Ramblings

You see, one of the things my company does is to help prepare the bid documents for M+A. These bids usually work on crazy deadlines, what with the due diligence that needs to be completed, the bid document that has to be drafted et cetera.

Anyway, this results in working very late nights. So, as I tumbled out of office at 1am this morning, several random thoughts went through my head as I was waiting for a cab. As I mentioned in a previous post a long time ago, I tend to ramble and be random (hence random Brandon) once I get super-tired. My thoughts included:

1. I know its late when I get out of the office and the pub at the bottom of the office block has closed!

2. Are these the hours that lawyers keep? If so, I should have been a lawyer and be paid more for working the same hours.

3. Will I get a cab? Damn, the company should reimburse me the cab fare.

4. Oooh. Cat. Fat. Might be pregnant. Hmm... that's something one needs to find out first if talking to a "pregnant" lady.

5. Need to be up in a few hours. Should I sleep later and just get 4 hours of sleep? Wonder if all that sleep cycle rubbish I read is true.

6. Drinks with Paranoid Android, the millionaire and friends on Friday. Can't wait.

7. Wonder when is the paycheck coming in. Damn, the company should reimburse me for cab fare.

8. Hmm... When I'm super-tired, I'm high. Hmm... Haven't felt that in a long time, since Army days.

9. Need food.

Well, I didn't have to wait long for a cab. Just 5 mins. So, you can imagine the million of thoughts running through my head. FYI, I tried the sleep cycle thing and got 4 hours sleep. I'll let you know whether its better or not tomorrow. Back in the office. Its 9am. One more long day. 2 more days till bid has to be completed and submitted. Watch me run around like a headless chicken to then.

Home School?

Sometime over lunch yesterday, my colleague revealed that he was home schooling his children.

Home school? Huh? Is that possible in red-tape legislated Singapore? I was always under the impression that the Law was that every child in Singapore was required to undergo 12 years of formal education.

Apparently I was wrong, because one can apply to home school your kids as long as they take the PSLE when they are 12. Interesting eh? I'm sure the Gahmen has its criteria, such as the parents both being graduates, middle income etc...

So I asked him the reasons for doing so. He said that he was disappointed by the state of education in Singapore - which was constantly changing its cirriculum, requirements... and so his wife decided to teach the children herself. This frees up a lot of time for other activities, like ballet, piano lessons, swimming...

And so I wondered - what about interaction with other children? I mean, isn't that one of the more pertinent lessons we gain from being in school? Interaction? He said that there was actually a home school community of sorts, which consists of about 100-odd couples. They meet up on weekends for their children to play and learn together.

How very interesting... Well, I learn something new about this island nation everyday.

Kenny Sia says I'm a char-bor - damn it!

Congratulations rambling alcoholic, you are...

minishorts of minishorts.net

You are outgoing, direct, smart, pretty, and a definite go-getter. You are frank, a little too frank perhaps that sometimes you get on people's nerves and make them very upset. If people attack you, you hit back with triple the force without blinking because you are the kind of person who knows exactly what you are talking about or else you wouldn't talk about it. Your quick-thinking is what makes you special. You are an elitist.

Which Malaysian Blogger Are You?

Mango Widowers

They stand there in their numbers, milling around aimlessly, looking lost and directionless. Most of them try to distract themselves. Some read, some toy with their mobiles - but most just stand there, with a blank look, holding on to the burdens of the day.

Even then, there is an unspoken solidarity amongst them. They acknowledge each other with quiet nods and slight smiles. There is a common understanding of the pain and hence there is empathy to what the other must be going through.

Many have lost their wives, girlfriends, mothers and sisters that way - lost them to the Mango Sale!

Have you seen the large groups of men standing outside Mango when they have their annual sale? Whilst their other halves join the throngs of frenzied women inside? For a brief moment (about 20mins on average) the women we know change and become unrecognisable. We have lost them to Mango.

Have you ever been a Mango widower?

P.S. Would have taken a photo of the Mango at Raffles Place for effect, but my phone does not have a camera. Oh well...

Monday Blues

It's Monday again...

My brother, B3 is sound asleep in bed, having spent the whole night glued to his Playstation. He has sorely missed living in the fantasy world as the God of War, one of the X-men or even a crazy arsed driver in the world of NFSU2.

Lisa is curled up in my blanket. She was too tired to go home last night and fell asleep in the room as I was working. She will wake up and have a cup of coffee, and leisurely read the morning papers. This is followed by the surfing of the web for random reads.

Ah... Such idyllic lifestyles. I want.

P.S. I'm sitting at Tiong Bahru waiting for the feeder bus to take me towards a hellish week at the office.

P.S2. Did you know that people actually queue up for Today? There were at least 50 people, mostly aged above 60 queuing for it at the MRT.station. I'm sure most of them are illiterate, but like my grandmother when she was alive, fllp through them for the pictures. Bless them... Well, bless them cos they also recycle - I'm sure they sell to the paper to the karang guni man.

Work is Over-rated

Life sucks when you are a small fish...

First weekend at work = Go back for "internal meeting"
Second weekend at work = Had to bring work home to do over the weekend.

Life sucks.

Sorry for the lack of posts.... I promise to catch up soon!

Kek

I'm feeling ill,
The stomach's hard.
I sit on a throne,
And all I do is fart.

Shit. Need more papaya.

Its Alive!!!

I have a connection to the World Wide Web! Mwahaha....

I have brought a 7 m long Lan cable, courtesy of Ed, to my office and connected my computer right to the router. Its temporary though, and I have to keep the cable whenever the Boss is around cos it looks quite unslightly. But... some Web time is better than no Web time...

#@!&^* Windows ME. Need to upgrade to XP for me wireless card to work... Sigh...

Relaz lah...

-- There is honestly nothing more relaxing that sitting in front of my computer on a lazy Sunday reading blogs. --

Another View

A good article written by a student on the meaning of blogging.

Link

via Tomorrow.

Bloggers of SG Unite!

The Bloggers of Singapore must unite!

A friend once opined that blogging was over-rated. It was the new ICQ/MSN/Friendster/Who Lives Near You Internet fad, which will die out once excitement drops. She didn't think much of bloggers, saying that we were a bunch of self-serving, out for 2 minute of fame-rs indulged in egoistical masturbation (her words, not mine).

Singapore is a very bored place. We will be intrigued by anything mildly interesting just by the local media taking a spin with it. This would explain why the LianHe WanBao and the Newpaper, tabloids dedicated to filling their pages with cover to cover of who just got raped or who's family is having problems, are the top selling papers locally.

The Blogger phenomenon is going in that direction. Newpaper on Sunday has dedicated itself to SPG and her nude photos, followed by XX and her usual b*tchy comments. There is a new blog featured every week in the Sunday Times, and even our Ah-Kong, MB has a weekly column.

What happened to anonmity on the web? The sense of mystery? I told a girl I was seeing a long time ago that I was probably crazy about her then because I haven't gone to bed with her. Once done - poof - no more mystery and we could probably be good friends. The same is with Blogging. There is excitement now because bloggers who were anonymous previously are coming out into the open. The public finally knows who and what they look like and can put a face to the blog. But this excitement will get stale, and blogging, will inevitably, through this attention that it has gathered, attract more and more naysayers. Eventually, Blogging will be seen as uncool, and less people will blog. This will not be good because people need to be heard, and it is refreshing to know that Singaporeans actually have opinions!

I'm seeing today as approaching the peak of the curve, and if we do the right things, there will be a higher peak. Bloggers, I beseech you. Retain your sense of mystery, yes, lets meet up amongst ourselves, like a community of the Illuminati, but lets leave the Government-controlled media out of our circle.

What do you think?

P.S 1> Like Sylvia Toh said in the Newpaper today, SPG has attracted the attention of Singaporeans because she is seen as a "naughty girl in a nanny state." But once more and more are featured, there is no more excitement. Even print journos like Johnson Goh have seen how the mystery can spark excitement, and hence his photo in the papers is of the back of his head.

P.S 2> I applaud SPG for her photos. They were tastefully done and she did blur her face to protect herself. But girl, you should have kept yourself from the media, look at the monster you have unleashed on yourself.

P.S 3> XX, I think you are quite churlish and childish and personally, I think you give Bloggers a bad name. Frightened of the competition from SPG are we? Deny it as you will, your actions speak louder. Haha.

Rubbish

Well, firstly, I must apologise for not writing. Its just that I've just started work and I am really tired by the time I get home. I guess its a big change from being a bum eh? But I promise I shall endeavour to write more.

The other reason is that since the company is expanding, and thus hiring, I don't have a computer just yet. Sigh...

No computer = No Internet connection = No blogging / downloading of rubbish

Its a big change from being at home, and always keeping the computer on, and connected to the World Wide Web. I swear, without the internet in the office, I'm ill at ease man. Withdrawal symptoms.

And now, for the real reasons why this post is entitled rubbish.

1. I worked late the first day of my job.
2. I have an internal meeting scheduled for the first Saturday of my job. (5 day week)
3. My colleague just tendered his resignation today and Boss said I'm taking over all his accounts. This is really what they call throwing you into the deep end of the pool. Sheesh.

So, rubbish. Too bad lah. Suck it up. Sigh.

New

New Week. New Job. Bleurgh. Enjoy the pic though.

Are You In? Or Out?

Oh, am supposed to plug Bloggers.SG. Please do the organisers a favour and complete the poll to let them know how many they should prepare for? Some reasons why you should.

1. Its polite. Its like RSVP. Many people don't do it even for weddings, I don't know why. Then how in the world do you think the organisers will know whether you are coming?

2. Don't worry, they aren't asking you for your IC Numbers yet (if they do, don't give *its a conspiracy*).

3. Its not difficult to complete. (its a Yes/No lor - if you get confused, then please go sterilise yourself, for the good of the human race.

4. It doesn't take very long (which part of Yes/No do you not understand?)

So, what are you waiting for?

What Kind of SgBlogger Are You?

I did Kenny Sia's survey on "What type of sgblogger are you?" and the result is... I am a Cowboy.

Congratulations rambling alcoholic, you are...

Cowboy Caleb of cowboycaleb.liquidblade.com

You are smart, loyal and sensitive. You are also very caring towards other people and you help them out whenever you can. You are very passionate about your line of work. You fight for your beliefs and if someone doesn't agree with you, you argue your point of view across in a very convincing yet diplomatic manner. For that, you earn respect.

Which Singaporean Blogger Are You?

Mr & Mrs Smith

Just watched this. Brilliant movie. Paper thin plot but the chemistry between Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt is tight. The action is same old Hollywood, so nothing special there. However, having two pretty people in the movie does make it worth your weekend hours (and dollars). Brad Pitt is suave as usual and Angelina is just sizzling hot.

Go catch it!

H2G2

I watched the Hitchhiker's Guide the other day. Marvin the robot is adorable. Nemo-esque merchandising here we come.

However, in my opinion, the movie is only for hardcore fans. It's slapstick funny, but there are better examples of funny movies out there. The storyline is contrived, so it would help if you have read the book. There are no pretty ladies in the movie... so babe-watching is out.

Its not entirely a waste of time, but is a waste of $9. Spend $7 on it, or wait for the DVD.

Parliamentary Poster Girl?

Sorry. Rare occasion where the picture up here is not of a chio-bu.

So there I was, sitting in a train on the North-East line, on the way to meet my cousin for drinks. I was a good lad, just sitting there, pensively, thoughts on what is the meaning of life and beyond. (only to realise that the answer is 42)

But suddenly, my gaze was broken by an advertisement showing on the screen in the carriage. A motorcyclist had fallen and hurt himself. A crowd had gathered. Typically, pointing fingers, murmuring to themselves... This struck a chord, cos I'm a rider myself.

But lo and behold, Miss Olsen pops her face through the crowd and reaches out to the fallen rider. He reaches for her too.

*Scene*

Ms Olsen is sitting on a chair, there is a needle up her... arm. Be a blood donor, it reads.

Oh, come on! Cheesiest of cheesy ads. Ms Olsen as an angel of peace, love and whatever? To be the only one in the milling crowd to reach and assist the man? It is too coincidental that she has become the incumbent party's poster girl during the run-up to the Election. Now she is everywhere. Putting a soft, Eurasian, and female face to the Party.

Coincidence? Think not. Can't wait for her to get some sex-scandal or something. Too bad all our media is controlled. If this was America or the UK, you can be sure the tabloids would have taken out contracts on her...

The ad is irritating. Her face on it makes it worse. And they play is ad naseum as well. Sigh... Need to mentally block it out next time.

Signs

We were in B1's car the other day and there was this PizzaHut delivery bike in front of us. On the box, there was this sign that read, "How's my driving? Call 1900-XXX XXX". B1 espoused that it would be fun to call and complain, but we decided against it because its someone's bread and butter.

It got me thinking though, I want a sign like that as well. It should read...

"How's my driving? Call 1900-Up Yours (1900-8796877)" Haha. Random. Sorry.

If You Have a Minute to Spare Today...

Read this. This is a friend's take on a night out we had at Wala Wala.

At the end of it, we did something I was not proud off. But hey, its against the establishment, so its alright. Haha... Email me if you want to know what.

Salto di Mente

Ora so perchè lo denominano sesso di salto di mente

Men

Inspired by StonedNerd and his musings.

The Secret to a Good Marriage

At the wedding dinner, we were asked to write little words of advice on cards to Dora and her husband, Aaron, on how to make a marriage work.

I wrote a quote from a prominent person in Singapore.

"The Six most important words in a Marriage - I Love You, and I Am Sorry." Everyone around said that it made sense.

Now, after reading this article about the world's longest married couple, 2 new words have been added.

"Yes Dear."

Haha. True? I would say so.

Yamaha YBR 125

I spent the afternoon scooting around my estate on my Uncle's spanking new Yamaha YBR125. I know I sound like a gushing little boy with a new toy, but was I excited!! I rode around for more than 10 kilometres, feeling the power of the bike, re-familiarising myself with the intricacies of riding, all with a big smile on my face...

Damn, if only I can convince Mother to let me have one. Sigh... Damn cheap some more.

I'm Back...

I'm back.

Have sorted out my life and everyone (well, almost) is happier because I have.

Read this about the life cycle of bloggers and realised that I am at Stage #6. Terribly accurate you know.

Grrr... More irreverant posts to come.

Taking Time...

Readers.

Recent events have come to pass and I'm taking time to re-collect, repent and to find myself again. Hence, I'm going to take a break, and not blog for awhile. Sorry folks.

Sigh... Life.

I Am Sorry

I am sorry for hurting you, for being a coward and not facing the problem earlier. And for running away when things got tough. I guess I'm just not ready.

There is nothing I can say to make things better. I know.

Sorry. I am. Truly.