GO BEARS!
Rivalry week in California and the Bears beat Stanford 30-7 after losing to Stanford 6 years in a row. Woo hoo! Makes my weekend!
It's also the 20th anniversary of "football's most famous play."

Awww... so cute!
For you LotR freaks!

Procrastinating and the plans of the poverty jet set
Man I'm procrastinating again. There's one or two things I should be finishing but I'm surfing and chatting with a friend. Boredom city. I don't mind not being out on a Saturday night, but I guess it really is practically impossible for me to do work.

Anyway, have booked tickets to Bali and leaving the weekend before X'mas. Someone said I've travelled quite a bit this year; California, Sydney and now Bali. I think it's made up for a few years of not travelling much. When I graduated I always thought I'd be one of the poverty jet-set; I'd work and then blow all my money on plane ticket to parts unknown and hostels with flea-ridden matresses or sleeping in train carriages while zipping through cities. I need the shock and the jolts that shakes up my system. A lot of people wonder why I'm still in Sinapore, but I can tell them it's really not that bad. If you've been around the region, you'll know what corruption and misuse of power can do.

What's up for next year? I'd want to visit my bro-in-law's parents in Cambodia, and if I can persuade more mags to pick up my travel stories more travel around the region at least. (Ya ya that backpack trip in Spain still lingers; has it really been 10 years? It's one of the things I really want to do, and should stop talking about it because I feel f__king guilty NOT doing it.) Get my advance diving license as well and the thought of becoming a divemaster has passed my mind, though it would require a lot of dedication. I look back this year and last and realised I lived too much of it passively; you need to fight for what you want, and I've yet to strike out. I know I'm out of the safety zone; collecting a salary and groaning about my situation. I've regained some control over my life but the paths aren't clear.

Got to try. Too many slogans, too few answers.

Tiredness
Think the swim this afternoon took out a lot of me. The main problem with swimming these days is that it leaves me drained. Was totally drained and almost slept on friend's couch. Their 11 month old son was tottering around and as expected, the key focus of the gathering. It's all right but it gets tiresome to hang out with couples with kids. Diapers, baby habits, nannies and so on; they're in a different realm. They've passed a certain line that I know I'm not ready to pass anytime soon. Too much responsibility for me to take on right now.

North of here
Went over to friend's place at Bukit Timah for a get together with the film fest people. Made to chop up some garlic to make garlic bread. Actually I enjoy cooking but haven't done enough of it lately, and I HATE cleaning up. I should use my bro's place when he's not around to make something and invite some friends over. Heh. Usual exchange of gossip; a lot of it revolving around BigO's 'sabbatical'. I think it was tragic and I said if Philip didn't select or groom a successor the same could happen with Film Fest. He has to learn to let go. Training someone up won't take overnight, but he has to start so that the person can build a rapport with the film festivals overseas. The thing about him is that he doesn't see beyond the year. You need to have a plan. I have a lot of respect for Philip but he needs to step back and look beyond. No longer a teenager dude. You're a father of two and past forty, dude. Time to move the pawns on the chessboard, rather than being yet another piece trying to control the game.

Storm in a teacup
As expected the RL thing boiled over. Yes, I've read the comments and the roasting, and find some of it... funny. But the letter by the Singaporean guy who's in his late 30s and divorced is kinda sad.

Anyway, at least I livened up the straight talk column for ST. Before that, they were talking about shopping for bras with girlfriends, whether two guys can go see a movie together, and next week it's about girls with glasses. Boredom city. Can't they do something that has more than a PG rating? Sex and the City it definitely ain't.

Nowhere in Africa
Attended the opening film of the German Film Fest and I was impressed. It's about a family of German Jews who escape to Nairobi during World War II. There are the standard beautiful shots of Africa and the natives practising their culture, but the most compelling part of the movie was the relationship between the husband and wife. Before she left Germany, the woman's father-in-law said how much his son loved her, that there's always someone who loves more in a relationship, and the one who loves more is always vulnerable. Painfully true. For a movie that's more than two hours long it is quite gripping and is paced very well. Go catch it if you have a chance!

Manuscript
Editor asked me to read a manuscript from a new writer and skimmed it while on the way to gym. Lots of political references and asides; not even cryptic and satirical. Just too painfully obvious. Reading it makes me want to write again; partially out of anger and ego. Yes, writers are horribly egotistical. Don't have enough for a novel but possibly a collection of short stories. Too bad so many things are floating in the air. Maybe after the first few months of next year...

Busted phone
Well busted my phone. Dropped it once too often and used up all 9 lives. Would have cost $200 to repair so didn't want to get it done. Looking for a cheap sturdy Nokia 3310 or 3315.

Office
Well found a decent space.. for < $300 since I'm splitting with my partners, including utilities. Have to be frugal in times like these. They seem to be doing quite well though with jobs all over the place, including from me. I've yet to stabilise my jobs which are coming in dribs and drabs, but might be able to find a more constant source of income soon, at least to pay the bills.

Searching for Bobby Fischer
What happens to chess prodigies? Look here.

Sex and Productivity
CEOs take note! According to the sexologists at squeaky clean Singapore's 7th Asian Congress of Sexology, sexually-satisfied workers are productive workers, and the less sexually-satisfied they are, the less productive they get!
-- Taken from Plastic.com

Classic reply:
I dunno... When I stay up all night having sex, the following day at work is usually pretty damn unproductive.

Domestic Disturbance
Rainy days keep me in and haven't borrowed much from the library, so been going through the web for stuff to read while procrastinating. Anyway, this is a very good article.

Fingering a gold hoop in her right ear, she talked wistfully about her ex-batterer and, as of six months earlier, her ex-boyfriend, too. ''I miss him,'' she said. ''Yeah, I do. I ain't going to lie. He's not so much of a bad person except for the violence.''

How imperfect we can be, and how imperfect love can be.

Cyanide attacks next
Not much coverage of this. Imagine if they had succeeded. The world would rather have news of Michael Jackson's nose job.

Smashed handphone
Broke my handphone into pieces which means extra $ to get it repaired. Tried to go to some guy running one of those booths selling handphone accessories and he just kept putting lighter fluid on it... so much for that.
So if you're trying to get me these 1-3 days, email or icq.

How to read Cobain's journals
Interesting.
6) He was funny. Gus Van Sant likened Cobain to a perverse, laconic "standup comedian," and the journals bear him out. The plan for a Nirvana T-shirt reading "Fudge-packin', Crack-smokin', Satan-worshipin' [sic] motherfuckers" is admirably droll, as is the story of the narrator's rape and murder by the cast of Andy Griffith in Cobain's song "Floyd the Barber." It's hard to pull other examples free of their context in the journals, but be alert for horror twinned with humor.

Barrel of monkeys, this
Defensive, aren't we?

What a shot!