you have my heart and blood

This is probably not representative of Lit Sem but seriously it was awesome. My only regret is missing the deadline for the student application. ARGHH! LitSem’08 wasnt as good as LitSem’07 BUT the Cappers there made it magical! Even Ming had to admit the inferiority of CAP’07 to CAP’08.

Rosemary’s workshop was good but I did hope that she was doing poetry instead of prose. The drama segment was hilarious. SOTA’s adaptations of Darren Shiau’s works were laughable. I only hope that they’re not the best representation of Singapore’s art scene. Microfiction! Darren Shiau is rather slow for someone in the fast lane. Give up on dramatizing his poems, please! SOTA made me spontaneously hyperventilate throughout the whole session. Great Work!

And thanks to Sham, I now think ‘mads are cool (Ahmad? I hope that’s how you spell it) Ghetto all the way!

I hope I can deliver Justin’s Sexyback routine the next time or at least more of My Humps!

This flying revelation from Allah! HA!

I’m weaning off mainstream feminist literature! Well, it has been 4 years since this book came out and I finally felt like reading it. Mainly because I didn’t want to do SBQ as yet plus, its borrowed.

Of all the memoirs I have picked up, this was perhaps one of the most anticipated. And with good reason too, perhaps. If your brother-in-law is the most wanted man on earth, well, you would think you have a good story to tell, wouldn’t you? Carmen Bin Ladin is yes, as you guessed it, Osama Bin Laden’s relative by marriage. Her husband Yeslam Bin Ladin belongs to the same clan of brothers who run the by now infamous Bin Laden Organization that was one of Saudi Arabia’s biggest companies.

But are there rare intimate glimpses of the man who New York Times describes as the ‘brother-in-law from hell? Sadly, none. Carmen acknowledges that she barely spoke to the man. ”When Osama stepped into the room, you felt it,” is perhaps the closest glimpse you get. And what of her life in Saudi Arabia? Leading by own admission, a luxuriant life, Carmen is also blessed with a gift that most women in Saudi Arabia don’t – an understanding husband. Yeslam, until till the end of their marriage – offers Carmen relative freedom – holidays in Geneva, and the intellectual companionship that her own sisters-in-law in the Bin Laden clan lacked. Carmen does not really go through severe angst – so much so the book is ridden with old metaphors that run of out fashion like the sand in the desert.

Impressed I was not. But to be fair to Carmen, she does give us a stark and unrelenting potrayal of life in the Saudi kingdom. Need to shop? The shop would be literally brought to her doorstep. She describes the transformation of Saudi Arabia from an impoverished land to one of the wealthiest and the changing faces of its society. There might be better books on Saudi Arabia out there – for me, this is not one of them.

Another thing, today’s rehearsals taught me something. Learn your bloody 4 lines! Oh the SALT centre black box is really quite the place to stage a drama! It’s awesomely dim and I love those bloody lights, fiddled with them and made Greg redo one rehearsal. OHHHHH the guilt! Damn, guilt; I need to do my HRP!

Shhhh! (I need a break)

Mercy

Just some very relevant points from this http://www.littlespeck.com/content/people/CTrendsPeople-051031.htm I just have to say that charity is not just knowing when to give, but why we should give.

-

These led Lee Kuan Yew’s daughter to the point she wanted to make. “I am disappointed with my fellow Singaporeans’ gullibility,” she said.

According to her, people sometimes react too naively to sob stories. Her appeal is for a more rational response to charity.

“Then there was the saga of the Yishun siblings who had an operation for deep-brain stimulation done in Taiwan at tremendous cost, again paid for by the Singapore public,” she said. This could have been done here at a fraction of the cost.

Press reports claimed it was a “miraculous” success, and the siblings were shown walking with assistance.

“Now they are no longer able to walk, not even with assistance,” she added.

In recent years, Singaporeans have gained a reputation both at home and abroad for their eagerness to open their wallets to anyone in need.

…

[Mr. Lee Kuan Yew] He had repeatedly told his people that “there’s no such thing as a free lunch”, which spoken often enough was being read to mean that “if you don’t get a free lunch, you also don’t give a free lunch”. It wasn’t the best way to promote compassion.

Dr Lee evidently reflects a bit of her father’s hard-nosed concept about charity. She blamed the press for its “propensity” to sensationalise stories that helped bring out “the gullibility of Singaporeans”.

One involved Huang Na, the eight-year-old girl from China who was kidnapped and murdered here.

The intense press coverage of the tragedy raised public sympathy to a feverish pitch, resulting in an outpouring of donations to the victim’s mother.

She declined to reveal the amount of funds collected but it was estimated to have run into hundreds of thousands of dollars. She later returned to China where she used the money to refurbish her house.

Dr Lee asked incredulously, “But what good is that money to Huang Na who has died?”

Her comments about Huang Na struck a chord among many Singaporeans in the wake of the National Kidney Foundation (NKF) scandal. Its CEO and board resigned en masse following public anger over the misuse of donations.

-

* Oh ya, I flunked almost all my subjects. Thanks a bunch Term 3… Only chances for exemption are Lit and Bio. Really disappointed with myself. I wish to say that I’m near incoherent with grief. Haha
Another thing, this blog will remain as it is. Just more dull and down to earth, because I’m shifting discussion of personal issues to another address.

-If you read till here, you must be either amused with Dr Lee’s article, enjoy reading my blog, or just patronizing me. I rather hope to believe that you’re a good friend of mine who is interested in reading what I write so weakly about*

A lone joss-stick

In light of recent events, and personal introspections; I think I’m closing this blog temporarily. I’m quite tired of this side of mine. I have started another blog, but this one will remain for public purposes. A partial goodbye I guess.

Excerpt from Last Rites

my grave sat silent atop a hill

amongst white spirits, no red joss sticks

bleeding smoke. no wind-touched

paper stacks of hell-notes, fluttering like

the wings of a single ghost moth.

my soul lay

unmoulted, only to spread wings.

out of granite pupae,

white wings open only

when you too come to rest.

Mother’s jewels

The dermatologist claims that antioxidants help with acne/pimple/blackheads. So there is a figment of truth in that we should too stuff our cheeks with berries to retain youth. And yes, I haunted the fruit section of the Marketplace yesterday, waiting for the fresh imports.

Strawberries, blackberries, raspberries, all but one kind. I ate the blueberries because they were the only non-bitchy fruit that wasn’t sour or scratchy on my tongue… I eventually ate everything, including those leafy objects, I highly doubt my mum’s word that they’re alfalfa sprouts. Mutant ones I surmise

我们是华人

In retrospect, I should crawl out from that anglophile persona of mine and extend my oriental roots. China is great, and Beijing by far awesome in comparison to the best cities in the world. I was really impressed by the massive welcoming ceremony they put up yesterday, so magnificent that I couldn’t be bothered watching the NDP, in fear of it being a letdown when juxtaposed with Beijing’s. Yes, we all know Beijing is having some environmental issues and political hiccups here and there; but we should give them room to improve and grow, everyone needs their chance so we mustn’t deny them of theirs.

The whole experience really brought back the memories of my ‘04 trip there. Textbook images of the Great Wall and breathtaking visuals of the Forbidden City from Bertolucci’s celluloid epic, The Last Emperor just flashed before my eyes as I just sat there, watching the programme. It was really quite unnerving for me as I tried piecing my caged Chinese fragments back. I now understand what soul-searching means.

-

Uniquely Singapore was odd. Really.
But Laura Ng was really nice, she did help a lot. Thanks.

-Whoever has the most money wins :)

Because people say that posting more worldly content equates to higher viewership and increased reader appetite… I did try to post about more mundane stuff like my life or perhaps a dinner I had. (ok it can hardly count, it was far too abstract. haha) But it’s always good to revert back to simpler issues that assail us on a daily basis : money or the lack-there-of it. This just shows how such TV series are tantalizing for sluts like… forget it. There is somewhat a fragment of such traits in everyone. And don’t deny it

And before I forget, here are their occupational hazards. How perfectly devilish!
Sinner, Cheat, Wreck, Bum, Maneater, Killer, Fake  

 

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Dinner with the fish

Because I’m hiding under a Nazi lampshade and blowing your candles.  Happy anniversary Mum and Dad, I quite enjoyed the company.

2 little whos

2 little whos
(he and she)
under are this
wonderful tree

smiling stand
(all realms of where
and when beyond)
now and here

(far from a grown
-up i&you-
ful world of known)
who and who

(2 little ams
and over them this
aflame with dreams
incredible is)

e.e. cummings