a mixtape of life's songs

yj wat 2007

Mon, 21 May 2007 18:33:23 GMT

Okie dokey, blogging over at yjwat2007 for now! =)

peter and his brides

Thu, 17 May 2007 19:09:01 GMT

You probably wouldn't believe it, but I dreamt of Peter O'Neill two days ago.

I dreamt that we were all doing some really last minute cramming outside the hall at this area with lotsa study benches and which had a carpark leading to it (sounds more like the first level in school though) when Peter walked from the carpark into that area and we were all whispering that the man is Peter. After that, an announcement was made that we were supposed to go to this swanky ballroom kind of place.

So, everyone went to that place and were anxiously waiting for the next set of instructions. Then, this teacher called for me and she talked to me regarding my performance for something, so we were just discussing what went wrong and whatever. After that, I asked for her permission to go to this really nice and clean toilet near the front of the place when Peter started talking.

Suddenly, he announced that he was taking brides from our cohort and his brides-to-be were Casey (gasp), Charlotte (gasp) and the skinny one who is trying to be Jap (gasp).

Cannot really remember what happened after that though. Sigh. Really silly dream. I mean, I dreamt of Peter of all people leh. Gimme my first love or Praba anytime, man.

Oh yeah. I think after that, we were told that in exchange for his "brides", our SM paper was cancelled.

Sheesh.

starz in their eyes

Sun, 06 May 2007 18:36:27 GMT

The luxuries of late-night studying.

Accompanying me are:
- Pretty, twinkling stars. The nights have been wonderfully cloudless recently.
- Music from my much loved Power 98.
- My cup of hot Milo just before bedtime.
- Fellow insomnias.

Body clock's totally turned upside down. ~~Andrew's~~ Rodney's one is bright and early. Urgh.

darkness, darkness everywhere, do you feel all alone?

Thu, 03 May 2007 17:48:57 GMT

"You Are The Moon" by The Hush Sound

Shadows all around you as you surface from the dark
Emerging from the gentle grip of night's unfolding arms
Darkness, darkness everywhere, do you feel all alone?
The subtle grace of gravity, the heavy weight of stone

You don't see what you possess, a beauty calm and slear
It floods the sky and blurs the darkness like a chandelier
All the light that you possess is skewed by lakes and seas
The shattered surface, so imperfect, is all that you believe

I will bring a mirror, so silver, so exact
So precise and so pristine, a perfect pane of glass
I will set the mirror up to face the blackened sky
So you can see your beauty every morning that you rise

Indie pop. Love the instrumental parts of the song. Perfect for the quietness of tonight.

nice and cheesy

Thu, 03 May 2007 06:08:03 GMT

Read my VisualDNA™ Get your own VisualDNA™

peter, please don't make sheryl crow cry

Wed, 02 May 2007 17:39:11 GMT

Hello. This is one of the normal kinds of notes.

This is the abnormal kind of notes dear Peter and Rodney gave us.

At a crucial time when our Mother Earth is warming up and Sheryl Crow says we can only use one square of toilet paper (unless for bigger stuff) and there will be mega concerts by big stars throughout the world on 7 July...

These are the pages we have to flip through just to learn about creating value through diversification. Sheryl Crow can cry lor.

And look! This is one of the man who has caused us so much heart and head pain. Look how ~~handsome~~ un-old Peter O'Neill is! To think I thought he's some old man who doesn't know how to shrink two slides into one. Sigh. Poor Peter.

The fun begins today!

a walk outside by butterfly boucher

Wed, 02 May 2007 16:40:30 GMT

(whispers)
Which came first?
The love or the love song?

♥ the song!

and you're asking yourself what "bs" means

Mon, 30 Apr 2007 19:42:10 GMT

I kinda like this sentence that BS BH is using as his MSN nick.

Never make someone a priority in your life when you know you're just an option in his.

Definitely something to keep in mind. Why am I still up and online now?! Snorts. Bang. Go sleep, myself.

bemusement with a tinge of amusement? or amusement with a tinge of bemusement?

Mon, 30 Apr 2007 09:25:41 GMT

It's a "LOL! Why do I even bother?" kind of feeling.

and all the brownies went home

Sat, 28 Apr 2007 16:25:40 GMT

NY Homecoming 2007!

Boy, I didn't even know that we have a school pledge! Did you know that Julian Hee is a NYJCian?

30 years and more to come!

a lone stranger you pass on the streets

Wed, 25 Apr 2007 17:52:52 GMT

Well, just by reading your blog, I would think that you're someone who's "weak", but from what I've heard, you're not. Are you baring your heart and soul for all and sundry, or is the blog just a façade?

I guess only time (and further interaction) will tell.

as soon as this is over we'll go home... there'll be laughter when the bells of freedom ring

Mon, 23 Apr 2007 18:27:59 GMT

What better way to erase a bit of the tramua caused by SM-ing than this?

First half yesterday. ~~Second half shall come after I conquer the five corporate-level strategies.~~ Okie, so I cheated!

Wait till I take a photo of our SM notes, for all you non-believers, of the torture and extreme sadness that Peter has inflicted upon us.

nanyang. 30.

Tue, 17 Apr 2007 18:14:27 GMT

Homecoming! More info here!

28 April 2007.

3:30 PM
Arrival of Guests
Tour of Nanyang Junior College grounds

4:30 PM
Opening of Carnival

4:45 PM
Opening of Time Capsule

5:00 PM
Arrival of Guest-of-Honour
Viewing of Murals at adjacent HDB Blocks

5:30 PM
Opening of Heritage Gallery and Art Gallery
Sealing of the new Time Capsule

6:15 PM
Address by Principal of NYJC
Address by School Management Committee Chairman
Address by Guest-of-Honour
Singing of College Song and Recitation of College Pledge

Going back?

On other news, our dear GP tutor is now a Corporate Communications Executive at MOE. How cool is that!? She's like the modern young woman I aspire to be. Knowledgeable, pragmatic, motivating, independent (no need men to survive, but know when to need them) and she used to mark our scripts at the café at Esplanade Library. Hip lor.

blah blah blah

Tue, 17 Apr 2007 18:05:29 GMT

It seems like nobody cares, so maybe I shouldn't too. Early morning study session. Good night, sunshine.

unite, cedarians, unite

Sat, 14 Apr 2007 19:01:52 GMT

I just found out that Cedar will be undergoing a major renovation soon, which means the school will have to vacate its current premises for a couple of years. Like for what?! Isn't the school still looking nice and new? They're also going to build a new sports hall, which we already have what! Snorts. Waste of resources lor.

Does that mean that I have to put Cedar as one of the must-dos before I leave? Well, granted it will still be there when I return but all of yous will be working already, nobody to accompany me and fend off the security guards!

mi hoo mi ta hang yao

Fri, 13 Apr 2007 19:31:47 GMT

This is what I want to do.

After I become an empowered and financially independent young lady, I shall take a sabbatical and spend time (months!) helping out in one or more of The MAG's projects. Well, I don't just want to do that. I want to really help, like make use of my knowledge and capability to make a difference.

This is what I shall do.

Get a good job, save up and master the language. Will five years be enough?

2012 or 2013 it shall be. My little own personal goal. Ah ah, don't even go trying to sneak around and find out which "MAG" I'm referring to. (You can't find it. Trust me. I google-d it myself. Tee hee! Told ya it's my personal goal, not yours.)

no money!

Thu, 12 Apr 2007 16:31:59 GMT

So much to do but so little time and limited resources. Sigh. Sadness.

of all things bow wow

Thu, 12 Apr 2007 09:17:29 GMT

Thank you!

Dear darling ML, the brave girl,

For the finger puppet that resembles so-you-all-say-the-thing-that-represents-me! But then hor, my trademark animal is my four-legged wormie lor!

And dear dear dear WS, the lovely LJ friendie,

For this!

Now, I have to go and drink coffee and reply to the SMS-es that have accumulated since this morning. Yesssss, I reply slow.

rodney in lt4.10 now droning on and on and on

Wed, 11 Apr 2007 07:17:53 GMT

Possibly last post from the school com lab?

the ideal lover

Sun, 08 Apr 2007 10:19:24 GMT

I was in bed last night and thinking that, gasp, watching movies and television serials that portray sweet love is bad. We tend to mix and match the characters and come up with a list of the ideal lover.

Here's mine:

I want a guy who possesses…

Shane West's tenderness (A Walk to Remember)
Benjamin McKenzie's toughness (The OC)
Ryan Gosling's never-dying love (The Notebook)
James Lafferty's bad-boy-turned-good-man-ness (One Tree Hill)
Ryu Shi Won's build
Craig Sheffer's good-man-ness (One Tree Hill)
Hugh Grant's yummy-looking-ness-in-tight-pants (Music and Lyrics)
Chad Michael Murray's always-saving-Peyton-ness (One Tree Hill)

i'm proud to be a cedarian. are you?

Sun, 08 Apr 2007 09:12:24 GMT

Rooted and strong, like Cedars
by Tan Hsueh Yun

AFTER months of planning and persuading, it finally happened.

Two weeks ago, 13 of us from the Class of 1983 at Cedar Girls' Secondary got together at a restaurant for a reunion.

I wrote about planning the event in this column way back in November, and was nursing a kind of mild anxiety over the whole thing.

It had to do with the fact that secondary school was a long time ago, and I wondered how the past would relate to my life now. Worse, what if we had nothing to talk about?

I needn't have worried. Looking at all the smiling faces around the huge table that day, I was glad I had a part in bringing us together.

There were no awkward silences. Our table, tucked away in a corner of a cavernous Cantonese restaurant, was a noisy one.

Over steamed fish head and har cheong gai (prawn paste chicken), we did some major catching up. Those who had them passed around photos of children and husbands.

We tried to remember how we knew each other, whether it was through being in the same class or the same extra-curricular activity, as they were called then.

There was a small contingent among us who were in the uniformed groups in school, still tight after all these years. Ing Fang reminded me that our friendship went back further - we were both in primary school at Canossa Convent.

Someone brought up the subject of aesthetic doctor Georgia Lee. We found out she was a Cedar girl from an interview published in The Straits Times recently.

Although she is about the same age as we are, none of us remembered her from school. A pity, really. There's no telling when we might need a Botox jab - or five.

Or maybe not, because after two dozen years, we still recognised each other. Some of us hadn't changed all that much. Susan and Irene looked not a day over 25, although we're all pushing 40. Oops, maybe I shouldn't have said that.

But the thing that startled me most that day was how much those four years meant to some of us.

Mildred said they were the best school years of her life. Kavita told us she got her first job because her employers thought highly of Cedar Girls'.

Some of us cared enough to save mementos from our school days. Florence brought along report books and progress report cards. Gladys produced an exercise book filled with what she called cringe-worthy essays. I wouldn't dismiss them. She was healthy competition for me back then.

Mildred showed us our geography textbooks from way back when, the covers still wrapped in plastic. They have followed her on an overseas posting to Shanghai and back. Golly.

Towards the end of the meal, six current Cedar girls turned up. We'd invited them because they wanted to speak to former students for a project that is part of the school's 50th anniversary celebrations this year.

They broke up into teams to interview us, and hearing what my former schoolmates said, I began to think that I'd been too eager to leave behind those days in Cedar.

Someone said that the 'perseverance' part of our school motto, 'Honesty, Perseverance and Courtesy', had stood her in good stead. It sounds so corny. But all 13 of us have done well in our lives, whether as mothers, entrepreneurs or career women, and I couldn't help but think part of that came from our shared experience in school.

The strict discipline, the tough love we got from our teachers, the space they gave us to grow and even the inexplicable (then) obsession with making us jog around the track had made a difference in our lives, whether I wanted to admit it or not.

After the interviews were done, the girls, all in Secondary 2, went into one of the school's cheers. Their voices reverberated through the restaurant, and the wait staff stared with a mixture of horror and fascination.

The girls also serenaded us, more softly thank goodness, with the school song. It brought tears to some people's eyes. I won't say whose.

We parted reluctantly, but based on how well that afternoon had gone, all of us have decided to attend the 50th anniversary dinner next month.

I'm looking forward to the homecoming. I guess reunions aren't so scary after all.

so sick of the terrible instinct

Sat, 07 Apr 2007 16:26:57 GMT

So sick of your reasons.

And so, I was in school the whole of today. Found out that a friend would also be in school so I suggested meeting up (I mean, considering this is like my final few days left in school) and you know what he said?

He said, "NO", we can't even say "Hi", excuse being "the girlfriend will be with me" and since I am neither his colleague nor his army/polytechnic/secondary school friend, I have no reason to know him, or else he wouldn't be able to answer when the girlfriend asks.

I mean, SERIOUSLY!, how pathetic can you get? So does it mean that you can't have friends from 'outside'? Am I just but your part-time friend, one that can only exist when the girlfriend isn't around? Snorts.

Get real. It makes me wonder whether I can consider you a friend, and this coming from someone who has known you for six years, is just unbelievable.

Don't even say "Hi" to me the next time you see me. I don't need it from you (and I am not afraid of offending you if you're still reading).

uh oh!

Thu, 05 Apr 2007 17:14:29 GMT

Don't you miss the ICQ days, the sound of "Uh oh" when you receive a message? And so, I logged onto ICQ2Go.

_BEWARE 0f mE_ [01:07]: OLD MAN!
wefo [01:08]: wat?
_BEWARE 0f mE_ [01:08]: oh my! so retro! i missed icq~!
wefo [01:09]: har? like dat also can?
_BEWARE 0f mE_ [01:09]: yeah. really. so sad
_BEWARE 0f mE_ [01:09]: the era is gone
wefo [01:09]: revive the era lar. but its quite unstable
_BEWARE 0f mE_ [01:10]: nah. you're the only one on my icq list lor. sadness
wefo [01:11]: u mean the only one online?
_BEWARE 0f mE_ [01:11]: well, i think you're the only one who's actually still using icq
wefo [01:11]: probably.

Haha, yeah, I'm _BEWARE 0f mE_. I kid you not!

let's dance in style, let's dance for a while

Wed, 04 Apr 2007 12:01:27 GMT

Sigh. Hauntingly amazing song.

"Forever Young" by Youth Group

Let's dance in style, let's dance for a while
Heaven can wait we're only watching the skies
Hoping for the best but expecting the worst
Are you going to drop the bomb or not?

Let us die young or let us live forever
We don't have the power but we never say never
Sitting in a sandpit, life is a short trip
The music's for the sad men

Can you imagine when this race is won
Turn our golden faces into the sun
Praising our leaders we're getting in tune
The music's played by the madmen

Forever young, I want to be forever young
Do you really want to live forever, forever and ever

Some are like water, some are like the heat
Some are a melody and some are the beat
Sooner or later they all will be gone
Why don't they stay young

It's so hard to get old without a cause
I don't want to perish like a fading horse
Youth is like diamonds in the sun
And diamonds are forever

So many adventures couldn't happen today
So many songs we forgot to play
So many dreams are swinging out of the blue
We let them come true

Forever young, I want to be forever young
Do you really want to live forever, forever and ever

It seems apt to leave this song on repeat mode now, with only 2.5 more classes, a WIL and a test left in our undergraduate career...

sad song daft punk

Sun, 01 Apr 2007 19:06:49 GMT

Thank you for reminding me why I stopped writing in the other blog. I think I enjoy a comfortable relationship with the friends who are able to read my locked entries; those that are locked are not mentioned to other people (at least on my part).

So don't try to go sneaking around. All that you can read is all that you should know, really. =)