Shopping in Advance
Decided to preorder some DVDs. Since my credit card will only be charged when they ship, I'll be safe for a bit. And the titles are...
Monsters Inc, Waking Life, From Hell - Director's Cut, Memento - Limited Edition; threw in a copy of the Coen Brothers Blood Simple. I realised there's not enough fun stuff in my collection. Everything seems so 'heavy', except possibly for Samurai Jack. Ok there's some of the Billy Wilder stuff like The Seven Year Itch that I need to sit down and watch. (And no, I'm not going to be sitting in front of my TV watching those if I DON'T get to go to the US.)

The more I think about it, the more it seems likely the agency has screwed up. Why would the Embassy want to keep my passport for so long? I'd just like to know if I got the fucking Visa. If no just return the freaking passport. I was really looking forward to the trip now it just seems less and less likely to happen. I should have called the US embassy last week to find out what was going on. Damn travel agent.

Listening to: Maria Callas - The Marriage of Figaro

Dive and almost Apocalypse
Had cabin fever and stepped out. Not going to spend another evening at home sleeping away. Went to the dive fair at Suntech which had lots of good stuff (thanks Angie for letting me in!); picked up some brochures and bumped into Elf and Yoyo at Tower while trying to pick up some more el cheapo DVDs. (Nope, no The Bicycle Thief) Had dinner at Creation Cafe, went up to the theater where I bumped into my brother and sis-in-law (I hope the cinema is air-con), and then came home. Can't take the 3.5 running time of Apocalypse and Prince is a less than ideal place to watch movies.

Also got approached to quote for a writing gig. Hope it works out. Will mean some extra income and doesn't seem like too much work, I hope.

Time runs out for Argentina
When your banks close, who'll protect you?

Surviving a miscarriage in Japan
Quite a good article. Use cipherpunk for name/password if you don't want to bother with registering.

Morning crap
Something cut out the power this morning. Then went to the living room and found dog shit. Sigh. Apartment mate really needs to do something about the dogs. They're adorable but they really need to know where to poop. Furthermore, some people are coming to look at the room today. I'm sure they'll love to step on some dog shit in the living room.

Also had to do the dishes. Don't know who left them in the sink but guess I'm the one who has to wash it again. Sucks. Ah well..

Wiped out
Came back, thought I'd take a nap for a few hours and ended up sleeping until 3 am. Sorry to those who icqed me. What a waste of a night. Feel like crap. This flu thing better go away soon.

Home on Friday
Came home early to nurse the bloody flu and clean up the place. New tenants coming to look at the place from tomorrow. Also found that NYU had sent me three summer catalogues. That's kind of overdoing it. Anybody who needs one let me know.

Still stranded
Now NAC is faxing something to the US embassy hoping that they'll finally issue the visa. Frankly, there's less and less hope at every turn. This is getting ridiculous. Am making alternate plans if the whole things fall through. Thailand? Vietnam?

Listening to: Sound Museum - Everything We Do Is Music

Drugged
I'm just glad I've taken enough drugs to knock me out for the whole night. This has been a strange evening.

Listening to:Shonen Knife - Sushi Bar

Barter
Life has loveliness to sell,
All beautiful and splendid things;
Blue waves whitened on a cliff,
Soaring fire that sways and sings,
And children's faces looking up,
Holding wonder like a cup.

Life has loveliness to sell;
Music like a curve of gold,
Scent of pine trees in the rain,
Eyes that love you, arms that hold,
And, for the Spirit's still delight,
Holy thoughts that star the night.

Give all you have for loveliness;
Buy it, and never count the cost!
For one white, singing hour of peace
Count many a year of strife well lost;
And for a breath of ecstasy,
Give all you have been, or could be.
  - Sara Teasdale

Stranded
Still no VISA, and asked the agent about delaying. Said would have to charge cancellation fees and so on etc. Well can't expect me to go on the plane without a visa right?
Hate the bloody Americans sitting on their butts. Just give it, if not, just reject it. Sheesh. Assholes.

Cold
Dis is me tawking nohmelly jus dat i haf an elephent stuck ub mai nosed.

Listening to: Semisonic - Singing In My Sleep

Requiescat

Tread lightly, she is near
Under the snow,
Speak gently, she can hear
The daisies grow.

All her bright golden hair
Tarnished with rust,
She that was young and fair
Fallen to dust.

Lily-like, white as snow,
She hardly knew
She was a woman, so
Sweetly she grew.

Coffin-board, heavy stone,
Lie on her breast,
I vex my heart alone
She is at rest.

Peace, Peace, she cannot hear
Lyre or sonnet,
All my life's buried here,
Heap earth upon it.
  - Oscar Wilde

California Dreaming II
It's been so long since I've been somewhere else.

Listening to: Shonen Knife - Daydream Believer
Odd search term of the week: Man of my nightmares

Lethargy
Boy do I hate being sick. Feeling damn knocked out.

Listening to: Tito Puente - Salsa Meets Jazz

It AIN'T the Beatles
It's the Smiths that have been voted most influential band in the last 50 years. What about ABBA damn it?

The Divorce Culture
Now they have different classifications for the divorced. Will there be an internet quiz for this?

Listening to: The Lightning Seeds - Brain Drain

Crash Bang Boom
Hmm.. tried to look at MTVAsia.com but crashed my browser. Well I hope the revamp is going well...

It's Keiko!
Get tickets to watch Keiko Lee live at the University Cultural Center. Too bad I won't be around.

Life after Death
Bidari and what happens after exhumation.
The Bidadari Christian Cemetery is situated on State Land Lots 41-5, 41-7 and 42-8 Mk 24 at the junction of Upper Serangoon Road and Upper Aljunied Road. It is an old burial ground dating back to 1908 and has been closed for burial since November 1972. As the area is affected by high density housing and other public developments, the Housing & Development Board (HDB) will undertake the exhumation of the Cemetery.

Thank you.. for letting me be mahself
'Oh, we have been described as aspiring to be various things: Athens, Venice, Switzerland, Israel, Cuba, Red City and Third China ... But, having considered all things, it would perhaps be better if Singapore contented itself with being the Singapore of Southeast Asia. Not aiming high perhaps, but then we would be ourselves and that is not a bad thing.'
  -- S. Rajaratnam (1985)

Listening to: Dave Matthews - The Space Between Us

Money and Workers
The New Yorker's money issue. Well worth perusing, especially the individual articles about being down and out by Mary Karr, Stephen King and Joyce Carol Oates.

Rich Mom, Poor Dad
Was thinking about all the theories and realised that my mom would probably qualify as one of those smart investors. She build up a lot of assets on her paltry salary and the meager amount my dad gave. It was enough to put my two elder brothers, myself and my sister through university, and there's not much left now. There's still rent to collect and her shares are still doing all right, but if it weren't for my dad's spending and gambling habits that have eliminated most of our savings, things would be a LOT easier for all of us.

So now it's a struggle. Maybe that's good in that it builds character. Would I exchange it for a bit more wealth? Hard to say...

Body Aching
Well now I know it's no fun being sick. Got to do stuff from home anyway. F***!
Listening to: Chemical Brothers - It Began In Africa

Photography... or not?



From Yahoo Picks. Someone who claims that the pictures she takes are NOT photography.

Like an electric eel stuffed down your throat
Looks like I have caught something. Suspect it might be due to Prince's cinema lousy ventilation. It's still in the infancy stages though... better subside by the time I leave. (If I do leave. I'm having less and less faith that my Visa will go through.)

Bad Orphan
Watched The Orphan of Anyang which my friend and I thought wasn't very good. All the standard elements meant for it to succeed at a film festival. The loser, the prostitute and the gangland boss; too bad it was so s-l-o-w. Thankfully it was only about 70+ minutes but it felt m-u-c-h longer. Intolerably so, with little humour or narrative tension to carry the scenes through.

Think I'm coming down with something, which is good. Might be able to get MC tomorrow. Such a great work attitude yah?

Listening to: Travis - River

DUH HUH
Finally found out who's the guy using my email address to send out mail. The mail that someone replied to had his phone number so gave him a call. DUH. Wants to market property in Batam.. Still everyone can be a technical klutz at times. I didn't know my handphone could display names and phone numbers until a friend showed me.

Anyway now I know there's another Dave Chua in the world..

Memory returned
Dug out my 1st generation Palmpilot so I could use it during my trip. (Visa still pending; don't ask). Hardly touch it anymore. Was worried that the batteries might have rotted and eaten away at it, but thankfully not. Managed to hotsync fine still. I don't have much on my Palm. I used it for the address book and calendar functions but nowadays hardly touch it which is why it's all dusty from being at the bottom of my bag. Probably will be a collector's item one day.

The final days of Carol Shields
I loved her book, The Stone Diaries. Right now she's struggling with Stage 4 terminal cancer. There is no Stage 5.

Highly Mutated
Watched Bill Plympton's Mutant Aliens which was pretty loony. As un-Disney as you could probably get. 90 mins of it, however, is enough. He needs to bury some ideas and find new ones though. Tomorrow The Orphan of Anyang and that's enough for a while. Also met with Alice and passed her the Trainspotting DVD. Hope you enjoy it, my granddaughter, and no, I won't be needing it anytime soon. :)

Who's your rich daddy?
So he might not be as smart as one thinks. The truth behind Kiyosaki, but he is a rich guy who's written and marketed something to millions of people thinking they can become rich easily. I finished his second book, where basically he said people could be seperated into the following four categories:

E	B
S	I

Where E = Employees, B = Those who built Business systems, S = Specialists and I - Investors. Those on the left side would probably be unable to reach financial freedom (eg: making enough money from their assets per month to cover their expenses), and the secret was to head for the right side of the table. All easier said then done.