Got a nice souvenuir on my first time blading. The side of the right skate had been chafing against my shin and took a nice piece of skin with it. No blood but nice clear patch of skin gone. I always seem to have chafing problems.

Looks like it'll be some time before I get to blade well. Last 200m was horrendous; the 9 o'clock sun is hotter than I thought and took a lot out of me.

This roller skating thing is harder than I thought. Neighbours must have been wondering who's that idiot trying out his blades on the carpark and whether he would damage their cars.

ICQ message from Jocelyn:


just got back to the states....landed a couple of hours ago...
plane got delayed in taipei....
engine blew up in flames whilst we were in flight...
....we were in flight for bout 30 mins.....
there was sort of a boom ...
and engine caught fire.....
and there was an auto extinguisher...
and plane felt as though it was in turbulance for a bit.....
kinda scary....
couple of pple got hysterical....but most passengers were asleep
had to turn back to taipei....
stayed overnight....
flew next morning...
other wise......am ok i guess....just detesting that school begins monday
reat thrill eh......stoopid pilot took so long to decide whether to turn back or not.....kept every one in the dark...and never even mentioned what happened....just said there's a malfunction....strange occurance (no shit!)....will keep it under observation for a bit
and only after 15 mins later did he mention that we'll turn back to taipei....
i was thinking ......what the hell......he betta not sacrifice 300 odd passengers for a schedule to land in SF on three blardy engines....


And of course, it was China Airlines...

. I want to write about people who dream and wait for the night to end, who long for the light so that they can hold the ones they love. But right now I have to stay here and keep watch over this woman and this girl. I will never let anyone—not anyone—try to put them into that crazy box, not even if the sky should fall or the earth crack open with a roar.
- HONEY PIE, by HARUKI MURAKAMI
Get this story soon as The New Yorker will remove it probably by the end of the week. I've never read much of Murakami's stuff but this story is quite affecting.

Holy cow, 2 GHz Pentiums debuting soon. I'm salivating.

Visited a colleague at hospital. She had a tumour extracted that had make it difficult for her to breathe. Only 21 but at least she's doing fine now; out 6 - 8 weeks. Looks like the other designer is going to have a lot of work on her hands...

Yes it's MOR but Sade's vocals really aren't too bad.

Every camera tells a story...

Just had A&W's foot long hot dog. The bread sucks; crumples in your hands as you eat it.

Anyway, back home early to see who the new tenant taking over Michael's room might be. Michael is damn kanzheong fella; called me several times and asked why the air conditioning had turned itself on. I mean how would I know? Ghosts in the machine I guess.

Ok back to the grind. I'm glad that the classes are over. Boss is going off tomorrow for a holiday so lots of things to catch up on.

Paid up all my bills today; PUB/M1/Singtel. Painful. Bro asked me to bid for COE as well so $10k is locked up. I hope it comes back tomorrow.

Cheque for review of From Hell finally came in. Some breathing room.

Other search phrases that have found me:
fields+of+gold+cassidy+mp3
"I don't like Mondays" scores
alfian sa'at
solomon depression sleep demon

Feeling much better but a bit drowsy. Left the class early. Am glad they're only having the class from 12-6 on Thursday and Friday.

My photos have been developed and while some are crap, some are all right. Have to watch the contrasts, but there were a couple of shots I really liked. Not cheap, but does make me want to shoot more. Will try to scan in a few the next couple of days.

Emode says I'm an architect...

Men at Thirty

Thirty today, I saw
The trees flare briefly like
The candles upon a cake
As the sun went down the sky,
A momentary flash
Yet there was time to wish

Before the break light could die
If I had known what to wish
As once I must have known
Bending above the clean candlelit tablecloth
To blow them out with a breath


Men at Forty

Men at forty
Learn to close softly
The doors to rooms they will not be
Coming back to

- Donald Justice

Man the medicine is really knocking me out. Feel like I could sleep for a year. I hope I get rid of this bug by tomorrow.

I'm so Happy... happiness and how it's measured in different countries.

New York Times article about Artikos, the Bjork remix MP3 site that already has songs from her Verspertine album.

Down with the flu today. Might have something to do with sleeping with air conditioning. It always gives me problems and since my fan has sounded like an iron mill lately I haven't been using it. Got an MC for today but I don't enjoy being sick at all. Tons of work piling up somemore. At least it means I won't have to attend the class today. Probably would infect almost everyone else in the studio we're using that's too cold before 6 and too warm after.

Was tempted to get a crockpot while buying a new fan. Maybe next time... got to get some good crockpot recipes.

Went to take some photos with old friend at Sri Mariamman temple. It's a good place to test your camera especially with the beguiling amount of colour. Finished some shots; there's always this fear about taking people one needs to conquer. When I'm overseas I don't really care, but in Singapore, I seem to.

After that met up with Keat at his office. Told me to meet him at 4:15, when I got there it was 5, and when we left it was like 7:30. Jenn his gf came along, and we had a good time talking, particularly about unmarried female Singaporean graduates. I commented on how one of the main reasons for SDU's failure was people conceived of those joining as losers. She did say that a lot of the guys in there were mousy types while the gals were more fun. Amongst Jenn's friends of five only one was married with kids apparently, and hopefully Keat wakes up does the right thing and marries her. He's looking at a place; showed me an apartment they had thought about at Tanglin Halt but his mom didn't like it because he believed the man staying below was a medium.