My Feelings' Personified

testing...

2008-10-21T16:00:00.001+08:00

acbdd

An ego entry: I'm on farm.sg!!!!

2008-08-05T09:58:00.002+08:00

Do pardon my ego and my big-headedness right now... but...

Woah, my wait is finally over! My portfolio site is now listed under L.C.D. for farm.sg! Do visit farm.sg for the best of the creatives in Singapore!

突然寂寞

2008-07-20T16:53:00.010+08:00

Finally, after a one-year hiatus from Chinese Pop writing, I'm back... It feels good, although I must say the lyrics... not my usual style... wahaha... please comment?

Revamp Complete

2008-07-06T18:24:00.002+08:00

Ok... so I've decided to do away with all the irritating links and the irritating sidebar. this is so weird... like... so naked...

Well, for more content, you can definitely link on the sections above~! Although perhaps the portfolio will be the most interesting...

Ok, I'm happy... this website is like... 2 months overdue?? F*ck la...

Oh wells... now's the process of touching things up, and focusing on my GO-FAR website. Go visit our blog when you have the time la, very nice photos there. (Ok, that statement is totally himbotic.)

Meanwhile, have fun guys~

Cheers,
Johnson

Major Revamp

2008-05-07T01:49:00.001+08:00

A big revamp of this weblog (to incorporate my new portfolio) is coming soon!! stay tune ppl... that is if u're still interested in reading this seldom-updated blog...

For a sneak... click here.

Filament '08 : WKWSCI EBM Final Year Projects Screening

2008-04-26T20:33:00.002+08:00

Hey peeps,

FILAMENT'08 is the event of the year where 12 video and audio final-year projects from the Wee Kim Wee School of Communication and Information @ NTU will be screened.

Date: 2nd & 3rd May 2008 (Fri & Sat)
Time: 7:30pm on both days
Venue: Singapore Arts Museum, Glass Hall

Different video/audio projects will be screened for each of the two days.

The humble me would really like to invite everyone to come, cos I am involved in soundtracking for two of the video projects (again, this year), one on fri and one on sat. (don't ask me why like that... i didn't plan this)

Hope to see anyone of you who's still reading this blog there!!

PS. My online reel will be up VERY soon.

<陌声>之歌

2007-10-12T07:54:00.001+08:00

聆听
词曲：张正勇
演唱：陈珮文

这片宁静，美得可怕⋯⋯
作曲：张正勇
编曲：张正勇

<陌声> 的结束，另一个就要开始了

2007-10-07T00:03:00.000+08:00

十月五号过了……
期待了整整两个月的首映会也结束了……

我开始又患上post-event depression。我会怀念这次的首映会的，因为毕竟这是我的第一个首映会。

惋惜的是，很多我亲爱的，都无法来。来的，多数是我传播系的朋友，之前的朋友，只来了一个。

难道，我这个朋友，已到了一个让人“遥不可及”的地位了吗？我的身份是否已成了一种“威胁”与“恐吓”呢？

我，是个很在乎朋友的人。
我，会被这种小事影响的。

~//~

回到首映会吧。

我听到的是，很多很多的“很好啊”。

这种意见固然好听，但感觉上没有批判的评语来的真诚。
或许是因为自己是个自虐的人，总是会觉得自己做得不够好，所以总希望朋友对我说出我不足的地方。
因为镜子，永远只能显示反过来的自己。

~//~

我很想感谢光正他们，因为他们相信我。他们真的很相信我。

我不知道怎么可以表达我对他们的万分谢意。24小时了，我还在想我应该SMS什么给他们。

~//~

那些来支持我的朋友。谢谢你。
因为……

你们让我哭了。

勇

陌声 Silent

2007-09-30T00:30:00.000+08:00

Film: 陌声 Silent
Directed by: Wang Junjie

Wee Kim Wee School of Communication and Information presents
In Association with derail productions
a Wang Junjie film
"陌声 Silent"

Starring Jodi Chan
Produced by derail productions Ang Guangzheng Darren Tan Wang Junjie Zhang Zhengyong
Edited by Ang Guangzheng Darren Tan
Director of Photography Darren Tan
Art Direction Wang Junjie
Original Music by Zhang Zhengyong
Written by Wang Junjie & Zhang Zhengyong
Directed by Wang Junjie

Website: derailproductions.blogspot.com

Synopsis: 陌声, silent, explores the world of sounds through the life of a deaf girl.

Trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VUGaXzLli0o

Details of screening:
Date: 5th October 2007 (Friday)
Time: 7:30pm
Venue: *scape (opposite Cathay Cineleisure)
FREE ADMISSION!

For more enquiries, please contact me (91788275) or email (derailproductions@gmail.com).

无题

2007-09-20T12:21:00.000+08:00

因为他不会明白⋯⋯
          我才会自我虐待。

因为他理智的心态
          连我抒发情感的空间也不存在。

因为我没有勇气
          命才会被运主宰。

一人一半

2007-08-16T23:01:00.000+08:00

像一支风筝

2007-08-16T02:22:00.000+08:00

又感到emo了......

刚刚躺在床上，努力试着睡时，突然觉得我找到了一个非常适合自己心情的一个比喻：我就像一支风筝。

前几天，有个朋友对我说了：“你这个人，前途已经是几乎写好了，就没有像普通人一样要忧虑未来。”我不由自主地发怒了。我好像从来没有提高声量骂过这位朋友（虽然有在他面前对“其他”人怒吼过），所以对自己来说，也在那刹那间顿住。

基本上，我不喜欢大家把我看作是一个“非普通”人。我的遭遇，真的只是因为自己的嘴巴太多，每次会引人注目，所以自己能做什么，大家都知道。

我觉得我自己身边，真的有更多更有才华的人，有更多“前途已定“的人。我真的好羡慕他们，而我的羡慕，是默默的，因为我知道自己的”羡慕“掺杂着”妒嫉“。

而我只是觉得我自己是一支风筝，因为大家都仿佛在看着我飞，在欣赏着我在飞，在赞叹我的”自由“翱翔。但我始终是被牵着线的，任由在地上的主人拉扯，任由风儿吹摆。也许线一断，我或许还能飞，但风一停，我也将落下。

那我想做什么？

我想变成气球，靠着自己超轻的重量，飞上天空。即使生命短暂，至少是靠自己的力量，绽放光彩。

鸟更好，想飞就飞，想落就落。

我现在要走的路，在新加坡只有少数人走过，成功更加少。而我清楚知道，很多时候我靠的是别人的介绍与推荐的。我好像几乎从来没真正去为自己打造未来。我这风筝，还能飞多久？

06/07结束了。我开心。但07/08的开始，让我沮丧。我能否真正为自己打造未来，还是就打算在光碟店里，在别人的鼻子下，度过一生？

*突然感情用事*,
yong

Important Announcement

2007-06-26T18:22:00.000+08:00

I will NOT be contactable from

28th June 2007
to
8th July 2007
I have decided to give myself a break and go on a hiatus.

Please do not try to call me, you can leave an sms but i cannot guarantee you i'll be replying them. You can also reach me via email at jumbosale@innocent.com, but again i cannot guarantee replies too.

Why such drastic actions? 'Cos i've been living my life like it's others and i'm going live my own life for myself for just 11 days. Happy? If not, heck, I don't give a damn.

Wahahahahahahaha~

*going-ga-ga*,
Ah Yong

Another Reason Not To Sleep So Early...

2007-06-17T04:57:00.000+08:00

Time now, peeps, as I am writing this, is 4:58am... Am kept awake by the commotion happening RIGHT outside my window now.

I'm eavesdropping on a conversation, not that I'm TRYING to eavesdrop, just that it's really happening outside my window anyway.

My neighbour's son (whom I've never seen in my life since they moved in) apparently invited his whole gang over to celebrate someone's birthday.

And they created a hell of a noise.

My wall has become a bass drum that was constantly beating to some Hindi music apparently... And, as expected, the police came. Thank goodness.

And now? My neighbour is trying to talk himself (and his gang) out of this situation, claiming they have total rights as a Singaporean to do whatever he (or rather, they) wants.

And the guy wanted to give in by saying "ok ok, fine, we all go to sleep and keep quiet and we all make love and peace ok", then he and his gang of friends will erupt into great bursts of laughter right in front of the police. *roll eyes* either they're dumb or... they're dumb.

This is the second time the police came around. Or rather... from the conversation, the police apparently has been waiting downstairs and overheard noise coming back out of the house and came back up to get the gang to the police station.

What pure dramatic noise.

And all this noise is keeping me up...

Thanks for the belated birthday gift, neighbours (whom I've never met and talked to).

*i-hate-it-when-i-have-bad-neighbours*,
Ah Yong

Birthday Wishes 2007

2007-06-15T00:12:00.000+08:00

On MSN:

Yeokie @ 10:31pm:
happy birthday!! in 2 hours time!

斯鏗~ @ 12:00mn:
happy 23rd bdae~ whee

婉晶* @ 12:02am:
恭喜老人又成功的老了一歳 =D

Using SMS:

Kairu @ 12:01am:
happy bithday johnson!! surprised i know ur birthday right! heh enjoy this special day of urs! :D

Shi Si @ 12:15am:
Hey, happy bdae! [...] Hope that you will have a great bdae this yr [...] ;-p btw, i got u a bdae present! Hope u'll like it.

Minwei @ 01:30am:
I hope i didn't rmb wrongly but its ur bday right? happy 23rd bday! may u gain more weight n look better this year! haha... n pls jia you with what u r doing right now. it will be e best bday gift for urself. like sk n e rest of them, im behind u k =)

Yanhui @ 01:53am:
Happy birthday!

Ailing @ 02:34am:
Happy birthday big boss! May all your wishes come true and happy days for e rest of e yr!

Zhuo Min @ 09:53am:
Yo Happy birthday!

Rongjun @ 12:14pm:
Happy birthday dude.. Work hard in theatre and dont steal my rice bowl in sound design. Thank you.

Xiuwen @ 01:41pm:
Go get drunk and establish yourself as a twenty three year old. Lol. happy birthday.

Called Me:

Meijun @ 12:04am:
我(也是)要去睡了，可是特別打電話想說: Happy Birthday!

Left a friendster message:

Keith (SAFBand) @ 04:46am:
yo~ happy b'day~ ur vcds still with me...

命運

2007-05-29T19:22:00.000+08:00

PASSWORD: the same as the one used for my laptop

Pirates' Writers Are At Wit's End?

2007-05-29T06:11:00.000+08:00

Dear readers, I must apologize for all the grammatical and spelling mistakes that I have made in this review as I have written it in a rushed state of mind. Please do feel free to correct me by adding comments (not putting on the tagboard please) by clicking on comments at the end of this article.

The Pirates of the Caribbean blockbuster epic trilogy comes to a close after pillaging over US$1 billion (S$1.6 bil) across global waters in the wake of Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl and Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest, but is the new instalment Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End a worthy one to the witty and clever humour that the first two instalments have provided?

I, Johnzzon, the avid movie reviewer, am finally back in action after a three years hiatus from reviewing to bring you his latest review on his latest favourite franchise. :)

Firstly, I must admit I'm a sucker at Hollywood Blockbusters, and you must bear in mind that this reviewer is also a fan of a lot of other "franchise movies" as well, such as Lord of the Rings, Spiderman, Star Wars and many more. Yet, I must say this doesn't necessary mean I like every movie in each franchise. And so, with this in mind, I hope you do see I'm already very impartial and hopefully fair in the comments I make.

Let's start off by taking a look at the original movie behind the Pirates trilogy, The Curse of the Black Pearl. What works for me in this particular movie was how the writers and the director make it a point to know that they were creating a pirates movie, and not a movie about pirates. And not only any pirates movie, but one inspired by the original Walt Disney ride.

Hence, we get all the stereotypes of a pirates movie: walking the plank, the pirates accent, cannons, rum, and many more. Yet, we have lots of twist in the stereotypes that we find the writers like to include as little parodies that viewers may or may not catch.

And that is one thing I like. They go all out to assume the viewers are clever enough to know the homages they were paying and the parodies they were playing with. They were not afraid to say that if one didn't strike with a viewer, there will be plenty more others for that viewer.

And besides, we have a damsel not really in distress played by an actress with very good comedic timing: Keira Knightley, a weird pirate with a broken wrist and a Scottish accent played by the eccentric Johnny Depp.

This franchise is one that will be action comedies, very well established in this very first film with witty lines and eccentric characters. Seldom do we see focus on so much characters in a Hollywood movie nowadays, yet this movie is so character driven that you soon start loving even the soldiers who may have less lines than say the Tyrannosaurus Rex in Jurassic Park. (No offence to Mr Spielberg, I still like your movie)

The second movie, Dead Man's Chest, continues in this tradition, not only continuing to pay homages to traditional pirates stereotypes, but also reference itself to the first movie as well. The writers clearly have fun poking at the exact thing they wrote for the first movie.

While the action sequences may have becoming prolonged and more dreading, and the plot becoming more confusing with each character getting his/her own subplot, the performances and the script allowed me (and my friends, but apparently not the American critics) to last through the movie, very much wanting to know how the third one will end off the gargantuan cliffhanger at the end of it.

FINALLY we reach the third. The prologue sequence was moving and the buildup to rescuing our favourite Captain Jack Sparrow is fun and imaginative. It felt like I was sitting through a Hayao Miyazaki film as the ship (carrying our lovely Elizabeth Swann, handsome Will Turner and back-from-the-dead Captain Barbossa) journeyed through different terrains to reach the World's End.

When they got back to the real world, that's when I felt the writers (Ted Elliot and Terry Rossio) were running out of ideas to clear all the mysteries they left hanging at the end of Dead Man's Chest. It all turned away from the original direction the series has been moving towards. It was no longer an action comedy, and it became a brainless, or rather very confusing, journey to kill off our irritatingly cunning Lord Beckett and the tentacles-filled-face Davy Jones.

The new characters developed never had a chance to develop their stories to play a crucial role in the ultimate battle, and the old characters were receiving too much screen time repeating brainlessly what they had been doing for the past two films. Somehow, when I saw a particular character grew big when a supposedly very magical sequence started, that's when I know the movie is beginning to flop.

The twist at the end (ie, whoever is stabbing Davy Jones' heart) is rather unexpected, but somehow, it didn't matter to me anymore. I just wanted it to end, and wished there will be a fourth movie made to remind me why I loved the original movie so much.

Meanwhile, I'm lucky to have bought the double disc DVD special edition to Dead Man's Chest. Even the making of is more exciting than the second half of this third instalment.

RATING: 2.5 out of 5 stars

I'm At World's End!! Whee~

2007-05-27T08:14:00.000+08:00

It's 8:22am... and wow, i lasted the whole of last night and i still couldn't sleep. Or rather i'm pushing myself not to sleep, cos i know i had to wake up. So, what happened?

It's another first for me! I held a movie marathon of a trilogy, with two movies at my house and one that is currently showing in the theatres! er... yes, we ARE going to the theatres to watch, i did NOT download to watch.

And so, which trilogy is it?

Ta-dah!:

Am quite excited, cos I'm really a fan of this franchise after knowing all the little little trivia behind this movie.

I don't care about how accurate the movie is or anything, and i blardy HATE ppl who point out so BLATANTLY obvious that the singapore portrayed is not singapore historically. OH bugger... which pirate in the whole history of mankind behaves like Jack Sparrow? And pirates being walking skeletons or rotting sea creatures? *roll eyes* it's a fantasy film for god sake.

What i'm really hooked on is the writing and the lines, and how the scriptwriters (ted elliot and terry rossio, for those of you so ILL-informed) brilliantly wrote little little lines in that play tribute to the original theme park ride AND their own original movie for pirates: The Curse of the Black Pearl.

One simple line like "Why is the rum ALWAYS gone?" is so funny in the second movie, that i get disturbed when people are SO obviously not laughing.

Another simple line like "oh" when jack sparrow falls into the stupid pit in the 2nd movie? it's written. and it already tells a lot. it's so un-hollywood, yet the casting and the directing is so hollywood. it's like a blend, a mixture, and somehow it works for me. So! "At World's End", I'm having DAMN high hopes for you.

BUT meanwhile... It's 8:29... peeps are waking up 15 min later... maybe shd catch some eyeclose... mmm~ the rest of them?

*feeling-DAMN-high-now*,
Ah Yong

Post #300

2007-05-14T04:43:00.000+08:00

Wow... I remembered entering my Post #200 happily... and i didnt think it wud be so fast until my #300, but i got a shock when i saw i had 299 posts in my account. this is fast.

It's 14th May, midway thru the first month of my holidays. having said that, i feel like i've pretty much wasted a lot of time away, doing nothin', mostly spent in coffee joints leeching power and looking up some stuff for my upcoming trip.

Am going back to Taiwan in 1.5 months' time. back? haha... i don't know if i should say "taiwan feels like home", but my feelings are around there. somehow, letting taiwan be my escaping destination is kind of generating these feelings.

~//~
I don't want to plan stuff ahead.

I hate sms-es and emails that say "are you free this coming XXXXday? i was hoping to meet u somewhere to settle something" what if i like it being free? what if i need the "free"ness to do something else?

somehow, i see the cons of having a freelancing career, 'cause everyone else will just happily assume you're free almost everyday.

what are holidays anyway?

~//~
I'm so not growing up.

I felt grown up when I was in my secondary sch and jc days. I am not feeling that now.

Things were simpler then. "don't friend then don't friend lor" is such a childish statement, yet there were no really hard strings attached to it. now, so much things are put into "friendship" that i wish i can tell a person "don't friend then don't friend lor".

Don't tell me not to think so much. Don't tell me this is the fact of life. Don't tell me to grow up.

'Cause i've said the same things to others as well.

~//~
別人從屁股放屁，我卻每天每天說要革命
就算是整個世界，把我拋棄
而至少快乐伤心我自己决定
所以我说就让他去
我知道潮落之后一定有潮起

*bah*,
Ah Yong

Recommended Songlist #1

2007-05-08T00:10:00.000+08:00

Okay, this is gonna be a first for me. I'm going to compile a list of songlists that i find good or helpful, thanks to my iPod shuffle. haha~ because it was on shuffle mode, sometimes songs just seem to go so well after each other, that sometimes i really want to write it down somewhere... And now I shall! So BEHOLD, MY FIRST SONGLIST!

SONGLIST #1
給: 那些早上(或下午)醒來，心情很遭糕，卻又因約了朋友所以得出門的你們。

#01 蘇打綠﹣是我的海
傷感的編曲和坦白的詞句，仿佛真的坐在海邊，讓腦裡一直浮現無法回答的問題，才發覺不是自己看海，而是讓海看自己。既然心情不好，就不要勉強自己去聽去接受快歌。先讓自己沉浸在這種歌吧。

#02 蘇打綠﹣相對論 IV
《是我的海》完後，鋼琴的旋律仍吊在空中。《相》的開頭恰好配合了《是》的結尾，卻又暗示了新的開始，感覺上在說：在《是》裡吶喊夠了吧，現在應該開是放開心情了。因為有同樣蘇打綠的青峰主唱，所以更加強了這個感覺。

#03 孫燕姿﹣咕嘰咕嘰
誒，《相》的超快吉他編曲，成功地把心情HIGH了一下，繼續來一首快歌。“谁比谁好/能差到多少/迟早都要/向上帝报到”，讓人聽了不由得想叛逆一下下。

#04 動靜樂團﹣命運
想叛逆是嗎？把貝多芬的名曲拿來玩，又ROCK又RAP，夠叛逆了吧？哈哈~

#05 S.H.E.-怎么办
完夠了那種叛逆自我的，來一下一首甜得無厘頭的歌。其實聽S.H.E.她們唱VERSE的歌詞，的確蠻讓人HIGH的。:)

#06 陳綺貞﹣旅行的意義
該慢下來一下了。讓陳綺貞的聲音，把人帶入一個“狂我”又“大膽”的世界，卻又不會失去自我。聽她的歌，真的很舒服。

#07 黃舒駿﹣男女之間
不知道為什麼this song can work，可能因為陳綺貞和黃舒駿都是很有個性創作派歌手吧。

Sorry that this song list ended a bit improperly. Hopefully it works for you. :) do feel free to insert songs after the last song. haha~ any suggestion for #08, #09 and #10? ;)

Ah Yong

是我的海

2007-05-07T04:49:00.001+08:00

shi-wo-de-hai, originally uploaded by jumbosale.

我乃“神”？

2007-05-02T06:34:00.000+08:00

這個學期，我多了兩個外號：1)"神" 和 2)"爸爸"
I have gotten two more nicknames at the end of this semester: 1) "God" and 2) "Daddy"

I'm not very sure if I should be feeling very happy or sad. I'm not "god", and I don't really know how this nickname came about. Okay, maybe I do, just that I don't really want to admit it. Perhaps somehow it's just how computers are afraid of me and they seem to respond well to me and so I manage to fix a lot of technical problems my fellow coursemates are facing. Then again, there are some "fixing" that is mainly due to me just figuring out how to use the softwares and being able to hit the right buttons.

I'm not god. I don't want to be. 'cause it makes me... look like I'm capable of a lot of things, but I know there are areas I can't handle. I really want to regurgitate that I'm not a leader, at least in the field of management and business.

I don't want to be a daddy too. I don't know why. "Daddy" makes me feel old, emotionally and psychologically. It makes me think that people do know I care a lot about everyone, but no one really returns that caring somehow.

But an occasional chocolate bar does make my day (or rather "night" most of the time).

~//~

This semester passed by relatively uneventfully, not learning much, and not achieving much. The courses I take are like just pushing myself to do things I normally don't do frequently.

Like play-writing, like web-designing, like newspaper-article writing.

I don't learn much, at least I know these won't apply in the field of work I'm going to be involved in, perhaps with a slight exception of "play-writing", but hey, "screenplay writing" is really different from "play-writing" anyway.

~//~

But friendships do strengthened this semester.

I really got to know more in depth about more people. New real friends were found, like wanjing, jessie, jj, weiyang; old bonds were really strengthened, like with sk, xiuwen, rongshan, darren, guangzheng...

Somehow it's ironic, cause there are so much lesser people in sch this semester with ppl left for exchange and internship.

~//~

EBM. My destination for the next semester.

FYP group. Formed.

FYP project, now thinking about what we're going to do.

Two years seem to have been planned out.

Or is it not?

~//~

I want to treasure the friendship. I don't know how things will turn out. I hope nothing bad happens, I hope I don't do the wrong thing.

Three years in army taught me honesty and frankness doesn't pay, especially in pseudo friendships. That means I should have more faith right?

~//~

See? I'm not god. Ok, fine, I'm the technical god, I can patch wires, I can design well with adobe softwares, I can create soundtracks. But I still think I'm just a jack of all trades, but GOD of none. I still need Uncle Tan and Uncle Vincent. No la, I'm not whining. I just wish I was really god, 'cause then I can take things into control, but I'm still just human with emotions.

~//~

I don't know what I wanna say with this post actually. I know I'm just whining.

But I haven't been able to sleep with a few nights spent alone at home. I don't like this feeling. I always thought I'm a loner, being able to walk down orchard road or bugis street shopping alone. I can't anymore.

Is it good? I think it's good actually.

But somehow, I felt I've become dependent on friends. Am I too dependent on them?

~//~

I can't have a partner, not yet. I know I can't. With the kind of workload, with the kind of working lifestyle, how to have? It'll be like so unfair.

And I don't know if I can acknowledge my liking.

~//~

我，張正勇，乃凡人。

With the FYP screening over, more people have come to acknowledge me with my skills. I don't know if it's good or bad, 'cause it'll make me more busy.

I hope I have time for myself, for my friends, for new skills, for old hobbies and for a new relationship.

~//~

Yesterday, suddenly felt like seeing who blogged about my hall production (which I wrote and directed). Did a search of "ntu" "store of memorabilia" on google and found:

POST #1
Last night i went to watch the NTU HALL 2 Drama production "The store of Memorabilia" at the Jubille Hall. Although it was a simple drama production, i really enjoyed it.

It keeps me thinking, every one of us has memories, either good or bad. But how many of us cherish our memories? Is "forget and move on" always better for us? Or should we "hold on dearly to these memories".

Parents are always so concern about their children, but is it good to make decision for them, and tell them as-a-matter-of -fact "Mom knows what is the best for you!"

I am not criticizing anything here, but sometimes, i do believe, issue of the heart cannot be explained by logic. I always think that, it is better to blame ourself for doing the wrong things than to blame our parents in the future.

"Is it the end of the story? Or is it the beginning of a new story? Or maybe it is just merely a hit on the pause button."

POST #2
yep, went for NTU hall 2's production, The Store of Memorabilia, at Jubilee Hall today. why was i there? to support the soundman KQ and the stage manager ZM, who are both from hall 2.

Cutting it short, its a story abt a mother, daughter and son. daughter is attached to sissy-gay guy for 4 yrs but doesnt wanna get married (and of coz mom keeps pushing her), son is unattached and doesnt really wanna cos mom wants him to concentrate on studies, until he meets his crush (whom he broke up 4 yrs ago).
on the whole, it was rather entertaining la. at the start it was still quite drab until the sissy-gay boyfriend comes in and dialogues with the daughter. kao. freakingly gay haha...and the girl acting the mother also pretty good, very auntie like hahahah, makes me think of 2 girls. make a guess??

"Matters of the heart cannot be reasoned by logic"
"The simpler the thinking, the more complicated the execution"

haha weird sense eh. like my fren always say: "aiyah you always so rational. sometimes you must go and take a risk la, go with your feelings" but i guess its hard lah. raised on rationality. oops its become a habit, which is bad?

the 2nd line sounds more like whats happening to all my tutorial questions and exam questions. ever found questions which are based on really simple concepts (at least concepts u've learnt before) but then always twisted beyond recognition? yeah thats the 2nd line at work. maybe simple thinking isnt really that simple after all. lol.

I'm kinda happy with entries like these, that means like besides ppl enjoying the play, it sets them thinking about things I wrote. I'm happy, 'cause that is what doing theatre is all about. :)

~//~

Shall end this entry with the epilogue scene I wrote for "The Store of Memorabilia":

At the end of a journey,
at the end of a relationship,
when you find yourself wanting to say goodbye,
what do you really want to say?

What do you do with all the letters?
What do you do with all the love given?
Do you throw them away or hold on to them?
Or are you feeling lost with so much you’ve taken?

Is it really the end of a story,
or is it the beginning of another one?
Is it merely just hitting the pause button
to settle problems and get things done?

I guess it’s normal to be sad,
it’s always okay to cry,
but just let yourself be drowned in tears
just for that one night.

It may take a lot of courage;
it may just be a lot of pride.
But what is it you’re thinking
when it’s time to say goodbye?

*awake-at-7am-with-tan-sk-and-loy-mj-most-prob-now-on-their-way-to-work*,
Ah Yong

Er... Mm... My VisualDNA... Nothin' Important Tho...

2007-05-02T05:34:00.000+08:00

Read my VisualDNA™ Get your own VisualDNA™

Do You E-mail For A Living?

2007-04-30T18:04:00.000+08:00

(taken from 8DAYS. written by Kenneth Kway.)

Can't resist looking at your phone, inbox or MSN beeper? That means you're addicted too. One way or other, we're all victims.

"In the '80s, the condition was known as Nintendoitis, and those who suffered from it were kids who loved playing hours of Super Mario Brothers. Today, it is the affliction of adults who own phones with tiny QWERTY keypads. It's called "Blackberry thumb", a painful result of too much typing on tiny keypads. The way tiny keypads are appearing, it's only a matter of time before Singapore spas start offering Fusion-Shiatsu Thumb Massage Therapy.

Which begs the question: why are we so addicted to data? Why do we feel the urge to reply to every SMS, every e-mail, every MSN beep almost immediately? Regardless of industry, our primary occupation seems to be clearing e-mail. The next time someone asks you what you do, just say "I clear e-mail for a living." So, is being connected as good as it sounds?

One friend working in an MNC told me how her company was issuing Blackberries to every employee who wanted one. She resisted at first but eventually caved. Now she's clearing her e-mail while standing in line for nasi lemak and liking it. "It helps me fill downtime with useful work I have to do anyway."

Sure, but when you have some scheduled quality "downtime" away from work, are you able to resist that pulsating inbox icon? What's to stop you from thumbing out some amendment to a meeting agenda and delegating the building of the weekend barbecue fire to you wife? Surely, that can only invite trouble. ("Honey, why are my chicken wings burnt? And they look like they've been dragged through the sand!")

Ah, the tyranny of the urgent: We forget that urgent things are not necessarily important and even important stuff is not always urgent. If you're bending over backwards to keep a clear inbox at all times, consider yourself a victim. I know I am.

Go out there and get a life. Turn off your mobile e-mail when it makes sense. And if you can bear that familiar ache shooting up your right arm, pat your dog a bit more.
"

NOTE FROM YONG:
1. When has it been morally correct to contact someone after 11pm just to see if he or she is free for tea or a movie 1 week later?

2. Shouldn't calls from work anytime after working hours considered overtime?

3. Why should emails and sms-es be called OFFICIAL ANNOUNCEMENTS when you have no control over whether the message arrives at the destination?

4. How can I distinguish, halfway through an important meeting, between a phone call that tells me if i'm free for chit-chat (10 missed calls) and a phone call that tells me my mom is in hospital (9 missed calls)?

5. Who the hell started saying that not replying to "hey are you free for a drink later?" is fucking considered "pang seh"?

And the list goes on...

*you-know-who-you-are*,
Ah Yong

A CNY Reflection

2007-02-21T04:49:00.000+08:00

First off... Happy Lunar New Year!

Oh wells, you may know that I really enjoyed staying at home, trying to empty my house of CNY snacks and stuff by eating them since my mum wun eat them + my dad can't eat them + my sis will not be around to eat them. so yar. one container full of bak gwa was half empty just now as i stepped out of house to come back to hall. it took me three days and A LOT of self-control not to finish ALL of it.

so, yes, peeps, ah yong here is already quite bored of all the CNY stuff. bring me back to my small little kid days when i still get to feel CNY's spirit with the whole school singing CNY songs and watching other kids performing stupid skids abt the monster "nian"!

the things i've done for the past few days:
1) sleep
2) watch "Protege" with mum and dad at vivo
3) eat
4) watch a china drama serial about the greatest businessmen in china's history: Qiao Zhiyong (which is interestingly very nice)
5) downloaded bleach manga to read
6) tried to fix the wireless at home
7) gave up and just surfed via ethernet cable
8) composed/arranged a couple of music themes for Kai's FYP
9) sleep somemore
10) wandered around bp
11) tried to get tired
12) tried to sleep somemore

yar... i'm quite brain-dead. i feel i havent really recover from the lack of creative juice. i feel damn sorry to kai's fyp group.

oh, and i went to chrong's house, *half* for CNY visiting tho, altho the most i did there was eat his CNY goodies (like there isn't enough in my own house... but hey, he has more varieties...)

i feel old. i know i am old, but feeling old is bad. i feel like i've drained of all the festive spirits (like x'mas, cny... y dun i feel EXCITED anymore?!) i dun feel like i'm looking forward to something.

but lanzi and jing are correct, i shd try to find my 'megan' soon, ANOTHER 'megan' tho. i need to learn to let go... but... haiz.

i was approached for an interview for a radio station (shant say which one... cuz i was proud of what i said). i was surprised when the deejay asked me "so any plans for a girlfriend?" oh shucks, i was like *ARGH* must i answer this question for the public to know? i was like "err... mmm... well... let fate decide?" shit, i hate cliche-ness... and i have to use it to cork up the question...

someone (i'm not trying to hide his identity, but i really seriously forgot) told me about my personality before. he asked if i'm the type who doesn't get into a relationship easily. yes, i answered. and he asked if the reason was because i ponder a lot about whether the relationship will last, and she has to be the perfect one. i was quite shocked to hear that actually. i was like "how can u tell?" he said, "from how many relationships you had and how long ago that was." woah. amazing.

actually my thoughts about the special 'her': it used to be 'i dun wan to burden her.' i dun wan my commitments to obstruct our relationship, i always said 'wait for the right time', but i discovered there will NEVER be a right time for me. knowing me, i will NEVER be available. time-wise. and i know, deep down inside, the stronger reason for me not to get into a relationship is really 'i dun wan to be burdened by her. i dun wan someone breathing down my neck about 'why are u so selfish in spending time with your work only?'"

no reply to a few unimportant sms, or no callback for one missed call, or no 'hi' on msn from me, and ppl already think i'm regarding them less as a friend. this is EXACTLY why i dun wan to sign up for big roles. but u know what, ppl always say 'hey go ahead, go ahead, u shd, u shd, we'll ALL understand, u hav our support'... and then at the end of the day, i receive shit like 'why r u so busy? really cannot meh? heck the work la. dun bother la.' hey, 'dun bother' is my call ok. if i really can 'dun bother' i will, but dun ask me to 'dun bother' if u cannot hold the responsibility of things happening AFTER i 'dun bother'.

if i get shit like that from frens, i tink i will get more shit from a GIRLfren...

i dun noe... maybe i'm just being slightly sexist... i dun wan to defend myself. and i dun wan to hear cliche stuff like "there are always somebody special" "there are always exception"... trust me, EVERY SINGLE LINE that you will tell me, i've told myself before, or i heard somewhere. so dun say them to me. u know it's like someone fall out of the relationship and u tell that someone "there's always somebody special out there"... if i were that someone, and if i was really feeling damn shitty, i'll throw my shoe at you, but most of the time i'll reply "hey thanks for the advice" full stop. ok, move on boy! i've past that. who DOESN'T know cliche stuff like that at our age. tell me something relevant to me.

i dun wan someone who wans to make me happy when i'm not. i dun need someone who tries to understand me when he/she doesn't. i need someone who makes me cry, who makes me angry, who let me empty my brain of all the sorrow or anger... u may think it's theoretical, but i survived the worst times in my life by having friends who emptied my brain by making me tear. my 'o' level results, my career failure before skyblue, my grandma... godsis, army bunkmate, uni fren... these three frens were my best frens and they will forever continue to be, no matter how little interaction i may have with them nowadays.

i dun know what i wan out of this entry. it's 5:21 and i'm supposed to be sleeping. but i can't. and i dun noe why.

perhaps i'm just wishing for a special someone i cud send an sms to to say goodnight.

Ah Yong

Rootless Tree

2007-02-12T15:38:00.000+08:00

ROOTLESS TREE
by Damien Rice

What I want from you is empty your head.
But they say be true, don't stain your bed.
And we do what we need to be free.
And it leans on me like a rootless tree.

What I want from us is empty our minds.
But we fake, we fuss, and fracture the times.
We go blind when we needed to see.
And this leans on me, like a rootless...

FUCK YOU, FUCK YOU, FUCK YOU
and all we've been through.
I said leave it, leave it, leave it,
it's nothing to you.
And if you hate me, hate me, hate me, hate me so good
that you just let me out
let me out, let me out?
Its hell when you're around.
Let me out, let me out, let me out.
Hell when you're around.
Let me out, let me out, let me out.

What I want from this
is learn to let go.
No, not of you
of all that is old
Killers re-invent and believe
and this leans on me, like a rootless...

FUCK YOU, FUCK YOU, FUCK YOU
and all we've been through.
I said leave it, leave it, leave it,
it's nothing to you.
And if you hate me, hate me, hate me, hate me so good
that you just let me out
let me out, let me out?
Its hell when you're around.
Let me out, let me out, let me out.
Its hell when you're around.

Let me out, let me out, let me out
hell when you're around.
Let me out, let me out, let me out
hell when you're around.

Let me out, let me out, let me out, let me out.
Let me out, let me out, let me out, let me out.
LET ME OUT, LET ME OUT, LET ME OUT, LET ME OUT.
LET ME OUT, LET ME OUT, LET ME OUT!!!

FUCK YOU, FUCK YOU, LOVE YOU
and all you've been through.
I said leave it, leave it, leave it
it's nothing to you.
And if you hate me, hate me, hate me, hate me so good
that you just let me out
let me out, let me out, let me out, let me out?

LET ME OUT, LET ME OUT, LET ME OUT, LET ME OUT.
LET ME OUT, LET ME OUT, LET ME OUT, LET ME OUT.
LET ME OUT, LET ME OUT, LET ME OUT!!!

Let me out, let me out, let me out
hell when you're around.
Let me out, let me out, let me out
hell when you're around.
Let me out, let me out, let me out
hell when you're around.
Let me out, let me out, let me out
hell when you're around...

~//~

我想讓一切歸零，讓一切從新開始，但不可能的，時間不能倒留。
我有一個辦法，但我知道這樣做很傻。
惟一讓我繼續下去的，是單純的希望。

希望著未來會更好，希望著未來會讓我走出這黑暗…
我現在走出了‘O’水准候的惡夢，走出當兵時的迷罔，還有什麼走不出的呢？
好想喊一聲FUCK YOU，讓時間屈服於自己。很傻吧？

等不到的病好，睡不著的午覺，想不完的煩惱。這不是我當初答應要面對的。
我以前解壓的方式，現在不是沒時間、沒精神，就是不再有效。

無根的樹，不只是首情歌。你，不再是一個人。而我，變得想歌裡一樣無奈、無助…
我失去了根，失去了作人基本的快樂，而死撐著，只希望半年後的自己仍活著…
到那時候，再找快樂吧…
到那時候，在回頭望，然後一笑而過吧…
這不是我們每個人都在彼此安慰的客套話嗎？

我不要再作Johnson，我要作回正勇。
我要作回那個可以花一整天的時間，無憂無慮地作在路邊觀人寫詞的正勇。
我要let myself out…

2007-01-30T08:51:00.000+08:00

I don't know what I'm thinking now...

I'm just pushing myself forward by all the forces around me, and I'm not able to take a breather, and this has been so for the past 1 month I guess.

I really thought the new year was quite a copable one, but I realized through time that I was wrong. Sure, I'm only taking five mods, and I have free slots most of the time, but the free slots are never free... I never found myself at home at these free slots, I never found myself going to a shopping mall, I never found myself doing most of my favourite hobbies: watching movies, swimming, slacking at home... no, never. my last movie was really Casino Royale last november, and that was because i was so stressed up with exams that I had to take that 4 hour break to go buy tickets and catch a movie (4 hour because of the waiting and travelling as well).

I'm already starting to long for the holidays that I'm planning for in April. Yes, I guess it has become an annual thingy, to runaway to somewhere and get myself uncontactable. I really need it.

I don't like this feeling that I'm having now. Not talking about the nauseaness and the frequent headaches, but about doing creative things on a routinal basis. This felt so wrong. Creativity to me is something spontaneous, not something that I should be able to come up with by just the snap of the fingers. Yet, I'm forced to do it. I felt like I'm trained to *snap* and *wah-la* an idea or something comes up.

Be it music, be it script, be it radio jingle ideas, be it just trying to solve a particular prob.

I feel tired of TRYING to be creative. Yes, trying.

I'm reconsidering my future. 'cos I really don't know if I'm up to it. Am I really that creative?

But, knowing myself, I just know I'm rambling because I hate routines. I totally hate them. I hate doing things for a logical and practical reasons. I hate doing things for others and not myself, especially after these few years of army and uni life. I do for others, but who do for me. No one. Yet.

Then again, maybe I should find myself someone to attach, so I can take. But that's so for a practical reason too, right? Love, should never be for practical reasons. Oh yar, forgot to mention that I really don't think people in the same company with different ranks/positions should be together. They'll never work out.

I havent really slept satisfyingly for a few weeks liao. I want to. I never get to. What's the difference between weekdays and weekends? I can't tell already.

Ah Yong

Upcoming: The Store of Memorabilia

2007-01-21T01:29:00.000+08:00

Sorry for the lack of updates! But not sure if anyone of u all are still frequent visitors to this site anyway...

Recently has been busy trying to get back into studying mode, and also juggling between CI Club matters, radio prac matters and most importantly, hall prod matters.

Most importantly? ya, it's sort of on the top of my priority list, but am still trying to juggle la, not like if there's something impt from other areas and yet i still ignore. But hall prod is finishing soon, so i shall put in all my best effort and energy liao for it lor.

And yup, it's finishing, and yup, I'm starting to sell tickets for MY hall production. 'My'? Yup, I scripted, composed music for and directed this year's hall 2 verve productions. it's like my baby la. so i'm kinda want to hear comments about it. It's my first full-length script (i've been directing other people's scripts before this), so come and watch kay?

Details?

Hall 2 Verve Productions
presents

THE STORE OF MEMORABILIA

3rd February 2007
7:30pm
Raffles Hotel, Jubilee Hall

Tickets @ $15
(Discount given to OCBC Debit Card holders)
Please contact ME @ 91788275 to buy tickets!

SYNOPSES
“What do you do with all your memories?
What do you do with all the love given?
Do you throw them away or hold on to them?
Or are you feeling lost with so much you’ve taken?”

“The Store of Memorabilia” tells the tale of a family of three: Mrs Yee is the mother who holds on to memories of her husband who disappeared; Susan is the daughter who keeps saying ‘forget it, never mind’; Desmond is the son who is just confused and always tries to avoid facing memories of his ex-girlfriend.

Every one of us has memories, but how many of us actually cherish them? Some of us just want to forget things and move on, seeking “newer and better things” in life. For some, they hold on dearly to these memories, not wanting to let them go. So, how should we deal with the memories we’ve accumulated over all these years? Is there a right or wrong answer?

Singapore has comprised on history in pursuit of a shiny metropolis, a “garden city” for Singaporeans as well as foreigners. Old buildings become victims of the value of the land they sit on, especially so here where land is scarce. Have we, as Singaporeans, also ‘comprised’ and took granted what we have, just to be in a race for the newer and better things? Yet, is this whole idea of ‘newer and better things’ just a nebulous and unrealistic one?

After last year’s successful production of Michael Chiang’s “Mixed Signals”, Verve Productions top in up this year with an original script filled with more fun, more laughs, and more heart-warming moments.

With a story about love and family, Verve Productions 06/07 invites you on this journey to explore the meaning of memories and what they mean to us.

TRIVIA

The main idea for the play came from an episode of the anime “Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex: 2nd Gig”. The title “The Store of Memorabilia” is a translation of the name of the store “牢記の店” that appeared in this episode of the anime. There are also many other references to this particular episode.
The Chinese opera scenes were initially not included during the pre-production stage. It was later added after the idea was suggested by the co-producers.
The G-string belongs to a member of the production team and not specially bought for the production.
The violin is really being played live by the performer and not recorded.
The song used in the scene where Mdm Cheng tells the story of the cranes is “心愛的再會啦” (Sim Ai Eh, Jai Huay La). It was written and first performed by the Taiwanese singer Wu Bai, and then the local famous accapella group Budak Pantai did their own rendition of the song and mixed it with Sarah Brightman’s famous “Time to Say Goodbye”. The scene was specially written because of the song.
The song Desmond searches for, “瀟灑走一回”, was chosen because it really was the playwright’s first Chinese pop song.
The story of the lantern is inspired by local writer Tan Hwee Hwee’s “Mid-Autumn”.

DIRECTORS' WORDS
The idea for “The Store of Memorabilia” had been with me for quite some time, even before we finished staging last year’s production of Michael Chiang’s “Mixed Signals”. I courageously volunteered to pen the script when I heard the production team for this year is looking for an original script, not knowing that I would be taking a step onto a journey that will be one of the most memorable one. It was really an experience, to write our own script, to compose our own music, and to stage it ourselves.

This play is actually very personal. Many parts of the play were derived from my own personal stories that had happened, while the rest were adapted from my own favourite stories. So which are factual? Which are fictional? I invite you to find out for yourselves.

I’m really happy and honoured to, once again, be given this chance of directing another play for the Verve Productions. And I must really thank the following people for helping me make this script come alive on the stage: my producer and co-producers for always being there when I need them, my co-director for sharing my workload when I had other commitments to fulfill, my very very hard-working stage managers for putting up with the many demanding requests I have, the props & sets crew for all the effort and hard work, the lights & sounds crew for being so patient and dutiful, the costumes & make-up crew for putting extra attention into all the details, the cast for enduring through the countless rehearsals, all those who helped in all kinds of ways, and of course, you, the audience, for sharing this magical night with Verve Productions 06/07.

*please-come-and-watch-to-support*,
Ah Yong

A quick 'Hi!'

2007-01-03T17:08:00.000+08:00

Am in Penang, visiting my... er... "shu gong" (grand-uncle). yar... internet is still a problem, and i've been stuck with just watching cantonese and taiwanese drama serials (since all my cousins are not into news).

penang is more of an international place, so after visiting a Coffee Bean outlet here (the FIRST and most prob only time) and grabbed the local free papers here (called THE SUN SHINES), i've learnt that:

1) something happened in Thailand. the papers doesn't say anything but only advised malaysian citizens in thailand to stay indoors.

2) the number of refugees in Johor has decreased to 30,000. no mention of casualties at all. (i've learnt the number of deaths totaled to 16 and the number of refugees decreased to 26,000+ thanks to straits times interactive)

3) the NS system here cocked up, employing bus drivers with no bus permits. in the end lots of... what do you call them?... oh, enlistees, a lot of them were stranded at the pick-up place. no mention whether they were released from that point or they were continued to be ferried to their camps. (the papers mentioned there were no more transport after the last bus left... hmmm~)

4) new york had 1 million people at their countdown party. right. half a page of coverage. interesting.

nothing else!!! what the hell happened in thailand? i still dun noe... gah.

i'm missing singapore. i miss the freedom. i'm sort of stuck with my parents everywhere i go. miss going overseas alone (or rather, with frens).

somehow, the period of 'wanting-eagerly-to-drive' is TOTALLY over. my parents are like boasting to all my relatives about 'how useful it is to have a son who knows how to drive'. damn~

anyway, this trip is like a PROLONGED CHINESE NEW YEAR trip for me, minus the ang pows. guess why? here are some of the questions my relatives ask me:

1) Q: Have you finished NS? A: Er, yes, very long ago.
2) Q: Have you graduated from uni? A: No la, not so soon.
3) Q: How long more before you graduate? A: Two and a half years.
4) Q: What are you studying by the way? A: Er... Communication Studies.
5) Q: Ooh... (pause for 5 seconds) What's that? A: Erm. Media stuff.
6) Q: Ooh... (pause for another 5 seconds) You going to the TV station to become star next time arh? A: Er... No la. (cue fake laughter) Ha. Ha. Ha.
7) Q: So studying uni? Tough or not? A: Not really la. Just that joined a lot of activities.
8) Q: A lot of activities arh? Got girlfriend or not? A: Er... No.
9) Q: Wah. (see my fake embarrassed look disguising my rolling of eyes) No suitable girls? A: (wanting to avoid qns) Er... yar.
10) Q: Next time graduate already, earn big money hor? A: Er... (fake laughter again) No la. Ha. Ha.
11) Q: $10,000 a month? A: Er... (fake laughter again) No la. Ha. Ha.

There are some variations here and there, but this is the gist of every conversation I have. And I have to survive trying to understand the Malaysian-accented cantonese + hokkien they were all conversing in. Er, not that it's THAT important for me to understand la. Most of the time I just switch off and stone.

*wishing-I-was-back-home*,
Ah Yong

PS. I managed to survive on 2-3 sticks a day, escaping to weird places at Shopping Centres/Padi Fields/Toilets. Am finding myself very creative to find excuses to escape for at least 10 minutes: 5 minutes for the break and 5 minutes for the smell to wear off.

PS 2. FREAK! I wanna buy Cao Ge's NEW ALBUM! IT'S JAZZ!!! WHOOT~! OH MY GAAWWWWDDD~~~~!!!! http://www.haoting.com/musiclist/ht_7dabb1ed586d2e84.htm

Damn... I'm a workaholic...

2006-12-31T14:29:00.000+08:00

Am now in malaysia... Discovered there's internet access at my (maternal) grandpa's place. Am damn shocked. But it's freaking slow here, super thanks to the taiwan earthquake.

Nothing much to say, accept that i didnt sleep the whole of last night, thinking of what I need to do when I get back in Singapore. Somehow, I feel more stuck and stressed here in Malaysia. I really need to relax sia. Will be taking my camera and be the "trigger-happy" me that I was one to two years back.

I discovered I'm being very irresponsible, and I must say sorry to a lot of people, which includes a lot of good friends. I'm sorry I let you all down. I thought I manage to clear everything before I leave. I guessed wrong...

Sorry. Will be back soon. I promise.

*disappointed-with-myself*,
Ah Yong

Notice of ABSENCE

2006-12-28T05:06:00.000+08:00

Hey peeps, this is an important notice. If you're reading this blog, you should be close friends of mine and this piece of information is vital and important, because I will use the statement "Don't say I didn't tell you" to smack your face if you scream.

I WILL BE GOING BACK TO MALAYSIA
From 30th December 2006 to 6th January 2007

It is NOT a holiday, although it is a great chance for me to really slow down my pace of life for a while. Please understand and please do NOT involve me in your finding of an excuse in not able to get something done.

Some other less important information related to this:

1. I will not be able to come online, my grandpa's house do NOT have internet connection.

2. I will be driving back to Kedah, so DO NOT call me on the handphone on 30/12/06 or 06/01/07 'cause I most prob will not be able to answer you.

3. Do NOT expect me to reply your sms-es, although I will be able to receive them. Do try to limit the number you send also because each sms will cost each of us MORE THAN the usual 5 cents, yes, EACH OF US.

4. Do NOT expect me to answer phone easily anyway throughout my stay. It's overseas call charges, for you and for me, again.

Even less important information:

1. I will not be able to smoke for 1 whole week, and expect terrible temper if I do pick up your call.

2. The place I'm going to is Tokai, a little town near Alor Setar, Kedah. Don't know where it is? It just goes to show how ulu the place is.

3. And yes, there are no internet cafes there. I've checked the previous time I was back there. (At least not found in the usual hangouts I go to, which is already 80% of Alor Setar.)

4. I'm bringing back my laptop, my hall prod script, my CI Club folder. So yes, technically you can still ask me for details regarding some matter. But no, don't expect me to help you come up with solutions. Blardy hell, it's already stressful enough usually you know, and now still got overseas charges to stress me. You must either be damn desperate or damn qian4 bian3.

That's all for now. Yar, I'm expecting a lot of calls from today onwards until the night of 29th. But don't call me at night. I'm rushing through my hall prod rehearsals.

Yong

Misc Pics

2006-12-24T18:05:00.000+08:00

Was clearing out most of the pictures in my handphone, which has become my 即興 camera. discovered i took a lot of weird pictures. haha~

Picture #1: The interestingly aligned rows of fire extinguisher during the fire alarm exercise sometime this semester. Pretty amazed at how much effort was put in to ALIGN the freaking extinguishers. ironically, there was a fire in sch a few weeks later. mm~

Picture #2: The nice view of how the SADM blends in with the surroundings from the top of the hill where Nanyang House sits. long time never go up there liao, and i got a shock with the magnificent view. whoot~

Picture #3: Me playing around with the wizard hat which appeared out of nowhere during our Drama classes. Yes, my lecturer was amazed with me being so happy wearing the wizard hat.

Picture #4: No, I haven't gone mad. That's my 造形 for my role in Paparazzi, the CS drama production. I'm the mad scientist, hence the hat and the robe.

Picture #5: This picture is put here without permission of the subject featured. Erhmm~~ Well, the bunch of us (guang, darren, justin, weiyi) were at vivo catching The Departed. This is NOT the funniest thing that happened that night. Erhmm~~

Picture #6: The Radio Fusion party! Colin and gang's (KKJ) performance... ;) Splendid, just splendid.

More to come... Will be back after x'mas celebration... (Not that i'm really that in the mood to celebrate tho...)

等：下文

2006-12-16T01:23:00.000+08:00

又失眠了。本想讀了吳慶康的《2359日出以前》，應該會讀到累，誰知自己反而越讀越精神。近日來，真的覺得自己好自虐。

現在的我，每天都在等著許多事情發生。我同意吳慶康的說發，人生就是充滿著等待，而我現在深深地體會著這種“等待”的感覺。

我等待著擁有自己主宰的生活，不再去聽人家對我說應該不應該的。想做的，鼓起勇氣就去做。
我等待著選擇未來該走的路的那一天—大學畢業的那一天。金錢還是夢想，我該怎麼去平橫這兩個極端的因素？
我等待著製作我的FYP。聽起來好像很自虐，但我總覺得FYP是惟一可以盡情利用resources來製作自己喜歡又可以以此自豪的作品。
我等待著internship。我想證實我現在所作出的選擇是否是對的。
我等待著選系。雖然我几乎100%是去EBM了，但就是因為這樣才煩，好想get it over and done with。
我等待著謝任我目前所有的職務。我始終是個學生啊。是，大學時期是最後可以参加那麼多活動的時後，但我發現我沒有那麼大的emotional capacity to handle。
我等待著hall production day。去年我說過，但今年還是要說：這是我最後一次搞舞台了，也是惟一能導自己的戲的時候，意義非凡。
我等待著開學，就是為了等待下個假期。
我等待著回馬來西亞。除了能有机會在馬來西亞的高速公路奔持，我還真的蠻想多陪爺爺，真不知下次回去會是何年何月了。
我等待著ISG的結束。我那白痴的運動神經，在這段日子裡越突顯自己的無能。
我等待著hall production的第一個連排。同樣的，我想get it over and done with，但理由是因為我已經知道演員們真的不行。
我等待著這個周末結束。忙碌的周末，等於跟自己說我是個no life的人。
我等待著明天的到來，只因明天還有個明天。

6年前，我寫了一首《等》，被老師取笑說我以後可以寫《還在等》和《等到了》。其實我確實有嘗試過寫“等到了”，但寫不出，因為我等的東西太多了，總是沒有那種“等到了”的感覺。於是，便寫了“還在等”，如今變成了在skybluzone的《雨》。我真的等到所有的等待結束，能真正去享受自己的成果。

但我現在呢？我只是等待著睡覺…

*無耐＝無助?*,
阿勇

RADIO FUSION staff-list for SEM II 06/07

2006-12-08T12:13:00.000+08:00

Peeps! Report in!

CS291A
Alicia, Alvina, Janus, Jessie, Junjie, Meiyan, Shi Si, Shujing, Wanjing
Ok, more slots! Who else?!

CS292A
Kailing, Si Keng, Xiuwen, Zhengyong
Who else?! Kaixuan? Cindy?

*excited-and-glad-registration-is-over*,
Ah Yong

盛夏光年

2006-12-08T01:34:00.000+08:00

石頭剪刀布

2006-12-03T03:59:00.000+08:00

Wrote the tune and the first two lyrics of this song damn long ago... tink it was on my way back from CS DnD on the nightrider. the inspiration came from two kids sitting in front of me playing Scissors Paper Stone and they were trying to come up with a constant rhythm for the words they came up with. i thought that was kinda cute.

and suddenly i wanted to written to tune for that. hence the melody of this song came up once i got off the bus, together with the first two lines.

but i never got around writing in the rest of the words for the rest of the tune.

finally, yes, finally it's done. although i took me a lot of head-scratching moments.

~//~

石頭剪刀布
詞曲：張正勇

還記得年幼每個下午
這遊戲幫我將苦悶去除
一二三手一出
輸贏瞬間很清楚
但勝負我們都不在乎

石頭剪刀布
你出石頭我出布
我將你拳頭緊緊握住
你撒嬌不認輸

石頭剪刀布
我出剪刀你出布
你用手指夾著我的手
我微笑著認輸

後來長大後某個下午
朋友說這遊戲很老土
一二三手一出
覺得又笨又無厘頭
懷念以前天真無知的時候

石頭剪刀布
你出石頭我出布
我將你拳頭緊緊握住
你撒嬌不認輸

石頭剪刀布
我出剪刀你出布
你用手指夾著我的手
我微笑著認輸

現在的我在這個下午
老伴兒回憶起年幼時候
一二三手一出
人生難得糊塗
讓我們重溫歡樂多一度

石頭剪刀布
你出石頭我出布
我將你拳頭緊緊握住
你撒嬌不認輸

石頭剪刀布
我出剪刀你出布
你用手指夾著我的手
我微笑著認輸

Completed 3rd December 2006 4:05am

~//~

I know, it looks like I'm producing one song every school semester break. not very productive hor? haiz...

*am-satisfied-creatively-to-finish-another-song*,
Yong

Another Afternoon

2006-11-29T16:17:00.000+08:00

it's 4:18pm. and i'm sort of stuck in my room *again*. decided to pack up the whole room, not knowing when SOMEBODY will return the key to the room and have weijie move over to join me.

yea, i'm gonna have a roommate.

anyway, i'm sort of slacking now cos my headache is getting to me. dumped quite a bit of clothes in the washing machine, waiting to finish washing. finished organizing and filing AND PACKING AWAY this semester's notes. was tempted to leave some of them unpacked since i know i may need them in future sems to come, but heck, store them away first. don't want them lying around the holidays to remind me of sch work.

after the rest, shall:
1. collect clothes from washing machine.
2. dump MORE clothes into the washing machine (yes, i have THAT MUCH unwashed clothes).
3. organize my activities' stuff.
4. re-organize my shelves.
5. pack my food/fridge corner.
6. put back the chairs from my room to recreation room (damn heavy sia~).
7. sweep and mop room.
8. (opt) reposition the bed. i never like the current position. waste quite a bit of space.
9. (opt) decorate my board. never got down to it. my board is so messy till i cant find stuff i pin up there.
10. must start my scheduling for this holidays.

okay, things to do this holdays:
1. ISG
2. Planning for CS Homecoming
3. Hall Prod rehearsals
4. finish arranging the two songs i have on hand.
5. finish arranging songs for hall production
6. start work on Kaili's FYP music.
7. (opt) redesign of my blog.
8. (opt) go malaysia at least once.

mmm... interestingly, shopping is NOT on my list. damn.

just received a call from mum saying she'll come over to pass me some food and drink. i wanted to go "woopee" but, sianz...

*just-feeling-lost*,
Yong

See what I meant when I said Singapore is policy-driven and other countries is economically-driven?

2006-11-22T15:26:00.000+08:00

Heck, I'm just try to grab ur attention when i use those two terms. I'm not an economics student, never was and most prob never will. (most prob only la, who knows if i will take it next sem.)

anyway, remember in my taiwan article when i said taiwan is a very economically-driven place? much of what it is is decided by its people to attract foreigners, not because the "gahmen" wants them to have things this way.

and to add on to my argument, the gahmen has successfully come up with yet another weird plan.

GLOWING REVIEW: The Bras Basah-Bugis area will become a round-the-clock entertainment zone, with creative neon signs and advertising panels, while the Singapore River will glow quietly with jelly-fish lights in the stretch opposite Boat Quay (next). -- -- URBAN REDEVELOPMENT AUTHORITY

How come I seldom hear about such policies from other countries? sheesh... hate all these government efforts, like the people itself dun hav creativity like that... gah~ ok how about lighting up GEYLANG region? ;)

tho, i am looking forward to the new litted bugis. *ops* argh! hypocrisy at work!!

*one-night-in-bangk...-i-mean-singapore*,
Yong

Let me just blabber...

2006-11-19T17:30:00.000+08:00

Today woke up at 2pm, well, becos i slept only at 7am this morning. was studying thru the night with YH at west coast, came home at 5am, but couldnt sleep, so was lying on the bed watching my "Cars" dvd (original... juz bought). watched finished, decided that I should be sleeping, so took some panadol-aka-my-sleep-inducers.

somehow i woke up with the heart-beat rhythm at a very fast pace, something I have yet to experience in a very long time. I think the most significant time that I felt this way was after my jc2 Huang Cheng days, when I had withdrawal symptoms. I don't know why I'm feeling this way today.

i couldnt stay at home, since the only kind of face i have is a grumpy one. i didn't have the energy to even smile. went down to starbucks, ordered a iced caffe latte, grabbed an I-S mag and sat down at the smoking tables, finished reading, and just sat there stoning. saw a few ppl at the neighbouring tables smoking, in the end did the same myself too.

i had with me my cs229 stuff, hoping to get the stoning thing out of the way and get started with the studying. in my mp3 player, i'm blasting some cheery music from the soundtrack of "Flushed Away". no, it didn't help. in the end, i walked back home and here I am, sitting on my bed and facing my computer with utterly no energy to DRAW energy to study.

i feel wasted, i feel like shit. and all i want is to find someone to talk to, but i know everyone's studying and i'm sure i don't want to bother any of them.

the only thing i wanna do now is to go to a secluded beach and scream out "fuck".

Johnzzon

A Song

2006-11-19T17:05:00.000+08:00

Here is a little song I wrote
You might want to sing it note for note
Don't worry be happy
In every life we have some trouble
When you worry you make it double
Don't worry, be happy......

Ain't got no place to lay your head
Somebody came and took your bed
Don't worry, be happy
The land lord say your rent is late
He may have to litigate
Don't worry, be happy
Lood at me I am happy
Don't worry, be happy
Here I give you my phone number
When you worry call me
I make you happy
Don't worry, be happy

Ain't got no cash, ain't got no style
Ain't got not girl to make you smile
But don't worry be happy
Cause when you worry
Your face will frown
And that will bring everybody down
So don't worry, be happy (now).....

There is this little song I wrote
I hope you learn it note for note
Like good little children
Don't worry, be happy

Listen to what I say
In your life expect some trouble
But when you worry
You make it double
Don't worry, be happy......
Don't worry don't do it, be happy

Put a smile on your face
Don't bring everybody down like this
Don't worry, it will soon past
Whatever it is
Don't worry, be happy

----------------------------------------------------

The most depressing irony is that the original singer, Bobby McFerrin, is rumoured to have committed suicide. Great.

Why I have to bring this up? I don't know... perhaps it's because of hearing this song in "Flushed Away" bah, which they used it in a tastefully ironical way. But after I downloaded the soundtrack and listened to the song again, i remembered that this song never made me happy, and i remembered why, becos a certain guy surnamed Seow told me this information.

Mr Procrastinating-Johnson is back...

2006-11-13T14:47:00.000+08:00

Gosh... my first (two) papers are on thursday, and here i am lazing around online. Mr Procrastinating-Johnson is back, full-powered with avengence!!

i don't know what caused this, and i would really like to blame the 2300+ words drama essay I completed last night. I'm damn happy, kay? it's 2300+ words on two of my favourite theatre practitioners (for now) and I had so much material that I almost started to 抓狂 when I tried to move from one article to another and couldn't find it. And when I completed, I felt DAMN satisfied with myself. Charlene (my drama lecturer) wanted us to email her the completed work, so it saved me the trouble of printing it, but I had the urge all night (and until now) to print it out, frame it, and put the paper on my board.

gosh... am I sounding a bit too weird and nerdy? gah~~ that's the problem when you completed something you're not accustommed to do, especially through this semester where there are practically no term papers, no reports, just all technically based assignments that had me carry camera equipment almost every where i go in the second hand of the semester (and hurting myself in the process).

anyway, now that i'm lazing around online, i was damn shocked about how much I missed out! actually i missed out on a WHOLE LOT of things, not only in the online scene. Huh? What WSM effect? Huh? Tiger beer has released its second episode advertisement? What? Already third? OMG, project superstar is already airing? What? HuH? HUHHHH!???!

the only comfort i find is knowing survivor: cook island is showing in Singapore, and no, i had yet to watch a single episode. already not a fan of it.

i don't even watch TV anymore... weirdly, esp since i'm a comm studies student now and deciding to go to the EBM. the only aspect of EBM that still concerns me is movies (i don't even listen to radio).

this is damn bad.

anyway, if u're looking for my comments to WSM, sorry, i've got no comments. not that I agree, nor do i disagree with the whole event, it's just that I find singapore is such a small place that things and events do get the hype easily. so watch your words people! i'm watching mine for now... but honestly, i'm more interested... *erhmm* concerned about the situation in Taiwan.

WAIT... shit... bloody hell, i make myself sound like a bloody heck-care person. I got my own opinions about this event la, but people who know me will know i have things to talk about for both sides. so, well, i shant say it here.

damn it... i've just wasted another 15mins just writing abt things that SHOULD NOT concern me at this moment of time. OH MY GOD! let me hug ur legs....

*ever-so-procrastinating*,
Johnzzon

My children are online!

2006-11-09T15:22:00.000+08:00

No no... I'm not married and i'm not having a shot-gun marriage. But if u wanna listen to my children (self-composed songs), do head down to...

The website will ask u to register and install the program. Don't worry, it's not a virus program. If ur computer crash, well, juz ask me to treat u to a drink or something la.

The songs available for download are the songs I wrote during my army days, where my angst and everything are at the highest level. haha~ my favourite (yes, as a parent, i'm oso biased) is Rain (雨). Do give it a listen kay? If you decide you don't like it, come back here and flood my blog with ur comments. haha~

alrighty ppl. I'm off to study since the shooting i'm involved in was cancelled due to the heavy downpour. good luck to all for exams and whatever you're doing!!

*jumping-joyously*,
Johnzzon

2006-11-08T02:04:00.000+08:00

你擔心一個人，但那個人卻刻意為了不讓你擔心而裝作若無其事時，你是否更加擔心？
我不知道…

現在我唯一能做的，就是向老天爺祈求一切會順利，而默默地倒數著…

《三瘋劇場》第４集

2006-10-28T20:26:00.001+08:00

LISTEN HERE

Last Episode out!! Oh wells, I'm soooo going to miss producing this thing, although I must honestly say, some part of my heart is pretty relieved. It's been a BIG project, a HUGE one in fact, and I'm damn proud of what I've achieved. It's almost 95% of what I have hoped it will be.

Thanks to all the supporters and lovers of this segment. Hopefully 瘋人院 will be back next semester, if things do happen like it should be. (There may be some restructuring, and if it does come true, I don't want to join radio as a manager, but just as a deejay and capsule producers.)

For now, you can visit my podcasting site at http://jumbosale.blogmatrix.com/ to listen to all four episodes of 三瘋劇場. Yupz, enjoy.

*time-to-concentrate-on-other-matters*,
Yong

《三瘋劇場》第２﹠３集

2006-10-21T17:34:00.000+08:00

EPISODE #2 - LISTEN HERE
EPISODE #3 - LISTEN HERE

Episodes #2 and #3 are out! Aren't you excited? Haha~

BUT BUT... there is some problem with blogmatrix... mmm... will try to link it by tonight! Will update in this exact post...

Anyway, the last episode, episode #4 has been recorded and it's in its post-production process. 90% done already! If you wish to catch it, do go to http://radio.ntu.edu.sg/ on Monday night and Tuesday night to catch both episodes #3 and #4.

Thanks to all the peeps who gave up resisting to record for me and allowed me to humiliate you! So sorry and thanks many ga-zillions!!

I will definitely miss doing this~ Haiz... shall enjoy my last night in audio suite tomorrow night doing this!

You can visit my podcasting site at http://jumbosale.blogmatrix.com/. Currently there are three podcasts, which are episodes #1 - #3. Episode #4 will be up only next wednesday. so... haha~ enjoy waiting! I promise it will be a fulfilling ending. ;)

*sleeping-at-weird-timings*,
Yong

《三瘋劇場》第１集

2006-10-01T00:11:00.000+08:00

LISTEN HERE

Heys this is a segment we produced for the Radio Fusion capsule that I'm damn proud of... wahaha~! *letting pride setting in*

Do give me your comments kay?

You can visit my podcasting site at http://jumbosale.blogmatrix.com/. Currently only has one podcast la, which is this one. haha~ more to come. ;)

*sleeping-at-weird-timings*,
Yong

FOC BBQ

2006-09-28T20:46:00.000+08:00

The most expensive, most extravagant and the most delicious BBQ i ever had in my life. Thank you Darren for the night! heh~

Here are the photos peeps!! http://jumbosale.multiply.com/photos/album/9.

Good Bye Yunqing

2006-09-26T23:58:00.000+08:00

Pictures uploaded too. I just love Multiply now. Please visit http://jumbosale.multiply.com/photos/album/8.

Another friend flown away, it's pretty saddening, but hey, I need to tell myself that it's for the better, and I will not feel so bad. It's not like you're not gone forever are you?

With issues of so many people leaving my world, I can't help but feel a bit weak in the mind. I'm not as strong as I thought I used to be anymore.

To Yunqing, I have a weird thought. I think you and Songyu will swap personalities after your studies. haha~ yinjie will go like ewww... you're halfway there anyway. stay nice, stay funky, but most important I hope you stay happy. :)

*must-stay-strong-myself*,
Yong

Night Cycling Pictures

2006-09-26T23:19:00.000+08:00

Pictures uploaded...

Please visit http://jumbosale.multiply.com/photos/album/7. :)

Have fun downloading...

*just-feeling-like-pushing-myself-further*,
Yong

I'm Back in Singapore

2006-09-21T04:15:00.000+08:00

這是上天給我的考驗嗎？
(Is this a test from god?)

This is the question I've been trying to avoid and answer at the same time through the course of these couple of weeks. Whatever happened can be written into a cliche channel 8 drama, yet it happened to me in real life. What the freaking hell is happening?

I shall stay far away from using the actual 4-letter F word in this post, since I'm supposed to be clean of everything within the next 2 months.

Sighz. Everything that's happening is taking a piece of my life, be it physically or emotionally. I really feel like just taking a break from everything for a while, yet I know it's VERY (F-word warning #1) impossible.

Perhaps I shall let this be an apology letter to everyone. Yet some part of me want to keep everything to myself. What's the point right? Rant everything here, and what? Expect people to sympathize with me? Expect people to just let me go? Hell, no. That's irresponsible and selfish of me.

I don't know what's keeping me together. Is it what Emily said to me the other day while I uncontrollably let my tears (F-word warning #2) roll down my (F-word warning #3) cheeks? (F-word warning #4) Freak man! She's darn right! I don't want my grandma to see me let go of everything I've got just because I (F-word warning #5) THINK I don't have the capacity of containing every ounce of workload.

Yet, this amount of workload isn't what I was expecting.

Hey peeps, if you're reading this, I need you to understand I just need some space to blabber EVERY (F-word warning #6) little thing that happened. 10 years down the road, I sure want to read this (F-word warning #7) entry.

Let's start at the very beginning (cue: Sound of Music where Maria starts the Do-Re-Mi song).

It was the second day of application for the exchange, and I was still hesitating if I should take it up. Taking it up would mean I can run away from everything for a while. For a semester rather. All these school things is making me breathless and that 2 weeks in Taiwan made me wanna go experience another country's life. I'm desperate for it.

Yet, somehow, there's something holding me back. I could give an excuse saying it's the hall production that I'm scripting for, I could say it's that I'm hoping to stay in NTU for more practicums, I could say it's because I'm lazy to do all the paperwork needed.

Then, came the trigger. That night during the hall production meeting, I was so (F-word warning #8) tired with all the problems amounting due to my exchange and I decided to just stay and help out.

So I made my decision: I'm not going on exchange.

Next day, I made known my decision to the first person who asked me, and incidentally, she's looking for someone to succeed her in her role in CI Club. So, upon hearing it, she was pulled me in. I was like, heck, I shall do it, since I got the extra time now. And I was already contemplating about running for a position whenever the idea that "maybe if i'm not going on exchange" came to my head.

So I started running for CI Club social mag role.

Then, it so happens Rongshan has to pull out from the presidential role. And somehow, due to all the things that I was thinking of, I came to a conclusion I shall be running for it. I don't know why I managed to garner so much courage. Maybe I felt I was finally ready for such a role after being afraid of authoritarian roles for so many years.

So, I submitted my form running for presidential position. Then the whole week of campaigning and stuff came. And somehow I got it. The school population believed in me. And I should be believing in myself. So here I am, with something new to add to my resume.

Then, the next day after the results were released, and when I thought I could take a rest from all the stress and school workload for a while, my mum has to be hospitalized. She hasn't been well these recent years but for the past one year or so, she has been totally okay, and her symptoms have not been surfacing, so I thought she has gotten all well, until I forgot about her illness, until that saturday morning, when I woke up, ready to go for paparazzi rehearsal and I realized I got missed calls and a few messages from my sis. "Call me now! Urgent! Mom's hospitalized!"

I had to cancel my rehearsal at the last minute, hoping to rush down to the hospital. but mum wants me to go back home to wait for her as she told me she'll be discharged that afternoon.

I finally knew what was holding me back from exchange. My mom. I never felt okay about leaving my mom for a long period of time. And this was it.

I got home, she told me everything was okay (like real), and she'll be having medical examinations with A.H. rather than the shitty not-helpful N.U.H.. I got more relieved when I heard A.H. seems to be having a better idea of what my mum is suffering from than the stupid NUH which keeps insisting nothing's wrong.

So i put that aside and decided to concentrate on getting my ci club matters together. how to get more people in? who to get? who not to get? which combination of people will work best (esp with the little number of people I get to 'work' with)? and that's another week passed.

then comes paparazzi, and radio fusion, and union, and hall-prod. paparazzi started to get more intensive and I need to keep my energy up at every rehearsal, if not, things just don't turn out well. something's always lacking if I don't. and I discovered I'm growing more and more resistant to coffee and red-bull.

the week of radio fusion passed, with my first week of programmes done with immense satisfaction and pride, but it's also taking up all of my night life as well.

then comes the week of paparazzi, with everything (including projects and assignments) put on hold just to get this badly organized production into a shape that doesn't look all that bad on stage. rachel, sera, scott, j-en and gang had been extremely supportive, tho irritating things do happen here and there, like doing publicity in the wee hours in the morning when I need my minutes-worth-of sleep.

union stuff is not letting me go too, forcing me to go down for every meeting, wasting my time away there unproductively. and all i was thinking of during these meetings were "to maintain good image of SCI people and that all of us wants a better life in NTU, and we're not all talk and no 'do's."

paparazzi bunking in. i felt i was just trying my best to entertain whenever I go onto stage. over the days I started developing this 'chemistry' with scott and we kept getting better and yet still had fun during our scenes, tho energy draining. then came the night before the production day. thursday. after all the rehearsals i checked my handphone, expecting more ci club matters for me to postpone, and yet sis message again. "Call home immediately! Urgent!"

(F-word warning #... I lost count) All i could do while taking my break was panic and quickly rang up my sis, thinking my mum got hospitalized again. "no, grandma's illness worsened today. she may not be able to make it any more soon." grandma's back in kedah, and I hadnt been a filial grandson as I can only make it back to kedah when I had the ample time to spare in between school terms. and that's like average once in every 3 years.

to date, two important calls, and I couldn't be there to answer them at the first minute. I felt useless. I felt handicapped. I felt like crap. I felt like I took all my time and energy and concentrated on school things that I had totally ignored my family. I felt like a piece of crap who realized I came out of an asshole. and I couldn't hold back any longer, and I cried, the first time so painfully since jc times.

and I had to hold back. I had to tell myself I need to finish whatever I need to do. I need to start planning if something were to happen soon. I WANT to be by my grandma's side. I WANT to send her on her last journey.

I managed to pull through the first night, after the "wakening" talk with emily.

before the second night, I received the message. my grandma passed away. my performance on the second night dropped significantly. not enough energy. I just felt like getting it over and done with.

the next day, sunday, i left singapore after all the emailing to do, and rushed back to kedah. the three days there, I had to hold back every emotions i have, 'cos I know I cannot cry. I have to swallow every millilitre of tear that started swelling in my eyes. if i cry, everyone will cry, but we cannot cry, it's according to our religion, we just cannot cry.

i hadn't cry.

i rushed back from kedah and just touched down at midnight just now. and i felt i was totally drained of all the energy and power to do anything else, which includes studying for the CS201 midterm later.

i'm still not studying. i'm still thinking of the wake and the funeral. i'm still having the images of grandma lying in the coffin and when her coffin was pushed away to be furnaced. i'm thinking that what if within a year or so i have to deal with this again.

my mother's illness still hasn't seen light. and i'm very scared to know the worst truth. i don't know if i have the capacity to deal with it together with all the other matters that i've landed myself in.

Why must every ounce of shit be falling on me right at this moment? before I can wipe myself totally clean, another load of it comes crashing down. i felt stinky, i felt that i cannot get out of this shit.

i know i have to hold on at least for a while longer, but for how long can i go? i dun noe. I really hope it's one year, then it'll all be over, and I can be victorious and say i've conquered it all. but it's always, ALWAYS the question of 'what if i can't?' right? yar, i know, the modal answer is "if you don't try, u never know". i've said this to people myself too.

the question now is whether i want to try, and whether the people around me can tolerate my mistakes. then again, I shouldn't be trying right? if i wan to do, i should go all the way. then the question is 'what is all the way?'

it's 5:06am, and midterm's at 8:30am. i don't have the energy to study. emotion energy: 5%; physical energy 10% (after a cup of coffee, courtesy of Kopitiam @ City Harvest).

will the world forgive me?

Ah Yong

PS. And why must all my recent entries be so disgustingly dull and all about my ramblings about the presidential role?

Thank you

2006-08-27T02:08:00.000+08:00

This week had been long, extremely long actually.

I'm not the kind of person who likes to campaign and rally and stuff, and when I have to do it due to the elections, well, I just decided to go crazy and do something that normally I don't get a chance to do, like inviting people to doodle on my picture on my campaign posters.

People have been telling me not to do it. "It's not serious. As a president, you should have that presence that people sort of see up to." Well, actually, frankly speaking, that's what I'm damn afraid of.

I don't want to be someone I am not, definitely not a person who likes to pressure people with my stature, with my... "shen1 fen4", if you get what I mean. those who really know me know I don't like to talk about who I am and what I do outside, because I don't want to be seen as this person that people cannot approach.

Like joanne peh. Heck, I feel afraid of approaching her, even tho i've chit-chatted wif her a couple of times (literally, two times only!).

Ok, before I go into a detenber digression, I would want to say that I hope people see that this Johnson that ppl see after the elections is still the same old wacky Johnson everyone knows.

Before I go any further, Thank you people! I would not be where I am without you all. Thank you for everything, even a little "heys, I'll vote for you" anytime during the week has been comforting, altho I must say each one of them does add a bit of pressure on myself. How well will I do? Will this course of one year turn out fine?

Anyway, I hadn't been able to thank everybody properly, and I don't know if i get the chance. Friday night had been disatrous, meeting all the rest of the presidents, sitting inside the Union room, voting for the next Student Union ex-co. I will say that we as presidents can't do much for deciding who will be going into the next ex-co since it's still a pretty much protected environment (protected as in the prev exco is there to protect their successors). i'm not saying it's bad, cos it's only natural, but I'm juz surprised to see a big fuss being kicked up. the meeting lasted from 8pm to 5:30am, a record breaking 9.5 hours. by the end, I'm tired and everything, and I felt that these people were so worked up by things that may not even affect the rest of their lives. Does corporate people give a shit about you being the vice-president of the student union when you're 35 yo? sure, it looks good on the resume, but if you didn't get in becos of you're being viewed as the potential (but becos the prev exco likes you) not much of a diff right?

why am i saying this? cos i'm sure i will not be saying anything to much of my frens that i befriend in the future. not that I'm not proud of it, juz that, hey, i like to tink that my frens befriend me becos of who i am, and not what i used to be. you get what I mean?

anyway, this (sat) morning had been bad. the first thing i got in the morning was an sms from dad. something happened again in my family. somehow, I'm glad i din go apply for exchange, VERY glad actually. but for 2 whole hours in the morning, i almost called dunstan and said i hav to drop the role. i needed 2 whole hours to calm myself down.

yup, this week has been long, extremely long. Thank you everyone, for your support and encouragement, for if not, I will not be where I am now. Let me say this before I will not say it anymore for the rest of my life: I am the president of the C.I. Club.

Ah Yong
27/08/2006 0223hrs

It's Official

2006-08-21T05:30:00.000+08:00

This is an unbashfully disgusting self-promoting advertisement and announcement.

I'm officially running for the presidential position for C.I. Club. WHAT? yesh, you have read correctly. I am running for president. Scary right? yar...

Voting will be on THURS 24th AUGUST from 10:30am to 4:30pm at the CS benches area.

Do come down to vote kay? Pls pls pls. :)

*oh-so-unbashful*,
Yong

2006-08-20T15:53:00.000+08:00

I need support, and I don't know if I'll have them.

I'm not having no confidence for myself, but I'm just scared.

Will I have them or will i not?

Random Thought

2006-08-19T06:09:00.000+08:00

Okay, just a sudden random thought.

After "The Store of Memorabilia", maybe the next theatre script I do (if I after gonna do one) will be a slightly more political one. And one sudden thought that came to me after an extremely long chats wif two frens, dealt with the idea of creativity.

Johnny Depp's Jack Sparrow muttered this line after a naval officer could not think of tearing up the corset to let Keira Knightley's drowning character breathe properly in Pirates of the Caribbean: Curse of the Black Pearl: "You probably have not been to Singapore." When he said this, I laughed out loud because I thought it was a political joke about Singaporeans learning creativity through government's effort.

So, anywayz, people have been laughing at Singaporean's government sometimes desperate attempts to change its people, including Singaporeans ourselves. but, hey, it's a bit ironic right? why does Singapore government have to encourage Singaporeans to have creativity anyway? what have we done to encourage the government to force such extreme measures? is the government the total laughing icon in this joke? are we Singaporeans unknowingly laughing at ourselves?

i hate Singapore, but i discovered i hate it because i hate Singaporeans singing the national anthem wrongly and not remembering the actual meaning of the whole song, because i hate Singaporeans laughing ignorantly at themselves, because i hate it when Singaporeans hate everything the government is doing without realizing what they're doing sometimes. i say this not because I'm patriotic, but because I want to be. why shouldn't one hope to be patriotic? i am proud to be a chinese, i am proud to be a hakkian, i am proud to be a gemini, i should really hope to be patriotic one day, and Singapore should be the one before I go somewhere else and discover the place there makes me belong at home more than in Singapore.

*juz-a-lot-going-thru-my-mind*,
Yong

An Announcement (not for anyone in particular)

2006-08-18T23:45:00.000+08:00

"Aiya, me the director say ok la!"

And that was that. My decision to not go for exchange was made. It sounds kind of rushed and un-thought for, but heck, I think I will reduce a lot of paperwork trouble, tho I know I just got myself into a position where I increased the amount of explaining to make.

So now, with that, I've gotten myself into a lot of things.

Full-time directing for hall drama, a possible main committee position in CI Club, the website manager of FUSION radio, and now i'm really reconsidering my decision to take on the publicity of NTU Film Soc. Heck, I really deserve a single room next sem.

No, it's not my desperate attempt at trying to escape from someone. A lot of work just for someone right? so not worth it.

anyway, decision is made, and i cant undo it anymore. all plans done within 2x24=48hrs. i'm amazed at how "efficient" i am... a bit scary too.

i hope for the better, definitely. and i hope i dun regret this decision.

*mmm*,
Yong

I'm Alive?

2006-08-17T12:23:00.000+08:00

Remember that a few weeks ago i was complaining abt me coughing away non-stop? Remember that a few days ago i was talking abt me unable to sleep?

All these things just got worse~! Last night was terrible. Something at the Nanyang Auditorium (where I had my Forensic Science lecture) has become a catalyst in my body and had all the virus working full force, until I can feel any muscles in my body. Gah~ At night, I still have my NTU FS screening and SCI Homecoming to go to. Have to hang in there, trying to tell myself, "I'M NOT SICK I'M NOT SICK".

luckily i have azira's car to drive in, bringing things from my hall to the students activity centre. or else i'll know i'll just die walking on the journey.

wisped off to homecoming and wasnt feeling very conscious. everything i'm doing seemed to be part of my subconscious. you know like when you're drunk, but you still know what's going on around u? then everything that you said were just part of your subconsciousness? yar~ i was having that effect last night.

gah, came back to hall (thanks to azira *again* for driving and keat wei for helping me to carry stuff), had to TRY to activate my muscles to tidy my bed (a lot of things on my bed) and hook up my music. took a DAMN QUICK shower and throw myself on the bed. there was a moment where i really want someone to talk to, and even hoped i've got the energy to get myself seated up in front of my lappy to chat on the msn. wellz, a good friend did call, and after whining a while, i did manage to feel slightly better emotionally. den now, it's time to sleep.

*toss*

*turn*

*toss and turn*

GAH~ why can't i go to sleep? wah lao... the imsonia bug shouldn't be at work now! i'm feeling damn damn bad, I NEED TO SLEEP. den i started listening to music (have to pull myself up to click ITUNES and everything), and den i started singing to myself, and DEN i fell asleep.

skipped 201 lecture this morning. first lecture that i skipped this semester, so early in the sch term. this IS bad...

had no energy to wake up, yet not enough sleeping bug in me to push myself back to dreamland. was just lying on the bed for god-knows-how-long.

THEN i started coughing like nobody's business, and had to keep running to the toilet to puke. gah~ i really want to go to the doctor, but den tinking abt how much money that will cause me, and also about the kind of medicine i'll get. gah~ i'm sure he wouldn't give me anything strong. i might as well save up the energy and try to go for tutorial later, which is much more important.

haiz...

bad, this is bad.

ANYWAY, on a side note, shawn how has to show the video i made for shujing. "Poor jack, so poor until have to pick up 1 dollar coin! You want 1 dollar coin? I give you!" *throw* woah and i remember how painful it is for the 1 dollar coin to hit my back. gosh~

so now, the whole cs108 cohort knows i'm a psycho weirdo who plays with penknives, especially after what I did for fright night for SCI (playing with penknives). i DIDN'T expect shawn how to PLAY that video. -_-"' bah~ i much rather prefer he played MY video i made for 108. urgh~

btw, i just want to make a DISCLAIMER: I'm not a psycho, and I don't have a preference for penknives as a toy. AND i don't make tissue box houses anymore, for the last 14 years at least, thank you.

oh wells, i'll just have to get used to all the weird looks from the freshies (and screams across the canteen courtesy of shannon o_o) and all the requests to reenact what i did for fright night (yea, charmaine, i'm talking abt u -_- ).

but honestly, deep down inside, somehow, felt a bit glad that this happened... hmm... hmm hmm~... hmm hur hur~... hur hur har... har HAH HAH~~ Muuuuaaaaahahahahahahahahahahaha!!!!

*erhmm* sorry, a Dr-Jekyll-&-Mr-Hyde moment. heh.

*drinking-hot-remedy*,
Yong

Hall 2 FOC 2006

2006-08-11T12:18:00.000+08:00

Actually this is the pros of having me in an OG of an FOC as a cameraman. You have me taking pictures for you, then you'll received a nice photoshoped picture of the OG. wahaha~

Hall 2 FOC was, well expectedly, very tiring. interestingly. Ain't seniors (esp seniors-attached) supposedly should have an easier time? gah~ most prob all the sleepless night doing the SP night video make me a tired OLD man. know i know half of how justin felt during the SCI FOC since i'm dealing wif just 30min of footages whereas he's dealing with like... er... 24 times 5? woah... ok, it's not half... maybe it's just like 1/10000000th.

anyway, it was enjoyable being there. there wasn't any much of an interaction between me and my OG (congo) for the first couple of days, and so i was being known as the guy in the weird bandana who happened to be holding a camera snapping happily away on the first day. oh wells, they did get the weird part right. haha. but the later part of the camp, i came to know them better, and became a figure quite prominent in the OG, which to me is a good thing. that's what these kind of camps are for right? to know ppl? haha~

and yea! i've successfully got ppl to call me Ah Yong! whee~

i had the privilege of being one of the few seniors who brought freshies thru the fright night trail walk. YESH~ i wasn't one of the ghosts, sadly. wahahaa~ ain't i pervertic to WANT to be a ghost? wahaha~ but ya, i accompanied a freshie thru the trail and got tripped many times along the way. gosh~ i even got scared at a point when the trash can toppled over, but most prob because my attention was diverted to guessing whether that particular guy shining the torch at his face is jeffrey or not. wahaha.

it's a good experience of being a cameraman actually. honestly, sometimes it allows me time to get away from the OG, cos i guess i'm juz afraid of running short of topics to chit-chat wif the freshies. haha. i'm such a scaredy cat. but yar, as a senior, there's always this obligation to talk to the freshies, get them warmed up, and put their spirits on the high point all the time. seeing the OG's spirit going down sure is demoralizing for the seniors. VERY demoralizing. and sometimes i juz wish to get away from the OG for a while to take a breather and to replenish my energy before going back and hyping their spirits up.

ok, i'm guilty of the following sin! i really am! 2 days after the camp, and i'm already mixing up my SCI FOC OG ppl wif my hall 2 OG ppl!! gosh. during the recruitment fair, i've happily mistaken one of the SCI FOC freshie as one from my hall! gosh!! and i tink he was just being polite without exposing my crime, but after he left, i REVERANTLY realised what sin i've committed!! OMG! i deserve to die!

damn it. i feel so ah pek forgetting so many things. maybe i shud do a check-up on my physical age or my mental health (if not, how come i can forget things so easily?!).

*depressingly-lim-kopi-ing*,
Yong

Wahahah~!

2006-08-10T12:58:00.000+08:00

This is the following that i extracted from someone's blog:

"Hahha NTU damn ulu."

"You go NTU sure your chinese damn kheng. Such a cheena place"

"NUS is vibrant. NTU...hehhehhe"

"NUS orientation has a club night. NTU? You all go coffeeshop ka?"

"You're gonna come home with a China boy!"

"Eh, can intro me to Tammy?" *

"Buy nice clothes for uni? For what? You're going to NTU right?"

"You want to find lelaki in NTU? Er... tak yah introduce ok? NTU quality..."

"NTU damn ulu la. HHAHAH"

"Oh, so you'll be studying in Chinatown."

"N TiU"

"Mr and Ms NUS sponsored by newurbanmale! NTU's must be sponsored by This Fashion."

seriously these are things that are said abt NTU from so many NUS ppl. gosh... u know when u hear these stuff, u only want to giggle... *kekeke* ops, sorry, giggling right at this moment. actually not giggling at how true they are, but how desperate some ppl are at trying to boost their own ego. (i'm excluding medical and law students from this group of egoistic ppl tho, cos they can afford it) tsk tsk... i'm sure all those weird things abt SMU are also come up by the same ppl, cos NTU ppl really dun give a damn. cool~!

not that i FULLY support NTU all the way la. i tell u, the administration here sucks, like how they demolish certain things without coming up with another plan first? they have to scrape off points system and then now they having trouble. stupid ppl at the admin.

but when they have their good points too la, like, PHEW, luckily we do not have the stupid and pointless bidding system (altho we do have the fastest-fingers-first, cue finger gymnastic lessons~! i prefer fff than bidding tho.).

well, dun wanna say too much, cos i dun wanna be slammed, which i probably will be already.

*giggling*,
Yong

PS. hey, i'm not saying ALL students of *erhmm* are, well, like i described la. but if u happen to mention stuff like that in your stupid hall/school cheers before, or have rolled your eyes at NTU students before, shaddap and admit it, you're egoistic.

PS2. yesh, i kena "rolled eyes" MANY times before, when i said i was from NTU.

School Term Starting is Definitely a Disease for Me

2006-08-08T00:56:00.000+08:00

Gah~ My biological clock is like totally toppled once again with school term starting. i dun even know if it's some biological syndrome or something. I swore i got it back on track just before hall camp, now it's done for, it's still set at GO TO SLEEP AT 12NOON and WAKE UP AT 8PM, and NOT SLEEP FOR THE REST OF THE NIGHT. damn it. i shall play penknives for fun for the rest of the night. *kidding*

hall camp was damn tiring, but den, it's not called the SHIONG CAMP for nothin' anyway, juz didnt realise it will apply to seniors as well. ba-ka! i'm still recovering from the lack of sleep, and yet i cant sleep. insomnia (yesh! i finally got that right... no more amnesia) is hitting me right now, and i cant sleep, no matter how tired (and aching too) my body is.

sleep, ah yong, SLEEP!!!!!!

*mindless-rambling*,
Yong

"Kusa-Meikyu" and "The Store of Memorabilia"

2006-07-29T02:24:00.000+08:00

Some of you know I've been working on a script and it's temporarily titled "The Store of Memorabilia". Well, honestly, it's really inspired by a certain episode of an anime which (if i'm famous) I will name it the best anime ever produced. wahaha~

anyway, this particular episode is titled with the same title as a 1979 novel (and 1983 movie) named "Kusa-Meikyu", which when translated means Grass Labyrinth. this is sooo gonna be on one of my hopefully-can-watch list of movies. damn. i doubt i'll be able to watch it.

go search for it. i noticed that episode of the anime has borrowed a few things from there, and interestingly one of it is inside my script as well when I wanted to expand upon a character. i'm now trying to include the other element present in both the anime and the novel/movie.

am i really teasing your appetite? haha~ let's just say I hope my script matches up to half whatever level the anime and the movie is at. watch out for the elements!

oooh~ i so wanna watch my own script being staged. gah!

*going-ga-ga-at-2:28-in-the-morning*,
Yong

A Great Welcome to a New Academic Year...

2006-07-27T23:26:00.000+08:00

... or is it just an illusion.

Heck, i rather think of it as the former. wahaha.

Why? What happened? Just checked my NTU mail and noticed my CS226 instructor sent an email out to all the ppl in the course. here's roughly the email (i've excluded some unimportant or unfunny bits):

Hello,

Thank you for signing for CS226 Desktop Publishing. My name is Kay Chin and I will be your instructor for the course.

First, lets get this sorted out: If you are in the class that meets every Wednesday, you are in CS226 Moriyama. The Friday class is CS226 Araki.

The naming has special meaning but no bearing, it is just my way of not confusing the two sessions. In the past, classes were named Magritte, Dali, Picasso, Dali.

Araki and Moriyama are two of my favorite Japanese photographers, so go figure.

If you have any questions for me about the course, please hold your horses till school starts, unless it is life-and-death.

I am out of town this Friday till August 9, so if you don't hear from me, it means I am having a good time and ignoring you.

See you in school.

kaychin

Cool!

*illusioning-myself*,
Yong

Purposely untitled

2006-07-27T20:45:00.000+08:00

heys, yeok and mu, if you're reading this, i have to say... i'm SOOOO damn terribly sorry that i've missed ur convocation! i only started remembering that u're having it when i saw the news a night ago. I'm so sorry. I really wanted to go and take photos of u two in the convo costume, really!

but haiz, i guess i can't take the photo until the day i have my own convo right? i heard yeok that it's so much more worth it to buy the costume, so now i'm hoping mu u oso went to buy it and have it pack away in a corner of the room. take it out for me on my day kay?

actually, honestly speaking, i felt like i have this obligation to update my blog. dun noe why... somehow there's this tugging feeling within me. and when i start to write in here, i felt like i'm just rambling or uttering nonsensical rubbish that the rest of the world shouldn't even care. haiz.

a week and a few days more to the start of the new school term (avoiding the phrase "reopening of school" cos i know sk will sure to kindly correct me, *winks*), and next week will be filled up with hall camp. am looking forward to the sunday night when us hall-prodigies will be showcasing ourselves.

ah, ok, a little update on what is going on for hall2prod for me. me, i'll still be involved in it, as a scriptwriter and as a co-director (lanzi, i tink, is still trying to get me to drop the "co" bah), giving most of the creative directions for the script since i'm the one who wrote it in the first place. now i'm trying to come up with the actual script, having written 7 out of the supposed 16 scenes already at this point. actually, honestly, the more i write, the more i want to see it staged. weirdly. most probably, because this story has been with me for quite some time since the start of this year bah, and it was inspired by a lot of my favourites (be it anime episode, novel, idol, or song). but, i needed the runaway next year. yes, i call it a runaway, from singapore, from this weird culture that i felt i'm starting to suffocate in.

why weird? actually i never really bothered about this culture thingy before until i went Taiwan. coming back, my view has been quite altered. i tink singaporeans suck. interestingly, i don't dread the government, cos i felt none of the governments on Earth is actually an organization which is near perfect. i dread the people, cos they're the ones who have the government as it is.

for that one week that i drove (in my bro-in-law's car), the things i've seen on the roads just made me confirm what i believe the "Singapore" culture is, thoughts that have seeded in my mind since don't know when, but have bloom into a full grown tree now.

people drive much faster than the speed limit, and blame others for driving just at the speed limit and press their horn untastefully and irritatingly. being scared of accidents and speed (having met a few accidents as a child), i made an effort not to drive beyond the speed limit. if it's 80kmh, then i'll be at 75-80; if it's 90kmh, i'll be at 80-90. what's wrong? i don't occupy the right-most lane (i have a fear of bumping the center kerb), and i really don't swerve my car. yet i kena horned by ppl for no reason. hullo~ if u feel like speeding, i can only be sorry that u're in singapore and not italy. if i'm going by the rules because i have my reasons, u shdnt ACCUSE (yesh, that's the word i'm associating with horning) ppl for doing so.

that's the problem with singaporeans u know. they defy the rules, JUST for the sake of doing it, JUST for the THRILL of doing it. then if anything happens to them, they bitch, they gossip. "Wah, today arh, there's this car on the road that almost hit me leh" "why how come?" "i'm almost late for work and have to rush what, then the stupid red pedestrian lights come on. what u expect me to do? if late again, how? reputation not good leh!"

see see? if u're late, then sorry, but don't expect the rest of the world of cars to give way to u when u ignore the red lights to cross the road u know? dun blame the cars for horning u in this case.

today, i was on 180 back to NTU, den at a t-junction, the bus is waiting to turn right as the pedestrains crossed the road. when the pedestrain light is already flashing and almost turning red, this teenage-boy have to sashay his way onto the road and continue to sashay his way cross the road even when the lights turn red. Wah lao~! hullo boy arh! red lights leh! cannot see arh? have to make all 40 passengers on the bus WAAAAIIITT for u to ENNJJOOOOYYY sashaying cross the road issit? if u need to pee, and HAVE to cross the road, u can quickly cross the road to find a toilet and the earlier u get to release u know? if u're not in the hurry, WHY THE FUCK DO U NEED TO IGNORE THE SIGNS FOR U TO STOP AND MAKE THE WHOLE BUS WAAAAIIIITTT FOREVER FOR YOU HAR? fun arh? SLAP u in the face u know. blardy hell.

i hate blardy immature singaporeans. yee-yer...

er-hmm, luckily i purposely didn't put a title to this post. sorry for letting u all hear my ramblings. paiseh.

*feeling-better-after-blurting-out*,
Yong

PS. those of u who went to the rehearsal with me just now, ops ops, dun worry, i'm not feeling frustrated with u guys. just that this traffic things were getting on my nerves and i've been holding back to say until now. wahaha~ don't worry, u guys are great!

Courtesy of Marcus

2006-07-22T19:00:00.000+08:00

While i try to recover from the headache (not due to the following jokes), enjoy (altho u must prob wudnt):

the sick force is with me...

2006-07-22T17:48:00.000+08:00

After coming back from mahjong cum supper session with buddies (lost $5 btw), i have been having this terrible ache throughout my body and my head feels like Davy Jones' heart, beating all the time. gah~ i'm really falling sick. after a quick shower, collapse myself onto the bed and dozed off. it felt terrible. none of the sleeping felt like deep ones, waking up now and then to cough, and my headache kept striking. had to force my eyes shut and hugged my pillow harder to sleep.

woke up half an hour ago, faced with deciding if i'm going to go home for dinner or stay in hall and slumber again. tink i'm going to take a drive, yea, the advantage of having a car.

tmr lala having sentosa outing, dun noe if i'll be going. wanna go la, but, aiyo~ later the sick force becomes stronger how? i'm not yoda who can feel the force and still kill all the bad guys around him one leh. ok, lame... er...

heck la, see how la... *cough cough*

*finally-sick*,
Yong

PS. sorry to sikeng peeps for not choosing not to go for the equinox thingy, cos there are really other factors involved besides the lame excuse that me money not enough! sorry sorry~ hope u can understand!

Still angry...

2006-07-20T12:38:00.000+08:00

I will not try to tell ppl how happy i still am despite all the happy stuff going on.

end of foc, ktv wif weiyi and frens, meeting up with film soc gang, driving my bro-in-law's car all over the island alone, etc etc.

I should be happy, but i am not. because of one miserable person. and i shall not tell a lie.

if this post should happen to be censored, u all will know, won't u?

*don't-want-to-wake-up*,
Yong

Antagonized...

2006-07-20T12:15:00.000+08:00

I just woke up, and I felt like I'm already being treated like a tool by my 'fren'.

Shall i even call this person 'fren'? When I found out abt the backstabbing, confronted him, and he still won't say anything truthful. I'm stuck wif this guy, and I keep letting him make use of me. for once, i told a lie, and it's a first step towards writing a fullstop in this friendship.

Why can't I just let go? Heck man, sometimes i feel like i just wanna scream to him.

Read this from my other fren's blog:

Impressing People:
When we try to impress people, by proving that we are clever or rich or cool, people can see through us. And then we look silly. We usually impress people when we are not trying to. That is why babies and animals and elderly people are so appealing. They do not care about what you think. They are perfectly natural. Hiding behind a façade and showing people what you are not is apparently not the smartest thing to do – especially when your friends find out who you really are. Lose that pride. Just be yourself. True friends will love you – flaws and all.

This happens to me a lot. Ppl keep telling me abt how nice he is, how helpful he is and stuff like that, but I know these aren't true and he does things in front of ppl whom he's trying to impress. Then i feel like shit when i look like i'm somebody there for him to attach to.

Sure, frens are meant to help each other, but there's a keyword there. WILLINGLY. u shd not EXPECT someone to help u, just because this someone is ur fren, eh? don't take things for grant, for goodness sake. i'm not some Daiso $2 product which u expect to buy already and can expect to serve u a whole lifetime. HECK, even things that u buy oso has either an expiry date or an eventual date where it just goes spoilt.

My 'other' fren's blog oso has this paragraph:

Helping People:
When we try to help others by solving their problems, they become dependent on us, and some grow lazy. The more we help, the less they do. Mostly, we help people by not helping too much.

Don't use us frens like tools and expect us to forgive u (when u don't even say sorry for bothering in e first place too) and be ur fren for lifetime. If the reason behind u having me as a fren is so that i can be ur tool, sorry, i rather move on myself.

Sounds so childish right? but simple logic that kids understand, why can't 20somethings do the same?

Does he know how the real world works? Should I blast out my volcanic lava at him? Heck, writing this on my blog is bad enough. Let's see how he reacts, shall we? And trust me, I will write this down here.

*sick-and-tired*,
Yong

FOC Aftermath Thoughts and Thanks

2006-07-17T02:22:00.000+08:00

FOC is over.

my role as one of the head programmers ended that morning as well. after a whole morning of packing up, i finally get to meet my bed and enjoy its company without any worrying thoughts haunting me anymore. slept from 9am to 8pm, ordered mac delivery for dinner, slept from 11pm to next day 11:30am, woke up, drove home, slept from 4 to 6, went out for dinner, came back, and trying to stay awake a bit more to get myself updated with my online world.

the camp had been difficult. as a freshie last year, it was just plain physically tired. this year, it was both physically and mentally draining, and perhaps even emotionally as well. a roller coaster ride it had been, and somehow, i didn't really appreciate the people contributing to down-factors of it. i'll remember them, yes i will.

for me, i have been thinking why i was able to endure all the stuff and all the shit that was on us when we were the freshies. i was thinking how i can just laugh it off and continue enjoying the camp. i had fun! heck! the whole camp had fun! why didn't some this year? for the organizing committee, we had been trying to tone down a lot of stuff, afraid that things may go a bit overboard. and so, a lot of stuff, like human cluedo, had been like the simplest of most years liao. why were ppl still affected? *gah* you know what? that night, i kept telling my frens about how i felt, because i was really trying to find a reason to why I'd been feeling that way. i felt no sympathy, i felt like i couldn't care less, i felt angry.

nevermind that. i can only say i'm a person who can forgive, but cannot forget.

anywayz, before assumption is made that i hated this camp, i shall say that i did enjoy parts of it.

i enjoyed being in the OG i got myself attached to. their company had been great through the camp. they knew what it meant to have fun and be fun. sometimes they reminded me of dian-si-kee when we just didn't bother abt others and had our own little fun. yar~ i guess sometimes it had to be that way. games we don't enjoy, we forget, we complain, but when there are things that are really fun, we played along and had fun.

thank you Lala for your support too. sometimes hearing u guys "sabo"ing me turned out to be the most comforting sound thru the camp.

thanks a lot to my subcommers and my station masters, esp Shi Si, Weiyi, Renita, Maybel, Sikeng, Victoria. you guys rawk, allowing me to exploit u all, getting u all to suffer my numerous briefings (just to assure myself), and forcing u all to listen to my whinings when i know sometimes you all don't wanna hear them. i guess ShiZi will not be successful without u all. i guess I will not be able to do so well if not for you all too. weiyi, thanks for the food you packed for me. it was great! and the chin chow! omg, i tot i'll never get to eat it that night.

thanks a lot to seniors, like samuel, xunxiang, marcus. sometimes your encouragements/jokes have been energy boasters during days of not-enough-sleep.

thanks a lot to deana. i'm so sorry i couldn't help out in anyway that i can. somehow i felt i suck as a fren when i couldn't give u enough emotional support. but thanks a lot for the friendship and i hope this goes on forever.

thanks a lot to the rest of the main comm. darren, guangzheng & sayheng, for believing in me and allowing me to just do my stuff sometimes, and pushing me to accomplish goals i never thought i had the self-discipline to complete (somehow, that sounded wrong, argh). rongjun, for the numerous pinches. *kidding* u r one of the people i'm glad i get to know better thru foc. esther, for staying up with me before ShiZi to complete the store packing, for the starry-starry-night shit we had to go thru, and for the comforting and stress-relieving chats we had on the van. melvin, for sending me to and fro from my hall and for all the encouragements. val, for just being urself and for all the encouragements we've been giving each other. justin, well, thanks, don't really wanna elaborate, but you should know. haha~

things have come to an end, in an ironic and unexpected way. it's surprising i've moved on so quickly, plunging into another proj right now. i got my rest, i found myself again, so i guessed moving on is only natural.

but i know i'll remember this experience for a long time.

*actually-still-not-enough-sleep*,
Yong

Falling sick...

2006-07-08T05:07:00.000+08:00

I need to post this here as i changed my nick to reflect how i feel at the moment: "Women love us (men) for our defects. If we have enough of them, they will forgive us everything, even our intellects." (Courtesy of Shi Si who gotten it from an Oscar Wilde movie)

It's 5:04am, and i just couldn't sleep. My nose is running like some reservoir dam that has a leak. I feel cold with the fan blowing at me, and yet hot once it faces away from me. My head is spinning like some mad-hatter's cups. Damn...

It's been like many months since i fall sick, argh. Felt like it's coming back with full force. This is so not good. FOC is just around the corner, how to tahan?!

hope everything will turn out fine. waiting for Kaili's sms to tell me about the filming schedule for the weekends. Boon Seng is back! need to get back all my comics from him. *roar*

so sick... (almost wanting to sing Neyo's song)

*blow-nose*,
Yong

Taiwan Trip Day 6

2006-07-07T12:05:00.000+08:00

I have to continue with this! shucks, approximately two and a half more days to go!! gambette...

so, the morning at 阿里山, i was assigned to wake up the earliest and wake the rest of them up. the assigned time was... a freaking 5:30am for me to wake up! but by the time i'm up, the sun was shining in like it was noon time. wow~ it's that bright.

another after a good (and very cold) wash up (it's still around 10 degrees ba), i tried to wake CL up while mic went to wash up. (she's amazingly early in terms of waking up) mic brushing, CL hadn't wake up... *shake shake shake* mic rinsing mouth, CL hadn't wake up... *shake shake shake* mic come out of bathroom, CL slightly woke up, but whiningly refused to get out of blanket... *shake shake shake* mic was back under the blankets waiting for the rest to wake up, CL still whining, hp woke up and went to wash up... *shake shake shake* hp came out, CL still refusing to get up... Me took out my camera and started taking a video of him whining... which sounded sometime like a cow moo-ing and a pig being slaughtered... i shant put the video up.

yeok oso the same. i shall say like bf like gal...

anyway, we went to have breakfast at the hotel's designated restaurant. 5 min after we arrived there (in full sleepy mode), all the ah tiongs came. they were rowdy, noisy and inconsiderate. if singapore was ranked 45th on the consideration list, i tink this particular country will rank even lower. they were demanding and irritating, ordering extra food and scolded the restaurant owner for charging them (as if she shouldn't). very bad attitude. destroyed a very nice cold peaceful morning.

went to walk the trails of 阿里山. initially it was damn nice, seeing the old railway and taking photos in the forests. it's quite serene. 阿里山 has lots of streams, and they flow quite gently, like a very nice picture you see in chinese restaurants, but it's all real. damn, everywhere i turn, i see pictures and pictures. i swear if zhang yimou see this, he will want to include 阿里山 as one of his scenes in one of his wuxia movies.

we met a couple of 高雄 aunties (they're actually a mother and a daughter), den we started talking and she recommended us to change our plans to go to 高雄 immediately that afternoon. true la, after walking so long, there isn't much else to do on top of this "stranded" mountain. anyway, we still wanted to finish walking around 阿里山 first.

just when we were admiring the scenery from a certain bridge and breathing in the fresh air... *choke choke choke* wa lao!! the ah tiongs came by and they were smoking! speaking loudly! totally ruining the environment! damn man! argh!! i really hate ah tiongs at this point of time. FIRST TIME EVER IN MY LIFE! i hate them. yeekz...

anyway, in the late morning, we packed our stuff, got some snacks and bought our tickets to the 嘉義 train station to go to 高雄. nothin' much la. just that at this point of time, i got a bit irritated by one of the 高雄 aunties.

we took a very 老-kok-kok train to 高雄, which took million of years to reach our destination. it was like the most common public train service, and it's cheap too. because it was around afternn time, so there were A LOT of students squeezing on the train.

that's when i discovered that the train seats can turn 180 degrees! woah... 老-kok-kok train oso has interesting functions one.

we reached 高雄 and then quickly found a hotel, checked in, and went out for dinner. we were that hungry. anyway, didn't take much photos, cos i was pretty tired, and also becos i was busy buying food eating. haha... because after finishing a formal dinner at a Yoshinoya-look-alike (which also sells jap food, but taste much better!), we went to the night market which is more like a food street. i just kept buying food i havent seen and eating and eating and eating! i swear i ate much more that night than any other days since i was born! u have to message me personally to know what i ate. woah...

after eating, we decided we want to ktv. yeok and jh went mad while we were searching for the ktv. they started singing weird songs that normal 20+ dun sing.

took lotsa videos while we were ktv-ing, but better not put here. they're all pretty disgracing. wahahah~ ktv in taiwan is pretty much the same la, just that they dun use hanyu-pinyin to organize the songs, so it's pretty difficult for a singaporean to search for a song there. and they do not utilize the remote control fully, which made things very difficult. oh wells, the idea of free-flow plain water and a suite-attached bathroom is good enough for me. ;)

by the time we reached back in hotel, it's already 4am, or is it later? can't remember. tried watching tv, but tink i concussed after 10 min... *zzz*

[to be continued]... hopefully very soon too!

Gonna be another busy night...

2006-07-06T16:53:00.000+08:00

i've been waking up at 4pm everyday until i have to squeeze all my appointments within the night. but tonight's gonna be different! yea! going boozing wif CS peeps. actually it's gonna be quite a sad event. Lee Wai Peng (My research department lecturer) is leaving, haiz, 1 less reason for me to select comm research as my division. then again, it's gonna be my second choice only anyway.

gonna get ready my camera, my map (i tink i'll get lost, i hate that part of the city), and everything. oh oh~ need to meet a freshie to pass her the cinderalla slipper. haiz, too bad they can't get to meet Lee Wai Peng.

oh oh~ i got a junior who is coming in! surprisingly right?! woah... he's my junior from my junior class in hwa chong! whee~~

*all-energetic*,
Yong

Bye bye bye!

2006-07-06T03:18:00.000+08:00

In response to recent events, I've decided to change my blogskin. SGJ has quite a number of meanings now for me. heh~ Anyway, a thought crossed my mind today, it would be interesting if my "performing name" becomes "John Yong". mmm... John from Johnson, and it sounds like my Zheng oso... heh... i must be darn weird... what performing name sia?

So, now that i have my new blogskin... so long, old one! you may not be greatly missed, but i'll remember you. In tribute:

*moving-on*,
Yong

Looking into the future...

2006-07-03T05:20:00.000+08:00

These recent weeks saw me looking heavily into my past, perhaps due to my scripting process, especially since the script is about memories and stories. I was looking into the various stories that happened ever since i was a kid until now, what they have taught me and how i learned to see a more optimistic future by reliving and recalling memories.

Pretty philosophical right? haha... go watch Hall 2 Drama Production next year. shud be either 3rd or 4th of February 2007 ba, and most prob oso at Jubilee Hall... mark it down. thank you. :)

but on a serious note, sometimes when i get down to being all nostalgic and depressed, somehow at one point or another, i'll gain quite an amount of energy to actually bounce myself back to what I'm doing, suddenly being very optimistic at things. i guess that is what is special about me bah, being able to find courage and peacefulness in the most contrasting things ever possible.

so, I see myself in 1 yr's time, still in school, but somehow, the word 'stuck' is not there. i'm looking forward to a very different academic year indeed.

firstly, if u managed to catch my nickname for the past one week or so (until weizong forced me to change my nick just now and shi si came up wif a quote for me to put), yes, i was 'having a crush on susan lai!'. pls don't be mistaken, susan lai is my school's admin in charge of helping students, especially during the period of subject registration. and she personally helped me in the most cutest and most sincere way that i've ever since in my whole entire life! so yupz! thanks to her, i got everything i wanted, including every single module, and every single slot that i planned. actually must oso thank weizong la, he told me that i just have to 'coordinate with the server timing' to press "register subject", so i set my laptop's timing in time and accurate to the very second with the school's server. that's how i did it. whee~!

so, how's my timetable? here it is:

What? You call this good??

Why? oh, u mean all the holes in between the lessons arh? haha~ u're talking to Mr Zhang Zhengyong here, whose mind definitely cannot wake up at 8:00am in the morning. most prob i'm expecting a 'B-' for that particular module CS201 liao. shit la, who ever put the two slots there must be brainless...

my experience in the first two sems tot me something abt me la. first sem, my timetable was similar to this, having a lot of holes in between, but i discovered i totally love it, since i can go back to hall and take a nap before the next lesson. it helps also because if there are certain things that need to be done before the lesson i can finish it in time for it.

the second sem, i tried squeezing quite a number of tutorials in between lectures, and the result is hell. when my mind tries to concentrate copying down notes for a lecture or two, it gets very tiring to continue for tutorials, especially if my day started off at 8am. and because of that, i tend to skip quite a number of lectures and tutorials that fall consecutively one after another. wah, my grades drop lor. thanks to that.

So, yupz, this time round, i'm going to plan it juz like my first sem, leaving spaces for me to nap. wahaha, i wonder what i'll do if i don't have hall next time.

Next up, i'm really looking forward to all the practicum modules. did i mention that my england not very the powderful arh? you ask me write 1000 words, i tell u, 1000 words all toking dun noe wut kok sia one la~? sia la~ jiak lak sia~ u ask me to click click here and press press there, wa, i tell u, somehow my brain can function better with buttons.

so i'm really hoping this semester will help pull up my GPA oso. and hopefully i get project mates just like my previous sems where we can all clique together. ;)

The second half looks exciting, cos... well, it will be exciting. i can't really disclose much... but i think half the ppl who read this will know exactly what i mean. i dun wan to disclose cos i dun wan someone to find out, and i'm sure that person will do something if word gets to that person. yee~ so... no! i'm not saying anything... *mmmm* but it's gonna be very exciting for me indeed. i was pretty surprised that my mum was pretty supportive and my dad was... well... financially-supportive as well, but i guess i was just being lucky.

Anyway, the whole year will look exciting because one part of my life will change VERY drastically. my time management will change VERY drastically as well due to this. as for whether it's going to be changed for the better or for the good, it remains to be seen. scary huh? yar... hopefully i dun remain fat with less walking.

i don't really want to see myself in 3 to 4 years' time. i dun noe what will happen too. sometimes i wish for something to happen, but it doesn't, and it's really pretty depressing. and even if i'm going to put myself into a time after 3 or 4 years, it's too little time for big goals in life, yet too much time for short term goals. so i shant go there. i'll figure out along the way i hope.

it's 6am in the morning. finally i've penned down my thoughts. somehow it's sort of a relief, dun ask me why, it's just a feeling... :)

*waiting-to-feel-sleepy*,
Yong

Hopefully in the near future...

2006-07-02T22:39:00.000+08:00

Remembered that one of my birthday wish is...

A green Kia Picanto?

Now, it has become a...

A polar silver Kia Rio!

*waiting-happily*,
Yong

I'm Taking A Day Off

2006-06-30T07:02:00.000+08:00

argh~~ somehow, i am feeling like there's no energy in my body. I feel like just taking a day off from everything that I'm doing, even tho they are things that I myself wanted to accomplish willingly initially.

i felt drained of ideas, of creative juices. I felt like my brain just wans to shut down for a while.

and the way things are going in my life, it sure isn't helping too. bah~

am stuck between my parents, am stuck between what i wanna do and what i should do (in fact i can't differentiate them anymore), am stuck between what i must do and what i feel like doing.

don't understand? never mind... it's really just a rambling session...

*gah~*,
Yong

KT Tunstall - The Black Horse and the Cherry Tree

2006-06-24T00:22:00.000+08:00

No offence, i totally love pixar's short "One Man Band", but this is the real thing... Actually, this should rather be called... "One Woman Band" Don't understand? jus watch... ;)

Artist: KT Tunstall
Album: Eye To The Telescope
Year: 2005
Title: Black Horse & The Cherry Tree

Two, three, four

(woo-hoo,woo-hoo)
(woo-hoo,woo-hoo)

Well my heart knows me better than I know myself
So I'm gonna let it do all the talking.
(woo-hoo,woo-hoo)
I came across a place in the middle of nowhere
With a big black horse and a cherry tree.
(woo-hoo,woo-hoo)

I felt a little fear, upon my back
I said don't look back, just keep on walking.
(woo-hoo,woo-hoo)
When the big black horse that looked this way,
Said hey lady, will you marry me?
(woo-hoo,woo-hoo)

But I said no, no, no,no-no-no
I said no, no, you're not the one for me
No, no, no,no-no-no
I said no, no, you're not the one for me

(ooooo,woo-hoo)

And my heart had a problem, in the early hours,
So I stopped it dead for a beat or two.
(woo-hoo,woo-hoo)
But I cut some cord, and I shouldn't have done that,
And it won't forgive me after all these years
(woo-hoo,woo-hoo)

So I sent her to a place in the middle of nowhere
With a big black horse and a cherry tree.
(woo-hoo,woo-hoo)
Now it won't come back , cause it's oh so happy
And now I've got a hole for the world to see
(woo-hoo,woo-hoo)

But it said no, no, no,no-no-no
I said no, no, you're not the one for me
No, no, no,no-no-no
Said no, no, you're not the one for me

(ooooo,woo-hoo) (not the one for me, yeah)
(ooooo,woo-hoo)
Said no,no, no,no, no, no, no
You're not the one for me
Said no,no, no,no, no, no, no
You're not the one for me

Big black horse and a cherry tree
I can't quite get there cause they've all forsaken me
Big black horse and a cherry tree
I can't quite get there cause they've all forsaken me

Happy Birthday To Me

2006-06-15T04:37:00.000+08:00

Happy Birthday to Me
詞曲: 張正勇

一年就這樣過去	Happy birthday to me
後悔還來不及	Happy birthday to me
獨自面對蜡燭吹熄去	Happy birthday to me
又一滴淚吞進心裡我告訴自己要走下去

為何希望總會推我前進
卻在落空的時候讓我痛心
生日應該開心  心靈卻如此空虛

勸自己將不愉快的全忘記
記憶卻更加清晰
Happy birthday    Happy birthday to me

為何希望總會推我前進
卻在落空的時候讓我痛心
生日應該開心  心靈卻如此空虛

年復一年只能等待下去
希望快樂終究會來臨
Happy birthday    Happy birthday to me

Completed 15th June 2006 by 張正勇

Taiwan Trip Day 5

2006-06-14T03:18:00.000+08:00

I think because all of us slept quite late the previous night, we woke up pretty late that morning. I tink it was the morning that CL and I overslept past our meeting time. haha~

finally woke up and dragged ourselves out for breakfast, which is the famous 永和豆漿 (Yong He Soya Milk). The service was pretty bad in this particular outlet in 嘉義, but i dismissed it as an assumption that the owner's face was bornt to be fierce-looking, and that she did not like to talk much. The Soya Milk was interestingly mixed with 米漿, making it pretty much richer, but for me, it lost the original nice soya taste which i liked a lot. The 油條 was quite huge, but it was ok, oily and salty, tasting pretty much like what we have in Singapore.

after the breakfast, we went back to hotel to pack our stuff to check out and go to 阿里山. by the time we checked out, the sky started pouring again. according to the tv (we watched a lot of news in taiwan), the hurricane pearl has just reached the straits between taiwan and china, and so it's hitting full force at taiwan now. sounds pretty scary huh? there were even images of how the waves were rushing in, sweeping away tables and chairs in 高雄, which reminded me of the footages during the tsunami.

upon reaching the train station, we learnt that all train and bus services to 阿里山 were terminated due to the danger of the hurricane. but we booked hotel up in 阿里山 liao, paid liao, how not to go! anyway, i sure did not wan to miss out on all the 阿里山的姑娘 who are supposedly 美如水. haha~ so we took a taxi up.

the lucky us managed to get a 7-seater taxi, and we all squeezed into it and got ourselves up 阿里山. the trip wasn't easy. the roads were windy and long (the journey took around 4 hours, or issit 5?) and there were falling stones from the cliffs onto the road. but we could really tell that the driver was really skillful and safe in his driving. he drove pretty fast altho it was windy, and whenever he had the chance he would overtake, but he would always sound his horn to warn incoming traffic from the opposite direction. then, he really kept to his own lane during turns, which a lot of Genting taxis do not do. the bad thing was that because he was driving so fast and there were so much windy turns and rocks, the trip was both sway-ish and bumpy.

i couldn't really sleep and had to force myself to shut my eyes while my head kept bumping onto the window, others tried to too. by the time we reached our hotel up in 阿里山 (around 2plus or 3pm), yeok had 暈車 while the rest of us were nearly half dead. plus! the weather was DAMN COLD! even tho we had our jackets on, we could still feel the chilling wind biting our skin. we learnt later that it was only around 10 degrees Celsius. woah! goodness heavens...

anyway, it was so cold, we didn't feel like going out at all, so after dis-baggage-ing, we crawled into the cold blankets, had our not-bad lunch (packed food from the foot of 阿里山) and watched tv. the signals were pretty bad due to the weather, and we could only receive a handful of weird channels. we watched a traffic channel (telling u which expressway is jammed and so on, and quite frequent updates on the hurricane news) and later a certain drama show starring 伊能靜. Halfway thru the 伊能靜 show, most of us fell asleep, including me.

i woke up at arnd 8pm i tink. by that time, the rest of them were awake liao. CL and yeok even went out to reckee the place. we got ourselves dressed (not that we were undressed, just that we need to put on more clothes! it was freaking cold...), and brace the coldness in search of... dinner!

we found a little restaurant and i was appointed to order the dinner. and we had... 石頭火鍋!! haha... i always have this fantasy about eating 火鍋 on a very cold night, and i really was living my fantasy that night. the 火鍋 comes with in a package with side dishes and stuff, so there's actually quite a lot of food. the warmness from both the 火鍋 and the company made the night pretty enjoyable... only if we were breathing smoke... eh... wait...

*hoof hoof* I WAS BREATHING SMOKE! woah! the temperature suddenly dropped outside, and because the restaurant door was left open and i was sitting closest to the door, i felt the cold and started breathing smoke!! WHOOT! wah~ i was *hoof*ing and *hoof*ing and the rest follow suite as well.

after dinner, we decided to have our second supper feast, and went to the nearby convenience store. besides the food and drinks, also bought beer and peanuts. woah~

remembered sleeping quite late even tho a bit tipsy. woah, discovered hp is quite a drinker. ;) the day was pretty relaxing and managed to take the day off to catch up on the sleep. guess we needed it for the second half of the trip.

[to be continued]...

The Shawshank Redemption

2006-06-13T23:36:00.000+08:00

Just watched The Shawshank Redemption. It's been on my watching list for a while and tot i ought to be getting it after last night's drama-and-action-packed The Negotiator.

For those who didn't know the existence of this movie, here's a little synopses from movies.yahoo.com: Andy Dufresne (Tim Robbins), a mild mannered New England banker, is convicted of murdering his wife and her lover. Despised at first by the other inmates because of his introverted manner, Andy slowly forges an unlikely friendship with Red (Morgan Freeman), a seasoned lifer and his gang. Soon, Andy also becomes popular with the prison guards, including the vicious Captain Hadley who offers him protection against the jail's rougher convicts in exchange for financial counseling. The prison warden also takes advantage of Andy's banking knowledge by exchanging privileges for creative bookkeeping. Over a twenty year period, Andy is able to maintain his sanity and dignity in prison not by physical force but by mental force. His smarts and confidence keep him going and he is able to teach the other prisoners that hope is the ultimate means of survival.

The following scene was set in the hearings room, where a parole board decide if a prisoner with a life sentence gets to be free again. Before this scene, the character Red has entered this room twice for his parole rejected with his oh-so-cliche "Yes, I'm a changed man! Oh yes, I'm sure ready for the society... blah blah blah...". This is his third time.

274;            AN IRON-BARRED DOOR 274

               slides open with an enormous CLANG. A stark room beyond. CAMERA PUSHES through. SIX MEN AND ONE WOMAN sit at a long table. An empty chair faces them. We are again in:

INT -- SHAWSHANK HEARINGS ROOM -- DAY (1967)

               Red enters, sits. 20 years older than when we first saw him.

MAN #1: Your file says you've served forty years of a life sentence. You feel you've been rehabilitated?

               Red doesn't answer. Just stares off. Seconds tick by. The parole board exchanges glances. Somebody clears his throat.

MAN #1: Shall I repeat the question?

RED: I heard you. Rehabilitated. Let's see now. You know, come to think of it, I have no idea what that means.

MAN #2: Well, it means you're ready to rejoin society as a--

RED: I know what you think it means. Me, I think it's a made-up word, a politician's word. A word so young fellas like you can wear a suit and tie and have a job. What do you really want to know? Am I sorry for what I did?

               Long silence.

MAN #2: Well...are you?

RED: Not a day goes by I don't feel regret, and not because I'm in here or because you think I should. I look back on myself the way I was... a stupid kid who did that terrible crime...wish I could talk sense to him. Tell him how things are. But I can't. That kid's long gone, this old man is all that's left, and I have to live with that.

               (beat)

RED: Rehabilitated? That's a bullshit word, so you just go on ahead and stamp that form there, sonny, and stop wasting my damn time. Truth is, I don't give a shit.

               The parole board just stares.

I'll leave the ending of this scene for those who will be watching this film.

*quite-inspired*,
Yong

Taiwan Trip Day 4

2006-06-13T00:59:00.000+08:00

after a great breakfast, it started pouring again. Still, the shop owner offered to drive us to 九族文化村, and the best part was that it's totally free. we offered to pay but she rejected. omg, she's really really nice.

In 老板娘's van

九族文化村

I tink those who went to taiwan for ASLC shud have been here. it's an amusement park cum exhibition, much like a cross between our singapore's Escape Theme Park and Haw Par Villa. at the entrance is the amusement park with rides and stuff, then as u walk further upslope (into the clouds!) there are different made-up 村 (villages) to educate foreigners and travellers on the different villages that make up Taiwan and their various characteristics. at each village, there are shops selling the most significant produce of that village, like hand-woven items, wine, etc. it's pretty educating and fun, and even more fun if it wasn't raining and the cable car was working (it's closed for annual maintainence! bah!).

At the entrance

It's raining, and all of us were avoiding the puddles by walking along the side

The various made-up villages (no one's living in them fyi)

The girls learning hand-weaving using the simple manual machine

Us wearing the products from the shop at the hand-weaving village called 泰亞族村

Good packaging sells. Each of us bought at least two of these.

Breath-taking view at the top of the tower at the highest point of the whole theme park

There are also shows (like the Jurong Bird Park show) and it was pretty good, especially how a certain tribe holds its weddings. The bride will be holding onto a rope dangling from a very tall celling and the groom will have to swing the bride until the bride is almost like parallel to the ground surface. woah~

after a whole half day (from morning until around 2pm) of walking, we had lunch at the amusement park, played a few rides (the 2-storey carousel was intrigingly fun for a bunch of 20somethings) and left for 台中. we waited at a bus stop outside the park, and there were lots of... mosquitoes. i tried to write my journal there, but gave up half way. the girls started dancing salsa to avoid being stung by mosquitoes, a ridiculous but effective method.

Me, trying to write a journal with a screw-up face

Great skyviews and scenaries on the bus to 台中

When we reached 台中 (very long bus ride), it was night time, and everyone was still not awake. but on the first sight of it, the first impression was it's pretty gloomy, not much life. and the bus stopped us at a point very far away from our destination in 台中 but very close to the train station. tinking that the only thing we're gonna do here was to 逛夜市 (shop night markets), we decided to forego this city and go directly to 嘉義.

Our train trip to 嘉義, our first maiden train trip in Taiwan

The train trip was a bit uncomfortable, not saying the quality of the train. the train was GOOD! the seats were really like those in airplanes! juz that i was sitting beside a taiwanese and we all knew he happened to be eavesdropping on our conversation ever since we waited at the train station. on the train, he seemed to be very responsive to everything i do, be it, eating something, taking out something from my bag, or me writing my journal (i swore he was reading while i was writing)

嘉義, on first impression, was definitely more 'happening' than 台中. the shops were still open and the streets were still full of ppl. we roamed around trying to find a hotel and we settled for a less-sleezy one (tho the name still... well... it's the best of all liao~)

嘉義夜市

we went to the night market, and wow, it's pretty happening. the traffic WAS happening too. cars and motorbikes were supposedly not allowed to enter the area, but nobody cared, so while u were standing by the road buying ur favourite snack, a motorbike may brush by your back anytime. scary but wildly exciting.

i saw a jacket i liked (mentioned in 'My Wish/Buy List' entry... see below), but it costed S$64 (NTD$1280). it happened to be only our fourth day and i had not really started spending yet, so i did not buy it. a bit regretting that, but hey, nvm. ;p

we started having the courage to try out new food, tho strictly speaking the item i tried is available in Singapore. but, HEY, i really NEVER seen it in Singapore before and i tot it was exciting... what is it? it is...

脆皮濃湯!! (Crispy Bun Soup!!)

脆皮濃湯 consists of a crispy (really really crispy) bread-bun stuck on top of a styrofoam cup of soup. how u eat? u use a spoon, puncture the top and part of the bun u've punctured will drop into the soup below. then, u scoop up the soaked piece of bun (and some of the soup) with the spoon and send it into your mouth while it's all warm and cosy. woooah~ i liked that feeling!

we walked and walked until the shops were all closed. bah~ had to end a day with us still energetic. watched 康熙來了 on taiwan TV and became a fan of it. wahaha~

[To be continued]...

My Mood Now

2006-06-12T03:16:00.000+08:00

It's a few more days to the golden day, and i'm not really having that mood now... u know, ppl sometimes get all excited, but somehow i dun really know how to put my mood. when ppl ask like "hey, ur bday coming, how u feeling? how u celebrate?" a honest reply is that "dun have the celebrating mood, how to celebrate?", but being the polite me, i have been going "haha, no la, not really celebrating..." i did give a few cheeky replies like "getting older than 21 liao, shud celebrate meh?" or "last year enuf liao! no more parties!"

hasn't been really having good sleeping patterns. a few days ago, i had lost all appetite, making myself stuck in hall and sleeping at weird irregular hours like 6am to 3pm and 8pm to 12midnight... a good fren told me i am having mild depression and that i shud seek help soon. i'm not sure if i disagree, heck, i tink i was like, yar! i shud! i hate this feeling! i hate getting all anti-social and no mood to work.

and so, these few dayz i've been trying to pull myself out into the sunlight. so far, met up wif sis, yh, and a bunch of other frens. it did help a bit, but whenever i get back home/hall, the feeling's always very bad, like suddenly lost something. what did i lose? i dun exactly know.

i will like to say it's like post-holiday-trip syndrome, but... dun noe, i really hope to go on a trip damn soon. i noticed i had been having good appetite everyday while i was overseas, even tho sometimes it got me very tiring and very very sleepy, but i will have to eat. it's not a conscious effort to eat, mind u, juz that, i wanted to eat. that's very weird of me, not something i will do back in singapore, and definitely not i am doing now.

i suddenly recalled one year back that two person i know past away, and the fact struck me so suddenly that i hadn't even been able to digest it. it's like... i dun noe... i still can't believe they were out of my lives for one year already? that long?

some ppl are so not helping me. i hate trivial chats nowadays, unless they're really entertaining and funny. like how england's three points in world cup was not their own effort in the first place at all, this was damn funny. others were bland and trivial and makes me hate these ppl even more... i guess it shows sometimes, and i wud be like not smiling while they were clocking up time with these conversations. it really irritates u really... like "wow, i totally enjoyed my shopping spree today! i bought this this this and that that that..." "i got this amazing t-shirt cos it's like got patterns i dun hav in my wardrobe?" "harlow, fashion is the world and the world revolves around fashion"... sheesh... i feel like turning myself into edna mode and smack them with my roll of newspaper (see The Incredibles).

at the end of all this, i really hope i can either shout out loud or scream. maybe i shud go for a cycling trip tmr.

*pointlessly-depressed*,
Yong

My Wish/Buy List

2006-06-11T01:12:00.000+08:00

It's the GSS ("Great Singapore Sale" for the less-informed), and I am really really tempted to get some stuff... Walking past shops and shops with the word "Sale" in them is not really helping my financial pressure sometimes. haha~ and since that time of the year is coming, oh my god, the resistance to really get my frens to buy me these stuff is really thinning. haha~ and sheesh, i really do sound very materialistic and superficial here, don't i?

i've actually come up with a list for myself to pressure myself into working some temp jobs, but not really helping, so i'm still pretty much jobless. but i guess i'll be saving up some money for these items. anyway, by the time i have enuf money for these, i tink my b-day will be over, so i've put this same list as my b-day wishlist as well la. haha~

anyway, for those who's trying to read my mind to learn what i really wanna get for that special day for me, well, here it is (in order of price):

Sinful Birthday Wish #1: Clothes

I'm really hoping to buy a plain white shirt, simple enuf to go with a jeans, yet has that formal look for a wedding dinner or perhaps a dinner-and-dance thingy. i've been looking around, and the cheapest one is actually from man-studios, $19, but got a bit of pattern which i don't really like. still looking around. the next cheapest is $30 liao... haiz...

and i need some new colours and life in my wardrobe as well. hoping to get something orange (not electric orange, but still striking enuf), or yellow (i've got nil yellow wardrobe items), or ... dun noe la.

Sinful Birthday Wish #2: A Coat Jacket

during my taiwan trip, i notice a lot of youngsters there wear t-shirts and a coat, most often accessorized with a dog tag or something dangling from the neck. it's so simple, hip, yet formal at the same time. i almost got this coat in taiwan with a detachable hood, which worked very well as a normal jacket on normal lecture days, yet will work damn well with a t-shirt during d-n-d. it's S$60 and i'm afraid it will offset my spenditure in taiwan, so i didn't get it. argh argh~ how i wish i did.

now back in Singapore, i'm looking around the town for something similar. i did saw something but they cost like... $100+. bah!

Sinful Birthday Wish #3: DVD burner

my trusting sony dvd burner just failed me a month back, and i couldn't burn any dvds, and that's pretty sad, considering the number of files i need to backup recently. argh~ it's terrible and i had to go around scouting for (and troubling) ppl with dvd burners to help me.

i need a dvd burner. a portable one is even better. haha~

Sinful Birthday Wish #4: Zen Neeon 512MB

my mp3 player spoilt last week. i was so damn sad! it's depressing, totally! now all my mrt/bus trips, i have to survive on books, and reading books on transport is totally dizzifying... if u know wut i mean. urgh! i NEED an mp3 player. this is my ULTIMATE BUYING PRIORITY #1!

that day i saw the Zen Neeon 512MB selling at S$198 at Raffles Place Shopping Centre, omg, i was damn damn tempted! (exclamation marks x millions) i need it, i want it! it's damn nice, damn cool! i don't want any other brands (except perhaps an i-pod). this looks totally worth it, and peeps, i'm a sucker for creative stuff (probably becos their servicing centre's service is pretty fast). please please please!! i need an mp3 player!

Sinful Birthday Wish #5: Kia Picanto

one year has past, and my driving license is like 2.5 years old, and i still maintain that i hope i get a car for my birthday. and i know it's impossible to get me a Honda, not to even mention Mercedes, so i'm happy still with a Kia Picanto. definitely still the lime green colour. i still love it. yesh. even if u can't pay the full fees for the car, helping me pay the deposit and let me finish the installments by myself is equally good. wahahaha~ i must be mad...

tho, assemble-able toy cars do work well with me now, even if u cant afford a Kia Picanto for me right now.

Sinful Birthday Wish #6: Any movie membership to allow me to watch unlimited movies

I've been watching SO MUCH movies recently, that i feel so sinful. M:i:III, The Da Vinci Code, X-Men 3, Love Story (local prod), Over The Hedge, Cars, damn! almost every movie that I wanna watch, I've watched, and hell, i spent a lot of money of them as well! bah! i need a pass...

Sinful Birthday Wish #7: any frens who remember (or know) my birthday to msg me 'happy birthday' on the golden day

it's interesting how a simple 5 cents thingy can mean so much to me, and really, this is totally priceless, hence it shall be the last on my list. not on my buying list la, only exclusively on my b-day wishlist. shall be clearing my mailbox everyday now, for that golden day. wahaha~

if u hum to me a certain song which i wished for everyone to sing at my party last year (it didn't happen), wow~ i'll just scream and faint on the spot. now, that's priceless for you. haha~ go search my archives to see what that certain song is. muahaha~

Of course, there are still things i don't really want to buy (or receive):

1) Pants (i've enuf pants)
2) CDs (er, get-able from frens. heh~)
3) DVDs (rentable)
4) Watches (got two now, courtesy of my frens, and a bit too not-worth-it i guess)
5) Shoes (mmm... tink i've enuf shoes for my mum to call me materialistic bitch liao)
6) Books (i got my sis' house as my new library, heh)
7) Doraemon figurines (wah, bought a lot from taiwan)

haha~ realized both my lists have 7 items. it's totally coincidental. oh wells. that's all i have to say until that golden day comes.

*taking-a-break-from-blogging-about-taiwan-which-i-still-have-lots-to-talk-about*,
Johnzzon

Taiwan Trip Day 3

2006-06-09T09:58:00.001+08:00

after 2 days in Taipei, we finally moved out to go to other areas of Taiwan. This is our first time, so it was pretty exciting, carrying our full backpacks on our backs as we got ourselves to the bus terminal.

the bus we were going to take is not public buses actually. technically, well, they are, but they are more like tour buses in Singapore that travel to Kuala Lumpur or Ipoh. Think 草原快車. ya. except that their counters (for purchasing tickets) look at freaking airport check-in counters.

woah~ ok la. this is because the terminal is new, that's why it looks freaking nice. we were supposed to go to the counter, tell the counter where is our destination, and den they will recommend which timings to take and so on, pretty much like the airport. then, on the tickets that you buy, you'll know what is the timing and where to go to to board your bus. cool huh?

In the full backpacking spirit

the bus was very good as well, comes with tv. the only thing lacking is meals, but we bought 便當 for lunch on the way, which tastes great. it's amazing how cheap stuff in Taiwan can taste great at the same time.

oh yar, i haven't talk about our destination, 日月潭 (Sun Moon Lake). it's a preserved lake, like a national reserve. anyway, after the disappointing 漁人碼頭, i wasn't really expecting much though, thinking it's just another of those tourist sight-seeing. Being a typical Singaporean, well, tourist sight-seeing locations aren't very attractive and mostly reminds me of the Singapore Zoo.

the journey there was freaking long. initially i tried to stay awake and admire the scenary as the fields there are really vast and 遼闊, and also to chit-chat wif JH, but after a while (especially after boring hong kong films on the tv), i fell asleep...

...and when i woke up...

... it was raining quite a bit, but when i looked out of the window, woah~ a great lake was in sight and the gloomy sky made the whole picture very... is 'serene' the word? the whole picture was grayish, and you really cant see the left or right edges of the lake, making it like a great magnificent dragon sleeping. and immediately the first sound that came out of my mouth was...

FWAH!

yesh! i 'fwah'-ed very very loudly! i tink even the bus driver and other taiwan passengers got a shock from my 'fwah'. my frens all laughed out loud sia~ so paiseh!

after we checked into our 飯店, the rain stopped and we went out for a walk around the lake. woah, the view of the lake while standing at the edge of it was... breathtaking!

Just have to take panaroma for this! Look how small yeok and cl are inside the pic!!
Do click to enlarge and enjoy the full magnificent picture!

日月潭 is a very secluded area, not much ppl are here. it's like 桃花園 you know, even the 飯店 owners havent been really heading to town for years. they are damn courteous and nice as i chit-chatted wif them that night.

anyway, back to that afternoon... we walked arnd part of the lake (the whole lake wud take days~!) and everything here is pretty much very countryside, as u can see in the pictures:

This one's for display, but there's a really working one as we walked further

as we walked, we could hear the water ripples padding softly on the lakeshore; the leaves rustling lightly with the wind blowing. woah~ it's like a total zen environment. i wished i could be here to study for my semestral exams everytime!

we walked back to the little town after that, and it started raining again. after having dinner, we went back to hotel, praying for the rain to stop so that we could go see fireflies.

wait... wait... wait... and woah, our prayers were answered.

it was pretty scary, cos on the way, the locals kept telling us it's very dangerous and advised us not to go. but the craving to see fireflies was so strong, nothin was stopping us. and anyway, most of us brought torchlights too. (we're damn clever, aren't we? wahaha~)

it was night and it was pretty dark already at 9something. we walked up this slope and followed a trail without any street lights, so we really had to rely on our torchlights. and suddenly, in the distance we caught a single firefly floating around in the air above us. it was pretty eerie, but nice. kinda reminds me of my firefly experience in ubin, except this is more ghostly... haha... as we walked deeper into the woods, we saw more, and the gals were thrilled. ok, so was i too. it was kinda nice to see a whole bush full of twinklings. :)

sorry no pictures. this blogger bo skill at capturing these kind of pictures... haha~!

anyway, after that, we safely returned back to the town and went to the convenience store to buy supper. whoot! our first night feast! there's beer, cup noodles, tidbits, etc etc. feasting time!

the night went well, altho i must say sharing a toilet with 5 other ppl was quite troublesome. i was the last to shower and by the time i came out, all the gals were asleep.

[to be continued]...

Taiwan Trip Day 1

2006-06-05T15:05:00.000+08:00

You can tell i've been really procrastinating for this entry. haha~ i guess basically most of my frens hav asked me how was my trip, and i'll start dominating the whole conversation with how much i enjoyed and how interesting the place is. hopefully after blogging this down, the excitement of the trip will start to sink down (that is to say, i still cant get over the trip. haha~)

time to reveal the secrets which i've kept: my trip was from 14th to 22nd may 2006. Nine days. My destination was 台灣 (Taiwan), the whole of Taiwan, that is. for the record, within these nine days, we took 1.65GB of photos!! from myself, i tink i took up 1.1GB of space in my comp liao.

as i've previously mentioned, we took a jetstarasia budget plane to Taiwan, and i wouldn't call it one of the best plane trips i ever had. the seats were pretty crammed together like those seats on a Singapore bus, so there wasn't much leg space, especially if your bags is already occupying half of the space available for your legs. furthermore, we were positioned right at the back of the plane, so our seat-backs cannot be lowered due to the wall behind. and the whole plane is so darn small, that when we look at those big commercial planes from SIA or QANTAS, ours is like little chick looking at mother hen.

This is the whole plane, yes, it's THAT small

From left: Me, Mich and HP

From left: JH, Yeok and CL

In case you're asking who are they?, haha, yeok is my jc classmate, the guy is her bf and the rest are yeok's graduating frens. all of them are from WSC, er... i'm not. mmm...

after a bumpy 5 hours ride (there was turbulence), a mere 1 hour of sleep (due to turbulence and no leg space), and lots of rubbish written in my journal, we finally reached Taipei's CKS Internation Airport!

Looks very china and old school hor?

the six of us were really taking our time walking to the check out counter, asking security guards to help us take pictures and me taking weird videos (of yeok and jh running because the airport's aircon's very cold).

my butt was painful and my legs were numb from the plane ride, but we still hav to endure 1.5 hours of bus to the taipei city itself. oh gosh, my legs~~ but once the bus got to taipei, fwahh, all of us got overwhelmed by the lights! it was like... city of lights! the rest of the 0.5 hours was spent with our eyes glued to the windows trying to digest the different different stalls that are whooshing past us. i can't wait to check in to hotel, put down my bags and rush out to embrace this city of lights!!

This is just another ONE of the streets in taipei! whoot!

finally got settled down at our fan dian (hotel for u non-chinese speaking ppl) and rushed out. our hotel was at the edge of 西門盯 (ximending) so it was very convenient for us to just walk there. 西門盯 is like our bugis junction? the roads are blocked out and there are shops are the road side. the differences are that 西門盯 (1) is not sheltered (2) have natural wind blowing at us like air con which made the shopping experience very enjoyable (3) there are occasional motorbikes and scooters whizzing past us even tho the roads are blocked out to traffic.

The famous plaza at the entrance to 西門盯

The houses in taiwan are pretty amazing. They are so different from each other, yet, when u look at them altogether, there seem to be a certain style you can almost call the taiwan style. For example:

Doesn't the picture above look like the house is from Hong Kong? riight riight?

Anyway, we ate... and we ate. We were that hungry. No food served on budget airline lor! and so we indulge ourselves first with taiwan food! There's 阿宗麵線 (Ah Zong Mian Xian), which i didn't really enjoy until i started eating the organs (the sauce is weird, the Mian Xian is ok, the organs were heaven... everything has to be eaten together to enjoy that wonderful combination of flavours!).

Then, there's Taiwan style pasta. Ok, there's this Ah Beng looking guy who's serving the customers at the door, and when we walked in, he screamed out in the most boyish voice i've ever heard: 歡迎光臨！ woah~ that was damn scary! we were totally not used to this. the next few days sort of taught me that all young guys in Taiwan all spoke the same way... mmm.

And we had 奶茶! oh my god, i took a risk to order a drink that looks very foreign to me: 統一布丁奶茶, and it was fabulous. 統一布丁 is actually a kinda of jelly that is like half coffee and half dun noe what, and then it was added inside the 奶茶 to create a blend of taste that is something like a cross between mocha and fruit punch. damn weird! BUT damn nice!

ok, now that we're full, our eyes shifted from food stalls to other shops. the cd shops in taiwan are incredible, each one of them is like a HMV with so much variaties of music, and most prob due to the fact that each shop has the space of 3 storeys as well. haha~ i tried to find my "McDull" movie, found it in one vcd rental shop, but cannot buy it. argh~! oh oh, the vcd rental shop right? it is a shop that is like karaoke, where you book the room to watch the vcd you rented! cool hor?

then, there are shops like...

THESE! oh my god... you see them scattered all over the place in singapore, but in taiwan, they actually have stalls that operate these machines alone! at the back of the shop are speciality items for different anime/manga characters. and there are LOTS of doraemon stuff, plus many other anime/manga characters. i started my spree and bought doraemon figurines... tsk tsk, not a good start. i may end up buying more doraemon stuff than clothes and food.

we walked around a bit more, but discovered we were going around in circles. proceeded back to hotel to plan the next day and... rest! my legs started to complain by the time we were walking back, argh.

[to be continued]...

Taiwan Trip Day 2

2006-06-05T15:03:00.000+08:00

On my goodness, the previous entry was damn long hor? gosh gosh~ i'll try my best to make it brief... but then how to fully bring out the enjoyment of the trip liddat? gossshh~ bear with me kay? 8 more entries to go...

2nd Day morning: we took the MRT (also stands for Mass Rapid Transit in Taiwan) (or rather known as 捷運 [jie yun] there) to 淡水 (DanShui).

Pretty much like our own MRT stations

The MRT in Taipei is pretty much similar to what we have in Singapore, but somehow more organised. when ppl go up and down the escalator, they do keep to the right, like it is some social moral rule that everyone should follow, and hey, it's a damn good system! if you're rushing for time, you can really use the extra space on the left to whish past ppl who can afford to slow down. and at the waiting line, people do line up behind the drawn white lines. the white lines are drawn in such a way that they do help to ease up the human traffic flow, allowing ppl to alight from the train more smoothly. It's all these little little moral systems that Taiwanese have that makes me realise Singaporeans suck.

it was pretty early in the morning, like 9+am, so none of the shops along 淡水老街 (DanShui Old Street) were opened yet. so we walked along the coast line, hoping to reach 漁人碼頭 (Fishermen's Wharf). It was quite a nice and quiet walk, just too bad the shops on the way weren't open. :(

Nice coastal view~~

Us having fun on a small stage for special performances on weekend nights

A lot of nice places and sceneries along the way. This is just but one of them.

Halfway, we realised 漁人碼頭 was very far, so we took the 公車 (public bus) there. 漁人碼頭 was disappointing, there's nothing much there expect for a couple of buildings and a bridge called 情人橋. It felt so tourism-oriented and fake. Very commercialised. Yeok and CL looked like they enjoyed taking pictures there tho. haha! the wind was very strong tho, my hat almost got blown away.

The boring and nothing-to-see Fishermen's Wharf

After half an hour there, we decided to go back to 淡水 for lunch and took the 公車 again... and realised it was the EXACT SAME one we took there. (the graffiti on the bus is the same!) the bus driver must have found us familiar. haha~

Taiwan is full of shops with cheeky names. This one is a seafood restaurant.

we roamed the 小巷 for a food stall, and saw one that looks like someone's house and we just went in. whoot~ the food was cheap and good! the service in taiwan is always not bad, even for a little food stall like this! while we're eating, the children of the owner of the shop came back from school, he looked pretty cute and kept smiling and running around.

Nice little cosy shop. I like~

After lunch, we went to CKS Memorial Hall and it started pouring. bah~ but anyway, there's nothin' much. I don't really like these "memorial" places 'cause perhaps i'm not a very historical person. I did enjoy looking at CKS's own personal letters and his handwriting. :) CKS Memorial Hall is built very symmetrically, and it just felt very out of place with the rest of the places in Taipei. Too neat, too 刻意...

Oh, and looking at the soldiers marching up and down for the changing of guards was fun too. but their guards had an electric fan position behind them to cool them... so un-army-like. so welfare...

The mini-model of CKS Memorial Hall in the Memorial Hall

it was evening when we left the place. it was still pouring and we were almost soaking wet. took the MRT again and went up north to 士林 (Shih Lin). Woah~ 士林 is definitely a shopping paradise, for both food and other stuff. We went to eat first and gorged down all the interesting looking food!! food is definitely one of the greatest assets of taiwan!

The Shih Lin Food Market

豪大大雞排 - is really 大!

芒果刨冰 - 溶在口裡，不溶在手裡! Literally!

大餅包小餅 - Interesting concept, nice taste!

官財板 - A weird sounding name, the most delicious thing i've ever eaten!!!!!!

The Food Market is really packed with a lot of food stalls~ u can see the stall owners fighting for customers and literally grabbing them. so, a tip for those who is going. take a quick tour around the market first, do NOT stop outside ANY of the stalls, come out of the market, decide what food you want to eat and which stall to go to, take a quick second tour to confirm which stalls you've short listed, come out again, confirm which stall, then go STRAIGHT to that stall! if not, you'll end up being pulled by the stall owner into the stall, and you start to regret when u see the next neighbouring stall seems more popular.

A lot of food stalls... hell lot of people as well!

Then, it was 士林夜市 (ShihLin Night Market) where the streets are filled with fashion shops. It's definitely more happening than 西門 and the traffic flow is more dangerous (i'm talking abt motorbikes and cars). there will suddenly be a "poot poot" behind u and u'll see motorbikes coming ur way while you're looking at the clothes. pretty scary, but in a way, fun as well. haha~ clothes were ok, our singapore queensway standard, but not very cheap either, all around S$25 to S$60. not really worth it. almost tempted to buy a doraemon polo tee, but dun hav size and colour. haiz, too bad la. fated one. haha~

Not a lot of people 'cos it juz rained

the whole night market is actually made up of a few streets of stalls, and the whole place is like a blardy maze. by the end of 2 hours, our legs were giving way and most of us were walking in weird manner that makes the donkey dancing in Nanny McPhee look terribly normal.

and so, we got ourselves into 星巴克 (Starbucks), ordered black oil (aka coffee and caffeine) and rested our feet. whoot~ i love the chinese translations of the international favourites, which includes Giordano, Watsons, etc.

Resting at 星巴克

After that, we're all too tired and went back to hotel. this day was packed, and rushed, but totally fun. Looking forward to tomorrow as we move out of 台北.

Trivia for the misinformed
台灣 (Taiwan) is really the whole island (plus a few outside island). 台北 (Taipei) is just one of the states that make up Taiwan, and so is 高雄 (GaoHsiung) and 花蓮 (HuaLien). Then every state has a state central, like a main city, and is most often the place with the word 市 (Shih) added to the end the state name, like 台北市 (Taipei Shih). Don't get too confused over this.

[to be continued]...

Movie Review: The Da Vinci Code

2006-05-26T22:39:00.000+08:00

(3 out of 5 stars)

It isn’t always easy to adapt a novel for a feature film, but Ron Howard had been pretty successful for his previous adaptations, especially A Beautiful Mind, the novel that dwells into the psychologically splitting world of John Nash. Looking at his previous films, we are able to see that Howard is good at capturing a character’s soul in depth and allowing the movie to flow smoothly by centring on a main character.

In The Da Vinci Code, he did not manage to produce a fluid film as the movie moves back and forth between characters. The material itself clearly isn’t what Howard is familiar with. The original plot (in the novel) moves very frequently among the supporting characters whose plotlines run parallel with the main storyline of the main characters Robert Langdon (Tom Hanks) and Sophie Noveu (Audrey Toutou).

Ten minutes into the movie, we already see Howard struggling with the portraying the prologue where Silas murders Jacques Sauniere and the first chapter of the book where Langdon is giving a presentation about symbols. It was not clear which was the main plot (although fans of the book would know) and somehow, the use of shaky camera movement did not clearly portray the first impression of Langdon well. It almost felt like Langdon sent Silas to murder Sauniere, or is this what Howard wants in the first place?

The movie continues with this unsteady movement of plots between the characters. This may have worked well in the novel, but it made the film felt very incoherent. Choppy, is what an impolite reviewer may say.

The movie also doesn’t go in depth with the explanations of the background of the story, leaving them to made-up historical footages which look lame and fake, and even at times, cheapskate. Readers of the book will find that the movie felt shallow compared to the book, and those who have yet to read it will find the plot confusing and not easily understandable.

Still, there are still nice moments in the film. Howard is master at portraying thought processes of a character, and by making Langdon have a good memory of things and able to crack codes on the spot, Howard is able to make use of what he did in A Beautiful Mind. Yes, it kind of reminds me of that film, not a bad thing though. In a sequence where Langdon was trying to crack the code of the keystone, the moving visual images that appear before him were quite beautifully done.

Sir Ian McKellen is at his best, portraying initially a friendly ally and later creating a totally different side of Leigh Teabing at the plot twist, yet remain quite homogeneous in his character. One may argue Sir Ian McKellen may be too thin for Teabing (that’s me originally), but now, I can only say I enjoy his moments in the film the most, especially the scenes in his study where he is explaining the parts about the Priory of Sion.

As with other film adaptations like the Harry Potter series, filmmakers here are facing with a lot of difficulties with what to put into the film and what not to, hence the pace of the movie turned out to be quite erratic. Howard should really stick to movies which are more character central.

I'm Leaving on a JET Plane

2006-05-14T04:05:00.000+08:00

14th May 2006: Pre-Trip Entry

It's 4:04am, and no, i'm not sleepin' not because i'm too excited or something... jus hav to prepare my stuff. and backing up all my documents so that i can clear some space in my laptop for photos. yup, i'm bringing my lappy there. cool huh~ riight... i'm damn worried. but for all the photos that i'm going to take, wow~ i can't wait to get there.

for those who still don't know, *ops* i'm still not going to disclose much, although like 80% of u peeps know oredi la. shame on the rest of the 20% of u, dun bother to find out, dun bother to call me, dun bother to email me. shame! SHAME! SHAME!. anyway, out of the 80%, around 30% found out from other frens... yeekz... and never call me to wish me bon voyage... *stick tongue out at you all*

anywayz, i'm having a weird feeling for this trip. tink i'm tinking too much la, but... dun noe. it's not that i'm having dreams or premonition or anything, but i juz hav the urge to say goodbye to a lot of people. dun noe whether good or bad. anywayz, if anything happen, here is my flight number: to destination Flight 3K 521 back to singapore Flight 3K 522. i'm taking JetStarAsia, which explains my nick for the past month: i'm leaving on a JET plane... heh, lame i know. ;)

i'm having auto-roaming, so do drop me an sms or something. don't call, very expensive. i'm paying u know~~

starting packing my bag around 3 hours ago, discovered nothin' much to pack. the rest of the time i'm juz thinking if i left out anything and backing up documents on my lappy (0.25 way done).

so, my maiden backpacking trip. what did i bring?

In my little bag:

In my big (and i mean BIG) bag:

yes... my mother forced me to bring tissue packets... all 12 packets. bah.

am a bit excited. am a bit worried. wells, let fate decide bah. ;)

seeya guys soon! will miss a lot of u...

*time-to-say-goodbye*,
Yong

Totally Random Thoughts

2006-05-10T00:37:00.000+08:00

I am restraining myself from blogging before my trip. Seriously. And it feels so... so... well, let's just say that since i've got so much time (travelling time, rather... from one social meeting to another) that my brain was full of weird thoughts and ideas. If you dare, venture into my crazy world...:

Random Thought #1: Why the hell is China called China??

Ok, this is on the pretext that i havent really go and find the answer myself. But seriously, why is China called China? and Chinese called Chinese? It's totally weird. Mongolia at least sounds like the original chinese name "meng gu", Hong Kong is the cantonese pronunciation of "xiang gang", den why is "zhong guo" or "ren ming gong he guo" or even "nei di" known as "CHINA"? *brain about to explode* *moving on to next thought*

5 minutes after posting: ok, i looked up Wikipedia and found out that the name China may have been derived from the name of Qin dynasty that first unified the whole country. I was confused initially, then i realized... Qin... Chin... China! riiight. but this is, as noted, highly controversial. Believable though. There were other explanations too, u can go read them yourself here.

Random Thought #2: I want the world to now know me as yong, and maybe i should write a jiggle to promote it.

i'm really dreading the idea of ppl knowing me by johnson. i wanna change that, i wan ppl to know me by my chinese name! argh... hey, i know it's difficult to pronounce the "zh"s ok? i really do... and i realise, hey, just call me 'yong'! why didn't i tink of that in primary 4? bah! shucks la...

it's like "hi, my name is johnson." and tons of similar replies come in: "oh, johnson as in the baby johnson?" (seriously, i rather u say "the shampoo brand?" rather than "baby johnson?" now even my TCHS juniors call me baby johnson... BAH!), "er, johnson? how do u spell that?" (hullo~ how many spellings for johnson can there be? jonson? yonsonn? jonnson? or is that a cheeky way to really confirm that you're not hearing the wrong thing?), "johnson? is that name in ur I/C? should i write that down in the cheque?" (well, i hate to tell ppl to write down "my other name" into the cheque... as if like "my other name" is not my "real" name... i don't like it. i prefer my chinese name. i really do!)

actually "Zhang Zhengyong" is extremely easy to pronounce. i came up wif this: STEP 1) replace all "zh"s with "j"s. STEP 2) replace the "a" with "AH". STEP 3) replace the "eng" with "urn". and you have "jAHng jurn yong". whoot, and it even resembles a korean name. but seriously, that's how you should pronounce my name. almost.

But if u still can't pronounce my "zhang zheng", just call me "yong". nobody has yet mispronounce it. it's fabulous. it's so universal! so peeps! from now onwards! call-me- "yong" if u can pronounce my "jAHng jurn". ;)

Random Thought #3: What's the difference between cash sale paper, receipts, invoices, payment checks, blah blah?

i'm so not into this! i needed to give a form of payment acknowledgement to my friend and i got myself to popular. and i was like... "WOAH!" why so many varieties?! and because they were all in plastic packaging, i didn't know if there was any difference besides just the size!

i quickly called up my sis, and she also don't know. so i took the invoice and the receipts, got into a corner, checked nobody was looking, and carefully opened up the plastic packaging. oh my god, they're the same. just the size! just the name! gosh~ who the hell came up with these different stupid names to confuse us?

Random Thought #4: er...

You mean you haven't had enough? I can go crazy by myself just thinking abt these stupid thoughts that had been lingering, and i had to resist from blogging and i couldn't throw these thoughts in here... bah! now i can rest in peace......... CHOI! what R-I-P...? but hey, who was the first one who came up wif "R-I-P" and who composed that famous tune that goes with it anyway? ok ok ok! i should stop...

*eyes-rolling-all-over-the-socket-with-thoughts*,
Yong

PS. see, i even changed from johnzzon to yong liao... wahaha!

Others yearn for freedom, but I only hope for some time alone

2006-05-02T01:34:00.000+08:00

Weird title for a post huh?

Well, I don't know... I've been complaining to closed ones about my unreasoned depression. It's sad that I can't contact those I wish to speak to, but I just have to tell myself I managed to get the other 50% of them. hullo guys, please check your handphone if it's proper? I can't even get a proper ringtone from some of you.

That aside... like I said, the depression came from nowhere. I tried to find reasons, I really did, but most of them were so trivial I feel like slapping myself in the face and ask myself to wake up. Is it a post-exam syndrome? Is it the sudden release from tension? Or is it the fact that I get too bothered by having nowhere to run to?

But I am running away. I'm running away for a while. Or rather, flying away. Heys, some of u may have already received my personal calls (that's why the phone calls) to tell u abt my trip, others, well, I just don't feel like telling u.

My first time on a plane trip overseas without an authoritarian figure (ie, parents or teachers or someone to yap at me).

Three months, lots of things to settle, before I launch myself into another semester of hectic lifestyle.

Why aren't some of you allowing me to call you just to catch up? Three months is all I got.

It sounds like I'm passing away or something, but it does feel like that to me. It feels like a suicide, a breakaway from the real world, when school term starts. And by then, if u can't contact me, will u blame me again?

I'm running away. And I need it. And I need to say goodbye.

*an-absurd-little-bird-is-popping-out-to-say-cuckoo*,
Johnzzon

I'm amazed... you actually highlight this part. so clever. Ok, u lucky ones, i'll tell u about my trip. I'm flying off to Taiwan from 14th to 22nd may, that's a 9 day trip. Will be going with yeok (my jc fren) and her frens. If you want a gift, give me a personal call on the handphone. I'm not entertaining smses. Ha! I'm expecting NO ONE to call me anyway. U bunch of mei liang xins, never reply to any of this shit i'm posting on my blog one.

無題 Untitled

2006-04-27T23:55:00.000+08:00

孤單、
失落、
迷途、
寂寞、
徬徨、
無助、
發楞、
呆滯…

我繼續尋找著形容詞，
卻沒有一對能對上心情的。

我逼自己听快歌，
希望能也快樂起來，
但反而稱出心中的不安

我要吶喊，
但新加坡又有哪裡是可以讓我吶喊的地方？
我要哭泣，
但誰能忘了我是男生任我哭泣？

孤單、
失落、
迷途、
寂寞、
徬徨、
無助、
發楞、
呆滯…

我想睡…
我要睡…
我睡…

睡…

睡。

Always Chicken Rice, No Mee Pok?

2006-04-27T22:23:00.000+08:00

Just watched news on elections on Channel U. wow, perhaps becos i'm actually really taking part in the voting this year, i'm starting to take note of election stuff... but haiz, not that i used to be an apathetic youth, jus that... well...

I'll give you a scenario.

You keep eating Chicken Rice... Chicken Rice, good, the stall knows what you basically want, which is chicken and chicken-oiled rice. but now and then, they invite you back to their stall with many different things like... perhaps free eggs la, more veggies here and there la, lemon sauce for a limited period of time, or even discounted prices.

So, you keep going back to the Chicken Rice stall to eat. Not that you think it's so good or anything, but well, it has proven itself to be the best choice when your appetite is down.

But then, years down the road, you bound to get sick of it, no matter how... humans, they just get sick of things, not like monkeys, millions of years of evolution and they still like bananas. ops, off topic. so then, you start searching for other choices. you look at the other stall, it's selling mee pok.

you look at the condition, the plates are mostly spoilt, they don't provide sauces, heck, even the minced meat is lumpy and chunky. it's pretty obvious they don't know how to run the stall properly. sure, the stallholder say he has very good goals set for his stall, to outdo the Chicken Rice stall, and even become the number one mee pok stall. he wants this and he wants that, and he only knows how to criticize how badly the Chicken Rice stall is.

"Look at that plate, always use so colourful ones. that stall so naive, don't know that it's not about colours and attractiveness of plates but about the quality of food!"

"Give so much promotions, as if to hide the fact that the food is not so good."

"He never gives choices for his customers. Healthiness of food of cos important, but sometimes if customer wans more saltiness, should give them what. customers' views very important!"

(note the use of singlish.)

But then, his own stall, he doesn't even bother. say wanna sack his assistant one second, the next second his assistant say no such thing. but den, his assistant never bothers to turn up half the time, isn't a very useful person anyway.

so, seeing the condition, do you think you'll still choose the mee pok stall jus for a change of taste?

*ooh-i'm-going-to-vote*,
Johnzzon

The Chinese High School Band is back~!

2006-04-24T00:43:00.000+08:00

Before this, i had a new entry... wahaha~ scroll down to read. I do recommend those two Wakin songs~... and yesh, i know, it's my fourth album for the past few weeks. bah~

anyway, sort of slept thru the whole friday night, and amazingly i woke up damn early on saturday morning, at around 7am, automatically. Guess my biological clock is turning back a way too fast also. Anyway, that doesn't represent that I had enough sleep, juz that, i automatically wake up after sleeping for a certain amount of time.

so, saturday will be spent with the Chinese High band. And yesh I was from the Chinese High and I was in the band. thank you to those who are exclaiming now.

back to the topic, i was there because Chinese High is back to outdoors! yea~ not that i'm that particularly excited about the fact that they are back to outdoors, jus that the idea that the traditional of torturing ppl under the sun is continued... er... interests me. wahaha~ the sadist in me. but i do like to watch display bands performance. good ones that is.

yanhui, me and kokwee met up for lunch (no prizes for guessing who came late), kanxin & hongguan joined us (yesh, they were later) and we proceeded to chinese high. The school changed a lot, in terms of new architecture. there are so many buildings currently under construction for plans to combine with HCJC, and the two schools are finally almost linked up with a shelter. goodness, why didn't they just build it beforehand? bah~

there we met a lot of old faces (with new hairstyles): derrick, zijun, benny & qiyang. oh, and there's ms polene lam who's now a missus (and looks like one too).

well, being the camera trigger-happy bunch of us, we started taking photos. as yanhui puts it, "wa, i didn't even take that much photos during graduation." i concur.

In front of the art block at the stupid thing that was there since our years

Every trip back to Chinese High, must take this photo... classic!

we boarded the bus, went down to national stadium and watched the performance.

i was indeed impressed by them. it was definitely better than the other bands who were undergoing assessment, but then, still not good enuf for the actual central judging ba. there are still some places that can be cleaned up.

but den again, who am i to comment? my batch of outdoor-ers' performance was so much worse than them.

i was happy for them.

as for the rest of the central judging groups, well, i liked TK (not only the fact that they started their display with all the John Williams song, but also becos their patterns were pretty clear and straightforward, there's a theme to their display, and their drill was good). the others, so so la... i tot bowen was bad, shud only deserve gold (not honours) for their good drills. but well, i tink the whole stadium will curse the judges if they dun get honours... half of the stadium is full with "bo~wen~ bowen! bo~wen~ bowen!" display-wise, i like the last band, but they only got gold.

Strike Up The Chinese High Band... Finally!

Already almost raining, the bands still don't wan to seek shelter. So garang for what?

The new uniform, so sut, so nice~

Aiya, I'm not really into the actual band scene anymore... 退隱桃園了... also don't really know how to comment... but then, took so much pictures, dun blog oso 浪費... wahaha~

*still-a-bit-lacking-of-sleep*,
Johnzzon

《我們不哭》到《言之尚早》

2006-04-23T22:56:00.000+08:00

《我們不哭》
詞曲：李志清演唱：周華健

冷淡的氣氛終於慢慢明顯
再回到我們當初陌生的臉
除了把玩手上最後甜點
一開口就只剩下再見

倒退想一九九四那個秋天
生命中的那個妳剛剛出現
愛情慢慢被淚模糊焦點
我們都捱不到終點

我們不哭在分開的場面
我們擁抱彌補所有的抱歉
沒有遺憾今天是最好的句點
以後還能一起面對面

我們不哭在回家後的房間
成熟能讓所有傷痛少一點
沒有眼淚並不代表愛很淺
而是懂的微笑著讓彼此懷念

《言之尚早》
詞曲：李志清改編詞：黃偉文演唱：周華健

朋友话最近觉得十分不幸
有段情越来越淡快将不行
何以旧时让你深爱的人
为小事大闹分恨变深

逢困局试着化解即都应份
你为何未曾定案已灰了心
恋爱依然充斥不测风云
怎么知道最后会换人

明晨或者心一软能让步
明年或者紧紧拥抱过不到
谁能预早在这一步
敢讲以后会很好不好时辰未到

明晨或者急执一过更加好
明年或者轻轻一吻也想吐
完场幸福或者惨酷这么早
你暂时无谓过滤太多的变数

朋友话最近觉得十分侥幸
最坏时突然遇上最好的人
还说未来预算可与这人
做好份内事然后结婚

谁注定要待你好靠这一点运
你实情即无自信永不变心
相处依然充斥不测风云
很相爱也未算万能

明晨或者心一软能让步
明年或者紧紧拥抱过不到
谁能预早在这一步
敢讲以后会很好不好时辰未到

明晨或者急执一过更加好
明年或者轻轻一吻也想吐
完场幸福或者惨酷这么早
你暂时无谓过滤太多的变数

明晨或者不相爱才败露
明年或者分开先觉对方好
谁能预早在这一步
敢讲以后也很好不好时辰未到
明晨或者分开七次在修好
明年或者彼此都有新年骛
谁能乐观或悲观地
推测到你共谁其实最后会否走到老

同樣專輯，同樣曲調，同樣編曲，卻因不同的詞而描述了兩個截然不同的愛情情感…

*感慨系之*,
Johnzzon

Ops... I did it again

2006-04-19T22:24:00.000+08:00

It's insomnia... not amnesia...

And it's not the first time I made this error. Bah!

Thanks to yi for pointing that one out~ and btw, how come u managed to read my blog?

*juz-woke-up*,
Johnzzon

Developing amnesia liao~

2006-04-19T05:18:00.000+08:00

It's 5:17am and I couldn't sleep. Not that I'm very stressed up over the paper later.

Must be because my biological clock is now overturned. My usual sleeping habit now is from 5pm to midnight. bah!

2 more nights (and mornings) like this, and I swear I have to turn my biological clock turn to normal. At least, sleep when the moon is fully occupying the sky? Not when the sun is still around, definitely.

I'm totally running out of songs to listen to... And I'm considering buying the Emil Chau CD, and that will make the 4th CD i bought so far this 2 months, after A*mei, Cao Ge and Deep White. That's not including the CDs I've... er... acquired from the... er... online network, which includes the Lost OST.

I think I'm just ANXIOUS for the exam to be over ba...

*counting-down-every-second*,
Johnzzon

I think I'm working too hard...

2006-04-17T10:04:00.000+08:00

... and i doubt i'll still do well... *cries*

*didn't-sleep*,
Johnzzon

McDonalds' Breakfast Really Makes My Day

2006-04-16T04:38:00.000+08:00

Wow~ Now I'm one satisfied man. Man, in future i guess my wife can jus get me a McDonalds' Breakfast and i'll buy her a 24-carat diamond. Heck~

Here I am, 4:30am in the morning and blogging about my McDelivery breakfast. And this time, I ordered alone. Feeling lonely as usual, but seeing the Mac guy at my doorstep really made smile. No no, I'm not wanting to hit on the Mac guy, but after being accompanied only by mosquitoes thru the nite, seeing a person who delivers something good right up to ur door is really... cheering.

Anyway, I think I must be going mad as well, blogging about my breakfast. But heck, like I said, I'm one happy and satisfied guy now...

Yes sir, you may indulge me. Woo~ such good service...

McDonalds, are you seeing this? You better endorse me...

...if not, get me to be your photographer. Bwa-ha-ha!

Woo~ and the big breakfast tasted good together with Kit Chan's "Kan Yue Liang" in the background. Kit Chan's soothing coo never fails to make me smile. Whoot! I'm Lovin' It!

*Du-Zi-Kan-Yue-Liang*,
Johnzzon

Trying to destress...

2006-04-15T21:42:00.000+08:00

You know I'm damn stressed when I'm blogging weird entries...

*bwa-ha-ha...whatever*,
Johnzzon

P.S. Thanks to Swee Guan for the email containing these lame pictures...

Huh?

2006-04-15T18:17:00.000+08:00

Apparently some opposition party guy was making an anti-PAP speech at my neighbourhood this morning. (Is my blog going to be closed down due to the mention of this?)

Anyway, he was saying singapore government should not be so capitalism.

And something about everybody being very equal.

And something about capitalism so bad so bad...

Wah... What century am I living in? Or rather... Which country am I living in? Am I reading Animal Farm? And I thought other opposition party members using NKF to fight PAP is bad enough.

*capitalism-is-baaaadd?????*,
Johnzzon

P.S. I seriously hope my blog would not be closed down due to this entry.

Exam is getting to my sanity...

2006-04-14T00:34:00.000+08:00

The exam fever must be really getting to my head and my sanity... I've been doing all sorts of weird stuff and thinking of weird things as well.

And I was so stressed up thinking about exams and what will come out, that I totally forgot Friday 14 April 2006 is... Good Friday?? OMG~ that's the ultimate. I was chatting wif a fren online half an hour ago, and i was askin him "wa, so late still haven't sleep? not working tmr meh?" den he replied "siao arh~ tmr Good Friday leh~!"

"What? REEAALLY? OMG!" "har? u dunnoe?" "I TOTALLY FORGOT!!!"

anyway, I've got one paper settled today, CS816 Information Literacy. Like what jeremy said in his blog, I don't know what's the point of this module still, even until now when I've finished my exams. Good luck to those who have to eventually take this module, but word of advice, take it before you go to year four. You have to put so much effort and time into this that you won't have time for it by the fourth year.

still got four papers to go. and i'm starting to lose momentum sia~ i've been sleeping at TOTALLY irregular hours until when my fren try to call me on my hp, i'm mostly asleep, be it 8pm or 4pm or 2pm. now, when i'm tired, i sleep. and my body is like totally adjusted to the tired-den-sleep routine.

and this irregularity of my sleeping patterns is working on my health as well. juz yesterday when i went to my hairdresser, she complained about the smell in my hair. "aiyo, your hair is being damn sensitive la. you haven't been sleeping regularly issit?" wa, she knows.

i couldn't study in my room until yesterday night when i couldn't stand the messiness and the cramness that i decided to tidy up my place. and the result is above. not much difference, as you most probably can tell, but i tell you, packing away my PC really does help in motivating me somehow to study in the room. weird, but true.

i'm still making up my mind to where i wanna go after my exams. shucks. but be prepared to receive an sms from me saying i won't be available. :)

and if u do see me on msn, pls say "all the best" to me? leave out the "for your exams" part, juz "all the best". It will make my day, definitely. thanks! ;) try not to ask what for la, but... haiz...

*going-insane*,
Johnzzon

Songs, songs, songs...

2006-04-11T05:37:00.000+08:00

I can't believe I'm being tagged... (see my chatbox on the right) oh gosh~ anyway, this is still relatively easy for me... at least i don't have to write things like whom i'm having a crush on now... *blehz*

Disclaimer: The songs I mentioned may not be songs I like, they're just songs that I come to think of when I answer the question.

1. A song by a Beatle/the Beatles: Yesterday.

2. A song featuring piano as the main instrument: Fly Away by Corrinne May

3. A song with a woman's name in the title: Layla by Eric Clapton

4. A song with a man's name in the title: Hey Jude

5. A song about money: Hey Big Spender!

6. A song with weather in the title: Rain by David Tao Zhe

7. A song with parentheses in the title (these are parentheses): (You Drive Me) Crazy by Britney Spears

8. A song made by a punk band: Huh? Punk band?... Er... Can I skip this?

9. A song with the word "song" in the title: Birthday Song by Corrinne May

10. A song you love so much you stop and listen whenever you hear it: Cannonball (original guitar ver) by Damien Rice

Ok, here comes the most cruel part. I shall tag:
1. Joric
2. Justin
3. Weibin
4. And everybody who comes to my blog and has his/her own blog... muahaha~ (u better do it, cos i know who u r...)

*mugging for disgusting CS816*,
Johnzzon