For a couple of months now, S and I have been scheming to start up a Bi-Mon-Sci-Fi-Con (or Bi-monthly-science-fiction-convention for the uninitiated). As I currently have the Sci Fi channel, the plan is basically taping a random episode of pretty much every current series and then watch them in one marathon session. I've taped the shows, the list including Star Trek Next Gen, Firefly, The Outer Limits, Stargate SG-1, Stargate Atlantis, Sliders and maybe one or two others I'm currently forgetting. Circumstances (and by this I mean visitors and my current study) have conspired against the inaugral Singapore Bi-Mon-Sci-Fi-Con. Schedule is currently looking very bleak as we both deal with visitors and I move into the final, sanity defying phase of the course.
We've even added to the value of the day by agreeing it's important that we both try to identify a theme which runs through all of these random episodes of the disparate series'. Now it's gotten the final virgin nipple that tips this from a geekfest into the realm of glorious, messianic confluence of all things wonderful. I was walking home from work tonight and decided that the best possible thing I could have for dinner was satays from Satay Street (yes, there IS such a thing! I know how jealous you all are mwuahahahaha). I texted S to gloat and he came back with one profound and defining word : Bi-Mon-Satay-Con.
So that's it. We get random episodes of now defunct science fiction tv show AND satays. This has to happen. Soon.
Wednesday, October 22, 2008
Tuesday, October 14, 2008
The world is getting dumber...
This will be all over the blogosphere within a couple of hours, but everytime I think about it I want to scratch out my eyes and burn all the entire judicial system. I'm figuring it'll be some kind of giant wicker man that I can pretty easily set fire to and then *poof* no more law.
A UK woman has escaped jail for having sex with a 14 year old boy. Besides the stupidity of such a decision, can we just imagine for a second that it was a 40 year old man that had sex with a 14 year old girl. Hoooooooooooooow many years do you think he'd get? I imagine he'd be getting comfy for at least 5-7 years. Not to mention the public outcry and the familiar new millennium refrain that men are evil. Let's face it people, men do horrible things, women do horrible things and anyone that takes a child to bed should be in jail.
I wonder whether the "I'm a sad and lonely man" defence will sort me out should I encounter any future problems with the law.
Didn't pay your parking fines for a couple of years? I'm sad and lonely!
Stole that sparkly lipgloss that tastes like strawberries? I'm sad and lonely!
Murdered your wife in a fit of rage? I'm sad and lonely-er!
A UK woman has escaped jail for having sex with a 14 year old boy. Besides the stupidity of such a decision, can we just imagine for a second that it was a 40 year old man that had sex with a 14 year old girl. Hoooooooooooooow many years do you think he'd get? I imagine he'd be getting comfy for at least 5-7 years. Not to mention the public outcry and the familiar new millennium refrain that men are evil. Let's face it people, men do horrible things, women do horrible things and anyone that takes a child to bed should be in jail.
I wonder whether the "I'm a sad and lonely man" defence will sort me out should I encounter any future problems with the law.
Didn't pay your parking fines for a couple of years? I'm sad and lonely!
Stole that sparkly lipgloss that tastes like strawberries? I'm sad and lonely!
Murdered your wife in a fit of rage? I'm sad and lonely-er!
How my logic works
Not sure whether I actually blogged about this...
When I was on Bintan I wandered through the resort's zoo. One of the exciting things I saw was a giant python in a three by three metre tank. It was just huge. It's belly was probably about the size of both my thighs put together. I wondered what they fed it. Seems to me that a few mice wouldn't satisfy this beasty.
That night as I slept I dreamt that I was back at the python tank. One of the resort workers was feeding the python. As I leaned in closer to see exactly what it was they were feeding the python, I realised that they were actually feeding the python baby pandas! In the dream, I thought to myself - wow, at least now I know why there are so few pandas left in the world!
When I was on Bintan I wandered through the resort's zoo. One of the exciting things I saw was a giant python in a three by three metre tank. It was just huge. It's belly was probably about the size of both my thighs put together. I wondered what they fed it. Seems to me that a few mice wouldn't satisfy this beasty.
That night as I slept I dreamt that I was back at the python tank. One of the resort workers was feeding the python. As I leaned in closer to see exactly what it was they were feeding the python, I realised that they were actually feeding the python baby pandas! In the dream, I thought to myself - wow, at least now I know why there are so few pandas left in the world!
Wagging school
S was skiving off work yesterday so he called me up and asked me to come and hang out. The last time we'd done something like this (and we used to do it *very* regularly) was when we were in our final year of high school. Oh how things have changed. But it's very nice to step back into the past. Between this and a Sonic Youth revival I'm beginning to think I should just rent out a room in 1996.
Monday, October 13, 2008
Seen but not heard
Fantastic article in The Age today about migrant workers in Dubai. For the record... it's absolutely no different here in Singapore. It's just that nobody wants to talk about human rights abuse.
Sunday, October 12, 2008
I see the girls walk by dressed in their Summer clothes...
Scary when you craft a really long post and then have to delete it all because you're in very practical danger of becoming a whiny bitch.
In short :
-thumbs up for economic ruin
- thumbs down for rich expat women who can't even be arsed looking after their own children. Oh! I forgot - that's what maids are for!
- thumbs down for study in all its forms
- thumbs up for dinners in Little India, really need to do that this week...
- thumbs up for Andrew Corrie joining Collingwood
- thumbs down for being in Singapore when you need to be back in Melbourne for people, even though you being there would do nothing whatsoever
- thumbs up for planned trips back to Melbourne
- thumbs for turning my own blog into an emo playground
In short :
-thumbs up for economic ruin
- thumbs down for rich expat women who can't even be arsed looking after their own children. Oh! I forgot - that's what maids are for!
- thumbs down for study in all its forms
- thumbs up for dinners in Little India, really need to do that this week...
- thumbs up for Andrew Corrie joining Collingwood
- thumbs down for being in Singapore when you need to be back in Melbourne for people, even though you being there would do nothing whatsoever
- thumbs up for planned trips back to Melbourne
- thumbs for turning my own blog into an emo playground
Wednesday, October 8, 2008
Cheesecake afterglow
I've mentioned before that I've been told and learnt that Singapore is a small place. Sometimes you get reminded of this. Today an ex-student of mine from Melbourne ran into me randomly in Plaza Sing. He had told me he was coming to live here and we'd been in touch a couple of months ago, however with the deletion of my Facebook account he would have had no way to contact me. So it's incredibly fortunate that he bumped into me and we were able to exchange contact details. Anyhow, the migration from Melbourne to Singapore continues. That's three friends from Melbourne who have moved here in the eighteen months since I arrived. After years of never having any home people when I've been doing the ex-pat thing, I must confess that this is a very refreshing change.
Did some exam preparation today which went swimmingly. My boss was very impressed considering how little work I have done towards it so far. That is, until he asked me to write out some phonemic script and it became obvious that I was very, very illiterate in this area. I don't know whether to be chuffed or annoyed at myself regarding the shock and disappointment in his eyes when he realised this. Admittedly he said he didn't learn it backwards until this stage in the course when he was undertaking it. But I guess he just assumed I knew it. I guess it speaks well of how management regard me that this would come as a shock to them, however it does underline my own feeling that I pull the wool over everyone's eyes and that I've now been partially exposed for the fraud I am hehe. My boss didn't really care but he *very* strongly advised me to get on the horse and make it happen. Sigh... like there's not enough.
Had a lovely night of many entrees and drinks with S and A at Chjimes tonight. I almost never go there, but we were around. We actually went to (hide your disdain please!!!) Harry's and had "crazy hour" drinks and satays, nachos, caesar salad and hot wings. i never claimed it was healthy but I can divulge that it was delicious. This was followed up with Chocolate Volcano and Cheesecake at Bobby's next door. As a non-dessert kind of guy I can tell you that these were special. Right down to me commandeering the last bite for myself (a rare moment of selfishness, but if you'd tasted this cheesecake you would understand).
Did some exam preparation today which went swimmingly. My boss was very impressed considering how little work I have done towards it so far. That is, until he asked me to write out some phonemic script and it became obvious that I was very, very illiterate in this area. I don't know whether to be chuffed or annoyed at myself regarding the shock and disappointment in his eyes when he realised this. Admittedly he said he didn't learn it backwards until this stage in the course when he was undertaking it. But I guess he just assumed I knew it. I guess it speaks well of how management regard me that this would come as a shock to them, however it does underline my own feeling that I pull the wool over everyone's eyes and that I've now been partially exposed for the fraud I am hehe. My boss didn't really care but he *very* strongly advised me to get on the horse and make it happen. Sigh... like there's not enough.
Had a lovely night of many entrees and drinks with S and A at Chjimes tonight. I almost never go there, but we were around. We actually went to (hide your disdain please!!!) Harry's and had "crazy hour" drinks and satays, nachos, caesar salad and hot wings. i never claimed it was healthy but I can divulge that it was delicious. This was followed up with Chocolate Volcano and Cheesecake at Bobby's next door. As a non-dessert kind of guy I can tell you that these were special. Right down to me commandeering the last bite for myself (a rare moment of selfishness, but if you'd tasted this cheesecake you would understand).
Monday, October 6, 2008
Just when you think you're not 16 anymore...
This year has been a frustrating, tiring and ultimately mistake-laden one. I'm just beginning to see the end of the course I've been doing. To compare it to scratching nails down a chalkboard is to downplay the harmonies that creates. I have one more observation left, an extended assignment and an exam. I say that like it's fingers snappable and done. The truth? A bit further than that. But it does seem more foreseeable than it did even a few weeks ago. After bunkering down for the past week and a half moaning about the decisions that I myself made I feel as though I've woken up. Still moaning, but awake. It's never a good sign when even seeing hot girls in the street just doesn't make me turn my head. I aced (I think!) the observation I had today. This is a very very good thing as this course has been slowly sucking my confidence away. A now departed friend told me it would, but I figured I could handle anything that the course could throw. I'm handling. I wouldn't say well, but colleagues have told me that I'm exactly where I should be at this point in the course : fed up, disgusted, exhausted, irrational and completely de-motivated.
The more the year has progressed the more I've begun to miss writing (and blogging). Perhaps that's because I'm writing roughly 5000 words a month in addition to all the reading, a full-time workload and pretending that I still have a social life that is in any way meaningful. Destructive nights of stress relief don't count. I read a book of Raymond Carver short stories while I was away the week before last. The first recreational novel reading I've done since before the course began. Raymond Carver's a weird one for me. I adore his stuff, and being such a huge Murakami fan that makes perfect sense. But in actual fact the first time I bought a Carver book was by accident. I went to the bookshop looking for a Raymond Chandler book, and paying complete and total attention I picked up a Carver book because it had the name Raymond. As I wandered over to the book counter I realised my mistake but read the blurb anyway. The blurb became the first sentence of the first story in What We Talk About When We Talk About Love and then I was walking away with a new author to mull over. Carver speaks about the way things are. Not the blood and guts. Seems more like the puss and excrement. The real stuff. It's not that it's graphic. Just that it's about people that are alone, even with all the people in the world around them. So yeah, there's some appeal to my inner self-obsessiveness there.
Her hair's still all over the floor and in my bed and underfoot. Another top to bottom clean of the apartment is due. It's hard sometimes for people to understand that a breakup can be just as hard for the breaker as it is for the broken. Maybe everyone just ends up broken after these things. Whichever way I spin it to myself the apartment needs cleaning. Wednesday. Maybe even tomorrow afternoon.
The more the year has progressed the more I've begun to miss writing (and blogging). Perhaps that's because I'm writing roughly 5000 words a month in addition to all the reading, a full-time workload and pretending that I still have a social life that is in any way meaningful. Destructive nights of stress relief don't count. I read a book of Raymond Carver short stories while I was away the week before last. The first recreational novel reading I've done since before the course began. Raymond Carver's a weird one for me. I adore his stuff, and being such a huge Murakami fan that makes perfect sense. But in actual fact the first time I bought a Carver book was by accident. I went to the bookshop looking for a Raymond Chandler book, and paying complete and total attention I picked up a Carver book because it had the name Raymond. As I wandered over to the book counter I realised my mistake but read the blurb anyway. The blurb became the first sentence of the first story in What We Talk About When We Talk About Love and then I was walking away with a new author to mull over. Carver speaks about the way things are. Not the blood and guts. Seems more like the puss and excrement. The real stuff. It's not that it's graphic. Just that it's about people that are alone, even with all the people in the world around them. So yeah, there's some appeal to my inner self-obsessiveness there.
Her hair's still all over the floor and in my bed and underfoot. Another top to bottom clean of the apartment is due. It's hard sometimes for people to understand that a breakup can be just as hard for the breaker as it is for the broken. Maybe everyone just ends up broken after these things. Whichever way I spin it to myself the apartment needs cleaning. Wednesday. Maybe even tomorrow afternoon.
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