ruminator embodiment

I always have a knack for remembering useless things. Think my mind has a tendency to fill my memory storage with useless matters before I get to proceed to think about my problems. And I ponder over them endlessly too (till I've got a definite answer). Here's a list of what I've been ruminating lately:

1. Why do I always love to write important details in abbreviations? I can't remember what they mean when I read them again!
2. How come drivers of normal-sized vehicles (sedans like a 1.5 Toyota Vios) can occupy two lanes on a straight road as if they're driving an Isuzu container lorry? 
3. Or that some vehicles speed just to overtake your vehicle, only to drive at 30% the speed in front of you?
4. How come consuming coffee can keep one awake yesterday and not today?
5. How come chips from one bag can be evenly seasoned and another of the same flavor not?
6. There are days when I paused to think of how to spell simple words like 'straight'. (Oh god I must be turning dumber) 
7. I've been counting the number of dramas that I stopped watching at the second last episode as I don't want the series to end with me watching their last episodes. And I realized it's A LOT. You''ll most probably get a response like this from me, "Oh that drama? Yeah I've watched it till the second last episode so I can't really tell you if I think it's fantastic or not. Up to that point, I think it'll get a 7/10 but knowing me, I'll fail it as soon as I know it's a terrible/utterly depressing/hasty ending."
8. Workaholics can also be defined as a group of people who naturally work compulsively once they stepped into their workplace or working mode but once they stop or leave, they find that they hate their jobs. But hey, it's a vicious cycle.
9. Silence is never 'golden' in the library. Just head down to the one in my school.
10. It's not that women don't like answering questions relating to their age. It's just that when a female reaches a ripe old age of 25, she just doesn't see the point of keeping count after that.

measure of a man

"The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort, but where he stands in times of challenge and controversy."

                                                                                                                                                                    ~ Martin Luther King, Jr.

hues of sunset @ mandai

Rediscovered a great place to view sunset. Moderately deserted. Saw a few lovable children running around, even a couple having their wedding photo shoot. And of course, the mesmerizing shades of dusk that seems to put a serene full-stop to the buzz of daytime. Perfect for a couple like us.

intriguing...

one laid-back day

I realized that many of my friends have been opting for a quiet laid-back weekend lately to unwind from the stressful life that we all lead. Feeling suffocated from constant mental pressure, discovering lesser known (that means lesser crowd too) eateries is my recent hobby to escape into my relax-and-enjoy-my-food realm. 

Kevin and I chanced upon Ma Maison at Boat Quay when we were looking for a nice dessert after having awful ramen. I love all things homely and cozy, and just a peek into this French-inspired Japanese eatery has me determined to visit there. We finally went there to have our (early) dinner the next weekend!

 

We were lucky to get a secluded corner table next to the window overlooking a part of the Singapore River without making any reservation. This is the view from our table.

 

I was surprised when the waiter puts this metal key and tag on our table. The waiter must have seen our puzzled look, and explained that we've to present this at the counter upon payment. Looks like a key for a hotel room right?

 

Kevin's: Tonkatsu Set with their special homemade sauce and salt (not in picture)

 

Mine: Beef Stroganoff Omelette Rice 

Black Sesame ice-cream

Caramel Pudding

The restaurant was full by the time we snapped out of our eating delight when we are done eating, with a long waiting queue outside.

After much persuasion, Kevin finally gave in to my suggestion of driving to Tanjong Pagar just to have a taste of a cup of milkshake from this increasingly popular ice-cream parlor. I like their packaging, but not really their taste. It tastes good when we drink it at first, but it gets overly sweet after that, leaving us sick of it. Nonetheless a nice yummy day!

how do you comfort a loved one?

A person who's very dear to me has lost a loved one. But I've no idea how to comfort him and make him feel less painful. Should I sit down and cry with him as I'm feeling sad too? Or should I try to be as cheerful and make him laugh so that he will brighten up a little, at least a little?

Le Concert

This movie's plot piqued my interest that I went ahead to watch it without understanding any of the dialogue in its trailer. Le Concert is a French film which sets in Russia, on a janitor of the historic Bolshoi Grand Theater - Andrei Filipov.

Andrei, once regarded the greatest conductor in Russia, was the Maestro of the Bolshoi orchestra thirty years ago. During one of the performances at the height of his career, he was fired and accused of being a traitor for refusing to abandon his Jewish musicians in the same orchestra. That performance was thus disrupted halfway and they never got to perform the Violin Concerto in D major by Tchaikovsky, the Russian composer whose works Andrei is so passionate about, again.

Now a cleaner there, he happened to be cleaning the Bolshoi's director's room when he saw a fax from France's prestigious Chatelet Theater, inviting the current orchestra to perform there. Seeing this as an opportunity to perform once again, he gathered his old musician friends who are now having menial jobs and attempt to pass them off as the Bolshoi orchestra.

Minus the part about the performance being disrupted and the naming of the musical piece, this is what I interpret from the synopsis and trailer. However, I was in for a surprise as this story delves much deeper. Beneath the surface of a madcap comedy portrayed by Andrei's friends is a surprising tragedy and truth that connects everyone of them together.

It helps if you possess some knowledge on the stereotypical representations of Russians and Jews to get the humor but I feel that it just takes an audience who's willing to read deeper into what's shown to 'feel' for the characters here. Even though the middle part of this movie starts to lose some vitality, the ending with le concert makes up for all that it lacks with a brilliant performance of the Tchaikovsky's piece which I feel is like an explosive burst of the whole orchestra's sentiments throughout the thirty years.

on being a sub-editor

"The news is thrown at him in huge miscellaneous masses, which, but for his labours, would kill the reader stone-dead with mental indigestion. He has to cook this mass, having first trimmed it into reasonable proportions, keeping one eye on the probable accuracy of the facts as stated, another on the law of libel, another on various other considerations which crop up from time to time, such as the law relating to elections, and yet a fourth, which must be no less vigilant than the other three, upon the clock. Sub-editors, when I meet them, seem to have only two eyes just like other people; where they keep the other two I cannot say, but I know they must have them."

~ Edward Shanks (in Harold Evans, Essential English for Journalists, Editors and Writers)

This passage is a sharp observation on how a sub-editor, or a 'copyreader' in the US or a 'text editor' in Britain, work. I thought it presents the juggling of the various factors that comes with this job wonderfully in just a paragraph.

Edward Shanks, an English poet, writer, academic, literary critic and editor; describes the work of a sub-editor in its very essence like a true-blue journalist - short without missing any relevant or important points with a flair for witty, creative depictions.

shot by rosebullet

Always on the lookout for alternative clothes' brands, my best friend and I discovered Rosebullet a few years ago. At that time, this Japanese label has just been launched in Singapore, the first in the South-East Asian region. I remembered how exhilarated both of us were at finding a label wherein its style is just so, well, our style of dressing - simple and sweet while playing with every details. Plus, we were delighted at not always having to buy from the dominant labels.

Unfortunately, the style of its collections gradually changed to a more flamboyant one, perhaps due to the departure of its Japanese Manager whom I believed was in charged with selecting which apparels and accessories to be brought in here. Hoping that I would finally see a revert back to the original style, I would always be disappointed after stepping out of Isetan, where it is located. Eventually, I stopped going there for my fashion fix.

That was the case till I happened to pass by there again last Saturday. I had the exact feeling when I first saw its clothes that it is like a re-bonding session. I bought a cute navy dress with mini gold studs all over it and received its catalog that showcases its spring/summer collection. I loved the whole package of its presentation - the summer-vacation theme, the choice of colors, and the laid-back style of the clothes - that best encapsulates these two seasons:

a handbag affair

Today's lecture was about buyer behavior and when my lecturer explains the buyer decision process, I know exactly what he is talking about.

The Buyer Decision Process:

1st stage - Need Recognition:
My only versatile (in terms of style and function) has gave up on me with four holes which were once fastened with rivets. Refusing to give up on it, I went to a few repair stores to get it fixed but they don't just don't have the same rivets as those on my handbag. They don't even have those in similar colors. Sigh... So I've been carrying my mom's handbag but I still have to get one for myself.

Verdict: I need a handbag.

2nd stage - Information Search:
This handbag affair has me absorbed in looking at photographs (zoom in, top view, back view) of one tote bag after another for a week now. That explains the dark circles around my eyes. I think I'm now more than ever qualified to join the panda-look-alike club.

3rd stage: Evaluation of Alternatives:
But how am I going to chose one that I really like and is suitable for me without bombing on my wallet? That needs a precise filter system.

So hopefully, the fourth stage of purchase decision arrives soon and that the fifth stage of postpurchase behavior will be a positive one unlike the negative sentiment I felt for my previous handbag that doesn't last.

Seriously, why do academics love to put labels on every single minuscule commonsensical stuff?

happy chinese new year

Have a roaring Tiger year filled with happiness, good health and great fortune! Happy Chinese New Year!

I Am

I am ...
A woman
With a full heart, hidden
Somewhere in an empty room ...
With eyes not quite of autumn's gold, and yet
Neither all of summer's green;
I wonder ...
If love is a tale made for children --
A granting of sweet dreams in their innocence --
A honey-coating to help their throats
Choke down the bitter draught ...
I hear ...
A voice that whispers warnings, half-formed,
Bodiless as hope, until I swear I cannot draw
Another breath unless this spectre be unmasked,
His lies mangled ‘neath my righteous tread;
I see ...
A woman, proud, uncompromising,
Diaphanous as air -- less, even, than the tears
That fall in desolation about her weary feet,
Salt poison pooled upon the withered ground ...
I want ...
A measure of quietude, a certain silence,
The echo of alone which heals me of dreaming,
The nothing that stills the wanting,
The numb, the cold that laughs at pain;
I am
A woman,
hidden ...

I pretend ...
That I can live forever -- that Time
Has no puissance but that which I afford Him --
And so, I can wait, I can be happy tomorrow,
Sleep is for the dead; but its ghosts haunt my waking ...
I feel ...
Too much -- too deeply to be directionless,
Too real for imagining, and yet the familiar eyes
Hold nothing of recognition -- only my reflection --
A meeting of shadows in sunlit glass;
I touch ...
The downy wings of hope, in wonder,
In reverence, in need, in hunger;
Alas, it burns my fingers as a flame,
A sacrilege, self-defined ...
I worry ...
That I am alone; that in my longing
I have forsaken all -- but oh, what reward,
What smile divine should light the path to freedom --
And how can I but heed the siren's call?
I cry ...
For having too much, for fear of bursting,
And then, when by the pouring of my soul
I lie, a vessel emptied, I cry again
For what was had, and lost;
I am
A woman,
empty ...

I understand
That life is what you make it,
That sometimes, the coat of many colors
That marks your triumphs brightly, blends only
To loneliest of grey ...
I say
That we are made by life, shaped,
Broken, perhaps -- unmade and voided --
But always, the core of us remains, waiting
With only faith, with trust, to be reborn;
I dream
Of bluest waters, reaching
With unnatural hands toward the faded sky,
Of dolphins that wander in seas without limits,
Carrying me water-breathing past corals and clouds ...
I try ...
To lead by example, knowing
That merely the telling holds no power;
A gift of giving is merely a day, while
A gift of knowing spans forever;
I hope ...
That my darkness holds you gently,
That pain is halved by sharing, that feeling
Wields nothing past the words it summons,
Except that it touch you with only healing ...
I am
A woman,
only.


~Skyfyre

CNY oh CNY

Yay! Finally a break!

Even though it's a break from school and not from work (and a very short one too), I'm pretty hyped up knowing that Chinese New Year (CNY) is just around the corner! I'm probably the only one who's that excited for CNY as it's the only time in the year where I get to have the whole family, including both of my sisters' (as they're married), get together and spend some quality time.

Haha I'm in such good mood anticipating that the exhaustion I just accumulated juggling assignments and work for several months wear off when I think of what to decorate my house with for this upcoming festivities. I've bought two gigantic yellow pineapples (a symbol for good fortune and luck) and a lovely 福 (which means the same thing as the pineapple), in which the font is designed with pink and red peonies in cardboard.

I happened to drive past a store selling CNY decors on my way to school when this huge yellow pineapple hanging between two smaller red pineapples caught my eye. I couldn't get the picture of it off my mind for some reason and as I'm always in a rush to school, I didn't stop and purchase them. I was so fixated on them that I told Kevin (my bf) that I must get them.

Thinking they are easily available, I looked for them at similar stores when I passed by them on foot but all of them don't carry this specific pineapple. Fellow Chinese must be thinking 'why' right? That's because the one I eyed on is the largest one - 45 inches - as compared to the ''normal' size of about 20 inches. That supposedly enormous one just seemed like the right size to me that I refused to buy any of biggest ones (30 inches) available there.

When I finally went to that store and purchase them, I was (and still is) elated. Walking away with the pair of $38 pineapples, I was grinning from from ear to ear. Once I reached home, Kevin helped me to set up and stapled them as they were in the initial flattened state.

The moment he helped me hung them up, I couldn't help laughing to myself. They're really huge! Way too big to be hung at the sides of my front door! Kevin was like, 'don't look at me, I told you it's going to be really huge, you're the one who's bent on getting it in this size'. What if my three mischievous little nephew and nieces pull them down?!

As my camera is not working anymore and I'm still contemplating on whether I should splurge on one, I can't upload any photographs on them at the moment. I'll try to upload them soon! Meanwhile, I hope that all the Chinese have as much fun and enjoyment as me preparing for CNY!

頑張ります!

Came across this quote that I like very much:

"The quality of your life depends less on what you are doing with your body, and more on what you are doing with your time and spirit. Keep your soul nourished and everything else will fall into place."

Even though my circumstances resulted in me having a job I don't like, I do feel alive and rejuvenated whenever I'm studying. These steps I'm taking may seem like baby steps, but the time and the joy of working on my chosen field of interest in university constantly remind me that I have to keep moving on to my goal regardless of the odds.

頑張ります! (I'll try my best!)

the start of something wonderful

The break of dawn illuminates shades of orange hues across the horizon, signifying the arrival of a brand new day.

Since life is a short-lived luxury that is engulfed in a cycle of light and darkness, let this marks the start of something wonderful that's here to stay.

~A.W.

Happy New Year everyone!
May you and your loved ones be blessed with joy, good health and fortune throughout 2010!