Oh Yatta

With the passing of Michael Jackson comes the closure of my childhood chapter. When your childhood icons die, you are probably old.. or at least much older than before.

To distract myself, I listen to Yatta:

Of Commitment

From http://xkcd.com/310/

Uniform Dullness

I'm in Calgary, Canada where a uniform dullness has beset upon the city. It is as if a thin veil of uneventfulness covers the city and its people. I am extremely under stimulated.

To curb this disease of dullness, here are some pictures to excite.

Madison Square Park

At Madison Square Park, drinking Starbucks, taking pictures of cute kids.

Stage 2 and Onwards

Ah, I haven't blogged in a while.  I have graduated and have been conferred my degree along with the rights, responsibilities and privileges attached.  I did the required photo-taking, hat-throwing and polite-clapping.  

There, this ends yet another leg of my overpriced education.   

2009 is going to be a year of pondering and deciding.  I'm have been 'hanging out' and will continue to be doing so for the next few months until I start graduate school (once again).  I've always been more of a thinker than a doer.  Graduation school probably suits me more in this manner.  I can continue to live in my own bubble world of ideas and concepts that most people do not care much about.  Well, I get to be the brains for humanity or, in all likelihoods, be a slave for publication.  Ah, or maybe... graduate school is where they lock up useless bums and give them a sense of purpose instead of setting them free to wreck havoc upon banality of reality.

Whatever.  I get to go back to Singapore to find my acupuncturist in another attempt to 'fix' my bad liver.  It's not the alcohol.  Really.  Why does no one believe me.  I am pretty sure I drink more apple / grape juice than alcohol.  Anyway, I'll probably spend long hours wandering the streets where my friends toil in corporate buildings earning their living and becoming self sustainable.  I will try to drown my sorrows drinking mocha frappuccinos and delude myself that freedom of thought is of greater value than money.  Ahh.. the sweet scent of money, when will I ever feel your dirty crinkly love again?

Of values and life, of wants and desires, of needs and longings.  Where is the fine balance?  Why must one always give up something for another?  It is a life of limited resources and limited time.  Of the choices we must make and responsibilities we must take.  The burden of growing up.

AWARE Saga

It is 3:08am on a Saturday morning and I am actively following the AWARE EGM in Singapore on 3 websites.  ARGH!  I so wish that I am in Singapore right now so I can be in the midst of all the happenings.  Everyone else I know seems rather apathetic to this!  Why!  

I want to know what happened!!  I really hope someone managed to sneak in a video camera to record the EGM.  Singapore seems strangely exciting.

Of religion

These days, I have a tendency to use the words 'I' and 'blasphemous' in the same sentence.  Since there is apparently no purgatory (depending on religious views), I seemed destined for some horrid fiery place filled with smoke and boiling lava.  

Being the practical person that I am, I think I will probably confess to some religion because the expected value of believing in 'some' religion (if it is true) is higher than not believing (see Pascal's Wager).  Anyway, it seems that as long as you believe moments before death (or maybe even after death, before the golden heavenly gates), the religion benefits will kick in.  This is unlike human earth aka reality where you have to wait for weeks before your insurance gets approved.  It is a really good bargain for I heard that heaven has streets paved with gold and diamonds and lots of free food.  Points up to religion for feeding my hungry self!  God sure knows what people want.  (Again, this sounds really blasphemous...  But I don't mean it in a blasphemous way.)

Anyway, I have nothing against religion; I think it does a lot of good for a lot of people.  But I would like it more if people question more instead of relying on faith.  However faith is one of the main tenets for religion!!   No faith = no religion.  Can't we have more doubting Thomas-es around!  Interesting read: Jesus Made Me Puke by a Rolling Stones undercover journalist who infiltrated a fundamentalist Christian camp.  Go read it even though I know you religious-un-blasphemous-self doesn't like sound of the title.

I wish people think more, but most people do not have the time to think or for that matter, want to think.  How easy it is to live life accepting what others' say without questioning.  It is a simple life, without ironies, without contradictions and without a (personal) voice.

Life and Music

Tao Sar Piah 101

One day not too long ago when I was feeling hungry, I made tao sar piah with OF using a recipe I found online.  Chinatown sells the same thing at 12 piahs for $5 but I was trying to save money.  It is only 25 cents each in Singapore and you can buy one big box for $10 SGD?

Started with the dough

Cut the dough evenly and roll it into balls

Cooking the green bean filling

2 different sets of dough - oily and the not-so-oily

Did some fancy rolling to combine the dough before adding the filling

There!  One batch

Make it all shiny and pro-looking with egg yolk glaze

Towards the end... Out of shape piahs

DONE!!!  Yum!

The filling...

Purin likes it too!

Smells nice!

Happy Purin!  

Purin wants more!

We finally finished making the ~50 tao sar piahs at 7am in the morning.  We started at 10pm or so.  Looks much more difficult than it seems...  

Fantastic Contraption

I've been playing this physics game.  The advantages of being jobless.  One of the best games ever!! 

The objective is to get the red object/s in the red area.

A link to see my fantastic contraption.

Another link to see my fantastic contraption.

And the pros:

Here, here, and here.

Unemployed

Today is my first day without a job.  I'm not in school and jobless.  It is kind of depressing.  But I get to sleep late.  I've been rather tired of work.  It became tragically repetitive, boring and depressing after some time.  And I have been working at the same place, doing the same thing for approximately 11 months.

Yikes.  I'm glad to get out of my job.  I would have liked to stay a month longer... but things are the way things are.  Not within my control.  Typical.  But at least I do not have to drag myself out of bed each morning and go to a place I do not wish to go, meet people I do not wish to meet.  But I need the money.  Ah, life is full of contradictions.

I just feel unproductive.  I really don't like wasting time.  Work was a total waste of time but at least I got paid.  I applied for some craigslist jobs.  Lots of things seemed pretty dubious.  -_-..

Well, I have approximately 1.5 months to figure things out.  Maybe I can land something interesting.  The economy is tragically bad, lots of firms want unpaid interns to exploit.  Tragic.  Maybe I should go on a holiday.  I don't know.

Lots of reading to do.  But I just don't feel like reading.  

Strangely Disturbing

Read the previous blog post before seeing this.  It really changes your perception of things...

Cute Turtle

This is super funny.  I keep watching it over and over again.  What's wrong with me!! 

Different Worlds

Today at work, a bunch of interns mentioned something about the 'Projects' in NYC.   I have absolutely no idea what the Projects are and I have been in New York for 2 years.  I'm so out of touch... Anyway, I learnt that Projects are affordable government housing aka HDB-like things in very dingy neighbourhoods, apparently rife with crime and drugs.  Projects are also dirt cheap, someone in the group stays in a 5-room Project apartment for $800!!!  Hello, I thought this is New York with its overpriced rent!!

The interns mentioned that I lived in a different world.  Probably so.  I seemed to exist in a couple of extremely distinct, non-overlapping worlds.  I flutter around the edges of these worlds, not really belonging to any of them, yet not being fully excluded from them.

It is like being at the edge of a bubble, and looking into a world that is not mine.  Hm..  so what exactly is my world?  

Forbes' Billionaires

Mexican drug lord makes Forbes' billionaire list
- CNN

What do software mogul Bill Gates and banking investor Warren Buffett have in common with wanted Mexican drug lord Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman Loera?

Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman Loera, pictured in 1993, ranks 701th on Forbes' yearly report on billionaires.

They are all featured in Forbes magazine's world's billionaires report as "self-made" billionaires.

Guzman Loera, whose nickname means Shorty, escaped from a Mexican prison in 2001. He heads the powerful Sinaloa cartel, investigators say. Authorities on both sides of the U.S.-Mexico border blame the Sinaloa and other cartels for a surge in violence in the region.

He ranked 701th on Forbes' yearly report, with an estimated fortune of $1 billion.

Mexican Attorney General Eduardo Medina Mora expressed outrage at the publication and described Forbes' calculations on Guzman Loera's fortune as mere "speculation."

"I will never accept that a criminal could be recognized as someone distinguished, even if it is by a magazine like Forbes," Medina Mora said to local media during a drug traffic summit Thursday in Vienna, Austria.

Forbes is "comparing the deplorable activity of a criminal wanted in Mexico and abroad with that of honest businessmen," he said.

Did Medina Mora really say this: comparing the deplorable activity of a criminal wanted in Mexico and abroad with that of honest businessmen

Can someone tell me how honest businessmen become Forbes' billionaires? Thank you. Goodwill, good karma or good luck?

I'm such a skeptic. Tragic.

Old School Stuff

This is so old school.  I heart this!  I'm so trapped in the wrong decade... 

Web Discoveries

I think I was still living in Singapore when America's Next Top Model first aired, or maybe I was home on a summer break.  I really have no idea.  I have been living abroad for approximately 5 years or there about.  Anyway, back to the thing about America's Next Top Model, I was really fond of one of the contestant (every one else was a total bitch), I think she won 2nd place in the show: Elyse Sewell.  She was a pre-med student then and I am oh-so-fond of the intellectual sort so it was no surprise that I rooted for her to win.  

Too much random web surfing allowed me to stumble upon her blog.  Elyse is hilarious and is currently modelling in China / HK.  *sobs*  She didn't become the doctor she said she wanted to be!

Fortunately she has not evolved into some total airhead and here is her clip on Shanghai:

The exercising things really remind me of Singapore's HDB parks.  Cheap gym, unlike the overpriced gyms in Manhattan which I don't have moola for.  So I'm oh so unhealthy and flabby... Boohoo.  Très tragique!

Moving on, I found this clip on Singapore's teenage motherhood on Stomp.  Yikes, I really don't like the oh-so-self-righteous Stomp; I don't even want to be known as someone who knows Stomp exists.  Darn irritating site.  It's a good place to go if you want to become appalled by how self-righteous people are.  

This video is quite interesting though, not the typical self-righteous nonsense on Stomp.  I live in New York, filled with surprisingly few self-righteous folks except those Scientology, Christian and Obama preaching folks.  Peace!

Cutest Ever

Anti Fresh Direct

The lazy me buys most of my groceries from Fresh Direct. But I really dislike giving money to Fresh Direct. One of the most irritating companies EVER! It is overpriced, the seafood is crappy and the most irritating thing: The prices RANDOMLY INCREASED!!!! My canned mushrooms went from $1.99 to $2.19 (10% increase!!). Same for frozen corn ($1.99 to $2.29, 15% increase!!!). I'm too lazy to go check the prices of my other produce. This is not the stock market, why are my food prices fluctuating... Anyway, if it is anything like the stock market, my food should be CHEAPER!!

Is it my fault that I have a good memory and I can remember the prices of food! Stop conning people who have bad memories!!! I still remember the price of Apple Juice when I bought them in Dominion in Toronto ($1.99). Why is Fresh Direct increasing food prices at whim!!! Inflation is not 10%!!!

The only reason I am still buying from horrid Fresh Direct is because I have some credits from them (from giving me smashed eggs) and I found free delivery with the coupon code "ENJOYFRESH".

ARGH! ARGH! ARGH! Overpriced!! Overpriced!! Overpriced!! + Random price increases!! Hello Fresh Direct, I noticed the price increases!! Stop trying to make more $ from such evil scheming methods!! I am a poor starving student!!

Contradiction

I find this hilarious and oh-so-familiar...  I can't believe I understand the Hokkien.  (some parts at least)

Love love love Vicky Christina Barcelona!!! (trailer below)  And I so miss Europe...  I totally need another holiday.  I heart Cinque Terre!

Anyway, it seems that only dysfunctional people love this show.  Normal (Doug-like) people don't.   Watch the show to find out whether you are normal.