Sunday, May. 25, 2003

Sucks

Speaking of organising things, here's the second personal photo of the week. We took this after Mona's birthday Amazing Race at Sentosa back in January, which I had a hand organising. I think we did have fun, but I have to admit I screwed up in terms of planning, so I was to be blamed.

posted at 1:14 a.m.

Here's the thing. Two weeks ago, Jason had a rather nice plan of reuniting the June 1999/Dec 2000 Costa Sands Pasir Ris Resort chalet gang. Well, they included me, himself, KY, Mona, May Theng, Jasmine, Joanne Tan Meiling, Ernita and Sha. Except for Sha, the rest of us watched the 1st Matrix together on the 2nd day of the June 1999 chalet, at the White Sands cinema. So as a tribute to that fun chalet experience that we had back then, he suggested getting the same people to watch the sequel together.

He roped me in, asking me to help organise it and to call everybody up. Initially, I was thinking, what the fuck, why do I have to be the one organising? I have learnt from past experiences, it's not easy to get everybody on the same day. I mean, since it's your brilliant idea, why can't you be the one organising? But subsequently, I thought what the hell? Never mind, I also wanna see everyone and hang out with the chalet gang even just for one lousy movie. So I agreed on contacting everyone.

Of course Mona and Ernita are excluded, cuz obviously they're in another continent, so I contacted the rest...it was already so hard to get everyone to catch the movie on the opening day, two Fridays ago, cuz some have other committments, so after a few arrangements last week, managed to postpone it to today. Me and KY would have preferred to watch on a weekday cuz both of us are so freaking broke. But since it seemed that most of us were only free today, so it's fine by us.

Fast-forward to last night (Friday night). The mastermind, Jason apparently had watched it already with Jo and her cousins. I was thinking, you came up with the plan, made me call up everyone, and yet went to watch it first...*shakes head*. However, he said he didn't mind watching again for us, well you better, but Jo would not be joining us. Meanwhile May Theng also, who initially said she would join us, in the end also watched it already and didn't want to watch it again cuz apparently the movie sucked.

Jasmine on the other hand, whom I arranged for all of us to watch this today specifically cuz she only finished her exams this afternoon, told us to go ahead without her cuz she had another engagement. So we're left with just me, KY, Jason and Sha. Initially Sha said she would be free and would join us, but after finding out that she's the lone girl, she decided to give it a pass, saying that she wasn't really looking forward to watching Matrix Reloaded anyway.

So this morning, I decided to freak it, since Jason said that if it's just left me and KY, that he wouldn't watch it, cuz he wanted to save money, I was thinking 'whateverlah' with everything, I couldn't be bothered...

So I decided to ask Liping, Liz and Naz whether they can join me and KY for Matrix Reloaded this afternoon, although obviously it was an ad hoc and last-minute plan. But eventually, me and KY stayed put at home cuz by late afternoon, we were too tired to go to town, so as for now, I've made arrangements with Liping and Naz to watch Matrix Reloaded tomorrow afternoon in town. We'll see how that goes...you seelah, instead of saving $2 and watching a weekday movie, now I to fork out extra $2 for a weekend movie...

I don't want to be a whiny asshole, and I understand everybody have their own reasons and predicaments. And I shouldn't be naive or hopeful to think that everything I plan would be perfect. But it's so sucky to go through this kind of crap all over again. I should have learned my lessons, but silly me. I know it doesn't take that much of an effort to contact everyone, try to make sure everyone can come and fit everyone's schedule.

But sometimes enough is enough. I'm not particularly pissed with anyone, cuz I couldn't be bothered with this incident anymore. Just have to get this out of my system. Next time, if you have some brilliant idea that you want to plan, you jolly well go ahead and make the arrangements yourself and contact me later. Don't bother coming to me to do the coordination. I've had enough.

You guys can think what you want of me. Please remember I'm just venting and ranting here, don't take this personally... I have always tried to be helpful, easygoing and selfless when it comes to my friends, and I'm not expecting anything in return. But it gets tiring and annoying when such things happen.

Oh well, that's life. I'm outta here...

posted at 12:53 a.m.

Saturday, May. 24, 2003

Bridge

Went for my Friday prayers just now in the afternoon and immediately after that, walked all the way to Westmall to meet KY. My mosque is quite near to Westmall, and usually I would visit Westmall after my prayers. This time around, it just happened that KY wanted to trade in his Nokia 6510 handphone for a Nokia 7210 free around that time. So we arranged to meet there for awhile.

Unfortunately for him, despite his efforts to arrange all the verification documents needed to properly transfer his old line to a new one, according to the M1 customer service officer, he still had some problems and inaccuracies that needed to be settled first before she could process the transfer. Today was the last day of the promotion, so in the end, frustratingly, KY didn't get a new handphone. Too bad man...

No good shows on tv today. Just waiting for The Amazing Race 4 to start screening next week. Then at least since Survivor: The Amazon ended, I have this to look forward to.

Was chatting on ICQ with Mona for awhile and I sent her two MP3s of Clay's performances on American Idol 2. I had downloaded six MP3s actually, and listening to his voice still blows me away. My favourite performances from him have got to be Bee Gees' To Love Somebody, Everlasting Love, Unchained Melody and his Finale performance of Bridge Over Troubled Water! The girls in Perth don't get to see this show, so I'm glad to actually share what they've missed thru ICQ.

Anyway, honestly before Clay, I have never listened to the original version of Bridge Over Troubled Water by Simon & Garfunkel. But now, I can't get this song out of my head. True classic...

----------------------------

BRIDGE OVER TROUBLED WATER

(performed by Simon & Garfunkel)

When you're weary, feeling small / When tears are in your eyes, I will dry them all / I'm on your side, when times get rough / And friends just can't be found / Like a bridge over troubled water, I will lay me down / Like a bridge over troubled water, I will lay me down

When you're down and out / When you're on the street / When evening falls so hard, I will comfort you / I'll take your part, when darkness comes and pain is all around / Like a bridge over troubled water, I will lay me down / Like a bridge over troubled water, I will lay me down

Sail on Silver Girl, Sail on by / Your time has come, to shine, all your dreams are on their way / See how they shine , if you need a friend / I'm sailing right behind / Like a bridge over troubled water, I will ease your mind / Like a bridge over troubled water, I will ease your mind

posted at 2:52 a.m.

Friday, May. 23, 2003

It's Not Over Till The Fat Man Sings

Went job hunt with Jason and KY today.

Met up with Jason earlier in the morning first. We scoured almost the whole of International Plaza. Ok, that's too exaggerating. Well, we visited a lot of employment agencies today. I submitted a lot of my resumes to them and they gave us their namecards too. Applying for full-time positions in the Mass Comm field (if any) and temporary administrative positions. Can't be fussy now.

Well, this is actually my second time job-hunting at International Plaza, the first was with KY, so I was getting sick and tired of the place and having that demoralising feeling all over again. But of course I had to put a thick-skinned attitude. But once again, there were a lot of job-seekers in the entire building, me and Jason kept bumping into the same familiar faces.

Moronic Jason had to annoy me by spoiling the results of the American Idol winner to me. He just had to find it out from a website while we were at Adecco Agency. I was applying an online form, but he used another terminal to check out the results. He knew that I didn't wanna know the results until I get home, but he purposely came back and gave me a devilish grin, indicating to me that he knew the results and it wasn't what I had hoped for. You see, I was rooting for Clay, while he was rooting for Ruben. So with that stupid grin, I could already tell who won. Idiot! You'll pay for this bro, lol!

After lunch and around 2, we went to Borders where KY was waiting for us. Jason got a call from Borders earlier regarding part-time shelvers positions available there. So the three of us applied for the shelvers position. If I get it, should be alright. Just need to work from 8am to 2pm from Mon to Fri. This can surely tide me over the next few months in terms of finance.

Then we went window-shopping from Tangs, to Taka, Heeren and then Orchard Cineleisure, before heading home, in time for my American Idol.

That was a definitely long finale. The 1st part of American Idol 2 Finale was on from 8 to 9pm, and then the screening was continued from 10pm to 12 midnight. But it's kinda sucky watching the show, when I already knew the results.

Both Clay and Ruben deserve to be in the Final 2. They're evidently the best of the crop. But I really really feel that Clay deserves to win the title more, and that he was definitely robbed. I'm not saying that Ruben is not good enough, he's marvellous too, but Clay is clearly better in my opinion.

It's not because I'm an ardent fan and I'm biased towards Clay, but I feel that this finale has turned out to be redux of the 2000 American election saga, where Gore lost out to stupid Bush. By just a mere number of votes. If that election had the Florida re-count scandal, strange enough, this time around, Ruben won the most votes in Florida state.

And apparently the winner and the runner-up was separated by 130,000 votes out of 24 million votes. That's just too close and seemed suspicious. And Ryan Seacrest kept screwing up by announcing the number of votes that separated them wrongly. At first he said 13,000 votes, after that he changed the tally to 1,300 votes. And according to calculations from internet press reports, the correct number is actually 130,000 votes.

I'm not taking credit away from Ruben for winning the title, but it seems like there's an underlying conspiracy, which mirrors the gameshow scandals that plaqued the tv industry in the 50s. Theories abound everywhere, that perhaps the winner is in the producers' hands (including Simon Cowell). So however much votes that Clay got to actually defeat Ruben, the producers might have thrown in some votes in Ruben's favour or discarded Clay's votes, to ensure that Ruben emerged victorious. And all this done to ensure ratings?

Other theories mentioned that Simon wanted Clay to lose, so Ruben could win. This is evident by Simon's endless disapproval and criticisms against Clay throughout the show. Some said that Ruben winning is just a politically correct move, cuz the skinny white guy winning over the overweight black guy might have created controversies. And some even said that they denied Clay the title cuz they didn't want a "gay" winner. Although I'm pretty sure Clay is straight.

But bottomline is, in my opinion, Clay's performance was absolutely phenomenal and outstanding. He should have won. He sang three songs, the first an original composition titled This Is The Night. His second song was the Beatles' Here, There & Everywhere and his last song was a rendition of Bridge Over Troubled Waters by Simon & Garfunkel which was really mind-blowing. As usual, his voice was in top form, and how dare they took the title away from him!?

Meanwhile Ruben also sang three songs. His delivery of the songs were, as usual, soulful and emotional, but nothing to shout about, to me. His first song was A House Is Not A Home, followed by John Lennon's Imagine and the final song he performed, was Flying Without Wings, which was originally from Westlife. In my opinion, his rendition sucked really bad. Maybe because I love the original Westlife version, and got used to it already, but really I think his rendition was not that good. I was cringing at his performance of the song, which in Ruben's case, is very unusual.

------------------------------

Clay Aiken and Ruben Studdard at the American Idol 2 Finale during the announcement of the winner.

---------------------------------

Comparing their performances just now, and their overall performances throughout the show, as well as my support for Clay, I still maintain that Clay has been robbed from the title. Other highlights of the Finale was the group performances of the Final 12. Carmen, as usual, was really hot and cute, Kimberley Locke's voice was great and at the risk of sounding shallow, Julia DeMato's boobs were the high points of the show for me haha.

The 1st Season's winner, Kelly Clarkson was also there, performing a song with this season's finalists. She looked quite good, thinner, and she nailed the high notes in that song pretty well. I was impressed.

Clay, to me, you're still the American Idol. 2nd place is fine, but you are still the winner in the eyes of your fans. Best of luck in your career! You'll go far definitely. It's good to know that you're still gracious at your defeat. Congrats to Ruben Studdard though!

Well, this is only the beginning for both of them. The competition doesn't end here. Both have clinched their own record deals, and their debut albums will be released in September in the same week. In addition, their debut solo singles will be released in the weeks to come. Ruben's single would be Flying Without Wings (once again, yucks!) and Clay's single would be the original composition, This Is The Night.

Only through their performances in the Billboard charts and sales of their CDs can we really tell who is the true winner of American Idol. And I have a gut feeling, that Clay will win this time!

posted at 2:48 a.m.

Thursday, May. 22, 2003

Weather

I really can't stand this stupid weather. This stupid heatwave! It's making me feel so freaking uncomfortable and restless. It hasn't rained in awhile. I wish I have air-con, if not I won't feel so miserable.

Laid around on my bed waiting for that important sms. When I finally did receive it, got ready, showered again and left my house.

Enjoyed my evening just now...but was spoiled by the stupid bus going berserk and having a breakdown. Well the bus didn't break down on the way home, but the bloody exit door couldn't close so it delayed the trip home.

Buffy The Vampire Slayer's latest episode on Ch 5 just now was okay. Quite boring to me, and the plot didn't seem that original, it's like I have watched this in Charmed or some other show before. But oh well, who said that these shows don't copy storylines from each other. It's normal for tv shows to have similar storylines nowadays.

But I'm waiting for the the much lauded and acclaimed Musical episode from Buffy. I thought that it would be screened tonight, but I think it's next week. Looking forward to that.

Oh well, freaking tired now, I gotta get me some sleep...

posted at 1:28 a.m.

Wednesday, May. 21, 2003

Whose Line

KY rejected the customer service position from Ministry of Manpower. But he recommended me to the lady. So I called her up, giving me my particulars. But I doubt I will get it, since she said that she will have to ask other people who did apply for the job too. Anyway, it's true, it would be unfair for her to just give me the job, when hundreds of others have applied for it before me.

Tuesdays are now so Goddamn boring. The tv shows are sucky. The Must-See Tuesday slot on Ch 5 from 8 to 9.30pm, should be called the Cringefest Tuesday, cuz I can't stand watching the local shows shown at this time. They have revived Under One Roof for a 40th Mediacorp Anniversary special season, with new episodes. I think they should have just left it alone, cuz the show is no longer appealing and the jokes are falling flat. Under One Roof, a gem in Ch 5's history, has been tarnished with this comeback season.

Meanwhile Heartlanders sucks, I can't stand the rojak English accents of the actors and even though Light Years have really cute young actresses in it, the plot and storyline sucks and sometimes they're over-acting. And Light Years is just another Spin! What's the fascination of having shows about Mass Comm students, again. I don't see the big deal about us.

So I'm left with just shows on the cable channels, but still there's not much to choose. Only Alias Season 1 on AXN Asia, but somehow I always miss that. The only saving grace is Whose Line Is It Anyway on Starworld, which is just hilarious. Drew Carey is a loser host, but the other comedians, Wayne, Colin, and Ryan are always so fucking hilarious. Especially Colin. But it's just a half-hour show, so the rest of Tuesday nights pretty much sucks now!

--------------------------

Whose Line Is It Anyway?, starring Drew, Wayne, Colin and Ryan.

------------------------------

I miss the days of Ally McBeal and Buffy Tuesdays on Ch 5. Now, the 10pm timeslot is filled by crappy movies. And what the hell happened to local drama First Touch? Since the SARS outbreak, Ch 5 has taken this show off the air on Wednesday. I have no idea why. The season hasn't even ended and there are still some more episodes left. Aww c'mon, I'll take First Touch over Light Years and Heartlanders any day man!

posted at 12:26 a.m.

Tuesday, May. 20, 2003

Company

Got a call around ten mins to one from KY. Apparently, he sms-ed me earlier in the morning but I didn't notice. He wanted me to accompany him for his job interview for a Management Support Officer position for Land Transport Authority. He wanted to ask for some tips and wanted some moral support cuz he was kinda nervous and thought I wouldn't mind going to the new Harbour Front shopping centre at World Trade Centre after his interview.

So he fetched me by cab and we reached there much earlier than his stipulated 2.30pm interview. I didn't mind accompanying him anyway, cuz I really wanted to get out of my house. The past few days have been so fucking oven-hot, it's like Singapore was experiencing our own heatwave. I felt like I have been roasting myself in my room, in the daytime, and even at night when I'm sleeping, even though my ceiling fan is on full blast. So a few hours outside was definitely good. Even though, the sun was still scorching hot!

KY really want this job, so I went over with him some questions that his interviewer might ask him, based on my little experience in MSO interviews. Think he's got a good chance, from what he told me, so all the best to him. And buddy, if you get the job, I'm expecting a treat k, haha.

As for Harbour Front, there's actually nothing much there. The place is pretty quiet, maybe cuz it's only Monday, but there were a few shops not opened. Other than that, it's quite boring, think it's more for people who want to chill out and have nowhere else to go after enjoying a day at Sentosa. KY went there to find an M1 shop there, but we couldn't find any, so we went to Westmall's M1 shop instead and walked around there for awhile.

At Westmall library, he received a call from Ministry of Manpower, offering him a customer service position. But the thing is, he can't remember applying for any customer service position there. Though the pay sounds good, he's having second thoughts of taking it up cuz he wants to wait for the outcome of the LTA interview. But he'll be recommending me to them when he calls them back tomorrow to confirm about the job. He's quite lucky today, first the interview, and then another job offer comes along...

Supposed to go for job hunt tomorrow, but looks like Jason won't be able to make it, so we're gonna postpone it to Thursday. Meanwhile, will send out more resumes for the jobs I recently found on the net.

I think I'm increasingly becoming a fan of Alias. I have even started recording the show. I like the spy aspect of the show, and the fact that Jennifer Garner wears different disguises every week. Plus the episodic plots are always intriguing. But one thing's for sure, it's not as sucky as La Femme Nikita, but that's another story...

First personal photo of the week: looking at the photo makes me miss Gold Coast so much. The beach is awesome! Really had a great time swimming there last November. We can't get beaches as beautiful as this in Singapore. I can even smell the sunscreen smell now, hear the waves crashing onto the shore and feel the coolness of the seawater. I definitely want go Gold Coast again in the future!

------------------------------

Me (left) and KY at Surfers' Paradise, Gold Coast.

---------------------------------

Photo taken last November during my trip to Gold Coast/Brisbane with KY. I look really damn dark in there. In fact both of us look quite tanned in the photo, all that time in the sun. And we were squinting our eyes, cuz the sky was quite bright that day, and Mona asked before, how come we looked like we didn't bother to comb our hair? Well, we did, but the wind was strong, so it made our hair messy...

Sigh, when will be the next time I can have an overseas vacation. I so wanna get out of Singapore again. But talk so much, if no money also no point. Plus the SARS situation is not helping either...

posted at 1:01 a.m.

Monday, May. 19, 2003

Screw-up

The vacuum cleaner provided some problems while I was doing my usual Sunday vacuuming of my house. It suddenly couldn't work while I was halfway cleaning my sister's room. Luckily I was already done with the living room, cuz that's the biggest area and the most difficult to vacuum, what with so many carpets...

So I proceeded to just sweep the rest of the rooms. But after I have finished cleaning my house, my father came back and tried to switching on the vacuum cleaner. Funnily enough, now it can work. What a waste of my time sweeping the floor. I could have save so much time just by vacuuming. Drats.

Thought the vacuum cleaner would be the second thing that had to screw up on me this past week. Did I mention that my tv couldn't work during the midweek? And this happened after it was repaired 6 mths ago. Actually it's quite ancient, although the functions are still quite new. But I didn't want my father to waste unnecessary money again sending it for repair, so I requested to use their bedroom tv instead. They gave in, but of course I didn't mind, it's much newer, bigger and have flat screen, heehee...

Okay, it's obvious that when I start talking about the machines in my life, that mean there's nothing much to update today. Well, very true, cuz it's another uneventful boring Sunday. My eldest sister visited us in the evening with her husband and her daughter. And Ch 5 was screening The Mask which I have watched countless times.

So I guess, that's it for now...

posted at 1:44 a.m.

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