。要听到它的节拍和 bass 才会喜欢上它。
可以想象电视剧播出后，小孩子都会朗朗上口。

06 我愛古著

我已试过想爱便爱再要试试想去便到二十年代
穿穿宽领西装遇着长裙淑女吻的高贵更像爱
按按这个可以下载着阔脚裤可会让我到六十年代
学学年华绝代没话就剅默契爱的优雅更像爱

潮流极快快到我发现古着最合我变得多
更喜欢经典的感觉容易去爱爱到我发现恋爱最易错
转得多更喜欢专一犹豫最初

* 心急派或未曾动心(用心)贪新派或未曾认得
恋爱要时间想跟她想愈来愈亲想跟她
便愈能明白想恋得老派心急派或未曾入心
贪新派或未曾认得爱要快或要慢想跟她
像愈来愈真多新派亦突然明白再爱要爱旧派

我已试过想爱变爱着窄脚裤可会让我浪漫年代
便利未如现代就像活游白燕爱得真挚更像爱
潮流极快快到我发现古着最合我变得多
更喜欢经典的感觉容易去爱爱到我发现恋爱最易错
转得多更喜欢专一犹豫最初

2x repeat *

全部歌中第二副动感的歌。其实富动感的也只有这两首。很适合张智霖年轻阳光的形象。喜欢它的节拍变化，非常 catchy。

07 又一天 (電視劇"談判專家"插曲)

作曲: 林慕德 ~~ 作詞: 陳少琪 ~~ 主唱: 張智霖
如你用眼神在秘密說話
何以沒法縮短距離直接地對話
能確定愛吧願拒絕我嗎
時間沒法保管我們那年來

*又過一天動魄驚心場面
可給留戀會在那天
又過一天能留下什麼於耳邊
可知明天聲音會變 (coda愛便如煙)
repeat (*)

如你為了誰在每夜掛慮
求你讓我開解我能為你掉眼淚
如我掉眼淚令你漸讚許
時間就算終止我們也伴隨

如兩個世界心聲早已終斷
分享一杯水彼此亦發現太酸
無數次錯過好好給你溫暖
今天靠向你但原來身體已隔著很遠

简单的曲风，意境却十分符合电视剧的情节。喜欢！

08 祝君好
作詞：周禮茂　作曲：Cho Kyu Man

聽　你不斷呼叫我　劃破　寧靜我的心下墮
在難過　講不出愛沒結果　口和唇　緊緊閉鎖
哭　也一話都不說　害怕　連累你一生日月
憾無缺　只差跟你曾遇過　給過你　太多波折

*寧願沒擁抱共你可到老(共你能夠終老)
任由你來去自如在我心底仍愛慕
如若踫到他比我好　只望停在遠處祝君安好
雖不可親口細訴 (多麼想親口細訴)*

說太多話我想說　但我　還是要啞口道別
任由我　天空海闊流著血　只要你　白似冰雪
Repeat**

如果没猜错，作曲者应该是韩国人。是有点韩剧歌曲的味道--浪漫悲情，起伏动听。

09 十指緊扣
作詞：林夕　作曲：馬永齡

即使　可以暢聚
最幸運的一對伴侶
沿途仍舊牽手伴隨
原來為了溫韾之中帶著了恐懼
若那對手放鬆了　會怕失去

#@緊緊　擁抱以外
我用甚麼感到被愛
沿途陪著你　手鬆下來
遺留十寸空間誰相信　你在乎我
若罅隙拉闊　隨時會分開

誰都知雙手可緊扣
不依不捨的背後
這個信念有多溫柔
從害怕會被擁有
直到氣力不夠
十隻手指終於找得到對手
(十隻手指就是絕望時扶手)

能開不開心都緊扣
辛不辛苦都接受
是一個成就
可惜我只想與一個人尾指一勾
(可惜我只得我一個人翹起雙手)#
也沒有@
Repeat # @

起初过门有《Love Me for a Reason》和《开不了口》的梦幻的感觉。喜欢它的节拍，抒情但不沉重。好听！

10 多謝關心
作曲：張宇　　作詞：林夕　　編曲：趙增熹

誰都知不可一次放低　是舊情人關係
誰不知這一轉眼已經　跟你失去默契
一聲聲好嗎多麼虛偽　真相卻不想提
失戀者孤單的身世　你無須估計

* 如果不捨得失去對方　舊日為何不講
何必擺出這關注眼光　逼我傾訴近況
我有痛苦　即使真的多好看
都不敢奢望　用淪落來換你不安 *

# 無奈說一句多謝關心　但這關懷誰當真
似是欠缺愛情的擁吻　只顯出背後傷感
仍願意講句多謝關心　但這口如何對心
再做有過愛情的好友　關心都只當憐憫　誰需要憐憫 #

很像那个年代的广东歌。

11 笑中有淚
作詞：劉卓輝　作曲：巫啟賢　編曲：張兆鴻

我沉醉難道你不想每晚共對
我憔悴還是我不知應否再追
沒法解釋面前你是誰
往往笑中會有淚
似情侶又怕只算是伴隨

*我沉醉難道你不想再醉下去
我懷裡如停留待你將心窩寄居
沒法解釋面前你是誰
往往笑中會有淚
我陶醉但你可會是夢蕾*

#為何讓我動情與著呆
彷彿不知所措是應該
愛你愛得我似在浮載
在那夢裡的愛海
其實若你真的開始在乎你未來
應否不知不覺像分開
我怕最終會再讓別人意外 #

重唱 * # #

这首歌让我想到张信哲的《过火》。也带出了港剧的味道。

12 曾經不知你好
作詞：張美賢　作曲：Robert Seng　編曲：Robert Seng

習慣了在無窮年月一個渡過
縱如何不開心能明白我只得一個我
有時曾想開口言詞沒法講出感覺
在不知不覺結識孤單
暗中只等你經過

*在世界自覺太渺少都太俗氣
有時尋找知己憑緣份不可猜測噢秘
有時無須生死仍難避免經歷別離
若真的可以有多麼想
豁出真心憑感覺去認識你 *

#曾經不知你好
曾經多麼暴躁
從簡單相處裡如傾倒
而開始不知所措
曾經不知你好
曾經恐怕傾訴
我心底千句言詞未說
但是你也會知道
是我想跟你相依到老 #

重唱 * # #

你是一生最好

不知道为什么又想到罗嘉良。可能是因为抒情吧。

13 如此这般想你
曲:o.quesada b.dasig
词:林夕
编:黄尚伟

和谁过那晚和谁分享欢颜
为何想找到你这样难
和谁过这晚和谁人谈心中忧烦
有没有夜返

如此这般想你谁可比
如此忧郁的脸也为你
如此关心的我如知己
如此痴心的话却未说起
如此这般竟会从不知
如此一心一意你未看起
如此这般想你
如在日夜自欺

和谁接那吻和谁讲起新闻
和谁竟讲起我这份人
和谁看细雪和谁谈挪威的森林
有没有动心
其实是我幻想得到太多
还是你从不想我太多
然而我这样傻
如此爱玩火
如此这般想你谁可比
如此这般等待不歇地
如此关心的我如知己
如果真的亲近偏偏顾忌
如此一心一意谁可比
如此痴心的话怎么说起
如此这般想你
如在日夜自欺
wo.........
如此这般想你
如在日夜自欺
谁能比

比较不同的抒情歌。西洋曲风。

14 现代爱情故事
歌手：许秋怡,张智霖

女:别离没有对错要走也解释不多
现代说永远已经很傻
随着那一宵去火花以消逝
不可能付出一生那么多
男:情尽时就要放过我怎会想穿心窝
若是厌倦了再不蹉跎
如共你分开应有机会在爱一个
不可能付出一生空虚过
合:你我情如路半经过
深知道再爱痛苦必多
愿你可轻轻松松放低我
剩了些开心的追忆送走我
皆因了解之后认清楚
离别时笑笑明辰剩我一个
潇洒里也会记起当初
女:若你的心中孤单再找我
男:若你的心窝中空虚再找我
合:不必痛苦当忆起我

本来就蛮喜欢小虎队的《MyLove》，虽然许秋怡唱得听起来比较旧式，可是真整体来说，港剧翻唱版也很有味道。

15 片片枫叶情
歌手：许秋怡,张智霖

(女)片片红叶转
它低叹再会了这段缘
片片红叶转
回头望告别了苦恋
爱似秋枫叶
无力再灿烂再燃
凝聚了美丽却苦短
(男)片片红叶转
它低叹再会了这段缘
片片红叶转
回头望告别了苦恋
爱似秋枫叶
无力再灿烂再燃
凝聚了美丽却苦短
(女)片片叶儿随梦却倾刻飘远
相看对泣竟默然
片片叶儿携着我此生所爱
一飘再飘梦更远
(男)远远夕阳陪着你此刻归去
心中爱火怎复燃
远远夕阳携着我此生所爱
秋风带走梦片片

回到了古代，意境味十足。老气老到我喜欢！

16 怎會如此 - 張智霖
曲︰陳頌紅詞︰陳頌紅編︰羅堅

一切到此　心也倦了
戀愛一場　苦了苦了
一切到此　再沒話說
走的會走　無法留住

＊我盡力過　卻也鬥不過　天意的微妙
困在回憶裡留戀　空有些追思

＃錯誤極了　我已甦醒了
過去應該要忘掉　要是從新再遇上
可會如此

一切到此　心也倦了
等了多年　等個開始
非常凌亂　〔想到昨天〕
再沒話說　〔也沒有淚〕
可惜始終　為你停住

重唱　＊,＃

陈颂红为无线剧打造了好几首由罗嘉良主唱的好歌。不过这首歌并没给我很深的印象。

17 愛情已死
作詞：林夕　作曲：伍樂城　編曲：伍樂城

能抱下去　還有沒有餘力　辨認誰
能吻下去　還有沒有好心情　能沉睡

*就當做個紀念　曾漂亮過的謊言
我就座　你表演

不必告訴我愛情已死
知已當然知彼
無能為力冷戰　可以嬉戲
人在機場　早晚亦要飛
來為你離別致哀下半旗

即使你對我愛情已死
表演一場歡喜
為何情願報憂不報喜
臨別痴呆　可以扮逃避
在一起　來較量　誰入戲

難愛下去　仍要盡你綿力　玩心碎
難笑下去　仍借用你的真情　流流淚
repeat *

向上吻向下吻也沒有激情
向後看有沒有悲壯佈景
無論多麼高興
沉睡到清早總要清醒
別太早清醒

Chorus 有一点像一首新歌，但忘了歌名。以这首歌作结尾不错，不蕴不火。

Extra 天地男兒
演唱：陳松伶, 張智霖

(女) 天分不出邊界卻又連接白天每個黑夜那是我對你分不開的心
蒼老了都不冷卻
(男) 地滿載了一切這些那些悲與喜的季節那是我為你累積的真
再沒有欠缺再沒有告別天長地久
(合) 握你的手緊緊放在我胸口
(女) 紅塵女子的溫柔天地男兒的港口
(男) 天長地久沒有盡頭你是我全部所有
(女) 天地交錯得相遇
(男) 用我一生和你相守

这是一首我比较喜欢的合唱曲。陈松伶和张智霖配合得很不错。

《谈判专家》歌词

2005-08-08T09:38:00.000+08:00

插曲：又一天
曲：林慕德
词：陈少琪
唱：张智霖

如你用眼神在秘密说话
何以没法缩短距离直接地对话
能确定爱吧愿拒绝我吗
时间没法保管我们那年华

＊又过一天动魄惊心场面
可给留恋会在那天
又过一天能留下甚么于耳边
可知明天声音会变

如你为了薩在每夜挂泪
求你让我开解我能为你掉眼泪
如我掉眼泪令你渐赞许
时间就算终止我们也伴随

repeat(＊)

如两个世界心声早已终断
分享一盻水彼此亦发现太酸
无数次错过好好给你温暖
今天靠向你但訽来身体已隔著很远

repeat(＊)

主题曲：有关过关

歌手:张智霖

平静里藏暗涌
世事看通却没法通
怀着笑谈判中
我像放松
措辞如朗诵
但专家都有太多噩梦
自己将困难欢送
方会有天空
有关过关,就似一发子弹
有弯过弯,没过不了一晚
有关过关,让脑筋转急弯
跨过患难挑战极限
危难里无法子
你让我知我为你医
长路既然到此
怨天怨地
已是无意义
大医生都会间中染病
亦必须强颜欢笑
忍通你不知

Lucky or Unlucky?

2005-08-03T19:18:00.000+08:00

1) Endless drilling noise from neighbour's house (don't know from which direction, probably executing a major overhaul on his/her house). --> jumpy and dizzy

Had a feeling it was not my day... then...

2) Student A's mum sms-ed to tell me A has done very much better in his Maths and Physics tests. --> relieved

3) Student B sms-ed me her English oral prelim results: 85% (up from borderline marks). Confidence booster--> delighted

Just as I was about to conclude the day on a happy note...

4) 1mm x 5mm worth of epidermis on my right hand got shaved off during a freak collision with my wardrobe door, exposing the vessel-rich dermis. --> ouch!

Internet SMS

2005-07-22T00:32:00.000+08:00

Recently, it dawned upon me that it's possible for friends overseas to send us SMS free of charge... (I think I'm a bit slow, but...) Ok, fret not, these are the links to start sending!

Singtel Internet SMS service
Each mobile customer can receive up to 20 free SMSes per day, but cant reply.

M1 Internet SMS Service
Mobile customers who receive internet SMSes are charged 10.5¢ for each message received. Up to 40 SMSes per day. I wouldn't want to receive this service unless during an emergency if I were an M1 customer.

Starhub's WebSMS Service
No information is given regarding whether the service is free for the receiver. Any Starhub user wants to clarify? There's an option for the receiver to reply though, at StarHub's existing outgoing SMS rate of 5.2 cents for each reply.

绝对 Superstar - 韩国影星版

2005-07-18T19:00:00.000+08:00

绝对 Superstar，有你就有他！

你，又票落谁家呢？

M1 : 权相宇

主演过《我的野蛮女家教》。

M2 : 金在元

也曾与金荷娜同台过。

M3 ：其他 -- 请注明

Haha, Super boliao... :p

BTW, 女生版 is a walkover, given the limited number of Korean shows I've watched (not more than 4, to be exact).

and the winner is... ...

全智贤 from My Sassy Girl.

###

后序：
女星版的 Superstar walkover 遭到抗议，并非没在意料之中。就让我们看看这位较为受落的女星是谁吧。

她就是... ...

宋慧乔

虽然她不是我个人的选择，可是她跟全智贤还长得有点相似呢，不是吗？

Most Ulu Places in Singapore - Open for Suggestions

2005-07-17T00:00:00.000+08:00

This is coming from the walking street directory a.k.a. avid street directory reader a.k.a me: i am planning to do a short writeup on the ulu-est (if there's such a word) places in Singapore end next month. Any recommendation would be greatly appreciated, pls send ur suggestions and ideas to my hotmail or yahoo account :) hehe...

Interesting Names

2005-07-15T18:25:00.000+08:00

Let's take a look at the story behind Fann's on-screen moniker.

Source: The Electric New Paper

Pardon, what's your name again?
By Chang May Choon

02 March 2004

WHEN F4's Vanness Wu was here recently for movie promotions, a curious reporter stood up and asked: 'Were your parents hoping for a girl to call Vanessa when they had you?' Vanness chuckled - though he's probably heard the question a zillion times.

For the record, the American-born star did not choose it himself.

It was his parents who named him after a road in Los Angeles, known as Van Ness.

But, at least his unique name has made many people sit up and take note.

Welcome to the world of Asian showbiz, where some celebrities pick the most bizarre names for themselves.

What's a walking road sign when compared to, say, Noodle, Jingle, and Shooky?

Is it just bad English? Or do these ludicrous names have logical explanations?

Here we try to unearth the stories behind every unique celebrity name.

THE BOY BANDS

Seems like weird names run in Taiwanese boy bands.

Besides F4's Vanness, there's also Energy's Milk, Comic Boyz's Kingone and Shone, and K-One's Kido.

Milk, or Niu Nai in Mandarin, is named after his favourite beverage, and has fair skin to go with his moniker.

Kingone's moniker is a play on his Chinese name Wang Chuan Yi. Wang means king, and Yi is one.

As for Shone and Kido, we can only hope they're not spelling errors.

THE MANY FANS

The Fans in showbiz are a creative bunch when it comes to choosing English names.

Taiwanese balladeer Fan Yi-chen, for one, picked Van (yes, as in the vehicle), simply because it rhymes with his surname.

Award-winning Taiwanese actor Fan Zhi-wei, however, calls himself Wing, after his favourite actor Tony Leung Chiu Wai's character in the 1996 movie, Blind Romance.

Right here in Singapore, we have a Fan who is known by her surname in English.

Fann Wong, or Fan Wen-fang in Mandarin, was originally known as Fann Woon Fong.

But she made her debut as a model with just her surname, Fann. Some Singaporeans mixed her up with another model, Fawn Wong, and she's been known as Fann Wong since.

Incidentally, Wong is also her mum's surname.

EAT MY NAME

Beside Energy's Milk, Channel U's Apple Hong also named herself after her favourite food. Apple, that is.

So, does it mean Fish Leong loves fish?

Nah. The Malaysian singer calls herself Fish because that's what people call her in Cantonese.

Her name is pronounced Zheng-yu, and people always call her Ah Yu affectionately. Yu means fish in Cantonese.

WACKY DIRECTORS

Directors, too, have unusual names. Consider Jingle Ma, Fruit Chen and Oxide Pang.

Jingle said he got his name from colleagues at the hair salon where he used to work - 'everyone said I was too talkative, like jingle bells'.

Fruit is a direct translation of his Chinese name Chen Guo. Guo means fruit.

And Oxide, whose Chinese name is Pang Shun, named himself after the gaseous element he learnt about in chemistry class.

MULTI-NAMED CELEBS

Is it Ekin, Noodle, Dior or Eric Cheng? This Hong Kong movie star has changed his English name more often than he did his hair style.

Ekin is adapted from his Chinese name Yee Kin. He's also nicknamed Noodle, as Yee Kin sounds like a type of Chinese noodle, yi meen.

Dior reportedly came about when his baby sister mispronounced 'yi gor', or second brother in Cantonese.

There's also talk that it was his hairdresser who suggested the name.

As for Eric, that's supposedly the name that appears in the US versions of his movies.

He's not alone though.

Malaysian actress-singer Lee Sin Je also can't seem to decide on her English name.

Once she called herself Jet, after her favourite gongfu star Jet Li. More recently, she gave herself the name Angelica. Now she's just Lee Sin Je.

Tommy Su of Little Tigers, changed his name to mark an image change. Now that he's gone solo, he's known as Alec.

Soft-porn star Loletta Lee has also switched to the more tame Rachel.

SOFT-PORN STARS

As if being sexy is not enough, some soft-porn actresses need unique names too. Chingmy Yau Suk Ching comes to mind, as well as Shooky Kwan Sau Mei.

They've been known by these one-of-its-kind monikers since 1987, when both joined the Miss Hong Kong pageant.

JERRY TRIO: EACH HAS DIFFERENT APPEAL

SOME English names are so common - and may we add, boring - that one hand isn't enough to count.

Two Andys: Lau, the Heavenly King and Hui, the Heavenly King wannabe.

Two Stephens: Chow makes us laugh. Fung makes us swoon.

Two Joeys: Wong, the retired Taiwanese screen queen of the '80s, and rumoured triad princess Yung.

Two Kellys: Lin, the sexy bombshell and Chen, the ice queen.

Two Tony Leungs: Chiu Wai with the smouldering eyes and Kar Fai with the rubber face.

Two Gigis: Boyfriend snatcher Leung and pretty dimples Lai.

Two Anitas: Yuen is still going strong but Mui just left us forever.

Two Lawrences: Ng, the beanstalk television actor and Chou, the beanstalk singer.

Three Jerrys: Cute dimples Yan of Meteor Garden, Eurasian-looking Huang of The Rose, and Star Search bad boy Chang

Four Jacky/ies: There's a Jacky/Jackie for every showbiz category. Chan in gongfu flicks, Cheung in music, Wu in television variety shows and Lui in TVB dramas.

Five Michelles: Bond girl Yeoh, ex-beauty queen Reis, local Lux girl Chia, Meteor Garden star Saram, and former Channel U artiste Chong.

DON'T FORGET THE EXTRA Z

HIS name is Zzen. It's pronounced Zen, and not Ze-zen.

And no matter how many times he has to explain his unique name, the Channel 8 actor will gladly do it.

'It's not troublesome at all. I take it as a chance to introduce myself to more people,' he chirpily told The New Paper.

So, why add the extra Z?

He said it's because he already has two Zs in his Chinese name, Zhang Zhenxiang.

'If it's just Zen, it's like there's something missing. That's why I have double Zs,' he added.

The Kuala Lumpur-born Star Search alumnus said he changed his English name only after he moved to Singapore to join MediaCorp in 2001.

To many friends back home, the 25-year-old is still good old Davic.

It's adapted from the name David, which he thought was too common.

'Some of them still call me Davic, but I'll always remind them to call me Zzen instead.'

Besides Zzen, other unusual local celebrity names include Ix Shen and Hossan Leong.

Ix named himself after the Roman numeral for nine, which was his volleyball jersey number back in secondary school.

Hossan's name comes from 'Hosanna', a standard shout of praise to God. It was chosen by his parents.

He said he's been mistaken for Indonesian, and some people have called him Hassan.

As for Apple Hong, 26, her unusual name came about not only because it's her favourite fruit.

It's also because her childhood nickname was Hong Ping Guo (Mandarin for red apple), as her name was then Hong Yi-ping.

She changed her name to Hong Yi-xin last year under the advice of a geomancer.

'Sometimes when I introduce myself as Apple, people will laugh and say, 'Hi, I'm your good friend Orange.',' she said.

'But it's easy to remember, and it's suitable for me because I give people the feeling of an apple - I'm happy and cheerful. And my face is also shaped like an apple!'

DID YOU KNOW?

Some celebrity names are not unusual - just so rarely used that we forget they exist. Chen Liping, for one, was also Joyce Chen in her early days. Huang Biren used to be Pat Huang.

Faye Wong was Shirley when she first started out, and Fung Bo Bo is also Petrina. And Lin Ching-hsia, before she retired, was known as both Brigitte and Venus.

全世界失眠

2005-07-14T23:33:00.000+08:00

由陈奕迅原唱，范玮琪翻唱，并收录在最新的专辑《一比一》。我比较喜欢范范的版本，特别是头两段。

全世界失眠
曲：陈伟词：林夕

想起我不完美你会不会逃离我生命的范围
想着你的滋味我会不会把这个枕头变得甜美

想起白天的约会忘了晚上的咖啡
只怕感情如潮水远离我梦中的堡垒

一个人失眠全世界失眠无辜的街灯守候明天
幸福的失眠只是因为害怕闭上眼
如何想你想到六点如何爱你爱到终点

想起我的时候你会不会好像我一样不能睡
想象你的暖昧我会不会数不到绵羊一双一对

想起白天的约会忘了晚上的咖啡
只怕感情如潮水远离我梦中的堡垒

一个人失眠全世界失眠无辜的街灯守候明天
幸福的失眠只是因为害怕闭上眼
如何想你想到六点

一个人失眠全世界失眠
幸福的失眠只是因为害怕闭上眼
如何想你想到六点如何爱你爱到终点
如何爱你爱到终点

终结篇：久违了，Ah Hong

2005-07-08T23:48:00.000+08:00

相信朋友们都很关心 Ah Hong 的动态，他到底为什么失踪？

现在就让我们听 Ah Hong 自己说。

“大哥以为我被熊百韬绑架了，其实他忘了熊百韬已经在第 22 集被 Sabrina 下金水毒害了。Anyway，不提这个了。人家九五至尊都播完了，现在流行的是谈判专家！”

“我之所以请了几天假，是因为有重要的事要办。你要如何想象，堂堂的 Ah Hong 督察竟然可以少了他的秘密武器？”

“所以，我决定去让我那头有八种用途的刘海再生！我相信你们都看过了我泡在水里的照片吧。那是我要让秀发重现所得付出的小小代价，就当是去潜水吧。这种疗法果然有效。不到三天，就可以看见短短的发丝了。”

“发丝迅速地茁壮成长。”

“你瞧，神奇吧！”

“不过，为什么还是无法遮住我的额头呢？唉... ...”

NDP site

2005-07-07T00:58:00.000+08:00

National Day is coming. Here's some goodies:

Offical NDP Website

No prizes for guessing my favourite section of this site--the past and present NDP songs downloads! Just click on "Songs" under "Communicate" in the left menu, and then click on the past NDP multimedia link at the bottom of the page.

Lalalalalala lalalalala (hmm... tt doesn't sound like an NDP song. Guess what song it is, if you are free :p)

It's London for 2012

2005-07-06T23:59:00.000+08:00

It's official -- London had won the 2012 Olympics bid in SINGAPORE. Surprised? I can imagine some of you saying, "I knew it!"

Round 1:
London 22 votes
Paris 21
Madrid 20
New York 19
Moscow 15

No winning majority. Moscow had to bow out.

Round 2:
Madrid 32
London 27
Paris 25
New York 16

Madrid got most of Moscow supporters' votes. Guess people who favour Moscow should be unlikely to favour New York. New York was eliminated.

Round 3:
London 39
Paris 33
Madrid 31

US had declared its support for London's bid previously. Perhaps that was why the votes that originally went to New York were swayed to London's side.
Madrid, despite being the dark horse in this race, had to leave the competition to the two hot favourites.

Final round:
London 54
Paris 50

What was the report about, a London-Madrid alliance? A close shave for London, which also spelled a narrow miss for Paris, which had submitted the best report and won accolades before the final presentation today.

BTW, i was looking forward to the 2 minutes of fame that Singapore would garner from its specially-produced video that was "not going to be like your normal NDP video" (did somebody actually said that, or did I imagine it myself? anyway, that's supposed to be the gist of the organiser's words). It was a laudable endeavour, I think, and it would be even better had it not been followed immediately by Paris' clip, which was really very impressive, next to London's.

Let's hope that more people would know and want to find out more about Singapore after it has hosted such a high profile event.

Who will win Olympics 2012 bid?

2005-07-06T13:02:00.000+08:00

Due to technical contraints, the story of Ah Hong will resume later (until I solve my tech problem).

1980: Moscow, Los Angeles --> winner: Moscow

1984: --> Los Angeles

1988: Nagoya, Seoul --> winner: Seoul

1992: Amsterdam, Belgrade, Birmingham, Brisbane, Paris, Barcelona --> winner: Barcelona

1996: Athens, Belgrade, Manchester, Melbourne, Toronto, Atlanta --> winner: Atlanta

2000: Sydney, Manchester, Berlin, Istanbul, Beijing --> winner: Sydney

2004: Athens, Rome, Buenos Aires, Cape Town, Stockholm --> winner: Athens

2008: Toronto, Paris, Istanbul, Osaka, Beijing --> winner: Beijing

2012: Paris, New York, Moscow, London, Madrid --> winner: your take?

Episode 3: 水中的叹息

2005-06-16T00:19:00.000+08:00

Ah Hong: 想当年大哥沉入水里时仍有 Ah Lam 伊人相伴，而我却... ...

Episode 2: Where is Ah Hong?

2005-06-14T21:05:00.001+08:00

(from left: 大大, Ah Lam, Ah Rain and Kiko)

Kiko: 大大哥，大哥不见了！

大大：怎么会这样？

Kiko: 我也不知道，他已经有一个晚上没回家了, 打他手机也没人接。

大大：Ah Rain, Ah Hong 今天没去警局上班吗？

Ah Rain: 我也是刚刚才觉得有点不对劲... ...

Ah Lam: 我们还是快张贴告示，再报警吧。

大大：我虽然没有证据，可是我怀疑这可能是熊百韬做的。

Kiko: 大大哥，你不要吓我！

大大: Ah Lam, 你去报警, 没时间了, 我出去一下。你们在这儿等我！

寻人启事

姓名：钟Ah Hong
身高： 11 cm

Ah Hong 自2005年6月13日失踪，请知情者致电联络本人。

Episode 1: Who are we?

2005-06-13T23:56:00.000+08:00

Guess... who are we? What are we destined for?

Songs of Yesteryear

2005-06-08T00:36:00.000+08:00

Songs with a story... how many do you recognise?

Golden Faith...again... :p

2005-06-03T23:27:00.000+08:00

Golden Faith has finally ended its run.

There is a site containing some memorable scenes. However, if you haven't watched it and are intending to catch it, my advice is to avoid this site, for there are spoilers aplenty!

流金岁月经典情节：和平分手

2005-05-28T14:53:00.000+08:00

善本为了助对自己情深义重的Sabrina逃离谋杀罪的死刑，忍痛在法庭上攻击天蓝身为监控官的职业操守，并宣称自己深爱Sabrina，成功地利用法律漏洞救了Sabrina，却牺牲了与天蓝复合的机会。

当天晚上，善本开车到天蓝家找天蓝。内心挣扎一会儿，正当他踏出车外时，巧遇天蓝开车返家。于是两人到市区灯火辉煌的河畔。

善本：对不起。

天蓝：你不需要道歉，我明白你的立场，明白你为何要这样做。你一直都没有把爱情放在第一位。亲情、责任、道义，你都一一承担，令你身不由己。但这次你这样做，我真得很伤心。但我知道，你内心一定比我伤痛。我也知道Sabrina为你付出太多，你无论如何不忍心再伤害她。你是无论如何也不可以再抛下她的。

善本：对不起。我知道我现在说什么亦无济于事，但我真的很想告诉你，我在水底那一刻，我所说的全部是真的。我和你在水底时，我真得很想很快上岸，可现在，我很想继续留在水低下。因为我好想、好想永远留住那一刻。

天蓝：那一刻，我是永远都会记住的。虽然我们要分开，但我没有不甘心，也没有生你的气，因为你让我知道，你内心有什么想法。我很开心有过那一刻，令我可以很肯定地相信你的人格、知道你有什么想法。我不会后悔曾经和你在一起。

善本：（拥抱天蓝）我很舍不得你，我真的很舍不得你。

沉默片刻。

天蓝：总之你答应我，日后你跟谁在一起也好，你不可以送守护星给她，因为守护星是你和我之间的。总之你送的话，我会生气。

善本：好的。

天蓝：还有，你不可以和她一起放烟花，不可以给她送铁嘴鸡，还有不可以请她吃枕头包。

善本：那么多要求啊。

天蓝：所以你和我分手是正确的选择咯。

善本：你还有什么要求，一次说出来。

天蓝：我希望你以后都开开心心。

善本：你也一样。

沉默，鼻酸。

天蓝：Byebye.

善本：Byebye.

天蓝挥身离去，善本以留恋的眼神目送。

Golden Faith Theme Songs

2005-05-20T00:38:00.000+08:00

当爱情走到尽头 (电视剧"流金岁月"插曲)
曲：陈颂红 | 词：陈颂红 | 编：

当记忆已轻得彷似悬浮却渴望停落你门口
当吹息已深得可以埋葬白昼趁天黑
可以跟这感觉走
* 火花等天光之际全部枯萎却渴望能让美丽留低
梦太多当孤单可以随处掠过眼前我拥抱什么
那不过是我从此我发现寂寞是有点根源
只得我没入人潮里兜圈但愿游到你的旁边
靠得这么近又却是那么远流星已陨减
连灯也扑灭全没光线留下我暗夜里转又转
来回寻觅我的影子靠这一点最后支柱来伴我眠
Repeat *

阳光灿烂的日子 (电视剧"流金岁月"片尾曲)
曲：陈颂红 | 词：陈颂红 | 编：

还记得一个雨天雨天沾湿了发边泪水淌湿了一脸
看马路水花四贱还记得一次雷电划破天空成两边
梦想撕开了几片世界像没有明天
* 骤眼天昏地暗但信风雨过后躯得散这密云
天空满布裂痕但见光线透入闪烁流金
而狂风即使翻满地仍等一些好天气风光始终都会明媚
迈开的戚促脚步扬起低泣的眼眉睁开双眼就有惊喜
阳光轻轻洒满地云彩今天都很美伸开双臂云彩雾里飞
那怕再次有风急雨狂阳光于心里依然晴朗
Repeat *

岁月的童话 (电视剧"流金岁月"主题曲)
曲：陈颂红 | 词：陈颂红 | 编：

从前曾搭着膊在照相公园里共你比赛攀树上
还有什么歌都乱唱插着裤袋哨子吹响
看夕阳是如此漂亮一切就这样分享
回头时那日那夜那背景彷佛已没有什么可记认
时间制造缺陷不停这夜如此可闭上眼睛
再共我回忆中约定心里就有感应
* 即使走过几趟远路如何都挣不开岁月摆布
这刻收一收脚步为对方拍拍满身的尘土
好想知你可会快乐如何都挣不开摆布
这刻收一收脚步为对方拍拍尘土
你愿陪我偶然停下那夕照仍然很漂亮
跟你看着同一方向
Repeat *

Laptop Broke Down

2005-05-14T20:49:00.000+08:00

My laptop had undergone apoptosis recently...
...to be continued...

BTW, duo xie ge lu ying xiong ding li xiang zhu!

Planning Ahead

2005-05-08T18:48:00.000+08:00

I had been reading about Clover's posts about her detailed planning of the ideal age for marriage and hence a relationship with potential sometime back. While I have long left matters of the heart to fate, what struck a chord with me was the kind of specificity I used employ while attempting to chart out my "life plans" when life seemed as simple and predictable as a conveyor belt.

For example, when I was very young (around primary 3), my plan was something like this: finish primary school at 12 years old -> finish secondary school at 16 years old -> complete JC at 18 years old -> graduate from University at 22-23 years old -> get married at 24 years old -> have a child at 25 years old. The only external factor I thought I had to consider during my "planning" was my parents' age (and hence the haste :p). At that time, even my height was not spared from my "planning list". I figured out that if I were to grow by 5cm every year, I would be 170cm by the time I stop growing at the common age of 14 (but alas, that was not to be!) Another subject which I still like to make plans on till this day (more for fun than anything else) is baby names.

However as we grow older, the system doesn't remain static. While it had been easy to chart one's life in the early years as the education system in Singapore was pretty fixed then, the choices we are opened to become more and more varied as we mature. It is increasingly difficult to be specific in our planning of certain things as our plans can be clouded by a multitude of external factors, as well as chance. What makes our future course of life uncertain also makes it a lot more interesting.

**********

My friend, upon learning of my latest Gallen Lo songs fever, volunteered in between muffled giggles to lend me a Gallen Lo album which she had bought for her mum, an offer which I gladly accepted. Yay, more Gallen Lo songs for me in days to come, haha.

On my WMP Playlist: Gallen Lo

2005-05-06T20:17:00.000+08:00

Forget David, Jay, Penny, Cheer, Fish, Wayne etc for now. Gallen Lo is in, not by virtue of his not-too-impressive vocals, but because of melodies that tell stories.

It all started with the TVB drama serial, Golden Faith, in which he acted as a goody do-gooder bound by obligations, a role that is similar to his previous roles in e.g. Chuang Shi Ji. The good thing is that I seldom watch HK drama, so I don't really find it boring. The pairing of the golden couple on the silver screen - Jessica Hsuen and Gallen Lo, also provides for plenty of eye candy.

What I like most is its soundtrack. From young, since the SBC days, I'm attracted to drama themes, as there's usually a story that we can relate to behind every song. My familiarity with the SBC songs is attributed to the good old days when my group of cousins held singing competitions among ourselves during our weekly gathering...haha...wonder why my singing is still so poor after so many years :p. Ok I shall stop digressing... I discovered that the theme songs for many of the TVB drama are nice when I started listening to the soundtrack of Yi Hao Huang Ting. As I usually pay more attention to the tune of a song, even though I don't undertstand Cantonese, a song will have the capacity to remain on my playlist until I tire of it as long as the enunciation of the lyrics matches the song (with a nice melody, of course).

So, from the 3 songs in Golden Faith (Sui Yue De Tong Hua, Yang Guang Can Lan De Ri Zi, Dang Ai Qing Zou Dao Jin Tou), I expanded my playlist to include many of Gallen Lo's other songs like Chuang Shi Ji's theme - Zhun Wo Liu Xia, Ran Wo Dai Ni Hao, Xiang Jian Xiang Ai Shang Hai. His fast songs are quite a disaster though :p.

**********

Was catching up recently with an old acquaintance whom I last spoke to 4 years ago, whose msn picture was coincidentally set to Gallen Lo's photo, and the parting shot was that, it is quite interesting that while we seldom had anything in common to talk at length then, over the years we have acquired interests and experiences that are rather similar. The strange dynamics of friendship under the forces of time and distance...some food for thought...

My Pig

2005-04-25T02:13:00.000+08:00

Draw a Pig -- personality test

What is your pig?

Mine...cute hor? :p

Updates & Quotes

2005-04-17T00:56:00.000+08:00

Haven't been blogging for 2 weeks coz
1) quite busy recently, especially having to spend at least 4 hours of travelling time on the road every day to and from work.
2) bloggger seems to be quite unstable everytime I want to write an entry.
3) nothing interesting to write about

***************

Some interesting quotes I heard recently:
Mr Sim, Creative Technologies CEO, during a TV interview:-
有人会问，如果当初知道应该往声化卡这方面发展，就不会浪费时间与金钱在其他方面，减少亏损……可是这让我想到小时候读过的一个故事：有一个傻子吃了七个包子，后悔地说，如果当初只吃第七个包子就不必浪费钱买七个包子了。

在《大医院小医师》里的护士长劝恶意排挤同事的护士:-
为什么不当个慈悲助人的菩萨，而去做个推人一把的鬼？

***************

For the benefit of tl, bb, wesley or anyone that may be interested :p

Project SuperStar Final Call!
Missed your chance at SuperStardom? Here's your final CHANCE! Head down to Singapore Institute of Management (Main Foyer) on the day listed below, and you could be the next Singapore SuperStar!

Venue: Singapore Institute of Management (Main Foyer)
Address: 461 Clementi Road Singapore 599491
Date: April 19, 2005 (Tuesday)
Time: 12 pm - 2 pm
【绝对SuperStar】

Magarita's (Mexican Restaurant)

2005-03-31T01:28:00.000+08:00

After months of unsatiated craving for the NUS Arts Canteen potato salad, I finally got to taste it on Tuesday. However, I was thoroughly disappointed with its quality and taste. Piled with artificial-tasting bacon beads and a different cream, it was totally different from what I had tasted before. I was tempted to order a bowl of the famous Yong Tau Hu laksa to appease myself, but contemplating the fact that I'll be meeting pc, J and bb for dinner in the evening, and also the fact that I was already bloated with the rich carbohydrates, I decided to save my money for the dinner instead.

The much anticipated dinner was at Magarita's, a Mexican restaurant at Faber Garden (near NUS).It was a recommendation by bb's colleague and sure enough, we ran into his family there. The decoration of the restaurant was colourful and the ambience was nice, and it was a pity that none of us brought a camera. After settling down, the manager patiently explained whatever questions we had about the items on the menu. The food took a while to be prepared, but it was well worth the wait.

When I recounted my lunch at NUS, bb said that she happened to reach the same canteen 20 minutes later than me, ordered a bowl of laksa yong tau hu and contemplated ordering potato salad before deciding against it to save up for the dinner. Speaking of coincidence/telepathy...or is there a more appropriate word for that?

***
On the topic of "ga zua"... (for ac)

On the long bus journey home, J saw my macromedia notes and recounted an incident that I almost would have forgotten cleanly about. During our year one in NUS, we (pc, ac, J and I...forgot whether bb was there) were registering for the macromedia course in CBLC, when the guy who did the registeration for us pronounced ac's name as "an chua". We ended up laughing our way out non-stop along the walkway (according to J)... J said she thought she heard him say "ga zua" (cockroach), while I thought he said "an zua" (asking what do you want to do). Poor ac... ;)

There's a Time to Eat, and a Time to Sleep

2005-03-25T02:01:00.000+08:00

There's wisdom in common reminders to eat and sleep on time.

In today's fast-paced workplace and studyplace, there's always the temptation to delay or even forego meals and deny the body its chance to replenish its nutrients , in the hope of getting more tasks completed ahead of time. However, this in turn almost certainly leads to a drop in productivity, as the human body (and brain) requires nutrients and sufficient rest to function optimally.

Hence, the value, or even the amount of work accomplished is probably not proportional to eating or sleeping late.

The ability of individuals who are able to do many things and meet deadlines at the same time probably speaks volume of the invaluable quality they all possess -- good time management.

After years of keeping late nights, it seems like an impossible new year's resolution to sleep early. For the sake of short term efficiency, the usual choice is to continue the momentum of whatever I am doing so as not to waste time picking up the momentum again if I were to postpone it, and it is never easy to go to bed with a brain bustling with ideas.

What were you doing during the Big Blackout?

2005-03-20T19:30:00.000+08:00

Recently, news reports of ConocoPhillips being responsible for last June's mass blackout brought back memories of that eventful night. Well, eventful as blackouts aren't a common occurence in Singapore, let alone say, one that affects a majority part of the island. The following day, everyone seemed to have a story to tell on what had happened.

This was how mine went:
I was taking the lift to the LRT station after alighting from the MRT. Somebody was talking on the phone regarding a power failure, but I didn't pay much attention to it. After the LRT train left the station, I was amazed by the darkness enveloping the town. No lights were seen in the HDB flats and roadside, not even traffic lights. The only visible lights were the headlights from passing cars. It was fortunate that our MRT and LRT systems still had electricity to run on.

After exiting the LRT station, the adventure for the night-vision-challenged yours truly started. I walked slowly and carefully along the pavement, while stealing glances over my shoulders, wondering would anyone make use of the chance to launch attacks on unsuspecting passerbys (a little too crazy though). When I reached the trafficlight-less junction, I knew that I had to cross the overhead bridge as it was too dangerous otherwise. Nevertheless, the cars on the road threaded gingerly across the traffic junction, totally opposite of the scenario in usual circumstances.

Photo of the traffic junction (another crazy idea of mine to take a photo of a blackout)

I had to rely on the my handphone screen for illumination throughout my "journey". Thankfully the screen was big enough and my phone didn't run out of battery. Upon reaching the void deck, I was presented with another daunting task -- to climb over ten storeys in total darkness to go home. How naive I was to try to call home in the hope that someone would bring a torchlight down. The telecommunication network was down too.

An Indian family of a couple and a young boy took charge and led the "expedition" up the stairs, inviting the rest stranded at the bottom to follow suit. Thanks to their accompaniment and good eyesight, I managed to reach my level safely. Soon after I stepped into my house, the lights came on. It was only then when the TV beamed reports of towns islandwide being affected by the power failure, that we realised the scale of the blackout. Nevertheless, we were lucky to be one of the first to have our power supply resumed.

After comparing stories, it seemed that most of my friends were at home at that time as it was relatively late for a weekday. One was driving. What were you doing during the big blackout?

Mail Order

2005-03-20T18:47:00.000+08:00

I read somewhere that mail order is a big business currently, with the proliferation of the Internet in households. From books and recipes to other gadgets (pls fill in the blanks), people are generally conditioned to love to receive purchases through mail, as it is akin to receiving gifts (nevermind if it is paid by ourselves), and is free from the prying eyes of curious neighbours and other onlookers (though in the Singaporean context, I guess our neighbours generally don't have time to be that curious).

Earlier this year, I ordered a set of books that are not available in Singapore. After weeks of anticipation, my first mail order gift to myself from amazon.com finally arrived. What surprised me was that the packaging was nowhere near the kind of nicely wrapped box packaging I was expecting -- every part of it screamed, "I came here by mail!" It was a pity that I didn't get to sign for it from the postman as I was on the phone at the time it was delivered, and hence missing out on the exhilaration at receiving my "gift" (as predicted by the "somewhere" in the first line).

Here is a glimpse of my discreetly wrapped present:

Doesn't it look cool? ;)

Good Luck!!

2005-03-15T00:57:00.000+08:00

I was pleasantly surprised to see Good Luck!!'s trailer running on Channel U. Apparently, it is going to be shown quite soon on S'pore TV. Interestingly, the Chinese translation is "Meng Xiang Qi Fei". Thanks to bb, I had the opportunity to watch it earlier. It is comparable to Takuya Kimura's other shows like Hero and Love Generation. The lead actors and actresses (Kimura Takuya, Shibasaki Kou, Tsutsumi Shinichi and Kuroki Hitomi) performed credibly and were extremely likeable in this drama set in the passenger airline service industry. A strong emphasis was put on the lead character's courage to take risks with the odds stacked against him, overcoming the obstacles and eventually achieving his dreams in a fairytale fashion.

Kimura Takuya acting as a pilot

By the way, a few weeks after watching Good Luck!!, it dawned upon me that the female lead (Shibasaki Kou) was the one who acted opposite Yosuke Kubozuka in the movie GO a few years back as I was going through my cd collection. I wonder why I never noticed that when I was watching Good Luck!! Perhaps it was because of the difference in the characters' personalities, or that the focus was on Yosuke when I was watching GO? Anyway wonder how is Yosuke now, after his fall from his apartement...

Shibasaki Kou in Good Luck!! (2003)

Shibasaki Kou in GO (2001)

She seems to be a singer too...

Photos, Synopsis and Spoilers for Good Luck!!
I think the author did a pretty good job, but please don't read it if you haven't watched the drama! ;)

*Quite busy recently, and hence the over one week drought.

River Hongbao

2005-03-03T00:25:00.000+08:00

I guess this is a bit outdated, but just to share some pictures I took at River Hongbao...

this is my year's symbol...in the making!

The popular Cai Shen Ye is a permanent fixture at every year's event. Notice the inverted umbrellas below him. He was sprinkling gold dust and lucky numbers. :p

A closer view of the excitement.

Email Invites

2005-03-02T22:55:00.000+08:00

There seems to be an influx of new providers that build their database by inviting their members' friends to update friends' address book, join sms network and set up birthday reminders following the lead of friendster. I wonder how their systems work, and am under the cynical belief that these websites probably sell their database of the validated members' email accounts to spammers. And hence my apprehension in giving out information and responding to these websites.

Can anyone who is a member of any of these tell me what is it about? Are they really useful? Do they send spam to your mobile (for sms network)?
sms.ac (sms network) - received many invites for that
ringo (update address book)

Sites that I have registered with:
friendster
hi5 (friends network, friendster's clone)
bebo (address book) - regretted after responding

Jay's Scandals

2005-02-26T00:44:00.000+08:00

According to online tabloids, the public's response to the Jay-Patty Hou-Jolin-Lien's son scandal and Jay's responses to them seem to be a little out of proportion.

I, for one, don't think that whether an artiste two-times or smokes is any of my business. However, like many people, I feel that good artistes treat their fans who have supported them unwaveringly with due sincerity and the respect they deserve.

This may spark a debate we are so familiar with from the Singapore Idol season: Artistes or Idols?

As a friend puts it,"An artiste delivers music and entertainment; an idol requires the whole package. Nowadays entertainers/actors/singers fall into the grey area between artistes and idols, that's why their presentation needs to cater to the audience relationship."

For me, no matter how great an artiste is, the works an artiste creates is meaningless without the appreciation of the audience. Furthermore in the commercial music scene, even though it sounds very cliche, it's far from an exagerration that without the support of one's fans, fame and adoration would have eluded him. And the the expectations of how an artiste handles his relationship with the audience increase with the artiste's stature.

Artistes like David Tao seem to understand the dynamics of interaction between stars and their audience better. By setting up his website, he brings himself closer to his listeners and shares his thoughts on the motivation for the music he makes.

It's not easy being an artiste, much less a star.

Hairy Adventure

2005-02-25T00:07:00.000+08:00

I guess QB House has become a familiar household name, being the trend setter for quick and budget haircut. They used to boast of having all their stylists trained in the land of the rising sun, the originating place of QB. "QB", the acronym of "Quick Beauty", has been changed to "EC" (Express Cut) quite recently in my memory (not sure whether it's just a name change or a management change, web searches only turned up a now-defunct qbhouse.com.sg url).

I was at the PS outlet when I cut my long tresses a year ago into a more modern hairdo. It yielded pretty satisfactory results for $10, as the hairdresser managed to add volume to my usually limpy hair with the new hairstyle. This credibility it has established in my mind was unfortunately destroyed late last year when I visited its outlet in the mall proximate to my house, after the expansion of the chain. I was thoroughly disappointed and vowed never to step into QB (or rather, that particular branch) ever again.

Standing outside the PS EC House outlet yesterday, I was in a dilemma. The hairdresser who cut my hair a year ago was nowhere to be seen. Instead, there was an idyllic male hairdresser and a male customer who was waiting on the bench. I finally parted with my 10 dollar note in exchange for an EC card. The idyllic hairdresser immediately sprung into action.

The "chief hairdresser" explained to the male customer before me that the idyllic hairdresser only specialised in ladies' hairstyle. After I sat down, the idyllic hairdresser asked me about my requirements in cantonese-accented English.

Throughout the haircut, the hairdresser had to comb my hair thrice every time before slowly snipping off the ends. It didn't help that I have dry hair and he wasn't using the water spray, perhaps, to prevent his sissors from rusting. As the minutes passed, what the Chief Hairdresser said began to make more sense.

I had tried my hand at hairdressing in a CC course when I just graduated from U. In the beginner's class, we were only taught to cut longer hair lengths as the mannequin was supposed to last us till the advanced course. I stopped after the beginner's course, and hence I only know how to cut ladies' hairstyle. Oops, sounds familiar? :p

After half an hour, he stopped and asked me whether the length was OK. Looking into the mirrors, it didn't seem like my hair had been cut. Feeling a bit impatient and worried, I requested him to shorten my hair further. He quickly broke into cantonese to clarify my request. Sensing that he's quite anxious and still accumulating experience, I softened and decided to take it as a refresher's course for myself as I watched him in action.

The hairdresser rewarded my patience by applying the layering scissors liberally thereafter. I mentioned that I wanted my hair layered and he did just that, when the other hairdressers I have been to in the past year tried to dissuade me with the argument that my hair is too thin and dry and it would become frizzly and difficult to maintain, often leaving me with a hairdo that was not much different from where I began. I was apprehensive about my hair becoming too thin though.

The whole haircut lasted one hour, which was six times the 10 minutes in their claim, but I am not complaining to EC House (a la redeeming the apple pie from Macdonald's). On hindsight, I can't even find their website. Although I spent a much longer time than the four customers who took turns to be served in the seat on my right hand side who had their 10 minutes honoured, I left the salon with a reasonably satisfactory hairdo, in spite of a petrified look.

Will I go back to the EC House at PS again? Why not? ;)

The day of the Full Moon

2005-02-23T20:24:00.000+08:00

The full moon has been widely associated with the transformation of the werewolf into lethal beings. Certain animals are believed to act out of character on the day of the full moon too.

Let me first and foremost emphasize the purpose of this post is not to sensationalize or glorify the deeds of the unidentified being(s) (henceforth referred to as SaiOKia (SOK)), which would otherwise fulfil SOK's egotistic ambitions. Rather, this serves as a black and white documentation to the transaction today between me, SOK and the 2 cleaners.

In brief, what happened was that there were five pair of shoes left outside my friend's house (on the topmost floor of an HDB flat). When we were leaving the house, my right sandal was missing. We searched the corridor of the highest and the second highest floor thoroughly to no avail. The only major discovery was that there was a "humongous pool of shit"(in my friend's words, I didn't see it) on the second highest floor, and the two cleaners we spoke to were complaining about shit being smeared onto the buttons of the only two lifts in the flat.

Here this the real deal (stamped, signed and sealed the moment SOK commit the act): By taking my well-worn right sandal, the entire next 7 years' worth of bad luck is to be transferred from me to SOK. On the other hand, the entire next 7 years' worth of good luck is to be transferred from SOK to the 2 cleaners, for making them clean up after SOK. How is this judgement justified? SOK is worse than the very stuff SOK smeared onto the lift buttons. At least feces play an important role in the diagnosis of particular ailments, and they aid plants to grow. The SOK needs to suffer hard knocks for the next 7 years to wisen up and figure out how to better contribute to the society.

A moment of folly, 7 years of sorry...

Feeling the Heat

2005-02-17T00:35:00.000+08:00

The weather has been unbearingly warm these few days.

Last week, Channelnewsasia reported an increase in the number of bush fire in Singapore and the hottest day in 15 years to be 9th Feb, the first day of the Chinese New Year (35.5 degrees Celcius). It didn't seem to have any noticeable effect until today, when I felt as if I was trapped inside a gigantic oven though the windows were opened.

***

Still x2 on the topic of Valentine's. A few friends have asked me how I spent my Valentine's day. If they have had the benefit of reading my previous entries, it's not difficult to deduce what i had been doing at the time when friends and couples were having a fun time-out. The good thing is Valentine's Day usually falls within or close to Chinese New Year, so there isn't a lack of topic to talk about when catching up (or rather, when I have nothing interesting to say about my Vday, hehe). After which, we'll launch into the conspiracy theory of the over-commercialisation of the event.

It's never too difficult to understand why someone has never been in a relationship. I guess to me, lending a listening ear to friends and playing Aunt Agony, watching romantic comedies (Jap or otherwise), working on what I want to achieve is so much better than being marred by rotten tao huas (I am open to good ones though! ;)). Not that I don't adore kids -- I can already forsee myself applying for the post of Godma in various new households in years to come. ;)

There are many things to think about in life if you really want to. If you are willing to spend the time on them.

Feb 15

2005-02-15T18:50:00.000+08:00

Do you know what day today is?

Post Valentine's?

well, good try... make another guess!

Somebody's birthday?

not wrong, but this is not the answer I'm thinking about.

At 12 noon sharp, a siren was sounded all across Singapore. So familiar, it reminded me of my school days.

Yes, it's Total Defence Day.

I could imagine, immediately after the the siren sounded, the public announcement systems in the schools would spring into action simultaneously, broadcasting instructions from the local radio stations regarding emergencies.

Come September, it'll be the 60th Anniversary of the end of World War II. 60 years in the Chinese calendar is considered some sort of a "cycle" (pardon my lack of knowledge). Will it signify the passing of an era and the erasure of horrible memories, hatred and feelings of injustice?

Still on the topic of Valentine's, here's an article from today's ST which is incidentally a bit related to the experiments I mentioned in my previous post.

Feb 15, 2005
Personalities the key to good marriage

WASHINGTON - SHARED moral values are less important than compatible personalities as a recipe for a good marriage, according to a study just released.

Married couples often share the same attitudes about faith and other values, researchers at the University of Iowa found. But those with personalities similar to their spouses were the happiest.

'People may be attracted to those who have similar attitudes, values and beliefs and even marry them,' the researchers said on Sunday, and those qualities are easy to spot in a potential mate. Attitudes towards subjects such as religion or politics 'are highly visible', they said.

But how married people behave was shown to have a greater effect on happiness.

'Being in a committed relationship entails regular interaction and requires extensive coordination in dealing with tasks, issues and problems of daily living,' the study found.

Differences in how to deal with everyday matters can lead to 'more friction and conflict', it said.

Personality-driven traits - like being open, easy-going or organised - are likely to play a bigger role in the marriage, the researchers found after studying 291 newly married couples.

The couples were married for an average of five months when the data was culled late in 2000 and had dated for an average of 3 1/2 years.

The couples were participants in the Iowa Marital Assessment Project, a long-term study being conducted by the university with funding from the National Institute of Mental Health under the National Institutes of Health.

Participants were asked to evaluate their own traits and were videotaped interacting with each other.

Partners who rated their marriages as highly satisfactory were found to have more common personality traits.

Similar attitudes among the couples, however, showed no clear impact on happiness, according to the study published in the American Psychological Association's Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. -- REUTERS

And for some light reading...

Feb 13, 2005
My bouquet is bigger than yours

Valentine's Day becomes a competitive sport as women compare prices and sizes of bouquets

By Sarah Ng

Who says money can't buy love? How about $50? Yes, it's that time of the year when men say it with flowers.

But that minimum order of six stems on Valentine's Day tomorrow will not buy romance with many working women these days.

The workplace now has a new sport on V-Day. And size matters in this race to be the object of greatest envy.

'Do you know how good it feels to have the whole office looking at you with envy?' said civil servant Irene Lim, 29, recalling her thrill at receiving a dozen red roses topped by a heart-shaped balloon last Feb 14.

'It may not be that special for an attractive woman used to getting attention all the time, but for a plain-looking girl like me, it is magical.'

Few will deny that feel-good feeling although shipping executive Susan Ng, 27, takes a dim view of the blooming competition.

'I had an ex-colleague who would put her giant bouquet in a prominent spot on her table and then lament loudly, 'Aiya, why must he send to the office, very malu (Malay for embarrassing) for me', but we all knew that she was enjoying it. It's so shallow and childish.'

Perhaps, but it's not peculiar to Singapore.

According to The Times of London women in Britain too love this game of one-upmanship: Whose bouquet is bigger? Whose present is more extravagant? Who is being taken to a more fashionable restaurant?

Like them, many women here view these displays of affection as a barometer of love. Marketing director Ling Tan, 31, is typical. She recalls her disappointment last year waiting and waiting for that bouquet from her boyfriend of nine months.

'My heart would skip a beat every time a dispatch rider walked through the door. I was hoping that since it was our first Valentine's Day, he would do something special, like send flowers to my office.

'But nothing came till I left at 6pm,' she said.

What made it worse, she added, was watching two colleagues become the centre of attention and the memory of previous boyfriends dutifully dispatching bouquets of red roses or white lilies to her office.

But an hour later, he surprised her. At dinner, in a posh hotel, he handed her half a dozen red roses.

Ms Tan, like many, is keeping her fingers crossed that tomorrow, big blooms will arrive at her office. 'Sure, it's shallow but which woman doesn't want to feel like a princess, especially when most around her are getting special treatment.'

Florists concur, saying eight out of 10 men want the bouquets delivered to their beloved's office. Said a Greeting Cuts spokesman: 'The wife or girlfriend is in the office most of the day... If the flowers are given when they meet for dinner, the day is almost over and it would seem a bit pointless.'

Raising the ante for the bachelor girls are husbands like Mr Kelvin Yeo. Said the 30-year-old advertising and promotions executive, who spent $150 on a dozen red roses last year: 'My wife doesn't demand that I send her flowers to the office, but some of her colleagues' boyfriends do, so I do the same. Better play safe and make her happy.'

Whatever the reason, love sure makes money for the petal pushers. On Valentine's Day, prices are doubled, with a standard bouquet of six roses starting at $50, one dozen from $80, and 999 stalks from $2,000.

They are also convinced that it's young love that sparked off the sport. 'It's usually in the beginning of the relationship when the guy wants to impress the girl. They say they want to make the girlfriend feel proud among their colleagues,' said Mr Kenneth Chee, 46, owner of Joachim Florist & Gifts.

But there is no denying the stress. Florists tell of single and unattached women sending flowers to themselves and spending beyond $100 on red roses, tulips or lilies. But they are rare, said Ms Sheila Salim, 39, customer service supervisor at FarEastFlora.com. 'Their reason is that they don't want to feel left out.'

Then there are those who get more than their share of attention. For these women, money certainly buys love. Said the owner of Dove Florist in Cineleisure Orchard, Ms Yow Lai Keng: 'When a woman calls about the value of bouquets, she often got flowers from different men.'

SO... have you gotten the answer???

Give yourself a pat on the back if you have, and also for patiently reading till this part...

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!! Ren2 Ri4 Kuai4 Le4!!! ;)

On Valentine's

2005-02-14T19:43:00.000+08:00

It's not difficult to remember that today is Valentine's Day. Suddenly PDA (I don't mean the electronic one) seems to be visible everywhere, even in places you least expect to see it (e.g. in industrial areas). I see teenagers holding bags of flowers and little notes boarding the bus and chatting away happily among themselves, seemingly triumphant at the number of gifts they had received and the company they were in. My mind was instantly transported back to my JC days, when the rituals of vday gift exchange were at its peak.

Alas, I miss out again on the chance to ride on the Vday frenzy and make a quick buck from it, by peddling roses, accessories and soft toys down Orchard Road. Yes, after reading Clover's take on the subject, I am still convinced that Valentine's Day is too commercialised, because of the various opportunistic and aggressive marketing campaigns that rival romancingsingapore and the inflation of the prices of certain "must haves". So are Mother's Day, Father's Day, Teacher's Day, Children's Day, and even Christmas and Chinese New Year??? Ok let's not push it too far lest I end up being labelled as a cynical, miserable and uninteresting human being. Sometimes it's a real case of demand vs supply. I concede that since everybody expects the day to be romantic, it doesn't hurt to please the other by being extra romantic, as long as it doesn't burn a hole in the pocket. After all, it doesn't pay to defy "traditions", right? Haha... We can always replace the over-priced rose with something we planted ourselves or a synthetic flower we make ourselves, to display our sincerity, I guess.

(To digress a little) Strangely, I also recall reading two conflicting articles, one claiming that married couples enjoy longer lifespan than singles and divorcees, while another claims that unmarried women live longer than married ones. I was wondering whether the experiment itself was flawed in the sense that, unmarried people may choose to stay that way because they are generally and stereotypically more ambitious and sometimes less accomodating (Type A personalities). (Don't bash me, I have a feeling I'm slapping myself in the face.) The same goes for couples who are not blissfully married. There is a possibility that the varying results may be a direct effect of the person's personality more than anything else (i.e. married or not).

Let me end off this post with another article that inspired me to write this.

Feb 14, 2005 The Straits Times Life!
Girl talk
Forget V Day, how about E Day?

I used to yearn for Valentine's Day and grand romantic gestures. Now, I treasure the little things in Every Day that convey love

By Tee Hun Ching

I WAS 18 when I was treated to my first 'proper' Valentine's Day date. You know, the sort that comes with the obligatory car pick-up, the standard floral bouquet and a dinner reservation at a softly-lit restaurant in town.

The stuff that young girls' dream dates are made of, basically.

I forget what I wore or the name of the now-defunct eatery. But I can still recall how the tables, each sporting a flickering candle and a stalk of red rose, were packed so tightly together that we could literally rub shoulders with the couples to our left and right.

We hardly spoke, for fear that our neighbours would snigger at our private jokes.

The food, presumably churned out with assembly line efficiency to feed the amorous throngs, was cold.

And when the bill came, my NSman date blanched, but swiftly handed over two $50 bills.

'Isn't the set dinner here $20 each?' we whispered, shocked, as his hard-earned pay disappeared with the waiter. The night that started out pregnant with promise fizzled out quickly.

That was my first reality check on the giant commercial conspiracy otherwise known as Valentine's Day, when all things that help to fan the flames of love burn a larger-than-usual hole in your pocket.

That was also the last time I welcomed bouquets and dinner invitations for Feb 14.

It wasn't just the sheer waste of money that pained me. It was also the realisation that the day would never live up to its promise.

By expecting to be swept off your feet on this day of orchestrated love, you would already have eliminated a vital ingredient for romance - spontaneity.

When I was younger, I thought love, or what slippery grasp I had of the concept, was best expressed in grand, showy gestures that told the whole world how desirable I was.

In secondary school, I fantasised about getting V Day song dedications on the radio from secret admirers.

In junior college, I would scan a two-page affair crammed with love messages that the student council culled from love-sick peers, half-hoping to see one dedicated to me.

I imagined my friends teasing me about it as I squirmed outwardly but cheered inwardly - a mental picture that never translated into reality.

The candlelight dinner was as close to a Valentine's Day ego trip as I ever got.

After that fell flat, I sniffed at the crass money-spinner disguised as a rose-covered love fest and began to value intangibles like creativity instead.

An artistic ex left me wordless with a classy black scrapbook he made that showcased evidence of our time together: ticket stubs of the first movie we caught together, a paper napkin speckled with his half-baked love poems scribbled playfully as we killed time in a fast food outlet.

I found it touching that events I dismissed as mundane mattered enough for him to preserve memories of them, simply because I was a part of those moments.

Till today, this remains the best Valentine's Day surprise I ever had.

Now, married and much older, I subscribe to the slogan of the Romancing Singapore campaign first launched in 2003. Love, I realise, really is in the little things, best exemplified in everyday life.

I smile when I see a new toothbrush sitting in the tumbler that used to hold my sad, old one with its cobalt blue bristles faded to the colour of the sky and spread out like a starburst.

If he's sensitive enough to spot such small needs, I figure he will never miss the big ones.

I luxuriate in the unspoken arrangement where I simply sit pretty and wait for my food while he navigates the sweaty crowds whenever we step into a hawker centre.

He never grumbles about how it should be my turn, for he doesn't keep count of who does more.

I'm touched when he makes an effort to dress up for outrageous theme parties thrown by my friends, even though I know he would very much prefer to curl up with a book at home.

I'm grateful when he automatically reaches out to massage the small of my back when I get home after a long day to relieve my chronic back ache.

I'm ashamed when I snap at him, accusing him of 'always doing this' after he forgets to bring in the laundry twice in a row, only to hear him say gently: 'Not always lah.'

Anyone else would have blasted my inability to count, for by what stretch of imagination could 'twice' be equated with 'always'? But he rarely loses his cool and inspires me to follow suit, although I must admit this is an uphill task for me.

I no longer scoff at Valentine's Day, for who says it always has to be celebrated in style?

To those who take their partners for granted, it is a gentle reminder that for once in 365 days, they should snap out of their selfish reverie.

To those who mark each day with their loved ones as Feb 14, this is yet another excuse to count their blessings.

Given the demands of work, the best present my husband and I can give each other these days is time - time to enjoy idle chatter, time to soak in the sea view from our apartment, time to just be alone. We plan to get home before 8pm today, share a takeout dinner in the balcony and maybe take a stroll along the beach if there's time after doing the laundry.

Nothing fanciful, but everything meaningful.

What are your plans for today?

Yet Another Scammer

2005-02-14T09:41:00.000+08:00

Another scammer posted a question to me today, one day after I put up my new auction, offering to pay more than 4 times my asking price. Wondering how many of them are lurking around...

"Dear seller, My name is Rose beckley From UK. I will like to know the cost of this item of yours which i saw on Yahoo Auction . I want the items urgently but as an offer price, I will like to pay SG$650 for the item but if the price I have offered is not enough you can let me know the real cost as I am willing to do this fast due to the urgency. I need to send this item to my Kids in west africa as their gifts within the next 1week. I will make my payments via bidpay an online payment which as I was told is reliable and secured..atleast the little I know about it.I can briefly explain to you if yu should ever need an explanation on how it works. to ship the package i will require Speedpost for the shipment I will only need your Name,Address,Item # and Item Description for the payment online. I await your quickest response to <*email censored*>

Thanks
Rose
"

How would you reply if you were me? Or rather just ignore it.

My CNY

2005-02-12T15:15:00.000+08:00

Day 1:
3rd Uncle and family were the first to pay us a visit. It was nearly lunch time by then and fortunately we had many cookies and new year goodies to satisfy most kinds of appetite :p.

When we were preparing to go to Ah Bei's for dinner, 2nd Uncle called to say that his family and 4th Uncle's were on their way here. Having three families in the living room at one time was really re4 nao4. Somebody (not sure who) broke a glass(luo di kai hua) and dad's finger was cut (hong yun dang tou) (really must think of a good omen). 4th Uncle and Jiu Ma shared many useful insights from their lives in US with sis and I, while Anthony (their elder child) was chatting away loudly and endlessly to himself, and exploring the different parts of the house as his younger sister tagged along. They were really adorable and outspoken (and apparently overwhelmed with the number of cousins they have to remember :p).

By the time we reached Ah Bei's, everyone had finished their food. Eldest cousin and beau weren't around as she had given birth to her 2nd child earlier in the day.

Day 2:
Wasn't able to sleep well the night before, I woke up to my horror that I was going to be LATE (you would know what I mean if you refer to my previous entry) for gathering at PJ's. I frantically started messaging everyone the relevant details as I was supposed to be the one to bring everyone there. The consolation was that I wasn't the latest :p. PJ's place was also very lively with the presence of her relatives. We played bridge, Daidi and Mahjong (no gambling :)) and caught up with one another. Like many other Teo Chew families, PJ's mum whipped up different kinds of traditional desserts for us to enjoy.

I reached Granny's house and was greeted by HK and SY, two of my little cousins (ok, maybe not very small now). 3rd Auntie wanted to play Mahjong but there wasn't any Mahjong table, and the plan was aborted after an attempt at assembling a make-shift table by using two chairs to support a whiteboard failed. In the "playing room", another round of card games started and YS, HK, SY were really fast learners of the game Bridge. Dinner was again the hilight of my day :p as we were treated to a sumptuous spread no less appetizing than previous years. The delicacies on the table included 1st Uncle's "signature dish" -- Herbal Chicken.

Day 3
More visiting and lessons on the Mahjong game. I was very lucky to have a Qing Yi Se early in one of the games,and a rooster as a flower card. Hope this luck will continue to prevail in my endeavours! ;)

Online Scam

2005-02-12T14:12:00.000+08:00

If something is too good to be true, it probably is.

A while ago, I put my film camera on Yahoo Auction for sale. After forgetting to check my email account for a few days, I logged in to see a question posted to me:

"hello seller, I am glad to inform that I find interesting making an your item I want you to kindly tell me more about his condition at the moment and also more about the shipment.Payment shall be made by (western union money transfer ).i will offer you $500 USD for this item i can await till bid end and i want to buy it for my son as a birthady gift that coming up it 8 day now i will need this information for the payment. name. address. city.state. zipcode. phone number. country. item number . i will be waiting to hear from you thanks mail me to this email address <*censored*>"

I never expected somebody from Africa to be interested in my auction, and why on earth was I offered almost twice the starting price? In any case, the question was posted 3 days before I read my mail. I immediately typed my reply.

"Hi, I am very sorry for the late reply. This item is still available. If you are interested, I'll contact you again regarding the information you need. Regards,"

The next morning when I checked my mail, I got this reply:

"Hello
thanks for the mail, am ready to buy this item from you and i want to buy it for my son in west african as a birthday gift in 7 days now and i will offer you $500 USD for the item and i will make the payment Via western union money transfer and i will need this address wish the money will be delivery.
name
address
city'
state
zipcode
item #
phone #
country
and i will ship the package with my FEDEX account and kindly mail me back with this information.
thanks for the reply."

Sensing something fishy (note - 3 days ago, the son's birthday was 8 days away. 3 days later, there were still 7 days to his birthday), and recalling those emails from some "Nigerian money-washers", my sis prompted me to do a search on the internet and these were the sites I found: Nigerian Auction Fraud and Counterfeit Cashier's Check Scams(don't need to accept paypal) and Nash Online Auction - Cashier check & Wire transfer scams.

True enough, I was convinced that it was a fraud. The buyer would usually send over a counterfeit cashier's cheque (that is difficult to distinguish from the real one) with an amount in excess, and ask you to write a cheque back refunding the excess. Many would not buy the trick though, and thus they have to be counting on a big volume for it to work, a.k.a the Law of Averages.

There goes the old saying, so much more relevant in the age of the Internet than ever, Buyers (in this case, Sellers too) Beware.

Happy Rooster New Year!

2005-02-09T13:25:00.000+08:00

Today is the first day of the new Rooster year. First and foremost to start the day, here's Xiao'an wishing everyone a happy new year!

And of course, not forgetting my eldest bear, Xiaoke...

...and the lovely sunflower planted by my mum, the avid gardener...

I have this to thank for being able to function on the computer with ease. (Re: the "3" on the keyboard; the crazy mouse)

Love Generation 的道理

2005-02-09T11:03:00.000+08:00

1) 回到過去

早苗的遗憾

人常常为了逃避眼前的困难，而向往过去的美好时光，会认为，如果可以象以前那样有多好。可是困难总要勇敢地正面应对的。

2)不够好

“一定要等到我们都配得上对方才能在一起的话，我们就永远都无法在一起了。”--哲平

常会听到人这么说：对方是那么的好，有时候会觉得自己不够好，配不上对方。其实，对方会选择你自有他的道理，没必要替对方作出对自己的判断或替对方选择。一起成长不是很好吗，为什么要有这么多不必要的怀疑。

Spring Cleaning

2005-02-08T02:00:00.000+08:00

It's the time of the year to do spring cleaning. For me, spring cleaning is a long and slow process, because of my garung-guni's tendencies, every item that I am about to throw away seems to bear a sentimental value or a certain use that I can forsee a year later. Haha... guess this is a bit exaggerated, anyway it's just as contradicting to be a disorganised fellow trying perpetually to be organised.

Going through things to be sorted into their respective categories from the past year is like walking down memory lane. I can often recall the not-so-distant past, the circumstances under which those documents were created, and the related events just flash past my mind one by one. Now it's not difficult to understand why spring cleaning for me is a time-consuming process, right? I still can remember when I was staying in hostel, I always ddn't get to sleep the night before I moved out of my room for the vacation because of the sheer amount of things to pack and my garung-guni tendencies.

Bits by bits, I am again trying to transform my mini-warzone into a more presentable place before the new year, and hopefully it'll be more conducive for work. Let's hope I won't need to miss my beauty sleep tomorrow...

Happy Chinese New Year

2005-02-07T17:58:00.000+08:00

I know this is kind of early, but still wanna wish everyone a Happy Chinese New Year!!

May the Rooster year be one that resolutions are kept and directions mapped, with peace, health, happiness and prosperity!

Punctuality

2005-02-04T11:00:00.000+08:00

For the record, I am still trying to kick the tendency to be late.

Just to share a story a wise man told us:
In the days before the handphone is available, Friend A once waited 26 hours for B to appear. For some reasons, B was late but wasn't able to inform A. Apparently after trying to call A on his house phone, B couldn't get A and thus decided to go to the meeting place to take a look. The essence of the explanation A gave for waiting was that, patience, with punctuality, is a virtue and they go hand in hand.

This story reminds me of the patience and understanding my friends have displayed while waiting for me. :p I did learn a thing or two, like not allowing myself to waste time waiting by coming prepared with things to do.

FYI pc, what I meant was I am in no position to judge others by their punctuality, the issue I was questioning is having ambiguous standards for meeting time. For example, the general consensus that the wedding dinner is to start one hour late than the time mentioned on the invitation.

The Purpose of Blogging

2005-02-04T10:37:00.000+08:00

A blog is like a broadcast of one's thoughts. However since it is an invitation to others to share one's thoughts, one won't blog something that one usually won't say and isn't politically correct. Also, responsiblity for the content has to be exercised as well, as we never know what would the influence on those who chance upon our blog be, and how they might be judging it. While empathic comments from friends are deeply appreciated, I guess letting off steam is best reserved for straight heart-to-heart talk or the good old diary.

The Philosophies of Japanese Drama

2005-01-29T19:56:00.000+08:00

I guess many people, me included, are attracted to Japanese drama because of their "feel-good" factor. We would like to feel encouraged and that we have learnt something. Whether is it family drama like Under One Roof, love drama like Love Generation and Long Love Letter, Occupation-specific drama like Hero, GTO and ER 24 hours, the motivational speeches and philosophical musings are omnipresent.

The common themes usually revolve around the attitude towards life and living, often delivered in the form of constant encouragement exchanged between the characters:--
1) Make the best of our current situation; work hard and treat the job given to us seriously;
2) Don't live in the past, treasure the present
3) If you give up, there is no hope left

Sometimes I wonder whether this feature of Japanese Drama, which has also been adapted into current Taiwanese Idol Drama and Chinese Drama, is a reflection of the outlook Japanese are brought up to have, and if it is a by-product of the World War or even a factor of Japan's successful metamorphism into a developed nation in the post-war era.

By the way, the other observation of Jap Drama is that they are generally shorter in terms of the number of episodes, and this probably reflects on their fast pace of life and the general intolerance to wasting time on long and draggy drama? At least these are my exact sentiments...

David's Interview on 933

2005-01-18T19:04:00.000+08:00

The link to the recorded interview of David Tao on his latest album, by someone in davidcn.com

买卖不成仁义在

2005-01-17T01:50:00.000+08:00

There's a saying「买卖不成仁义在」; I guess in real life, a person's truest character can only be seen in times of rejection and loss. As Martin Luther King, Jr put it,
"The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience,
but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy."
We all probably have, at one time or another, had the benefit of observing the "before" and "after" of certain events and figures, from different perspectives. Although the outcome may not always be as ideal as we would have hoped for, it nevertheless serves as a lesson learnt -- the real winners accept results with grace.

Singapore wins Tiger Cup

2005-01-16T21:36:00.000+08:00

My doubts have been proven unfounded, and I am more than glad for that.

The Singapore team continued their tenacious fight against early favourites Indonesia in the second leg of the finals at Kallang Stadium, in the presence of a fullhouse of 55,000 red-shirted Singapore supporters.

Indra Sahdan Daud put the ball beautifully into the net in the 6th minute, dictating the pace for the rest of the game. After Abu Casmir converted a penalty in the 41st minute, Singapore looked set to win the tournament with a four-goal agregate lead. The Indonesians did find their persistence answered in the wake of a ruffled Singapore defence with less than 20 minutes to go before the final whistle. Fortunately for the Lions' supporters, complacency and arrogance were not allowed to creep in and turn the tides. The game was exciting throughtout especially for the first half. Lionel Lewis, who was later deservingly named the Most Valuable Player of the tournament, did well to keep the scoreline of the second leg at 2-1 till the end of the game, which gave Singapore a convincing 5-2 victory and plenty to smile about.

The banner that was held by three Indonesian supporters left in the stadium as the camera panned to them spoke volumes with the word--"over", a folded version of "far from over". It has been long since the Singapore soccer team last won an international trophy in home ground. The jubilant faces of the players lifting the trophy would definitely be etched in the fans' minds, just like the 1994 Malaysia Cup and the 1998 Tiger Cup victories.

Looking at the way the young Singapore players played tonight, the future of the national team seems bright. Let's hope that we would not be disappointed.

Summary of Previous Posts

2005-01-15T23:33:00.000+08:00

The "3"

Thanks to an invention called the USB hub, I have solved the problem and banished my old keyboard to the store.

New Channel U TV Schedule

With a few weeks to the end of its run, Fiery Thunderbolt is becoming more and more incredulous and exciting! The popularity of the show is probably due to people's affinity for controversy, bickering and sarcasm, and not forgetting the scriptwriters' ability to come up with sharp one-liners. For me, I like the good example set by the unrealistically perfect characters and looking at their business schemes (though in this respect Taiwan Ahseng seems to be better). Good for unwinding over dinner at the end of the day.

David Tao's new album (21/1)

I've decided after reading David Tao's blog about his current MVs shooting that I would wait for the modified version of the CD to be released and decide whether to purchase a copy instead of being tempted by the pre-order gifts. Though no profit-minded music company would release confirmation of whether such a modified version is in the pipelines, I have a feeling that a repeat of the Black Tangerine album would happen, where a modified version of the album complete with MVs were released later, to the disappointment of fans who purchased the first version of the album. No idea whether it would be pricier though. I would have to content myself with the waiting then.

My revamped blog design

Ans 1: MRT Tunnel
Ans 2: Used lightstick swinging (for one of MCS' SG idol finals episode)
Did you get them correct?

Tiger Cup Finals 1st leg - Singapore 3 Indonesia 1

I think nobody should be over-confident of Singapore's chances of clinching the cup as:
1) Indonesia came back from being beaten 1-2 by M'sia in the first leg of the semi-finals to beat M'sia 4-1 in the second leg of the semis in KL, and hence ousting M'sia from a spot in the finals. Most of the goals scored were late goals. The last minute goal against Singapore last week was reminiscent of that.
2) Following the suspension of Noh Alam Shah, it would be a question of whether his likely replacement, the less aggressive striker Indra Sahdan Daud, would be able to face up to Indonesia's tough-tackling defenders with his counterparts.

We have seen S'pore sports representatives like Li Jiawei missing out on the Olympics bronze medal after attaining a convincing lead and with victory in sight. Malaysia practically gave away their spot in the finals as they failed to soldier on after Indonesia scored the goal to neutralise Malaysia's lead in the second leg. It is crucial in any game that the players must play to win, dare to win and possess a never-give-up mentality of steel, and most importantly, never be complacent.

New Year's Resolution

I am changing it to Chinese New Year's Resolution already, and this speaks a lot about the state of the no. 2 resolution (fighting procrastination) on my list. There are certainly a lot of things to improve on, and no.3 (becoming organized) is desperately needed to save myself from lack of productivity!!

Stubborness (Mayday)

2005-01-14T23:28:00.000+08:00

這是一首我與朋友都喜歡的歌﹐
一首能讓人感同身受的歌。

好的倔強是執著﹐
坏的倔強叫固執。

倔强(五月天)

當我和世界不一樣那就讓我不一樣
堅持對我來說就是以剛克剛
我如果對自己不行如果對自己說謊
即使別人原諒我也不能原諒
最美的願望一定最瘋狂
我就是我自己的神在我活的地方
我和我最後的倔強握緊雙手絕對不放
下一站是不是天堂就算失望不能絕望
我和我驕傲的倔強我在風中大聲的唱
這一次為自己瘋狂就這一次我和我的倔強

對愛我的人別緊張我的固執很善良
我的手越骯髒眼神越是發光
你不在乎我的過往看到了我的翅膀
你說被火燒過才能出現鳳凰
逆風的方向更適合飛翔
我不怕千萬人阻擋只怕自己投降

The Ruhua Quiz (link)

2005-01-12T01:58:00.000+08:00

For the benefit of avid fans of Stephen Chow's movie, here's an interesting contest by my dear cuzzie. Hurry, as the The Ruhua Quiz is ending soon...

New Year's Resolution

2005-01-11T01:10:00.000+08:00

I remember at the new year's eve gathering dinner when everybody was supposed to talk about her new year's resolution, I said that my resolution was to come up with my new year's resolution by 10th Jan. It is now one hour past 10th Jan!! But don't worry, I have already come up wih it before that, just that I didn't get to put it down in writing.

As usual, I am rather greedy, so there are 3 resolutions instead. (Notice I can type the number "3" without annoyance! Finally,. I confirm it was my keyboard problem. Anyway, let's not digress...) My resolution:
1) To lead a healthier lifestyle
2) To fight procrastination
3) To be more organised (I know I have said this quite a number of times, but...)

While I believe it helps to put them down in writing as a reminder or some sort of an agreement with myself, after all, talk is CHEAP. So let's see how faithfully I can adhere to these...
(btw, it's 1.20am now...what am I still doing at this hour typing about wanting to lead a healthy lifestyle? Maybe from tomorrow onwards...then ain't I procrastinatiing? :p I think I'm feeling sleepy...)

Football Craze

2005-01-09T01:19:00.000+08:00

After reading through the reports of Singapore's 2nd Semi-final game versus Myanmar, I was appalled to find that 3 Myanmar players actually got sent off during the game and the fourth--a reserve player got ordered off the bench into the dressing room! What a bizarre state of ASEAN football...

To think that this actually happened in Singapore...
Quoted from an FAS article:
"Myanmar's incensed fans, dear victory slipping from their grasp, were involved in running scuffles with Singapore fans and security personnel after Kyaw Thu and Lynn Thun's dismissals. Both sets of fans were culpable for the chaos as they taunted each other, squared off aggressively and flung the stadium's dustbins around before being subdued by security."

Like the maddened Myanmar fans who vaulted the 3 metre drop from the terraces to attack police officers, their team had lost the plot, leaving coach Ivan Kolev dumbfounded at their blazing fury as any semblance of team discipline or shape vanished."

Tiger Cup Finals 1st leg - Singapore 3 Indonesia 1

2005-01-08T22:53:00.000+08:00

I haven't been following soccer closely ever since the Malaysia Cup Games in and before 1994. Even after Singapore's 4-0 triumph over Pahang in the 1994 finals, it was quite a disappointment to learn the year after that Singapore's "Dream Team" had in fact won a corrupted Pahang side, and even Abbas Saad was involved.

From then on, my interest in soccer as a spectator sport was only sparked during the 2002 World Cup and 2004 Euro season, and perhaps, during the finals of games like Tiger Cup 1998 when Singapore was involved. Overall, Singapore's performance in recent years has been lacklustre, and talks of Goal 2010 have long been abandoned.

I was prompted to turn on the TV tonight when my friend changed her msn nick to indicate Singapore was leading 2-0. It seemed that Singapore had a number of foreign players in the team. The only three familiar names I heard (that speaks a lot on how long I have been detached from the soccer scene) were Lionel Lewis, Aide Iskandar and S.Subramani. According to the commentators, Indonesia was "classy" against the Malaysia Team in the Semis while Singapore performed quite badly against Myanmar, and thus Indonesia was "expected" to give Singapore a thrashing. Nobody expected Singapore to come off with a favorable lead of 2-0.

By the time Singapore scored the third goal, the camera panned to show members of the Indonesian supporters leaving the stadium, with 20 minutes to the end of the game. Those who stayed on were rewarded at the last minute literally, when a free kick from the Indonesian side was converted to a difficult goal.

Will Singapore be able to maintain the lead and win the Tiger Cup next week? Let's cross our fingers and keep our eyes glued to the TV...

My revamped blog design

2005-01-08T15:30:00.000+08:00

In sooth, this is not a "new" design but a modified one from the existing template.

Banner: I hope to add a personal touch by using a photo I took and tweaked it... someone correctly identified it as my current msn pic ;)
Question 1: Can anyone tell what's the subject of the photo?

Background: My preference is always for a dark background (as opposed to a bright one) as I believe that
1) a dark background would help decrease my screen's chances of burning out
2) reduce electricity consumption for the display
3) photos look better mounted on a dark background
Hence, I dug out a recent picture I took with a dark background and fortunately it seems to fit well.
Question 2: Can anyone tell what's the object in the background pic?

Doodle-board: For comments as it is easy to miss out new comments under the posts (Therefore the decision was made not to show it). It also has more flexibility for customisation and emoticons than my previous tag board.

That's how it came about.

David Tao's new album (21/1)

2005-01-08T13:53:00.000+08:00

Yay...finally there's something to talk about.

After a break of over a year, the first of David Tao's new line of album production, "The Great Leap", is going to be released soon, opening to preordering 2 days from now.

Seems like the majority of his recent songs smack of social consciousness and past relationships.

Check out the info site for more details and sound clip.

Track Listing:
1、鬼（序曲）
2、鬼
3、Catherine
4、就是愛你
5、孫子兵法
6、愛我還是他
7、Susan說
8、無緣
9、Sula與Lampa的寓言
10、2night·藏愛
11、她的歌
12、愛是個什麽東西
13、禱告良辰歌

Excerpts from the info site:

(by David Tao)
Production Concepts and Techniques for The Great Leap

I have long felt the need to simplify things in my own music while maintaining its diversity and fullness. That's often a difficult balance to strike. It's not just about the arrangement of the songs but also involves the lyrics, melody and overall vision of the production. The technology of music making has exponentially grown over the past ten years and we now have at our disposal an abundance of software, hardware, sounds and techniques for which to create music. With this, naturally, comes the temptation of abusing these resources of simply being lazy in the process of a production. I truly feel what we hear nowadays in Chinese music (myself to blame as well) is superfluous in terms of production values. Instrumentation, lyrics, and melodies are layered upon layers of meaningless elements creating not one cohesive song or sound but rather fragments that cancel each other out. Truly, the theory that "less is more" has been forgotten in music and, perhaps, everything we do.

Therefore, in this album, I have attempted to "limit" myself in the production and arrangement of the songs by keeping instrumentation down to only four distinct instruments. This returns to the more traditional setup of a four-piece band or quartet. For example, of a song were to have drums, bass, guitar and a piano that would then constitute as four distinct instruments. I would not "allow" myself to add additional instrumentation but would rather either substitute something out or alter a particular part to so it works better within the arrangement. If I felt the need to add strings in an already complete four-piece arrangement then I would be "forced" to remove one of the instruments so as to allow adding the string part. These seemingly restrictive "rules" would actually push me to think outside the box and make the instrumentation more meaningful instead of just simply adding more sounds and parts to create a fuller arrangement. This is perhaps a reductive method of production rather than an "additive" one but the outcome, in my mind, leads to a larger and more transparent soundscape.

This "four element" method has also been somewhat distilled into other areas of the production such as in the background vocals, melodies and lyrics. What I've tried to do is to keep each element as simple as possible so that it is accessible and easy to digest upon first sight and listening. You'll find less background vocals and parts than in previous songs of mine because I would hold back till I absolutely felt the need to add them. Vocal or instrument parts that were usually layered two to four times now are only stacked once. What you may find is that things have, in fact, gotten lager and fatter rather than smaller or narrower as one would expect. The attitude, character and performances of parts (vocals and instruments) has also been kept in their more original, raw form rather than edited or overly polished. What I'm attempting to do is to capture the honesty of the moment rather than creates and piece something together that sounds "perfect". Once you realize that you only have four instruments or elements to work with then you become more critical and tuned in to what each part is playing within the arrangement. Each instrument and song will sound thin, incomplete and dull. Rather than adding more parts to enhance a song, you now must work out and design a part till it fully complements its three other counterparts to create a single, organic and dynamic arrangement. There is less room for sloppiness, as your must trim the "fat" so that each part is a well-greased cog within the arrangement machine.

DT 1/6/05 5:54pm

Haha I am doing free publicity for DT's album :p

New Channel U TV Schedule

2005-01-02T01:56:00.000+08:00

With the merger of Channel U with Mediacorp, here's the new Channel U's tv schedule

Going by the current tv programmes that i watch, I would be facing the goggle box from 10pm to 12.30am every weekday...that's 2.5 hours of tv every day and at least 12.5 hours of tv every week...oh dear...

10pm - 11pm: Fiery Thunderbolt
11pm - 11.30pm: News
11.30pm - 12.30am: City Ladies

Plenty of long weekends this year

2005-01-01T23:53:00.000+08:00

Lifted from straitstimes again...providing some inspiration though...

Jan 1, 2005
Plenty of long weekends this year

New Year's Eve Gathering

2004-12-31T23:32:00.000+08:00

Chongqing Steamboat, Bugis

This is where we discovered mala m, mala zc.

Guess who won the "can eat" competition? [Ans can be found at the bottom of this post]

The lanterns are out in Bugis...though there's still one month to CNY.

[ans: j. wk came a close 2nd]

The "3"

2004-12-28T20:12:00.000+08:00

I wonder what happened to the "3" on my keyboard. Firstly when I type the letter "t", it will follow behind my "t". Then the problem evolved to when I press it, nothing appears. Next, the "3" will appear automatically as soon as I position my cursor on a writable area and a string of "3"s will follow as if the key is continually depressed. Finally the 3 scenarios alternate between one another.

Is it a virus or my keyboard??

Presents

2004-12-28T01:32:00.000+08:00

From pc, from HK.

I don't know what to say...

2004-12-27T01:57:00.000+08:00

Straits Times Interactive
Dec 26, 2004
Thousands dead as massive quake, tidal waves hit Asia

COLOMBO (Sri Lanka) - The most powerful earthquake in 40 years triggered massive tidal waves that slammed into coastlines across Asia on Sunday, killing more than 8,700 people in Sri Lanka, Indonesia, India, Thailand and Malaysia.

Residents try to cross a flooded street in Aceh province, Indonesia. Towns nearest the epicentre were levelled by tidal waves. -- AP

Tourists, fishermen, hotels, homes and cars were swept away by walls of water unleashed by the 8.9-magnitude earthquake, centred off the west coast of the Indonesian island of Sumatra, where at least 1,902 people were killed by floods and collapsing buildings, officials said.

Initial damage centred on the Indonesian province of Aceh on northern Sumatra. Dozens of buildings were destroyed, but as elsewhere, much of the death toll appeared to come from onrushing floodwaters.

Towns nearest the epicentre were levelled by tidal waves, which killed at least 1,902 people and left bodies wedged in trees as the waters receded, Indonesian officials and witnesses said.

Communications were down in several coastal towns facing the epicentre of the undersea quake off the western coast of Aceh, raising fears of widespread and as yet unreported damage in the region.

But the scope of the disaster became apparent only after waves as high as six metres crashed into coastal areas throughout the Indian Ocean and Andaman Sea.

At least 10 powerful aftershocks were also reported in the province after the initial quake struck, a seismologist said.

BIGGEST QUAKE SINCE 1965

EARTHQUAKES reaching a magnitude 8 are very rare. Sunday's quake is the largest in 40 years, reported CNN.com.

The quake came just three days after an 8.1 quake struck the ocean floor between Australia and Antarctica, causing buildings to shake hundreds of miles away but no serious damage or injury.

A quake registering magnitude 8 rocked Japan's northern island of Hokkaido on Sept 25, 2003, injuring nearly 600 people. An 8.4 magnitude tremor that stuck off the coast of Peru on June 23, 2001, killed 74.

The US Geological Survey's website recorded the magnitude 8.9 earthquake off the west coast of Northern Sumatra, 1,620km north-west of Jakarta. It was centred 40km below the seabed, the website reported.

The earthquake was the world's fifth most powerful since 1900 and the strongest since a 9.2 temblor slammed Alaska in 1964, US earthquake experts said.

The force of it shook unusually far afield, causing buildings to sway hundreds of miles away, from Singapore to the city of Chiang Mai in northern Thailand, and in Bangladesh, hours after the region's Christian communities had finished Christmas celebrations.

A spokesman for Indonesian state-owned Garuda Airlines said Banda Aceh's airport - located several kilometers from the sea - was flooded and planes were unable to land there. The spokesman did not say how deep the water was.

Electricity and telephone networks in parts of Banda Aceh were knocked out and dozens of shops and buildings had either collapsed or were damaged, witnesses told el-Shinta.

Residents in the Indonesian towns of Lhokseumawe and Banda Aceh reported tidal waves had triggered flooding in coastal regions.

Rising water levels in inland rivers were also reported.

Tremors felt in Singapore
Some residents in Singapore felt light tremors from the Indonesian quake.

'There were mild tremors in different parts of Singapore,' said a spokesman from the National Environment Agency who declined to be named. 'We felt it one minute after it started.'

Tourists on Kata beach in Phuket, Thailand, assess the damage from a tidal wave triggered by the magnitude-8.9 earthquake from Indonesia. -- AP

Tourists killed in Phuket
Nearly 289 people were killed and more than 1,900 injured, with scores missing in southern Thai resorts after the major earthquake caused tidal waves and flooding, a government disaster centre said.

The Narenthorn Centre of the Public Health Ministry reported that some people had been swept out to sea from a Phuket beach by tidal waves. About 10,000 tourists were trapped on higher ground, while others were stuck at sea in boats.

Some of the dead were local workers and at least four tourists died. The victims were in Trang, Songkhla, Phuket, Krabi, Ranong, Phang Nga, Satun and Surat Thani provinces, which draw thousands of visitors each year because of their world-famous beaches.

In the midst of the Andaman Sea on Phi Phi island -- where The Beach starring Leonardo DiCaprio was filmed -- 200 bungalows at two resorts were swept out to sea, along with some of its staff and customers.

Watcharat Hospital in Phuket was full, with many foreigners coming from hotels on popular Kamala and Patong beaches, said a hospital official who declined to be named.

Several southern Thai resorts were flooded. On Phang-Nga island, another popular tourist area near Phuket, people sought refuge from the floods on rooftops. Cars were carried away by rising waters in neighbouring Krabi, a spokesman from the ministry said.

Tidal waves hit Penang
At least 42 people died after they were swept away by tidal waves on a Malaysian resort island and in other areas.

Many of the victims drowned while swimming or riding jet skis near beaches on Penang island in northwestern Malaysia, Deputy Prime Minister Najib Razak told a news conference. Others died on the mainland states of Kedah and Perak.

At least 111 others received treatment for injuries, while dozens were reported missing.

More than 1,000 homes across numerous fishing villages were destroyed as waves roared into the coastline, leaving hundreds of families homeless, disaster officials said.

'I have ordered precautionary measures to shift people to safer areas,' Mr Najib said. 'It is possible there might be more tidal waves. We should be ready if there is another round.'

Tidal waves as high as five metres hit Penang and several other Malaysian islands following the 8.9-magnitude earthquake near Indonesia's Sumatra island.

Officials received reports that some vessels capsized at sea, but there was no immediate word of casualties outside Penang.

Thousands dead as tidal waves hit India, Sri Lanka
In Sri Lanka -- some 1,600km west of the epicentre -- the death toll stood at 4,500.

A view of the Marina Beach littered with debris after tidal waves hit the coast in Madras, southern India, on Sunday. -- AP

The Sri Lankan government called Sunday's events a national disaster and appealed for emergency relief.

The deaths occurred in the north-eastern districts of Muttur and Trincomalee, which were inundated by waves as high as 6m, said a Muttur district official.

Elsewhere, flash floods shut the port in the capital, Colombo, and displaced thousands of people in dozens of villages along the eastern and southern coasts, police and witnesses said.

In India, a massive tidal wave slammed into several parts of southern India, killing at least 2,000 people, most of them in Tamil Nadu state, as thick walls of water swept away boats, homes and vehicles, officials said.

The beaches of Tamil Nadu turned into virtual open air mortuaries as bodies of fishermen lost at seat were washed ashore and others killed inland were dumped on the sand by retreating waters. Streets of Cuddalore town were flooded with sea water, and dozens of cars were overturned and some were seen perched at awkward angles atop road dividers.

At least 150 bodies were recovered from Cuddalore and its outlying areas, and another 100 bodies were found on various beaches in Madras, the capital of Tamil Nadu.

46 people were killed in neighbouring Andhra Pradesh's three districts, including 32 in Krishna district, said police. They said the 32 people including 15 children had gone into the sea for a Hindu religious bath to mark the full moon day.

Two people were killed and 100 injured in Port Blair, the capital of Andaman and Nicobar Islands, a remote sparsely populated area in the Bay of Bengal, about 1,500km east of Madras. The US Geological Survey reported that the Andaman and Nicobar Islands also was hit by an earthquake of 7.3 magnitude on Sunday.

Officials said at least 63 people were killed and more than 250 fishermen were missing from the southern states of Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Naidu. Residents in Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu spoke of massive walls of water as high as 3.6m slamming into the shore.

Tidal waves hit Maldives
MALE (Maldives) -- The waves caused by the huge earthquake in Indonesia hit the Maldives, injuring an Italian tourist and possibly causing the death of a British man, officials and witnesses said.

Much of the Maldives, a string of 1,192 coral atolls off the south-western coast of India, was inundated by floods after the magnitude-8.9 earthquake off northern Indonesia unleashed tidal waves.

A British tourist at White Sand Beach resort in South Ari atoll died from a heart attack possibly after seeing the huge wave heading toward him, while an Italian tourist was seriously injured. Their identities were not released.

Some 285 tourists were on the beach at the time.

In the capital, Male, waters approached the office of President Maumoon Abdul Gayoom, and authorities closed the country's only international airport.

Jetties and boat houses were destroyed at other resorts and homes elsewhere in the island nation were flooded.

Buildings sway in neighbouring countries
The Charoenkrung Pracharat hospital in Bangkok evacuated hundreds of patients from a 24-story building, moving some out on hospital beds with oxygen tanks, a hospital official told Ruam Duay Chuay Kan radio station.

Apartment building residents in Bangkok said they heard cracking noises and felt rumbling and evacuated their buildings.

Residents of some high-rise apartments in Kuala Lumpur and Malaysia's northern tourist island of Penang were briefly evacuated as a precaution, condominium officials said. No immediate reports of damage were known, but workers were checking some buildings to determine whether there were cracks.

Kuwait sends US$1m aid
KUWAIT CITY -- The government of Kuwait said on Sunday that it was sending US$1 million to the victims of the earthquake that hit Indonesia and the tidal waves it caused in neighbouring countries.

The Cabinet said in a statement after its weekly meeting that the donation was meant to help the victims deal with the aftermath of the catastrophe. It did not specify when or to whom the aid would go. -- AP

Why "Boxing Day"

2004-12-27T01:42:00.000+08:00

Since I am in a crappy mood, I shall tell a story on how Boxing Day came about.

Once upon a time in a Southern province of China, a group of mahjong kakis were playing their favorite game. One of them took a tile and wanted to "gung" against the rule. The kaki seated opposite him was so angry that he threatened to box him. A boxing fight ensued.

That day happened to be the 26th of December.

This is a less than colourful narration of the story I heard. In any case since it is meant to be crappy, I guess it doesn't really matter......

时间只能向前行，不能后退。

2004-12-26T01:33:00.000+08:00

只有在失去后才懂得珍惜。没有拥有过，何谓失去？会不会在不久的将来才想到要珍惜？

有很多是与不是、要与不要以及该与不该，都要以时间来评定。但时间不会是最好的评判，因为时间只能向前行，不能后退，你只可以满意或后悔自己的抉择，可是没有人会知道另一个选择的结果会是怎样。

My Public Blog

2004-12-25T22:06:00.000+08:00

I finally succumbed to peer pressure from my cousin to set up my first public blog.
*applause*

It shall be my avenue of keeping in touch with friends, cousins, etc. :p but don't expect to see anything too interesting here though. coz it'll remain my playground...

I s O t O n I c

一首简单的歌

Time and Space

好久不见啦，朋友

一千年以後

HIGH - Lighthouse Family

All Quiet on the Blogging Front

'Stay hungry, stay foolish' -- Steve Jobs

如此庞大之灯饰

Ah Hong 的近况

The Flu which Helped End WWI

被爱的女人

Pls vote!

其实你不懂我的心

Big Scary Thing

Smoker's Rights?

It's 陈伟联 for Superstar

Quiz: What Kind of Friend Are You?

"Autumn Cleaning"

是是非非 - 绝对 Superstar AGAIN!

Insomnia? Part 2

走出失眠困扰

Project Superstar Audio/Video Links

10 Fast Cures for Insomnia

范玮琪 -- 一比一

张智霖 -- 《爱与梦》

《谈判专家》 歌词

Lucky or Unlucky?

Internet SMS

绝对 Superstar - 韩国影星版

Most Ulu Places in Singapore - Open for Suggestions

Interesting Names

全世界失眠

终结篇：久违了，Ah Hong

NDP site

It's London for 2012

Who will win Olympics 2012 bid?

Episode 3: 水中的叹息

Episode 2: Where is Ah Hong?

Episode 1: Who are we?

Songs of Yesteryear

Golden Faith...again... :p

流金岁月经典情节：和平分手

Golden Faith Theme Songs

Laptop Broke Down

Planning Ahead

On my WMP Playlist: Gallen Lo

My Pig

Updates & Quotes

Magarita's (Mexican Restaurant)

There's a Time to Eat, and a Time to Sleep

What were you doing during the Big Blackout?

Mail Order

Good Luck!!

River Hongbao

Email Invites

Jay's Scandals

Hairy Adventure

The day of the Full Moon

Feeling the Heat

Feb 15

On Valentine's

Yet Another Scammer

My CNY

Online Scam

Happy Rooster New Year!

Love Generation 的道理

Spring Cleaning

Happy Chinese New Year

Punctuality

The Purpose of Blogging

The Philosophies of Japanese Drama

David's Interview on 933

买卖不成仁义在

Singapore wins Tiger Cup

Summary of Previous Posts

The "3"

New Channel U TV Schedule

David Tao's new album (21/1)

My revamped blog design

《谈判专家》歌词