aprilsiow

Quit Week

2012-01-24T07:44:00.000-08:00

Yakkety Yak

When in doubt drink 100plus
When in doubt always drive straight
When in doubt always say Yes to bagels
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Click on image to view a larger version

Okay, so that last bit ain't real, and I wasn't the genius who came up with such a perfect explanation to my own status update either...
..but you gotta admit, it is hilarious :D

So I finally got the guts to quit my job last week and I vaguely announced it on Facebook right after I handed in my 3-months notice to HR, where I had only moments before, broke the news to my bosses.

One by one, I told each of them I was leaving, and judging by their immediate response, I guess none of them saw it coming...they assumed I was going to announce that I was getting married when I said I needed to talk to them. funny.

Frankly, I was a nervous, jittery bunny that morning, who couldn't sit still and I kept popping candy and chocolate in my mouth in anticipation of the moment where I would tell my bosses that I'm quitting, and the lengthy explanation of what?where?when?how?WHY? that would ensue.

Its the moment of no turning back. I've not heard of anyone who has ever rescinded their resignation in the Bank, but I sure don't hope to come back crawling, crying, screaming and kicking for my job back. haha.

The news was taken in quite positively by the bosses, which is a good thing. There was hardly any drama and definitely no screaming of 'you ungrateful b*tch!!' (files, books, stapler flying across the desk). Ok, itu imagination.

My boss was quite concerned about me losing all of the Bank's benefits and how I wouldn't earn as much doing what I intended to do. He wasn't too convinced when I told him I was gonna take some time off work to pursue some passions, enroll in some courses and maybe learn a new thing or two.

But I don't blame him much, he is after all married, with young kids to feed and has a house to pay for, so the idea of being unemployed is probably not very acceptable for him. So he probably thinks I'm crazy, rash and immature for giving up a job that pays well. But at the end of our discussion, he uttered a classic 'is there anything I can do to make you stay? line..making him sound like some lousy, clingy boyfriend getting dumped. haha.

The deputy gave me the 'Oh no' look of disdain when I broke it to her, which oddly in my 1 and 1/2 years here in this department, its the first real facial expression I've seen from her, a depart from her usual inexpressive demeanour, aside from the occasional half smirk/semi-smile she flashes at you when you walk by her. It sends the chills, sometimes.

She's a woman of a few words, but she muttered something about 'going for your dreams', or... something dreams lah (Can't make out what she says sometimes, and the same goes with her handwriting) and I felt a hint of regret as she was saying that, almost as if...at one point in her life, she wished she could have done the same as well.

I should have prodded her further, asked her what her true dreams were..and then she would reply 'Figure Skating!' and to that her eyes would light up with the fires of a thousand Olympic torches, and all the expression that is lost on her would come back and put a proper darn smile on her face, and she'd storm out of the office inspired, screaming 'I dreamed a dream!'

Ok fine. imagination again :D

If you're wondering, no I haven't figured out how to tell my parents yet. Honk Honk!

The current strategy is, to pretend and hope that they won't notice. HAHA.
No but seriously, I'm half considering not telling them until 3-months from now when mom tries to wake me up from bed thinking I'm late for work, and thats when I'll casually say ...'oh yea that. yea I don't work there anymore'. Back to Zzzzz

My parents are from the generation where even if your job sucks, you're expected to suck it up anyhow, and that nobody enjoys their work anyway, so why are you complaining? Job satisfaction and fulfillment would probably be a lost subject on them, more so if whatever you intend to do won't guarantee you a steady income, a promotion or annual increment, medical insurance or watever. Being typical Chinese parents, they won't comprehend how suppressed I felt in the Bank, or how the life in me was fading away with each day I spent in the office, they won't understand depression and they...just won't get it.

I don't think there will ever be a right time or way to tell them, because any good reason will still mean I'm pissing away a good job and good money.

I popped by to talk to some friends in the next block on the day I handed in my resignation, it felt good talking about it, and I felt free :)

Perhaps the paranoia stemming from the fact that I'll soon be jobless and living on my *cough*cough* savings will hit me later, and I might just wake up in the middle of the night and start breaking out in cold sweat..but so far, I've been fine :)

Don't wait for your ship to come to you,
swim to it!
-@p-

Come here......and smear!

2012-01-21T20:58:00.000-08:00

Yakkety Yak

I met with a young man who has an ocean romance and he calls it the way of life.

We're all riding the same waves.
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I spent New year's eve like a 40-year old...lying in bed reading the newspapers, in jammies...and when midnight struck and 2012 came, I was none other than...fast asleep, despite all the fireworks and the commotion created by a party (is that what its called nowadays?) downstairs hosted by a bunch that I shall refer to as...'young ppl'. haha =p

I guess I'm not really that ancient (yet), after all..I did make up for the lack of 'party initiative' earlier on, having had my fun during Christmas already.

I had the great pleasure of celebrating Xmas in Krabi, Thailand this year :)

And like always, I have many many ang moh's to prove it! :D

More ang moh's than the usual, and mostly semi-naked ones, sprawled all over the place. Ang moh's seem to have this thing about taking their clothes off whenever they hit the coastal areas of Thailand.

Young, or old, they have no qualms about strutting about in their speedos, even when its to go shopping.

If he's intending to shop...where does he keep his money?

I didn't partake in much of the chui sam activity (Cantonese for take off clothes), being Asian, and a bit more reserved when it comes to my choice of beachwear, my conservative 1 piece suit stood out amongst the ang moh's and their skimpy-oh-won't-you-rub-sun-tan-lotion-on-me bikinis.

But atleast I touched the water. I'm guessing by the mass of ang moh's that were at the beach in Aonang, all the Asian's must have either been hiding under some tree or in some place with air conditioning.

In fact, there were so few Asians spotted at the beach that one could play an unchallenging game of....'I spy.....with my lil' eye....something that starts with an...A! '

*responds faster than the speed of light*

Asian! :D

Come on baby...hop on

But there's definitely alot more to Krabi than shirtless/pantsless ang moh's, for one, its the ideal place soak up on cheap booze. Only in Thailand I have the luxury of alcohol to accompany (and complete) every meal (except breakfast laa..I can't imagine pancakes and Chang beer, can you?).

And there's a magical little roadside stall selling kick-ass mojitos for 89 baht...ahhh just heavenly...

I miss Krabi. I really do.

Fail jason mraz wannabe, satu, tak hensem,
kedua, he doesn't sound good pon

I for one, cannot get over how awesome it is to wake up every morning and the buffet breakfast serves you REAL bacon, I stuff myself with it before only deciding what to do for the rest of the day, in which the itinerary mostly involves lazing by the beach, getting cheaper-than-anything-you-can-find-on-Groupon massages, drinking mojitos in the afternoon, eating panckes with bananas drizzled with condensed milk (yums!) and having fresh coconuts. slurps!

ahhh...such is a holiday :)

Also in Krabi, I got to sit on a motorbike! Albeit helmet-less and along with 2 others, (3 people on a bike hell yeah!) Now thats some holiday adventure!

virgin ride on a motorbike woo-hoo!
(identity of driver hidden for reputational purposes)

Bikes, scooters...everywhere in Krabi & easy to rent

I think Krabi is a wonderful place to spend a relaxing holiday. Frankly, I'd pick Krabi over Singapore, or Penang anytime simply because...well, I went to both places in the recent year and I can assure you that Singaporeans suck, and Penang drivers are like from another planet.

The path that leads to massages by the beach

I was so busy stuffing my face with bacon and booze there...that I forgot to take an all important jump shot..which is something I do whenever I'm on holiday, like very recently in Cameron...

Secretly, I practice my crouching tiger hidden dragon stance at a
hilltop in Boh tea plantation in Cameron Highlands
Photo credits to Noddy

...and even in Singapore, with Sentosa island in the backdrop, and moronic onlooking Singaporeans watching me prance up and down.

So, in keeping with the tradition...I had to improvise!

yee-ha!

Gong xi fa cai everyone!
-april

Hit the wheels

2011-11-18T22:33:00.000-08:00

Yakkety Yak

I might have just unintentionally hit someone in the crotch the other day.

oops.
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Here's how a supposedly healthy day began...

with calories!

I blame it all on Nick. haha.

Followed by the actual physical activity (which was the main agenda)...cycling :)

Now, if you own a bike but you're guilty of stashing it in your storeroom or god knows where in your house, leaving it to collect dust...and the reason you don't take it out much is because KL sucks since you're likely to get rammed down by a car or some rempit if you attempt to ride outside...ah well, I agree with you :)

Atleast that was what I used to think until I discovered Kepong Park, also known as Kepong Metropolitan Park.

Easily accessible from the MRR 2, its just about a 15 minute drive from Mutiara Damansara. The place is pretty popular for kite flying, as there's lotsa open space (95 hectares!) and it has ang-moh style dedicated cycling & jogging tracks, making it quite a pleasure to both the runner and the two-wheeler :)

Thats not a lil' Japanese woman on a bike..thats Poh Lynn!

Plus, 57 hectares of it consists of the lake which gives the park a beautiful natural scenery...great for photos too :)

Spot the twin towers!

I particularly like part of the lake where a large plot of Lotus flower grows. The Lotus flower is a popular representation of Buddhist teachings, as the pristine Lotus flower emerges from its roots located in mud, most oftenly in the dirtiest of waters or even in stagnant water.

I went through great muddy lengths for this photo

Yeah, that no make the lake sound so good. But anyway, the Lotus flower symbolizes the achievement of enlightenment and purity of the mind...or something like that lah. For further reference on this subject matter, you'll have to ask my good friend, Buddha :))

The lake makes a good 4 to 5km loop around it, making it a great training ground for anyone who's aspiring to complete their first 10k marathon. The track is only semi-challenging, with some incline..but generally flat...which makes it all the more desirable for leisure cycling and easy runs :)
Although...when I said it was semi-challenging...it may have just been too much for some...

what Mc D as a pre-work out meal does to you. =p

I'm a happy camper riding in the park, and I foresee I'll pop by here a lot more during the weekends. Well anyway, even if riding on 2 wheels ain't your thang'...nonetheless, its still a great place to have Mc D's :))

-@p-

Three heartbreaks

2011-11-06T00:07:00.000-07:00

In my early adult years, there were 3 things that had happened (well, so far only three)...that broke my heart.

The first was in Australia, when I went over to Melbourne to do my final year in uni, and I got my heart broken by someone I trusted and cared for deeply.

St.Kilda's beach, Melb

Ackshually...to say that my heart was broken is a bit of an understatement, it felt more like being hit by a train that I never saw coming. It came and it knocked the living daylights out of me....and I was left there half-alive and broken all over.

Its sad that it had to happen when I was in such a beautiful city, and it was so excruciating to deal with it alone...far away from family, close friends..and yes, cat.

What ensued was a tough couple of weeks after, I carried around with me a sick feeling in my stomach and a huge lump in my throat. But eventually, I came back to my senses...got up and moved on.

Frankly, I don't remember much about it anymore, it seems kinda fuzzy now to me...despite that it was only a couple of years back. I guess it hurt so bad until my sub-conscious intentionally bleeped it out of my life.

But anyway, I've left that behind me now so lets not go back there.

The second major cause of my heartache was when I lost my car back in 2007, just before Christmas...which was a real bummer.

Losing my car is somewhat hard to concoct, I mean..it was after all...a 12-year Wira, with dents and paint chipped off from here and there...and I parked it in a legitimate, non-dodgy parking lot. So you could imagine my disbelief upon returning from work to find that my car wasn't at where I left it.

Coming to terms that my car got stolen was difficult, but the other half of the heartache was contributed by my parents, mostly by my father, who chose to think that it was my fault that the car was stolen and tried to find all sorts of reasons to pin it on me.

Its as if had I told him 'Yes dad, I moronically left the car unlocked with the keys in the ignition!'...only would he be satisfied upon solving the mystery of why the car went missing.

My parents are pretty darn awful at being empathic, to a point where I'd keep from them whatever misfortunes that I may stumble upon due to their apathy and their ability to make things worse than they already are with their harsh, emotionless words.

So much so that a light pat on the back, and a simple 'its gonna be okay' seems impossible for them.

When I was in primary school, I remember my dad screaming at my sister over a small accident she got into while picking me up from tuition. Aside from a broken side indicator lamp on the driver's side and a mild dent, there wasn't much to justify the screaming over, frankly.

I grew up knowing that no matter how small the damage, there would never be much sympathy anyway.
It would always be as if you did it on purpose, and never an accident.

The third most heartbreaking incident happened just recently when I banged up my brand new Lagi Best while coming out of a parking lot because I didn't see the short metal tiang that was on my right.

Moronic of myself? Yes.
Intentional? Hell no. Why would someone willingly damage their car? Not unless I'm Lindsay Lohan and I'm pissed drunk (and probably high) enough to crash my car and not care.

It is both heartbreaking and WTF to hit your car, especially if it was an error of judgement on your part, which could have been avoided all together had I just been more careful.

But as it is with life, shit just happens anyway. And I guess no matter how bad you bang your car up, and no matter how scared it leaves you, you'll eventually come to terms with it..and realize that whatever damage that is incurred to your car is purely material...and it can be replaced.

What matters is worse things that could have happened didn't happen, and at the most you would endure is a deficit in your bank acc.

Now if only more of us could realize that, there would be less screaming at kids, spouses, friends...and overall, happier people :)

-@p-

Simplified

2011-10-15T01:43:00.000-07:00

Sometimes life hits you in the head with a brick.
Don't lose faith.

Steve Jobs

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For the man who simplified computers for the masses.

I never realised just how impactful Steve Jobs' inventions were until I set foot in Singapore for the first time this year.

The Land of Kiasu

Only in Singapore did I realise that the iPhone was so immensly popular that even old aunties sitting in the MRT were seen engrossed playing Angry Birds .

Yes, at that point. The coolness factor about owning an iPhone 4 was sucked right out of me.
damn.

So if you consider Singapore's iPhone per capita ratio alone.. *chup*

(woah tengah guna Bahasa BNM ni... But hmmm, iPhone per capita..ke..or iPhone penetration rate?

Call me a horny banker if you may but I seriously think using the word 'penetration' in a powerpoint slide is just wrong.
My bosses however, think otherwise.

So who's horny now? :D

Anyway, if you think of how many aunties in Singapore are catapulting exotic birds at discoloured green pigs while commuting....and how many adolescent Singaporean teenage kids are making out like right now on the MRT while Facebooking on their iPhones....Heck, thats each and every boring, sad Singaporean life that has been touched by Steve Jobs.

The point is, we all been graced by his magical creations in one way or the other :)

My first experience with an Apple product was way back in primary school, when my sister got her hands on a Macintosh computer to aid in her graphics work.

Being a typical sibling from hell as there is in every ordinary family, she barred from me ever using it.

Nevertheless, I thought it was the coolest thing at home.

What I fondly remember about that computer was the 'Bad Dog' screensaver. Its a classic old screen saver from the 90's that features a dog running around and tearing holes in your desktop screen and creating all sorts of mayhem. I particularly like how it drags the 'trash can', (akin to Microsoft's 'Recycle bin')..overturns it and eventually pee's on it.

Bad dog!

naiceeeee. heheh.

Many years later, I purchased my first iPod at a shop called JB Hifi in Australia, as an expensive X'mas gift to meself...

..which for the first few days, I could not figure out how to turn on, there you have it a classic example of...iFail. :)

Then...at 23, I enriched my life with an iPhone, and was at awe at what a wondrous piece of human invention it was.

Buying an Apple product is a pretty big deal for me, because its like I've waited 15 years or so to finally be able to afford something 'Apple' on my own.

So like you..(shall resist from comparing myself to a Singaporean. ewww) my life has been magically graced by Steve Jobs and his awesome creations.

Steve, I can't thank you enough for the iPhone.
If it weren't for you...I'd be forced to do other things to look busy at work.

So what's your Apple story?

Don't settle.

-@p-

Where's the champagne...?

2011-09-17T00:02:00.000-07:00

Yakkety Yak

Love is when your partner diligently eats McDonald's for you every week just so you can collect limited edition Snoopy collectibles.
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Despite taking up photography only two years back, I've been lucky enough to have been at the right place, at the right time on many occasions...to take some of the most embarrassing photos of people, ever.

Lucky for those people, I've never revealed most of those photos, simply because I kept them locked up in my computer, purely for my own viewing pleasure, whilst accompanied by my cat....and we snicker at what an idiot the photo makes you look like :D

Yeah I've kept most of them out of public scrutiny.
that is.......until now :D
*evil laughter in the background*

On X'mas eve 2009, in Perth, I witnessed a man running in WinZ's garden with his pants down.

Sounds totally wrong, and it makes you wonder what kind of business WinZ does in her backyard......but it's true!

You'd be surprised by how fast a man can run if he knew that a bunch of his male buddies were gonna pull down his boxers in front of a dozen cameras....and girls.

Sigh...boys will be boys. Its hard to understand why they'd wanna gang up on one another and expose each others 'shame-shame' to the camera.

Scarily enough, this dude looks like he's enjoying the process.

Anyway, last week, the sister got married and my annoying self & camera emerged yet again.
Being a typical Chinese wedding, it begun with the traditional 'chip san leong' (picking up the bride) ceremony followed by the tea ceremony.

So on Saturday morning my new brother-in-law arrived with his entourage of male buddies, also known as 'hing dai' in Cantonese.

Man, were these boys doomed from the moment they entered the building with their Hong Kong TVB style star-studded walk.

If only they knew what was in store for them.

Boys, here's a golden tip, pissing of a woman is never a good thing...especially one you're about to marry. You never know what she and her tze mui's (the bride's army) will put you through on the morning of the wedding.

Women are evil I tell you.

thats a muahahah...

Judging by how they transformed my brother-in-law from a man of this stature,

into this....
They even got his fellow comrades to enact selected poses from the karma sutra, which I thought was just brilliant! And a perfect addition to my collection of 'mm kin tak kong' (cannot see the daylight) photos.

bounce bounce baby

Hold me tight baby

demonstrating sit-ups...not!

They did so well I suspect they might have got soalan bocor from the tze mui's the night before and practiced on each other!

and they even make as great wedding cards :)

Seeing that my brother-in-low did not partake in any of the bounce-bounce on each others' bodyparts activity as intended by the tze mui's (darn!), he wasn't let off so easily and eventually had to step up to the next challenge.

Which he ended up looking like this...

ruining balloons forever...

and then this....

*Moi Beams with happiness* :D
Its moments like this that make me so thankful to have been there to capture these cherished moments on camera.

Sadistic, evil, sinister. yes. Where someone else's misfortune becomes your priceless work of art.

So anyway, the groom and his buddies ace every challenge, forcefully push pass some screaming tze mui's and barge through the door to get the bride.

And together, they walk out like Hollywood stars, end of story.

-@p-

The parting post

2011-07-29T21:07:00.000-07:00

Yakkety Yak

Li Li left for Belgium yesterday and left me with two parting words...'Keep Writing'.

I too, shall leave her with two words,
Thank you.

Take care.

God bless.

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Mauritius bebeh............!

And if u don't believe me (gosh, why wouldn't you? :D)
.....I have a picture of an ang moh to prove it!

still dun believe ah....?

moar moar ang moh!!

And got David Hasselhoff in action too.....

Okla....cut the crap, a couple of weeks back, I headed to Langkawi for some good ol' (and not that cheap either) cuti-cuti Malaysia.

It ain't Mauritius, but damn, the water looks great kan?

Every year or so, I make my pilgrimage to the island of Langkawi with a bunch of like-minded friends, whose intentions revolve mainly around getting their well deserved dose of duty free booze and to stock up on a year's worth of irish cider..and beer :))

That is...aside from me being a faithful employee trying to max out the Bank's resources by residing in the Bank's resort whenever I'm there :D

Apart from the wunderbarr wunderbarr heavenly heavenly cheaper-than-water-booze, I took the opportunity to jump in to Tasik Dayang Bunting and got my fertility boost.

Ooyea!

*peace sign*

This time, I hadn't had Fizah's DLSR camera with me, but I still managed some decent photos with my simplistic point-n-shoot Kodak digicam :)

Anyway, when I said I went to Mauritius, I'm sure you had absolute faith in my words and not a single doubt that I was pulling your leg.

Well of course I was,

and its just because I can :D

But but...if I said I went to Mauritius...and this was my opening photo...

...sure tipu wan.

heheh :D

@pril Siow wishes Li Li Chong a safe trip, all the best in Uni again, and hope she finds all that she's looking for :)
-@p-

Love & Property

2011-07-17T05:33:00.000-07:00

Yakkety Yak

Awkward...is when you see a co-worker strut around in her underwear in the women's bathroom

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So lately, I've been helping Bev look for a place to buy.

It hasn't turned out so great, apparently developers these days think we have five hundred thousand worth of pocket change to throw into their face in exchange for something a little larger than a hotel room.

What chu say? the unit has its own courtyard?

Bam!!! Buy!

*throws half a million worth of 50sen coins at the agent*

(who cares if the agent dies anyway)

Its true that house prices now have gone up to crazy indecent amounts. So crazy expensive that its like I have to kidnap someone for ransom money just to afford a house.

And this is despite how the dumbass pooliticians still claim that 'house

prices are still manageable and the lowest in the region..bla..bla..'

Yeah, lowest...

likewise for our average salary.

With my current net worth, I can only cough up enough to afford...one

toilet.

Lousy........is when you can't afford a MINI with 4 wheels, nor can you afford a MINI with two wheels. (<-- clicky me!)

Lousy.

Anyhow, I'm in no rush to find a place...and quite frankly, I don't foresee myself buying any property in the near term.

Although, not everyone is as fortunate as I am to be able to wait-it-out...till these indecent prices stabilize, or till my net worth inflates (but thats a long-shot!)..but simply because, I still live with my crazy parents...

......and fat (irritable) cat :)

It may sound a bit crazy, but I think that buying a house is kinda like falling in love.

I have this childish fantasy...believing that out of the blue..the perfect house will just show up in front of me one day.

Like love, the more you try to look for it...the harder it is to come by, and the less likely you'll find it.

Cos sometimes, the best things that happen in life, come when you least expect it.

Having found the one I'd like to spend the rest of my life with, finding the perfect home doesn't seem like such an impossible task anymore :)

And every other crappy house you could have lived in, with or without crazy parents living in it...would just be worth every second of it because it would lead you right to 'the house'.

You'll know it in your heart, and you couldn't be more certain about anything else.

-@p-

Strawberries..and everything nice

2011-07-08T23:16:00.000-07:00

Yakkety Yak

Sometimes I think work is for people who don't know how to go out and appreciate photography.
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I went to Switzerland a couple of months back.

Hadn't had the time to blog about what an awesome pawsome time I had....since for most of the time there, I was busy frolicking on the grass.

[Click to enlarge & view the frolicking action]

You get a good taste of the country life in Switzerland.

Its a place where the grass is greener on the other side, I mean, literally.

moo-ti-ful moo-ti-ful!

The sight itself can be a bit orgasmic, I mean...just look at Bev.

Its such a pretty place, its like looking at a painting..and every photo you take looks like something from a postcard.

Its as if I could lie on the grass all day and not give a f*ck about the world.

And the fresh air is just invigorating to the senses..

and the body...since Fiza looks like she could beat me at high jump now.

I've got competition

*we gonna touch da sky!*

The whole time there, I felt as if the cast of The Sound of Music was gonna pop out and sing...

So long, farewell, auf Wiedersehen, good night
.....I hate to go and leave this pretty sight!

*cuckoo*cuckoo...*cuckoo*.....

I was gleefully happy with the scenery, the grass and the sun until I took the next few steps and I saw.......

Oh darn it!

*snaps back to reality*

More pictures of gorgeous Cameron Highlands up on Flickr soon!

Oh there goes gravity
-@pril

A matter of heart

2011-06-19T20:46:00.001-07:00

Yakkety Yak

Today someone tells me that they thought Banjaran Crocker was in Spain.

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Every now and then I'll have friends tell me that I should quit my job and go be some journalist or somethin'.

Its definitely an option I've considered before, especially since my I can FEEL the creative cells in my brain depleting day by day here. And sooner or later, my entire brain is gonna disintegrate *poof* into ash and donated as kitty litter.

And quite frankly, my ability to poke fun at people and collate 100% unbacked statistics into humourous charts (with the occasional lol-catz) in them has no proper use here.

(not that there's use for that anywhere, kan?)

But putting that aside, I'm flattered to hear that they think my writing is good enough to be print-worthy :))

But then again, what could I probably write for?

I can't write for food magazines because all I ever eat is nando's and free pizza (thanks nick).

Can't write bout sports either..couldn't care less about football ya' knoe?

But then again, if I got the chance to interview Nicole David..

I might just ask her to marry me.

I can't write for travel mags either, cos I hate travelling on my own.

Plus, I'm afraid of hantu when I stay in a hotel room alone.

Freaks me out man.

And no way in hell will I consider magazines like Cleo and Female. They're so lame that I'm surprised that people haven't come together and shredded these magazines for hamster bedding.

And besides, I so can't write stuff like 'Is he cheating on me?- 7 tell tale signs he's doing someone else!'

or..or stuff like...'Is my BFF sleeping with my guy?'

and if your BFF is a man, hell girl you've got issues to deal with!

Now sumthin' like 'Slap that office biatch' and 'How to act busy at work...& look Good!' would sound more like me.

Personally, I find the quality of our local magazines utterly crappy because there's hardly anything worth reading in them...you're basically paying for magazines which 1/2 of it consists of some ugly model donning ridiculously priced clothes holding some dead animal handbag... and the other 1/2 advertises some miraculous anti-aging creme scraped off the backs of Llamas from the mountains of Mongolia, probably.

They make me go ...'Who reads this shittttttttttttttt marn?

Local versions of Men's Health and Shape give crap advice about health and exercise that I hardly doubt that the writers have even the slightest peanut sense about fitness.

So..I think I just scrapped practically everything off list.

I heard that when you're deciding on a career change..you gotta step outside these walls, ya knoe' move outside the comfort zone...bla blaaa, grow feathers .. oh wait...that was Black Swan. *scratch scratch*.

I think the correct description is 'Learn to fly', or something macam tu lah.

Stepping outside your comfort zone is probably the first step to any sort of change, but we don't always have to step into something that completely differs from our beliefs and principles.

As some of us may have realised, but not all of us admit..is that we can't work for something and work it well if we don't believe in it.

And similarly, I can't write for something I don't believe in... no matter how much money gets pumped down my throat.

aprilsiow...in support of your beliefs, and writing about them!

-april

8 Alternative Endings for Black Swan

2011-06-03T09:48:00.000-07:00

If you did not watch Black Swan, none of this will mean anything to you.

If you really love ballet, don’t read this...you’ll probably want to hit me (very hard) with a stick

I am probably too simple minded to understand the dark twisted fantasy
– that is Black Swan.
So I other words…if you watched Black Swan and went ‘Huh?? at the end…
do carry on… :))

[click on picture to enlarge]

-april

Meatballs and gravy

2011-06-01T05:13:00.000-07:00

Yakkety Yak

Check this out..the acronym for the 5 Eurozone nations that have been considered weaker following the financial crisis, namely Portugal, Italy, Ireland, Greece and Spain is..........PIIGS.

its no wonder they can't fly.

_________________________________________________________________

My parent's have this uncanny ability to talk about the most inappropriate things during meal times.

You'd think that normal families would use meal times to catch up on each other, and you know to just...talk.

Instead, topics like poisonous cucumbers in Spain and salted eggs infused with toxic dye inevitably crop up when I'm halfway chowing down my dinner.

Its no surprise where the other half of my dinner usually lands up.

Though I understand that they are trying to protect me from 'death by cucumber' (amen) or contaminated eggs for the matter, but that doesn't really explain why my dad was giving me a lecture on the logistics of rubbish pork. He even provided an economic analysis about pig farms and detailed the pricing mechanism between pork prices and quality.

During the entire conversation, I think I gave him the same confused face I had when I was watching Inception...

and Black Swan.

What I'd give to have my parents ask me a normal...'How was your day?'

Instead...I get, 'How was your day? btw don't drink Taiwanese bubble tea cos' you'll get cancer.

But I suppose there is plenty of truth to be told when it comes to food these days..

I mean, from rubbish pork to fake chicken eggs to carcinogenic salted eggs, I think in time, we Chinese people would have contaminated enough to wipe out an entire 10 course Chinese menu.

What's left to eat nowwwwwwwwwwww????????

Anyway, whilst still at dinner...a little bird flew in and rested itself on my mom's shoulder and just might have hit itself on the transparent sliding doors on its way out..whispered to my mommy that....... Ikea might be closing down.

*ohh the horror*

*panic...panic...furniture furniture!*

My eyes were getting watery as I scooped the last spoonful of rice into my mouth.

No more Ikea.....? but.....but.....

.......I can imagine life without a SMÖRG, a BLOÄRG or a CÖMORJ.... :'(

If its true that Ikea's moving away, it'll be the saddest story to have ever originated from hotdogs and meatballs.

Oh you didn't know?

Ikea's restaurant was shut down for 'religious cleansing' recently.

I'll be as hell disappointed if the Swedish furniture giant decides to pack up and go, but I wouldn't be that surprised, since a lot of things that are built in this country aren't meant to last long, or work anyway.

Ikea, without you I'd have to rely on Daiso to furnish my home, albeit sad, and the children will be deprived of the wonders that a little allen key can put together so magnificently...and Governor would sob over our 3rd quarter GDP results that fell due to lower consumption in household furniture and...

never again will hot dogs be the same...

-april

Better late than..never

2011-05-28T05:27:00.000-07:00

Click on image to enlarge

Oh yea...I thought of this whilst lining up to pay for my food..

of what seemed to be taking like...a million years.

-april

Of two good friends...

2011-05-09T23:33:00.000-07:00

Yakkety Yak

Have you ever met someone and forgot entirely about them?

Today I remembered someone I met 3 weeks ago.

Well atleast I remembered...

___________________________________________________________________

My good friend Li Li Chong has a cute blog herself where she consistantly posts one positive entry-per day.

One positive-entry per day.

Its funny how we both react to desperation.

She blogs to keep her self sane and happy, and motivated (atleast a bit) to come crawling back to work everyday.

I blog to poke fun at people. heee =p

And also because I'm desperate to vent out all my pent up frustrations from having to sit through lengthy, unproductive, i-need-to-pee-badly!-meetings where at the end of it, more often than not...no decision is reached. Hence, the shit still hangs there because these smart asses (pun intended) can't decide how to wipe it off.

The best solution then...is not to offer them premium grade jackass toilet paper, or royal-bum baby wipes..but to hold them up by the collar..and punch them repeatedly in the face until they come to their senses.

Desperate times, call for desperate blogging.

And thats when I lament on why...why doesn't my cat poop out coffee beans that are worth as much as gold???

Anyway, moving on to good friend no.2..

The other day, good friend no.2 mentioned to me (as I was commenting about how ugly my office building is), that if you work in a central bank....you're either a scholar, or uncool. (or both)

..........i'm uncool :'(

*sobs*it hurts so bad.......

lol.

So now I'm uncool and I'm boring.

Boring because I can't draft a memo without signing off with..'for your consideration, please'.....boring because I have to bulletize common sense things in a powerpoint slide and idiot proof my presentations, and boring because..you can't tell your boss to grow a pair of balls.

Or have one, at the very least.

Announcement: Has anyone seen a missing pair of balls?

Should I convey it via a memo?

Its silly cos' any organisation that attempts to stiffle creativity will end up getting nowhere. Its when you fail to embrace the creativity and diversity amongst individuals, you're basically hiring employees for nothing..for nothing but to write letters and memo's exactly how you want it written.

Its as if a part of me dies everytime I use a powerpoint template and draw-up columns in blue, font Arial 12 point, bold.

Btw I had poached eggs for breakfast this morning.
Perhaps protein is good for writing? No?

Yeah I wrote this in the office on Tuesday morning. How boring.

-april

La vie c'est de la mer

2011-05-08T02:10:00.000-07:00

Yakkety Yak

Somebody once said this to me...

April is like a biscuit, now you see her...now you don't.
________________________________________________________________________

So yeah I went to China....and came back.

Nothin' much, same ol' stone dragon carvings, temples and more temples, jumped into the Lake of spring-blossom-lotus-flower-fortune, met Premier Wen Jiabao...yada-yada-yada...

....pranced around the Forbidden City and didn't do all that much really. ho-hum.

Okay fine, so I didn't go to China...

...unless of course, you believe that the Qin dynasty invented Semi-D houses and pangsapuri during imperial China. (and they drove MyVi's too!)

Anyway, I went to Kuching really.

its election fever in Sarawak!

And found out that the kucings in Kuching, aren't what I expected them to be.
Although there was quite a variety of felines, to name a few...

There was gargoyle Kucing.Its a sad story about how the cats turned into stone, mostly due to kitty misdemeanor. Occasionally...I tell the story to my cat whenever he attempts to jump onto the dining table and runaway with my breakfast.... Just to scare him :)

Then I met politicized kucing, who's heavily biased towards a particular political party.

I wonder how much they had to pay kitty.

And then...there's indecent kucing.

And also...kucing kesian.

nuff said...

Which then I came to the conclusion that kucings in Kuching are a bit sad.

Anyway, although the cats may be a bit unattractive, atleast there's kolo mee.
(yeah noodles & cats, not exactly related, but tak perr)

Although Kuching may not have big shopping malls and just about everything else I hate about KL, they have Kolo mee!

Kolo mee! Kolo mee! Kolo mee! Kolo mee! Kolo mee! Kolo mee! Kolo mee! Kolo mee! Kolo mee! Kolo mee! Kolo mee! Kolo mee! Kolo mee! Kolo mee! Kolo mee! Kolo mee! Kolo mee! Kolo mee!
*chants incessantly*

Sincerely, it is God's greatest gift...to Kuching.

So....u n me kolo mee rendezvous?

Darn, now all this city girl can do is sit behind her desk everyday, (and releases her insatiable cravings by sadistically throwing stationary at her office mates - see blog post below)...while she reminiscences about a bowl of kolo mee.

Damn. What I would give for a bowl of kolo mee?

I could immortalise kolo mee in a poem.

Anyway, moving on from Kolo mee (before you call me crazy), the thing I love about Kuching is that the beach is just an accessible 45-minute drive away.

Its completely divine to dip your feet in the water and let the waves crash against your feet, beach therapy...is something we KL folk can only dream of.

I've always been drawn toward the sea, the beach..the waves. Its something to do with how its so powerful, and how each and every wave has so much character in it...and you, a photographer standing by the beach..has absolutely zero control over how the waves are gonna come crashing.

So uncontrollable, yet so amazing.

Sometimes, the cure for a crappy day or just about anything, is salt water.

It gives you some hope, that even though life's a bitch sometimes, just think of it as...
life's a beach.

Our memories of the ocean will linger on, long after our footprints in the sand are gone
-april

The case of the Mondays

2011-05-07T01:00:00.000-07:00

Yakkety Yak

My ultimate revenge scheme for anyone who has made me sit through an excruciatingly long and unproductive meeting is to....

lock them in the meeting room, and feed them lots of coffee & tea.

no toilet breaks.
_______________________________________________________________________

There's a new iphone game I've discovered...

its called 'Office Jerk'

And its basically a game where you throw stuff at the 'office jerk'

Harmless stuff like paper, pencils...erasers...a stapler

Oooyess...the stapler :D

If you aim it smack at his head, he'll see stars, literally.

Okay I admit...its quite disturbing that I have to resort to throwing stuff at my colleagues just to keep myself sane in the office.

Wait....my colleagues??

Oh..I forgot to mention, the 'office jerk' has an uncanny resemblance to a dude in my office.

Which all the more..makes it hella fun to aim the stapler right at his face and knock the booger out of his nose!!! :D

Anyway, if stationary ain't your thang', there's also eggs, and pie...

Pie, meet face....face, meet pie

but its unfortunate I can't aim it at his balls.
Okay. I have issues.

Well...you know wat they say...if you can't do something in real life (because it'll land you in jail for assault charges. damn), you do it via iphone! :D

whats wrong wit chu?? can't take a yolk???

Same theory that explains why we iphone users are so addicted with killing green pigs and slicing tropical fruits (p/s: I think it should have durian in it)

Anyway, just like in person...the 'office jerk' has this sorta face that makes you wanna throw your keyboard at. And annoyingly enough, in the game..if you happen to miss hitting him smack in the head...he'll turn around and flash you this cheeky hamsup smile...as if he's saying 'chiu!!!'

Girls, when you see this face...

bring on the TnT

I have expert aiming skills.

-april

This week on the office memo board...

2011-04-15T08:09:00.000-07:00

Yakkety Yak

With so many meetings to attend, who's got time for work?

____________________________________________________________________

[Please...click on the image so you don't have to squint]

Let's have a Follow-up meeting to follow-up on the follow-up

meeting!

-@p-

Down South

2011-03-21T05:05:00.000-07:00

Yakkety Yak

Whoever who invented weekly Monday morning meetings must be an idiot,
or a boss.
More often than not, one of the same person.
_________________________________________________________________________

There haven't been many cities I've been to, in which I had the liberty to go wherever I please, do whatever I want, and eat whatever I like. And in the process of doing whatever my heart pleases to do...indulge in one of my most favourite hobbies, that is...photography.

(one of my most favourite...because sleeping still tops the list) :D

There was Australia...where I spent close to a year in Melbourne city. I didn't posses a proper camera myself then..but that never stopped me from appreciating the beauty of what a foreign country had to offer.

St.Kilda's beach...on a windy winter's day

From the pier, Melbourne CBD

I captured many cherished, photographic moments with my mediocre handphone camera...by simply opening my eyes to what I saw everyday, even if it was during my 40-minute walk to uni...or during my evening jogs at the park when it was blardy cold in the winter.

Carlton Gardens, Melbourne

And there was also Perth, in which I had the good fortune of making a stopover several times, to visit close friends :)
There really are beautiful photos to be taken everywhere, you just have to look :)

This time, I had the opportunity of making my first ever trip down to Singapore to attend a business forum, which was boring by all means, and mainly for the purposes of social blasphemy more popularly known as..'networking'.

Anyhow, after the forum adjourned, I took full advantage of whatever was left of daylight and headed out to indulge in some much awaited photography in the city of Singapore, in which this would be my 'virgin' trip down to Singapore :)

With a very comprehensive map in hand and really helpful road sings (unlike here), I brought myself to the popular touristy attractions in Singapore...

Clarke Quay

....like Orchard road.

....and Marina Bay.

Which to me, seems like some giant barracuda fell from heaven and landed on a hotel.

I also saw a the Merlion, which is Singapore's landmark of some sort.

My first impression was... 'eh why so kecik...?

Hence, a tad disappointed..that was, until I came home and found out that the actual, real Merlion is....in fact a muchhhhhhhhhh bigger one.

Anyway, speaking of real things, I saw an actual old person sitting in the reserved seat on the MRT.

Now thats a sight which takes Malaysians....some getting used to.

Also it takes some getting used to the funky Bahasa around here...

Departure = keberangkatan?

Indeed, we Malaysian's have heard so much about Singapore, being our cleaner, safer and more " efficient " neighbour.

Heck even the escalators move faster around here!

But seriously, I do admire how efficient their public transportation is, and how you can ride in comfort, minus all the dodgy people you get here on buses and trains. The streets are so safe you see women walking around clutching their handbags lightly, either busy with their phones or with ipod's stuck in their ears....which amongst others, are just some of the things I wouldn't recommend you to do in KL.

The fact that Singapore is such a livable city made it was extremely enjoyable to go out and about taking photos...because I neither had to worry about my camera getting snatched or getting mugged in broad daylight...unlike here.

Its remarkable how different two countries can be even though they're situated right next to each other, making it obvious what a good government can do for a country. We may be a much bigger country than Singapore, but the minds of some of our leaders are alot smaller.

We ought to be ashamed of ourselves, cos' while the poor people in Japan are suffering and the middle east is fighting for their freedom, our leaders here are busy inventing sex scandals and 'conteng-ing' Bibles..It makes you wonder really...about when we'll actually grow up and out of little cocoon shells, thinking that the rest of the world revolves around our little kepompong.

Amongst so many things that are wrong here, there's a bad culture of nitpicking by leaders (and so-called leaders) who lack clear vision and ambition. And this, holds us back as a nation everyday...while the rest of the world steams ahead. Rather than fixing the root of all the problems, instead, they focus on minute, trivial little matters that will contribute nothing to resolving the pressing problems we have here.

Sunset at Orchard Road

They forget that....the future, is what you invent it to be.

-@p-

Failbook

2011-02-14T01:13:00.000-08:00

Yakkety Yak

I think my boss has picked up some of my LOL-ness, cos' he typed.....
'Attached is teh amended' slides'......or okay perhaps it was his flu.

___________________________________________________________________

With respect to the Hollywood box-office flop known as 'The Green Hornet', here's what a conversation would look like between Jay-can't-speak-English-properly-Chou,

a crazy Man-fan, a disgruntled Robin of Batman fame...and Seth-lame-Rogen.

[click on image to enlarge]

Completely fictional...except for when I said the movie sucks.

-@p-

Not rocket science

2011-02-05T08:49:00.000-08:00

Yakkety Yak

I never celebrated birthdays.

My parents only focused on celebrating achievements.

So being expelled from a birth canal...was not considered one of them.

The Big Bang Theory, Season 1

_______________________________________________________________________

What I love about the weekends and public holidays is waking up to a quiet house, making breakfast, having my morning tea...and reading the newspapers.

Sadly though, I hardly ever get those kind of mornings.

For one, my cat likes to scream me awake in the mornings. Lil' Napoleon.

No 2. my dad likes to turn on the tv and baby talk to my cat, rendering the house anything but quiet.

Plus, he likes to snort stuff out of his nose alot...and its quite damaging to the ears, its as if he's blowing his brains out from his nostrils.

Anyway, I think scanning through the daily paper is an extremely enjoyable thing. It is something that I don't get to do between Monday to Friday, as for some stupid reason, reading the papers in the office equates to saying that I-have-nothing-to-do/I-must-be-lazy.

Nevertheless, I don't think I'm missing out on thattttt much even if I don't get to read the papers. I mean, look at the sh*t that makes the news in our local papers everyday.

The other day, I read about a certain 'Ah Moi is off to Canada'. Some KL born girl, apparently she's FHM's Most Wanted Woman, and she's leaving the country to pursue a movie career in Canada.

Anyway, that piece of 'news' was on page 2 of the main Star.

Perhaps when she really makes it big in Canada they'll publish 'Ah Moi did it!' in the headlines,

or 'Ah Moi boleh!'

But I dun get it. If 'Ah Moi's' name is Sarah Lian, why didn't they just name her Ah Lian???

*confused*

Still, I can't do without the papers. The Star did announce that our PM sent out 5million text messages wishing Chinese telco subscribers a very happy cny.

Had it not been for the Star to publish that piece of news, I would have gone on thinking that it was a spam text message trying to sell me sexy pictures of 'anak dara' to my cellphone, since I deleted the msg within 2 seconds anyway.

Oh oh I have a story! The other day I was speaking to a 14 year-old and I was about to tell her just how much older I was than her before I almost said...'You know, I am 8 years older than you......'

Wait wait @pril....hold the phone.

You're not 22

*cricket sounds*

*another 30 seconds passes*

Oh god, nevermind the fact that my math is objectionable but....

Oh dear god I'm 10 years older than her!!!

'Distraught 24-year old realises she's 24'

Hey maybe that can make the headlines.

You never know

-@p-

And the tiger moves on....

2011-02-02T09:01:00.000-08:00

Yakkety Yak

In this world of overrated pleasures...

and underrated treasures,

I'm glad there is you.

_______________________________________________________________________________

I think tonight was a record for the most boring Chinese New Year reunion dinner....ever.

Unlike the in the previous years, where reunion dinners were at home, and for the earlier part of the day...mom would busy herself in the kitchen, whooping up something elaborate, involving maybe some monk jumping over a wall or whatever its called.

And my dad would unavoidably poke his nose into whatever mum's working on, and fruitlessly put his two-rupiah-cents worth into my mom's cooking. His version of 'helping out'

And I of course help, by staying out of the kitchen, of course.

This year, by invitation...we spent Chinese New Year's eve in one of the most cluttered houses I've ever been to, together with a bunch of ppl I neither knew very well or cared much for.

unfortunately.

Its odd how sometimes people can live in such beautiful bungalow houses, and yet keep so much junk.

I swear....I swear I saw that broken treadmill last year, and the year before that. Only now...its more like a part of their furniture.

Much to every personal trainer's horror. yikes.

And for crying out loud....which house needs 5 mahjong tables???

seriously!

Even the God of Gamblers' family wouldn't have that many tables under one roof.

And I really saw an air conditioner remote affixed to the wall, OUTSIDE of the house. Like...what??? is your aircond in the porch?? blowing into the garden???

Yes I was very bored, so very very bored to notice all that.

So bored...that I don't think I even bothered hiding my super sien face throughout the evening.

Believe me, I did contemplate getting my butt out of this, and any more occasions like these in future Chinese New Years.

Unfortunately, the only viable alternative I could crop up, enough to justify me dodging my parents boring friends on CNY eve, was that I get freakin' married.

Now....how is that even viable?

Next!

Anyway, if CNY eve dinners were left to me to decide...I'd probably end up serving pizza at home.

What.......?

Hey pizza's not bad okay.

It has everything Chinesey enough to serve for Chinese New Year.

Like............pineapples! Known as wong-lai in Cantonese, losely translated into 'fortune come'.

So if you like extra pineapples, hey that works too!

And hey, pizza is roundddddddddd.........it satisfies how Chinese ppl want everything round.

And in terms of seafood, add prawns into pizza and its walah! 'Island supreme'

Chinese people normally serve prawns on reunion dinners, its 'haa' in Cantonese, in which Chinese ppl associate with 'hee-hee-haa-haa'..laughter, that is

Chinese ppl link everything to fortune and prosperity don't they? Tell me bout it.

Yeah they confuse me too.

As for the mushrooms, you could....perhaps replace them with Chinese mushrooms, for extra funky-ness.

And maybe top it off with some good ol' fashioned fatt choy on the pizza.

Though some people might be disgusted, thinking that the pizza maker...may have really hairy arms.

I wouldn't suggest adding stuff like sea cucumber, mussels or la-la on it though.

Any of that shit and it becomes the disaster of an eatery known as Pasta Zanmai.

I swear, no restaurant has ever made me complain about food so much...in one seating before.

Then again, I've never had oyster juice dripping from my pizza before, or sushi rolls made to look like a cross between california maki's and...buritos, until I stepped into Pasta Zanmai. yeah u heard me alright.

It was as if I stepped into a restaurant who's entire menu originated from a bunch of college kids who dared each other to make something out of whatever sad remnants they had in their refrigerator..and turn it into..'food'.

Spells food pervert alert, and nothing short of gross.

Anyway, so folks, this is Chinese New Years eve.

Whats for tomorrow? Its the obligatory visiting of the relatives, quite frankly its like visiting another planet. ho-hum.

Oh thats yet another episode............

~~Huat arh!!!

-@p-

Liaison....its an 'L' word

2011-01-22T22:36:00.000-08:00

Yakkety Yak

So its now 6% service tax for everything...

Darn with the price of things going up up...up,

I've half a mind to just buy everything in bulk, including sanitary pads....maybe like 30 years supply of it.

Or perhaps 35.

Think of how much I'll save, really.

____________________________________________________________________

During the past week, I had the golden opportunity of becoming what the Bank calls...a Liaison Officer, or an LO for short.

Its a golden opportunity not because I get to wine and dine with the Governor herself, or not that I get to stay in the executive suite of the Mandarin Oriental..but rather, its a golden opportunity to escape from work, even if its just for a couple of days....an escape from being confined to my desk... churning out results that are supposedly known as, efficiency.

or so we claim.

So when the opportunity to LO for an event came about, I jumped on it!

In fact I don't think I even finished reading the title of the meeting before I clicked the 'reply' button in my office inbox and typed...'Yes please! take me awayyyyyyyyyy from here!!'

If you're wondering what the hell a liaison officer is all about, well we're mainly a bunch of people who are in charge of taking care of the Bank's guests. From dragging their luggage from the arrival hall to ushering them to their car and helping them check-in, bow-at-their-feet-and-fulfill-their-every-request ya-da-ya-da-ya-da...get items on their shopping list (like buying Doritos and Snicker bars) and entertain them about my country.

Most importantly, we're expected to maintain a high level of professionalism when handling guests since we are after all, acting as ambassadors for the Bank.

Disciplined & professional.
thats our motto

Or put simply by Sim (hmmm....simply by Sim??) we're just GRO's.

Definition of GRO- a three letter abbreviation for a certain type of working class that is most normally associated with premises such as a nightclub, a dodgy karaoke or a suspicious closed-door chinese restaurant that is frequented by Cina of the super Cina tauke's who wear Lolex watches and gold bracelts and gold chains to match.

Now if you've never seen a Liaison Officer before, here's how we look like,

And since its our duty to escort our guests around and also make sure the floor is clean, God forbid that they step on any chewing gum or banana peel, this time...I had the good fortune of going up to the 42nd floor of the Petronas towers for a private viewing session =)

For the record, the dude who's standing as if his jacket is his protective armor, ish not me.

And the dude next to him who could pass for Santa Claus if he donned a santa jacket, ish not me either.

I am of course, the lenglui liaison officer............ =P

Now despite the fact that I'm wearing a really gorgeous suit (tee-hee....), I have to maintain that being an liaision officer...isn't all wham and glam.

In fact, there's a alot of boring involved...like 4 hours of waiting just to greet your delegate as he walks out the conference room...and be on standby just in case there's an emergency, like if he mistakes the sambal belacan for raspberry sorbet.
Hence, do you see how crucial it is for me to wait around and do nothing?

But there are times when this job can get serious, and thats when it becomes a lesson to you, that you shouldn't be lax and never take this role for granted.

Like when my delegate and overslept and almost missed his presentation. All it took was one phone call from the secretariat asking me where he was, enough for me to realise that I've screwed up big time.

Being rookie on the job, I wasn't aware that I had to double up as an alarm clock. Undoubtedly, being a Liaison officer...also renders you as a Liable officer.

But there are perks to being a liaison officer, like how we were offered some extra tong sui that the delegates couldn't finish up probably because they were so stuffed from their 7-course Chinese lunch.

Yummy cheap thrills =)

Cos sometimes..in the midst of all the waiting, we're so hungry we end up eating the flowers at the cocktail reception!

(I-so-hungry-I-could-eat-a-carnation)

Being an LO is rather worthwhile, as you gain exposure like no other to the floor plan of KLCC and the job even tests the depth of my 'Pengetahuan Am' about Malaysia.
Now, thanks to my LO advantage, I am able to point out where the nearest restroom is in KLCC, and if a delegate asks when the Petronas twin towers were built...being truly Malaysian- You do not know the answer.

So you say the first thing that comes to your mind....... 1976!

don't ask me why.

As seen from the 42nd floor

I sure hope he didn't go back and Google it.
Oh bother he's back in Switzerland anyway.

Oh well, atleast I didn't say something as stupid as 'Anyonghaseyo' to the Governor of Japan.

That would make me a LOLofficer. heheh =p

So which liaison officer were you? I guess if you're neither of the liaison officers I mentioned above, then you're just considered a lousy officer, maybe. Oh well =)

...with the shape of an L on my forehead

-@p-

=)

2010-12-04T00:15:00.000-08:00

Yakkety Yak

If you live to be a hundred, I want to live to be a hundred minus one day...
So I never have to live without you.

Winnie the Pooh

_________________________________________________________________________

Haven't done much lately,
Been considerably less-than-witty,
Yeah I'm quite lousy,
Unlike you, just lovely =)

Becoming less and less bothered,
By the memo's or the letters,
When there's really no issue,
So I can't be bothered to argue,
Happiness here is found in far to few,
and....I love yew =)

I remember what I was before,
So much ambition, I'd roar!
Now I'm just bored to the core,
I'd be lucky if...
I'd crawl out here with a sense of humour,
What am I here for?
Its you that my heart pours =)

These days feeling a bit ancient,
And the sudden backache isn't very pleasant,
Probably due to the lack of movement,
Gotten into a skinny predicament,
Can't fit my jeans due to the fat depletion,
But despite all you're my best ever judgement,
Even though I'm skinny,
Can I still be your hunny bunny? =)

Let's go grab ice cream,
and make it our regime,
with you happiness beams,
And right here, love's the theme =)

All photos taken via iPhone4

-@p-

There's something about Flippy

2010-11-21T23:19:00.000-08:00

Yakkety Yak

The trouble with a rat race is that even if you win,
you're still a rat.
_____________________________________________________________________

I think I'm the only person who's ever been stalked....by a flower.

Make that plastic one too...

flippy! I call it :)

My first encounter with Flippy was sometime back in ahhhhh...2009, in Perth, when I went over to spend Xmas and New Year's right smack in the heat of the summer (a very wise choice that was).

where the fish n chips rocked!

Anyway, I met Flippy for the first time in a car, that was driven by this pair of legs.

clean shaven too.
fee-wit!

As ordinary as a plastic flower may seem to be, there was something about Flippy that caught my attention, and as soon as I stepped into WinZ's car, Flippy became the focus of my camera.

There's something about Flippy, how its bright green plastic leaves bounce up and down continuously and the stalk that holds the flower sways left to right..or right to left?? as if trying to break into dance..albeit disorientedly.

Its only slightly distracting when driving, but it makes me smile. It makes me happy when Flippy moves, as odd as it may seem that I'm amused by a plastic solar-powered moving (vibrating?) flower :)

Ever since then, Flippy has appeared ubiquitously in my life. From the dashboard of the innocent car that pulls up next to me in the parking lot, or from the rearview mirror of the car behind me when I'm stuck in traffic, and even in the Public cab I got into to get to lunch one Friday.
Its almost as if...Flippy's stalking me.

Flippy's a frequent reminder of last year's holiday, of sunny Perth and driving about in WinZ's car, hiding behind her tinted windows...escaping from the glaring sun rays that make Australia, so giler babi panas in the summer.

Somehow, it felt good to be on the road and driving around in sunny Perth, which is quite the opposite from when I'm back home - I never want to be anywhere near KL roads.

I have WinZ to thank for introducing me to Flippy, I don't think she ever knew that her plastic flower, which is probably melting in the summer heat now...had left an indelible mark in my memory. Well...now you know girl :)
And...I've finally gotten my very own Flippy too.

I finally chanced upon a place that sold Flippy's and after careful selection, decided upon a magenta-potted-sunflower-Flippy. It wasn't for my own car, but I placed it in a car that I'm frequently in, and I occasionally drive :))

and now...iarehappy =D

Its funny how a simple potted plastic flower caught my eye out of a very ordinary sunny day in Perth.
How bout you? Has your day passed you by without you noticing something surprising, peculiar or amusing..something that was worth 2 minutes of your attention or perhaps even a memory of.

Or has nothing made a difference, or inspired you today?

Maybe you should take some time to smell the roses, even if the rose is made out of plastic, I mean, literally. ~~Cheers folks.

Flippy, have you got yours today?
visit flipflap.com.au

-@p-

The waffles that were........

2010-11-15T00:33:00.000-08:00

Yakkety Yak

I love the kind of morning's that last all afternoon...
____________________________________________________________________

I can't quite pinpoint it, but its either my brand new iPhone (brag brag), or the ultra-fluffy pancakes I had this morning that set my mood-o-meter-straight to 'ultra happy' this morning...on a Monday morning, mind you.

ka-boing!

Well I got my phone on Saturday (bragging again), so it probably is the pancakes, really.

Pancakes so fluffy that I felt like I shoud be sitting on em', and rolling on em' in a sheer white T-shirt. My hair soaked with maple syrup, dripping on the pancakes ...keeping them moist.

Bounce bounce..bounce on the pancakes...bounce from one pancake stack to another like I'm doing a remake of Katy Perry's California Girls, instead of candy canes, its pancakes bebeh, and you'd better be shooting butter outta em' tits!

lol.

Dear pancakes, if I were butter, I'd melt & die for you.

Okay. me thinks me had too much maple syrup this morning. too much.

So much so that dealing with one particular cookie monster look-a-like BITCHEZZ secretary this morning didn't put me off, like it normally would.
She doesn't get any prettier with each passing day, which is unfortunate for us.

But now I have to contend with siting in this office on a beautiful Monday morning like this, when I ought to be outside, under the sun (frolicking in maple syrup maybe).

Its not right to stay indoors when there's all-American breakfast sets to devour while I brood over my morning paper at a cosy cafe of my choice. And if I chose to take a dump after, heck I'll take as long as I like.

There's so much to do out there than being stuck here. Like go out, sit in a park, feed pigeons, play music and after that parade near the Burmese Embassy in support of Aung San Suu Kii with a placecard that says ....'FREEDOM BEBEH!'

And do it without getting shot by the guards.
See...there's so much we can achieve out there.

Or perhaps just a simple picnic with a loved one (with pancakes!) =)
i love u.

Its such a beautiful day and here we are.
And hey if your office doesn't have a window, then your life sucks even more.
*pat pat* =)

Oh well.
I look outside the window and I'm a tad jealous of the mak cik who's picking up garbage near the entrance. Okay, just a bit.
Has she noticed that the skies this morning, are just divine?
I could use some sun now.

I think I should grab those pancakes more often now, since they put me in such an awesome mood. Awesome enough to last till the end of the day....

Okay maybe till lunch
Okay fine......till mid-day...

thats if the cookie faced sectary doesn't kacau me.........

I've waffled before, I'll waffle again.
-@p-

Spaghetti Graphic

2010-10-25T08:30:00.000-07:00

Yakkety Yak We have met the enemy, and he is Powerpoint
__________________________________________________________________________

[click to enlarge]

...didn't i see this last week?

Powerpoint makes us stupid
-@p

I forgot my password (and I don't care)

2010-10-23T07:57:00.000-07:00

Yakkety Yak

I work for money, if you want loyalty....Get a Dog!
__________________________________________________________________

[click to view]

Regards,
@p

Another Perfect Day in Photography

2010-10-10T05:27:00.001-07:00

Yakkety Yak

I finally found you, my missing puzzle piece

I'm complete.
____________________________________________________________________

aprilwithcamera has made appearances in a couple of places recently, and how she shoots with reckless abandon has led to an abundance of photos taken, which are all nicely stored in her laptop :)

Yeah, she hasn't had much time to distribute all her albums yet, so she's secretly hoping the people whom she owes such photos too...will forget...in time. Hehee =p

Yes I have taken quite a number of photos recently, and I haven't been so kind as give these photos their due recognition..like upload them on Facebook, tag them, caption them funny, and embarrass the hell out of the subject in the photo. heee =p. Apologies to my dear friends, life has gotten in the way of me being artistic recently, and like I mentioned previously...its like I'm turning less and less creative everyday.

It must be all those hard-set rules that have burgeoned me under. Buried in bureaucracy. Working in accordance to a criterion that was set perhaps 30 years ago.

The conformity, renders an unnecessary obedience in us, which is all quite kindergarden and fundamentally silly if you think of it.
And its slowly sucking all the creativity and inspiration out of me.

Now that they've taken away the writer in me (I hope I find her back soon), will they take away what I see through the viewfinder of my camera as well?

Dear readers,

Attached below are photographs taken from my recent travels and engagements, for your perusal, please.

Who on in this era writes like this anymore? Unfortunately, I have to.

Fuck.

Bangkok

Pangkor

Port Dickson

Photography

Capture the unconscious side of the image.
-@p

Present tense, Future relaxed

2010-10-09T00:36:00.000-07:00

Yakkety Yak

So..in the spirit of being Malaysian, whats our national animal?

...Malayan tiger? Orang utan? Tapir??

My dearest friend chose option (d) None of the above, and loudly proclaimed to a bunch of foreign delegates that 'Oh Malaysia has no national animal!''

...

None of the above? That only applies to Singapore which even if they had to have a national animal, they'd only have squirrels to chose from!

Btw, our national animal is the Malayan tiger =p
__________________________________________________________________

A couple of weeks ago, I had the opportunity of running on one of Bangkok's notable tourist attractions.

The King Rama VII bridge

It was probably my proudest moment to date, having waited for this day since early in the year, and having put-off by the sudden postponement of this event in May due to the unrest's in Bangkok at that time.

To be honest, I had no clue that I would be running on a super highway in Bangkok.
I had no clue that it was going to be such an exhilarating run, as I ran across the suspended bridge that spanned the Chao Phraya River, I felt like the luckiest person on earth.

Photo: travelpod

Every breath I took energized me to keep my legs going whilst my eyes darted left and right, capturing mental snapshots of the scenary. I couldn't stop admiring the city of Bangkok.

It gave me the best feeling ever when I successfully completed the 10km run in a foreign country, in extremely foreign surroundings, with police escorts and friendly Thai people greeting me at every kilometer I passed.

The team

All completed in an elapsed running time of.......18 hours and 38 seconds...

geng-leh.....? :D

kay kiddinggggggggggg...I finished the run in a little over an hour, and I made some friends along the way too ;)

after the run, with fellow Bank Of Thailand runner

The huff and puff through the 10km run was truly the most exceptional marathon I've ever ran.
It made me forget about all the effort I put into previously, training for this with my kiasu captain. The marathon depicted my most perfect running moment ever, where on that fine Sunday morning, everything that could go wrong didn't and everything that went on went absolutely perfect

I awoke at 4.30a.m to an absolutely fresh morning, feeling all charged up for the run, with fresh tyres and a full tank, ready to go full speed until the end of the race without stopping.

Its precious moments like these that I thank god for the opportunity to experience.

Thankful.

In the past couple of weeks, I've found it hard to stay thankful, its almost as if I've gotten lost again, and maybe only part of me has been found, and the other..still lingers around. I'm losing touch of me.

My Monday's to Friday's are tight, and I've little time and motivation to be creative. I've become less inspired by things that used to inspire me. Perhaps because I am still struggling to find fulfillment in what I do for a living, and inspiration has become ever so elusive these days. Maybe its in front of me, but I'm too caught up in petty little things thrown to my face in the office, all made from people who work believing...that the simple should be hard,

I find myself indulging less and less in the things I once loved doing, like writing, snapping photos, and cracking lame jokes on my blog. Where I once was inspired by the boredrom of my 9-to-5, I hope I gather my inspiration back..may it be out of my desperation.

This is my 3rd post that involves running. Its funny how picking up a pair of running shoes has influenced my life by that much, and just how much running has taught me, its definitely more than reaching the finishing line.

The girls', of the BNM running team :)

aprilsiow wishes Lili Caréme-Chong all de best for her first ever marathon run at the 10.10.10 event tomorrow! ;)

Everyday's the start of something beautiful
-@p-

The evenings where....

2010-08-14T00:06:00.000-07:00

Yakkety Yak

Mom's awesome at buying butter, she really is.
Its as if she knows exactly how the price of butter is gonna fluctuate in anticipation of her next baking experiment.

To think of it, she's probably better at buying butter than my dad is at buying shares.
Its not like he makes any money anyway =p

My mom could probably make a better butterbroker, than my dad could ever have been as a stockbroker.
______________________________________________________________________

I haven't written much lately. And to be honest, its been getting harder to sit down in front of my laptop like I used to, for hours at a time...trying to churn out something entertaining and pleasurable to read.

Of course, that was back when I had shit loads of time to waste, but now I'm shit busy until I don't have time to shit cos I'm too busy doing shit.

heh.

It gets hard to write when there's always something that needs your attention and somebody who wants your time. And if I did put time away for myself to blog, I'd have that guilty nagging feeling that I should really be doing something more purposeful for someone else, rather than just sitting here, writing.

Moreover, being the chief photographer for my friends, and the sudden burst of activity we've had in these coming weeks...now its like I have an army of people hunting me down for photos.

Ah well, atleast aprilwithcamera is a lil' more useful than without.

Sabar Ikmal....sabar ya.....

Obviously I have to post photos of me in a hawt toga dress up first. hehe.

Anyway, yes. my life has been taken up by work. Lots of it.
werkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkks.

So much so that the lil' time I have to myself to log in to Facebook, or upload photos from my camera...is precious. So precious that I even sometimes, lie, or be secretive about what I'm doing or where I'm heading because somebody might take those precious moments away from me by making me feel about not spending time with them.

I find that I'm becoming increasingly selfish about who I spend my time with and what I will be doing, because I really do have better things to do, with whatever little thats left after I minus the hours in a day that I spend infront of my office desktop, or stuck in rush hour traffic.

Frozen yogurt yum

Can you blame me for being exhausted at the end of the day? I feel like I'm running on batteries, rechargable battery's that is...but I run low on power towards the evenings after juice in me has been sucked dry from the day's work.

Its not unusual for me to run out of words towards the evenings. I feel like I need to be silent, after > 8 hours of being chirpy, and reminding myself to smile when I talk. In the evenings I can finally utter less, clock out from the office and not entertain anyone, ideally.

Its like I wake up in the mornings, and all I look forward to are the next 10..or maybe 12 hours before I can finally identify myself again, retreat back into me, be quiet and its okay because in the evenings, I come home to you ;)

coffee & cookies

I pry my eyes open in the mornings and I do it all over again, because all I want is the you. thank God for you.

Like milk and coffee, we make a potent cup of latte
-@p

run ApreeeL run

2010-07-19T01:19:00.000-07:00

Yakkety Yak

Sometimes life is gonna hit you in the head with a brick, but don't lose faith.
_____________________________________________________________________

Of recent, I proclaimed Fauzan Ismail Man of The Year.

Bearing in mind, that this is the same man, that only a couple of weeks ago...I cursed at under my breath, in my sweat soaked clothes and my sun-block laden face for making me run 10 to 12km on a daily basis, for close to 3 months.

Oklah fine, not curse.
But I must have either called him a maniac or brainless for taking on the super-duper-triple-killer hill on Jalan Duta (and dragging me along!)

And to him, I attribute the loss of my hard-earned muscles mass I worked so hard to build when I was in Melbourne studying.
Thanks to all the running, I am now back to my skinny ol' self again. damn.

Strolling along the track
at the Ministry of Finance Games 18-19th July 2010

But Fauzan, our marathon captain would always know how to make it up to me (or bribe?) me into running again the next day. After our runs he's invite me up for a hot cup of latte, before shoving 250ml of a distasteful fruit punch flavoured recovery drink down my throat.

As much as my taste buds detested it, I'd cover my nose and swallow it down so my butt muscles wouldn't ache so bad the next day.

Gluteas maximus! XD

Speaking of bums, Fauzan had a bum every woman would be envious over.
A bum so small, so compact, so tight....its only unfortunate that it happens to be on a man =p.
I guess thats what running 10km daily does for your arse.

Shall I go fetch our running gear? =D

It was through running that I built up my stamina to a point where I could play futsal till everyone else on the court would pancit. It was through running that I completed a 15km run in May. It was also through running that I had the Bank cheering for me during my 4x400m relay yesterday, even though we lost.

Putting on meh spikes for the 200m dash

And it was also through running that I ended up calling Fauzan after Bevy ran her Myvi over a rock the size of the Kenny Rodgers chicken I had for dinner.

Because it was through running that I could accurately describe the road we were on, having panted, dragged my feet or either coughed my lungs out at some point while running on that stretch of road.

Thank you Fauzan, for coming to our rescue because I can't change a punctured tyre to save my life. although I can run for my life...literally. heheh.

And for that Encik Fauzan, you are Man of The Year.
And Bevy and I thank you from the bottom of our hearts :)

When I connect the dots, back from my skinny ol' days in college, then in uni, from the day I took my fitness certificate and hit the gym, to the day of the puncturred tyre, to yesterday's 100m, 200m and 400m events....
Finally, here's a couple of dots strung together that make sense, but only upon looking at them in hindsight.

I guess for much of life, nothing of what you're doing makes much sense till you look back..and think. Then you'll go...ohhhh so thatsssss why I did what I did.
Most importantly, you have to believe in what you're doing even if nobody else sees the point in it, and trust that the dots will connect themselves somehow.

How many more dots of my life will I connect into lines?
Things look pretty scrambled right now, its quite like a scatter plot with outliers all across the graph. No other lines I can draw.....yet. Perhaps only time will tell.

Try something new today, it may change your life
-@p-

Inspired by a toothache

2010-06-08T05:51:00.000-07:00

Des'ree - You Gotta Be, probably one of the most meaningful songs ever written.
____________________________________________________________________

I'll listen as my day unfolds,
Let everyday be the onset of a new threshold,
Which the past can't & won't withold,
Take whats left from scratch and make it threefold,
Challenge what my future holds,
And try to keep my head up to the skyyyy....

Tambun, Ipoh

Others they may cause me tears,
I'll go ahead and release my fears,
Yet still add life to my years,
I'll read my favourite books till they're dogeared,
Reach for every opportunity to say cheers,
And hold close, those I love dear.

Swan Valley, Perth

We'll walk together, under these skies

Place me on water, I'll get a foothold,
I should always let the truth be told,
Rather than lie & blindfold,
I'll make my promises good as gold.
Won't always keep my emotions in its stronghold,
So I'll stand up and be counted,
Won't be ashamed to cryyy.....

Whilst your're in your prime,
I try to solve the puzzles in my own sweet time,
I'm in no hurry to finish the climb,
Or anything, just for the extra dime,
We only live once, in this lifetime.

Lanai Kijang

So you may take a different view,
But one day I'll debut,
In my own pursuit,
This won't however be, adieu.

Putrajaya Botanical Gardens

I gotta be bad,
Though I'll try not to get mad,

I gotta be bold,
Sometimes stone-cold.

I gotta be wiser,
Can't always be bitter.

I gotta be hard,
I've my spirit to safeguard.

I gotta be tough,
Knowing when enough is enuff.

I gotta be cool,
Survive I know you'll.

I gotta be calm,
Got some noms in my palm...................Om nom nom!

I gotta stay together,
Life's a book, I'm the author.

Oh I know, Oh I know, I will seize the day.

Carpe Diem
-@p-

The socks squad

2010-05-29T01:52:00.000-07:00

Yakkety Yak

The bad news is that motivation doesn't grow on trees,
The good news though, is that it is a renewable source.

You just have to dig through the exhaustion & boredom to get to it.
________________________________________________________________________

I'll be moving to a new 'home' soon.

For the past year or so, my 'home' for 5 days a week, from 8.30 to 5.30pm was my desk at work where I sat. Strategically, my desk is the very first desk that anybody would see upon entering my department.

I swear my Director put me right in front cos' I'm cute. What else would be a better way to greet visitors than my pixie coloured hair and my envied after set of dimples?
heheeeeeeee =P

Amongst other things I'm terribly busy over

I made the decision to move not too long ago, although the thought had been lingering in my head for months before. When I finally took the first step at 'moving house', things were far from easy, and I knew that if I screwed up along the way, I would face some serious ramifications, like getting thrown out of the 'house', per say.

Thankfully, none of that happened, and I'm off two my new 'home' 2 weeks from now. I've my lucky stars to thank for knowing of some good people who've helped me through this process, God bless them :)

It was a tough call, but I knew I couldn't stay here any longer. I felt like my days were numbered in this place, and if I didn't do something about it, I'd grow old here, unhappy, I'd become less and less sexy, while Bev gets promoted to be a Director and Sim becomes Governor (oh gawd) LoL.

Sometimes in life, you can only tell yourself to 'suck it up' just that much, and there's only so much a positive attitude can fix, there's only so many chances you can give a place, and only so much time you can afford to give before you give in, and finally call it quits.

Sometimes in life, you just know that you don't belong...
and sometimes in life, you gotta do...whatchu gotta do.

What kept me going through the daily grind were the people who shared my 'home' with me. I gotta admit, that life here would have been pretty unbearable and even miserable without them.
Its like living in a crappy home that leaks water when it rains and its super cold in the winter yet gruesomely hot during summer....but coming home to people you love remind you of exactly why you're living there.

This was a nice surprise I came back after lunch to find on my desk....apparently, this is how Li Li thinks I am in the office - asleep.

Correctttttttttttttttttttt oso....but notttttttttttttttt entirely true oso. I believe its more like this lah......

And on some days, I can't help but feel like this....

....usually on Monday's laa.

Some days, I was sooooooooooo bored...I swear I could have made a stripper pole in the office out of stacking red bull cans on the carpet, right up to the ceiling.
And the red bull I would drink to keep me awake, mind you.

I never regretted coming to this place, however bored to my wits I may have been. I believe that my life would have turned out entirely different had I not come here.
By being here, as much of the good things that have come my way, along with the bad as well, I relish and I'm thankful for all of it, but now I think its time to move on ;)

Though I don't know if where I'm headed to will be any good for me, but heck, I believe that by changing things, things could either improve...or they could be worse, but at least I have a shot at making things better...rather than doing nothing at all.

I'm part of the socks team, that no matter what life throws at you, you pull your socks up....get back on the road, walking.

Regardless of how my 'new home' turns out for me, I'll pull my socks up, and keep walking, letting my infectious optimism and positivity take me through the day.

...........and hopefully, I never have to call in dead for work.

Whaddya you mean I can't take an mc?

If you're going to ask yourself life changing questions, be sure to know that you're going to do something about the answer
-@p-

Photo Poetry

2010-05-14T10:24:00.000-07:00

For my sister, Pocket Rocket, who weds today 15/5/10
____________________________________________________________________________

[click on photos to enlarge]

Life is short, take more photographs,
Hang out with friends, share some laughs,
Have a cookie, drink more coffee,
There's more to life than calories,
Let's have the freedom of being carefree,
Shall we?

Leave the dishes,
forget life's choices,
Throw away the phone,
Smile up to your cheekbones,
Eat fried chicken,
find a wishbone,
look how high the trees have grown,
Paint a masterpiece, call it your own,
Take a drive out,
a destination without,
Wind the windows down,
drive till its sundown.

Share some kisses
under the rain when it drizzles,
Brush your hand up my thigh
or maybe just call to say hi,
Whisper to me sweet talk,
Hold my hand and we'll go for a walk.

Sleep in on a weekday
and feed each other chocolate sundae's,
Stay in bed, who cares if its noon?
Just open your mouth, here comes the spoon.

Clean your room, talk to your cat,
Be nobody's doormat,
See less of the doctor,
It don't matter if your pockets got no dollars,
Care less about figures
Return more favours,
Amidst all our failures we can still build wonders,
So savour life's lil' treasures.

***********************************************************************************************
The poem marks my first endeavour into photo poetry - a maginificent form of art that combines two of the things that I love very much- writing & photography.

Check out www.azaliasuhaimi.com to view the original Photo Poetry- Beautiful photographs, and how her writing encapsulates so much feeling into it.

What else have I left to offer...except my ideas?
-@p-

Bar Chart #2

2010-05-11T05:32:00.001-07:00

[click on image to enlarge]
...Continue to archive documents?

Profoundly dumb & perpetually forgetful

2010-05-04T05:09:00.001-07:00

Yakkety Yak

Running is like mouthwash, if you can feel the burn, its working.
____________________________________________________________________

Photo by Run2Chuah

I ran my very first marathon last Sunday.

To describe the experience in one word, I would say: FUN =)

To however, describe the agony of it in one word, I believe is not possible.
Trying to explain running to someone who has never ran, is like trying to explain colour to someone who was born blind.

Photo by QQlai.multiply

It is true that you need some degree of insanity to run a marathon. But besides having a few screws loose in the head, there are certain qualities that a marathon runner must possess.

First of all, you must act like a horse, or morph into a hamster- Be dumb. Just run.
Secondly, you must always remember to forget your last marathon before you try another. Rmbr- Your mind must not know whats coming.
In a nutshell, all marathon runners must be dumb & forgetful.
Therefore, not everyone can make the cut for a marathon, as conversely...there are people who are forgetful, but not dumb enough to run a marathon.

Running a marathon is an experience like no other, as you sweat through your underpants and you countdown to every kilometer you've conquered.

Well if you want to win something, go run a 100 meters.
If you want to experience something, run a marathon.

Photo courtesy of Reza

Cos they say, its not how you start.....but how you finish!

All quotes from Run The Planet

The thinking must be done before the training begins.
-@p-

iGot to

2010-04-26T04:51:00.000-07:00

Yakkety Yak

When the people of the world all know of beauty as beauty,
There arises the recognition of ugliness.
When they all know the good as good,
There arises the recognition of evil.

Lao Tzu

__________________________________________________________________________

Teh Lol-friend recently got herself a brand new iPhone 3Gs,

LOL-friend no.1

...and therefore, leaving me (Lol-friend no.2) far behind in terms of mobile technology,

and also, green with envy. As I look at my 3-year old zaman-kolej-handphone that possesses no G's in it, there is no GPS either so if you ever get lost you will have to resort to the old-fashioned way- ask for directions. Heck you could attempt to send an e-mail from my phone but good luck with it I tell u!

Priced at roughly around RM 1500 with Digi's iPhone plan, and not including the monthly package bills, I should think that by the time I can afford an iPhone 3Gs, they would have already came up with the iPhone 5 or even 7G :'(

Well its not suffice to say that I'm unhappy with my current phone. For the past three years, my Sony Ericsson Wi810i has been trusty & reliable. Although it has a bad habit of restarting whenever I pick up phone calls, but then again..its not so bad cos' the Governor hardly calls anyway =P.
And the bad reception my phone receives is not all to blame, but rather, its the crap service that Digi renders.

An iPhone without its apps would be like a Happy meal without a toy (the poor kid), or a Ferari with a Kelisa's engine. You may have over 1000 downloadable apps, but God knows how useful they really are. Nevertheless, iPhone apps & games are awesome nice-to-have's, however useful they may be.

So perhaps one day Steve Jobs' will be so canggih as to devise an iPhone app that'll help me scoop up my cat's poo from his litter box.

So as not to come off sounding ungrateful, I've had some great times with my ol' college handphone.For one, we've taken some remarkably beautiful photos together, despite its meager 2mega pixel-2x optical zoom-auto-focus-less-functions.

[click on photos to enlarge]

Suffice to say, that sometimes its the photographer that makes a great photo, and not the camera that matters. ~~tee-hee XD

I'm also a proud owner of the world's first iDoze, which comes with a lifelong guarantee to do what it does best at.

The only Steve Jacobs creation that I proudly own, is an iPod nano, which is now carefully protected by an awfully cute Pac man cover that Fizah gave me as a birthday gift.
Speaking of which, it took me shit long to figure out how to turn on my iPod before I realised the keypad was locked (who reads instructions anyway?), and therefore, iFail.

Everything has its beauty, but not everyone sees it.
-@p-

Pie Chart

2010-04-19T05:38:00.000-07:00

[click image to enlarge]

meetings...often too long, too useless and super unnecessary.

All that is beautiful

2010-04-14T05:49:00.000-07:00

Yakkety Yak

To love someone deeply gives you strength.
Being loved by someone deeply gives you courage.

Lao Tzu

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Just last weekend, a dear friend of mine...tied the knot.

~ All photos from Li Li's wedding album ~

The wedding took place in Belgium. Its a bit of a shame for those of us here to have missed it, as judging from the pictures...the ceremony can only be described in one word...

...........beautiful.
Beautiful is what also describes the bride in the photo, cos she's everything that embodies true inner beauty,

So maybe you think that this world is so cruel, that there ain't no good people left on earth.
Well, for a while, I believed so too. That was until I met Li Li.

She's the essence of purity, and in her eyes, you can see the genuine concern she has for the well-being of those around her. On top of that, she always sees whats good in people, even if they fail to acknowledge their own strenghts. She epitomizes everything thats good, cos' she gives and expects nothing in return, she's faithful and trustworty.

It's having friend's like her in my life that make me a better person, good people like her remind myself to quit being so self-centered and to always care about people as much as she does.

I guess I have my lucky stars to thank for having come across people like Li Li in my life, who I came to know upon joining the Bank, along with a few other equally beautiful people, inside and out.
To think of it, I doubt I can ever thank my lucky stars enough.

So thats why for her bridal shower we blindfolded her, bundled her up and shipped her all the way to Belgium.

Kay kidding. hehe.

However, we did gave her a boxful of notty cupcakes and made her eat a penis.

Not kidding. hehe =P

And so last Friday, Li Li got her something old, something new, something borrowed, and something blue and... became Mrs.Caréme
Vincent Caréme, her husband, is everything a girl could wish for, (according to fairy tales that is, have to be lah..if not alot of Malaysian men won't make the cut)..Ahem, anyway..yes everything a girl could ask for...tall ~~dark~~ white & handsome.

Their marriage is proof that distance can be no barrier to a relationship if two people are really committed to each other. Their relationship bears the fruit of the dedication and the deep love they have for each other, the kind of love that is really...hard to describe in words.

Its love.

We come to love not by finding the perfect person, but by loving that imperfect person perfectly.

Marriage is a union of two individuals who have undeniable love for each other, just like Li Li and Vincent, who have vowed to spend their lives together.
I see the beauty of it too, because I believe there is nothing better than finding that ONE person who you'd want to annoy for the rest of your life. XD

I heard that a successful marriage requires falling in love many times, always with the same person.
I wholeheartedly agree to that, and I'm glad these two have found each other and have vowed to annoy each other till death do em' part, and most of all, I wish them both endless love.

Their story is how they wonderfully began, and here's to a beautiful love story ahead of them.
-@p-

Bar Chart

2010-04-05T06:24:00.000-07:00

Yakkety Yak

A committee is a coalition that takes minutes but losses hours.
____________________________________________________________________

I strongly believe that charts, diagrams and mind maps are delivery mechanisms that WORK. Think about it, the amount of information you could condense into a single bar chart! So sophisticated! No wonder all my bosses like seeing slides after slides of these colourful little boxes!

Besides, who likes reading lengthy paragraphs? I'd be lucky if you even read till this far!!

And since its common for me to spend 2 hours (or more) condensing information into either a pie chart, bar chart or whatever fucking yau char keuy chart so that someone more important than me can retrieve the information in 2 minutes...AND, since its only right that I spend my time and not yours so that you won't waste time trying to understand it better....why don't I go ahead and put everything in the chart!

(click to enlarge)

So what else do you do besides spending 29 hours a day at work?

Heck, even if you don't need a chart for it, do one anyhow!

-@p-

The Lion's Den

2010-04-04T05:17:00.000-07:00

I made an important decision not too long ago.

I decided that I've had just about enough here, and even despite a 6-month long absence, I've found that I've neither missed this place or am I even looking forward to the things I'm supposed to deliver this year.

I'm feeling saturated, inhibited, like a lion circling..and circling inside a golden cage, who would only die of starvation if I was ever released into the wild.

But I need out of here. So the question now is, what do I do...from here?

There's a part of me who won't ever stop searching for fulfillment, who won't settle for anything less. I guess I'd like to think that I only ever worked so hard in the past...to get where I am today, for a reason. I must have fought so long and so hard for something, don't tell me its for nothing.

Sometimes I wish life came with a manual, that way...maybe someday (hopefully soon tho), I won't wake up everyday, and say FMJ.

I can't promise you that things will change for the better,
but for things to be better...
There must be change.

-@p-

Striking a Balance

2010-03-28T04:42:00.000-07:00

Yakkety Yak

Everyone's got a photographic memory,
.......some just don't have film.
_______________________________________________________________________

Now Ryu's probably pissed at the moment because I posted a-not-so-very-flattering photo of her in my previous post.

(scroll down to see!) =D =D =D

nah, we're buddies. She'll forgive me (she will) ;D

Anyway, I turned twenty-three (ackkkk!) a couple of days ago, and here's a sneak peak of my 23rd birthday celebrations. These photos, are proof....that I don't alwayyyyyyyyyys put very flattering photos of myself on my blog. And as a matter of fact, these photos barely give my awesomely charming looks any justice. heheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee =PpPp

April Siow thanks her dearest friends for making her 23-rd birthday celebration a memorable one.
....each year, I get older, but it just gets better, and better! ;))

Thank you, you guys are my personal cheer squad, to be worthy of your friendship, I must say....that I really must have done something good in my life, or in my previous life.

你我相识 , 皆因缘分

_______________ Quote credits to Kaven

-@p-

What the hail????

2010-03-26T08:47:00.000-07:00

Yakkety Yak

On Wednesday, I found out that running 10km under the hot sun is far worse than when its raining and God is like throwing buckets of water on you.
Oh well, you live you learn, you run...you realise =)
____________________________________________________________________

A couple of days ago, Perth was hit by a freak storm.

image source: PerthNow

My initial reaction when I got the news, (apart from spilling my morning coffee) was to freak out!

Freemantle

Perth, since I visited it in 2008, has been one of my favourite places on earth. The place is simple, unlike the hustle and bustle you might find in Melbourne and Sydney, its home to the magnificent Swan river and in other words...Perth is beautiful =)

Swan Valley

Now don't bother asking Ryu what she thinks, maklumlah she's been there for four years. So to her, the grass in Kings Park will not look any greener today than it did last summer. heh (I don't think I used that proverb correctly didn't I) =D
So anyway, its only understandable that she doesn't share the same affinity that I have for that extremely-dead-but-beautiful-place called Perth. =)

whadaya want from me??? XD

Anyway, when I heard the news of the storm, I instantly freaked because of the destruction I imagined it would do to the material possessions and lives of the people I love there.

I couldn't imagine the horror it would be to have WinZ's beautiful backyard submerged in water! Poor Tyson the-chicken-shit-Huski would be left with no place to run, nor can he dig holes in the sand in his usual stupid attempts to run away.

Tyyyyyyyyysonnnnnnnnnn!!!

Not only that..there's also the damage to cars...electronics, furniture, over-flowed toilets and all the other yucky stuff that a flood brings about.

Thankfully, WInZ's house was spared the destruction and I can look forward to spending next year's summer sipping pina colada at her porch with sunnies, with Tyson next to me, my feet up on the chair and have Winz do my pedicure for me. LOL XD

Ryu's place however, had to bear the destruction.
Which really bummed me because having stayed there quite a bit, its another place I'm fond of. Hearing bout the damage the flood did to her floors, her carpet, mattress and all...made me feel awful, if not horrible, if not...helpless.

In times like these when mother nature slaps you left and right and left again (and again), what can you do?

You could try to see the bright side of it all, that atleast the ones you care for especially your cat are fine. And be plain thankful that your house is still standing on its four walls, or that the garage didn't come down crashing on your car.

Desperate times like these call for desperate measures, when you can't help but face your middle finger up to the sky, but in the back of your head, you bear in mind that things...could have turned out alot worse.

Now bring out the vacuum cleaner and get to work!

But I guess its hard sometimes.
I'd definitely find it difficult to stay positive if I woke up one morning to find my kitchen looking like this.

image source: PerthNow

hey where's ma cereal?

With hailstones the size of golfballs (some even bigger) dropping like hot parata from the sky, my poor kelisa would have looked like its been through target practice with the s.w.a.t team.

image source: PerthNow

Frankly, the only silver lining I could think of arising from this freakin-hailstorm cloud, was that I wouldn't have to go to work.

Staying positive about shitty things can be tough, I guess its just easier sometimes...to accept that sh*t just happens man. I know when shit happens we're meant to deal with it, but sometimes, you can only wish that it'll happen to someone else.

when all hail break loose
-@p-

3 BBQ's & a birthday

2010-03-21T06:30:00.001-07:00

Yakkety Yak

I got back early from lunch break and I couldn't decide on whether I should sleep, or continue doing slides.

I decided on SLEEP since 'E' comes before 'I'.

__________________________________________________________________

During Christmas last year, I had the chance to prepare food for a BBQ, for about 20 people.

It was exciting, and it wasn't exactly on my itinerary when I booked my flight to Perth. Yes, I was in Australia at that time, melting under the summer heat, chilling at WinZ's air-conditioned home, where she decided to have her housewarming party to coincide with Christmas.

WinZ being WinZ, was thoroughly unprepared to handle the event on her own (heheee). Thankfully, being the supportive/authoritative/disciplinarian friend (or foe?) I was, I jumped into action!!! XD

kay kidding, Winz is quite the domestic goddess
(very much more than I am =)

Thankfully as well, Aussie is also the land of barbeque, so if you take a drive anywhere in Perth, you'll find barbeque and grill shops ubiquitously right in the the middle of nowhere.

WinZ's place. not a BBQ shoppe. lol
Beautiful ain't it? XD

So anyway, I got right down to business and had the meats prepared for the BBQ in just a matter of hours (what'd u expeck? I am supergirl) ;D

Needless to say, the food turned out pretty darn good. I do believe that if you ever decide to hold a barbeque, it is mandatory that the food should atleast be palatable. That way, when people 'ask how was the party?' Atleast they can say 'oh the host was sh*t, music was crap, people were making out...but oh, the food was good! =D

What use is a barbeque if everyone is reaching for Thai chilli sauce b'cos the unmarinated meat is tasteless?

Noooooo...the perfectionist in me wouldn't allow that, so for Winz's barbeque, I took to marinating about 200dollars worth of good ol' Aussie lamb, beef and chicken. Although the food did turn out pretty delicious, the only problem was that I used the same ingredients to marinate the meats, so what you had was chicken that tasted great, but it also tasted like the beef, which also tasted like the lamb. But it tasted great, and thats what really matters =D.

Officially, I have never cooked for so many people ever before. I told WinZ that, and she was like....'Well we're a bunch of lucky people then'.

Damn right you are =D =D =D

A couple of months down the road, I attempted to replicate my BBQ success right at my own home, this time to celebrate the birthdays of three lovely people from work.

It goes without saying that hosting a party is possibly the most stressful thing on earth. I hate how you have to handle absolutely everything, and anything that could screw up will worry the shit out of me. Imagine, I had an argument with my dad over capsicum when I don't even eat capsicum!

Party planning is hazardous, for me, that is. I think if I had to work for event management, I'd die early from all the stress and worry.

There's so much stress involved when it comes to playing host, its no wonder in all my 10 years of staying here, I only ever organised a barbeque twice (including this time!).
And yeah, in the previous bbq, I yelled at my dad over charcoal.lol.

BBQ September 2006

So its pretty special if you think of it. Heck, a barbeque invite that comes only once in 10 years! Kinda like how we won the Thomas cup and possibly better than the olympics, you bunch of special peeps...........

and I did it with a sprained ankle!

I wholeheartedly agree to that =D =D =D

The barbeque was probably the most I've ever done for a friend's birthday, I've never really played host much before, yet alone even had my own birthday party. But I figured doing something for my friends, screaming a bit and loosing a bit of hair in the process would be well worth if it was to have everyone get together and have fun.

Besides, am not a person who's big on gifts anyway. Which was why I initiated the whole barbeque, I figured that having everybody around was wayyyyyy better than buying gifts. Other than the fact that I absolutley suck at buying presents. tee-hee =p

I think the whole idea of birthday gifts are pure reciprocatory business. If you get me a gift, I sure as hell appreciate your kind intentions, but heck now I gotta make sure that I get you something equally as awesome when your b'day comes around, and there starts the whole gift-exchange-headache-cycle.

I typically don't expect anything from my friends, toldja I'm not big on gifts, and I'd be more than happy if you remembered my big day =)

25/03/09

So, since I'm turning 23 in a couple of days, come have dinner, and a few drinks with me...no you don't have to pay for my share and I sure as hell don't expect anything from you, other than for you to....grace me with your presence =)))

But if you must....................
I went shopping today and spotted this really sweeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeet PUMA sports bag [<--click it] And hey...my 5th Gen Ipod needs a cover, and yeah, the earphones kinda drop out whenever I run, so I wouldn't mind a pair of these instead.
HEHEEEEEEEEEEE =D

-@p-

Where'd you go?

2010-03-14T05:43:00.000-07:00

Yakkety Yak

When I ask you to listen and you start giving advice, you have not done what I have asked.
When I ask you to listen to me, and you begin to tell me why I shouldn't fell that way, you are trampling on my feelings.
When I ask you to listen and you feel you have to do something to solve my problem, you have failed me, strange as it may seem. Listen!
All I ask is that you listen, not talk or do - just hear me.

Ralph Roughton, M.D

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The past week's been sh*t.

I felt like I wasted the whole week- all 168 hours in em' all.
I felt like I've done nothing worthwhile.
I felt like I've done nothing to make this world a better place for the people around me.
In short, I think my existance for the past week has been a complete waste of resources, by me living and breathing and everytime I take a dump and flush the toilet. Not to mention a waste of toilet paper too

I think if I had all but that one week to live, and since this is how I spent it (being completely useless, that is), I should have just been killed off the face of earth sooner. That'll be my bit for the environment.

Hello....? This doesn't sound like me. If you've been reading my blog, there hasn't been anything to suggest the rain clouds that have been hovering above my head for the past couple of weeks. Well you're right....but perhaps you should realise that I'm not just simply a humour machine, it isn't my job to entertain you....and I've been finding it hard to see humour in everyday life, like how I used to.

I haven't been feeling like myself, and everything and anyone that has come in touch with me this week has left little impression on my soul. Its like the emotions just pass right through me, and I'm left feeling blank, absolutely blank.

I can't seem to feel anything anymore.

I'm sincerely sorry to anyone whom I've come across with this week who has found me boring, uninterested and slightly stand-off-ish. I'm finding it hard to control my own feelings and my reverie is peppered with self-criticism & feelings of worthlessness.

I'm beginning to distance myself from friends and family, you might find me physically there, but my mind feels far off...and I'm wanting nothing more but to close the blind's..pull up the covers...and hunker beneath the sheets.

Its scaring me how something as simple as going out for coffee seems like such a chore for me now. The things that I used to enjoy just don't feel the same anymore, like taking photos, eating, playing squash, exercising and even blogging...I just don't get the same joy and satisfaction like I felt before. And I go home at the end of the day practically exhausted! But from what? Absolutely nothing! I have done nothing to make this world better than it was yesterday, its almost as if everyone would be better off without me.

If I told you I was depressed you would probably just tell me to 'Get something to eat, get out, exercise, have more fun, stop isolating myself, quit complaining and do this, that...bla bla bla...you'll go to bed and wake up the next morning perfectly alright'.

Although I'm admitting my current depressionary state to the world, but to be honest, I'd rather not let my mood portray itself on the outside. Heck, if you hang out with me, you might not even notice because I'm so darn good at plastering a smile on my face, and maybe putting in the occasional joke or two.
Because if I did breakdown, there would be hordes of people..regardless of whether they truly care about me or not ...who would go 'Why april? oh why...? Come tell me whats wrong'

And so the lecture begins.

The older folks are gonna feel obliged to do the 'talk' with me just because time & tide has put them all through it.....'I've eaten more salt than you and I know EXACTLY how you feel april'...The 'exactly'... is exactly what freaks me out.

Because its just how everyone is. Everyone wants to prescribe glasses to a pair of eyes they haven't diagnosed before. The truth is people see the world as they want to see it, and not as it is. And they go and belittle other people's feelings by making generalizations about life from their own experiences.

Well, my world is not the world you see thorugh your eyes, so for godsakes quit telling me what to do with my life because I'm not interested to hear you preach.

You don't owe me any advice and I've lived a life where I came to expect nothing from anyone.

I may be lying about my feelings to the whole world but I'm certainly not lying about the way I feel to myself. I will wave, I'll smile, I'll talk, and if you come by needing something I'll give you your 'moment' so I don't come across like so emo-filled b*tch who can't keep her sh*t together, so you'll walk away with what you want, happy..and end of story, no questions asked.

****************************************************************************

I'm crying to get my emotions in check because I find myself stuck in a position to change things, with so much power....but yet, so little control.
I know my depression can be cured by changing my current state of things, but won't you just understand that I have so much to lose?
I can't afford to face the consequences of my intentions. I know in life, there's always a choice...but rather, it is a matter of whether can we face the consequences of the choices that we make.
Right now, I can't bring myself to, so now I'm stuck here and every second of the day, I can feel my heart pumping the blood thats going through my veins...going to waste.

It hard, yet bizzare for me that I'm depressed, I don't know how mild, how serious or even if its seasonal, I'm not about to pay some pysciatrist just to diagnose how fucked up I am now, or if messed-up is where I'm headed eternally.
Its difficult to acknowledge the rain clouds hanging above me now, when I've been through tougher times in my life.

Perhaps I've only been nothing but resilient towards everything that has happened in my life up until now, and everything that I went through alone, with nothing but self-belief and pure determination to get me by.... that I've finally reached a point where things are alright, that I find myself suddenly lost. For the first time, I don't know where to go from here, after fighting and fighting for so long with everything that life has thrown at me, I've won some battles but now I'm lost and directionless.

I find it difficult to let people into my life when I've been doing it all on my own for so long. When I think back, I feel I've been very strong all this while, b'cos I had to be - it was the only way I could have shot at changing what I was born into, and I never really had a rock to lean on or a safe place I could confide in. I hammered myself into a character that needed absolutely nobody, rendering me incapable of relating my past, my childhood and the life that I've had to contend with, to anybody.
But one thing's for sure, I have never been ashamed of my struggles.

Today is Sunday, and I feel fine today, better...much better than I felt in the last couple of days. But I don't know how I will feel tomorrow, on Tuesday or on Wednesday. It seems like I have no more control about how I feel anymore which is ridiculous! But its like the life inside of me is being sucked away and I don't know what to do about it.

I wish I can wake up to my chirpy self in the mornings again, I'm not talking about the Monday blues, I'm not just whining about Monday to Friday, I'm talking about the larger person in me who's screaming for something more in my life. I guess this is what they mean, when they say your mind breaks the spirit if your soul, the question is, what do I do now?

I know that I won't ever stop believing in myself...but now, my faith is like walking on broken glass.

-@p-

Coffee Cups

2010-03-07T00:07:00.000-08:00

Yakkety Yak

TRUTH in the eyes of the public is just made up of the perception of the majority.
__________________________________________________________________________

Show me a man who paints on canvas,
and I'll show you a man who draws on styrofoam cups.

run baby run

image source: blog.sharpie.com

image source: www.iamboey.com

These images are subject to copright, and technically...I can't even reproduce them without (his) permission.

But heck with it, this is so creative that I can't even describe.

So intricate the design, I could proclaim this man a genius.

Cheeming Boey [<--check him out], makes me wanna kick myself for every styrofoam cup that I've thrown away. Its like throwing away $280 (thats how much one cup can sell for!)

Atleast for this one.
Hence, the more elaborate the design, the more the WOW factor, the more in the hundreds it'll sell for.
And some of them seriously make you go...'how on earth did he do that?'

Whoever thought doodling could be so lucrative?

The beautiful thing about art is that it can come in so many ways. And who's to say in art, whats wrong, whats ugly and whats not.
Art is about personal expression and freedom. Art is an avenue to express your feelings, may it be on canvas, paper, walls... and once you've created that 'work of art', it leaves you feeling elated and indescribable to some.

Art is a function creativuty, which is a part of me that I've been trying very hard to cultivate back into my life eversince.......

.............eversince I joined zombie boot camp, that is....work.

To think of it, working in an office is a strange...strange thing to do.
Who on earth came up with the rationale that putting people in one place with no windows under the scrutiny of the boss would be the most efficient way to get things done.....?

Heck, how much work do we get done in the office anyway?
Most people spend alot of time 'busy acting busy'/looking like we're working (which is something I knoe you are very good at - don't deny), wasting time, facebook-ing, chatting and...if you're reading this during office hours then you're wasting time!
Get back to work!!! XD

I think working in an office has become far too outdated. Look at where we are now! With so much technology in the works, I think organisations should challenge the way we work and where we work.

*restless*

Looking at Boey's papercup designs offer me a glimer of hope. That the limits of creativity...are absolutely endless. Therefore I will not allow the confines of my office cubicle to box up my imagination. I will not let my air conditioned office evaporate all of my creative juice

Now the question that remains is....what I ought to draw on (that hasn't been drawn on already)?

Pizza boxes?
nah, for that I either have to sneak into Dominos' at midnight to steal pizza boxes or I would have to eat a whole lotta pizza.
Not good for the abs. no-no.
Skin?
Dammit they already invented tattoos.....! lol.

Styrofoam boxes? Possible. Plenty of supply courtesy of my neighborhood chap-fan store.

But like I've mentioned, art has no boundaries. Art may be written, be captured through a camera lense, it can be sung in a song, or danced to like those I-melt-for-LXD-dancers.
Art is limitless, and I think we should always push beyond those boundaries of what we perceive as 'art'.

So perhaps I could divelge into....
................toilet paper art?

Its good reading material on the potty before your toilet seat automatically ejects you.
And its supply would be in over abundance in places where there's alot of shit to wipe.

It could even be drawn as a comic, I could condense the whole Lord of the Rings saga into one toilet roll.

Creativity can be found anywhere.

Boey describe his artistic creations as something that 'smacks mundane in the face'.
I should get around to paying creativity more attention before it hits me with a stapler or my office diary......or
.......before it gets my cat to bite my charger or pee on my laptop.

So if mundane was a man I'd kick him in the groin.

The diffrence between a dream and reality....is just doing it.
-@p-

Leave Right Now

2010-03-06T08:56:00.001-08:00

Yakkety Yak

Its been crazy hot these days!!!

Imagine how going to the office would be like in the 60's when there wasn't any air conditioning.

I'd wear singlet to go to work. =p
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Idol's season 9 result show on Friday didn't surprise me.

Ousted from the competition Boys: Jermaine Sellers, John Park
Girls: Michelle Delamor & Haeley Vaughn

But a second look at the 4 who got eliminated does give fuel for some speculative activity. (for people like me who have nothing better to do but watch Idol everyday.hehe)

Hmmm...3 blacks and one Asian....Helloooooo America!!
You wonder whether a competition like this can indeed be colourblind.

Is it a true case of talent deficiency, in which America voted against their singing abilities, their horrendous choice of songs or....do I sense some less-than-favourtism based on skin colour here?.

I mean, Joe Munoz who's Mexican did get booted off from the competition last week.

image source: www.americanidol.com

Okay fine. so their departure from the competiton just might have some justification... John Park has that corny Vaness Wu hairstyle that maybe works in Korea but not in the US, baby.

Jermaine Sellers...well, a bit of a shocker, but maybe ..the angels just weren't looking out enough for this God fearing man.

I'm on Idol season 9 but my hairdo is from 10 seasons ago.

As for Michelle Delamor...well can't quite understand how she got bumped off when she looks so extremely COMMERCIAL.

I mean...look at her! She could turn Beyonce!!

~wo oh ooh oh oh ooh oh oh ooh oh oh oh~

All the single ladies! uhuh, I'll put a ring on that XD

The weakest link of the four would probably be Haeley Vaughn. She was never that great to start out with anyway. And its always excruciating to hear someone sing Miley Cyrus's The Climb which is like the karaoke theme song for 16 year olds.

Speaking of 16 year old, here is my beh-tahan artist for of the month, Justin Bieber...who reminds me of Aaron Carter REBORN in the 21st century. why...oh why...??

Somehow, I find it so disturbing that a 16 year old boy who hasn't reached puberty is going about singing Baby baby baby Ohhh...and all the girls in his music video...are so 'developed'.

Anyway, aside from my most be-tahan pop artist (as mentioned above), I've discovered this week's cutie =D. Here's Jason Castro and he's...yeap, an Idol Graduate.

*ah-choo!*

Catchy song. Don't you just wanna ruffles your fingers through his dreadlocks? (or pour a whole bottle of Pantene mebbe)

Okay fine I'll keep my hands to myself.

I hope the idols realise that its not the end of the road for them just because they got booted out of the competition. And to some extent, this show just creates losers out of winners.

Some battles are better just lost, cos you don't always have to win the battle to win the war.
There may just be ONE American Idol, but you won't just be the only one.

They cannot take away your self respect unless you give it to them
Gandhi

-@p-

Brutal cuts & The Dance Phenomenon

2010-02-25T07:12:00.000-08:00

Yakkety Yak

I just heard a contestant on American Idol butcher the song 'Landslide'. She sung so badly that I thought the sand beneath where my condo stands upon was gonna come down crashing.
____________________________________________________________________________________

There's a dude on this season's American Idol that I'm really astounded by. Really, he sounds so hot that when he sings...he can literally blow a girl's pants off. (not mine, of course)

And his name, is Andrew Garcia.

As I sat on the couch and watched this audition, I didn't proceed to remove my pants, but I honestly thought that I was gonna cry listening to him sing, and I mean that in every good way.

And now that Andrew Garcia made it to the top 24, I predict alot more knickers are gonna go flying, in time.

The rest of American Idol this time around has failed to garner much idol fever in me, yet alone deliver much of good ol' talent and originality. Most are rather forgettable really, and whats even more unforgivable about them is their horrendous choice of songs!

In Hollywood week, alot of Idol hopefuls sang the song 'Home' by Chris Daugthry.
Thats is probably the worst song to ever sing in the whole of American Idol history. Why on earth would you wanna sing a song that has lyrics that go ...'So I'm going home...to the place where I belong.....'

siao arh.....? skali you go home then you knoe.
Then its bye-bye to the competition. Stupid americans. lol

Sigh, why is quality entertainment so hard to find?

These are times when I wish my cat could do more than just meow, scratch himself, beg for food & do more than just idolize himself everyday.

iambeautiful!

Anyhow, my constant lookout for something to ENTERTAIN ME! helped me chance upon this beautiful dance choreography, that is so beautiful.....that.... oh I needn't say.

Ladies & Gentleman, I present to you LXD.

The Legion of Extraordinary Dancers.

A performance so beautiful, that it deserves the highest accolade I could ever gave to any performance....
it makes ME wanna take off my pants....AND cry.

The Legion of Extraordinary Dancers [LXD] is an online dance series, combining the best dancers in the world, as they come together and blend music, dance & storytelling so artistically, like you've never seen before. A legion they are, a legend they will be. Pants...errr I mean hats off to them.

Hit www.LXD.com for trailers & jaw dropping dance routines.

Look at the stars...
Look how they shine for you
And everything that you do
-@p-

Barenaked for Work

2010-02-20T22:33:00.000-08:00

Dedicated to those who work, who slog, and who sit behind their desks everyday, yearning for life beyond the cubicle.
____________________________________________________________________

On Monday's like this
Its hard to tell if I exist,
Any help in photocopying I could assist?
Oh no, I insist.
I'm one banker with a twist,
Cos' at 5.30pm I'm automatically dismissed,
That I persist.

Put a banana in someone's exhaust pipe.
I'm like sitting here waiting for fruits to ripe,
Don't want to turn into an office stereotype,
And I can't be anyone's ass-wipe,
I'm just not the toilet paper type.

Pay someone to peel a prawn.
When I was young I chanced upon,
Something called brawn,
Here I try to scream but out comes a yawn,
To work I'm anything but drawn,
Holy shit, is that a fucking faun.....?

Chickity China the Chinese Chicken,
Work for 10 months and your brain stops tickin'
Like being in jail, except getting paid its quite akin,
You make a lame-ass joke but I grin,
Alot look like they're wearing sheepskin,
Lookin' like real pumpkins,
Much to my fashion sense chagrin.

Great skirt, but you look fat in white.
This place is killing my dendrites,
Cos' my neurons are saying goodnight,
Become senile I just might,
Wonder if any of this will make sense looking in hindsight.

Watch out for arrows!
Bosses are hunting us like dingoes,
It's a sport for their ego,
Did you hear my screams echo?
When confusion becomes the status quo.
I turn to hamtaro!
Point me to the nearest bistro,
Cure my headache with a shot, bingo!
There you go, your office hobo.

I just made you say underwear.
Working is unfair,
Some sort of psychological warfare,
Turning us into working class nightmares,
Like being thrown off a plane in mid air,
You'll find me in the middle of nowhere,
You're reading this I'm aware,
There guys actually pay me for my hardware,
I may malfunction, beware!

Pinch me, I'm still asleep.
-@p-

Beer & the Bush

2010-02-18T23:24:00.000-08:00

Yakkety Yak

The other day, I was stuck for 45 minutes talking to someone who was so boring, that if boring ever came and spoke to him, boring would say...'Gawd, you are boring!'

It has come to a point for me that I can't be bothered to listen to anyone who doesn't inspire me. ____________________________________________________________________

The other day, the young and bubbly intern in the office shared with me an interesting bit about Hoegaarden beer.

Beginners French, blanche means white.

Kay first things first, its pronounced as 'who-garden'. And if I lost you at 'Hou.....meh ah?'. You might know it as the beer thats served in its trademark hexagonal glass, and it often looks cloudy and whitish.

*slurp* XD

Hoegaarden is so popular, thats its practically synonymous with Belgian white beer. And its unique, chunky beer glass is ideal to be hijacked as a souvenir from whichever bar or pub which you patronize =D

(now you know why Starbuck's is always so efficient at taking back its coffee mugs)

So on Wednesday, Su (the intern) revealed to me some Hoegaarden trivia, that left me so curious, I spent the other half of the day researching on it. And it took some ingenuity to Google up the images for this post, it included having to search for key words like 'bush' and 'naked woman'. How dodgy XD *time in the office well spent*

Ever wondered where the name Hoegaarden came from? Dah-lah its hard to pronounce...but what does it mean?

Here's Hoegardeen Le fruit défendu , and pay attention to the label.

The picture reveals a man & a woman, who we'd purportedly think is 'Adam' and 'Eve', both nearlyyyyyyyyyyyy naked...with all but a bit of 'bush' to cover up.

And upon closer inspection,
Yes there is infact quite a jungle down there.

So the name Hoegaarden actually refers to someone's 'garden'.
This picture did cause quite an uproar in the USA, mainly because the Americans thought that the naked picture of Adam & Eve was degrading. (Funny tho, Americans saying its shameful when this is what JLo wore to the Grammy's)

rainforest bathrobe
can't you tell i took a shower before the show?

Anyhow, Hoegarden defended that it wasn't Adam and Eve, but the picture...was based on a 'painting'.
(so was that painting about Adam & Eve then....? sheeehs)

the label that sparks debate

They should have just come out clean and said it was a cheap way to get a naked woman on the label....well I would have forgave them.

Personally, I think the label is teriffic, as it goes perfectly with the deep red colour of the beer, and Adam handing over Eve a beer (instead of an apple), evokes the whole 'forbidden fruit' theme. Hence the name Hoegaarden Le fruit défendu , or..Hoegaarden Forbidden Fruit.

Gotta give it to them, whoever who ingenously came up with a beer named after someone's privates, must be one sick basterd.
Unfortunately, the 'garden' story being referred to here, and all the hype about someone's bush (I'd never thought I'd ever say that) is completely and absolutely, inaccurate.

I took the liberty of verifying the whole 'Bush story', only to find out that Hoegaarden beer, is actually named after the a historic village in the Flemish province of Belgium.

So much for someone's bush.
Which makes me wonder how Su came up with the whole 'garden' thing in the first place.
Maybe she has some previous brazillian waxing horrors. *wonders* XD

Sigh, what are they teaching kids at uni these days??? can I...can I go back to uni too?
They even nick-named Su as 'Sugar' because she's so lively and full of energy.
Ahh...youth.

Turned BFF's over photocopying, scanning & binding work.

She even brought out the bimbo in me.

Which is not something I should show the world. Altho my buddy Vern insits that my true hair colour, is indeed blond.

Ahh friends...you can't get honesty like that anywhere else.

Aprilsiow thanks Su for her short, but memorable appearance in the department...and for calling me a nutcase.

You should always have one case of beer in case it rains,
And another one, in case it doesn't.
-@p-