tic tic tac tac toe toe

random thought....

is the name tic tac derived from the game tic-tac-toe? or is the name tic-tac-toe derived from tic tacs? or are they completely unrelated?

wikipedia doesn't have the answer...who does?

music is my life

i haven't touched the piano in ages. why?

- i don't teach anymore
- my fingernails are too long
- nothing interesting to play

its been a year since i've attempted to play anything properly. and i've pretty much lost it. i find that i'm struggling with the flow of things. my hands are stiff...my fingers are not as quick as they used to be...and i'm just missing my aim on my notes. my touch is completely off so everything sounds horrendous. so today...i have decided to cut my nails...really short. i'm going to start practicing since i managed to find myself a copy of the Pride and Prejudice score. and i'm going to get back on track. can't let it go to waste. ugh...can't imagine myself practicing my scales and arpeggios...but i am determined. there's no excuse.

someone once said that you won't know that you love someone until you lose them. well...i guess it applies to many things. never realized how important it was for me to play the piano until now...when i'm on the verge of losing it. i feel sooooo guilty now.

this is my country

stumbled upon a list of banned movies in malaysia while i was at imdb.com. came across some that really made me wonder.

for example...roberto benigni's PINNOCHIO? we read the book...we all know what pinnochio is about...its a children's story...and they banned the movie?

then there's RENT. a tony award winning musical about a bunch of bohemians struggling with life...love and AIDS. what's so bad about that? would we somehow be inspired to get AIDS and run around like hippees?

SAVING PRIVATE RYAN is also on the list. granted...they sometimes ban movies that depict war but if you're going to show pearl harbour and black hawk down and behind enemy lines and etc....why not show saving private ryan? a movie that doesn't actually concentrate on killing and war but more of saving a fellow officer from behind enemy lines.

and there's always BABE...both the first one and the second one. so we're not supposed to look at pigs? or is it just talking pigs that are offensive?

then we have movies like PRINCE OF EGYPT and PASSION OF THE CHRIST that are reserved for non-muslim viewers only. and how apt for DA VINCI CODE to be open to all audiences.

sometimes i wonder what they are trying to prove. do they think that we are so stupid to take things literally? ok...granted...some adults still believe the WWE is real but i'm pretty sure most rational adults will be able to distinguish between right and wrong...real and fake. i guess they don't have faith in their people. that's malaysia....

head start

ok...so as most of you know...cleo holds its "most eligible bachelor" (kononnya) contest every year. what's the definition of bachelor anyway? unattached? unmarried? or completely single? anyway...highly likely that most of the 50 guys are not eligible after all...whether they are bachelors is open to intepretation. anyway...i don't know who the 50 guys are...i rarely ever know any of them anyway. just goes to show my limited network of friends. but this year...rumour has it that someone i know (whooppeeee) is in the top 50. so heads up everyone...vote for JUSTIN CHAN HOONG FAI!!

on a different note...my desk is a mess. can't find anything except a stapler. i wonder why the stapler is so prominently featured on my desk...hrm. anyway...the one thing i hate is having cds and dvds scattered all over the place....WITHOUT COVERS! ok..whose fault is that? its mine so i accept the fact that i have to clean up my own mess. urgh...if only i had the impulse to CLEAN.....

seriously?

a conversation with my brothers goes something like this:

Scene: TGIF @ The Curve after having a new york strip steak all by myself.

me: hey guys...take a look at this (showing them my massive tummy through my top)
brother no.1: hey...i have one too. Look!
brother no.2: ha ha ha...i don't believe its real.

SERIOUSLY?

then the conversation strayed to one of those strange fictional characters of some movie that i can't remember that is completely stick thin except for a bulging tummy. so thanks guys for that very graphic picture of what i could possibly look like.

thanks mindy and sui san

in an attempt to satisfy an impulse to perm my hair...i actually went to the hairdresser to get it done. usually...it's just a thought. something that i wake up thinking about...then i process the thought...contemplating whether i should or not...what are the costs...what are the benefits... whether i'll have the time to even take care of it...yada yada. so today...i woke up and had this urge to perm my hair. i immediately went to my laptop to figure out who i should ask...desperately looking for someone to tell me NOT TO DO IT. i found my 3 best friends (i have many more) online. so i messaged all 3 simultaneously and anxiously waited for a reply. thanks for the pep talk ben but mindy and sui san over ruled you. 2 against 1. so yes...the girls said GO DO IT. its something different....its a change. all logical and rational reasons. ben's response....perm hair sucks! not much of a reason but it was duly noted.

anyway...arrived at the hairdresser all gung ho and ready to get something done. total cost...RM300. which was fine since it cost me about RM400 the last time. so i was checking to see how much money i had and BINGO...i only had RM190. not enough...no UOB bank around. in my head i was thinking "PHEWS...what a life saver. never thought i'd be this happy to NOT have money in my wallet". clever hairdresser came up with a BRILLIANT idea. why not i get a hair cut first to prepare for the perm tomorrow. that way...i won't waste time. I WAS THERE...enquiring... prepared...can't turn back now. so i agreed...thinking that i could just settle for a haircut and not return the next day.

MANA AKU TAHU.....they thinned my hair so thin that its practically non existent anymore. now its a disastrous "V" shape that i extremely depise. i hate "V" shape hair cuts. anyway...maybe its their ploy to get me to go back tomorrow. "let's give her a horrible hair cut to make sure she has to come back tomorrow for the perm". oh well...i might as well get it permed now...and heck...if i don't like it i'll CHOP IT ALL OFF!

now how many of you secretly wishes that it will be another disaster tomorrow so that i will have to CHOP IT ALL OFF? i bet you that some of you are wishing me ill-luck...just so u can see me in short hair. u guys are nasty.....and once again...thanks mindy...thanks sui san. ben...i wished i had listened to you :P

*note* before and after pictures to come later

if love was enough....

sometimes i wonder what society has turned into today. in one of my dads attempt to joke about my singlehood...he mentioned that he is considering putting me through d'arrange marriage. my grandparents were subjected to an arranged marriage. they got married at the age of 16. there's a picture of my grandparents a few months after they got married and they were the same height at that time. they weren't the same height years later. my grandfather was sent off to marry before he reached adolescence. and that was probably the trend back then. but for the record...my grandparents grew to love each other.

nowadays...we have it good. we get to choose who we want to be with or whether we want to be with anyone at all. we set our standards and reach for it. i know i do. relationships become an option...not an ultimatum. we go in and out of relationships searching for that one person that we want to spend the rest of our lives with. just like in all those fairy tales where the prince and the servant girl lives happily ever after. disillusioned by the stories we desperately search for our prince (or servant girl). sometimes...we grow to love a person...other times...we grow otherwise.

love becomes a fixation. something that we obssess over...and desperately try to find. but what is it? who really knows? is it the promise of diamonds and gold? or is it the promise of happiness and joy? are the two the same? does one have to lead to the other? or is happiness enough?

so many questions. if we went back in time....what would our ancestors say? i think that they would tell us that all you need is love...trust...honesty...loyalty...and each other. we don't need a large wedding...flowers...diamonds...money...a mansion and all that jazz. and that's just my personal opinion.....

i've been converted

normally...i'd stand aside and mind my own business when my friends are shopping for cosmetics or beauty products. i'm not exactly the type of person who pays much attention to the condition of my skin. never cared about whether i have spots or scars. so when sandra asked me to try this product at body shop...i thought it was just like any other ordinary product...over priced and over rated with the promise of healthier and shinier skin. now i don't care what this product promises but i just had to have it. once you apply it your skin will feel velvety soft. it could create more spots for all i care. i'm just interested in its magical texture. ooh...and another plus point is that it smells like orange :) so go try it. it doesn't matter whether you need another moisturizer or whatever it is this thing does. it doesn't matter what promises it holds. who cares? if you're going to spend money on products that offer false promises...you might as well invest in one that feels and smells good.

beyond hope

damn you arsenal and man city. 2 matches today and both didn't end up in my favour. now my EPL table has gone completely out of whack. looks like i won't be winning the pot afterall. unless...by some twist of fate...everything goes my way this weekend.

you know you're a nerd when....

went to spicy kitchen after the quiz and they were showing a horrendous copy of 300. to me...horrendous is still watchable. you get a couple of people standing up once in awhile and the camera seems to tilt occasionally. but this copy was like half screen with half the subtitles and the censored part was not cut out...it was in fast forward. people so desperate to get cheap pirated copies nowadays that they'd go as low as to watch such a horrendous copy? and for what? to save 10 bucks?

anyway...was talking about the movie. everyone seemed to enjoy it. my friend who watched it in brunei said that it was less censored over there so you basically get to see lots of the 'oracle'. i was going on and on about the buff men which i think was probably the work of CGI. david wenham's (oh...that's faramir in LOTR) 8 pack seems to fade into a 6 pack and then to just an imposing hunk of fat throughout the movie. then i said something about eudorus and everyone just stoned. vincent regan....the guy who plays the captain in 300 is the same guy who played eudorus in troy. don't know who eudorus is yet? well...he was brad pitt's right hand man in troy.

so yes...you are a nerd when you know that eudorus plays the captain and when you make the connection of sean bean --> vincent regan --> david wenham --> sean bean. sean bean acted alongside vincent regan in troy...sean bean being odysseus. and vincent regan acted alongside david wenham in 300. and david wenham can be connected to sean bean in LOTR. and even though vincent regan had bigger roles in both troy and 300...compared to the other 2 actors...he's less famous. then again...nobody really knows sean bean and david wenham by name either. we usually refer to them as boromir and faramir.

ok...so if i haven't mentioned it yet...go watch 300. i'm sure everyone is telling you the same thing. but i won't be surprised if some of you are freakishly disappointed by the movie. there's so much hype but if you ask me.....its not 'THAT' great.

my dad's kids?

spent all night organizing the playlists in my ipod. i seemed to have messed it up over the past few months. i chuck full albums in there so that i could test them but i end up not testing them at all and sticking to my original playlist. then my library gets clogged up with crap. note to self...don't bother adding things that i probably won't listen to.

very proud of my soundtrack list. managed to put them into 2 different sets. 1 for when i just want to listen to my favourites...the other is all soundtracks. so my all time favourites...just in case u guys decide to give original motion picture scores a try

- king kong (james newton howard)
- king arthur (hans zimmer)
- da vinci code (hans zimmer)
- world trade center (craig armstrong)
- gladiator (hans zimmer)
- english patient (gabriel yared)
- braveheart (james horner)
- kingdom of heaven (henry gregson-williams)
and the newly released 300 (tyler bates)

looks like i have a whole lot of hans zimmer there and surprisingly no john williams. 90% of the people reading this probably have no idea who i'm talking about.

anyway...my dad's kids are coming down to kl tomorrow. it feels weird saying "my dad's kids" cause i'm also one of them. oh well...'kids' implies young ones. in a way i'm looking forward to it...haven't seen them all in awhile so its good to see what they've been up to. on the other hand...i've got tonnes of work to do and i don't want their visit to disrupt my flow and productivity level. just got to keep my priorities in check. its good that they'll be around till saturday. i'll have time to see them eventually.

and the strangest thing happened at 1am today. was flipping through the newspapers and i stumbled upon the obituaries. noticed that there was someone pretty familiar there...then it hit me. there's this guy that i always meet at the mamak who used to bring me "cadbury chocolate flakes" from perth. yum...delicious little flakes. and no mindy...he's not some hot young guy trying to pick me up with chocolate. he's actually more of an uncle in a non related way. anyway...his dad passed away on saturday. so i called him up and together with my dad...we went to his house at 1.30am. what a way to end the day....

computer 101

my mom has been taking computer lessons. so logically i assumed that they would first teach her how to type...what's a folder...how to browse folders...microsoft office....then the internet. yes...the internet. what is the internet? how does one access the internet?

but no...she called me today and asked me why she couldn't log on to her email. so i asked her...did u type in the correct username? did you check your password? she assured me that all details were correct. fine...so i said i can't tell her what's wrong cause i'm not at the computer. she then gave me this nonsense about how it probably doesn't work cause my brother's pc uses Internet explorer. WHAT? did they not teach you what internet explorer is in computer class? anyway...i asked her to close the windows thinking that i would go through it step by step with her.

step 1: open internet explorer
step 2: go to www.yahoo.com
step 3: key in your username and password
step 4: click sign in

it worked. guess what was the problem earlier. she was trying to sign it at the blardee wrong website. its like trying to enter someone else's house with the wrong keys. gosh...those computer classes just ain't teaching the right things.

bizarre love triangle

hey you....yes you....

you can't just decide that you don't love your girlfriend of 4 years and blame it on me. i have no intention of playing this game with you. if you want to break it off...do so but don't expect me to respond...react... reciprocate. don't prolong the inevitable and don't stay in it because u can't get what you want. i am your friend...that's all i am. if i said or did anything to make you think otherwise then i'm sorry. it was unintentional. now that you know....make your choice.

anyway...went to watch 'an inconvenient truth' today. hrm...it was very informative and enlightening. but i'm still smoking...for now. i recommend it to those who are interested documentaries. it might seem long and boring but if u give it a try...you might just be pleasantly surprised.

courtesy of sow

thanks sow...for that very brutal explanation on lasik eye surgery. let's just say you won't be a very good candidate to promote any sort of medical services. if you really want to read sows gripping description on lasik eye surgery just click on the picture.

moviola

how many people enjoy listening to OST's? raise you hand.......

hrm.....no one?

its one of those genre's that rarely get credit. no one listens to the music that's playing in the background while

- william wallace cried 'freedom'.
- king leonidas couldn't say 'goodbye my love'
- ada played the piano
- beauty killed king kong
- king arthur held the ice

i guess its a genre that not many people can appreciate. my iTunes and iPod runs movie soundtracks on repeat. and i recently discovered moviola and streamingsoundtracks.com. its an online streaming radio channel that plays movie soundtracks 24/7. its like heaven.

will be watching 'an inconvenient truth' on sunday. hopefully that documentary would make me wanna erm.....stop smoking?

contemplating whether to watch 300 again on sunday. but that would make 2 trips to the cinema in 1 day. the last time i did that was about 5 or 6 years ago when i watched 'ali' and 'attack of the clones' back to back. and it was really back to back. i literally had to run to the next cinema after the first show ended.

can't wait for 'sunshine'. the trailer looks awesome. my brother seems to think that "dark silence" is going to be super horrific because of the trailer. i think 'the messengers' had a pretty freaky trailer. so go to apple.com/trailers and see what you think.

for sui san and mindy

its funny how we're all different but we think alike. when i typed out the words 'bizarre love triangle' into my msn personal message....i kinda knew that u guys would definitely message me anxiously asking "what's with the bizarre love triangle lah?" and rightly so...today was the day.

it was fun to see how "concerned" you guys were but sorry to burst your bubble...there's no love triangle happening here. it would've been great if there was though...more drama means more gossip...which translates to more fun :P unfortunately...my life is simple. so no more talk about S.T.D :)

watched 300 today. i think i was too stoked for 300 (as imdb would put it). it was a good movie though. love the way it was done...the cinematography...the art direction. didn't really like the overacting though. and the people in the cinema found the urge to clap and talk at the oddest of times. those of you who know me will know how much i hate distractions in a cinema. don't think the movie deserved an ovation though. "the prestige" deserved an ovation though...but there was none. where were all you clapping people when the prestige needed it??

moving pictures with accompanying audio

i'm a sucker for tv series' and movies.

watched episode 18 of heroes yesterday. such a cliffhanger i wished i didn't watch it. when the credits rolled my brother and i simultaneously said "FUCK".

just realized that one tree hill isn't showing its next episode until the end of the month. double fish!!!

watching 300 tomorrow night. its probably my most anticipated movie of the year. have been waiting since last year. the trailer was awesome. hope the movie is equally as awesome and i've been reading such good reviews. best to keep my expectations at a minimum just in case it turns out to be freakishly disappointing.

finally watched little miss sunshine the other night. i found it hilarious and entertaining. others said it was so-so. guess its a different kind of humour. but is it really deserving of an oscar nomination? i guess it did deserve to win best original screenplay. but nomination for best movie? its one of those years where most movies sucked so the 'not-so-impressive-but-still-good' ones make up the top movies.

oh well...i guess i'll just continue to sift through my dvds and see what pleasant surprises i can find.

make love not warcraft

i watched that episode of southpark a few months back and even though it was hilariously entertaining...it was also enlightening. the lengths that some people would go to in order to get their daily WOW fix is amazing. i figured that southpark would have opened up some eyes. if at any point in time you find that your mom has to bring you a bucket to shit in cause u're in the midst of a quest and u can't leave your PC...something is severely wrong. but of course...since we're all pottie trained that probably wouldn't happen. its just a metaphor.

anyway...some people are more self aware...and some people aren't. they probably won't know how silly it all is unless they are looking at themselves from a 2nd person point of view. and heck...until that happens they can happily live in the world of warcraft.

i got your back

my brothers and i have been single for the longest time...i think its 5 years or so now. we've become so used to seeing each other unattached and talking about everything openly. the three of us would go out for dinner...watch movies together...yum cha and talk about absolutely everything.

recently...one of my brothers is showing interest in a girl. not that he has never shown interest before. just that this time around it seems to be materializing. anyway...i've met her a couple of times. she didn't really impress me. maybe its because she's young and a tad ignorant. those of you who know me would know very well that i can't stand ignorance and childishness. so basically...i'm not impressed. i'm still waiting for her to charm me with her intelligence and her wit. then again...i'm not the one she has to win over...am i?

someone mentioned that my lack in enthusiasm could be due to the fact that i've gotten too used to the three of us being single. to put it bluntly....i'm jealous. well...i hardly am...if i were it would be incestous. its just my protective instincts taking over. remember how i wanted to poison the little girl who slapped my 7 year old brother and stole his pencils? the same protective instincts are surfacing right now.

but...i will always support my brother and stand by him no matter what decision he makes. and he knows that whatever happens....i've got his back.

Attempt number 1 at looking like a pair of Communists

A more successful attempt at looking like a pair of Communists

too many dvds?

i find myself buying more and more dvds to add to my already overflowing collection. its easy to find out how many i already have since i have them catalogued. the current total stands at 292. hrm..actually doesn't sound like much but it sure as hell takes up a lot of space. i don't have any dvds listed under the alphabet 'q'. maybe i should go buy 'the queen' just to fill it up. funny thing is i haven't really watched anything in the past month. i think i've bought about 10 dvds but i've only seen one. talk about buying things that i don't need.....

its been a really slow week. the celebrations and festivities of chinese new year have faded. things are back to normal. the gambling has subsided...although i think that would change once the weekend is here.

went for X-pilates yesterday. no...its not some kind of x-rated pilates class. it's an advanced pilates class that i should've never entered. right now i just feel like my entire body is in knots. can't walk right...can't sit right...can't move. thank god the weekend is just another day away. i need to recover....