Random

Von's in the midst of her exams. Where half the time she's either eating or sleeping. What a pig....

Waiting for dec 4, 3pm to arrive. When i'll be done with all these crap. Seriously, i don't even know what i'm studying. To think that eu's done with her exams on the day that I start mine...

Realize that my little chatbox has been down for quite a while. I can't really be bothered to put it up anyways. SIlly server keeps shutting it down anyway, watever the problem is. So moral of the story, don't bother applying for a new account and all. Waste of my time. See how lazy I've become. Totally need to gear myself up for stuff to do in the New year!

ANyway, off. Random talking to myself.

Time for a Breather...

After a full whole month of endless assignments and deadlines, finally have some teeny weeny time for a breather before I have to gear up for 4 more tests, 1 presentation and 4 final exams! Then its the december hols!!! I'll be at Jakarta letting my brain take a rest, while cindy can do all the thinking.

Got to enjoy a free day today, when I dun need to rush a paper or study for a test. Felt kinda weird not doing anything... Haiz... I'm going to die early at this pace.

Something to cheer me up when I see these little dears at 3-4 class. They totally relieved me of my stress on Sundays when I remember that I have tons of stuff to do.

Super blur Ryan

Little Chloe!

Kayla. She's all grown up now! The last time I saw her she was still a little girl....

Handsome Matthew. Chloe's brother.

Kayla & I.

My little darlins at Carpenter's workshop:D

I miss auntie merla.... Tiger's having offer on airtix again. The tix in jan to manila is only SGD$125! Crap...

I miss hanging out with my darling bimbo eu... Sorry dear, can't go to BKK with you guys:( I'll buy you little dresses from the factory outlets k!

Positive Art auction

Von needs to destress from writing this idiotic term paper about consciousness and whatsnot... Blah.... Good way to destress by posting pics k... It was a relief getting over and done with positive art. Apparently, anything beats writing 2 term papers and studying for 3 tests in 2 weeks. Will december hols come quickly pretty pls... I wanna go for my holiday....


Positive Art
21st September 2008
Arts House (Chamber Room)

New Kids on the Block

I've new kids in my carpenter's workshop class!

Cute little shyanne who loves pink....

Little handsome Matthew

Little Xuan Ning who speaks like an adult

My little Jaden refuses to come for class... He still looks so cute.

I sound like some phedophile. hehhee... Just excited at my new darlings in the class!

Updated photos!

Finally, I managed to upload the photos of my trips onto the slideshow. Well, missing BKK ones cos little eu doesn know how to upload onto MSN sharing folder...

Been busy busy busy and stressed out Positive Art auction event! Exactly 2 weeks more to the event! Its been pretty hectic this couple of weeks, rushing out the catalogue, collecting the artworks, video, arranging logistics, blah blah.... More is to come. Nevertheless, it has been pretty amazing to see how supportive the artists have been. I don't even feel like I'm studying. Its Positive Art 24/7 on my mind. Even when I wake up in the mind, I wake up thinking about what appointments I have and checklist to do on that day.... AHHA.. You see why I need a break:$

Managed to sneak a day of jalan jalan (yes, at Heartland chinatown) with Shiying & Hui qin, before Shiying returns to Montreal. I have one more place to bunk at when travelling to North America! Boon Han's taking grad school at Columbia Uni, NY. Hui qin & I are freaking tempted to go back... lol. I miss the little brick house at Montreal.

December hols travel plan: Jakarta! Dun ask me why I'm going there of all places. At least I know hui qin went there for a hol too. HEHe.. Too exp to get a tix to Manila. Probably better to go during CNY in 2009. LONG... hol then.

Also, BKK in january! Shopping with my darling bimbo:D

Can I hurry get over with this school semester?

Break time...

von needs a break from all these... :(

A trip back to Manila would really do the trick.

Stopover at Hue

The only time i'll have for blogging in Vietnam, during a 5 hours stopover in Hue while waiting for the bus on an overnight trip to Hanoi. Finally, we're going to Hanoi.

We've travelled from Ho Chi Minh city, to sunny Mui Ne beach, to Old and nostalgic Hoi An town.

Ho Chi Minh has juz been a hustle and bustle of motorists and more motorists... Seriously. I've even personally met the well known 'motorist cowboy' who snatches stuff. You know what i mean... Shhh.. better keep it from my mum. Otherwise i'll get it from her for wanting to come to Vietnam. Other than that, food's great and CHEAP. HEhe...

Sunny Mui Ne beach has juz been sleeping, eating, sunbathing and more sleeping! HAHA... we had these pretty bungalows all to ourselves with a couch out in the balcony. Its something like the bamboo house aunti wanted. Just that its in wood.

Spent a day in Hoi An. It was a nice small little town. There were this small little historic buildings. Felt like you were in disneyland. HEhe... It was a day of shopping... and tailor making!

Btw, cant stop thinking about Aunty Merla and the Philippines... Miss her loads! Hope that I can visit her again sometime next year. Probably after my grad? Talking about grad, school's starting the moment i reach Sing... How nice....

Oh, and happy birthday to me! For a relaxing and slow birthday in Hoi An Old town....

18/7 - 30/7

It has been an exciting couple of weeks....

From shopping in Bangkok with my dear bimbo (& himbo) babes... To roughing it out in Philippines.

Juz came back from The Philippines in like 5 hours? HAHA... I can forget about sleeping as I return to the little budget terminal.

Philippines has been awesome, other than the fact that I get to meet Aunty Merla!!! I miss her already.... hehe... And all the people I meet at each house I visit! I'm totally immersed into the culture of the Philippines. At this moment, I have a thousand thoughts about the country. Which is just too difficult to pen down considering I have to figure out how to stuff 12 days of barang-barang into a miserable backpacker backpack. I love my little black luggage trolley.... But it juz doesn seem so functional in little Vietnam.

I guess only a visit to the country could do justice to the many prejudices and stereotypes that the media pay service to.

2 more days to my little bungalow house at the beach resort in Phan thiet.... Totally looking forward to that.

Miss my little Bimbo Numero 1 and LYKE members.... :$ and of course my dear CIndy who's coming to sing.

I enjoy...

There are many things I enjoy in life. Like having a yummy cake with tea for lunch, catching up with my dear girlfriends over the 'watsups' in their lives, travelling all over the globe, spending time in God's presence. blah blah...

But I guess one thing I enjoy is seeing how others enjoy. Ok, this probably sounds a little crude. Let me rephrase. I have a sense of delight and enjoyment when I see joy and delight in others.

The sense of achievement and pride as seen on the elderly man playing erhu on the busy roads of Orchard. Or the frail and petite figure of the ice-cream seller overpowered by the large, bulky ice cream refrigerator.

The group of old ladies gathering at the void deck at Block 241 for their daily 'card-playing game' which involves a little money-exchanging activity.

Most of all, I enjoy seeing he glistening eyes of focus and motivation in SS eyes as he moulds the doughs of plasticine onto the table. The figure slowly unfolds into a giraffe with a colourful body. His fingers moulds the ears and legs of the giraffe, as they trail along the sillhouete, creating a giraffe literally ready to leap off the table surface. He does so in a slow and unhastened fashion. It seemed as if time took a standstill as you appreciate how he moulds his little giraffe, with such tenacity and devotion. Irrelevant and socially inappropriate remarks are replaced with all attention devoted to his little art work. At that point of time, the 'Bang and Olufsen' headphones over his head seems to be more of an accessory rather than a utility tool of soundproofing. Upon completion, he returns to the SS that we know of. Probably as Theresa says, he's doing it just to humor us...

Trust your Country

The MOST intellectual quote in the movie 'Harold & Kumar escape from Guantanamo Bay', as quote from 'President Bush'

"Listen, you don't have to trust the government to be a good American. You just have to believe in your country."

How apt... probably the Lee family could learn a thing or two from this...

A Piece of Me...

For people asking whats up with me this summer, I basically answer them with the reply 'doing random stuff'. Which is really true...

So... the whole world basically wants a piece of me... well, literally.

Maimai wants me to help out with her updating stuff and coaching shawn during school hols.

Need to practice & perfect my swings! Before I can hit the course... been lazy with practices since exams ended. heheh..

Maida asks to go to KL next week! ('fretting' exclamation mark btw)

Psychological Services Branch, MOE just called TODAY to start internship on the following day. Talk about 'impromptu'... It doesn pay. But I think it should be a good learning experience in the area of educational psychology (it better be!)

Facilitor job for children-programs at CCs

Citibank-YMCA Youth For Cause competition: which is progressing REALLY slowly. whoever wants to sponsor an art gallery (or CASH), pls let me know.

Launching HI (Hearing-Impaired) ministry's very first outreach on 31/5! Time to brush up on my sign language...

Peg's admin job at Northlight School. She's asked me a couple of times about it and I feel bad taking so long to give her a reply.

Yeah... these shld be it. Till I remember anything else or something else crops up!

Shopping!

Retail therapy is awesome! kinda leaves you pondering whether you should get that dress or not.... hahhaa...

DINNER!

So... after completing a marathon viewing of my korean drama serial on mysoju.com, i decided to check out 'speadelove.com'. ANyway, the drama serial ending was crap! my handsome guy didn get to be together with the gal! Ok. i sound bimbotic now... anyway, i clicked on the latest post and chekc this out:

A group of people were asked to look and observe at pond full fishes. At the end of it, there were asked to describe what they see in as much detail as possible.

There were two distinct responses that came out of this little exercise.

One group of people would vividly describe how a fish looks like, how it swims, the different colors it has. They were very meticulous with the details.

Another group would describe the pond, give a rough estimate of the number of fishes and also talk about the pond's surrounding.

Regardless of their responses, both groups were very successful at what they do and excel in it. One noticable difference is that they generally work at a different levels in their organizations, whether as a person who gets things done or a person who plan how things gets done.

What do you see?

Source: http://www.spreadelove.com/LS_view.action?l=281.

So? i scrolled down to see the comments and TA-DA!

Sheila Ng 12 May 2008, 2:19 PM
koi fish for dinner???

M Khairul 12 May 2008, 9:52 AM
dinner

Trust me, i totally cracked up laughing. How anti-climax to a supposedly 'philosophical' and 'poetic' post...... awww.... i'm mean... hahha. who cares. gives me a good laugh!

Seasons of Love - with compliments frm RENT

The live musical-play is waaaayyy.. better... not too bad anyways!

summer holidays! well, almost soon....

SO I'm left with a paper, Pediatric psych on friday... studying atmosphere feels a little slack by now. hehe.. mind's totally filled up with travelling plans. Eu's totally crazy about buying 10bucks dresses from BKK, Lynn's crazy about overlooking the 'world' from the beaches in VN, et moi, I'm excited at seeing merla! and giving her a BIG-BIG-BIG hug! well, still got a few more months to all these. heheh.. excited about travelling, and getting out of sing... ooops...

The dog with ADHD

So summer chewed Lynn's study notes.... HA! atta girl!

positive psychology

So, I've found a new interest in the area of psychology: positive psychology.

As I was preparing the vision and goal of our group's outline for youthforcase, I googled 'positive psychology'. Lo and behold, it returned a result of 'Positive Psychology Center' in Uni of Penn. at the top of the list. And guess what, DR Seligman (YES, the guy who created 'learned helplessness'!) is the director of the centre! HAha.. how cool is that! Its like having a rock star in your school. HAH.. well, literally.

P.S. So I realize that I've grown fond of starting my sentences with the word 'so'. Well, just adds a tinge of 'resolution' and 'matter-of-fact' I guess.

check out the website: Spread the Love

Dreaming...

Dreaming of my dream house, with red bricks on a street

A rocking chair in the house, unvarnished and worn with scars

A pretty tea-set to share with my friends

A gramophone player and a collection of black vinyl records

Make sure that Erik Satie's 'Gymnopedie' is playing

As a golden retreiver lazes by the fire
-GoodNite-

Japan Fever...

So I've been having the Japan fever... ever since I came back in Jan. Hhehe... Basically, I'll have occasional Japanese food cravings for up to thrice per week. HAha.. doesn really help in management of my finances.

The whole world's (well, a literal term) is going to Japan! I'm basically waiting for next year (basically 12 months later) when I can go! Well, might as well make use of the free tix yeah. The home-stay programs on WWOOF look really good. HAha.. cheap way to stay in Japan for a longer period of time, yet not spend money. You get to see their way of life too! Well, besides the fact that you basically become a 'high-class' maid. I really dun mind...

In the meantime, came across a rather intriguing blog... dun tell me that i sound very free.

"An obstacle downstream propagates upstream. If you're not allowed to implement new ideas, you stop having them. And vice versa: when you can do whatever you want, you have more ideas about what to do." -Paul Graham-

the 2 types of people

so i cant sleep... as much as i've tried to. Having a splitting headache. I wonder if the splitting headache is causing a gush of ideas and thoughts or the other way around... I think too much literature-research and reading has made me 'over-analytical'. Well, 'over-analytical' in relative to my normal state of mind. So I'm randomly thinking of this.

There are 2 types of pple in this world (or rather in 'little Mr S.'): the procrastinator and the change-maker. Basically, the earlier 'talk' and the latter 'do'. The procrastinators or rather 'talkers' often identify sociological phenomenons and sensationalize them. Take for example the recent media interest and discussion over rising prices by 'little Mr S.'. This includes media interviewers with producers and consumers, in the form of discussions on how they cope with the rising costs. At the end of the day, it becomes a feature on 'where to find the $2 chicken rice in 'little Mr S.'. Otherwise, the recent survey on 'little Mr S.' service-standards (as reported on ST a while ago) is heavily criticized by locals on it's over-estimated results. This ends up with people calling into radio stations to criticize on 'poor' and 'rude' service at hawker centers, when they simply cant understand the concept of 'value-for-money'.

On the other hand, the change-makers act upon such procrastination. It is probably impossible not to find a trace of procrastination in these 'change-makers'. However, we would expect them to act upon procrastination. Or rather, procrastination may be a way of brain-mapping the action plan.

I've learnt that there is a limit to procrastination (well, probably not so for some pple aka 'friendly drivers of the pay-to-sit services'). I was(n probably still am) one of these procrastinators. It seems like procrastination is an inseparable form of identity as a member in 'little Mr S.'. Procrastination becomes plausible for everything in 'little Mr S.'. It has even become a social-process, an infectious and contagious one that is. I've come to grow tired of procrastinating. It started out as something 'intellectual' (yes, wishful thinking on my part). Then, I realize that I'm no different from the procrastinators in the rest of 'little Mr S.'.

So let us see what my wonderful NUS tertiary education has educated me in the last 2 years and 3 months. Sociology teaches me to procrastinate, Social Work teaches me to mediate a (social) problem, Psychology teaches me to act & solve. That probably explains why I'm a psychology major.

it's getting exciting...!

A long day in school.. again. Overslept and missed my 8-9am tutorial. hehe.. there goes my unblemished JS tutorial attendance... Then spent a whole of 2 hours crapping with lynn in the central lib. HAHa... her fren bumped into her, and made a remark which hit the nail on the wall, "Lynn, why you so free?".

Finally, almost done with all the assignments and tests! Left with the JS paper, which I'm yet to be done with 'cos of the other group member.. did i mention that i HATE groupwork. especially weird and lazy group members. I'm totally motivated to pull up my CAP this sem! hehhehe.. I sound like a spoilt kid. hee... waiting for 9 may!

Well, it's getting exciting. Pulled eu, fang & jer to join a social entrepreneurship competition as organized by CITIBANK and YMCA. We chose the VWO, ST Andrew Autism school and managed to meet up with the PIC yesterday. It was really an interesting meetup. They've basically added the muscles and nerves to our skeleton-outline (sorry if the analogy sucks). SO seriously, it's getting exciting. Eu was so hyped up after the meeting. hehe..

oh, called merla yesterday. Feels good to hear her voice. heeh... she reminded me that this is the 3rd time I'm saying that I'll go over. hehe... hope i'll be able to go over as planned! She mentioned about a S$1000 bamboo house, and I started thinking about growing vegetables and having a farm. haha... random.

Excited about starting the Research Assistant work tomorrow! (at the expense of my JS lecture. hehe)

Excited about attending the Hearing-Impaired service this saturday at FCBC!

Follow Through...

What does the phrase 'follow through' mean to you?

To me, this phrase pops up during tennis and golf. 'Follow through' is a term used during my swings, be it to get the tennis ball farther across the court, or to hit the little white ball up and high over the putting ground. It often starts with a back swing, followed by a good hard swing. However, when the follow through is lacking, the ball loses steam. A seemingly good start ends up with a ball at the same side of your court, or a ball barely making the 50m mark.

I guess follow through has always been applicable in our daily lives. Sometimes, we set our foot on the starting point. Only to realize that we've failed to reach the end-point at the end of the day. Otherwise, the 'swing' is accompanied by a half-hearted effort. A follow through becomes necessary for a good and pretty ending. I hope that I'd be able to practice this analogy in my life. Although following through can become so tiring, I'd like to 'grain it into my muscle' till it becomes a habit.

Talking about analogy, thanks to changjie for giving me a very interesting one as quoted from his CS prof. I'll remember about the 'black diamond slope'!

HAPPY day!

It was a rather weird day yesterday... weird in a good way! hhaha... its been a while since i've written such an upbeat post. Well, this couple of weeks have been good for me. Other than the fact that exams are coming soon, its been rather relaxing. Probably explains why i've put on my weight. I look horribly flabby in my beloved AX shirt... blah... so i ended up drinking 'TEA-0 minus sugar' for supper yesterday. Eu & co. failed to tempt me with those oily roti pratas. heheh... well, some updates!

1) bumped into Yen Lin during JS lecture. The JS lecture was surprisingly good. She introduced a few literatures by renowned Japanese novelist. One of my favorite is 'Higuchi Ichiyo', a feminist novelist in the Meiji Period. A more contemporary choice would be "Haruki Murakami'. Check out his documentary-novel based on the 1995 Sarin gas attack in Japan. Its refreshing to hear his perspectives on the rationality of the Aum cult versus the victimized general population.

2) Found a nice study spot in central lib which over-looks the main campus streets!Yes, took me 3 years to find it. hehhe.. Its nice to stare at the passing cars and admire the HUGE tree above the bus stop. Reminds me of the quiet times I had in McGill's library, tucked away in a remote spot.

3) Enjoying research for my JS term paper. Topic is on Japan's cultural globalization as seen through Japanese animation (anime). I must say, Prof Saito from Mcgill really intrigued me on the study of Japanese anime. He unwrapped Japanese animation in such an academic fashion, debunking my presumed-assumptions about anime as superficial and childish.

4)Receievd 2 As for my sociological papers! Well, one of which is a group assignment where we had to write a 500-word ethnography. So proud of Mo Kwan & Stanley! n of course, myself too. hehe.. i was rather surprised to realize that she gave us an A+ for it, considering it was rather slack work. hehe... Thoughts it only constitutes 5%, its still something to boost my ego i guess. hehe.. The other A went to my sociology term paper which consituted 20%! HAHa.. did it in like an afternoon... Thank God for giving me a boost of confidence for this module, when i was previously rather pessimistic about scoring for it!

5) Receievd 2 calls for part-time job interviews! One of which is an events company specializing in programmes for children (i.e. partys etc), the other is a tuition centre. Well, i'll have to see how it goes after interviews next week. Happy to receieve a forwarded email from school regarding recuitment of part time behavioral therpist by ISADD. Its kinda been what I'm thinking of lately. Best part, its on part-time basis! An encouragement after the rather upsetting tuition assignment event. Si will know what i mean...

6) Joined the newly set up tennis interest group for the first time this week. It was all right, except for the fact that the guys are rather stuck up... heheh... still enjoying playing tennis though! Enjoying my golf lessons as well. Been taking it for a month or so! It feels good to hit using the drive.

7) Went to 'sao mu' during qing ming jie on the previous Sat at CCK cemetery. All of us went, including my 2 aunties and even papa. Visited AUntie Julia, Gong-gong and popo. Miss my dear popo.... when she'd sit in front of the tv and doze off, and call me 'ah-mui'...

8) Papa was off last weekend. We had a family dinner. As usual, Papa's boasting about his travel experiences. hehe.. i guess it runs in the family. Had fusion-chinese food at SHangri-La. with courtesy from audrey's bonus:D

9) Mummy's b'day today... bought her favorite Yam cake from Angie's Choice...!

10) Cindy's cajoling at going to Sydney for a month this summer is really tempting! But do esn help considering my bank a/c is dying.... heheh.. considering going to Manila to visit Merla! Si's interested too! SO that's one short holiday for the
year. Planning n saving for BIG holidays next year!

emotional abuse/maltreatment

We did a presentation on child abuse recently, regarding child abuse in Singapore. The issue of an overshadowed focus on emotional abuse/maltreament research has been intruguing me lately, especially in the context of Singapore.

The only link i can make with emotional abuse/maltreatment amongst Singapore children, is the issue of education. Sociology englighten us on education as a process and venue of socializatin and patriotism propagondism; social work englightens education as an indirect prevention effort at social issues; psychology shows that education creates the product of cognitive and developmental changes in the individual. Speak to any Singaporean parent, they'd dish out terms like "Shichida method", "remedial lessons", "tuition" blah blah. Its pathetic to see how the child is de-humanized and objectified as a 'sponge'. Intentions of "putting the child's interests at heart' are increasingly blurred with selfish intentions as spurred by competition at all fronts. i.e. among parents, between schools, local vs foreign student.

Nevertheless, I must take my hat off Singapore's capaibility at making a topic of conversation over anything and everything. Topics never run dry, from your neighbour's inconsiderate stereo music, to the 'ang mohs' increasingly plaguing the little humble streets of Singapore.

David Gray!

Finanlly got my David Gray album! haha.. cant stop listening to it! His songs are kinda dreamy... with that 'husky' voice of his and the piano accompaniments... PLS... could he just perform in Singapore...$

Cringes...

I cringe everytime I look at this picture... it was taken from BBC.com on the recent Gaza violence. IT's disheartening to hear of such news... and the victimized plight of innocent children.

Break time

Halfway through my year 3 sem II and I can barely catch my breath. Adding on to the fact that the capacity for my agenda-of-the-day has drastically shrunk, I get tired REALLy easily. Cynically, I'm getting myself busy over stuff irrelevant to my major... To think that I call myself a psychology major.

The classes this sem are somewhat interesting, with relevance to social work, japanese studies and sociology. The study of social work and practices in Singapore goes hand in hand with the sociological concepts of power, social stratification and whatsnot; study of japanese studies tempts me to go on a one-month vacation in JApan. HAha... I guess the most striking of 'em all would be sociology, which isn't quite what i expected it to be. At times, it can get rather depressing especially on the recent topic of social stratification, local context. It has probably helped me to verbalize some of the observations while travelling and away from SIngapore.

Quirky duo

One of the reasons why i like NYC... its always a place of surprises and quirky talented people. hehee...
P.S. check out their album

Eating an apple...

Its funny what kind of reaction i get when i eat an apple while walking on the streets... doing this on the streets of Melbourne, Sydney, Montreal, States would probably juz invite dust onto my apple. In Singapore, it not only invited dust, but an identifying chuckle from an auntie leaning against the wall chewing on an apple as i walked past her. I couldn help smiling at her too... we're probably the only weirdos in Singapore chewing on an apple outside a contained place with four walls and a roof....

Vegetable Pita wrap

REcreating recipes is a good way of reminscing memory. Been dishing up food that i normally eat in Montreal for the past 4 months. Well, probably juz one dish. and a lazy one at that. HAha... Fuss free, oil free, hassle free! That's my vegetable pita wrap!



Vegetable pita wrap

Ingredients

Pita bread

Couple tablespoons of sour cream

2 leaves of romaine lettuce

Handful of raisins

Blue cheese

Tomato



Juz lay them nicely and wrap it up! How easy and fast is that!

HAhahh... the healthy version of fast food.

Missing you....

I can't believe that i'm saying this, but i miss MOntreal and the East coast! Considering that I told myself repeatedly that I won't be going back to Nth America in a while, I'm rather fickle minded. Ooops... I miss the little brick house and my cute french landlady, the snow-laden x'mas trees lined on the sidewalk, braving the cold and snow on the way to McGill, and of course my beloved sin-food of all time, Poutine... I miss poring over travel websites planning for weekend trips... I miss surfing MidnightPOutine for the latest food reviews in town. I can't believe i'm saying this, but i miss walking on the streets of NYC...

Into the Wild

So I've been doing some reading since I'm back in Sing... I love the feeling of being able to sit down with a good book in hand, my cold cup of milk, lying on the ever familiar 'chinese-ancient' style sofa in my living room. Its quiet and surreal, which is much needed as an evasion from the hustles & bustles outside my little house & the blasting heat rays.

Been reading this book 'INto the Wild' by Jon Krakauer, which has recently been documented as a motion picture with the similar title, as directed by Sean Penn. REading the book for one thing, didn quite hit me on the impact of Chris McCandless's story, till I caught this afternoon's Oprah Winfrey's show guest featuring Sean Penn, Jon Krakauer, Emile Hirsch, & Chris McCandless's sister (the narrator in the motion picture). IT was interesting to see how total strangers (other than his sister) spoke of Chris McCandless as if they knew him personally, when Sean Penn describes why he decided to make this story a motion picture, Emile Hirsch recounts of reliving experiences Chris McCandless experienced, Jon Krakauer defends the boy from responsibility towards his own death. All in all, they know what Chris McCandless did and they are awed at what he did. Probably, by directing an independent film, assuming an ill-begotten role , investigating and penning an unkown story were their individual methods of 'going into the wild', a form of emulating Chris's motto of escaping realities and mundanes of life to live out life as it is.

Then again, how many can adhere to this, to what Chris has done, to live out life as it is, without bothering about the eye of others, without having a concern for the concerns of this world. We'd need a hell lot of guts like Chris McCandless.

The past couple of days has been a time of exercise for my brain. My mind has been filled with thoughts about what 2008 is gonna be like. Unlike 2007, when i had such a grip over what i was gonna be doing or thinking; this year, i have no idea whats in store for me. The feeling of inadequacy irks me, and the story about Chris McCandless resonates this inadequacy. LOved ones around me whom I saw 4 months ago, seem to have aged and grown in weary. Serving as a reminder that its time to grow up, and do some serious thinking....

Overwhelm

A walk in City Hall overwhelmed me with the generation of 'kids' decked in spaghetti tops, hot-shorts, dollied-faces, self-conscious expressions. Trust me, its not the good type of 'overwhelm'. It reminded me of the OTaku culture as criticized in 'Neon Genesis Evangelion', simultaneous to the Japanese youths of anime-avid fans 'obsessed' in anime productions, resulting in an insufficient or absent interest in a world outside the anime-realms. Compare that with Singapore's 'otaku-culture', is a generation of Singapore youths absorbed in having fun, with each other, oblivious to the realities beyond their teenage years. I'm sure i've been there before, or rather my 'Otaku culture' was obsessed in books. Then again, i can't help being critical of the school-aged children today. Attributing it to the education system would be an easy way out, blaming the government is always the easy way out of relating responsibility to self; attribution to the family culture portrays the generation as the 'innocent victims'; attribution to the youths themselves reflect a 'monkey-see-monkey-do' generation.

An unfathomable city

After tRavelling for 20 days, over 7 cities, new york has emerged as the most intriguing city of 'em all. Or rather, the unfathomable city as i would term it... I can't quite fathom its character as an intellectual city of intricate railway lines and carefully planned city organization, or as a decaying city with ignorance towards the forgotten generation of lower class citizens. On the other hand, the decaying city portrayal projects a tinge of intellectualism as i marvel at how this generation strives for a living. Be it busking with an acoustic guitar in hand, walking through subway doors to beg for a living, or simply chatting up with someone in the hope that a generous hand would be offered.

A ride in the subway station has become one of the most exciting part of the day, whcih is also probably the most educational trip one can get in new york city. The observation of the dilapidated station, to the pple within the station, to the people in the trains reveal the plethora of population composition in new york city. I marvel at the musical abilities of the busking population in the station, the unique individuality of each passenger. I can't help realize that each individual stands out on their own: be it from their dressing, their facial expressions, the book they are holding on to, the clothes they are wearing. For example, i have become an expert at identifying a tourist from a local. Probably, the most intriguing people are the buskers i meet everyday: buskers voicing songs with their acoustic guitars; playing to the accompaniment of chinese pop songs with his erhu; swaying with the accordian; a duet between the viola and guitar to the hippish melody of mexican songs. I marvel at their dual-status as a busker and talented musician. Probably i marvel at how these starkingly different individuals are able to create a coherent identity as a new-yorker; are able to place 'emselves within the society of new york city without creating a sense of displacement.

This sets me wondering whether i have fully realized my identity or how true it is to my life. Conceptions with regards to myself prior to this 4 months now seem silly and gullible. ITs scary to realize this since everything i believed in were based on these conceptions. When these old conceptions go to past, new conceptions start to be conceptualized; old beliefs are annhilated and new beliefs are conceived. BUt i feel lost when these new beliefs and conceptions are not conceived nor conceptualized. The center of identity and self is lost and teh desperate need to recover this center arises...