Friday, January 30, 2004
What dreams may come,
When we have shuffled off this mortal coil;
Must give us pause (Shakespeare)
Went to BodyWorlds with James n Syl yesterday. It's so fascinating how we actually have all those miles of veins, nerves, and goodness knows how much stuff in us. (Next time I know if I want to lose a kilo quick, I'll go for a lobotomy =P) It was a bit creepy, but I found the exhibition quite ok. Somehow, I found it very hard to believe these cadavers were real because they looked so plastic (explains why the preserving process was called plasticination), and their glass eyes weren't real enough to give me the wiggins. And I'm absolutely sure they're glass eyes, because there was an exhibit with the real eyeball still intact, and the eyeball had already degenerated into a black squishy-looking blob.
Some of the exhibits were pretty artistic really. There was one where the cadaver looked like something out of an impressionistic painting, with "drawers" cut out. And another (not in the Singapore exhibition, we just saw it in the book) where he held up his skin as if he was reaching to hang up his coat. Perhaps James is right, and it wasn't very nice to arrange all the dead bodies in weird poses and take scapel and saw to them, but I have to admit it was morbidly fascinating. Besides they did agree to donate their bodies to science, and I have to say I always felt that when someone dies, all is left is an empty shell. (And since I'm at this, let me make this absolutely clear that when I die, I want to have my ashes scattered in the sea and in the wind - no stupid grave or urn or whatever.)
But there was a series of exhibits that affected me a bit (which is why they had a warning sign for it). There was this series of dead foetuses, some deformed, some looking perfectly healthy yet had somehow not been able to open their eyes to this sucky and screwed-up world. And then the centrepiece - a woman who was 5 months pregnant - with her womb opened... and a blackened lung from smoking. Not that I wish to speak ill of the dead, but knowing that this bearer of life had maybe squandered not just hers, but that of her unborn child by smoking... Looking at that expression on her face that her glassy eyes seemed to give her - dazed surprise, as if she had suddenly realised that Death had come for her, and slit her belly open with his scythe while he was at it - and I just couldn't help feeling angry. And I kept swearing and calling her a bitch, which probably wasn't very nice of me (but since when have I been nice anyway?).
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Wednesday, January 28, 2004
You are VERY antisocial! You do have friends--
probably one to five close friends-- whom you
spend a lot of time with, but other than that
you do not spend much time with people your
age! However, this is not necessarily a bad
thing! Since you enjoy spending time alone, you
probably have a good idea who you are, and your
self esteem is probably good too! No need to
worry; you do not have to be a social butterfly
to be successful and living a rewarding life!
HOW ANTISOCIAL ARE YOU?? (rate please)
brought to you by Quizilla
Oh, I'm not worrying. Who needs that many people anyway?
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Friday, January 23, 2004
| I shall skip my yearly grousing about the chaos of my home when it's Chinese New Year. And hence have nothing much to say except wonder if our generation will carry on with these customs... all the visiting and decorating and quirky things like bringing mandarin oranges around (do people even do that now?) or staying up as long as you can past midnight in the early pre-dawn hours on the first day of New Year so your parents will live to a ripe old age... things like that. What about the next generation? The generation after that?
It's not about "preserving our roots" or whatever crap it is that the govt throws at us, because frankly, with my horrendous mandarin, I'm not in any position to go start being ambassador for Glory of Chinese Culture. I will not be overly sad to see some things fading away into oblivion, like all the rubbish about having male children to pass down the surname, etc. But then we give up all these to celebrate those Western things like Christmas (why even bother if you're not Christian/Catholic? Anyway Xmas is pagan, people - they used to burn people at stake for celebrating Xmas) and throwing countdown parties on New Year. What happens to us when burning those paper-and-bamboo figurines for the dead becomes something that seems to come from some other exotic and primitive culture?
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Tuesday, January 20, 2004
My mom says that usually when people reach the age of 20, their birthday by the lunar and solar calenders should coincide, but apparently I'm abnormal, and it doesn't. I'm weird! Go me! =D
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Saturday, January 17, 2004
Rafael. You're most like the ArchAngel of Healing.
You want people to shape up, and you nag. But
you mean well, and you're well loved despite
it. Or because of it. You bring the donuts
even as you tell people to eat more veggies.
Which ArchAngel are you most like?
brought to you by Quizilla
Eh? Donuts? Veggies? Wha?
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Friday, January 16, 2004
Anyway, during my week away from blogging, in a nutshell: Monday was textbook buying (oh, what joy) and I spotted "Dark Tower V: Wolves of the Calla" which I was extremely tempted to buy, but had no money to do so... so I spent about half an hour in Popular today, and managed to finish Chapter 1 *beams* Shall sneak back whenever I'm free, and some day I will finish that book without having to pay a single cent for it. And of course, first Jap lesson with a very chirpy Jap teacher I - thankfully - can understand most of the time. And we watched a video, after which I concluded it's a good thing We-Know-Who wasn't born Japanese cos he'd be falling forward a lot *smirk* Tuesday night... celebrating Bing's bday in that nice airconditioned lounge at his hall with the nice sofas... *covets Bing's hall's lounge* Wednesday - material witnesses to substantiate the suspicions that a certain HK lecturer is a bit too interested in girls in tight fitting clothes, then shopping with Syl and James for CNY, and a sushi buffet where we finished something like 50++ plates between the 3 of us, and for a really reasonable price of $6.50 per pax.
The rest of the week was pretty much...well... normal. Oh, and today I watched the 'Charmed' season 5 finale James lent me... I do not like that new whitelighter. He is so screaming bad news. But kudos to MotherNature!Piper for saving the world in style and with what must have been a very big fan blowing in her face a lot of the time.
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Saturday, January 10, 2004
Ergo, today's random lyric post:
For What It's Worth
by The Cardigans
One, two, three, four
Hey baby come round
Keep holding me down
And I'll be keeping you up tonight.
The four letter word got stuck in my head
The dirtiest word that I've ever said
It's making me feel alright.
For what it's worth I love you
And what is worse I really do
Oh what is worse I'm gonna run run run
'Till the sweetness gets to you
And what is worse, I love you
Hey please baby come back
There'll be no more loving attacks
And I'll be keeping it cool tonight.
The four letter word is out of my head
Come on around get back in my bed
Keep making me feel alright.
For what it's worth I like you
And what is worse I really do
Things have been worse
And we had fun fun fun
'Till I said I love you
And what is worse I really do
For what it's worth I love you
And what is worse I really do.
Oh
For what it's worth I love you
And what is worse I really do.
Oh
For what it's worth I love you
And what is worse I really do....
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Thursday, January 08, 2004
I seem to have gotten a tied-result?
You are an Intrapersonal thinker
Intrapersonal thinkers spend a lot of time thinking about and trying to understand themselves, reflect on their thoughts and moods, and work to improve them. You understand how your behaviour affects your relationships with others.
Other Intrapersonal thinkers include:
Sigmund Freud, Gandhi, Grahame Greene
Careers which suit Intrapersonal Thinkers include:
Psychologist, Teacher, Pilot, Child care worker, Explorer, Drama therapist
You are a Musical Thinker
Musical thinkers tend to think in sounds, and may also think in rhythms and melodies. They are sensitive to the sounds and rhythms of words as well as their meanings, and feel a strong connection between music and emotions.
Other Musical Thinkers include:
Mozart, John Lennon, Jimi Hendrix
Careers which suit Musical Thinkers include:
Musician, Music teacher, Sound engineer, Recording technician
| So died during choir prac today... sounded horrible singing that high note that I obviously couldn't reach, much less sing in-tune and loud. And basically felt that quite a lot of that training was wasted on me, cos I was struggling just to hit the note, which is frustrating, to say the least. Sometimes I just feel we (I mean the altos) are so overlooked.
Well... I got the GE I wanted at least... Japanese. Now I can finally speak to my relatives without worrying about how my grammar is probably all wrong =P And with luck the teacher won't fault me for my ugly handwriting and make me do extra practice writing all my hiragana and katakana or something... and hopefully classes end early, so maybe I won't have to try and change my tutorial group. Guess I'll know pretty soon, since first leasson is on Monday ^^
In other news, London's The Sun (yes, I know, tabloid) claimed Rowan Atkinson was set to play Voldemort in the 4th HP movie until BBC squashed that rumour, thank god. Though the guy's probably a lot smarter than the so-called greatest Dark Lord of all time who can't plot to save his pathetic restructured ass.
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Wednesday, January 07, 2004
Watched "School of Rock" on Monday night... and surprisingly, it was pretty enjoyable. Well the first half the movie was just Jack Black gags, which frankly weren't very funny... shallow as hell (er...any puns not intended). Plus I don't like Jack Black, so basically his presence was a major eye sore. Then the kids picked up the movie and music (and boy can those kids jam!), and the whole chemistry began to work. The soundtrack, though not really the kind of music I usually go for, was pretty cool too.
Other things I've done for the past few days: well, 5-hour karaoke session yesterday... and the rest of Monday spent watching season one of "Sex and the City". Which I don't really think will be shown in Singapore, because one episode is only about 25 mins, and after the censors cut out every scene where they say 'fuck' or where nudity and shagging occurs, I think they'll have a grand total of 15 mins of the show left. Anyway it's quite an interesting show... found the main chara kinda too wimpy sometimes, so liked Mirinda better, though if I were her I would have kicked that pathetic groupie-ish Skipper in the teeth for following around like a sick puppy. Ergh.
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Saturday, January 03, 2004
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Thursday, January 01, 2004
Crazy and fun New Year's Eve spent at KTV - I still can't believe we were bloody freaking harmonising - then playing mahjong at PJ's place till about lunch time the next day... sorry for staying so long, that wasn't originally in the plan! Hope we weren't a nuisance ^^;; Anyway, haven't played mahjong since like, Sec. 4 I think... all rusty and I've forgotten almost everything by now. Joyce and Bing were on winning streaks yeah? *grin* And mahjong is bloody addictive, damnit. We shall conspire to invade ppl whose homes have mahjong sets on Chinese New Year - and we don't care what size the tiles are! *evil smirk in direction of We-Know-Who*
And yes, in case you ppl haven't heard... KTV second round on 6th Jan... choir ppl, all those who can make it msg PJ yar?
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