Didn't do much yesterday. Had to work because the new website redesign. At least marketing and sales is supportive of some of our new ideas, particularly the wireless stuff. Would be great though to get someone who knows basic HTML so I won't be doing that anymore. Tedious...

Wanted to catch The Others yesterday night but only crappy seats left. Did manage to find a store that rented out DVDs and borrowed Kurosawa's High Low but wasn't quite as good as I thought it would be. Was also considering catching The Others this morning but the first show is at 12 and meeting Bren at about 2ish. Haven't seen her all week since her best friend is in town. Well means I'll probably zoom to the gym at ten and come back, laze around, do my laundry and try to clean the living room. Really domesticated.

Ex-ACC colleagues came by yesterday and we watched Reservoir Dogs (bloody, bloody, bloody) and for a total change of pace, Totoro. I think Res Dogs went over the heads of a lot of people. Even I couldn't catch some of that dialogue some time. Doubt if I'll get the Special Edition that's coming out, though it's tempting to. Totoro is always a winner. Cute and whimsical. We also ordered pizza from this place called US Pizza. Their pork floss pizza is pretty good. Guess we'll see pork floss on just about everything and we have Bread Talk to blame for that.

Highly amusing article about what to do with wedding rings after divorce.

I liked this story:

My engagement and wedding rings sit in my jewelry box. Gold and diamonds hold their value, so I consider them my savings account. For the sake of symbolism, I used my wedding video to tape ER.

—Amy

Discovered a dead lizard in my cereal... think I'd better buy something to store it in next time.

The next person to get journal #528 of the 1000 journals is my dahlink granddotter Alice. :) I'm sure your entry will be neater than mine!

Suddenly all the search terms that lead to my site are 'Ann Poh Big Breasts'. Sheesh.

Surely, 3Tap, you can put more in your journal. ;) Don't you want your kids to read it one day and know what their dada was like?

Listening to Best of Matthew Sweet. I hardly bought any albums last year. I used to have a S$100/ month habit for CDs, and looks like it's mutated into a S$200/month habit for DVDs. (Actually I spent more than that last month...) Guess tastes change. Sweet can get pretty depressing, with songs such as You Don't Love Me and Someone to Pull the Trigger. Not the thing to listen to when you're in that throw yourself off the roof mood.

Marketing guys overloaded the server again and made the bloody database crash. Pretty peeved as they're putting in stupid MS-word generated code which is very heavy image and html wise. Boss says they'll moving to a new server so hopefully that problem will be fixed quickly. Finally managed to get the bloody marketing people to send the schedule for Channel U. Why it takes so long I don't know. I guess once you send an email to the right people and cc the bloody idiot who's supposed to send you the item then you can get a response. Buey Zhi Dong. Not a great start to the year, I'll say.

Also had to help fork out for lunch. Really should avoid going out with the team for lunch always spend a bomb. Fortunately it was at a cheap dim sum place, though it wasn't very good. There was an old guy sitting at one of the tables; hair frazzled, what looks like his belongings stuffed into a raffia bag at his feet.

To PK, about the book: Fuhgetabooutit. ;)

For the science buffs; an article about glaciers and how they start.

Just finished Carnival of Souls, so that makes it three movies in a day and two Simpsons episodes besides. No wonder I have a mild headache. Entertaining B&W movie about this woman who survives a car crash, only to find herself haunted by zombie in suits. Yeap... some of the scenes were pretty effective, though a little cheesy. The disc also had a bunch of trailers for such old time flicks such as Plan 9 from Outer Space and Bride of The Monster. All from Ed Wood I believe. Enjoyable viewing.

Sounds like some people got busy at the book sale. Have too much to read and too many books already. Still have a bunch of New Yorkers to clear, and all the stuff I read from New York Times Magazine, The Atlantic Online and such. Anyway, happy reading all!

Didn't do much today. Couldn't swim as the pool was closed but would have been perfect for it. Stayed at home, SC came over and watched Raging Bull (Fantastic!) and El Mariachi, the film Robert Rodriguez did for US$7k. The El Mariachi disc had a ten minute film school, but frankly you'll really need to have lots of talent to do what Robert Rodriguez did. It was done without audio, but still worked brilliantly. He couldn't even afford slates!

Well New Year was good. Couldn't get a shuttle to get back to take the MRT though so just had to take a cab back. Ouch. Hurt my wallet. Definitely overspent last month, so better watch it this coming year.

Happy New Year to all! One of my resolutions is not to take anymore online tests! Saves me lotsa time. :)

Movie plots for Two Towers and Return of the King.

Just saw Lord of the Rings and have to say it's astounding. I was totally absorbed for three hours and after the movie, eagerly awaiting part two. Peter Jackson really has done an exceptional of translating the novel into the screen, and in fact, made it much more palatable for a general audience. Even many who have never read the book are thrilled to bits by it. I doubt if it will win the Best Picture Oscar, but I think it fully deserves to. So much more exciting than Gladiator, which won last year, and in a universe that you just want to find out more about.

Well last day of 2001. It's been quite a wild year. The rise and fall of TV Works was quite an experience, and will leave a strong memory. Lots of people laid off; the death of Asiacontent Singapore, learning about 9/11 while watching TV Mobile, the strange affair with Magdalene, my dad's ailing health.... quite a memorable year. I didn't accomplish all I wanted, but hope to be able to do so in 2002. Of course, meeting Brenda was one of the best things to happen to me this year, (I can see Jo eagerly awaiting to insert sarcastic comment) 2002 looks interesting: a nephew on the way, a trip to the US in April, my sister's wedding at the end of next year probably, and a very strong chance of yet another career change. How do people stick to a job or a single company for eight years, really? Maybe because they've found something they're happy with, and I haven't.

Had dinner with Kevin, Mel, PK, Yoon Shen, HK Joe and Yoyo. Couldn't get a place at some Chinese restaurant at seedy Orchard Towers and no luck at Tony Ryan's either. So settled for Subway. Quite good to catch up with them. Turns out Elf has joined the Singapore Film Society but not bumped into Toh Hai Leong yet. ;) She will... $80 for a year? Nah no time really.

Also watched Leila and Shrek. Leila was a bit too melodramatic for my tastes but some parts of it were heartfelt. But lots of missed subtitling which annoyed me no end. Shrek was fun but did not have a timeless quality. Lots of inside jokes but generally quite fun but didn't feel it would withstand the test of time. Also my last DVD purchase of the year; Three Kings. Love that movie and went through the deleted scenes. There's one scene where they break open snowglobes that show the Biblical scene of the Three Kings to drink the water inside. I guess it was taken out of the movie because it didn't serve much purpose but quite well done nevertheless. Definitely one of the most underrated movies around.