I am made of steel...Not.

You see, all this time, I've been studying in front of this thing that sits in front of me in all its electronic glory, smirking, willing me to put down my pen and grab hold of the mouse.

All I can say is, yes you dumb laptop, I am tempted and I am being sucked into this mindless, i don't know, lifestyle (?) of blogging.

This is so distracting! !!!! !!!!!!!

I need to get my priorities right and stop being such a education-hater. Seriously, what is up with all that "I HATE ECONS", "ECONS IS STUPID" lines that I keep harping on about!

Sheesh. Someone, motivate me!

Ooh La

Yowzxzxzxz kewll peopleezxz!

The last few posts cannot be justified.

I spent the better part of my day finishing up on Australian studies. Which leaves me to start on my Econs AFTER dinner and media too! Thank God I don't have FSS exams! So even though I hate PIP, I'm kinda glad that it's over and done with now.

Anyway, Cherie, Ria and Young went to UniSyd today for University Live! It was apparently good and cherie came back with pamphlets and booklets.

GPA required to get into Arts(Media &comm) is 7.9. That's pretty alright to me because I got a spanking 9.3 that I didn't fully appreciate until now. (I hope i can keep this up though!) But for UAI, it's a 93.45.

See the difference? For people who cannot see properly, this is for your beneift:

UAI: 93.45

USFP: 7.9

And THAT is the difference between losers like me and freaking geniuses in university. I still have not fully grasped the fact that next year, this time, i'll be in University. I could be doing okay or I could be struggling, but it's still a fact that I'll only be 17 when I start uni!

I feel like one of them rich kids who pay their way to school BUT THIS ISN'T THE CASE! I pretty much despise the whole 'there's money involved - please pull strings for me' thing, but to me, it seems like its totally happening to me now. I didn't Realise TaylorsCollege was a money-eating organisation that swallowed people's money and allowed them to get into Uni for a lower grade and a fee.

Okay. So maybe i'm making it sound extremely bad by exxagerating. But the sad truth is that when I get into uni, i'll be this ignorant loser that cannot find her way around campus or cannot understand a word her classmates are saying! It is super intimidating, please!

I don't want to flunk uni or end up looking like a total idiot can!

I have nothing more to say on this subject. It's too depressing.

Anyway, accomodation! Remember how i said unilodge wasn't that bad? Well, I take it back. Prices there are skyhigh AND in addition, Sydney uni village is EVEN BETTER!

How exciting does that sound - SYDNEY UNIVERSITY VILLAGE Haha I can already imagine the bunch of us moving into one apartment!

But Of course, the ideal accomodation would be if my blood brother comes to sydney and study here la then we can stay together I'll even cook for him! PLEASE DOM COME STUDY HERE LEH YOU ONLY HAVE TO WASH TOILET! SERIOUS! I SWEAR! PLEASEEEEEEEE?!?!?!?!


I can imagine people wondering why on earth would I want to live with my brother when I obviously have so much fun with room mates and international students. But you see, you wouldn't appreciate that...convenience of living with someone you've lived with all your life until you've lived with complete strangers. Although Cherie and I have been living together for about 7 months already, there are still pretty invisible restrictions, but restrictions they are.

And anyway, Dominic Chua, BLOOD TRAITOR, would never come to Sydney or any other place in Australia.

(BUT PLEASE LAH COME OKAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!)

No harm trying, right!

What else do I have to blog about?

Oh yes.

Yesterday, germs cherie and I went to Market City cause germsy had to see the doctor. After that we kinda roamed around market city to look for a dress for the Sydney university dinner thingamajic that's taking place on the 6th. Apparently, Germaine got invited to this dinner at uni with all the chancellors and deans and scholorship awardees. Eggciting! And she chose to bring moi :D

So yeah I got this LBD from dotti and I swear it makes me look about 21! It's quite formal and wearing it means I cannot eat until i'm very full. Haha sheesh.

Talking about eating, I'm starving now! Ravenous. Ja nee!

Did you see the Sun rise today?

Pictures from long long ago.

Charlotte as a octopus (credits to Cherie's hat)


Scream - Scream - WHAT?


RUN


AWAY


GAY FACE


GAY POSE


GAY POSE PART II AHAHAHAHAHA


TALIBAN!


HAHAHAHAHAHAHA

Laughed enough yet?
Bye bye.

The tree said "I Wish I was a Bee"

OMGOSH OMGOSH OMGOSH

SPH TOTALLY REPLIED MY EMAIL!
AFTER HOW MANY MANY MANY WEEKS OF WAITING, ANTICIPATING AND FINALLY FORGETTING,

SPH FINALLY REPLIED :D :D :D

Hahaha okay. I'm making it sound like I got the scholorship already. For your benefit:

Thanks for your interest.
Call or email us when you are back in Singapore.
We will arrange for you to sit for our writing exercise then.

Regards,
Madeleine Cheong
Human Resources
Tel: (65) 6319 2030


Haha I hear a number of scattered 'Cheys' and 'Aiyos'.
BUT WHO CARES!

I'M HAPPY. MY PROBLEM. NOT YOURS.
MUAHAHAHAHAHAHA

(I bet some of you are secretly jealous.)

Bacchanalian Scene

Think about it:

When you're born, you are crying, but everyone around you is smiling like it's the best day of their lives.

But when you die, everyone around you is crying.

And so it all boils down to this: When you die, will you be smiling, or crying?


*/Edit

Re-evaluation, Temporary Substitution

PIP is off my shoulders now.
Bye bye Australian Studies Test!

And my classmate, Jojo is just lovely :D

And now, the struggle to get my brain set on Study Mode begins.

Wish me luck people, considering the fact that my exams start on Monday and I'm only starting my revision now.

Cheers!

I Don't Think I'll Ever Get Over You

I drink good coffee every morning
Comes from a place that's far away

And when I'm done I feel like talking
Without you here there is less to say

I don't want you thinking I'm unhappy
What is closer to the truth

That if I lived till I was 102
I just don't think I'll ever get over you

I'm no longer moved to drink strong whisky
'Cause I shook the hand of time and I knew

That if I lived till I could no longer climb my stairs
I just don't think I'll ever get over you

Your face it dances and it haunts me
Your laughter's still ringing in my ears

I still find pieces of your presence here
Even after all these years

But I don't want you thinking I don't get asked to dinner
'Cause I'm here to say that I sometimes do

Even though I may soon feel the touch of love
I just don't think I'll ever get over you

If I lived till I was 102
I just don't think I'll ever get over you

Shmuck.

Today i woke up 5 minutes before my Econs lesson.

Got ready in record time and rushed down for lessons. That's the third day in a row now that I've not brushed my hair hahaha

Anyway, i'm just here to make it clear that My Favourite Food is Chocolate Coated Sunflower Seeds.

I mean, honestly, how can you beat that!

Everyone loves sunflower seeds with chocolate coating.
It's convenient and easy, and not to mention, it's extremely addictive.
I bet everyone has eaten sunflower seeds before. I practically grew up with it! White packaging, sunflower picture, chocolate coated seeds? What's not to like?

So yeah. If, anytime in the future, I come here and blog and claim that my favourite food is like, ben&jerry's icecream (!) or shaker fries (!!) . . .

I wanted to say . . then you know i'm lying because my favourite food is Chocolate Coated Sunflower Seeds.

But all that talk about good food has made me crave for B&Js and Shaker fries and sundaes. Damn.


Mission unaccomplished.

I need an excuse letter

Maybe you know, JUST MAYBE, my brain has been abducted by insanely fugly aliens from mars (I believe they're called martians - but what's the difference anyway?) and when i say fugly, i mean fugly.

Look at E.T from the steven spielberg movie. He's alright, isn't he? (Nevermind the fact that he's so endearing in a nearly slimy sort of way - i mean, come on, that dude rides flying bicycles!)

I'm talking AVP ALIEN UGLY. And I don't even know how I detoured down Road-Geraldine-Is-Losing-Her-Mind to reach the conclusion that some aliens are uglier than others. Who really cares anyway?

Well, back to the topic of MY BRAIN being abducted by aliens. I really think that happened during the course of the last few days because i kinda feel myself losing all sense of sanity and gibblygook dooblydoob booblygook.
SEEblygook I CAN'T EVENlydoob WRITE A PROPERblygook SENTENCE3u2a!!!

Can you imagine my face? (Insert picture of a deranged geraldine) Seriously.


ANYWAY.

I'm pretty much done with my PIP which just makes me want to shrivel up and die die die. I can't believe that examinations are just NEXT WEEK. I (obviously) have not started revising, which kind of scares me because everyday I walk into class to whispered conversations about how far my classmates are into their revision. It's intimidating. Yes, it is.

SO CAN SOMEONE PLEASE TELL ME HOW COME I'M NOT PANICKING YET!

Wait. That's just wrong. I AM panicking.

Panicking so much that I can come to this extremely lively blog where i have almost a million hits a day and blog so that people all around the world, who are anticipating for a 'erm' from my gloriously, perfectly manicured, definitely not dry fingers, will be immensely satisfied that they will provide me with a lifetime supply of milo packets and Hello Pandas and Pocky (strawberry, please) and never-ending air tickets to exotic places like Venice and and and...some ulu part of China or smethg***



AND now that I'm done with my daily dosage of daydreaming, I can Finally go back to donating my brain juices for the sake of Data Commentaries and Australia's superlong history that's just super-irritating yes super-annoying hey superman (?)

Yes ma'am, I'd like some fries to go with that shake.

***That was Daily joke number 64432, if you didn't get it already.

Seduction and Betrayal

Type your answer to the following questions into flickr search:

What is your first name?
What is your favorite food?
What high school did you go to?
What is your favorite color?
Who is your celebrity crush?
What is your favorite drink?
What is your dream vacation?
What is your favorite dessert?
What do you want to do when you grow up?
Who/what do you love most in life?
Choose one word that describes you?
What is your Flickr name?

Using only the first page, pick an image
Copy and paste each of the urls into the Mosiac Maker
Post your mosaic!

Hybrid Theory

I hate it when:

People act like they know me

Copy my every move

And lie to me.



"Get up, pick up your mat, and Walk"

And That, people, is EXACTLY what I'm doing Trying to do.

All these Junk.

It's Sunday morning now. Really early morning. And i've yet to touch my PIP or Australian Studies yet. Not to mention, my media essay due Monday.

I'm a habitual procrastinator. Come on. All of us are. Don't even try to deny it.


So fine. I'm not just a habitual procrastinator. I'm the worst - or best, in this case - habitual procrastinator you've ever met. Seriously.
I woke up at 12 today and went shopping at broadway with phae and cherie. Saw UniLodge too which is right smack in the middle of broadway and a fine 10 minutes walk to the university. It didn't look too bad either! God is Good, hey?

So we had chinese food for lunch (funny how i always mention what kind of food i eat now - italian, malaysian, thai etc etc) and then we just shopped until we almost dropped.

Dinner at this Thai restaurant at surry hills. My goodness I miss tom yum soup so much! The one they serve at dinner is FAKE tom yum soup - not even spicy, not even sour.

We then took a slow walk home, with cherie and I trailing behind cause we were going high, running around like crazy 5-year-olds and taking insanely stupid pictures.

Watched JUNO (4.3 stars) and then went to return it at RedRoom - and now i'm back. We're gna watch another movie soon and then I'm going to stop here now and leave the rest of my rantings for tomorrow because i'm to exhausted to talk anymore. Sayonara.

The tears you hide, beneath those lies

I was JUST IN TIME for my first lesson today, which actually means that I am late.

Sat down while watching my other before-just-in-time classmates scribbling furiously, took one look at the question. And had a serious mini panic attack. Sat down, took out my pen and started writing.

To think that i was so confident about the question that they were going to give.

But oh well, that's over now.

And then i went for media.
Walked in 5 minutes late (was talking to anson) and found out that we had a presentation! I absolutely forgot about it.
Had ANOTHER serious mini panic attack - this one almost killed me - but i did it anyway. The gift of gab is really pretty miraculous sometimes.

Cause hey my love

In discussing whether I am going crazy, there are a number of reasons for and against this hypothesis before we can reach a conclusion.

As you can see, I really am going crazy - since i'm blogging in a discussion essay form.

So if it isn't already obvious enough, I have a one hour test tomorrow on the topic of English as a Global Language. It's interesting, no doubt, but I'm really dreading it because

1) I have not really started researching about it

and

2) I am a potential black-out person and if I black out tomorrow during my test, I'm afraid I will not be able to write 800-1000 words under an hour.

ANYWAY soccer gala day was pretty awesome. I took loads of pictures and screamed until my lungs went hoarse. I even got sunburnt which is something I haven't had in a long long time. I'm actually kind of welcoming the familiar sensation of heat and the idea of being a red-faced tomato.

I have pictures which i will post up sometime in the near future. Some will go to flickr too, including today's excursion pictures.

I have too many things to blog about that I don't even feel like blogging anymore.

All I can say is: "Geraldine, you need to start panicking about your schoolwork or else you'll flunk and be expelled and then you'll go back to Singapore and you would have disappointed your family and friends and have wasted all of your money!

Geraldine: "SIAO AR. GO AND STUDY LA"

_

Oh and today suzanne just informed us that there is a 90% chance that they will be 'demolishing' taylors house and be transforming our rooms into classrooms because there's simply way too many students. Stirred up quite a few emotions - angry, sad....lost. It came as quite a shock because i thought the whole Taylors House thing was a good money-making tool. Apparently, school fees are more profitable.

So yes. I will have to decide between UniLodge or Homestay - not exactly on the top of my list.

Look up, the stars are fading

Okie dokes. Pictures for y'all.


Cherie &Teresa


Roomies (Why does this somehow, remind me of The Sims?)


Char &Phae


Anson &Cyndy


Tubu


Cherie &I


complimentary starter from the chef. Supergood.


Starters: SUSHI


Starters: Quail Breast (?)


Starters: Scallop


Sorbet with rocket leave and some black pepper thing. Really quite awesome!


Squid Ink Linguine


Cod with Hollandaise sauce Plus more! :D


Beef/Steak i think


Pink Wine, though I know it doesn't look pink. One of the best wines ever :D


Desert: Souffle, sorbet, berries sauce.


Truffles, people, truffles!!!


Us


Us again.


Papparazzi!


The Four Seasons Hotel

Will be back with more!

Nobody Expects The Spanish Inquisition

Because maybe, just maybe.

You have stolen my heart.

Because I'm back

I am back andI've had a life epiphany.

Only, who knows how long this 'Epiphany' of mine would last.

Livejournal has been awesome. But I find myself crawling back to blogger anyway because it's within my comfort zone.

And so I was just plugging in my Ipod today, like I do everyday and I have made my decision to listen to no more songs that:

(A) are Overly Pragmatic. Bye bye to "Oceans in between us and that's not very far"

(B) Saying you'll die and/or cannot live without someone. Or their love, for that matter.

(C) are very confused generally. LIKE "I hate that I love you so...." and "I hate you, and I love you, I can't stop thinking of you..." and all that.

Which then reduces my number of songs that I can listen to to about, what, 10?



ANYWAY.

Past few days have been really quite amazing. I'd upload th pictures once I learn how to stop being lazy, and if that doesn't happen, then I'd upload them after I get all these assignments over and done with.

But yeah, Saturday afternoon, the bunch of us went to the Fish Market at Darling Harbour for lunch! The food was really good, and it was a good experience, but I was just thinking about my family being there. They'd definitely appreciate the seafood more than me! But hey my 'mummy' and 'sister' and ria made me eat oysters and squids which didn't really taste that bad! Only I was so disgusted by it to notice the 'juice' that they were all so hyped up about.

We lingered around somemore, and bought THE BEST YOGHURT EVER. Really, if you guys come to Sydney I'd bring you there and you'll never want to leave!
Haha okay fine I'm exaggerating a little, but the yoghurt was really pretty damn good! Spent a long while taking pictures and. I. Absolutely. Fell. In. Love. With. A. Stranger.

His name is Bao Di, and obviously, he's a china man. Only, he's NOT a china man, because he's a China BOY! A little one for that matter. He's such a handsome young thing. Who knows? If I meet him 25 years later it could end up being a Demi Moore-Ashton Kutcher thing. Hey look where they are now!

Haha I can so imagine the looks on the guys' face back home, shaking their heads and asking me to stop traumatising/terrorising kids.

Kids love me okay. Period.

SO yeah! Char brought us to dinner at the four seasons hotel. They really have the best mashed potatoes that I've ever tasted! That and the rest of the food was really awesome and what's more, we all dressed up! It was cool hey!

Anyway. It's Week 5 already. 2 more weeks to exams and then 2 week break. And then another 10 weeks and it's hello singapore, goodbye sydney for the next 3 months.

Oh and we're planning to escape to blue mountains during the 2 week break! :D

Eggciting, or not!

I Want To Be Your Person

I know I said I will be away.

But I HAVE got to post this post:

Best friend, I Love you a lot.

I know how gay this sounds, but I feel terrible that I have to be so far away from you during this period. You must know that the pain you feel, I feel it too.

I hope that you'll be strong and fine, and then you will pick up the pieces slowly as you move on. I'll be here for you, yeah? We all are.

Everything's going to be fine.

XOXO

Empty Apartment

Call me out
You stayed inside
One you love
Is where you hide
Shot me down
As I flew by
Crash and burn
I think sometimes
You forget where the heart is

Answer no to these questions
Let her go, learn a lesson
It's not me, you're not listening
Now, can't you see something's missing
You forget where the heart is

Take you away from that empty apartment
You stay, and forget where the heart is
Someday if ever you loved me you'd say, it's okay

Waking up from this nightmare
How's your life?
What's it like there?
Is it all what you want it to be?
Does it hurt when you think about me?
And how broken my heart is

Take you away from that empty apartment
You stay, and forget where the heart is
Someday if ever you loved me you'd say, it's okay

It's okay to be angry and never let go
It only gets harder the more that you know
When you get lonely if no one's around
You know that I'll catch you when you're falling down
We came together but you left alone
And I know how it feels to walk out on your own
Maybe someday I will see you again
And you'll look me in my eyes and call me your friend

Take you away from that empty apartment
You stay, and forget where the heart is
Someday if ever you loved me you'd say, it's okay

It's okay
It's okay


These lyrics make no sense to me.

Will spend some time on livejournal.

Indefinite hiatus, please. For real this time.

Here I go, so dishonestly leave a note for you my only one, and i know you can see right through me so let me go and you will find someone

There's never a right time to say goodbye

Blogging is an everyday thing for me, except for some days where nothing flows or I'm simply too busy/lazy.

This site is an outlet for me to rant, and give information. But for the most part, it's for me to write whatever comes. I'm not expecting people to flock to my blog and be wow-ed by my writing because honestly, it's not good and secondly, i don't exactly have interesting things to talk about.


But yeah, i keep doing this anyway. People forget their blogs after a few months; some last a few years. Ever since i've started blogging nearly 5 years ago, i've been hooked. Mainly cause typing is so much faster than writing. Also, it doesn't take up much space. The downside is of course, not being able to share as freely as you would on diary. It's funny how on days when absolutely nothing happens and there's nothing to talk about, I can squeeze out something to write anyway. I guess that's just because I usually talk about what happens in my not-very-interesting, very sad life .

And so last night, the girls had this talk about relationships and being in a healthy relationship yeah?

It was just plain amusing! I wish i could've taken a picture of the woman who gave the talk! She's a counsellor working in Taylors and she wore this disgusting purple leather waterproof high-waisted pants that would've gotten her beaten up by the fashion police! Not to mention, she paired that BOLD purple pants with another BOLD turqoise top and BOLD purple cardigan! I know people in the fashion scene always tell us to be BOLD and adventurous but I was just thinking: "NOT THIS BOLD!"

She definitely did NOT look like this...

And this is how her pants looked like (Vaguely)...

So after that A LOT of people came and hung out in 471, including SKY (new thai girl who studied in Singapore) Well she's frm Tanglin Sec and she was in a band! How cool is that huh huh huh. Anyway, she brought her electric guitar over, with cappo and tuner and all so cherie and I were overall very pleased. Haha and Sky plays really well too!

So yeah from playing the guitar we moved on to singing and after a few hours of 'Music lessons' there were like 6 of us left? I told them The Ping Pong Ball Story which was awesome because i'm an amazing story teller and yes i'm really not conceited, just freakin' awesome! And yeah we started talking about 'life stories' which was pretty cool I guess. Hahaha girl talk!

So yes I managed to wake up in time for my first class and maybe i should stop here for now!

Slowly walking down the hall, Faster than a cannonball

I feel like such a wuss ):

HEADLINES: YOU ALL GOT DUPED

What you all perceived was real. . .


http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2008/08/10/article-1043370-023BEE3B00000578-840_468x344.jpg


http://telegraph.co.uk

IS NOT!!


Giant pyrotechnic footprints that marched across the sky in the countdown to the Bejing Olympics opening ceremony were faked for video coverage.

According to The Beijing Times what people inside the stadium and watching on television saw were computer graphics of the footprints inserted into coverage.

Gao Xiaolong, the head of the opening ceremony visual effects team, said it had taken almost a year to create the 55-second sequence.

Actual fireworks could be seen outside the stadium but it was logistically impossible to film them by helicopter, so the decision was made to recreate the effect digitally.

The last foot print was visible from inside the stadium and was captured on film.

Mr Gao said the animators had gone to the extent of getting weather information so as to recreate the night time smog conditions and camera shake was added to simulate filming from a helicopter.

"Seeing how it worked out, it was still a bit too bright compared to the actual fireworks," he said.
"But most of the audience thought it was filmed live - so that was mission accomplished."

http://www.stuff.co.nz/4652802a26500.html

_

The designers even added some haziness to simulate the polluted Beijing skyline.

Broadcasters around the world had no choice but to show the footage because it all came from one feed provided by Beijing Olympic Broadcasting - the organisation responsible for filming the games.

The ceremony has also been strongly criticised by architect Ai Weiwei, who helped design the Bird's Nest stadium.
Writing on his blog, Mr Ai described the ceremony as "a recycling of the rubbish of fake classical culture tradition; a sacrilegious visual garbage dump and an insult to the spirit of liberty; low class sound play that's just noise pollution".

He was directly critical of China's ruling communist party, characterising the ceremony as "a showcase of the reincarnation of the Marxist imperialism; the ultimate paragon of an all embracing culture of fascist totalitarianism; an encyclopaedia that encompasses total defeat in intellectual spirit."

Mr Ai helped design the stadium alongside Swiss architect firm, Herzog and de Meuron.
But since then, he has become an outspoken blogger against the Olympics and the Chinese regime. Unusually, he has not been censored by the authorities.

Organiser said that the footprint fireworks were there for real, but thought it unsafe to try to film them - so they recreated them instead.

http://news.sky.com/

_________________________________________________________________

HOW CAN!!!!!!!

I remember sitting in the TV arguing with the rest, saying: "IT'S FAKE!"
Almost everyone disagreed, except maybe Taro.

SEE! SO PANGSAI! (Shitty in Hokkien)

The enemies of Beauty just Profane

The common MISconception amongst my friends/classmates in Taylors is that I'm very smart.

Well, wake up people! I'm just a normal human being who just so happens to be able to excel with God's Grace, that's all!

It's seriously quite maddening when people take me as some genius because of my relatively okay GPA and English standards. Everytime people praise me, I just feel so embarrassed cause I feel like an absolute fluke. I feel like I'm not as perfect or good as they think I am, and I'm seriously not!

Anyway, last night the bunch of us stayed up and talked about stuff all the way till bout 4am. Haha it was kinda fun, and I have to say that Anson's your average, typical romantic dude! He wants to get married by a lighthouse by the way, and that, is just romantic.

Come on, which girl aren't suckers for hopelessly cheesy and cliche dream weddings with ROMANCE oozing from everywhere!

(Tubu, Learn!)

So yeah we talked about what's the first thing you notice in a guy (we were talking about eye candies before - apparently sydney Uni is crawling with them breed of blue eyes and blonde hair!) And I realised that I haven't exactly thought about what I notice in a guy at first. Some people look at the lips(Char) and some people look at the neck(Phae) and all that and I was just thinking...yeah probably eyes strike me the most? I mean, I really haven't thought about it so I'm determined to notice what I check out in guys first the next time! Haha!

But So far, I've just been noticing everything - from hairstyles to dressing sense and confidence. Confidence is a must, but not arrogance. And no pangsai hairstyles please!

ANYWAY I woke up at 7am this morning to get to class in time, and I'm proud to say I did, although I wasn't exactly very keen on doing so.

Late nights + Early Mornings = Positively anal days! Was a walking zombie and was extremely restless in class, at least up to my break. Slept through my break and then i went for FSS. After, I Skipped econs so shamelessly - I feel guilt-striken now! I know I will regret this for life. Will all great Neptune's Ocean wash this blood from thy hands? . . .
Haha so you see sarcasm is an acquired skill, and it is sometimes just canvassed into our lives unknowingly. As are (visceral) Literature quotes. (I quoted Macbeth by the way. Remembered it for exams last year and it's still stuck in my head)

Oh and there are 4 new Singaporeans in the extended programme! They're all very friendly people, really. And I also made friends with this Malaysian dude called Nickson aka SMILE, Frederick from Mauritiaus, Sky from Thailand (But studied in Singapore for 10 years!) and this Japanese guy that asked me to call him Dumbo :D

The awesome thing about Taylors is the dizzying variety of different cultures and nationalities, and probably languages too. It's really very heartwarming and this feeling would probably be elevated if there were lesser China/Hongkong chinese and more people from other parts of the world like Mauritiaus, or it's close neighbour (i think) Madagascar!

Okie dokes. I'm going to try and start my essays soon. Shall figure out a way to email SPH and ask them about the applications and then I'm off to studyyyyy

*/edit
OH I was holding two bowls of soup for dinner just now because I'm a fat pig (no la one for me one for cherie) and this girl bumped into me and the soup spilt all over my arm! Because there was no room for instinctive reaction (I would have dropped both bowls of soup if i did so) I stood there for about 3 seconds before putting the bowls down and then walked over to grab tissues to clean my hands! Therefore, swollen, painful, but not exactly burnt arm now. Boohoo.

Stop-loss

*Disturbing Images.

No one has heard of this movie. Yesterday, when we went to Greater Union on a whim because we didn't want to go back early, it was 9.30 and there were only two shows left that was showing at 9.30: The Square and Stop-Loss.



Stop-loss SEEMED better, but the 6 of us actually walked into the near-empty cinema with no clue about what the movie was about.

Well, the 6 of us then walked out of the cinema at the end of the movie, not only understanding the show, but I think was greatly affected by it.

I had two reactions:

1. Disturbed.

2. Why did they make this movie anyway?

Basically, at the start of the movie, there are a team of American Soldiers who are participating in the Iraq War. Sgt Brandon King (Ryan Phillippe) leads his men to an ambush by the Hajis and some of his men gets killed while others are injured, including Rico (Viktor Rasut) and Steve Shriver (Channing Tatum)
Similarly, they kill many too, including women and children and there's just a lot of blood and explosions everywhere.


messengerandadvocate.wordpress.com

A month later, the soldiers return to their hometowns, and King, Shriver, Tommy Burgess (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) and a few others return to Texas, where people are welcoming them with open arms. There, King and Shriver are decorated and that night, they have a party.

The first disturbing scene was when the soldiers are sitting around with beers, and all they can talk about is the killings in Iraq. This is thrown to the stark contrast of the party and laughter going on around them, and the disturbed faces of the other people, while they are talking about the killings with not much expressions themselves.


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That night, michelle (Abbie Cornish), Steve's fiance calls up Brandon and he rushes over to her house. He finds a drunk Steve digging a trench in his front gardon in his Y-fronts! Steve falls asleep in the trench that he dug, holding on to a gun, as if he is still at war. Brandon also finds out that Steve has hit michelle in his drunkard state, and has showed other signs of violence.



xseer.net


Tommy Burgess shows up at Michelle's home, apparently also in a drunkard state. In his car are his wedding gifts, and we find out that his wife has thrown him out of the house. Tommy is obviously affected and Brandon tells him that they will opt to be discharged, which means that they won't have to serve again.

Fast forward a day or two, and Brandon is suddenly called back to active duty in Iraq. This is done according to the Military's Stop-loss policy, where soldiers are involuntarily expected to extend their duty. Brandon takes this up to Lt. Col. Boot Miller (Timothy Olyphant) who insists that he follows orders, under the President of the United States (This is also when Brandon says: "With all due respect sir, fuck the President" *)
Brandon is then being led away by two soldiers, but he manages to escape and go AWOL.


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He goes home, where Michelle offers to accompany him to see the Senator. Along the way, they stop at the home of the family of one of the soldiers who got killed under Brandon's command. They walk out later to find that their car has been broken in, and Brandon walks over to find the culprits - three street punks who start to beat him up. A fight starts and a gun is being whipped out by one of the punks, but Brandon overpowers him and grabs the gun. Suddenly, there are war noises in the background, and Brandon, bleeding and hurt, holds the gun and shouts at the three dudes to kneel on the ground, with their hands behind their heads. He resorts to force, referring to the three of them as Hajis. He shoots two of them, taunting them and treating them like the Hajis in Iraq ("You better pray to Allah" etc) Michelle comes and reprimands him, and they drive off.


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Meanwhile, Tommy is threatened to be kicked out of the army because of his drinking.

At the motel, Michelle calls Steve to pick her up, and Brandon wanders off to find another soldier who has gone AWOL for 14months. He gives Brandon a number of a lawyer who can help him escape to another country with a new identity. Brandon takes it and the next morning, Steve finds King and Michelle in his uniform. King realises that Steve will be returning to Iraq and refuses to go back, and Michelle is also furious at steve and breaks up with him. Steve leaves and King and Michelle go and visit Rico, who is now blind, with his right arm and leg amputated and his face burned. The both of them then move on to meet the lawyer and he agrees to help Brandon escape, telling him to call his family to say his last goodbyes.

That night, Brandon calls his mom, only to be told that Tommy has shot himself. Michelle and him returns to Texas to attend the funeral. Brandon reveals himself later and Steve fights with him, telling him that "If you don't fall in with us man, we're going to fall apart". He blames Brandon for Tommy's death, claiming that he came back too late, as Brandon was the only one who could have gotten through to Tommy.


informedvoters.wordpress.com

That night, under his mum's persuasion, Brandon decides to flee for Mexico instead. They did not show him actually leaving and the next scene is when the soldiers are prepared to leave Texas, and family and friends are sending them off. A Sgt, with his face covered, is seen counting his men, and the last person in the Roll-Call is Steve. The Sgt then seats down next to Steve, revealing himself to be Brandon.


stliraqwarvets.wordpress.com

The end credits include statistics, telling us how many troops have been sent to fight in the Iraq war, and how many of the soldiers have been killed or injured.


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So you see my point now? Very disturbing show. Also, I think i might be kinda psycho, seeing all these images that i'm putting up here.

And throughout the movie, I kept thinking back to the crowd jeering at George Bush and I think to myself: "Why did they really make this movie?"


Stars and Stripes.

After all, he must have some sort of standard, serving two terms, enacting large tax cuts and the No Child Left Behind Act. After 9/11, he announced a global War on Terrorism, which sparked off controversial debate, leaving him with significantly lesser supporters than before.


xrlq.com

Did he do the right thing with War on Terrorism? If he didn't order the invasion of Afghanistan and Iraq, would he be re-considered for a third term? Or would the results still be the same, but with the people taking on a different tack. Everybody loves peace. And when the world's greatest country; one of the world's most powerful man decides to go to war, heads start to roll, especially the one who gave the orders.

I don't know if I should hate George Bush, or back him up. He approached terrorism with a 'fight fire with fire' tactic, resulting in thousands of deaths and killings, sparking off more rebellion from the terrorists and his own people!

But.

But what if he didn't do anything? Would there be more terrorism and suicide bombings?

George Walker Bush is in a difficult position here. Sure, he may not have made the best choice, but at least he has done something. Also, he did not shy away from his responsibilities as America's 43rd President after much heated criticism.


www.heal911.com

I am not saying I support what his choice of action, but I very much admire him for his dedicated spirit to his nation, even if it wasn't all that correct.


iacmusic.com

I leave you with a disturbing image:



The United Nations says Iraqi children are recruited as suicide bombers by various militias and insurgent groups in the country.
current.com

MAJULAH SINGAPURA

It's past 12 here in Sydney, but in Singapore, it's still only 11.34, which means that it's still the 9th of August 2008. So...

HAPPY 43rd BIRTHDAY SINGAPORE!
*With lourrrvveee from Sydney!





So you see, I, being a Singaporean, am extremely proud of MY little red dot. Sure, some people may call us Malaysia's Ass or even Part of China but I beg to differ! Sure, we may be small in size but LOOK AT US! We may be small, but we definitely kick some ass :D

In honour of Singapore being one year older, the gang of us Singaporeans decided to buy a CAKE last night and countdown all the way to 2am (SYD), which means it's exactly 12am (SG) Before that we watched the Olympics Opening Ceremony (OOC) (which I'll talk about later) and then because we wanted to be as accurate as possible, we counted down in the balcony because we didn't want to disturb the still-watching-OOC people! We were really high on nothing, and we counted down, followed by cries of "HAPPY BIRTHDAY SINGAPORE!!!!!" and then our own (out-of-tune) rendition of Majulah Singapura! Blew out the candles of the awesome blackforest cake (that's still in the fridge, mind you. We haven't had the time to eat it. Yet)




*Don't mind Taro (Japanese!)

We then moved back into the common room where the OOC was just ending and we started our camera-whore-ing sessions, with loads of videos and SINGING! Haha we sang tonnes of National Day Songs and laughed till our throats were sore. It was so fun really! :D :D :D


Red and white!




SINGAPOREANS


Pretending to recite the Pledge


MERLION'S OVER THERE!


Rakhman the extra, Germaine with her SunWuKong Pose, and us as Sir Stamford Raffles'!


The other way round


HOW CUTE IS THIS! Rakhman's a luck guy, no? Teehee

So After all that high-ness, we were really quite tired and the rest went to sleep while char, germs, ria, cherie and I played Taboo for about an hour or so. Haha it was crazy as usual, with germs guessing really retarded stuff! Typical, ain't it! OH and I got the word "chestnuts" and that totally reminded us of Sheng!

Sheng: "WHAT'S IN BETWEEN THE BOOBS!... MAN BOOBS!"
(after years of guessing..)
Everyone: "CHEST!"
Sheng: "Okay! THE GUY'S THING THE GUY'S THING!"

HAHAHAHAHAHA CRAZY PERSON

ANYWAY TODAY! Slept until 2 and then cherie and I decided to go check out the Flea Market that's around Surry Hills. Have always wanted to check it out and on the day that we decided to go, it wasn't open! SO we went to the city instead! SHOPPING :D

Haha at around 6.30, the usuals went to Harry's Singapore Chilli Crab restaurant that's around the City.





Have ALOT of pictures but I'm only going to post some up today because there's simply way too much!


CHINESE TEA . . .


. .Which you are supposed to drink in the traditional way. RAKHMAN, LEARN!


Tubu joining in the celebrations with his red ribbon and shirt and crab-eating essentials..OH AND THEY PROVIDED US THIS PLASTIC APRON THING! Very practical and innovative! (but ugly)(who cares!)


Hor Kien Mee..or so they say it is!


Chilli padi!


High class way of..erm. Disposing your prawn/crab shells. No more messy tables!


Lousy sambal kangkong! (MAMAK!)


AND THE BEST PART: CHILLI CRAB THAT'S PRETTY DARN GOOD


Phae's and my crab/prawn shells.


My table.


Group picture!

Oh and Charlotte treated us (her grandfather actually) which is very nice of her/them! Char's really generous, which is quite hard to come by(:
If i'm very rich I also want to bring my family and friends out and treat them to a good dinner!

And last night's (or rather, two nights ago's) OOC (refer to top if you've forgotten.) was very impressive! China must be so proud of herself! And Chinese people should be too. The Olympics'08 is one way of showing the world what they're capable of, and they've successfully done it. Pictures can be found here
. We were VERY VERY VERY IMPRESSED. And that's something, coming from us!

Well, the bunch of us gathered in the TV room, and us means the non-china/hongkong chinese. So there was this one part when they were singing the Chinese National Anthem, and, I forgot who, asked: "Do you think the china people in the common room are standing up and singing the national anthem like patriots?" HAHA there was like a minute's debate before all of us ran to the common room! There WERE people standing up, but I think that's because it was too crowded and there were not enough seats. Haha but still, amusing anyway!

And when all the athlete's came in, we were very excited at first, cheering at the countries of the people in the TV room. Because majority of us were Singaporeans, we were waiting for Singapore to come! Also, we were trying to figure out how many of our athletes were actually participating. The wait was positively exhausting! Haha we were all so fed up but then young came in and told us that we were in the 180-something, which was a looonngggg way later! Haha

Btw, we have 20 athletes I THINK and the reason why the countries did not go out in alphabetical order, was because they went out by "bi hua". Basically, it just means that for the first word of the Chinese character of the country, they count how many strokes there are and the countries with lesser strokes walk out first, followed by countries with more strokes (Singapore's 'Xin' has 12 strokes! That's why we're one of the last!)

Oh and mongolia came just before Singapore so we kinda stole tubu's and temuujin's thunder hee hee. AND THE AUSTRALIAN ATHLETE'S BEHAVED SO TYPICALLY! HAHAHA

But anyway, Well Done China!

Another thing was, when George Walker Bush stood up, I realised people started boo-ing and jeering. That's...bad, isn't it? And that leads me to the movie we caught after dinner - Stop-lost. But i'll save that for tmr. Shall end this post now with a

STAND UP! STAND UP FOR SINGAPORE! :D