Babysitting
At my brother's place (using a 56k modem which is relatively super slow) and babysiting while my bro and sis-in-law rush out for some quick shopping. Was only supposed to come for brunch but not quite how it turned out. Nephew sleeping soundly though so it's fine. He seems to have grown a bit bigger.

Swim
My bro sent me a bunch of photos of my nephew. Awfully cute. There's one pic of my mom dozing on the couch and baby sleeping on the sofa. Really nice.

Almost Famous
Watched the Almost Famous bootleg edition which was pretty good. Some parts were too tidy especially the pat ending, but it was an enjoyable film nonetheless. Great soundtrack too. There was an extended scene deleted from the movie where Francis McDormand has 'Stairway to Heaven' played to her that couldn't be included because they couldn't get the rights to the song. They cue you to start the song along to the movie so you can get the full impact of it. What a pity that scene couldn't be included because it was quite a good scene and made her allowing William to become a rock journalist travelling with the band much more believable.

Let's Go Over It All Again

Some people are like that.
They split up and they they think:
Hey, maybe we haven't hurt each other to the uttermost.
Let's meet up and have a drink.

Let's go over it all again.
Let's rake over the dirt.
Let me pick that cab of yours.
Does it hurt?

Let's go over what went wrong --
How and why and when.
Let's go over what went wrong
Again and again.

We hurt each other badly once.
We said a lot of nasty stuff.
But lately I've been thinking how
I didn't hurt you enough.

Maybe there's more where that came from,
Something more malign.
Let me damage you again
For the sake of auld lang syne.

Yes, let me see you bleed again
For the sake of auld lang syne.

  - James Fenton

Anyway...
I had a busy evening. Went for the Singapore Animation Night at Ngee Ann Poly and was pretty impressed with the last animation. A 3D series that was very well-done. I hope the creators make it. They continued the project even after their company had folded.

Next up was a farewell dinner for one of the ex TV Works people. Lots of bitching and gossip, particularly about a young nymphette actress who recently had an FHM spread and other general bitching in the theater circle. Nice to see them again and know they're doing all right.

Saturday. Man this will be the last long weekend in a while. Packing it in today as well. Swim, pool and dvds. Such is life.

Sheet
Blogger swallowed up my last post! I hate it when it does that!

Vicious Girls
Eve and I were chatting and discussing how girls/women were tremendously vicious. Gossip escalates, even about people you don't know. Eventually they feed off one another like a mob mentality. It's scary and it compounds, until finally it seems that the rules of the universe are determined by a sniggering, cynical, bitchy circle of girls. Is that how things are, or should be?

Wedding Dinner
Good to catch up and see people you haven't seen in a while. Didn't check my batteries before the dinner and they ran out of me. Pai seh. Enjoyable food and good company, and a highly entertaining account by one of Jo's friends about how he and Karen met. Trivia question: Which famous local singer was one of the guests at Jo's wedding? ;)

Also managed to borrow a copy of Marumaki's Underground from Elf. Cool. And reserved a copy of Fast Food Nation from the library. Hardly bother to buy books these days. I just read articles or get the library to reserve the books I want.

Anyway, congratulations Jo. You're a man now. Have fun in Phuket. ;)

Work
Has there been anything else so pointlessly dull?

Listening to: Bull in the Heather - Sonic Youth

He's... going to the chapel and he's... going to get married..
Congrats Jo! Now thou shalt be a smugly married!

This makes me a little sick. Just leave it be, will ya? It's a good enough love story as it is.

All of a sudden, the government discovers that arts has values... Too little, too late?

Damn tired and fell asleep during one boring meeting today. But pleasant evening made up for it despite being struck by a worm that brought down our MS Sql Server. (Boy those things are fragile).

And tomorrow is a certain person's wedding.. ;) So going to sleep early.

New York State Attorney General Eliot Spitzer had charged that the No. 1 U.S. brokerage misled investors by tailoring its research to please investment banking clients. Spitzer released e-mails showing Merrill analysts -- including former star Internet analyst Henry Blodget -- privately derided stocks they publicly touted.

Welcome to the big bad world of stock analysts. Are they responsible for the Internet bubble? You bet!

Gym. Nephew. Pool. Sleep. Night.

Frango ut patefaciam
Stephen Jay Gould passes away, and another light in the universe goes out...

You move on, one day you start to forget, realise the love that was special was ordinary. You bite down on your lip and move on, trying to think about a moment where you might have stopped everything from breaking. You look around and realise the friends around you that's always been there, and it's comforting that you have them. They'll guide you out of the darkness, but it'll be a long solitary journey out of the loneliest places in the world.

Zippity Doo Daa
Jo, this site's for you.

Things you think you hear in dreams but you're not sure because it echoes in your head and doesn't let go
Open the door, child
your love has come to destroy you.

Multivitamins
It's a bit odd to know that yet another friend might have fallen prey to kidney stones. We're getting old. Yesterday bought a bunch of multi-vitamins. I think I'm in decent shape though I don't work out as much as I should. No spare tyre, at least, but wish I had more time to go swimming.

Was thinking about Waking Life and some of the philosophies in the movie. Would it matter if one achieved success in dreams and was a washout in real life? After all, every experience is just sensation. Reducing it further, it's a bunch of electrical impulses coursing through an organic structure/construct. Pain/Pleasure/Joy/Sadness.

There was another interesting point made when one of the characters the protagonists meets talks about how the word 'Love' is just a word, a symbol. Once spoken it travels through the system of the other person, but it is incapable of expressing what the speaker of the word meant. Love, after all, is one of the subjective things of all. One's interpretation might not gel with another person's. (I guess this is basic philosophy huh? Words not being able to communicate exactly what it is we feel.)

Musings for another day, but much food for thought. Back to the dreaming life. Waking up and then going back to sleep seems to be bring dreams for me. Wonder if I will.

The Bicycle Thief and Waking Life
Watched two DVDs; The Bicycle Thief and Waking Life. I've seen The Bicycle Thief before and it's just as brilliant the second time around. An Italian neorealist piece that's startling brilliant and fresh, with a simple heartfelt story. Waking Life was more difficult, consisting primarily of a collection of philosophical diatribes, many about the state of dreaming and consciousness. It got too heavy though undoubtedly some of the arguments were interesting. Kind of Philosophy lite, but interesting nevertheless. The animation itself is wondrous.