travelling crocs

i've been wearing my crocs more and more since i first got them about half a year ago, more recently they've become my footwear of choice for the office (i love being able to dress casually for work!). they draw comments from the odd passer-by, with some who have seen them before, and many who haven't. some of my friends thought the shoes were funny, but i think the novelty factor has now worn off. someone in the lift asked me about them, saying that they looked really comfortable. a few other people have asked about them, wanting to know where they could get a pair. i should become the australian ambassador for crocs. spreading the word about a product that you personally use and genuinely endorse -- that should be the way for all salespeople, no?

one troubling thing i've found is that as the winter season approaches, i seem to be a lot more static-y when i'm wearing my crocs. they're made of neither rubber nor plastic, but something the manufacturers have termed proprietary closed cell resin (PCCR). i don't know what this means, but in practice it does appear to have rather good (electrical) insulation properties. so much so that i'm getting zapped multiple times a day.

no such problems in singapore, where i'm planning to put said crocs into much use. they're a lot more widespread here, and seen in their full spectrum of available colours. i've even seen some fake crocs... though i really shouldn't be surprised that a good and successful idea should be copied...

having caught all of about 1 hour of sleep during my overnight flight, i'm still battling weariness on top of my usual and chronic lack of sleep. but i'm enjoying the break from work and life as i know it, feeling the relative freedom of going with the flow and not having too much planned. not to mention the plentiful and cheap food :D having said that, it's always a struggle for me to choose when confronted with so many options at your typical hawker centre. sigh... spoilt for choice, and dunno what is good. been snapping away a bit these last few days - selection of photos below:

unfortunately picasa does some undesirable things with cropping in the collaging process, so some of the photos are missing bits... can't really complain about a free product and a collage function that takes but a few mouse clicks though! anyways will post pics in full aspect ratio online sometime down the track. for now, it's time to head out again :)

- - - - -
related posts: yes virginia, i do speak english

clay getaway weekend

spent the weekend out of town with some the clay folks on our first ever getaway. destination: noosa avalon cottages. princejay and i navigated our way there with the help of his GPS receiver and PDA, which i had a bit of fun playing with... it was my first real experience with GPS ware so i took a video clip from our journey just for the heck of it. we ended up off the map.

yup, it was farm land country. complete with the dark darkness of night you never get with the ambient suburban lighting of urban landscapes, cow patties dotting the fields like a heavily mined warzone, the crisp smell of cool rural air and some of the accompanying fauna. a bit out of the comfort zone for some, but we all survived with liberal doses of bottled juices (not everyone was keen to drink the tap water), catered food (thanks to our volunteer cooks), music and song (some pre-recorded, some from our own voiceboxes), bible study, review/discussion on the immediate future of the group, games of chess, cards and cranium, and general bonding/hanging out time. [photo album | slideshow]

(been mucking around with multiply.com, where above album is hosted... might start using it more now that there are no more limits :) site seems to be a bit on the slow side at times though... )

anyways we capped off the weekend with a visit to the sunshine coast chinese christian church, where we sang a song, prayed for them, and shared in a late lunch of curry and rice which chatting to some of the local folk. then it was off to the beach - i don't know whose idea it was to go in the first place but when we got there we just ended up sitting around a table huddling in the cold breeze, with not one person setting foot on the beach itself... (sand on the footpath doesn't count!) so after a while of getting cold we turned to head back home.

most of us met for dinner again, deciding on "shanghai cuisine" when the original choice (a nearby taiwanese joint called "7-8" which i've not yet tried) was full. it's been years since i last ate at shanghai cuisine, and i was glad for the reacquaintance. we ordered the 8-person set meal consisting mostly of a selection of dumpling type foods cooked in various way, plus a dish of veges which some of the girls had been craving (our weekend diet was not high in greens content :p) all for a rather satisfying $9 per head.

much better than the $10+ i paid for lunch the sunday prior when i waited over half an hour for my "com xa xiu" (simple dish of steam rice, char siew pork and some cabbage which would only take 2 minutes to cook/put together on a plate) at the viet hoa chinese and vietnamese joint in west end. verdict = two thumbs down - one for the wait/poor service (most of our table had to wait quite some time for their food too), and two for the lack of value/stinginess -- the dish tasted quite bland, as there was hardly anything with which to flavour the rice. so i had to steal some of the fish sauce from people who had ordered a broken rice dish (a vietnamese staple of mine which i should probably learn to stick to), but even then they were only given a measly looking bowl full (don't even want to call it a bowl cos it's that small) to share between them. same deal (about sharing a smaller portion than what you'd get individually at most other places) with the bean sprouts and veg for those who ordered the noodle soups.

i know which place i'll be going back to in future!

the housesitting hours

i'm more than halfway through my current housesitting stint. am enjoying

1. the solitude
   not that it's hugely different to when i'm at home, but it's still not quite the same when you have a whole house to yourself :) don't know that i'd want this as the norm for a life, but in short doses it's good. i do somewhat regret not being able to share/make use of some of this time with friends... a few years ago when i housesat another place i took advantage of the opportunity to host a casual dinner party for some friends, and that was a really good evening and time well spent. but i've not been able to replicate that effort the last few stints - is it just bad timing, or the all-pervasive clout of busyness? oh for some spontaneity...
   
   
2. foxtel
   i've never really desired subscription tv for myself, but i tend to be interested to see what's on whenver i come across it in other people's homes. this time it took me all of about 5 minutes to come to the conclusion that there's really nothing good on. the main reason i may consider subscription tv is for the movies, but they're not part of the package at this place, so i'm limiting myself to viewing
   
   
• NBA on ESPN
  it's conference semi-finals time. the games don't seem to be quite as exciting as i remember them to be (but it's been many a moon since i last watched NBA, and i'm sure those memories are hazy at best :p), but this is a one off thing so a peek or two will satisfy me.
  
  
• Whose Line Is It Anyway (US version) on the comedy channel
  speaking of spontaneity, these guys are masters of the game where as they say, everything's made up! some of the material can get a bit beyond PG, but in general i'm just amazed at the creativity and quick-witted improv by these performers, especially when it comes to the singing segments. some good and genuine belly laughs to be had here, and it's a rare treat so i'm lapping this baby up while i have the chance :)
  
  
3. haruki murakami
   i'm actually listening to the haunting sounds of the background music from the site as i blog away. no idea what tune it is, but it's kinda groovy :) i first came across the name of this japanese author on another blog, but didn't read much into that particularly entry cos it seemed too literarily intense. i did venture into a short story of his a month or so back - one which i found rather strange. then, upon glancing over some of the books in this house, i saw the name again, and so without really knowing much about the author or the book, i decided to set myself the task of finishing norwegian wood before this stint is over. i'm behind on my schedule. come to think of it, the last few times i housesat i've picked up books to read which i probably would otherwise not start on, either because it's something i would never look for, or it would be something i know about but have been too lazy to pursue, even if it means trying to borrow a free copy from the local city council library. when it's right in front of you though, i guess it's a slightly different proposition! (there's also a copy of amy tan's "the bonesetter's daughter" which i had hoped to read too, but that was probably too ambitious an aim... might have to borrow that one... or wait for their next holiday, hehe)
   

well, enough of this. one thing i've not been able to enjoy is getting any more sleep than i usually do. *yawns*... here's to trying to not make the problem worse :)

ju-on // mayfest

ever since finding out via my parents a few weeks ago, i had been wondering how (if indeed i would need) to field queries on this. maybe nobody would really care, if indeed anyone would even notice. but i couldn't avoid the inevitable, such as this from a friend of mine:

fom: hey are you going tomorrow?
me: nah i wasn't invited.
fom: really?
me: yeah. the rest of my family was, but not me.
fom: wow she really knows how to carry a grudge...

well i don't know if he's right in labelling it a grudge, but it's definitely something and i know when i'm snubbed. oh well, nothing to lose sleep over.

so instead, i slept in. then went to get lunch from mayfest. it seemed a lot bigger this year, but that may be because previously i had never really ventured beyond the food stalls. i was actually a bit worried when they weren't where they in their usual spots... so i wandered a bit more and found them (along with lots of other happenings) on the oval. after surveying the food offerings, i walked around a bit more to see the rest of the attractions and took a few snaps before returning to satisfy my original purpose for coming - makan!

besides the roti canai guy who i know and who i've come to expect to see at mayfest, i was surprised to see some other familiar faces at the stalls. the line for roti was quite long and slow, so i bought some satays ($1.50 each!) to keep me company while i queued.


even then the wait was longer than i bargained for... good thing i had time and a vitamin D quota to fill :p a couple who were behind me gave up and walked off at about the halfway (betweeen end of queue where we joined and the point of ordering) mark. but i don't think they knew what they weren't getting - i wonder if people were willing to wait that long because they valued what they knew they would get at the end, or maybe they just wanted to see what the fuss was. either way, it was a well patronised stall. didn't stop the masses from grumbling though - about the sun, the wait, and the seeming inefficiency of the production line...

didn't hear any gripes about the prices, which i thought were a bit steep. but it's not often you get freshly cooked (to order) roti canai in these parts, so i shelled out $11 for one serve of "the works" and one of roti with egg and curry. while waiting for my order to be served an elderly gent came alongside me and asked what the food was, as he had never seen anything like it. maybe i shoud have asked for a discount for the free promotion i gave :p don't know if he queued up later to buy any though. anyway, i couldn't wait to get these babies home and tuck into them... they left my stomach and taste buds quite satisfied :)

steven curtis chapman concert

they kept saying how it's been 18 years since he last came to brisbane, and that hopefully the next time won't be another 18 years. i didn't know who he was 18 years ago... but in the past few years i've become somewhat acquainted with the music of steven curtis chapman, and last night i went to see him live in concert.


i took a video too, but the sound turned out pretty bad cos i think the mic got overloaded by the loudness of the music and the pumping bass with enough kick to make your whole body feel the movement of air. of the two albums of his that i own, one's all about love and the other has a fair few slower songs, so i had kinda forgotten that i actually don't generally like SCC's music all that much, mostly because his style is rockier than where my preferences lie. i only started listening to more of his songs after looking closer at some of the lyrics and finding them to be helpful, and they're the drawing card for me to keep listening. i suppose that's the way it should be; as one speaker at church once commented in relation to the controversy over Cliff Richard's "The Millenium Prayer" (setting the words of the Lord's Prayer to the tune of Auld Lang Syne) -- there is no sacred music, only sacred words.

anyways, the concert was an average-ish experience for me, partly due to the loudness/rock factor, and partly due to my only being familiar with a selection of his work. i did appreciate his giving of background on some of the songs, and sharing from his life. there was a fairly extended segment on the whole adoption thing which his family has increasingly supported in the last few years. i first found out about this while reading the liner notes on the all about love album, and think that what he and his family have been doing and championing is just such a great thing to do, and for very biblical reasons. check out shaohannah's hope for more info.

as the above pictures bear witness, the view wasn't the best when people were standing (which was for probably half the concert). perhaps it would have been a more memorable experience (and better photos taken) if i had stayed longer after the concert. i didn't leave immediately, as some people did, so i did get to see the encore. but i missed out on the chance to get CDs autographed and photos taken with the man himself. it actually never crossed my mind that such an opportunity would exist, but a friend of mine who stayed longer than i did just that. oh well... not that i'm much of an autograph hunter and celebrity chaser... but maybe next time -- he promised it won't take another 18 years!

and on labour day thou shalt play

i don't really know much about the origins of labour day - i'm just happy that it's a public holiday which means i don't need to go to work, i can sleep in, and i can play :) i guess it's fitting that labour day celebrates (in part?) the move towards less work, which you could say leaves more time for play :p

although i've lived in australia for most of my life, there are a few games/activities which i only first tried when i've travelled outside of australia. one example is (tenpin) bowling - there are a number of bowling centres around town, but i didn't bowl a single ball in australia until i had first bowled a few games in taiwan, singapore and malaysia (and i think that was all during the one holiday). since then i've played a few games in australia, and my aim is always just to break triple figures - something i don't manage all the time...

another example is the board game risk, which i've only played once in singapore last december. it was quite an unexpected thing as i'd dropped in on a group of strangers and they were about to start a game so i joined in. dropped in on another group of people today (not strangers this time) and they were about to start a game of risk too, so i played my second game. this time i managed to win, hehe... with a fair amount of luck on my side i might add :p

for dinner, we walked out of a japanese joint cos the food we wanted to order was going to take 40 minutes (probably should have asked before we sat down), and settled on coffee square. i've been here a few times and never really felt comfortable there cos the joint does not feel very english friendly - maybe it's ok for the non-chinese who eat there, but as a chinese person who doesn't speak cantonese in this honkie establishment, i feel a lack of welcome and service. tonight they got my order wrong, which meant waiting an extra 20 mins for the right dish to be brought out, by which time my friends were either fully or mostly through their meals. at least it tasted pretty nice, and was filling.

then it was back to the house... js had brought his ps2 and i happened to ask if there was anything easier to play (he was playing some dragonball game in between his turns at risk, and i pretty much stopped playing computer/video games when they got beyond having 2 or 3 buttons to control :p). this was when i had my first experience with the eye toy! we fired up eye toy: play and we had quite some fun waving our arms about and generally getting a bit of a work out - so there was some amount of labour involved after all! ;)

the hitching of the shtes

the shtes got married today, and it was an occasion for which several ex-brisbanites returned from sydney to join the celebrations.



as always you get the question from people who didn't attend, asking "how was the wedding?" i don't know if i've just been wedding-ed out or what but sadly all i can really say these days is "it was nice". i mean, what else is there to say about a wedding... any wedding? there would probably have to be something significantly good (or bad for that matter... something memorable in any case) happen for me to say anything different. perhaps i was distracted by the things with which i was helping, for i found that most of was said during the ceremony sunk in. don't get me wrong, it was a nice ceremony, and from what i overheard some other people commenting, it was a very gospel-focused event (what was said on stage, songs that were sung, words contained in the program etc). and i think in the end that's probably one of the best things you can say about a wedding, for our earthly marriages are but a shadow of the relationship between Christ and his bride, the church. there's simply no better place to start (and to stay) than the gospel :)

oh... before the old memory totally deserts me... the serenade/song dedication performed after the wedding was a very special touch :D (i had to look at the collage i uploaded to be reminded that it took place :p)


i really should have gone home and rested between the ceremony and reception, but ended up playing a bit of cricket in the nets with benji and the maharaja. and boy did i feel the soreness in the days to come... haven't used those bowling and batting muscles for a looooong time!

had a bit more to do at the reception, and encountered a few technical difficulties but the show eventually went on no thanks in part to my own stupidity. ah well... 'twas a good day and i trust a happy start to the rest of their lives together :)

a million and out

in the 5+ months since embarking on the 10000 steps challenge, i have pretty much worn a pedometer every waking moment of my life. i have on the odd occasion dropped it, or forgotten to wear it for short periods, but for the most part it has lived either on my belt/pants or sat somewhere nearby while i slept or showered etc.

though i rarely managed 10000 steps per day (wasn't really trying that hard), i had been keeping a record of my daily counts on the 10000 steps website, and my last entry pushed my total past the million mark, which means i get to claim my reward - a shirt that says i'm a millionaire!

then tonight, like the "six and out" rule in backyard cricket, i promptly managed to lose my pedometer. i wasn't intending to continue past a million anyway (and was waiting to get my free shirt :p), but neither did i wish to be forced out of the game like this...

--
update 29/04 - it's been found! but i don't think i'll bother working my way towards a cap or a badge.

whiling away a weekend

saturday - SWANS on the coast

slept in after a late night, ate a quick breakfast, bid farewell to my sis and bro-in-law, and headed out to spend the rest of the day hanging with the SWANS crew as we prepared to bid farewell to SN, who's moving to sydney and a new job there. after some delays (does a group outing ever depart on time??) we made our way to the gold coast and ate a late lunch of fish and chips at pete's (not sure of the full/actual name... it's just past versace hotel on seaworld drive at the spit). then it was off to wander around at pacific fair where i got bored and was glad to find a wireless connection to check mail and do some reading while the others browsed clothes, perfumes etc. finally we ended up at the beach where we threw around a frisbee in failing light and marvelled at the rising moon, which promptly had us all scurrying to whip out our digital cameras.

while the others stayed on the beach, i ran to find a stable platform (the railing on the stairs leading from the street to the beach served nicely) from where i played with some shutter time and iso settings. when i rejoined the others and they saw my results, i shared some basic photography tips on capturing nightscapes (and rising moons :p), which sent them into a fresh round of snapping...

then it was more frisbeeing and trying to avoid getting decapitated in the dimness, before deciding that we were all hungry and needed to eat. out comes the entertainment book, more deliberation and then driving around trying to find the place... and a carpark. we made it in the end to what was supposed to be the river grill, but our dining experience looks a bit different to what the website describes. anyway, i ate fish for the second time that day. i usually don't order fish for dinner cos i don't think it is sufficiently filling as a meal in itself, but i didn't feel like steak, and i always order chicken... so i picked the snapper fillet for a change (i think it was snapper... but that's from someone whose vocabulary for fish goes about as far as "fish") with cranberry sauce and asparagus.


it was a bit tough, but maybe that's the way it's meant to be - my lack of knowledge about fish extends to how it should be cooked and the differing textures of different fish. i ended up ripping up the meat, cutting the asparagus into shorter strips, and mixing the whole thing in the sauce. someone asked if i was doing a stir fry impersonation; i said i'm just trying to get a good, even distribution of the sauce (and to use it all up). i guess i don't handle knife and fork dining very well :p give me chopsticks... or hands ;) the sauce was quite nice, and while there was enough on the plate for me to not feel hungry, i reckon a 50% increase on the porition size wouldn't have gone astray.

more photography followed after dinner, and more tips and lessons. then we made a short detour to cavill mall in search for gelati, which turned into ice cream. waffle cones are the best :)

back in brisbane, we stood around for a while, saying goodbye and ending the night with a prayer for the departing SWANSter.

---

sunday - how do i describe this silliness?

it started out innocently enough... the plan following post-church lunch was to go back to shte2's new place (moved into the week before) and watch footage from sisters night 2005. this expanded into watching some marimba ponies pieces and a few clips by wong fu productions.

then i was invited to stay for dinner, and while brysie and dook went shopping, and shte2 showed me some tommy emmanuel performances and instructional videos (impressive stuff!), algae, valley and the manchurian candidate amused themselves for (what seems to be) hours on end shooting videos of themselves play-acting in a world involving singing and chop-socky kung fu action. i only saw a few minutes of this weirdness (wonder what the neighbours thought!) before heading back indoors and hanging out in the kitchen where dinnner was being prepared. brysie's "taiwanese spaghetti bolognese" and dook's "whatever condiments could be found" chicken went down very nicely indeed... i wanted to go for seconds but was already full from my first serving :p

alas, the silliness continued after dinner. growing bored from watching the re-made "the ten commandments", the camera-loving people decided to take photos of themselves using the custom timer setting... after draining brysie's battery, my camera got seconded to the snapping duties.




i'm a bit particular about what i shoot, and reclaimed by camera after two sets which i thought was sufficient... but it was not to be. so i sacrificed my battery for the good(??) of the group and brysie's camera kept flashing away... if you think the above photos are silly, i think there must be close to 100 more on brysie's camera!

so much so much youthful energy struggling to find an outlet... so much posing... so much vanity ;) oh i can't keep up... must be getting old!

see you next month...

said goodbye to my elder sis earlier today, for the 4th time in 8 months. didn't really get to catch up much, not that we do that very often anyway, but i'll be seeing her again in may on my next overseas trip. that's a fair bit of seeing for someone who lives overseas now.

anyways, this was her first visit back 'home' since getting married, and this particular trip also included an entourage of immediate family (the in-laws) for part of the time. it was a good opportunity for the two families (hers being a bit more extended than his, since we have a fair number of relatives living locally) to gather over food, and a buffet dinner was held in a nearby hotel.

i failed to avoid the "when is your turn" question from an auntie who i don't even really know! so i felt a bit of "who are you to be asking me this??" (with an emphasis on the "who the heck are you??" :p okok i *did* say it was an extended family affair right? anyways, i'm pretty sure she's my dad's cousin from his mum's side), but restrained myself and muttered something non-committal and tried to smile/laugh it off.

well thankfully that was the only one... and i spent most of the rest of the night glued to my seat amongst the younger single cousins and second cousins of mine, with whom i shared a table. i think pretty much everyone enjoyed the evening for the chance to meet the visitors and catch up with other family members while enjoying a meal together.

- - - - -

a week later we took them to this restaurant to which dad had recently been introduced by a guy from church - two seasons cuisine (双季林) in west end. it's an asian restaurant but has a very western feel. the food is quite nice and rather filling - i'm not sure if this is their standard serving size, cos dad apparently just asked the owner chef (michael lam) to prepare whatever is good, so we didn't even see a menu that night. i thought we were getting a special meal but on the bill it just said "banquet b". so anyways we had individual entrees followed by rice and 10 dishes to share between the 9 adults and 1 child. lots of leftovers ensued.

every dish was very tasty, and mostly hot :p the duck curry was a little bit too hot for me, but still quite morish. will definitely keep this place in mind for a subsequent visit :)

- - - - -

and i can look forward to lots of tasty treats by the time i next see my sis, hehe. not that life (or the purpose of the trip) is all about food, of course... but i won't be forgoing the opportunity to sample flavours and textures common to the locale mmm yum yum yum, hehe :D

just stop doggin' me around

i get lots of emails. i used to correspond a lot on email, ie write personal letters to people. these days it's mostly junk and other legitimate mass mail. the personal ones seem to be few and far between. i'm partly to blame, because sometimes i take a long time to reply, and sometimes i don't get around to replying, so the exchange breaks down.

i used to be online pretty much the whole day (when at work and at home), so it didn't seem to be too much effort dealing with incoming mail all the time. now that i have no internet access at work, all the mail accumulates during the day and hits me when i come home to check. i realise this is probably the experience of most people, so i should shut up.

anyways, i'm trying to cut down... unsubscribing to various mailing lists and newsletters - things i don't really need to know or stay on top of... things i don't feel i have much time to deal with.

but there are still 2 types of emails from which i can't simply unsubscribe.

#1 is spam. i detest spam, and those who propagate it. i use spamcop to report most spam that i receive, because it gives me a sense of being a conscientious john netizen. i don't know whether any good actually comes out of it - there are too many dumb people and people who don't care in the online community for the spammers (the smart ones anyway) to always have the upper hand in this fight. i seem to be getting a lot more spam lately, and it's just plain annoying. i've refined the art of spamcopping my spam mails down to a precision operation, like a well-oiled pit lane crew. but it's still a manual operation and sometimes seems to be a waste of time and effort.

#2 is mail identity confusion. i don't know what else to call it... this is when people send me mail thinking i'm someone else. as far as i can tell the mails are legitimate (not spam), just very much misdirected. my gmail account seems to be a magnet for these. it's an address i've had for years by the way, so i don't know why all of a sudden it seems so popular... i don't know if people are unable to remember their email addresses and giving out my address, or the people they're telling it to aren't recording it properly... i've received emails from:

• some random guy thinking i was his friend and emailling me from his newly created gmail account
• some other random gmail user calling me "sweetheart" and wanting to keep in touch using google talk (and this on top of the frequent requests from total strangers wanting to be my google talk pals)
• the "all india travel agency" sending me the itinerary of a couple's return flight from chennai to melbourne via singapore
  
• some indian guy thinking i'm "sohail", and responding to a "Business proposal for main dealership in hyderabad"
  
• a hotel in thailand confirming a booking reservation
• youtube - apparently i've signed up as a 26 year old female in australia who goes by the nick "winafish"
• a hong kong woman forwarding what seems to be a work-related email to a personal address (probably meant to be her own address)
  
• yahoo japan - apparently i've... actually i have no idea what i'm supposed to have done... probabaly signed up for a new account. but since i can't actually read japanese... who knows!

i feel like singing along with michael jackson and to plead "leave me alone"! but that's probably about as useful as banging my head against a brick wall.

--
update 20/4 - ecard notification from LI SAI HO SHADOW of American International Assurance Company (Bermuda) Limited to TAM WING YAN WINNIE

lost loves

while trying to tidy up my room recently, i came across some long neglected pieces of paper in an old wallet. they hail from my time as a student, and on them were written/typed various things concerning lost loves, some of which i barely remember...

1. printed on a piece of A4 paper, using some DOS-based word processing program from before MS Office took over the world, was this summary that a friend had recorded on my behalf (without my request, i might add). names have been omitted/anonymised to protect the innocent :p
   

   LIST OF PEOPLE THAT quop LIKES:
   

   1. G1 - NOT VERY GOOD LOOKING BUT quop IS NOT REKNOWN FOR HIS TASTE
   2. G2 - quop FOUND THIS GIRL TO BE UGLY DESPITE THE RUMOURS THAT ABOUND OF THE GREAT BEAUTY OF THIS GIRL (MAINLY BY A PERSON CALLED [name of guy who wrote this thing])
   3. G3 - YOUNGER SISTER OF ... AND CURRENTLY THE STEADY OF ... , SHE IS GOOD LOOKING, SHORT AND SHE'S FOURTEEN. quop IS CURRENTLY A GOOD FRIEND OF HERS BUT HE WOULD LIKE TO SEE THAT RELATIONSHIP GROW (OR BLOSSOM AS HE WOULD PUT IT).
   4. G4 - HER LAST NAME SOUNDS SUS ([various dubious sounding derivatives] YOU GET THE DRIFT). quop TRIED TO HAVE A GO AT HER BUT HE WAS REJECTED (WHICH PUT A BIG DENT IN HIS ALREADY BATTERED ARMOUR OF EGO).

   
   ANY OTHER PEOPLE WILL BE UPDATED IN UPCOMING ISSUES AND WE WILL ALSO BRING UPDATES ON PEOPLE LISTED HERE.
   
   LIST OF PEOPLE THAT LIKES quop:
   

   1. G5 - SHE IS INDESCRIBABLE (AND THAT IS NOT A COMPLIMENT). quop DOESN'T LIKE HER.

   of these girls, i have no idea what's become of G1 or G3. last i heard G4 had gotten married and moved to somewhere in europe. am still in minimal contact with G5. and i can't remember who G2 is...
   
   
2. written on a scrap piece of paper, the words 林淑钻 - the chinese name of an eurasion girl, by whom i was at one time quite smitten. this was actually written by her. she seemed to always have a smile on her face and would respond in a warm and friendly way whenever i tried to talk to her. even though i think she knew i had a thing for her, she never purposely led me on nor flat rejected me with any cold shoulder treatments, rather she just related to me as a normal person. that's how it came across anyway... i lost contact with her after she graduated from school, and a few years later i found out that she had moved to europe to work there. i can still hazily picture her face... though doubt i would recognise her if i saw her now.
   
   
3. written on a sheet from a notepad, a chinese poem that i had written. when i saw it i was really surprised, cos i don't remember writing it at all! i have written a few english poems in my time, but chinese is a different ball game altogether. all the evidence points to it being an original work by me, but i have no idea who/what inspired me. it's like there's a complete blank in that part of my memory. there is another poem (in english) written on the same piece of paper - that story behind that poem i remember well - and this leads me to think that perhaps the chinese one is in response to the same girl/incident. anyway... had to whip out the old dictionary cos i couldn't remember some of the words! i'm too cheem for my own good :p well, that's not to say the poem itself is a good poem... it just looks the part ;) anyway here's the poem... and it was even written in old school chinese style, ie lines running right to left, and reading top to bottom within each line:
   

   ~失恋~
   
   不失但总
   能望眼有
   拥的泪想
   有心却哭
   无早不的
   奈已肯感
   迫知流觉

*sigh* what a tangled web we weave, when we seek to leave and cleave... ;)

speeding towards redemption and rest

i got a chance to redeem my poor sporting efforts in the last day of competition at the workplace commonwealth games, teaming with a more senior member of my team to take out silver in our pool at the "swimming" - basically a relay race on foot wearing goggles, a swimming cap, and with one of those foam "noodle" flotation devices between our legs. despite a nearly botched changeover (my teammate's glasses got caught up in the headwear when he was taking them off) and a false finish (i forgot to run back to the starting point to complete the last leg of the race), i managed to outdash another team who made the same mistake at the penultimate stop, squeezing in for a silver medal finish.

and while we were waiting for competitors to assemble at the muster point, i had a few more practice throws at the darts ("archery" event from day 3 of competition) and to my chagrin was having much more success landing them (and having them stick) on the scoreboard... maybe with better preparation, we might not have come last overall... maybe we could have been a contender :p

then on saturday night, after a long day out, i was finally headed home after another false start (forgot to take something back with me, so had to double back). looking forward to some much needed sleep, i drove past a speed camera unit on the way. i saw it as i approached, checked my speed, eased off the accelerator (i was a bit over the limit), and cruised by, thinking i was safe, only to notice a flash of light from behind as i passed by. there were no other cars around in either direction that were near enough for me to think that the flash was intended for me - guess i'll have to wait and see if the postman brings me a fine delivery in the next few weeks...

when i got home, i saw this video, a meditation on the speed limit, waiting as a headline on my rss reader. bemused at the apparent irony of the title, i watched it, thinking it was going to further chastise my conscience about obeying the laws of the land etc etc. but it was actually setting out to show how the laws are stupid (not that i necessarily agree on that point), through staging a "stunt" involving having a group of cars bunched up and travelling together, at the speed limit, across the width of a motorway, and seeing the reaction of other motorists. a remark by one of the guys involved in the video was somewhat striking - he said something to the effect of "we were dangerous, but we were dangerous because we were doing the speed limit".

speaks volumes about the rest of the drivers on the road, doesn't it?

sporting sob stories

in light of the current commonwealth games, my workplace has put on a little competition of its own between the various teams in our area. each team had to adopt a commonwealth nation, and send two representatives to compete in each of 5 modified sports.

after 2 other team members claimed bronze in the first day of competition, i was up next in "netball" and "archery" over the last two days. netball was really a toy basketball hoop thing, and archery a toy/velcro darts set.

i sucked. big time.

out of 3 practice shots and 4 actual shots in the basketball, i probably airballed half and barely managed to hit the rim or backboard with the rest. so the balls were terribly light and the ring rather small... and most people struggled so i didn't feel *too* bad at scoring zero for my efforts.

today in the darts, i had about 4 practice throws and 3 actual scoring shots... i don't know how the others did it (i think everyone outscored me by a significant amount) but most of my thrown darts went tumbling through the air, failing to hit the board head first and just bouncing off! my only scoring shot was hanging off on one or two velcro hooks, dangling very precariously and threatening to fall off... but it didn't, so at least i didn't walk away with nothing.

so thanks to my very paltry efforts, our team is running a very distant last 3/5 of the way into the comp. i'm not usually a very competitive person but doing this badly (even in a competition i don't care much for) has me shaking my head... oh well, guess i should stick to doing what i'm paid to do...

super bowl ads

yeah i know i'm a bit behind the times on this topic, but i don't watch or follow the sport so i don't really care. happened to be trawling through the google blog archives recently and came across a listing for the ads shown during super bowl, hosted on google video. couldn't watch all of them (some restriction cos i'm not in the US??) but there were a few picks from the bunch which i found particularly funny/creative (though you'd think that it should be a darn good ad for the amount of money advertisers pay to get their 30-odd second slice of airtime):

• 3 of the bud light commercials (Hidden Bud Light, Save Yourself and Secret Fridge)
• Michelob Amber: Touch Football
  
• FedEx: Stick
• Sierra Mist
  
• Sprint: Locker Room

good for some short term diversionary entertainment :)

swings and roundabouts - part 2

all this to-ing and fro-ing had some parallels in a recent series of decisions i had to make. my mobile phone of 5+ years had been out of contract for a long time, and i had never gotten around to getting an upgrade of the phone and/or plan. i guess a big reason was that most of the plans available these days do not represent as much value for my usage patterns as the plan i was already on. however, since my contract was finished, i no longer had a phone to pay off, yet was still spending the same minimum monthly amount - that didn't quite make sense either.

and so, over the course of the last few weeks, i started doing some serious research into the current mobile market. i checked various service providers and resellers, and investigated their plans and avaialable phones. because there was no standout winner, i ummed and ahhed over a shortlist, and was almost excited to have discovered a solution which which i was sure would save me money. that was until i read the fine print on the terms and conditions of one of the plans that was part of my scheme, and that put a serious spanner in what i was proposing to do. my little scheme turned out to be too good to be true, and i was back to the drawing board.

on the spur of the moment, i decided to visit one more shop, and there i found new options to consider - a normally more expensive phone (and thus one which i had ruled out of consideration) available for free on a plan i could consider. and i found out that i could actually apply for a business plan (thanks to the ABN i got a few years ago but have never used), which meant cheaper rates! but i would lose access to yes time and yes weekend, which i've been holding onto these last few years. oh well, i was prepared for that from the beginning anyway.

after a bit more research, i decided that this represented the best deal, even though i wasn't sure whether i liked the phone all that much. and so i went in last week to sign the paperwork and get my new phone - a phone that was new enough and uncommon enough that would, as a FOM noted, draw comments a plenty every time i pull it out of my pocket. however, after about one night's playing with the phone, i concluded that i didn't like it enough to keep and use it. so i looked at selling it and using the money to buy the phone i was hoping to get in the first place... albeit one that was rather common among people i knew.

thinking through that decision a little more led to consider simpler phones... i don't really need an integrated camera (i have a dedicated and amply capable digital camera for this purpose), an mp3 player (haven't needed one so far, and can play mp3s on my PDA if i really wanted to), or radio and polyphonic ringtones etc. i just need a phone that can make and take calls. and i was surprised to find that there are actually some models out there that are just phones, and without all these additional bits and pieces. and they were cheap too, so i could have a fair bit left over in my pocket at the end of the day.

so then i started thinking what i could do with this excess, and remembered a request i had received earlier in the year for some financial support. i hadn't responded/committed to anything, but figured this "profit" may as well go towards meeting that need. then i realised that i don't really need a colour screen, and i already have a phone that just makes and takes calls, and it's still working ok (having survived being dropped in a bucket of water, and several falls onto concrete/cement surfaces)...

anyways. i've sold the new phone, and will use the proceeds as a medium of blessing. and i'll keep using my hardy nokia 6210... it took a while for the dazzle of technology and prestige to wear off on this self-confessed geek, but i'm glad that in the end i've been able to apply some of what i've been learning in "redefining success" (book by omar djoeandy, which my cell group has just finished reading) and the "cash values" bible study book. and i hope that my sharing about this does not come across as a 'sounding of the trumpets'... feel free to rebuke me if it is?

swings and roundabouts - part 1

that's the term a colleague used to describe the movement of staff at work... we were talking about the situation in which i found myself just over a week ago. shortly before christmas, a few of us in our usual business line (BSL1) were approached with an opportunity for "development" - a temporary deployment, to a different business line (BSL2), to begin after the new year. it was meant to last 3 months.

while working in BSL2, those of us from BSL1 noticed how busy BSL1 seemed to be. in order to not breach a client service standard, a practice known as "callbacks" is employed whenever the waiting time for clients ringing in looks likely to reach the 10 minute mark. this practice involves answering the call for the sole purpose of arranging a return call at a later time - the theory being that this gets through a large number of calls fairly quickly, thus reducing the overall queue wait time. many dislike this practice, as it is typically seen as a bureaucratic means to be able to say that the service standard was not breached (since the call - though not necessarily the question - was answered within 10 minutes). usually callbacks only happen during our peak season. this was not peak season, yet callsbacks were occurring on a daily basis, and multiple times each day. those of us on deployment were glad to not be part of that action.

then there were rumours that our deployment would be extended for another few months, because BSL1 had to cut staff numbers (budgetary constraints) and were busy deploying staff elsewhere. nobody could quite fathom how this would help with the call load situation. then we (the deployed staff), along with other normal BSL2 staff, started being told to assist BSL1 by taking some of BSL1's calls. this became a daily routine - sometimes for a few hours, sometimes for the whole day. it made absolutely no sense - take someone from BSL1, move them over to BSL2, but still have them effectively work for BSL1. the cynics will say this too is a budgetary thing... since our time is being paid for out of BSL2's funds.

then came the official announcement that yes, our stay would be extended.

before the morning was over, this changed. now, instead of staying on another 3 months, we would be going back to BSL1 three weeks ahead of schedule! and so, as quickly and unexpectedly as it all started, it has now ended. i've been back for 1 week, and i can't say it feels good to be home.

lego links

FOM sent me this link via msn... top 10 strangest lego creations. it really boggles the mind that some of the creations listed are actually functional items, like the harpsicord, knitting machine (see a movie clip of it in action), difference engine and pinball machine.

i do recall playing with lego in my younger days, but it was a few worlds away from these efforts - maybe if i had more blocks, and a lot more time! hehe. well i guess God just didn't give me the gift of lego design... if i did have such a gift though, would i use it to make something that helps to bring glory to my name, or to His? without detracting from the skills of these mentioned above creators, i can't help but think that something like the brick testament (using lego to illustrated selected passages from the Bible) is a rather more fruitful application of such gifts, for it points the viewer to, and helps them to know, the Creator who made them.

although it's not quite the same context, this reminds me of a few lines from a song

Knowing you, Jesus, knowing you
There is no greater thing

video goodness

some nice videos on the net that i've come across recently...

• Animusic Sample - Real-time rendered version of Pipe Dream created for the ATI video card line.
  
• The Creation - sand animation sequence performed at the closing ceremony of Seoul SICAF 2003.
• viscount6 - performances from a concert given by this group of four asian (and presumably) christians singers, accompanied by a guitar.

watching the last lot of videos remind me of the simple pleasure and enjoyment of singing with friends. one memory of such an occasion is during my trip to KL last december, where one evening i found myself sitting in room full of (mostly) strangers, and not really minding the fact that there were only two people there i had known/met longer than a few days, since everyone was chilling out and having a good old singalong. having pretty much made their way through the christmas carols by the time i got there, next up were oldies from the 60s. now i thought that i had a passable awareness of english 60s tunes for an asian, but there was one girl there who was younger than me but knew so many more songs than i! below is a video of her and my host, singing "all i have to do is dream", accompanied by a backing chorus and two guitars - it was a very cool feeling to be in the midst of such atmosphere :)

the funny thing about martyrdom

(not funny as in haha funny, obviously.)

i recently re-read "through gates of splendour" - a book by elisabeth elliot which tells the story of the 5 missionaries who met their death while attempting to bring the Gospel to the auca indians in ecuador in the mid 1950s.

last weekend i went and bought a copy of "the shadow of the almighty", which is the biography of jim elliot, one of those 5 men whose life was taken by the ones to whom he was trying to bring real life. in the preface, elisabeth (again the author) writes:

Jim's aim was to know God. His course, obedience - the only course that could lead to the fulfilment of his aim. His end was what some would call an extraordinary death, although in facing death he had quietly pointed out that many have died because of obedience to God.

He and the other men with whom he died were hailed as heroes, 'martyrs'. I do not approve. Nor would they have approved.

Is the distinction between living for Christ and dying for Him, after all, so great? Is not the second the logical conclusion of the first? Furthermore, to live for God is to die, 'daily', as the apostle Paul put it. It is to lose everything that we may gain Christ. It is in thus laying down our lives that we find them.

[....]

When Jim was 20 years old he prayed, 'Lord, make my way prosperous, not that I achieve high station, but that my life may be an exhibit to the value of knowing God.' His life was that to me, who shared it more intimately than any other. Was it extraordinary? I offer these pages so that the reader may decide for himself. If his answer is yes - if he finds herein the 'stamp of Christ', and decides that this is extraordinary - what shall we say of the state of Christendom?

i've emphasised the last sentence in the hope that others will avoid the mistake i almost made in reading it too quickly on the first pass, and thus be in danger of failing to grasp its wide and deep implications.

it's ironic then that the back cover of my copy of "gates" refers to these men as just that: martyrs. but let not the possible pedantry over definitions prove puncturous a perfectly powerful pedagogical point!