Daddy, Buy Me Ciggies?

Apparently, my dad doesn't mind that I smoke.

The other day, I came out of my room right after having one, and he said, “你抽煙啊﹖煙味很重。” And that was it -- just a one-liner. The second time he remarked on it, he said something like, “抽煙啊﹖有煙味。”

He didn't go on to nag about the consequences of smoking or the price of cigarettes. When he commented, it was in a conversational tone, except that we didn't continue talking about it.

I find that very weird, considering that months ago, he refused to help me buy cigarattes. He had called home and then:

“爸﹐可以幫我買東西嗎﹖”

“你要買什麼﹖”

“幫我買Marlboro Menthol。”

“什麼﹖”

“Marlboro Menthol。”

“不可以。”

“為什麼﹖買啦﹗”

“不可以。。。不可以。。。”

He kept on repeating that and then he hanged up on me. I haven't tried asking him again despite how neutral he appears to be on my smoking, and I really shouldn't, if only not to remind him of the price.

I Heart The Dawn and Drew Show

I was an absolute idiot and didn't realise Podcasts can be heard without an iPod till someone enlightened me. -_-;;; OK, so what? *points above at title* I think that indemnifies me some.

Anyway, listen to The Dawn and Drew Show! They've been mentioned on just about everywhere, including CNET News.com and New York Times, just to name two. Their self-desciption for their Podcasts says, "Two ex-gutter punks fall in love, buy a retired farm in Wisconsin and tell the world their dirty secrets... Always profane, rarely profound."

Dawn and Drew recently celebrated their one-year anniversary of Podcasting, and they played some audio comments from listeners. One of them was from a Christian youth minister, who actually said this,

"I have an audio comment to celebrate your one-year anniversary -- Enjoy it while it lasts because when you die, our Lord Jesus is gonna judge you, and send your body hurtling down to the pit of Hell where you and your camel toe¹ can be suffering for eternity while I'd be looking down from Heaven watching you burn. Thanks!"²

My jaws dropped and then I couldn't stop laughing. I've only heard about four episodes or so, but yeah, I enjoy listening to their banter. They're currently doing a daily show which lasts about half an hour or so.

So listen to The Dawn and Drew Show!


³

P/S And oh, Kupfel just sent me this incredibly WTF?! link to a news article of killer dolphins which are armed and dangerous! Wow.





¹ If you don't know what a camel toe is, google it. But uh, it's NSFW (Not Safe For Work) so do it when alone or when with friends.

² Reckless overuse of italics and bold for emphasis is solely my fault. But damn, it's close to the actual recording. Go listen and compare.

³ Yes, I stole their photo off their site, but they looked so sweet and I'm just trying to promote them. So chill.

Think you have no problems telling apart who's Chinese, Korean or Japanese? Take Dyske's test and see how good (or bad) you really are at it. (Haha, Kupfel, you're gonna fail this one. XD) Remember to click on "About This Site" for a little insight behind Dyske's creation of the test. I found his in-depth philosophy on it an interesting read too.

Also, take a look at selections from "Churches ad hoc: A divine comedy", which has funny captions for photographs of churches.

I can't believe this guy sued over this. And upon sharing that link, I was informed that it is possible to break it, but it's very hard (pun? what pun?) to do so.

Ghost? Where got? #1

I've always had the worst luck in seeing anything remotely supernatural. Well, some would call that good luck (at least my mom would) but I beg to differ. I have to see them for myself before I would believe they do exist. As such, I want to see them...



There's been at least 5 incidents in which friends saw/heard something but I didn't. -_-;;; In fact, I didn't have an inkling that anything was out of the ordinary, and they faithfully abided by the rule of "If you see it, don't mention it; pretend it isn't there." So I only got to hear about it like a day or many, many days later that anything transpired at all.

So let me tell you a story stories of what happened. One story per blog entry.

File No. 39882 a.k.a. Incident #1

This happened in high school where every class stayed overnight at the school (some sort of camp thingy but I don't remember the details) in their own classrooms.

Now, my classroom had two doors on the same wall, like this:



Notice that each door also has a pretty big glass panel so we usually can see our discipline mistress peeping in and stuff.

So anyway, it was late and no one was supposed to be out and about. My whole class was inside talking. And apparently, some peeps noticed this shadow in the gaps below the doors that made it seem as if someone was walking past the doors. Walking past quickly. Walking past a few times. And each time -- walking past without a single sound of footsteps.

Unfortunately, I wasn't in a position to bear witness to it.



Yes, X marks the spot. That was where I was, with my back against the wall, rather happily oblivious to what the majority of the class was seeing. So lucky, riiight?

They're That Blogger, and Who Are You?

This is so cool. It all started with MercerMachine's entry called "I'm That Guy". Other bloggers got inspired and thus a new bandwagon was born. (Each of those "I'm" and "I am" is a link to a different blogger's take on defining themselves in the style of "I'm That Guy".)

My favourites would be...

• Popagandhi (yes, of course)
• Alee J
• Jay Que
• M.
• Dubdew
• Johnny Malkavian
• Anantya
• Mari
• Sultry Nights (that's a user name @ LiveJournal, OK?)
• Mainey Hendrik
  

It seems fun to join in, but I'm afraid mine will be a bleak one so nah.

Three Evenings Ago

They were showing some Hong Kong drama series on cable TV and they had some scenes filmed in Japan. I wasn't exactly watching it; my mom was. Then I heard "doumo arigatou", and quite suddenly, I found myself missing Japan.

I miss the weather there, so unlike Singapore's hot and humid climate; I miss smoking there, where each breath taken in alternates and contrasts between cool and warm; I miss too, how the sun can shine down on you even as the breeze that blows is cold. *sigh*

I remember coming out of a warm bath, wrapped in a light yukata, with the steam rolling out of the small bathroom around my feet, and then quietly stepping past my mother's sleeping figure on the tatami mats to climb up on the windowsill to sit on the extended ledge. There, I could stare out at the lake right opposite of the ryokan I was staying in. It was night-time and traffic on the the single lane two-way streets was minimal, and all was peaceful. I just had to light up; it was so right. And then two little fireflies appeared as if to complement the scene and the mood. That was such a moment straight out of a manga. XD

And those are just two of the many things that comes to mind when I recall that country in my mind's eye. Maybe it's because I was there longer than my other trips, maybe it's because it is a country and culture that remains most fascinating to me, but whatever it is, out of all the countries I've been to, my memories of Japan is still the most vivid and memorable. I miss Japan.

P/S Ken-chan, where are my Hello Kitty... products? Or TarePanda lighters? OK, guess you really didn't have the time to get them. =p But one question, if you weren't gonna get anything in the first place, why ask me what I want? Pffft.

Linky Links

Can you imagine navigating web sites without a single click? Well, it prolly won't help your WhatPulse click counts much, but still, it's an intriguing idea as this cool site DONTCLICK.IT shows.

If you have more time to burn, drop by M90.org; they have a pretty good stock of truly crazy pictures and videos. Start off with this one here. I spent like an hour plus 5 hours or more on this site, just clicking on "Random Image" on the left continually. ^^;; And Kupfel's guilty of it as well!

And oh, oh, oh, you must check >> this <<< out. They are the men with some of the most magnetic voices you always hear narrating in movie trailers. Who cares if they're old? (At least I don't.) My god, their voices are such a turn on! XD (Funny how it's almost always male narrators we hear.) Also, have a few laughs watching the trailer for "Comedian" the movie, heh.

Is It Teh Rabbit?

I was about to delete this e-mail from my Junk Mail folder when I noticed the URL.



I thought it was a weird URL for the kind of product it was selling so I visited the site. (No, seriously, that was the only reason why I took a look!)

Anyway, can anyone confirm for me if it really is the one in "Sex and the City", that it really is as advertised on the site?

Like Chun? You said you watched it and I think you have the entire series, so go watch Season 1 Episode 9 very closely (and slowly maybe) and tell me the answer!



Nah, I don't think it's the same one. Too many ripoffs out there!

Not My Favourite Aunt

A few days ago, one of my mom's three younger sisters called. It's the one who's staying in San Francisco, and who is coming back to Singapore (eww). And she's also the one who said, "Smoking is not fashionable anymore." No, I don't have a lot of respect for her, haha, *in a concerned tone* is it obvious?

Usually, once I hear her voice, I go, "Oh, hi. Hang on," and I yell in the general direction of my mom, "Phone call!" But sometimes, I stupidly get sucked into a conversation with her.

Snippet #1

Aunt: My friend sends me weird stuff (e-mail) from the Internet sometimes, do you want me to forward them? Sometimes I don't have time to look through all of them.

Me: Ya, sure. Maybe the things you find weird is not weird to me.

A: He's American, so maybe the things he sends is different from Singaporeans.

M: It's still from the Internet, anyone can access the Internet.

I kind of understand what she meant, but still, pretty much everything is out there. It's just a matter of whether you want to find it or not, and whether you can find it or not. Well, so long as you're not in China.

Snippet #2

Aunt: The other time when I came back, you didn't go out with me at all.

Me: Haha, uh, ya.

A: Next time, go out with me, OK?

Me: We'd see.

A: Why we'd see? Just come out with me. We'd have fun.

Me: Haha (fake awkward laugh), we'd see.

I said "We'd see" about 38,924 times more in the conversation. And no, I don't know why she keeps wanting to hang out with me. Maybe because I seem the most free out of all her nieces and nephews? >_>

Snippet #3

A: I will miss my friends over here when I go back.

M: Well, then stay. (Stops short of saying, "Come back for what?")

A: But I cannot. My family is in Singapore. And I am getting old. Family is different from friends.

M: Uh, ok. (Disagrees with some part of it, but am too lazy to talk about it with her.)

A: Do you want to come over? Maybe you can come here to stay, and go and study those free ones, but you don't really study, just go there to make friends, then maybe get married and stay here. Then I don't have to go back.

M: Huh?

A: *repeats a slightly paraphrased version*

M: You sound like my friend. :S And you really don't want my mom to hear what you just said. (Imagined reaction from Mom: "What did you say to my daughter? Did you just ask her to move over to USA when I am in Singapore?")

Her idea is that if I should migrate, technically she has "family" over there. And oh, being my aunt and the fact that she has been an American citizen for the past 20 over years makes it her duty to show me the ropes over there. At least that's how I interpret it. *shrug*

P/S I don't have a favourite aunt.



Further Reading:

• OpenNet Initiative's report of Internet filtering in China 2004-2005 gives the lowdown of how scarily efficient and good China is at Internet censorship
• A few screenshots of censorship on MSN Space Chinese blogs.
• "Firms face moral dilemma in China" on BBC News

Oh, oh, oh my god.

http://thinkprogress.org/2005/09/04/worst-abandonments/

Read the article and/or watch the video.

Kupfel says he gets dirty dreams on a regular basis; meh, I want that too.