Chicken Rice Ball

Chicken Rice Ball at jalan besar.... *drools*
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T_T
I'm hungry...and craving for chicken rice balls....

Attitude

Sometimes in life, certain attitude of certain individuals just pisses you off. Today was the start of the matriculation fair and frankly speaking, it was not as “exciting” as it was the last few years. Maybe I’m getting old and cynical but it’s just not fun anymore. Add a dash of some nussu people who think they’re so high and mighty. Oh god... It’s disgusting! I was talking to kitty around lunchtime near the entrance of MPSH2. Then this nussu person (I can’t tell if it’s a “he” or a “she”) came along and talked to us with this horrid condescending attitude, asking kitty if he has a pass or not... basically asking him to hurry along and get out. I was so pissed!! What’s the big goddamn about being in nussu?? He/she better not let me see her again... or I’ll show her what’s attitude! =_=

Everything but money…

I’ve realized that I’m actually really lucky in life. Most everything I want, my parents will give it to me, if it’s within their means that is. If I want a new pair of jeans, I’ll only have to ask. New pair of specs, new tee shirt, new bag, even kendo stuff etc etc... if it’s reasonable, my dad and mum will give em to me. Of course I get the occasional grousing that I’m spending too much money. But I’ve realized that they would prefer to be with me when I buy stuff that I want as opposed to giving me the money to buy them myself. Hmmmm... I don’t know but I’ll really want the feeling of having money of my own. As opposed to asking money from my parents every time I need something new. Haha… of course work is an option. Well, if I can find work, I don’t mind working... but truth be told, I’m comfortable being a bum. Oh well, time to stop whining and start looking for work I guess...

Guys, remember to tell me if there’s any lobangs for tuition ya. =)

Just Stuff...

Modules = Headache

My modules are more or less settled I guess. Unless NUS decides to fuck with me and don’t give the stuff I want. Oh well, hopefully NUS will be nice to their honours students. Haha... I’m not so worried about my major modules coz I’m pretty sure I’ll get em. It’s the CFMs that worry me. I’ve decided to take a module from Law with J. The only drawback to this module is that it clashes with my kendo on Monday. I’m sad and feel damn bad but I guess grades come first this semester. T_T

Kendo

Today was good training. I like the pace and the intensity of the training. Takeuchi Sensei was angry today. But the words he said made sense. No matter how tired you are or how much pain you are feeling, it’s not appropriate to show weakness within the dojo. Everyone else is as tired as you. If everyone else can do it, why can’t you? The one who loses to herself/himself cannot hope to defeat her/his opponent. That made sense I guess.

Cold!

Bike rides at night are super duper COLD. Esp along the expressways... T_T
When dot bent down and the wind blew at me....I thought I'll turn into an icicle.
Definitely not the most pleasant experience... but that's not to say I'm not grateful for all the rides dot gave me! =) Thanx friend! I appreciate all the rides!

Funny...

My brother sent me the url for this advert. Apparently, it won some award at the asia pacific ad festival. Hehe...I found it pretty funny lah.

Primary School Reunion Photos

Heh. Thanx Dinah for sending the pictures! I did say that I'll post some of the photos on the blog when I get them. For my own gratification if nothing else. =p
But gosh! It's been 10 years since I've last seen some of these people and it's really amazing how much we've changed and not change. =)


10 years later...
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The Gals
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Dinah and Nancy
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Nancy and me
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hmmm....there are some more pics but I'm too tired to upload them liao. Heh. It's really scary though... another 10 years, we'll be 32! Man...I don't know if we'll have another gathering in 10 years' time. But it sure was fun this time round.

Jiyang and me
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Courage

Heh. I've always like the New York Times... 
 

A Pause for Hindsight
Published: July 16, 2004

Over the last few months, this page has repeatedly demanded that President Bush acknowledge the mistakes his administration made when it came to the war in Iraq, particularly its role in misleading the American people about Saddam Hussein's weapons of mass destruction and links with Al Qaeda. If we want Mr. Bush to be candid about his mistakes, we should be equally open about our own.

During the run-up to the war, The Times ran dozens of editorials on Iraq, and our insistence that any invasion be backed by "broad international support" became a kind of mantra. It was the administration's failure to get that kind of consensus that ultimately led us to oppose the war.

But we agreed with the president on one critical point: that Saddam Hussein was concealing a large weapons program that could pose a threat to the United States or its allies. We repeatedly urged the United Nations Security Council to join with Mr. Bush and force Iraq to disarm.
As we've noted in several editorials since the fall of Baghdad, we were wrong about the weapons. And we should have been more aggressive in helping our readers understand that there was always a possibility that no large stockpiles existed.

At the time, we believed that Saddam Hussein was hiding large quantities of chemical and biological weapons because we assumed that he would have behaved differently if he wasn't. If there were no weapons, we thought, Iraq would surely have cooperated fully with weapons inspectors to avoid the pain of years under an international embargo and, in the end, a war that it was certain to lose.

That was a reasonable theory, one almost universally accepted in Washington and widely credited by diplomats all around the world. But it was only a theory. American intelligence had not received any on-the-ground reports from Iraq since the Clinton administration resorted to punitive airstrikes in 1998 and the U.N. weapons inspectors were withdrawn. The weapons inspectors who returned in 2002 found Iraq's records far from transparent, and their job was never made easy. But they did not find any evidence of new weapons programs or stocks of prohibited old ones. When American intelligence agencies began providing them tips on where to look, they came up empty.

It may be that Saddam Hussein destroyed his stockpiles of banned weapons under the assumption that he could restart his program at a later date. His cat-and-mouse game with the weapons inspectors may have been the result of paranoia, or an attempt to flaunt his toughness before the Iraqi people. But we're not blaming ourselves for failing to understand the thought process of an unpredictable dictator. Even if we had been aware before the war of the total bankruptcy of the American intelligence estimates on Iraq, we could not have argued with any certainty that there were no chemical and biological weapons.

But we do fault ourselves for failing to deconstruct the W.M.D. issue with the kind of thoroughness we directed at the question of a link between Iraq and Al Qaeda, or even tax cuts in time of war. We did not listen carefully to the people who disagreed with us. Our certainty flowed from the fact that such an overwhelming majority of government officials, past and present, top intelligence officials and other experts were sure that the weapons were there. We had a groupthink of our own.

By the time the nation was on the brink of war, we did conclude that whatever the risk of Iraq's weaponry, it was outweighed by the damage that could be done by a pre-emptive strike against a Middle Eastern nation that was carried out in the face of wide international opposition. If we had known that there were probably no unconventional weapons, we would have argued earlier and harder that invading Iraq made no sense.

Saddam Hussein was indisputably a violent and vicious tyrant, but an unprovoked attack that antagonized the Muslim world and fractured the international community of peaceful nations was not the solution. There were, and are, equally brutal and potentially more dangerous dictators in power elsewhere. Saddam Hussein and his rotting army were not a threat even to the region, never mind to the United States.

Now that we are in Iraq, we must do everything possible to see that the country is stabilized before American forces are withdrawn. But that commitment should be based on honesty. Just as we cannot undo the invasion, we cannot pretend that it was a good idea — even if it had been well carried out.

Congress would never have given President Bush a blank check for military action if it had known that there was no real evidence that Iraq was likely to provide aid to terrorists or was capable of inflicting grave damage on our country or our allies. Many politicians who voted to authorize the war still refuse to admit that they made a mistake. But they did. And even though this page came down against the invasion, we regret now that we didn't do more to challenge the president's assumptions.

The Massage From HELL!!

Oh man... it’s been a long time since I’ve been to a Chinese Sinseh. After training on Sunday, my ankles hurt like the very devil. After being stubborn for 4 days, I went to see a Sinseh today. OMG! I’d forgotten how painful it is when the Sinseh massage the affected area. I had a lady Sinseh and she is strong even though she does not look it! At all! Oh man... it really is the massage from hell! She kept pushing my head down and asked me to “fang4 song1, fang4 song1” What the hell! How to relax when it’s so goddamned painful?? But she’s good! As in really really good. Coz when she finished with the massage from hell, and I got off the bed, I found that my ankles actually felt much better! And she allowed me to train on Sunday! Which is really good news coz I don’t like the idea of missing too many trainings. A fear of mine is that I’ll be drop from the team if I missed too many trainings! I don’t want to be drop from the team! *Wails*

So I’ll take disgusting Chinese medicine and go back for as many repeated massages from hell as needed just so my ankles will recover and I won’t miss any more training.

hmmmm...but massages from hell costs money....hopefully I don't have to go back too many times. =_=

Various Stuff...

Reunion –
Had a primary school reunion a few days back. It was nice, but also weird.... Weird coz some of these people, I’ve not seen for 10 years. Some I’ve met a couple of times but it’s sort of the hi-bye kind of meetings. Just a smile and a nod before we go our separate ways. This reunion was different. On certain levels, it seems as though we just picked up from 10 years ago and continued as we left off. On other levels, there’s a certain amount of awkwardness and discomfort. But all in all, it’s been pretty fun. Seeing old friends yet again and finding out that they’re doing well in their lives. I want to put up some pictures, will do so when I got em’ from me friends. =)

Kendo –
Sat out Monday’s training coz me legs hurt. Found out that sitting out during trainings might not have been such a bad thing if one pays attention to the training as opposed to dozing off. Haha... I took lots of notes bout stuff not to do and stuff to take note of etc etc. Maybe I needed a time to think about things I’ve been doing or not doing. =_= oh! Something nice happened on Monday though. Renata sensei came for training! Coz she’s moving and stuff and there’s not enough place to put all her do-gis. She’s giving me one of her old ones! Yay! It’s thin (that’s super impt in horrid west coast stuffy dojo) and it’s white! Well! I’ve always wanted a white do-gi but always plagued by the problem of a lack of funds. Heh. Problem solved! Thanx Renata sensei! =)

Present...

I got a very very very belated birthday gift today. It’s a bokken with my name on it. Can't really say I was totally surprised because tiff dropped very subtle hints quite some time back. So I know there’ll be something from da jie. And it’s got to be something related to kendo. But still, it was a very nice surprise indeed. I love it and if I pass my second dan end of the year(haha...not very likely...but oh well...), I'll give you guys a treat! Cheap one that is. =P

Well, the present’s from da jie, er jie and zhixian but I guess da jie’s the one who came up with the idea. Thanx da jie!! Thanx er jie! Thanx zhixian! I appreciate it man. =)

Drool.....

Ah. At 4.33am in the morning, I crave meat...
J mentioned a few items and these caught my attention...
Beef kway tiao...
BBQ chicken wings with lime and chili sauce...
Yoshinoya beef...

MEAT MEAT MEAT!!!

Well, there's no meat in my house that I know how to cook...so no meat for me unless I'll consider Toby's "Beef and Vegetable" salami roll. hahahahaha....

I do have brownie in my fridge...but I want something salty...not sweet. T_T

Suicide

I came across this article at the kendoworld forum quite a few days ago. Since then, I’ve been thinking bout it quite a bit. Suicide is never a pleasant thing to contemplate but sometimes it really does seem like the easy way out. But one thing I read about quite some time back stuck in my mind.

“Death is always less painful and easier than life! You speak true. And yet we do not, day to day, choose death. Because ultimately, death is not the opposite of life, but the opposite of choice. Death is what you get when there are no choices left to make. Am I right?”

Yes, those bullies are detestable but that kid had a choice and he choose to end his own life. That I think is a damn shame. =_= He had his whole life ahead of him. He didn't die because he had no choices left to make. He died because he choose to end it before it really begun.

Good Books

I think good books are books that you can read and re-read when the mood strikes you. You just take them off the bookshelves and once again, you are sucked right into the story, even though you have read the book umpteenth times before. It’s particularly hard to find such books nowadays. One such series in my opinion would be the sequel trilogy to The Farseer Trilogy by Robin Hobb. The Tawny Man Trilogy –Fool’s Errand, Golden Fool and Fool’s Fate. This is one of the rare cases where the sequel outshines the original trilogy. Set 15 years after the end of Assassin’s Quest, the Tawny Man Trilogy is a good read because we all want to know what happens to Fitz. The ending of the Assassin’s Quest just doesn’t cut it. There are just too many loose strings left untied, leaving one feeling most unsatisfactory. Even though the ending of Fool’s Fate also doesn’t sit quite well with me, but I guess it’s better than nothing.

Of the 3 books, Fool’s Errand remains my favorite!

An excerpt from FOOL’S ERRAND –pp 87-88.

“Fool?” I called aloud in the darkened room.
“What?” He did not open his eyes but his ready reply showed he had not yet slipped toward sleep.
“You are not the Fool anymore. What do they call you these days?”
A slow smile curved his lips in profile. “What does who call me when?”
He spoke in the baiting tone of the jester he had been. If I tried to sort out that question, he would tumble me in verbal acrobatics until I gave up hoping for an answer. I refused to be drawn into his game. I re-phrased my question. “I should not call you Fool anymore. What do you want me to call you?”
“Ah, what do I want you to call me now? I see. An entirely different question.” Mockery made music in his voice.
I drew a breath and made my question as plain as possible. “What is your name, your real name?”
“Ah.” His manner was suddenly grave. He took a slow breath. “My name. As in what my mother called me at birth?”
“Yes.” And then I held my breath. He spoke seldom of his childhood. I suddenly realized the immensity of what I had asked him. It was the old naming magic: if I know how you are truly named, I have power over you. If I tell you my name, I grant you that power. Like all direct questions I had ever asked the Fool, I both dreaded and longed for the answer.
“And if I tell you, you would call me by that name?” His inflection told me to weigh my answer.
That gave me pause. His name was his, and not for me to bandy about. But, “In private, only. And only if you wished me to,” I offered solemnly. I considered the words as binding as a vow.
“Ah.” He turned to face me. His face lit with delight. “Oh, but I would,” he assured me.
“Then?” I asked again. I was suddenly uneasy, certain that somehow he had bested me yet again.
“The name my mother gave me, I give now to you, to call me by in private.” He took a breath and turned back to the fire. He closed his eyes again and his grin grew even wider. “Beloved. She called me only ‘Beloved.’”
“Fool!” I protested.
He laughed, a deep rich chuckle of pure enjoyment, completely pleased with himself. “She did,” he insisted.
“Fool, I’m serious.” The room had begun to revolve slowly around me. if I did not go to sleep soon, I would be sick.
“And you think I am not?” He gave a theatrical sigh. “Well, if you cannot call me ‘Beloved,’ then I suppose you should continue to call me ‘Fool.’ For I am ever the Fool to your Fitz.”
“Tom Badgerlock.”
“What?”
“I am Tom Badgerlock now. It is how I am known.”
He was silent for a time. Then, “Not by me,” he replied decisively. “If you insist we must both take different names now, then I shall call you ‘Beloved.’ And whenever I call you that, you may call me ‘Fool.’ He opened his eyes and rolled his head to look at me. He simpered a lovesick smile, then heaved an exaggerated sigh. “Good night, Beloved. We have been apart far too long.”
I capitulated. Conversation was hopeless when he got into these moods. “Good night. Fool.” I rolled over in my bed and closed my eyes. If he made any response, I was asleep before he uttered it.

Traditions... when do they cross the line?

I came across this article about female circumcision in Africa. It kind of got me thinking about all the so-called traditions that women have had to go through in the past. Bound feet, circumcision, it all sounds super barbaric and painful. I think it’s worse when they use religion as an excuse. =_=

About 15 percent of those who undergo genital mutilation, mainly women in the Horn of Africa, suffer the most dangerous and extreme version, infibulation. Isnino Shuriye, who was also at the Nairobi meeting, performed infibulations among the Somali community in northern Kenya. She would cut off the clitoris and all the labia of 7-year-old girls. She would sew up the girls to be totally smooth, with a pencil eraser-sized opening for menses and urine. Each girl's legs were bound together for weeks so scars could form. Ms. Shuriye used no anesthetic.

All types of female circumcision have huge psychological and physical dangers. Some girls bleed to death during the operation, or die of tetanus or infection shortly after. But for infibulated women, the dangers are even greater. Many infibulated women suffer constant infections and other health problems because urine and blood back up. Their husbands must bring a knife to their wedding night to cut them open. Childbirth often is fatal for infibulated women and their babies, and their wounds make them much more vulnerable to the AIDS virus.

I wonder why women in the past went through with it. It’s just unimaginable for me. And the fact that things like that is still happening in the present is shocking to say the least. I was cringing in pain when I read the article... thank goodness I was not born in Africa! >_<

The End of Euro 2004

Ah. The end of the Euro 2004. The Greeks won in the end... I’m disappointed but I’ll live. Guess I’ll stop betting on football for a while. Maybe this would give me a chance to pay back all my debts and save up enough for a digital camera of me very own! Hehe...

I feel damn bad bout not making it for training in NUS for so long... esp. when I can’t go down for Thursdays’ trainings in NUS till after the Asean. I’ve realized that I shouldn’t tease Da Jie too much bout his health... or rather, the lack of which. *grin* Coz there’s such a thing called retribution. I guess I’m feeling the effects of it now, and it’s not fun. =_=