It's been a rather long time since I took a plane so I don't know how am I going to tahan taking a plane right now.
I absolutely HATE that feeling where it's like a 'slight drop'. Especially during turbulence.
I think I'd be the only passenger who died if I were sitting on that Qantas flight that time that met with such a turbulence, alot of people and things, hit the ceiling when the plane 'dropped'. And then again, it would be because I died from a heart attack.
I can imagine the drop would be so severe because some of the passengers had to be warded in for fractured ribs!
I would have became hysterical on the flight.
So, ladies and gentleman, remember to be more polite to your pilots if you see them going in before you.
If they look kinda depressed or whatever, maybe you ought to skip that flight altogether.
Now this wasn't the only instance.
There were situations also, I have to add.
Like when I met a few of my buddies recently and we spoke all the way to 3am. Yes. We were a bunch of jobless people.
After that, I walked back to my car to drive home and once I got in, I immediately locked the door.
Then there were also times when Des and I caught some late movie and were going home, once we got into the car I requested that he locked the car door.
I cannot imagine going to JB with him alone. That's because I would indefinitely have a heightened sense of fear for our safety, probably tenfold.
I'm not saying we will DEFINITELY get robbed there. The situation is not that bad. But you have to admit the probability is higher than if we shopped here.
I can imagine 101 ways that a person could have robbed us, and even steal the car. For the busybodies out there, we are not going to get married that soon (probably ten years later or so), but whenever it may be, I would greatly appreciate if Ivan was our wedding car, and not a stolen car.
However the only slip-up that would occur would be that during lunch time, especially back when I was at work, I used to have the habit of leaving my wallet and handphone lying on the table with me sitting right beside it.
I know some of you think it's okay, but you have got to imagine the possible scenario that a snatch thief might chance upon it and make full use of the opportunity to grab and run.
I think this was because a friend of mine had his handphone stolen like that. He chased the thief almost all the way down Orchard Road.
It was quite sad because no one tried to help him stop the thief. I often recalled this incident out of the blue and feel the anger on his behalf.
But that aside, it made me pay more attention, but I somehow have a lapse during lunchtime maybe because my brain cells had more important relaxation to do when I've been at work for the whole morning already.
And why, all of a sudden, am I talking about all this?
Cos I think I've met my match.
You see, so cautious was I that I always made sure that even in my Sims game, the houses I built come equipped with burglar alarm device.
But the owner of this house has really outdid me. In the sense that they really DO put some sort of burglar alarm device.
It's one of the houses located along the main road. If I took the a bus to go to Toa Payoh, from my elevated height I could actually peer over the wall and see for myself the many Puteh cages that were hanging outside the house, under a specially constructed shelter.
Not just Putehs. There were Jambul cages too. Pardon me if I got the spelling of the 'Jambul' bird wrongly, because the spelling kinda resembles a fruit.
It was probably half the size of my place, but you would be surprised at the security cameras. I think they easily had more security cameras than the number of my household members put together.
Incredible.
And let me remind you again, this house is located along the main road. Who would dare burglar a house along the busy traffic?
CiiN Sniffed Her Pillow At 12:44 am
Advertisements on Facebook
Monday, April 27, 2009
I just want to do a short mention here that you know those irritating quizzes people always do on Facebook?
They are LESS irritating if you DON'T SEND INVITES TO FRIENDS.
Please be AWARE that there is the option of skipping the invite part and just proceed straight to quiz results!
Also, I'm just curious.
Am I the only one that are very disgusted and affected by the ads they have on Facebook? Ads that are promoting the other applications on Facebook.
One of it that really ticks me off in a humourous way is the IQ test. I haven't taken the IQ test application before. Apparently, it ranks to me the friends of mine that had taken theirs.
I still insist on not taking the test because of the ranking I saw. I have nothing to say about those whose IQ is high and pretty 'normal'.
What irks me is friends among me whom I deem pretty intellectual were actually like the bottom 3 scorers.
It freaks me out.
Another one would be those that consists of 'Which of your friend stated that they have a crush on you?"
Etc etc.
Because one of the ads was like saying: Is XXX(my friend's name here) trying to FLIRT with you?
For added effect, on the advertisement banner, the word 'FLIRT' was flashing and in a different colour from all other texts on the banner, making it really stand out.
They not only plucked my friend's name from dunno-where, they also included his display pic.
Usually I would just turn a blind eye and ignore it. But this is rather disturbing because of the fact that this friend is married and his display pic is a really cute photo of him and his newborn.
Life is just like that I guess.
It's weird. I haven't heard anyone complaining about the weather these days. Are all of you so caught up in your air-conditioned offices / schools? Our environment is going crazy. Mother Nature is turning evil and going to whack us back for all the pollution.
But meanwhile, I think I would really die without air-conditioning. I am on the verge of getting Kilo to sleep in the room with me at nights because even night time is SO HOT outside!
In fact, during one of these hot days, guess what I captured?
I actually saw TWO suns in the sky. Or what looks like two suns.
Here's it.
If you see it in real life, it actually looks like two suns. Now that I've uploaded the pic up on the computer, it doesn't look like it. More like a 'break' in the sky where the sun shines through. It seems like you can even see the rainbow coming through at the right 'sun'.
As you can see, the REAL sun is the one on the left shining angrily through the trees.
And there, right smack in the middle is a beautiful piece of artwork from one of the mynahs that hang out directly opposite my house.
Des claims that he only gets 'bombed' by bird poo like that whenever he parks at my place.
CiiN Sniffed Her Pillow At 11:35 pm
Superstitions
Sunday, April 26, 2009
I get kind of superstitious when it comes to Soccer.
Okay, some people asked why am I watching suddenly out of nowhere. All I can say is that if you don't have to wake up early for school / work, you turn to any other forms of entertainment during those nights where you can't get to sleep.
Soccer was it.
The timing was perfect. It usually ends at 3-4+am which is my current bedtime hours.
Believe me it was superbly difficult to go to bed when I was working at the event a few days ago.
In a way I was thankful that event only lasted 3 days because my sleeping cycle was really hay-wired, although I really enjoyed myself.
So anyway, I was at the peak of my Man Utd obsession in the years leading up to the treble.
It all just stopped when the stupid Starhub bought over the broadcasting rights to the soccer matches. You know what they say; out of sight, out of mind.
But even back then when Channel 5 was still faithfully showing the games, I had them all taped down on VHS. It was this weird thought of mine then they seem to lose whenever I watched them live!
Needless to say, at the UEFA finals at Nou Camp, I naturally taped down the match instead and watched it the next morning (even before I brushed my teeth.. and you know how important it is to me that I brush my teeth 1st thing, every day!).
The feeling was as good as watching it live, honestly.
I scream and threw cushions into the air when Solskjaer tapped the ball in at the final minutes.
So I just wanted to tell you that I'm sorry for watching the Tottenham match last night. 'Luckily' enough, my connection died during half-time. Which probably explains why in the first half Man Utd was DOWN 0-2, and when I was unable to continue watching, they could actually score 5 goals in the second half!
CiiN Sniffed Her Pillow At 2:03 pm
Cherry is pure Evil
Saturday, April 25, 2009
I think I'm finally seeing Des' point of view.
Today, I wanted to buy some fishes just to fill up my tank. You know, to let it have at least some signs of life.
Cherry isn't exactly a visually-appeasing occupant of the tank. He/She/It only comes out when all the lights are totally turned off and I'm in bed.
How do I know? Because there was once I realised I forgot to do something so I got up and turned on the lights.
Viola, Cherry was out of the tank swimming around.
Upon seeing the lights turned on, he/she/it scurried back to the 'safety' of its little cave immediately.
Man, I hate that. I sometimes pondered removing that cave, but then it just made Cherry use another piece of volcanic rock as its alternative hide-out.
My intention was to get those $2 for a big packet of guppies to fill the tank with. They reproduce quickly enough and are more adaptable to the brackish water environment that Cherry needs.
The OTF Aquarium I went to today don't stock up on guppies. Either that or they ran out. Since part of the reason was to feed Cherry with the fish, the nice lady there suggested I get goldfishes instead, since the dead ones will be conveniently eaten by Cherry.
I did.
I LOVE Goldfishes. Damn cute chubby wubby little aquatic things.
Plus the fact that they're so greedy makes them try to get your attention all the time so that they can be fed.
Bad idea.
In my rush to leave the house again, I released all the little goldfishes into the quarrantine tank.
All but one. I wanted to see if they are really that adaptable to brackish waters so I immediately released it into the main tank where Cherry resides. I have to admit as well that I did so knowing that this fish might be dead by the time I come home.
So I wasn't too shocked when I found the fish stuck to the filter pipe when I came home just a few hours later.
But I was in for a huge surprise when I looked closely and realised the fish's gills were still moving!
I turned off the filter and the fish swam away and I understood why it was stuck.
Half of its body was gone, no doubt, Cherry had a huge part to play in it.
In fact, it's tail was dangling by a thin shred of skin.
As the poor fella still swam around clumsily because the tails were not helping it to navigate, I was about to burst in tears.
I knew the fishes were going to die, but I didn't want them to die a slow and painful death such as this!
I used a fishing net and pushed the dying but still struggling fish into Cherry's tank.
No use.
Cherry just wouldn't take a second bite although the fish was struggling RIGHT in front of him/her/it.
To cut short the pain, I scooped it into another little container and added a drop of clove oil.
Problem settled. The fish was 'put to sleep' in the most humane way I could afford it at such short notice.
I have to admit, it did struggle for some time before it kicked the bucket even after the clove oil was added.
It sure had this strong determination to survive but there was really no way I could have helped it. I mean, even looking at how the tail dangled disgusted me to no end. It was so separated from the body, as it struggled and swam against the current my filter made in the main tank, its tail actually could turn like 360 degrees.
I'm sure if you just held on to the tail and pulled, it would have severed it from the body.
Finally after it had died... I fed it to Oscar.
I should have done so much earlier because it probably would have worked faster than adding the Clove Oil and all and have to wait for the effect to kick in.
Trusty little Oscar baby :) Thank you for eating the dead goldfish so fast! You certainly are an efficient green little fella :)
Allow me to add a cute little photo of Kilo here too.
I was cleaning the bird cage today and wiping it dry after scrubbing with detergent when Kilo took the chance to open the gate and sneak into the house.
Because the idea struck me out of nowhere, I decided to throw the cloth on him. It landed right on top of his head, and there it stayed.
The silly dog. He made it look so comfortable it was as if I had put a cloth over his head everyday!
CiiN Sniffed Her Pillow At 11:46 pm
Cheated of my moola! :(
I was once cheated of my money.
From then on, I drew the line very clearly wherever money was involved.
Not many people knew about that. And then those who know, they hardly remembered because it was 'unimportant'.
I feel lucky in a way.
There were things that happened to me when I was young that I had to grow up in that few specific area. I've known some pretty childish people in my life. With some of them having already passed their mid-life crisis mark.
Now this money thing actually happened back when I was in freaking Primary 1.
7 freaking years old. And I already got cheated. It wasn't even a school bully, though it is unfortunate to hear that school bullying is getting more rampant these days what with internet access you can even proceed to do some anonymous cyber-bullying.
I was lucky. My bully was far too obvious. She hit my head with her knuckles (MANY times) but she didn't know that because she wasn't a ghost, she had a shadow and I saw how she lifted her hand to hit me from behind. She then pretends to look away when I turn around in anger to stare at her. I ought to ask her to go and kill herself first before coming to hit my head so at least she won't have a shadow to give her away.
Okay, everytime we talk about her I get in a bad mood. I still remember her full name up to this day you know. And recently I freaked out because JW's girlfriend's name was damn similar to hers.
That aside, when I was in Primary 1, I had a classmate whose name was Belinda Lee or something. I dare to type out her name because I think she deserves the humiliation.
She was the smart type. Always topping our class.
Up to this day I wonder why she did that, you know.
She wanted us to give her money, and it wasn't just me, man. It was a whole group of us that sat near to each other in class.
When we asked why (like duh?), she told us she needed it for her family.
That's like, wtf. But then again, when you were in Primary 1, you didn't know how much was worth. You didn't know that a few cents were not even able to pay your electricity bills and etc.
I happened to have a very good memory of everything that happened when I was young. Most things. Especially incidences such as these.
You know what she said?
Her mother is blind, and her dad had just passed away. She has another younger sibling, a brother or sister, I forgot. And because of all this, her family was damn poor.
She is studying in CHIJ Katong for chrissakes! Now that I think back, really... Poor my foot!
I even can clearly recall her face when she said that. She looked down at her feet and looked so upset that she really managed to fool all of us!
She didn't ask for an exact amount though. We just gave her what we could spare. I gave her a total of 15 cents (haha!), though I remembered the others gave her much more.
I also bought this book mark that she drew and tried to sell for us at 30cents each.
Okay, so that means the total that I was cheated of amounted up to 45cents or more since there were other instances she tried to ask us for money.
So, imagine all our blardy shock when one day her mother came to school to fetch her. Apparently the mother also came to do some documentation to transfer her to another school... which school? Tao Nan Primary, mind you.
Apparently she must have been sick of her daughter topping our class (maybe even the blardy cohort) term after term.
To add to the shock, the 'blind' mother wears her sunglass in the a wrong way; instead of on her nose bridge, she put them on her head as the school's interior was rather dark.
CiiN Sniffed Her Pillow At 3:32 pm
End of Event, Phew!
To be honest, it was a rather... weird.. part time job.
I enjoyed it. Really. Because it was an eye-opener for a person like me who avoided Comex and stuff not only because I hated the crowd but I absolutely know nothing about IT stuff.
It's only natural for humans to avoid things they are not good at. Well, at least for me.
But this was interesting. I got to learn alot of new things like OOBA, Man-in-the-middle attacks and other similar technical terms. Sometimes, things that you learn OUTSIDE of the classroom stays in your head pretty longer.
For stuff learn in school, I usually forget all of it the moment I put up my hand to submit the exam paper.
A teacher once described to us that the brains of students are like cupboards.
Before the exam, you put what you want into it. After the exam, you take it out. He also said that the most effective kind of grading system would be to actually give students an exam AFTER the exam. I think this lecturer was Mr. Philip Seow.
He was one of the more memorable lecturer back in TP, and it's not just because he's humourous. This guy enjoys what he does and it shows. His lesson usually will include his trademark phrase: You can lead a horse to water, but you cannot make it drink.
The rationale for using this phrase was to tell us if we students didn't want to pay attention, he can't help it either. But because he reinforces this theory of his ever so often, we really do pay alot of attention during his lesson.
In fact, remember I once mentioned that I accidentally went to school an hour earlier and got a fright when there was another class in the room? The lesson was supposed to start at 10am but I freaking reached there at 9!
I only realised that when the teacher of the 9am class entered to start the lesson and I realised I knew no one, and didn't even recognise the teacher.
(I then went to the library and fell asleep. When I woke up, I was not only late for my actual lesson at 10am, to my extreme horror, there were like 6 guys sleeping on the same sofa beside me. I don't recall any of them being exceptionally cute.)
Anyway, this event paid well. But that aside, precisely because it pays well, I didn't dare to sit around doing nothing. I would put in my best effort in standing around the booth so that I could immediately speak to any visitor who had the slightest interest in the company and would loiter for a second longer than the usual passerby.
People were impressed. By the service provided lah. Nothing to do with me. It felt good to be able to bring across because it was quite difficult to try to describe the service on a piece of paper. The brochures alone didn't quite explain the services provided in detail (because if they did, the person would probably give up reading halfway through).
Here is one of the pictures that the company used many times in their marketing materials. Most of us in Marketing have already seen this ad a few times but apparently they paid for the whatever license fees to be able to use this image and relate it to their company.
It's from one of the famous comic strips in the NY Times.
Now the thing about not being able to sit for a few hours is quite a torture. I have worked in retail line before but even then, I would always sit down at some point or another.
For this? I didn't dare to. Man, the boss himself didn't even sit, how would I dare to sit down?
It got to the point that I really understand now how it feels like when you stand continuously for a prolonged period of time.
First, the balls of your feet (stop laughing, I referring to the heel area) becomes extremely painful.
Next, the pain shoots up your calves like fire.
It's quite hard to describe. But soon, because of the heels, though I don't know if I can actually describe this as "balls on fire"... but soon, every step you take hurts. And burns. Both at the same time!
CiiN Sniffed Her Pillow At 12:41 am
My First Kiss
Thursday, April 23, 2009
Okay, I was daydreaming at work today (Oops).
Yes. This is a super short 3-day work. But I figure, what the heck. Leastways it pays well. I'm earning more if you calculate on a per day basis, compared to when I was working for a proper fulltime job!
It's an IT event at Suntec and no, if you are so ultra free that you thought you can come down and ka ciao me, sorry to say, show is open to trade professionals. BUAHAHA!!!
And for those who wanted to visit me out of the goodness (and boredom) of your hearts, I appreciated it but please save the carpark fees and possible ERPs. I can't recall the exact charging hours of the stupid ERP system since they charge different amounts at different timings!
But I can tell you one thing for sure. If I'm going under a gantry, it usually is on. So if you want to check out whether, say, Bugis' ERP is working, just ask me whether I'm going to that area.
How much have I naturally floated away from the topic of today?
Yes.
Somehow my work involves a video that featured a very goodlooking German Shepherd dog.
Hey, you can actually watch the actual video itself here!
So this video repeats probably a few thousand times throught the exhibition. I had to watch it again and again and again.
And I can't help thinking what a goodlooking dog it was.
Then I couldn't help but recall about Bingo, the very first family dog of ours, who's a Belgian Shepherd, and a darn good looking one too.
That damn dog took my very first kiss.
I was, like, 7?
Heck, that's damn young for a first kiss to be given away!
All I remembered was Dad had unleased Bingo and he was running about the whole blardy place.
Mum and bro was telling me to act normal because I had always been very afraid of Bingo. They told me if I screamed, freaked out, and ran away, the dog would definitely be alarmed and alerted to me and come and see what's wrong.
So I did.
It worked.
For probably 15 seconds.
In his joy, the dog bordered between ecstasy and lunacy, before making running straight.
At.
Me.
And the bugger jumped.
Because I was only so short and he was already a huge dog even to an adult, his paws reached easily ON my shoulders and I fell.
Now that I recall, I may have blacked out for about 2 seconds. I can't exactly remember because it was night time and I don't know if the 'black' was really a black out or was it because the dog was black and he was standing over me.
And there it went. My first kiss, out the window.
Should it even be termed a kiss? It was more like I got violated. It took a few seconds, just mere seconds before my whole face was covered in dog drool. In fact, I couldn't even open my eyes because Bingo must have found my face really tasty (someone who sat beside me in the classroom during secondary school actually said I smelt like milk. Disturbingly, this thought was echoed by a few others as well).
CiiN Sniffed Her Pillow At 10:23 pm
Nobody stares at my Slides!
Monday, April 20, 2009
I just realised that for some reason, either I clicked and made a huge mistake at Slide.com, but for the past few months, my stupid slide show has been showing a whooping total of ONLY 3 PHOTOS.
Namely 2 from Christmas 2008 and 1 from Genting 2008.
I have just edited it and you may view the thousands of photos there.
I mean, I'm the blogger here man. So it's no wonder I didn't catch that because I don't mark my HTML template the way a teacher marks her students' homework.
But someone could have told me!!! :(
CiiN Sniffed Her Pillow At 2:29 pm
My Final Class Photo
Sunday, April 19, 2009
Because the Manchester United / Everton FA Cup match is moving a tad too slow, I decided to just turn up the volume to listen to the commentary and then come here to blog.
Allow me to do a little personal shoutout here to Nick. Nick Toh, you chicken mcnugget. Since you do not want your photo, I'm going to post it here so that when you somehow chance upon my blog one day, you can right click and Save your photo.
There you go.
No, people. I did not pay him any amount of money to make him pose like that.
It was probably because of the alcohol.
Suddenly out of nowhere, I recalled a particular time in Bendemeer.
When we were Secondary 4, to be exact.
Wow. This has got to be one of the larger-sized photos that I've uploaded on this blog ever since the stupid file size limit came into place 1-2 years back. I usually super shrink the photos until they are below 100kB, so this one is an exception.
I figured it was for those who wanted to really look closely at our faces and see who is who.
Anyway, I hated this photo like hell. I mean, sure everyone looks nice, but then I personally hated me in this photo.
It was the last blardy class photo for school and I've never screwed up for the past 3 years' worth of class photos.
This last one JUST had to go wrong.
I want to state my stand that I DID NOT EVEN KNOW THAT THAT SHOT WAS GOING TO BE A FORMAL PHOTO ONE.
Thus, I was happily pushing down on Miao Juan's chair in a (failed) attempt to get her attention on something I wanted to say.
In fact, someone actually asked me after the photo was given out to the whole class, whether I was scolding the F word.
The irony was... I was.
Because we were posing for so long already, I was saying aloud to everyone near me "When the F is the camera going to take the pic."..
Obviously, I didn't manage to even finish that sentence when the bright flash exploded and made me see stars.
Photos are also really funny. In the sense that it captures what is really there exactly the way it is.
I can look back now and confidently tell you that everyone in that photo, doesn't look like how they are back then already. Heck! This photo was taken SEVEN FREAKING YEARS AGO.
That is a long time! Even a kid born in the year 2002 would have been attending Primary 1 already!
I was greatly consoled though.
On the day the photos were given out to all of us who ordered it, no one noticed my F word comment that was captured.
Because Kiang Ghee took the spotlight and became the butt of all jokes for this photo.
They said he looked like he was sniffing Val's hair.
I jolly as well know that the game has been around for quite some time already.
But you have to agree with me. It still rocks.
And there's something about building your own house from scratch that has a super feel-good factor about it.
I love to design houses. Where, in real life, can you do so at such a fast speed.
I proudly chose every piece of furniture, every door and window that is installed.
Heck, I even design the occupants myself.
I can't live without cheats in The Sims.
I can't sit around and slowly wait for them to slowly earn enough money so that I can build and buy whatever I want (for them).
Thus, with the cheatcodes on, I decided to bring it to the 7 adult characters.
The max is 8 per household, but I was just trying my luck with 7 first.
Sort of like the 7 deadly sins right?
Anyway, here's a picture of all my 'babies' happily and comfortably sleeping in their beds.
Sweet isn't it?
AND YES. Don't need to tell me. After taking this photo and looking at it, I realised I missed out painting some of the toilet walls because I added in 2 toilet units at the very last minute.
Many people in the household, of course need more toilets lahhhh.
Do you know how pissed off they get with other people if they walk into the toilet just when they are about to release their bladder or go for a quick shower?
Anyway, as you could tell, there were only 6 people sleeping out of the 7 beds there.
Apparently, Walter, the first person I created, got abducted by aliens.
It was horribly funny because seldom do they get abducted THAT quick.
The 2 ladies who happened to be in the area were so shocked and consistently camped out at the telescope area (where Walter got sucked up into the sky) and look very distressed over his disappearance.
No problem. Walter finally was 'returned' by the alien visitors in time for work. But of course, me being the very nice me, didn't let him go to work that day. I made him stay back to rest.
Unfortunately, the headcount for the family remains at 6.
Pippin died.
Yes.
I named him after Pippin in Lord of The Rings.
I gave him a very cool hat and a very Hobbit-looking attire. His occupation was a musician just to make it all fit in.
One of my favourites among the 7 of them, actually.
But one day, the BBQ pit caught fire.
Careless me, I forgot to install a smoke detector outside the house.
While everyone was panicking and there was some lag with regards to one of them calling the Fire Department, Pippin died.
I've placed his urn in the house and every so often, when one of them walk past that area of the living room, they mourn for him by staring at the urn and crying.
At first, I had thought who the heck was crying because they usually only make crying noises when they are feeling very depressed.
Turns out they were mourning the loss of one of their compatriots.
And boy, were they loud!
CiiN Sniffed Her Pillow At 11:17 pm
Updates (of a Random kind)
Wednesday, April 15, 2009
Wow. I just saw a new feature with regards to blogging through mobile phone.
Sounds cool. The last time I tried was on my LG Viewty phone. I had waited in the car while Des went to a customer's house to conduct a survey.
Guess what.
From the time he went in to do the survey to the time he walked out, I was still trying to access the Blogger page.
Talk about SLOWWWW... CONNNEECC...TION.....
Pffft.
I guess with this mobile update feature being made 'official', they would have came up with some sort of simpler format so that it is much faster for our hps to load.
Well, it better be! Or else no one's gonna use that feature anyway.
That aside, I bet some of you haven't seen the dogs for a long time. I not-so-recently took a photo of them peacefully lying somewhat close to each other.
Believe me, both of them would never be caught dead lying so close to the point of remotely touching each other so this is consider really close already.
You have to be reminded that this is not possible unless the afternoon is very hot so that the dogs can actually appreciate the aircon in my room. Noisy unsettling dogs aside, I always argue with my parents that Kilo ought to be let into my room during the warm afternoons since I am going to be at home anyway and the aircon is going to be turned on, may as well let one more additional living thing enjoy it, right?
That was until Kilo's drool kinda bothered me alot. He drools unconditionally at times, especially just after reaching my room on the 3rd floor after climbing up the hefty amount of stairs (from HIS point of view).
I'm pretty used to the number of stairs I have to climb to get up to my room that I'm quite immune to it, until visiting guests asked me "do you actually have to climb this just to get to your room?" and I sometimes reply them "No. I just fly."
*Rolls eyes*
So every afternoon after Kilo's 'afternoon nap' I find myself having to mop the floors because the drool stains really irritate the heck out of me.
I use a mixture of vinegar and Listerine mouth wash.
Oh yea, never underestimate Listerine. It kills 99.9%* of germs (I don't know what is the asterisk for but since they put it there I put it there too, haha!).
Anyway, the best thing about Listerine is that it gives off a super 'clean' minty smell that I love. Gurgling with Listerine as well as eating raw garlic has made my sore throat heal pretty fast.
Peepz, don't forget if you're having sore-throat that you have to dip your toothbrush in Listerine to kill all the bacteria there. Otherwise everytime you use the toothbrush again, you are just re-applying the bacteria into your mouth (which explains why some people can have sore throat for a pretty long time).
The funniest part during the whole Kilo-in-my-room incident was the fact that the dog seems to know whenever I am about to get him out of the room to go back to his original place; outside of the house!
He seems to think that if he sleeps in a particular way... no one would notice him.
If only he understood from the photo that I took that everyone blardy sure as hell can STILL see him...
Okay, other than the bad weather working to Kilo's advantage during my jobless state, Dondon was another person (or living thing, rather) who has benefitted.
With me being around at home the whole time, it means they can have longer baths.
Works well especially the weather is probably hot enough to boil an egg these days (seemingly in order to contradict me, the skies decided to sprinkle a few gracious drops of rain this morning).
Putehs loves to bathe. Hell, I let mine bathe everyday. So does Des'. But bathing until it looks quite like a drown rat is a rather rare sight.
Without a doubt, I hurriedly captured a shot of it:
His body is supposed to be green. Like moss green. Quite dark green, but in this particular photo he was so drenched that he looked almost black! Well, at least for the body.
And this was a rather difficult photo to take. Unlike Shreky who is quite used to having a camera pointing at him, Dondon freaked out at first and I had to talk to him non-stop about nothing in particular so that he can sense the calmness in my voice and start calming down himself.
See, birds absolutely hate it when you stand there quietly to look at them. The only time silence happens is when they are targetted at by a predator. Thus, make alot of consistent noises if you are approaching even a rather tame one.
No. Shouting in a CONSISTENT VOLUME does not count.
So yeah, I'm rather irritated with Singapore's weather. Sometimes it rains out of nowhere, sometimes it is so hot you could leave a prawn on the concrete slab and it turns orange.
Just last month, most of the days began with shrouded grey clouds. It even rained when we went to the temple to pray. That was where I got the divination lot. I had prayed, asking about my jobless status and whether I was going to find a job soon.
The lot read:
第八十九签上签酉宫 古人 大看琼花
出入营谋大吉昌，似玉无瑕石里藏；
若得贵人来指引，斯时得宝喜风光
Basically it refers to a flawless piece of jade that has yet to be discovered and that a Benefactor is supposed to guide me to wealth and success.
Unfortunately, as you can tell, my Benefactor has yet to show up. Or even if he/she has already shown up, he/she has not done anything yet.
To make things worse/better, immediately after that it rained so heavily. I made use of the opportunity and took this photo because it reminds me of a Hokkien song:
(Translated directly into English from a Hokkien song called Jit Kee Sio Hor Sua)
You and me~ Both sharing one little umbrella~ (Echo: Little Umbrella) Rain so big~.... I take care of you, You take care of me~
Meanwhile, I will pathetically try to help myself get out of the situation by continue to flood the HR inbox of many companies, with my resume.
Anyway, the closest instance of jade-related incidents that I can find would be this:
Look at all the lovely greenery.
I had noticed this plant in my garden as I was outside waiting for Des one day.
It was a Hibiscus plant. I think my Dad once mentioned to me before when he just bought it. Something like Hawaiian Hibiscus. He was really proud of it when he just brought it home from the plant nursery because it had really nice looking flowers that are much bigger than the normal Hibiscuses that we usually saw.
Apparently what drew me to the plant was the poor state of it. Other than the baby leaves that were sprouting at the top of the plant, the older leaves were all in bad shape. Obviously it had been snacked on by MANY caterpillars.
I walked closer to take a look, hoping to catch a sight of at least one caterpillar.
None. No wriggling little furry disgusting yucky....
and then I got a shock.
I must admit I almost screamed but stopped myself in time.
All this happened in a split second.
Just like when we went to Night Safari and Fang, Jo and me all screamed when we realised that a bat had been so terribly near to our heads and staring at us the whole time....
I had also just realised that I was getting abit too CLOSE to a particular grasshopper when I was too fixated on the hole-infested leaves.
If you realised, it was on the earlier photo too. But after I spotted it, I decided to take a close-up.
CiiN Sniffed Her Pillow At 2:02 pm
SMOKE YOUR HEAD!
Tuesday, April 14, 2009
Today I shall touch on a subject that will affect alot of people I know.
I just want to clarify my stand that this is not a personal entry, and my comments are not directed to one person in particular because when it comes to this, I place everyone of you on an equal platform.
Whether what kind of platform you place yourself on is purely your own decision. :)
There were some very good info that I came across while surfing the net and I would like to share with you.
It's titled: What happens if you stop Smoking For...
- in 20 minutes: Your blood pressure will return to normal
- in 8 hours: The carbon monoxide (toxic gas) levels in your blood stream will drop by half, and oxygen levels will return to normal. Personal input: I think this only happens when smokers are SLEEPING. Perhaps this explains why some smokers among you tend to sleep ALOT? A natural defense mechanism in your body to make you stay away from cigarettes more?
- in 48 hours: Your chance of having a heart attack will begin its long decline. All nicotine will have left your body. Your sense of smell and taste will return to a normal level. Personal input: I think my parents' qigong master will beg to differ. He claims that nicotine remains in the body for a much longer period.. of up to a few years, in fact.
- in 72 hours: Your bronchial tubes will relax, and your overall body energy will rise.
- in 2 weeks: Blood circulation will increase, and will continue to improve over the next 10 weeks (THAT YOU STOP SMOKING).
- in 3-9 months: Coughs, wheezing and breathing problems will dissipate as your lungs increase by 10%
- in 1 year: Your risk of having a heart attack will now drop by half.
- in 5 years: Your risk of having a stroke returns to that of a non-smoker
- in 10 yours: Your risk of lung cancer will have return to that of a non-smoker
- in 15 years: Your risk of having a heart attack will have return to that of a non-smoker.
(Credits to Healthbolt.net)
Of course, some of you may have wonderfully skipped the above information. I'm not surprised. I mean, disgusting pictures of rotten feet, black lungs and a dead fetus doesn't scare you, what will?
Facts?
British researches have came up with a 'lung function test' strategy used similarly on asthma patients. This would determine the real age of a person's lungs.. Like how one of the 52-year-old patient discovered that his lungs were comparable to a 75-year-old non-smoker.
I think pictures supposedly DO the trick. It's just that some of you are so immune and desensitised to it already.
Look here, it's a picture of a non-smokers lungs VS the lungs of an active smoker who probably smoked all the way to the end.
Doesn't take a brainiac to tell you which lung is which. The photos just came with the wording which I thought was rather unnecessary.
Like duh?!
CiiN Sniffed Her Pillow At 3:03 pm
Reunion of the 3 Prime Evils
Sunday, April 12, 2009
Yes, yes. As some of you already know I'm referring to the 3 brothers: Flu, Fever and their oldest brother Sore Throat (since it usually arrives first).
I was running a fever the past two days. A very slight one. Only when I have a freaking high degree would I be knocked out cold. Well, cold doesn't seem to be the correct description to be used here.
Today I attended the Ruby wedding anniversary of Auntie Anna and Uncle Bill. They were staying in Newcastle. I only got to know them in recent years because they had just managed to contact my mother.
I think it was because Anna's brother is my mother's elder brother's friend. I'm not really sure how the whole thing works, but somebody knew somebody who knew somebody and then everyone got linked up.
A Ruby anniversary means that they have been married for a whooping 40 years.
It was really sweet and their family even did a video for them. Man, those photos were in black and white!
But that's not the point. The point was that I managed to catch a glimpse of my mother in so many photos.
I always found it weird. Most people said I resembled my father more, from the way we walk to the way we are always able to sleep anywhere. But then when we went to my mother's cousin's kid's wedding, many people knew that I was her daughter because according to them, I looked just like her when she is young.
Apparently now I don't. Because people stopped saying that when they see me. They had to ask whose daughter am I.
So I asked my mother whether I (still) looked like her in her early 20s and the answer is... No.
Why am I saying all this?
Well, because during Aunt Anna and Uncle Bill's wedding 40 years ago, guess who was the bridesmaid in her late teens? Well, not very late teens actually.
Yes.
My mother was their bridesmaid.
Which explains why we were invited to their 40th wedding anniversary as well.
It was held at Hogwart's Cafe at CHIJMES and yes, we DID take alot of pictures but my mother's computer had just went berserk after streaming dozens of idol dramas, it decided to do what the protestors were doing in Thailand; requesting change of governance.
CiiN Sniffed Her Pillow At 10:30 pm
Lisa's Poem
Saturday, April 11, 2009
One of my other favourite cartoon, other than the very infamous South Park.. is actually...
*music plays*
"it's The Simpsons~~"
Yes. I know a friend of mine who is very unimpressed because, according to him, what's so funny about a family of yellow-skinned people.
Thing was, do you know Lisa Simpson is a cat lover?
I just fond out about that.
So much for liking the cartoon, I don't even know about this.
What struck me was a poem that she wrote for her cat, Snowball.
There are alot of Snowballs actually. Snowball I, Snowball II etc.
They don't seem to live long enough and died within the same episode.
Main point is, I would like to share with you all a poem Lisa wrote for Snowball (Snowball 1, I assume), that I have actually committed to memory.
Maybe it's because the poem is so short.
Titled: Meditations on Turning Eight By Lisa Simpson.
I had a cat named Snowball
She died! She died!
Mom said she was sleeping
She lied! She lied!
Why oh why is my cat dead?
Couldn't that Chrysler hit me instead?
CiiN Sniffed Her Pillow At 11:22 pm
Word Limit laments
Friday, April 10, 2009
I used to hate word limits.
I could never type enough for an academic piece of work, and then on a personal level, like writing in my super ultra secret diary, I write pages and pages non-stop.
I hate writing. Well, ever since I mastered the art of typing, I hated writing.
I know its importance. As well as the superbly underrated importance of good handwriting, but I still prefer to type.
If you want to discuss about handwriting, I dare admit that I have nice handwriting compared to a large percentage of the population who even bothers to write, even if it was just to take down a simple note for a person.
People don't know this but actually, for the uninitiated out there, if you even BOTHERED to write properly, legibly, and clearly, people actually WILL do what your note asks them to.
E.G. Please call Mr. XXX back at (insert phone number here). He is calling to reschedule the delivery. Please arrange with him.
Clear, understandable, and obviously not a screaming and irate customer who is going to give you hair-dryer treatment over the phone line, people WILL get back to such notes that are placed on their table.
But this is just a little info that I would like to share with all of you, that's all.
The thing is, I am just a few hours old member of Twitter and I am already lamenting the fact over their 140 word limit per post.
I hate typing in SMS language. When you have the speed of typing, I don't mean as fast as Flash. I mean as long as its above 40wpm, I think for the comfort of those who will be reading, at least type in full words. After all, using the computer and typing blog entries or chat entries, it's not like we're asking you to write out word for word on your computer screens.
That would be super unproductive and boring. Moreover I know ALOT of people whose handwriting I just CANNOT READ to save my life.
Handwriting is also more important than you think. Back when I was working for a certain company, I could recognise everyone by their handwriting. It was like I'm some sort of form teacher of a class of students whereby they don't even sign off on their homework. They just write what they had to and then I know which document belonged to whom.
It is a symbol of who you are, and how much pride you take in your writing.
So, please, although I have super OT (stands for Out of Topic, as I have recently learnt) because this entry was originally supposed to be based on word limits especially concerning Twitter, just remember that your handwriting is often more important than you think.
Especially when typing is already so prevalent, that once-in-a-long-while received handwritten note is as rare as.. Shit. It's raining and my Putehs are out there!
GOT TO RUN!
CiiN Sniffed Her Pillow At 2:00 pm
Twittering Available
I've just signed on Twitter.
I figured, you know, what the hell, since I spent almost the whole day in front of my computer, I may as well, right?
You can catch live updates over here from the blog itself, from the page itself, as well as from my Facebook account (once the bug gets sorted out).
Yin, I will write about you one day. ONE DAY lah.. huh?
Don't jealous. But it's been nice talking on the phone with you just now. Haven't chat with someone in a long time where we are both fighting to talk at the same time because we are bursting with experiences to relate to each other.
HAHAHA!!
Anyway, for the benefit of those who actually are not on Facebook (I like to remind everyone but, hey, even my parents also have their own Facebook account so you better start getting worried if you haven't signed yours yet :P )...
I'd like to share with all of you a video of a gathering with my mates at UWA. Not the Perth campus! We proudly proclaim that we OWN the PSB building and have pictures of those among us who smoke, smoking at the carpark shelter area (before they banned it).
We were playing a little game called Indian Poker.
Each player draws a card that you are NOT ALLOWED TO SEE and sticks it on your forehead. You are only allowed to look at the cards on other people's forehead.
We made a bit of a leeway here, you see.
If you find that the entire group is pointing at you, giggling, and your buddies among the group are looking at you and nodding their heads, you are ALLOWED to change your card ONCE to get you out of the drinking punishment.
But as we can see, for Charlie's case, our help didn't exactly.. help.. much.
CiiN Sniffed Her Pillow At 2:11 am
Feeling Useless :D
Tuesday, April 07, 2009
I think depression is finally settling in already.
I am doing absolutely NOTHING. . and not contributing to my family, country, or the economy.
In fact, my existence is one of futileness.
But no, this is not a suicidal blog entry (I would not resort to such drastic actions). This is another light bulb in the head when I was talking to a friend of mine. Somehow, I have to apologetically admit that chatting with that friend of mine gives me alot of blog ideas.
I mean, there should be more things I can say here then talking to my friends because not EVERYTHING can be typed / told directly to their face, but if you put them behind stories, you can bring more 'hints' across at times *snigger*.
Well, at first it wasn't all that bad. It was a blardy well-deserved break for me. Total vacation. No calls asking me where I saved what document, no calls asking me to meet up for project meetings, and no calls waking me up while I am still in bed on my off-day just to ask me the telephone of whatever Supplier.
NOTHING.
But this feeling of 'nothingness' extended for too long a duration that it got to boring.
Sure it was easily masked out what with all the living things that were depending on me to.. um.. live. It usually comprises of the following:
- Chubby's eyes need to be cleaned and moisturised with rewetting drops
- Shrek and Donkey needs to be seen to everyday
- Joon's daily water changes to so that she can have her mid-day bath
- Joon's weekly cage scrub out and change of bedding
- Chubby (depending on mood for that day) may need to have lunch
- Oscar (also depending on mood) may request for food too. Oscar's the worst. I once opened my mother's room door because I had been in there using her PC and discovered Oscar RIGHT OUTSIDE the door. For the effect, because of my sudden door opening, Oscar shrank back into his shell.
Yes, the blardy terrapin actually traveled the distance from my room balcony, pass my dressing table, pass the bed, pass the computer table ... and then drop / free-fall / fly down all the way from the THIRD FLOOR'S landing to the 2nd floor. And walked to my parents' room door.
- The new fish I bought after Bobby died, which is a Green Scat, is persistently hungry and eyes me all the time. This does not help because its Quarrantine Tank is located right beside my keyboard and it doesn't feel good to have a fish stare at you all the time although you may have fed it 3x already and it still is looking at you while wriggling its body towards your direction.
- Occasionally, I will need to sit back and relax to think things through. As in.. did I leave out anyone? Forget to feed them? Left them for dead? (Okay, this kinda reminds me of the game Left 4 Dead. Sorry, Ling!)
- Chubby needs to be fed daily too. At between the timing of 4-6pm. He gets grumpy, whiney and super annoying when you miss the timing.
I usually feed him around that time because after that Des would meet me after work and we would go out and slack. Remember what I shared with all of you about him finding it absolutely compulsory to bring me out?
Somehow I am never able to get it through to that guy that contrary to the ideologies of the general public I REALLY LOVE TO STAY AT HOME. I know there are people who hate staying at home but then THAT IS NOT ME.
Des somehow finds it hard to comprehend. He finds it impossible. Whenever I try to put across the fact that I really don't mind staying at home, his reply comes in 3 simple words: "Not sian meh".
Okay.. "meh" is not consider a word.
But.. I mean.. I find myself luckier than alot of people. Seriously, dude. It's just that I do not know how on earth am I supposed to express it, so here I am, I'm expressing it out loud by blogging about it.
I love to stay at home because I know that I'm lucky.
To begin with, I have my OWN BLARDY ROOM. I do not have to share it with any other pesky siblings (no offense to my bro).
Secondly, I am the only girl in this family. I do not have another younger / older sister who fights with me for clothes or secretly wears my clothes without telling me. Worst of all is without returning the clothes to me! Out of sight, out of mind, I may even forget that I owned that particular piece of cloth because they took it away!!
Thirdly, I am rather blessed in the electronics department. I've got my own laptop that I would like to add comes with a very chio Lycosa keyboard and Diamondback Mouse (wink wink), a rather, I would say above average Creative speakers, A damn nice Philips table lamp that comes in the only shade of sweet baby Pink that I am tolerant of (Dad knows my colour preference well!), a TV measuring 30+inches that I believe is even bigger than some families living room TV.. and a basic home theatre set to accompany it!
Well, and of course as Uncle Lee had termed as the greatest invention of all time, I have air-con every night (and day, considering that I'm homebound now).. and a fan to boot.. for those uncanny cold weather nights that we occasionally have in Singapore.
Fourthly.. or is it spelt as forthly, home is where everyone I love is :)
Not just the humans but the animals too! I am proud to share with all of you as well that the Putehs see this place as home. As a result they (disappointingly) do not dare to sing if you hang them at strange places that they are unfamiliar with (like the bird hanging areas at Serangoon North), but once you hang them at home in the airwell, or just leave them at the dining room / living room, they sing their little hearts out and fill the entire house with little lovely chirps that are so pleasant to the ear. Well... um.... at least to my ear. Mum generally finds them a nuisance. But hey, at least they don't scream their lungs out the way Joon does.
Now, with all of the above, how on earth am I not supposed to LIKE staying at home!!?
So, I have super OT-ed. OT-ed, I have learnt from Wang, does not mean OverTime. It means Out of Topic. Digressed. You know?
Okay, anyway, upon Des' insistence, I sometimes go out anyway because being couped up at home and reminded of the fact that I have been rejected by the many companies I tried to apply does not feel good AT ALL.
You feel worthless.
It's so weird right? I can confidently tell you that I am 60% sure that I'd get the job if they even bother to ask me go down for the interview, yet these companies are not even giving me the chance! (Of course, there's always a great 40% chance that something will go wrong, somehow. Like due to my nervousness I choked on my own saliva while answering one of the interview questions that sorta thing.)
It's not like I am a sucky worker; I've seen some classic examples even before I started my first fulltime job so I jolly well know the nightmares of an employer when it comes to hiring. I just needed to have that chance to prove myself, you know?
And then comes the salary part.
You can't blame me for asking more because I am now a degree grad. I didn't freaking throw myself through the very difficult task of juggling a full time job and part time studies for the what-seems-like-eternity duration of two years JUST to continue receiving the same salary as when I was a diploma-holder.
But now that some time has passed, I have decided that I will not be fussy or picky. I will take whatever lowly paid job to pass the time until the economy recovers.
Recovers from what? I don't know. I don't know what went wrong in the first place. I don't really call recovering from stupidity a recovery. More like saved. Rescued. In other words, waiting for the economy to be passed on to more capable hands.
I watched South Park's Margaritaville episode (which is a parody of the current economic situation), hoping to be a little more enlightened but it only made me more confused.
CiiN Sniffed Her Pillow At 2:04 am
Great Get-Together
Sunday, April 05, 2009
It was great. Last night, actually, Friday night, I saw a hell lot of people whom I haven't seen in an awful long time!
Some of them I haven't even seen ever since the day we graduated. Hell!!!
I had a lovely prata (the standard of which is a few trillion times then the shop that is near my place) with fish curry, and a super enjoyable never-ending topics of conversation too.
The only thing that we forgot that night, however, was to use our wonderful, powerful and multi-function handphones.. to take a group photo.
I have recently realised the importance of how crucial it is to take a photo, even if it was random, at wherever you are. In case you don't know what I meant, try going to take a look at the TP photo album I just did up at Facebook.
Random photos from random outings of which would have been easily forgotten if not for the precious photo being captured.
Sure there were no proper groups or even nice poses, but it was hell lot of fun to look back and then cringe at what riduclous hairstyles we were having at that point in time, or even the ugly Hawaiian shirts that was actually part of our wardrobe.
Yes. I remember Hawaiian shirts were all the rage at one point but thankfully I never caught up with that one.
Now one new thing to share with all of you today, courtesy of one of the Tikus: Cognac is pronounced something like Cog-Niak.
A Cognac is a brandy, but brandy is not a Cognac.
CiiN Sniffed Her Pillow At 1:11 am
Bobby Died
Friday, April 03, 2009
It's so frustrating, you know. And I'm totally stumped.
Despite my many efforts and the chemical cocktail I had added in precise amounts to make sure the fella did not die of an overdose, he eventually succumbed to what I believe was internal bacteria when I had been trying to cure his infection.
I am NEVER sure. I'm sure many fish lovers are never sure either of what exactly their puffers died from.
Don't give me the I-Told-You-So-Crap because Des had already did so, but what can I do?
I'm just in love with these underwater puppy buggers that my mind goes abit blank and I gleefully make my way towards the fishing container and net to catch one of them puppies out of the tank!
If you've never gotten a puffer, either you:
1) Know your aquatic hobby limits extremely well and don't want to take the risk 2) Never seen one 3) Don't like fishes in the first place 4) Haven't met a puffer who caught your eye
Those little things swimming around like buzzing helicopters, hungrily eyeing your finger that you press against the tank was the very reason why I started keeping fish in the first place!
Whenever I come across a tankful of puffers at a fish shop (especially Seaview) I'de throw whatever I'm holding (for example, Chubby) to Des, and then run for the container/net to fish one out to bring it home!
At which I must tell you Des gives me a whole list of absurd reasons why he cannot help carry Chubby.. such as:
1) He's too hairy and he is afraid that he would accidentally 'giap' Chubby's fur somewhere on his shirt buttons or something
(so I sent Chubby to the groomer to cut botak, but Des changes his reason and tells me)
2) He don't know how to carry because Chubby has no hair (and then launches into a whole explanation about how hairless things are more slippery). Now it doesn't help that I like to put some baby powder on Chubby's back just so he would smell more nice and fluffy. I mean, the dog sleeps with me! I ought to be able to do something to make him smell good.
Anyway, back to Bobby.
When things like that happen, I can't help but wonder alot of unnecessary things. Like.. would it have lived longer if I didn't bring it home?
I'm not sure about Bobby, but I'm quite sure for alot of other puffers that I got, I had somehow extended their lifespans considerably because of the lack of food the fish shops were obviously feeding them.
Anyway, you know what they always say (and what I always tell myself). Get over the dead quickly and start appreciating the ones that are alive.
Like.. for example, Cherry.
Yes. She's still here. If anything, she was starting at Bobby in the hospital tank from her main tank with those devilish red eyes that made my cousins go Eeewwwww.
I don't know what warranted that kind of reaction, haha!
It's almost as if she was secretly laughing away at Bobby's predicament.
Evil, I tell you.
In any case, she's still as fat as ever, and Des has viewed her with the same amount of hatred since Day 1. I mean, everytime any one dies / disappears in the tank, Des gives Cherry credit for it, though in some cases, I stubbornly insist that the fish had somehow died before Cherry realised and conveniently ate it up.
I love Cherry. Don't get me wrong; I love Bobby too but I love Cherry even more. So forgive me if I go ballistic if the time comes for Cherry's death.
Heck, I know I'm biase but at least I'm open about it!!!
I would have loved to share more but I think I should shift the spotlight to some of the others as well.
Like.. bloodworms. Live bloodworms stink. They died last night and I tell you, the smell was so repulsive that I could not just flip over in my bed, ignore it, and continue sleeping.
Now pardon me for I must stop blogging here. My computer mouse is majorly pissing me off by clicking absolutely everything and nothing when I click. . . if you catch what I am trying to say...
