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Thursday, July 31, 2008

OMGOMGOMGOMG!
Half-Blood Prince trailer's out!
This one's a keeper.
It's looking mighty fine.
Am all excited about it: in 113 days exactly.
SQUEEEE~! ♥
I 'ma gonna read me them books again.
Fangirl becomes me.
Oh, and here be some screencaps for closer scrutiny.
Good times!

Tuesday, July 29, 2008

"If the oyster is opened carefully, the diner is eating an animal with a working brain, a stomach, intestines, liver, and a still-beating heart. As for the 'liquor', that watery essence of oyster flavour that all good food writers caution to save, it is mostly oyster blood."
- Mark Kurlansky, The Big Oyster. History on the Half Shell.

Urk.

I embark on a brand new journey tomorrow - a new job. Will probably not relish being the noob around - I blame this aversion to socialise on being an only child. But. The Gemini in me will supplement the necessary pleasantries. I want this to be an environment I will grow in, and to learn and to give a lot back to in due course. Am hoping for the best, obviously, but will prepare for the worst since I already know about that. pile. of. stuff. that's waiting to get sorted and worked through before the two-week deadline for the printer's. I placed it there myself last night.

There is a brand new iMac set up for me at the office, and I've got my key card. All awaiting their new beginning. Cue wondering / wanderings about old beginnings. An old beginning would definitely have to be this here kaka snack, if I'm to be asked. As a wee (spoilt rotten) kid, I loved me a pack of these usually lao hong goodies i.e. softened by humidity. (Thanks, Stellou for bringing this word back into my daily vocabulary!)



Found this while skulking around today [thanks, Tym], and it made me smile. My beloved Garamond was not featured - am considering whether I should be glad about this or not.

Friday, July 18, 2008



So it was a lovely rainy grey day out some days ago - the kind that would've be perfect for curling in bed with a mug of hot chocolate and the latest good discovery from the Library. But there was editing to be done, and a conference paper to be submitted. It was really that grey. In full colour. Not in greyscale. Not Photoshopped. I loved its greyness so. much. It made me think of being as safe as houses. I like this expression, and I like it especially so on a grey day, when I'm safely ensconced at home.



There have been sleepless nights - 39 hours of wakeful writing interspersed between bursts of hair-tearing, inspired, and teeth-gnashing moments. There have been dramas with this paper, there have. There have been submissions made conveniently from my desk, to some server (thank you, Internet), to the lovely K in Edinburgh. There have been declarations made: no more writing of academic papers for conferences. And while I was editing and doing more editing, 4 hours before my already-extended deadline was up, what else popped into mind but this here song. Just had to listen. Just. I didn't know who KT Tunstall was before this. I swear. I'm not from this planet. What is wrong with me? The last time I had a craaaavvving for any song was, umm, oh. From The Killers. Yeah. Not too long ago. Really. And The Cat Empire. Yeah. Oh, and Trent Reznor the Great. Umm, and also, Garbage. The Cure. Roxette. Death Cab for Cutie. Oasis. Jay Chou. Geez. Just about all the time, really. Feed me a song and watch me go berserk with that repeat button.


this was a hoot! [via swissmiss]

Tuesday, July 15, 2008



It was, apparently, Gummy Worm Day in the USA on the 15th of July - today! [via here] What a shame, because I'd nearly bought myself two packs of gummy bears today while at the polyclinic, but thought to myself, ' Nah, I won't give in to temptation. For once.' Would've been so. stoked. to be munching on a gummy bear while I discovered what day it was today. I prefer gummy worms mostly, if you ask me, but a pack of HARIBO Gold Bears will win hands down any day.

Don't I just lurve the way that worm leaves a sickly sweet smell literally in my nostril? I don't like the orange ones - bears and worms alike. I figured that's a safer way to stick a gummy worm in my nose - at both ends, so we don't accidentally snort and inhale the whole damn thing down our windpipes. One day, sometime, when I grow up, I'm gonna do me some serious stuff.

And, now that I'm aware of it, I shall definitely be celebrating S'mores Day on 10th August. So nice to have days like these to look forward to. I'm imagining a dreary office scene that gets zinged! by a tray of candy, according to whatever it is on the candy calendar.

Wednesday, July 09, 2008



The firstfruits of those rambutans from the neighbour's tree have ripened, and are now sitting pretty, the bunch of them, in our kitchen. I like the idea of neighbourliness: this whole sharing the produce of your garden shebang, it gives me a warm fuzzy feeling. Most of the times, my family shares only with our neighbour to the left, because on the other side? There are awkward nods, exchanges of waves and hellos amidst furtive glances towards the doors before we beat a hasty retreat back behind our walls - we've been that way for a long time, and have grown accustomed, even comfortable with this.

Guess what? IKEA has an entire system worked out for themselves on how to name their furniture. More stuff I never knew. I mean, I did a very short Industry-based learning attachment there about a decade ago, and I don't recall my immediate manager bringing up these points to me. My favourite IVAR bookshelves are named after some kind of profession in Swedish? How cool is that!

Apparently, Ivar comes from an old Norse word for archer-soldier. So, kinda like a non-pretty version of Legolas, I'd imagine? Yay to my shelves.

Also, I sucked big time at this game. Based almost completely on guesswork, I got an embarrassing 2 out of 10. I wonder how many IKEA employees score above the 70% mark. I used to think IKEA was pretty cool. Now? It's just a moniker for affordable and functional, though hardly long-lasting. A sobering thought.

I worked there, at the Alexandra branch, over the end of year vacation. Good times. One of my happiest work experiences. Before the store opened everyday at 10am, there were trolleys and trolleys of misplaced items we had to re-shelve - this being the peak of all peak furnishing and lifestyle retail periods: when Christmas and Hari Raya coincide. And I liked very much that the activity of re-shelving was undertaken by everyone - not just the floor staff in yellow shirts. I was in the Design Department, so I never had to be on my feet for hours. But this shared experience of re-shelving, together with the common pantry area, were great levellers. Many friends were made, and readily too, then. Some days, like today, I wish for those times.

Half an hour ago, I cleared 7.46GB worth of old work from Wilmot's Trash. They have finally been saved, and archived (sort of) in my external hard disk drive. Wish I could say proudly that I've also toasted DVDs out of them - sadly, no. But still, 3 years worth of work and grime and junk: purged. The cleansing feels good. I feel ready to move on.

The rambutans? More of them are slowly ripening on the tree.