early mooncakes ~ way too early..

had a fairly eventful day ~ not that i'm complaining. morning was great. afternoon was great. evening was great i suppose if i like the paiseh feeling (that means "embarrassed" in hokkien)

morning ~

went to the gym: could do the arm raising machine thingie.. finally!! killed my calf and got stitches on the treadmill but it felt good. having songs i could wail to in my head helped to keep me running

saw a shark's tale: that movie gets 2 thumbs up and my right pinky too! can't even start to describe it.. it was incredibly cute right from the scene where they show u it was a dreamworks production and there was a lot of subtle jokes and references throughout the whole show. not to mention that the characters looked exactly like the people who supplied their voices, 'cept in fish form. lino the shark even has a mole like robert di niro...

browsed through the computer fair: quick once-over. they don't seem to have as many gadgets and accessories as i remember them to have... the guy also took my $3.50 and never gave me back a dollar in change. i assumed entry fees increased til i asked.. AFTER he put the coins in the cash box. slow me. go me.

afternoon ~

shopped at woolies: hungry = bad time to shop but i managed to implement some self control. only thing i got that wasn't really necessary was that snickers bar that was on sale telling me to eat it.

worked on nugget at home and whipped up some scrambled eggs ... *slurp*

evening ~

decided to pay a quick visit to the mooncake festival gathering thingie organized by the singapore students' association (or the ssa for short) maaaaalu-land, here i come! (malu's singlish for paiseh and you should already know what paiseh means or else it means u were just skimming thru the earlier bits of this post... tsk!!) in 2 short hours..

went there with S and J and turns out, we didn't noe anyone there. or at least i didn't. we got to the Cellar, greeted and told we were welcome to join but it'd be nice if we could bring a dish. #1.

we had no idea this was how things worked. didn't say so on the poster and i guess we all didn't read it carefully enough to call up whoever was in charge before trudging up empty handed... sigh. so we went to woolies to grab a couple tubs of ice cream b4 heading back. made ourselves as comfy as one can be at a gathering of people from the same country who all know each other knowing fully well that we weren't singaporeans. wasn't that hard... we settled in to watch a s'porean-produced movie about these 2 siblings who were really poor. was an interesting movie and was nice to pick out familiar faces among the cast. an announcement about the programme for the rest of the night was made in the middle of the movie and that sparked off incidents #2 and #3...

we were supposed to get food at the buffet. then they'd unpause the movie and we'd finish watching it. then a break for announcements etc. then movie #2. then mooncakes. well the whole point of us 3 being there was cuz of the mooncakes (yes, im a glutton. oink.) tho the whole "expand the social circle" thing was a bonus. we didnt wanna stay so long so S was the spokesperson and asked if we could have our mooncakes first, we had to leave early. the poor poor organizers...should've seen the look on their faces. #2.

they scurried off to do some yabbering and gesturing and it was sooo paiseh cuz it's like we imposed ourselves on their hospitality. they finally came back and said they could only afford 1 mooncake to share between the 3 of us. tuff luck for us.. getting any at this point was a bonus. so anyway, we got shooed to go get some dinner and i wasnt hungry. S approached the same dude with very good intentions and asked if they had any vego stuff #3. noooooo i don't want to turn into this annoying imposing chick that's causing them trouble. argh stop! "nonono, dont listen to her! im not hungry, i just want a drink, really." i spluttered out.

some time passed w/o any incident til someone took out his digicam and started snapping pix. then he took a pic of the three of us girls... individually. is he gonna post our mugshots up on their website so everyone else can be warned about some of our atrocious requests? i thought it'd be oh so smart of me to offer to take his picture as a sort of get-back...

me: ummmm what about i take a picture for u.. u've been taking a pictures of all these people and you've got no shots of yourself... (as i get drowned out)
him: do you even know my name???
me: huh?! umm.. no. (what the hell does that hafta do with me taking a pix for u?!)
him: what is my name? you don't even know my name and you want to take a picture with me?!
me: *turns pink.* nonononoo omg noooo! i wanted to know if i could take a picture OF you because u've been taking a pictures of all these people and you've got no shots of yourself...
him: *already pulling up a chair* ok come come.. smile!
me: nonono....i wanted to know if i could take a picture OF you because u've been taking a pictures of all these people and you've got no shots of yourself...
him: ohh... nevermind, it's ok. come come, take picture. group shot
me: but but...
*say cheeeeeeeese! camera goes click*

...and that was #4.
as the movie came to a close, the president announced the prizes for best dish of the nite etc. we had planned to leave after the movie but thought it'd be rude so we decided to stay til they finished the speeches. guess what was planned for right after.... mooncakes! so we DID stay long enough to get mooncakes without needing to ask for them in advance. we said bye pretty fast after that and zoomed out... #5. 5 oopsies. in one night. ouch.

memories from the 90's

was archiving old pictures and came across this one... i would've been in 7th grade, making me 12...wow. that was me 11 years ago. still... that doesn't excuse the "let's hide half her face with hair" fashion...
MY GAWD.. look at those bangs!!! think this was a carry-over of 80's fashion...eeeesh!

*snips pix*

loved my school uniform .. thought it was the prettiest one i've had, ever. guess the rjc uniform would come close as a 2nd runner-up. then again, i've only had 4 uniforms...i think. brownies and girl scouts don't count.. i hated those! the sash.. the furry thingies that went with the green girl scout socks.. eew.

ooh yeah, that's our old home in the san fernando valley.. miss it a lot

2nd ooh yeah ~ it's been the first time since then that my hair's been that long, straight and shiny and went i went for a trim on monday, the hairdresser chopped it all off. now it rests just below my shoulders. all of it. *wails.. then grrrr*

spouting wreckage

bright and sunny again! what a difference 12 hours makes.

uni's been shut down due to damages. roofs have collapsed at teds and other uni buildings. 5 rooms have apparently been leaking at bara (that was the perfect test of waterproofing!). mud and grime everywhere.123mm of rain fell in newcastle while 5mm fell in the catchment area in sydney. rain god must've liked barry, our hailman. cleanup began at midnite last nite apparently and is still going on. jesmond's buzzing with activity cuz it seems like the whole world's decided that this would be a great time to go shopping...

this was seen off nobby's beach yesterday tho...

full story can be obtained from the daily telegraph

let it hail! let it hail! let it hail!

apologies for sounding like an incoherent maniac right now but wow.. i wish there was a little blackbox inplanted in my head that i can open, take out the memory card and upload to share!

the forecast for today: thunderstorms.
went to the gym this morning and it was a tad muggy with overcast skies and stray beams of sunlight streaming through, like that picturesque scene of calm right before a hurricane hits.

day passed uneventfully... til dinner! anj, ting and i went out to hog's breath @ beaumont st. and were thoroughly enjoying ourselves when anj was like "HOLY! is that RAIN?" ...referring to the whoooosh whooooosh coming from outside. oh yeaaaah.. and not just rain mind you. we were about 50m from home after splashing through puddles along the way that sounded like my alloys were grinding against the curb... and there were all these lights blinking as we turned the corner and descended a knoll. uh-oh! that innocent little dip in the road had transformed into a mini roaring rapids that had managed to swallow a poor little white car of some unknown make.. the thing was half submerged and the distraught owner was pacing back and forth with a very confused tow truck on one side of the river while a couple of cars had already started to pile up on the other side. what a sight! we had to u-turn around, i learnt to use my horn this time so the tow truck wouldn't reverse into me and sped off into the misty foggy night. it was so surreal... and twas my first time driving in such conditions. not that i was scared but i was more worried because of the fact that i had 2 other passengers in the car with me.

noticed the hail as we managed to navigate safely through the mishmash of back roads and emerged at the traffic lights. well i think ting noticed it... "heeey... is that ice on the ground?" the same thought whizzed through both our heads - hope there aren't dents in the car panels peeeeease.

meanwhile, anj was having a blast...

anj: snow! wheeeeeee
anj: snow! wheeeeeee
amy: but the poor car! gawd please don't hail!
anj: hail! wheeeeeee
ting: aw i hope my car's ok
anj: hail! wheeeeeeeee
amy: noooooo... the poor car!
anj: hail! wheeeeeeeee
anj: snow! wheeeeeeee
anj: hail! wheeeeeeeee
anj: hail! wheeeeeeeee
amy: i swear i'll slap you if u say that one more time
(don't get the wrong idea.. anj cares plenty about the well-being of my car. blame the adrenalin and the endorphins)

got back home, had a quick squiz at ting's car and it was fine except for a layer of hail on it. promptly forgot about the rain, the thunder and the multi-pronged forks of lightning when we saw the "snow"-covered ground in the parking lot and went snappy happy. walked into dorms and was greeted by people already in the midst of snowball fights and such.
went and grabbed my camera (i knew i should've recharged the batteries today!!)


a very blurry bara tho you can see the hail still falling ~

thought it was cute when stacy commented that we now know for sure that bara rooms are indeed occupied, what a great way to get normally anti-social people to mingle!

here are a few of the results after running around grinning like an idiot with the rest of the people living at bara.


snow! another bara shot ~

ting spotted people making a snowman across the courtyard so we trotted over to get a photo of it before trying a hand at making our own snowman named barry...

weather's calmed down a bit but there's still the occassional rumble or howling to be heard. i've too calmed down from the initial rush and hype. wiped the idiotic grin off my face, camera no longer in hand, stopped saying hi to random strangers and asking them if they were the ones i heard screaming earlier on. no, no alcohol was involved.. ting and anj have gone back to their rooms. all's now normal and well and 'twas [like] the night before Christmas, when all through the house; Not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse. ZZzzzzzz ~

old and hardened? or just disillusioned...

got sent a link from one of my gors thru icq outta the blue...
hadn't talked to him in months, if not years.

the little icq window croaked rrriiibbitt and up popped this message:

You have a received a URL request.
URL: http://www26.brinkster.com/dreamgalaxy/tears_in_my_heart.html
URL's description: sWeet loVe sToRY :~~(

now usually, i don't click on fowarded url links. especially wHen ThEy ArE TyPed LIkE tHis. this time was different.. i think it was cuz i was curious about the combination of "sweet" and the sad face, curious to see how sad and tragic this sob love story could be. i'm morbid eh?

well after reading the essay, i did feel a little sinking feeling in my heart. i don't know how true this story is but it's very plausible. most likely, the news that a girl, a pretty girl to boot, has contracted this life-threatening disease and has passed away would have whizzed through the grapevines. especially since i was in my first year of jc the year titanic opened in singapore. would've been someone in either my year or the year above and news eventually floats around despite having sources at different schools. SOOOOooo.. i'm not dissing the credibility of the story because if this was a true story, i'm really sorry to hear of the bittersweet ending and i can't even begin to imagine what her friends and family would've gone through during those dark days of grief. so i treaded carefully... i asked my gor where he got the link from, half hoping he wouldn't say it was a true story of someone he knew or was close with. was relieved to hear he got it from a fren and he hoped it wasn't true too. [ah, so he's at least as far removed from the protagonists of the story as me.]

yet, with a wry smirk directed at myself, i found little lightbulbs flashing at the back of my mind in the midst of getting comfy in a sad + emphathetic mood when slorr mentioned that she had erysipelas. there on after, the nagging question of "what is that disease??" bugged me as i squizzed thru the rest of the story. "is it contagious? what are the clinical signs and symptoms? wonder if there's a cure? where'd she get it from? how'd she get it?" shut up u med freak! i tell myself..i knew fully well that she wasn't gonna make it about a minute into reading and that the saddest bit that's meant to be the tear-jerker was yet to come yet i remained slightly cynical til my mind was put to rest of what erysipelas consisted of when i did a google search. bless dear google, what would i do without it!

what i found gave me more doubts about the amount of truth in the story.

• classical symptoms include butterfly rash [check. she had that] spreading across the bridge of the nose [uh-oh. she had it at the back of her neck. mebbe she had a rare form of it] that progresses rapidly without treatment [*mad rapid clinking of retired math brain cells trying to figure out the timeline of the story* 2 months since first meeting but she knew beforehand because she was already talking weird. she passed away at most, 5 months later. now, this disease presents with an angry rash that hurts, gives u fever aches and pains. i think it's a reasonable assumption to make that she would've sought medical advice within a week of the rash/symptoms not subsiding, no?].

• 70 - 80% of rashes occur @ lower body, 5 - 20% of rashes occur @ face one site reports...[her's was at her neck and spread to her face tho. mebbe it's a rare form. mebbe its's a rare form]

• prognosis is excellent [mebbe it's a rare form. mebbe it's a rare form]

• more common in females for some unknown reason [check. she's female]

• not common in asia [mebbe it's a fluke.. mebbe it's a rare form]

i'm not sure if this is a good thing or a bad thing... or if i can even label it in such black and white terms. this referring to that constant desire to be shown proof, shown evidence, to constantly question and analyze ...i kinda miss it when things could be taken at face value and one wasn't called naive or gullible. *shrug* mebbe i've got it all wrong but learning to distrust seems to be an integral part of growing up. maybe not distrust per se.. being more discerning perhaps would be a better word? and to think, there are all these little kiddies who can't wait to be grown up... been there, done that. i'm haven't even started taking my first step into the real world and i'm already tired ...

i forgot.. -.-

i had something to say.. really! i had... but try as i may, i can't remember what it was

© marybeth13@webshots

blame it on that dog in "as good as it gets"!! they were showing it on tv, i was channel-flicking... he's so qooooooote! i just stood there and awwwwww-ed my head off. it's a good thing i've got my own room so there's nobody around to give me weird stares ~ this doggie's not verdell from the movie (played by jill) but is a brussels griffon just like her. i did a google search and found this pic at webshots community...
now c'mon..say awwwwwwww with me

when 320mb/day becomes too little

woke up this morning with anj's call saying she went over her daily download quota...
it used to be unlimited access. then the uni noticed that internet usage took up too much of their expenses so they implemented a 1G daily quota that wasn't that bad to live with. 3 years later, due to various reasons... lack of funding included i bet (explains why they're pushing for full-fee paying local students for certain courses)... they've snuck in with a 320mb download quota per day. thanks for the advance notice...

[rant]
well technically, 320mb is still a lot for someone who does the occasional surfing online... but what about those people with auto-refreshing webpages, instant messengers, mirc downloaders and mp3 hogs?! funny how the university encourages people to go online. they've made most student services online, they've converted the basement of the library into a huge computer lab/net cafe (that still has people lining up to use any computer at one of the 15+ workstations with about 5 comps each at any given time), they put up huge powerpoint lectures, make us check for course announcements online blahblahblah. yet they go ahead and cap our internet usage... go figure. and that's only talking about "sanctioned" or "proper" internet use... with the new quota, there goes web-camming (not like it works with anything besides yahoo due to the freakin firewall the uni's put up that blocks most things), movie/mp3 downloads (they silently acknowledge the use of kazaa, bearshare etc by pretending they don't know on-campus residents use it), uploading random whims... and what about those ppl who surf for porn? oooo bet they're complaining..!
[/rant]

on the other hand, 320mb/day aint that bad... not that i have any concept of how many webpage loads, emails, uploads and downloads that consists of but taking your average mp3 to be ~5mbs... my daily quota could get me 60+ songs. hmm, i could live with that it's more of the principle of the matter rather than the actual quota number that's my issue tho. the hypocrisy...we want to help our students. let's go cut corners on resources they use and build useless buildings and speedbumps around campus and purchase extravagantly expensive software that forces us to restructure our whole university heirarchy because oops! we forgot we're not american.
current mood.

laughing.stock

surprise visitor
Originally uploaded by æ.

don't be deceived by all that fluffy cuteness.. this kookaburra is one hella noisy bird that sounds nothing like a laugh...

*snip*
really tho.. this is just a test for flickr-to-blogger uploads :p

and i've caught the blogging fever...

albeit a few years too late but hey...
slow and steady wins the race?

current mood.