long time no post

And the reason for that is because I haven't exactly been doing anything much lately. I blame it squarely on the rain and the gloomy skies. The weather here is more unpredictable than Singapore man. Ok lemme correct myself. It's slightly predictable, like in a pattern of pour-blazing hot sun-pour-drizzle-drizzle-pour and then the cycle repeats. TMD how to go anywhere like that? It doesn't help that all the umbrellas in the villa I staying in all look damn faggoty lah. A house of all men and the umbrellas are pink and purple. I mean WTF right? Sorry, what is that? Buy an umbrella you say? Then you do not know me to well do you? LN comes with umbrella not included. Umbrellas are just plain troublesome lah, and I guarantee you 95% of the time I will lose it, the other 5% of the time I'll probably spoil it.

Anyway, I donated a 100RMB yesterday to a colleague whom I've never met who is suffering from cancer. I somehow felt compelled to donate because this poor lady is only in her 30s and has given her working life to the company. And what's her return for slogging her life away like this? Breast cancer. And the worst part is her family can hardly support the treatment. Being single, she was the key breadwinner for her family. I thought that that really has to suck man. Couldn't help but felt that what if this sort of thing happens to me, I'll just 跳楼自杀 lor. So my department started to ask for donations from the workers and the response has been disappointing. Some of the managers donate only like 5 yuan lah! KNN your pay how much? This is your dying colleague leh, she only worth 5 yuan to you ah? So ok lah, 20 bucks SGD, my conscience feels better. At least it goes directly to a sick person and not some charity that will give only 1% of my donation to the patient. And some CEO will not run away with my money either.

I'm listening to the new Linkin Park album, Minutes to Midnight. I have mix feelings about it. I've been an LP fan since their first album. I liked their music even before they got onto the airwaves - Hybrid Theory was ground-breaking at that time. Fans clamoured for more and hence came along Meteora two years later. Minutes to Midnight is not ground-breaking, but it is a transition for the band to a different sound. Granted, this is probably the most technical album to date - the band is exploring with different sounds and techniques of making music. This also comes from getting a new producer. But it also means they've departed from nu-metal. The album sounds a little confused honestly about what kind of sound the band really wants. I can hear influences from U2 here and there, but the "new" sound now means their music are not destressors, more emo-rock. Which begs the question - with Limp Bizkit also a thing of the past where do I go look for nu-metal music?

Reminds me of this Jay Chou interview that I read/heard about (can't remember). The press asked Jay Chou why does his music all sound the same, and his reply was that his music sells, so why should he change? True dat true dat. You buy a Jay Chou album, you know what you're gonna get. And contrary to critics' belief, some people actually do like to listen to him mumble to catchy beats. It's like I buy a John Grisham book I kinda expect to read a thriller about American Law. They are not the same, but they are essentially about the same thing. The reason he comes up with so many books is because he is doing the same thing in different ways - writing different law thrillers. Then suddenly he writes a book about baseball and living in a countryside and we fans get confused. This is what's happening to Linkin Park.

My company had a basketball game last night and I went to support the team at some primary school (It wasn't like I had plans anyway). I was quite surprised when I got there. This primary has 3 basketball courts, 10 ping pong tables, a track and an astro-turf for soccer. That was like what I had for my poly lah! Was it because of the sheer size of the school population? I've no idea. Anyway the game was a bummer - there was NO GAME. The opponents never turned up, so it was a walkover. I thought it was about to become a silly waste of time (of which didn't bother me because over here, I've got nothing BUT time), our bball team split into two and started to play each other (against, not with hor). So for 5 minutes me and a group of girly girls were watching this bunch of hunks show-off their basketball skills. Just as it started to get a little exciting, it started raining. So my initial thoughts were right, it was a silly waste of time after all.

We adjourned for dinner and things started to get a little crazy because 2 of the bball team members were celebrating their birthdays yesterday and today. There was an insane amount of food, some of which I've never seen before so here I'm gonna post some pics. The pics are not taken by my camera, hence the blur shaky hand look, so bear with me.

The first is some tzut tzut looking thing which I felt was quite yummy. I'm a sucker for shell-food lah. But it was damn hard to suck out the meat. You had to suck the head, the ass, and then the head again damn hard just to get the meat out. It was too much work, so we finally gave up and asked for toothpicks.

Then there was pigs ear. PIG'S EAR? The chinese really eat every damn thing do they? Together with the pig's trotters they also ordered, this is the ultimate combination of pure unadulterated FAT. Needless to say, the ladies steered clear of the dish.

This is a general pic of the food that was taken at my request coz I thought the food has arrived. Who knew, at this point it wasn't even halfway yet. I counted a total of 11 dishes altogether last nite.

Anyway, what's a birthday celebration without some alcohol right? There was lots of beer along the way, and they found out I was Singaporean. Suddenly I became their 干杯 target. So I hardly ate the whole nite since I was so bloated. But something about the beer - It bloats you, but doesn't get you drunk. I guess it gives people the impression like you can drink a lot but won't get drunk - good for entertaining clients.

Pic of two of my colleagues. They are as good-looking as it gets around here - which is damn sad lah. Needless to say jac jac should not feel a least bit threatened by the ladies here. And they are so young, one is '85 one is '86, and they have been with the company for about 2 years liao. We uni students should consider ourselves so lucky.

I'm a little du lan I haven't got my pay since I've stepped into the company. But it's "processing" so what you wan me to say right?

My jac jac is sick and the flu bug has been bugging her. Hope the NTUC doctor in school gives her an MC for tommorrow as well for some really well-deserved rest. The company of hers - Could someone do me a fine favour and burn it down? They've been bullying her and the people there are so incorrgible. It's the PR company in Shaw Centre, I have no idea what's the name, that's the one. If you're not sure, just burn down the entire building to be sure. Thanks in advance.