Spreedom

Okay, and so here are the results of my first online shopping spree. I blame Major Lin for it because he's the one who asked me to check it out! I was always quite annoyed when all my female friends (so many of you are guilty) go blog shopping during lecture and I've ran out of ONTD to read and I've got no choice but to stare blankly at the screen. Or worse, be forced to give comments on this dress, that dress and that dress.

Okay, I'm kidding. It's a welcomed distraction.

I got all these at $95. If I'm not wrong the shipping's a little more expensive than normal because apparently it's covered by insurance and delivered via registered mail. And all those funny things which I do not understand. Maybe Mr Louis Lin, Hall King of Hall 11 2007 can answer you if you drop by his webby and ask him. Or if you haven't you can be a fan of Spreedom here.

So yes, out of all the shops that they have available, like Aeropostale, Fred Perry, Forever 21 and Victoria's Secret, I like Urban Outfitters the best. Fred Perry kinda screams douche to me but if that's your thing, why not! I'm not into Slogantees any more but if you like them you could check out Snorgtees.

When money starts pouring in (which is never since I haven't even got a company for internship since the company I was supposed to work for decided that they were not hiring interns) from my awesome tuition students, I will buy jeans and shorts. As the ever-wise advice-dispenser Qiqi once said, "If you open the wardrobe and you don't have what you want to wear, BUY." That was when I told her that my nice berms and shorts were in the wash and it was hot and I didn't want to wear jeans.

Initially I got 3, but when Louis ordered, one of them went out of stock. So I chose another one in its place (instead of being money-savvy and saying, "Oh, then I'll just take two."). While picking out another one, I saw something else that I liked and so I ended up with four.

Okay, yeah, so the 4 tops that I got from UO.









The last one is something that I would never wear unless I go overseas. Classic case of "looks-good-on-the-model-but-not-on-you". Another shirt that I would not wear unless overseas is a T that reads: 注意, 小心迷上我. It was a present and the only time I wore it was when I went to Bangkok.

I am very disgusted with myself for "being one with consumerism". Excuse me while I shop for CNY or something.

AltLife S01E03 - Comes First

"And so when I went swimming again my coach said I become fat already! Cos last time at least can see a bit abs, then now cannot."

I laughed at the silliness of the comment. I was at Bobby's place, once again, teaching tuition. Or maybe not.

"Yeah lah! Study for exams then become like that. So I asked him to push me like crazy and swim until my whole body ache."

"I became fat studying for exams too. It's bad for health. I've been studying for 12 hours a day everyday for the past 10 days ok!" I proclaimed. Well, I was just lazy and studying was the perfect excuse. I was about to solve the question that he couldn't do on Trigonometry when he interrupted my thoughts.

"I want to be like Rain!" The image of the recent Life! cover sprung to mind. "It's like you get paid to get abs. Everybody wants abs, right! And then like they pay him to get abs! Like the actors in 300."

"Gerard Butler... but he's not that fit now."

"Yeah. People pay you to get abs. I want lor!"

I laughed. Yeah, I was sure at that moment Taylor Lautner was gloating and also, very proud of himself. 17, with a body that'll make any guy at any age jealous and making money from the Twilight franchise. Me? I facebook, faced books, owe the bank money for my University tuition fees, and looked distinctly average.

And here I was, teaching for a living. How unglamorous.

"Aiya, no need to train so hard lah! No girl want you also!" I said, taking a dig at him.

He paused for a moment before replying.

"No girl want me, I want myself."

Pseudo Post-Exams Celebration

Yam. Not XLB!

Your Love

If you see your love everyday
Make every moment special
Don't get bored

If you don't have a love
It's not because you aren't hot
Wait for the right TA

If you only get your love on weekends
Phone-kiss him on Monday
Shag him on Sunday

If your love is silly and doesn't get you
Be determined and get her to change
Let go when she stops trying

If your love has a big ego
Leave him
It doesn't compensate for his small dick

If your love lives a different life from you
Don't fight about things that made you
Make her build the future with you

If your love makes you a meal at 3AM
He'll need to stay in bed till 4PM
Perfect excuse to reward him with action between sheets before nightfall

If your love is fat and unwilling to run
Don't watch porn
Screw her hot best friend

If your love goes camping at Ubin with you
And she absolutely hates creepy crawlies
Make her laugh and scream when you see one

If your love is 10 732km away
You've beaten the odds by finding him
The fairytale ending is yours

If your love forgives you
Kiss him till his lips are numb
He's decided his pain is nothing compared to your love

If your love loves you
Like no one ever would
Don't ever let go

Nothing to Lose

And this is how I look after a morning run. I've got people asking me why I run. To be honest I don't know why. I've been lazy enough to run sporadically. But after since I've stopped going to school I've been going crazy with it. I think it's the fourth time I've ran this week already.

After a run, my heart pounds, as if fighting to get out. With rapid breaths, I struggle to catch up with the rate that my lungs need air. I'm drenched completely in sweat from head to toe. A couple of beads find their way my eyes and sting them. The ache in my legs force me to sit and stretch.

I feel so alive.

Turning Point

As much as I am complaining like a deranged banshee, I've been enjoying myself this exam period. Granted I find exams more stupid because my GPA is now in the "hopelessly low" category and that it's a test of my memory skills. I'm so much more than what I can remember. I won't need to remember such nonsense when I come out to work!

Well, maybe I'm just bitter.

I've been enjoying myself. Not having to go to school means every morning I wake up at about 9. I go online for an hour and check my e-mail, Facebook and ONTD, and when it doesn't rain, which was about thrice this week, I go for a run or a swim. And then I come back, have a shower, sit in front of the computer and have lunch while watching an awesome drama. Currently it's either Brothers & Sisters, Heroes or Desperate Housewives.

I think I'm even less prepared than I was in every single semester before. But it doesn't matter because slowly, I'm learning what I want out of life. And it's not grades. Granted I might be bitter because I'm not getting good grades, so I don't really have a choice - I just get fucked up grades.

However I feel alive. With all this time on my hands, I feel enriched. I do study. But I do other stuff as well. I think it's a good transition. It helps me keep stuff in perspective before I go on my six-month internship.

Strangely despite all the stress studying brings, I've what I need. I'm happy.

AltLife S01E02 - Girl, No Girl

"You want to drink water?"

"Yeah, I talk so much. Damn thirsty ok."

I was at Bobby's place, two days before my own exams started. It was a great way to de-stress. I was distracting myself from studying by forcing someone else to study.

"Ok I go get!" With that he lifted his phone and a picture of a girl flashed across the screen. Seeing that there were no messages, he ran down to the first floor.

Curious, I picked up his phone. It was an LG touch-screen phone. I tapped the screen. No response. I pulled some part out, only to reveal the USB port. I pressed every part of the phone but it refused to light up. I could feel it mocking me and I wondered why technology was so cheem these days.

"Haha... I knew you couldn't turn it on!" I was so shocked that I almost dropped the phone. Bobby returned with two cups of... well, there was more ice than water, so it was really watered ice instead of iced water.

He peeled off the cover of the phone and revealed many buttons. Upon pressing the right one, the picture of the girl came on once more. She had long hair covering almost half her face, her head tilted at an angle. If a 15-year-old could give a come hither look, this was it.

"So... you guys together?"

"Nah. Broke up cos her results were bad. I scored better than her for every single subject!"

"So she broke up with you? Aren't you sad?"

"She's in a better class than me! But I got 5th in class. Actually, all my marks are better than her. English, Chinese... "

"So it's kind of like she's got to concentrate on school work lah. Eh, the only reason you did well is because I taught you! And I teach you 2 subjects. It's all my hard work okay!"

"Yah. I think you will get a pay raise."

"Woah really!" Okay, in fact, I was happier than I allowed myself to be. "Well, I deserve it! Haha!"

"Yeah lah! Sure will have one."

I was tempted to ask how much. I was teaching for the money, of course, but I really enjoyed teaching this kid. He amused me to no end.

"Okay, like that I am very motivated to teach you. I will make sure you get higher than everybody in class. In fact, you'll do so well that you will never get back with her!"

Somewhere Not Here

What I should do is bring my "pretend-to-be-studying" to Cafe del Mar and just chill the day away.

I would kill to be having this much fun right now.

AltLife S01E01 - Either Or

And so Rachel and I were on our dreary way home from school. Gossiping. School work was too dreary to talk about.

"Jon. Behind you. The guy in white." she said.

"Well I can't now. It'd be too obvious. Why?"

"Nah, nothing much. He's just my Secondary School friend."

"I wouldn't know him." But I was curious.

"He's really smart," she remarked. So I turned to look.

"What can I say? God is fair."

To Yappy

Just a shoutout to you. Thanks for reading buddy. Really appreciate it.

Over and Done

3 minutes to 1. Nope, not productive today at all. Happy? Well, somewhat, but not really. Could be better. Yeah, could be better.

It's hard to snap out of a mood. I need to practise. Closing my eyes and forgetting everything and starting anew. It's hard. But I think sometimes we all got to learn that. To drop everything, and snap into a different state. Emotional baggage. Thinking too much. All of that. If someone came to talk to me about their troubles I'd tell them to drop it. Leave it behind.

But well, when it comes to myself, it just isn't that easy.

I don't know why I'm not very good at this studying stuff. And on top of that, looking at the companies in Phase 2, I'm rather confused. I don't know what to choose. In fact until now, I don't even know what I'm majoring in. I'm taking random things. And they still don't make sense to me.

Very good.

I think I used to be a bit more optimistic. But it seems like as you go through life, you start labelling yourself. Others label you. Based on what they see and what you do. What you can and cannot. Everything defines you. And I guess I'm so caught up with all of that, entangled by perceptions I don't even know what I stand for any more.

I think I shouldn't think too far ahead. At least for now. I should focus on what's in front of me. Get this over and done with.

Needs To Go

I challenge myself to have a place of my own in 4 years.

Semester 5

Truth be told, this has been an awesome semester. I know there's probably been a lot of talk that it's the worst, but it's just probably because we like to complain.

Well other than the PI shit. That was total fail.

I've been pretty slack with my electives. Neither of them were inspiring. My core modules, however, were fantastic. For COM 401 I was part of a visionary project. The COM 432 was by far the best execution for a pitch. The module that taught me the most was COM 431. I haven't even finished learning all the useful stuff! The one that I'm by far the proudest of is COM 424, Writing for TV and Cinema. I've handed in the second draft and there're no exams for the module! It's done! I've got a good mind to post the silly script up here but we'll see about that!

In terms of parties, celebrations, adventures and friendships, well, this semester has pretty much everything. Once again I've squeezed as much as I could do into the little time that was available. Maybe what's different is that I'm having so much fun because of the people around me whom I enjoy doing work and living life with. You know you are.

I think I've also had one of the busiest semesters in terms of tuition kids. 4 PSLE, 1 Sec 2 and another Sec 3. My schedule was hectic and at times it was painful and even more painful for the kids because as awesome as I am as a teacher, my fuse is short when school work stresses me out. But I'm glad they understand. My more-than-average niceness made up for it.

As it comes to an end and we all hide at our own corners to prepare for exams after this last week of deadlines are over, I'm glad to not have to go to school and be able to plan my own timetable and do the stuff I like. The pace has been rather fast. Time to slow things down, be productive in mugging and at the same time, enjoy the simple things in life.

Like the jog that I went for this morning.

Awesome.

Not Adieu

In 5 days when Phi Linh and Kim Vy were in Singapore, I had one of the greatest adventures ever. We went to Timbre. We went to Pulau Ubin. We went to Home Club for a Halloween Party. We stayed up to talk till 7 AM. We went to chat at Vivocity. We went to play pool at Marina Square. We went to the hawker near the Esplanade. We chatted at the amphitheater till it rained. We ran in the rain to find a cab. We went to Ding Tai Feng for lunch. We went to Sentosa to play the Segway, the Luge, wine at Cafe del Mar, swam in the sea. We went to Chomp Chomp for dinner. We went beer-hunting at the airport.



During their stay here, they changed my life. I did stuff that I normally would not do. I saw Singapore through fresh eyes. I drank. I spent a lot of money. I had to play host, something which I have not done before. I got a chance to learn a bit of their culture. We had the most amazing conversations. They broadened my perspective and made me realise that there's so much out there that I haven't seen. They've spurred me to explore and travel and even look to the place I live for inspiration. It was my "exchange" trip and I've learned so much.

The best part is that I've made new friends.

Before he left, Kim Vy said that "adieu" meant farewell forever. He wondered if there was such an expression in English. I told him that there wasn't and replied that the French were so... I can't find the word to describe it now. Emotional, sensitive and romantic? He told me that he wouldn't say it to me because he was sure that we would meet again someday.

Thankfully there's the Internet and I've heard from him since his arrival in France. I'm looking forward to the next adventure that we'll have. Maybe it's just to escape the monotony of school, but there's more to life than mugging and grades.

Bang Bang Boom

Of course I'm upset that I did not get the internship with the company that I want. I was really mad that the other company didn't grant me an interview. I was happy this one did, but well, I didn't get it. About a thousand questions ran through my mind. Did I say something wrong? Did I not sound confident enough? I enjoyed the interview, but there was surely something I could improve on since I didn't get the job in the end.

But I'm happy that Mel got it. If it were just any other person, or someone that I thought was unworthy, I would probably hate that person for life. I just have to accept it and move on to Phase 2, whereby students choose 6 companies and the computer system slots them randomly to each vacancy that is available.

I am very angry at CAO though. They are doing a really bad job. The lady in charge of our school is on leave at this period of time, where companies are supposed to confirm the students they have selected with the school. CAO feels that it is best that the companies speak through them.

Now I know why. When I called up the company and they had to tell me very nicely that I was on the reserve list and I was not chosen, it was somewhat weird and awkward. They knew that they had to go through the school but I'm so glad that they told me the news. I hate the waiting. The deadline for confirmation of internship was supposed to be yesterday. I waited and waited and downloaded the PI notices about 20 times in the past 2 days, only to be disappointed that it was not updated.

Now I don't have to download it any more. I can concentrate on getting rid of this semester.

10 Reasons Not To Go To Work

This is one for the ladies.

10 Reasons Not To Go To Work

10. Your heels break once you step out of the door.

09. The actors of Boys Over Flowers are in Singapore for a meet-and-greet session.

08. You are sick.

07. Your Chihuahua is sick.

06. It starts raining the moment you wake up.

05. You run out of mascara.

04. Topshop is having a 50% discount.

03. Your best friend tells you that she’s not going to work.

02. You just broke up with your boyfriend who happens to be your colleague.

01. You wake up after a night of wild partying to find yourself naked, not in your own bed, with your boss laying beside you.

Home Club

I look at these photos and I feel like throwing up.









Kim Vy was very happy although he is not smiling. He says that he thinks he looks weird when he smiles. He needs to take lessons from me. I will train him to smile awesomely when I see him again.

And till then, I need to train my jiu liang.

Kim Vy at Sentosa

We were really rushing for time on Saturday. We had Xiao Long Bao and other stuff at Din Tai Fung in Raffle City for lunch. And then J. Co donuts, which were awesome. After that with only 4 hours to spare, we hopped on the train to Sentosa. He saw the Segway from the train and it was the first thing in the entire time that he was here, that he said he wanted to do.

Usually he's full of, "I don't know." It's his favourite phrase. Every single time I asked if there was something he wanted to do or what he wanted to eat, it was always "I don't know." I scolded him like crazy for it.

The only thing that he knows is what he wants to drink.























We went to swim after the wine but the moment we got into the water the lifeguard blew his whistle at us, saying that there was lightning. It was super anti-climax. Grudgingly, we left and as soon as we were on the train back, it rained.

Impeccable timing.