True Colours

Ran into an old friend/colleague of mine recently. Stopped for a short chat, your usual small talk, and goodbyes. Once upon a time, this guy use to call me everyday and night, when he owes banks money which he can't pay and he's receiving letters from the banks' solicitors threatening to krupt him. He was desperate. I can honestly say that at that time, I was in deeper shit than he is, the difference is I live within my means and I managed the "shit". But I'm not one to see a friend in need and turn a blind eye, so I agreed to lend him some money out of my own very limited resources.

What happened next is unreal.

We were at work, so he said he'll drive me out now to a nearby ATM so I can withdraw the money. Fine. We walked to the carpark, and there he was with his sporty black Honda Civic with nice sports rims shining under the moonlight.

"Nice set of wheels", I said.
"...."
"how much per month?"
"800+"
"Can you afford that with your current situation?"
"....erm... I can't do without it, I have to send my mum for medical appointments"
I was like, hello, your mum goes to the doctor everyday? Ever heard of a thing call taxi?
"So when can you pay me back the money?"
"......."
"?!"
"..............."
"OK, just call me and let me know when its convenient for you k?"
nod

A few months later, he got a fat retrenchment package, cleared his debts with the banks, and totally disappeared for awhile. It was like complete radio silence. Till now. He was chatting away as if nothing ever happened. Obviously, he has chosen to conveniently forget that he owed me. Why do people keep doing these things, pretending as if something didn't happen. If he had been up front with me and tell me he can't or won't be paying me back, I would have gladly written it off there and then, no problem, no grudges.

As the saying goes, A Friend in Need is A Friend Indeed. How true.

When they needed help, I'm more than willing to go out of my way to do whatever I can, doing all the fetch and carry, spending time and money on them, even if it means burning a small hole in my pocket. But what is truly amazing and disappointing is how easily these friends forget when they don't need you anymore.

I always felt that the true measure of a person is by how he reacts when he makes a mistake, rather than by the mistake itself, cos everybody makes mistakes. Do you admit the errors of your way and make a sincere apology? Do you pretend you did nothing wrong? Or worse, complicate things by trying to convince yourself and others that you are the victim instead? (I have this one weird experience, but I hope I won't be forced into telling it here)

But at the end of the day, you get to see the true colours of someone before its too late, I think it is resources well spent. Good riddance, I say.

Running in a few hours

I'll have to be up and running in a few hours time and yet I'm still here typing this... Looks like I'll take a few hours to finish the 12km if I stay up any longer.

Anyway, thought of doing a movie marathon today to prepare myself for the run but I under-estimated the weekend crowd. I really didn't know which movie was pulling the crowd. Jacky Chan's new movie, or was it Milla Jojovich's Resident Evil? I checked RE, even single seats were all taken. So I ended up watching Seeing other People. Not a bad show, I give it 7/10. Its a sex comedy about having flings or meaningless sex with total strangers, quite funny. Slightly better than the Korean horror movie The Ghost, which wasn't too scary except for a few nice twists towards the end. 6.5/10.

I'm just done watching Rock Star starring Marky Mark (Mark Wahlberg) and Jenniffer Aniston. How the hell did I miss this on the big screen? I remembered waiting and waiting for it but I can't recall it being screened? Anyway, it was so cool watching real rock stars playing the band members. Zakk Wylde (Ozzy), Jason Bonham (Bonham, son of Led Zep drummer), Jeff Pilson (Dokken), and Blas Elias (Slaughter) as the drummer in the tribute band. And the figure hugging fishnet thing Aniston was wearing? Man! I give it 7+0.5/10. 0.5 bonus for JA's outfit, heheh. Of course, I have to suppress my grin and put on a stoic face, cos my crazy horse was sitting right beside me.

Stayed up a little longer just to catch all the EPL goals. Arsenal, Chelsea, MU, all won by a single goal. Liverpool scored 3. Although I think all 3 were more or less deflected. While Baros worked hard and Luis Garcia was lively, I thought Cisse was a sissy. He whined too much. If this goes on, he'll just be an expensive Heskey, no more. Better buck the **** up Cisse.

Those wild and crazy dayz

I always look back at my years spent in Ngee Ann Polytechnic with much fondness and disbelief. I chose the polytechnic over junior college knowing that I will have alot more freedom to do whatever I want, and I don't have to wear no stinking uniform.

The campus is just like a meeting place for us to decide where to go and what to do next. Since attendance were not taken during lectures, we can safely skip them. Tutorial classes, we have to attend, or risk suspension after the 2nd love letter.

I remember times when I'll be so engrossed in playing foosball (we called it table-soccer) that I skipped a whole day's worth of classes. Sometimes I'll head downtown for movies with like-minded friends. But one of my favorite past-time must be jamming; getting a few guys together and play music! Earnest and Simon on guitars, Caleb on bass, and me, drums. We also switched instruments every now and then just for fun.

Those days in the late 80's, big hair rock like Bon Jovi, Poison, Cinderella, and Firehouse were the in thing. So most of the time, we'll try to play their songs. And then one day, we decided to take part in the talent-time competition. We know the Malay rockers will be playing those popular stuff by Guns n' Roses and Bon Jovi. We needed something different, something fresh. Simon was working part-time at a CD store at that time, and we took the opportunity to sample some of the new bands and albums. Choirboys... mmm... never heard of them, but we pop the CD and hit play anyway....Baby! Bingo! We found our song. Run to Paradise. An unknown but melodic pop-rock tune that'll get your feet tapping away. Listen to it here or a live clip of teh song here. Lyrics. (the damn CD didn't come with the lyrics then, I had to listen and take them down word for word)

Next comes the planning.

1. Simon wanted to take part in the solo category as well, so we thought that it'll be to our disadvantage should he sing twice in front of the judges, so they decided that I'll sing and play guitar instead. No problemo.
   
2. Guitar solo. I'm not much of a guitar player, and Earnest, at that time, wasn't too confident of executing it. That means I'll have to juggle between vocals and playing lead guitar. Very risky. Plus, we know that the Malay bands' guitarists will easily eat us for breakfast. Our only chance against them is decent, comprehensible vocals and a catchy tune. Solution - we got our good friend, Ken, to get a group of his buddies to attend on the night of the competition. At the point where I finished the bridge and hit the guitar solo, Ken and Friends will start standing up, shouting and clapping to distract everybody and drown out my weak guitar solo. Heheh. Brilliant.
3. Contingency plan. A 2nd song. Just in case. I could get a sore throat or something on that day and can't sing or, maybe the judges and audience will be so impressed that they'll ask for an encore. Heh, you never know. So, we prepared yet another obscure but totally catchy song. Don't Worry Babe, by Singapore's local band Energy. It will have Earnest on vocals, Simon on lead guitar, Caleb bass, and me drums.

Right, all set. Maybe its because of all the planning, I wasn't nervous at all, even on that very night. Strangely, Simon seems a little stressed and asked if I have any spare drumsticks. "Sure", I said, I always carried 2 to 3 pair of them in my bag everyday.

Long before our turn, I was roving around behind the audience and there was this 3 girls singing some chinese song and prancing around on stage in their mini-skirts (there is also this messy girl with a camcorder who kept shifting about blocking my view). One of them was ssoooo cute that right after they were done and also days later, I actually approached her to ask for her name and to chat her up (I was quiet, but never shy). She was, of course, shocked and flattered. But it didn't really result in anything cos I was too busy with other targets then. And damn! The Malays are actually pretty good, playing Guns n' Roses and Bon Jovi stuff. But their vocals were rather strained when they tried to hit the high notes.

Backstage, there's this messy looking girl with a camcorder again*, filming around while everyone waited for their turn. Wait, its our turn! So there we were, standing under the spotlight. I can't see a thing with all the lights on us (found out after the show that my sis and her friend came, also a girl whom I admire was also in the audience). That should be a good thing. And here we go.... strum, strum, strum...strum.... Baby! Oops, damn, the previous contestant had switched off the microphone and I didn't do a mic check before I started. I had some training in classical guitar, violin, and drums, but none of those, our planning included, told me about checking if the mic was turned on! I quickly switched it on. I'm still cool. Midway through the song, the audience erupted, there were some laughter, some gasping, followed by loud cheering and applause. What the... Ken! I'm not into my guitar solo yet! Turned out Simon had really dropped one of his drumsticks! Good thing he kept the beat going with his remaining stick while picking up the spare I passed him, while Ken and gang reacted quickly enough by cheering and applauding. I managed to go through my guitar solo as planned, slightly out of tune but I'd bet that other than the Malay rockers, the judges and most of the audience won't be able to tell. That is one of the reasons why we picked an unknown song in the first place.

Backstage again, we were glad that it's over. Despite our comedy of errors, we were happy that we did it. We just wanted to enjoy the experience and we never thought of winning anything at all. And we were all laughing and joking about what happened on stage. Then it came. One of the organizers came to us and said that they had forgot to plan for the time when the judges are scoring for the contestants and that the audience are getting bored. She asked if we would like to play another song to kill some time. We just looked at each other and said "Why not?"

This time, without any pressure, and with the experience we just gained not too long ago, we actually went out and had more fun than Run to Paradise. The judges were there too, watching us. And I can see them talking among themselves, pointing at me, and then at Simon, then Earnest, probably noting that we had swapped instruments and vocalist. I think it added up to our advantage. Friends later told us that we actually sounded much better doing the 2nd song!

At the end of the day, we came in 2nd. 1st place went to an excellent group who did Caravan of Love, a cappella, a la The Housemartins (Fatboy Slim Norman Cook use to play bass in this band, and singer Paul Heaton went on to form Beautiful South after The Housemartins' demise).

But, like all rock bands, we later split up due to musical differences. Simon wanted to improve his instrumental skills further so he went to play bass for a Malay band. Caleb was so impressive on bass that my Malay friends actually enquired about him and asked him to play in their band. Earnest signed up for guitar lessons at Yamaha to improve his lead guitar skills. And I went on to join another band with Ken, Leonard, and Chin Wee. Their drummer, as I was told, was simply not hard-hitting enough and was sacked. We played much heavier stuff like Metallica and Megadeth for a few years and, of course, went our separate ways due to musical differences, again. What did you expect?

*This messy looking girl would later change my life forever, so it deserves a separate entry, soon.

Spot On! But, Oh NO...

Now now now, wadideyetellya? I predicted that MU will beat LFC 2-1, and I got it spot on! If I was a punter, I could've won myself some spare pocket $$$. I'm not much of a gambler, I only buy the occasional TOTO when my boss pisses me off at work, know wadeye meen? But I really need the cash now, having only received 600 bucks or so for last month's misadventures. In short, SAF is not paying me because of my ICT deferment no thanks to my MC due to my sore toe, my employer is not paying me cos they expected SAF to re-imburse me for the days I'm supposed to be in green uniform protecting Changi Airport or Jurong Island from terrorists during the 911 period. As a result, neither side paid me. So I guess I'll have to eat grass for the next 30 days. 600 bucks is not even enuff to pay for half of my insurances. Mmmm... maybe I should go dig out that old guitar and do some busking in some Orchard Road underpass.

Now back to football. When I saw Gerrard limping off before half-time, I almost wanna turn off the TV and go back to sleep. I gotta work 8 to 8 in a few hours time! But then, what better chance to see how the new Liverpool, with Xabi Alonso, Luis Garcia, and Cisse/Baros, respond in times of adversity than now? So I kept my eyes peeled and sat through the match. As the 2nd half goes on, I find myself moving closer and closer to the TV set. No kidding, Liverpool is actually putting together some good attacking moves. Although not as fluid as a team yet, this new Liverpool certainly looks more exciting and dangerous in attack. Xabi Alonso shows that he can pass it just as well and is not afraid to "get stuck-in" either. He'll have many more chances to strut his stuff, now that Gerrard is inflicted with a foot injury which could rule him out for up to 2 months! I hate the word Metatarsal.

Touching on injuries, I hope my sore big toe will be able to hold up when I go for the Sheare's Bridge Run this coming Sunday. As it is, I still can't bend my toe, an injury which is already a month old, but since I'm only doing the 12km instead of the full or half-marathon, it should hold. I already missed the Terry Fox Run 3 days ago, one which my Crazy Horse took part in. So there's no way I'm gonna miss this one. And I have the S'pore-Johor 2nd Link Bridge Run to tackle in 2 weeks time, so I'll keep my fingers crossed!

Actually I intended to laze my days off away at the beach or something. But judging from the weather for the past few days, I don't think its such a good idea anymore. Actually, I really do love the rain. Back when I was 12 years old, Senthil, my Indian classmate, will call me up whenever it started to rain heavy, and we would cycle all over the neighbourhood and play in the rain like crazy kampung dogs, rolling on the ground. Alas, these days, we have the deadly soil disease and the high lightning strike rate to contend with, it won't be half as fun anymore. In fact, the high number of fatalities in Singapore have made it deadlier than SARS or the bird-flu. Growing up as kids is not as fun as it used to be. What in the world is happening to this Earth?!? What on earth is happening to this world?!!

Let's Vote!

Man, its been a while since I last felt inspired to yak. Seems like I'm living to work so that I can continue to live, to work... what the hell am I toking abt?!? Anyhoo, I'm just glad that I'm not the ambitious type. If I can settle all my liabilities tomorrow, I'll probably join Discovery Channel or do some social work for a living. I'll gladly accept the pay cut. But then again, there are people out there who can't even find a job! So why am I complaining? On work days, I work, eat, sleep. On off days, I sleep, eat, go out, sleep. I'm too lazy to even play my favourite games anymore.

OK, enough of those nonsense. Let's talk about some other nonsense instead. Singapore Idol. Watched the wildcard show a few days back, and well, what can I say, if you don't have it, you don't. Some of the contestants claimed to have listened to the judges and worked on their diction and what not, blah, they still delivered ye same olde crap. And since I've ranted previously about how ridiculous the voting system is, I decided to throw a few votes in Sylvester Sim's way. Hey, if you can't beat them, join them! Besides, Sly is the only rocker in the group, his voice is rather unique, and he's the underdog! I SMSed a few votes, not knowing that CT had already voted a few times using my mobile, too. Sure enough, Sly got through. Let's just see how far he can go.

On the other hand, Nana was a big disappointment. She sang a slower song, but it only goes to show that her energetic voice is not versatile enough to inject enough emotion into it. I've always said, its much harder to sing a slow song well. Not surprisingly, she wasn't chosen to proceed to the next round.

Tonight, or rather, tomorrow early morning, I gotta wake up at 3am to watch MU vs Liverpool. There is no way I'm gonna miss this. It'll be interesting to see whether Rio Ferdinand's return will do any good to ManU's comical defense. But of course, they can be scary when they are attacking in full flow. Liverpool, with their new boss and new exciting players from Spain, will no doubt give Liverpool more options in attack. No longer do they have to rely on Michael Owen alone. Cisse, Baros, and now Luis Garcia are all exciting and eager to prove their own worth. But I have a feeling ManU will win this by 1 or 2 goals, cos Liverpool is without the Devil's nemesis in Danny Murphy. The last time out, I told my colleague that Liverpool will beat MU if Murphy plays. Sure enuff, Murphy scored the winner from the spot. But this time, I'm gonna let my head rule my heart. MU to win 2-1. God forbid...

Oh man, its time to go to bed! Gotta wake up in 4.5 hours time! And work after that.... 2 more days of work before a 4-day break.... ahhh.... the beach beckons....

Singapore Idol - a Crock of BS

Just watched Group 3 of Singapore Idol perform. What a load of crap! No, I'm not talking about the contestants. Having taken part in my school talent-time before, coming in second, I know how they feel. There are lots of very talented singers and performers out there, who are courageous enough to sing in front of a live audience and on national TV.

What I don't like about the Idol series, not just Singapore Idol, is that THE VOTING SYSTEM SUCKS!!! The fact that any one person can vote as many times as you like totally defeats the foundation behind any voting system.

How did Nana and Beverly, 2 of those who can truly sing, got left behind while blokes like Jerry and Taufik got through? Good thing there are the wild cards, otherwise...

Back to the lousy voting system. Now, picture this;

Dude A - Super good looks, tall, dark, and handsome, extrovert and has many friends, but sings off key.

Dude B - Average looking, fair, skinny, and a little short for a guy. Quiet, but sings like an angel.

Comes the time to vote.

Dude A has 3 friends (for easy comparison) voting via SMS for him. Each of them, being young and adept at texting, sent 10 SMSes voting for Dude A. That's 30.

Dude B, being a quiet introvert, has no friends supporting him. But his performance was so impressive that he impressed many viewers, none of them know him, but they still decided to SMS once to vote for him. For simplicity, let's say 29 total strangers each voted for Dude B once, that will still only give him 29 votes.

So who goes through here? The guy who has only 3 buddies voting for him. The guy who looks good but can't sing! Now how fair is that? Of course, the producers and people behind the show knows this, but why aren't they doing anything to change it? That's right, $$$. Don't ask me how, but I don't think its hard to figure out who stands to gain when thousands, if not millions of calls and SMSes were made in such a short period of time.

During American and World Idol fever, there were already outcries over the flaws in the voting system. There are reports of phreaks who can swing the votes however they want or jam the phone lines if they want to. Softwares to turn your modem into a voting machine. And, in this report, even terrorists and the FBI somehow got involved.

And to add fuel to the fire, if what was reported by The New Paper on 15th August 2004 was true, many of the "auditions" in front of the judges were actually rigged. The really awful participants did auditioned, but not in front of the 4 main judges. Hell, they never even got through the very 1st audition for them to even meet the 4 celebrity judges. They, the celeb judges, supposedly read out scripts to suit the "occasion" so that everything will be edited and made to look as if it took place in front of them, when the actual auditioning was done by other producers/judges.

Yes, the world of entertainment and showbiz, it's all a farce. Like my father used to chide us in Cantonese, "Din-low zou hei, sor-low tai hei", meaning "the mad puts on a show, the idiots watch them". How true.

Crazy Horse

After walking around North Point and then SAFRA this afternoon, we decided to head over to Jurong East to check out the Creative Fair to see if there are any good deals.

Upon reaching JE MRT, the queue waiting for the shuttle bus was so long. Siti suggested we walk. I didn't think it was a good idea at first cos I'm not too sure if the track under the MRT track is the right way to lead us there, but since there's a nice breeze blowing, why not?

Turns out that the rather deserted track is the right way, and we were enjoying our walk very much. Too much. Like a free-spirited wild horse seeing open fields, Siti was singing out loud the Judas Priest song playing on her portable MD and was running here and there like crazy, oblivious to the occasional passer-by. Well, I'm not surprised, but it made me laugh anyway.

The Creative Fair did have some very good deals, and I almost threw $400 to buy some speakers and stuff. But after doing some mental calculations and giving my impulses some time to subside, I decided that those things were what I want, but not what I need. So we left the place and went over to IMM for food and some shopping instead.

Found this tiny food outlet in a little corner called Red Ginger. Place is a little cramped but the food was good. I'll be back some time to sample the rest of their stuff.

Then we went to Daiso, the $2 supermart, to get what we need. Spent only $14 for some household items. That's a savings of $386.

Well, tomorrow is back to work for me. After such a long break, I kinda missed the action! Enough of bumming around!

Harold and Kumar Go To White Castle

Just watched Harold and Kumar Go To White Castle at Bugis, oh man, I think I laughed so hard I hurt my pancreas! Reminds me of Night at the Roxbury, difference is that H&K is way way funnier.

I wasn't interested in this movie at all in the first place as I was planning to watch the Korean spook show Face. But due to the late show time, I had to follow my master's choice. And I'm glad I did.

Boob counts and crude jokes aside, its really a non-stop fun ride with these 2 jokers. Something like After Hours, where so many weird and stupid things happen in one night. The non-stop jabs at racism and drug abuse are so hilarious. Of course, they are not to be taken seriously.

It's just a self deprecating crude comedy poking at everything it can think of, sort of a joy-ride through a tunnel where you can see all these idiots doing stupid things.

I don't know why, but being Indian (India-Indian) seems to be the "in thing" now cos like in The Terminal, there are quite a few situations here where the joke is on the Indians again, and its intensely side-splitting!

A good way to waste a few bucks and your hour-and-a-half. 4/5.

Stepford Wives

Well, the movie wasn't too bad, considering that some of the best actors and actresses around are in it, like my Christopher Walken(Cool!), Bette Midler, Nicole Kidman, and Matthew Broderick. The photo to the right was taken of a billboard using my babe's cameraphone. The result was surprisingly good, maybe because of the billboard's lighting from behind the picture. Ok, back to the movie itself.

The show was pretty predictable, but it has its moments. It was quite entertaining and funny, and comes with a message, too. Not as funny as The Terminal, but then there was never a dull moment. Although I didn't like the ending too much. It felt a bit hurried and lacking in ideas.

But watch it on a weekday and it'll still be worth your money. Just don't expect anything ground-breaking or standards setting, it wasn't meant to be. Its just a light-hearted comedy with a good moral message. 3.5/5. The 0.5 is for Kidman's facial expression and the guy who played the gay, he was damn funny.

Mixed Emotions

Yesterday was my 33rd b'day. Thanks to all my family & friends who remembered.
But really, I don't even celebrate my own b'day. It's just a good time for me to see who are the thoughtful ones who cared!

It was another jolly good day for me, as usual. I decided to get the less pleasant things out of the way first.
Which brings me to my overdue speeding ticket. Paid the $300 fine, double from the original $150 (not $120, I was mistaken), and agreed to the damn machine that I am CONVICTED in court for speeding (so does that mean that I am a criminal since I have a criminal record now?). @#$%....OK, calm, cool, steady. I'm not gonna let this ruin my day. It's nobody's fault but my own. I'm not gonna be the kinda person who always have to put the blame on someone else, even if its my own fault. Just walk on Kevin.

Sent Siti for her facial, then proceed to my favourite past-time. Movies. Yeah! We got lucky too!
Read what ratings I gave the movies here.

Before that, I also paid a visit to the consex shop at Bugis Village. Why only for those above 23? Thought you're considered an adult at 21 and you are free to do what you like? So in Singapore, its different?

Now I'm getting ready to go out for another movie! The Stepford Wives.

Always by my side

I have 5 adorable cats.

And my favourite is Allie, the temperamental fat cat from hell! She is always around and about when I'm at the PC. She dreams a lot when she sleeps. Limbs twitching, growling and mumbling, lots of REM (rapid eye movement). Just so adorable!