The Coin Project

I've had this 10-cent coin dated 1967 in my wallet for quite a while. This morning, while showing it to a colleague, a brilliant idea stunned me in the gray matter.

How about I start collecting 10-cent coins for each year since 1976? Let's see how many end up in my collection before I kick the bucket ... and how much that collection might be worth, do you think? ... hehe ...

Why 10 cents then, you ask? To preserve my liquidity, of course! Imagine if it's a dollar, I don't have $31 worth of spare change as of now ...

I, hereby, declare the launch of The Coin Project d(~.~)b

爱: That Savage Garden Song

I'll be your dream,
I'll be your wish,
I'll be your fantasy,
I'll be your hope,
I'll be your love,
Be everything that you need,
I'll love you more with every breath,
Truly, madly, deeply do ...

I will be strong,
I will be faithful,
Cuz I'm counting on a new beginning,
A reason for living,
A deeper meaning ... yeah ...

I want to stand with you on a mountain,
I want to bathe with you in the sea,
I want to lay like this forever,
Until the sky falls down on me ...

777 Paprika

Hmm ... my ez-link card balance tonight was $7.77 again. Magic? I've googled some definitions, but there're lots more explanations out there in the universe of cyberspace.

Went to watch the Japanese animation, Paprika. The message I came away with, save our dreams to save our real world because the two are intertwined. Because sometimes, it's really nice to exist on a different, dreamy plane.

Maybe that's why the balance on my ez-link card was what it was.

I really like the theme of this movie too.
:: The Girl In Byakkoya :: Hear it out.

爱: 我

What a sad picture but it reminds me of what I regard the ultimate love song - Love, Me by Collin Raye. I first heard the song sometime during the first semester of my first year at NUS, over Class 95's Love Songs hosted by Suzanne Walker. I was lonely and homesick, and cramming for a Statistics exam. The song made me cry ...

I read a note my grandma wrote back in nineteen twenty-three.
Grandpa kept it in his coat, and he showed it once to me.
He said, "Boy, you might not understand, but a long, long time ago,
Grandma's daddy didn't like me none, but I loved your Grandma so.

We had this crazy plan to meet and run away together.
Get married in the first town we came to, and live forever.
But nailed to the tree where we were supposed to meet instead,
I found this letter, and this is what it said,

'If you get there before I do, don't give up on me.
I'll meet you when my chores are through; I don't know how long I'll be.
But I'm not gonna let you down, darling wait and see.
And between now and then, till I see you again, I'll be loving you.
Love, me'"

I read those words just hours before my Grandma passed away.
In the doorway of a church where me and Grandpa stopped to pray.
I know I'd never seen him cry in all my fifteen years.
But as he said these words to her, his eyes filled up with tears.

"If you get there before I do, don't give up on me.
I'll meet you when my chores are through; I don't know how long I'll be.
But I'm not gonna let you down, darling wait and see.
And between now and then, till I see you again, I'll be loving you.
Love, me

Between now and then, till I see you again, I'll be loving you.
Love, me"

Happy Hatchday Hui Teng!

And the feast continues ... today at Swensen's ... because they give a complimentary ice-cream to the birthday girl. We also had dinner - salmon baked rice for me (yummy!), fries and calamari plus ice cream cake! Yippie yummy!

Oh, and not forgetting the tea eggs ... it's our Chinese tradition to have eggs on birthdays (it's afterall our hatchday :). But the Swensen staff said "No outside food allowed" with a completely sour "buay gam guan" face. What a damper!

I am SOOO FUUUULLLL :)

*burp* It's my youngest sister Hui Teng's birthday tomorrow - July 23, same as "Harry Potter" Daniel Radcliffe and "同乡" Christopher Lee. So this weekend, beginning Friday, had been one full of feasts :)

We had dinner at Sakura on Friday - yummy pineapple rice! - our all-time favourite. And tom yum seafood soup, claypot toufu, oatmeal prawns (nothing like the one at Boon Tong Kee though), not-so-fantastic sambal fish slices, pak-thai, twin-fish fried rice ...

Yesterday we decided to go western (succulent steaks ... yummy!) at Jack's Place since Hui Teng didn't want to travel cuz she wanted to prepare for her first day at school tomorrow. Hehe ... she'll be a teacher at the Mee Toh School, and her first day at work is actually her 23rd birthday! Haha. I had wanted to go to Central to try another one of those restaurants there after enjoying a satisfying meal at Waraku on Wed, but oh well, we'll try that another day. Must encourage Hui Teng to be a conscientious educator! Must be 方安生 of 阳光列车 (The Morning Express) and Yo-Yo 老师 of 萤火虫的梦 (Let It Shine). GAMBATTE!

Today, we had lunch at the airport! Haha ... it's Hui Ching's first week into her job at SIA and she already can't wait to use her airport pass for discounts at the airport. Not that we have anything to complain about. Bring it on!! So we had a scrumptious late lunch at Crystal Jade, Terminal 2. Sigh ... really, really wish I was flying off somewhere and not just there for lunch. I'll just have to be patient. And be good at work so that everything moves along nicely and I'll be able to fly off as soon as possible! YEAH! So I can't complain it's the start of another work week tomorrow (-.-)

Mood: Inspired - watching "The Morning Express" and wanting to be like 方老师 - so dedicated, so energetic, so passionate. (Have Mobtv - thanks to that 7 pm Elvin show which is almost impossible to watch on time, if any at all, everyday.)

Good night, good Monday and have a great week ahead!

爱: 7th Heaven!

Late Night Murakami

"Yet somehow, guided by this seemingly random convergence of thirty-six coincidences, I find myself communicating with you." --- from The Kangaroo Communiqué, The Elephant Vanishes, 1993 (English Edition 2001)

This is why I love Haruki Murakami. A simple sentence that digs deep into the lore of logic and a deluge of revelation erupts from the deepest depths of the mind, like the wind-up Ol' Faithful.

Songburst

A trip to mountain vale
     my heart is lost
buried in
     the weather-beaten path
seeped in
     the cracks of mud huts
          like sun-baked dung

People of mountain vale
... the boy of capital city
... the monkey of a man
the fun of that dance
     the holding of hands

The chat over a wooden table
     in sizzling heat
the jump in the air
     red ribbon in hand
the constant chatter
     that breaks into songs
verses in the diary
     tell where the heart belongs

I fear not gazing
     into the light brown depths
     eyes of
          people of mountain vale
a pen and a page
     a few words that connect
so far away
     so close at heart
wait and wait
     when will we next relate?

I was casually screening the comments on my blog and found an old post by Namby Pamby who used to be my ardent reader - one on contemporary poetry that is unstructured freeflow of words and emotions. As I've been quite emotional of late, I've been inspired to pen the above. Again, another amateur work by an overly 诗情画意individual ... hehe ...

Well, NP would stimulate my thoughts with websites like this http://readerseye.blogspot.com/; we would discuss philosophies fervently, sometimes over MSN when I was freelancing a long time ago. I kind of miss this intellectual warfare :) I wonder if he's still keeping tabs on my posts?

For Fun Only!

It tells your birth history ... pretty darn neat!

http://www.paulsadowski.com/Birthday.asp

An excerpt of my humble existence:

Your date of conception was on or about 17 June 1975 which was a Tuesday.

You were born on a Tuesday under the astrological sign Pisces. Your Life path number is 8.

Life Path Compatibility:
You are most compatible with those with the Life Path numbers 2, 4, 8, 11 & 22.
You should get along well with those with the Life Path number 6.
You may or may not get along well with those with the Life Path numbers 1 & 5.
You are least compatible with those with the Life Path numbers 3, 7 & 9.

Your birthday falls into the Chinese year beginning 1/31/1976 and ending 2/17/1977.
You were born in the Chinese year of the Dragon.

Your Native American Zodiac sign is Wolf; your plant is Plantain.

You were born in the Egyptian month of Pachons, the first month of the season of Shomu (Harvest).

As of 7/13/2007 12:21:22 PM EDT
You are 31 years old.
You are 376 months old.
You are 1,635 weeks old.
You are 11,448 days old.
You are 274,764 hours old.
You are 16,485,861 minutes old.
You are 989,151,682 seconds old. (By November, I'll cross the billion seconds mark!)

For something brainier, try this brain teaser, which is lots tougher than the Quadropop game on my mobile that I'm so hooked on right now (by the way, I'm the highest scorer, at 58,420 points - I'm already playing the highest level!)

Hehe ... what can I say but that I'm so bo liao ...

Game Overview

Basic gameplay Vexed is a puzzle game in which your goal is to move similar blocks together, which causes them to disappear. Once all the blocks are gone, you've solved the level and you're presented with a new level to solve.You move blocks by putting the mousepointer on them and dragging to either the right or left. If an empty space is encountered, "gravity" takes over and the blocks fall towards the bottom. (:: click on image to start playing ::)

A Puppy's Call: Have Heart

It's like a blatant silent plea to the world to have heart for animals - this male long-coated chihuahua named Heart-kun has a heart-shaped pattern on his coat. The picture shows him sitting at Pucchin Dog’s Shop in Odate, northern Japan, July 10, 2007.

The one-and-a-half-month-old chihuahua was born on May 18, 2007 as part of a litter. The shop owner Emiko Sakurada said that Heart-kun was the first puppy to be born with these marks out of 1,000 that she had bred. She also said that she had no plans to sell the puppy.

遇见.空秋千

I don't normally listen to Chinese music but these two songs have me hooked; they are constant features on my recent playlists.

遇见 is from the movie 向左走向右走 starring Takeshi Kaneshiro and Gigi Leung, while 空秋千 is the theme of 原点 (The Beginning), a Channel 8 drama which ended its run last month, a collaboration between Mediacorp and Malaysia's NTV7 (if I'm not wrong) starring Shaun Chen, Felicia Chin and Lin Yuzhong. Neither are especially great shows, but the music tugs at my heartstrings.

Much more than the melody, I think it's the lyrics that I totally relate to, especially 遇见.

遇见 (孙燕姿 唱)

听见 冬天 的离开
我在某年某月 醒过来
我想 我等 我期待
未来却不能因此安排

阴天 傍晚 车窗外
未来有一个人在等待
向左 向右 向前看
爱要拐几个弯才来

我遇见谁 会有怎样的对白
我等的人 他在多远的未来
我听见风 来自地铁和人海
我排着队 拿着爱的号码牌

我往前飞 飞过一片时间海
我们也常在爱情里受伤害
我看着路 梦的入口有点窄
我遇见你是最美丽的意外

终有一天 我的谜底会解开



空秋千 (林宇中 唱)

荡秋千 来回终究要停在原点
望太远 眼前幸福却忽略
晃半圈 圆不了爱恋
高一遍 低一遍 风就吹散了永远

还想为你摇秋千 对着夕阳扮鬼脸
若月光再美一点 我们会否把手牵
还想被你碎碎念 当数流星的配乐
你却说你等不到天亮 空秋千 陪整夜

秋千和我失眠 在你影子身边
这公园太想念 你无邪的笑脸

Wednesday Woes

Exactly a month ago, when we were on the bus traveling to Wang Jiang Lou in Chengdu, and many people were on the streets - waiting at the bus stop, walking, cycling to work in their usual slow pace, a thermos of tea in the front baskets of their bicycles; I thanked God I was not one of those poor office workers who would be stuck in their miserable cubicles till evening while I had my leisurely tour of the city.

This morning, sitting at my cubicle, I am exactly one of them that I pitied.

Sorry for these early ramblings; it's just one of those days when you find yourself awake on the wrong side of the bed. Plus it's raining outside and I'm listening to some sad music on my Nano (which will soon be converted into the Nano Phone!). And my coffee is too sweet.

G'day y'all ...

777 Live Earth: Wear Green

Live Earth made an early appearance -- the balance on my ez-link card this morning showed $7.77. Well, that's not the point.

7.7.7, this coming Saturday, is the day slated for the world to come together to acknowledge the grave state dear planet earth is in, through music - the good part, and high profile political messages - which undoubtedly can be viewed both ways.

In any case, the telecast (on Channel 5 in Singapore) should raise considerable awareness among earthlings in preventing an irreversible crisis before it is too late.

We all play a part.
Wear GREEN this weekend.

Mattias Inks

Friend showed me this wonderful website. They are simply awesome sketches. I've added it to 'My Favourite Links' -- NEW THIS WEEK! :)

By the way, Transformers is a really awesome movie. Go watch!

爱: 是甜蜜的!

Didn't want to blog tonight but this picture is just so cute! Sweet! :)

爱: Noticing him ...

... at the same stop each morning

For XM: I know you've moved on, but sweet memories stay yeah :)

Hi H2-07

I went to get something from the supermarket near my place tonight and the cashier asked why I had not been there for so long. I would usually go there several times a week, for anything from soup ingredients to biscuits or some late night snacks like peanuts or "Roller Coaster" since the store opens till midnight.

I pondered over her comment for a while and realised how right she had been. I had not stepped foot in there in May and June - TWO full months and I didn't even realise that. It's like the past two months just quietly zipped past, and now we are at the very tail-end - the very last day - of the first-half of 2007.

Tomorrow, the new 7% GST kicks into effect. There's midnight sale going on everywhere and I'm at home. For the past hour, I've been trying unsuccessfully to book tickets for Transformers. "The system is experiencing an unusually high traffic." What's everyone doing at home booking tickets for Transformers? There's a sale going right now, helloooooooo ...

... oh, I'm finally getting through -- I got my tickets v(~.~)v

Hello H2-07

Oh well ... hope the second-half of the year is as smooth-sailing, peaceful and rewarding as the first. I'm still looking for new career opportunities, of course ... hope I hear some good news from my favourite broadcasters.

Sigh ... some key people in the company have resigned. Why is it that everytime I'm beginning to feel comfortable in my job, something happens that signals I could be on a sinking ship and I had better have the shore in sight?

Bored: Writing Presentation Transcript

Whoever heard of writing a presentation transcript? A post-presentation transcript, at that.

One of the many crappy necessities that come with the perks of the job. I asked why it was needed, if it was simply a waste of time. The argument was that if a third person were to present, he'll know what to say.

Yeah right. Like that's gonna happen. But ok, I'll accept that in goodwill, since there's not very much I'm doing right now at work. Still in sort of a honeymoon period.

Oh, aside from revising the additional hours request forms umpteen times since Monday! Can you believe that? Something is really very wrong in the admin system here ...

Otherwise, I'm really looking forward to the next leg of my project.

Bangladesh, Turkey, Vietnam, China, Thailand ...

Captivity of Freedom or Liberty of Limitations?

I guess this is one of those nights when the mind goes philandering, digging up dirt from the deepest corners of the head.

I suddenly think of one of my recent favourites, The Famished Road.

An excerpt:
"I was a spirit-child rebelling against the spirits, wanting to live the earth’s life and contradictions. Ade wanted to leave, to become a spirit again, free in the captivity of freedom. I wanted the liberty of limitations, to have to find or create new roads from this one which is so hungry, this road of our refusal to be."

Do you see

captivity in freedom

or

liberty in limitations

?