Went down to the Lomo exhibition at Emerald Hill but found it disappointing. Too many out of focus pics and no concept. The lomo really isn't that suited for late night photography, and some pix are ok for your private photo collection but not for exhibition. With such mediocre work, it'll just discourage people from attending exhibitions in future.

After that, walked up Emerald Hill and encountered some kids. Found some maids looking after triplets; one maid for each. Well, this is Singapore...

The mystery of love is greater than the mystery of death. - Oscar Wilde

That's the quote that starts off The Smashing Pumpkins Stand Beside Your Love. The videos are great, though I found Bullet With Butterfly Wings slightly pretentious with its use of images lifted from Sebastiao Salgado's Workers series. Disarm is the best vid, and also a super cool song. Oh James Iha is really groovy. A very funny guy too.

Talked to a very interesting person. Wanted to do design but was assigned to do engineering in poly instead. Struggled in first year but made it through. Then went to do a part time degree from Uni of London/SIM, and now intends to do a Masters in Econs. Boy the thought of studying again makes me retch, especially part time. I guess I'm too much of a bum...

I've become the #1 fan of Maryann's ultra-adorable cat, Zen. She even did a flash of him for me. You can find his photos here

Boy quite an evening. Met up with Evelyn at Creation Cafe and had an excellent beef lasagna followed by a much too rich brownie. Helped Eve carry two very heavy bags of cat food that would last her cat... a week? What you keeping Eve, a Sabre Tooth Tiger?

After that was off to Chijmes to meet Joselyn who's flying off to Sydney for studies tomorrow (*envy*) then to Borders to meet Sueann and Sunshine for a quick tea. Bumped into Angie and Michelle, would be entrepeneurs. Came back tired, minus two cookies jars, pluse three DVDs including, finally, The Smashing Pumpkins Video collection. Looking forward to watching that! Am I relieved it's the weekend...

Sometimes I feel like I have a secret identity.
Dave, by day, IT geek.
By night, writer (or wannabe).

I need to get rid of this schmism soon. At least my brother is supportive. Now mom....

One of the better Letterman Top Tens:

Top Ten Signs The FedEx Guy Is In Love With You

I have to fill out like a gazillion forms for my US trip. Sigh. Damn troublesome.

Daniel Pearl is dead... sigh. A barbaric act of cowards.

The latest fix:
esther used to be
the kind of girl that you would
never leave
she'd do anything
to give me what I need for my disease
she'd do anything
I can hear them talking in the
real world
but they don't understand that
I'm happy in hell
with my heroin girl
- Heroin Girl, Everclear

Saw The Mothman Prophecies and thought it wasn't very good. Moved at a snail's pace. The only really exciting part came at the end. There were a bunch of noisy schoolkids at the back; making comments, answering their handphones during the show and so on. Richard Gere hasn't acted much since Pretty Woman.

Overriding desire to hear Everclear's Heroin Girl. Time to get on MyNapster at home.

This is scary.

Trouble came knocking early at farmer Scott Good's door in August.
"They showed up at my door 6 o'clock in the morning. They flipped a badge out," said Good, a Burlington County soybean grower. "It wasn't polite what they were saying. They acted like FBI."

The two men were private investigators. They had been watching him. Monsanto, the St. Louis agribusiness giant, had sent them. They wanted to know about his beans.

Under advice of his lawyer, Good finally told them: The beans had been grown from seed saved from the previous harvest, a practice that goes back to the beginning of farming. But those unassuming, pea-sized yellow beans were high-tech Monsanto beans.

So even the soybeans you drink are intellectual property. Sickening. In fact, Mosanto had developed a breed of plants that do NOT produce seeds, placing in them something called the Terminator gene. Imagine the consequences of that.

My STREATS horoscope says that by this afternoon, the universe will have forgiven me. But I'm not sure for what.

Looks like my Korean DVD order came through.
Peppermint Candy

A trip backwards in time through one man's life and 20 years of Korean history. This critically-acclaimed film has won numerous awards and achieved a special place in Korean film history.

Flower Island

Winner of the top prize at the Pusan and Tokyo Filmex festivals, Flower Island is the debut feature by Song Il-gon, who won a prize at Cannes for his short film The Picnic. Flower Island, shot on digital video, tells the story of three women who meet by chance and decide to take a trip to an island off the southern coast of Korea.

Was at Webvisions and found they had a cool handprint recognition system. Thought it's all science fiction but it's here and now.

Saw Spirited Away VCD on sale and bought it, even though it only has Chinese subtitles. Hopefully my Chinese is good enough. If not will just have to watch the stunning visuals.

While on my way out from City Hall MRT, was accosted by this guy asking for $2. He had tattoos on his left arm and wore a singlet. I just shook my head and went. I'm not used to giving charity. I thought I'd never see something like that here, but guess times are really, really bad.

At full blast: Nirvana - Smells Like Teen Spirit

The dangers of Karaoke singing...

Another ho hum day. Got to get my VISA done since I'm a potential terrorist threat, coming from Malaysia. Bet my bag will be thoroughly searched.

Met up with Seetoh and finally got the cookies from him. He said if he gets retrenched would work at something else. IT just isn't a line where one can stay happy in. Oh well all the best to him for the new year. Friends tell me it's going to be an unpredictable year. Well in a way isn't that good?

I guess I missed out on the interesting classes in Berkeley.


The University of California at Berkeley, one of the best colleges in the States and known for being open minded, has suspended a male sexuality class after allegations surfaced that students watched their teacher have sex at a strip club and participated in an orgy at a class-related party.

"Those sorts of activities are not part of the approved course curriculum," university spokeswoman Marie Felde told the Sacramento Bee.


The Daily Cal report here.

Quite a downer learning that it won't be a three day weekend for me after all. I already have Saturday off. Was so psyched about the three day weekend... making plans to chill and so on. Ah well..

At least one piece of good news. Got the PUB bill for last month and it's fallen from 200+ to 165! Hope it continues to other months!

I agree with Eve that this article is hilarious.

Playing now: Spiritualized - I Think I'm In Love - Chemical Brothers remix

Taken from The Economist's The Sadness of Japan article. Somehow I find it very eerie.

Saw From Hell which was stylistically good but empty. I thought it seemed pretty hurried. I think people are sick of me saying it, but the comic book was far better than the movie. :) Also, it's not as dark or as brutal as the graphic novel, and some of the references get lost, particularly the idea of the 20th Century being brought forth by the Ripper's murders.