OHAI JEFF TWEEDY

I am pretty sure I heard this is the band's lyrics somewhere..

"I'm the man who loves you, and also photocopies your documents in Little India." - I'm the man who loves you, Wilco

When Harry met ..the aftermath

Since Harry and Sally hooked up, I've now been relegated to the role of the third wheel.

Oh well. Sucks when you lose a friend, but when you lose two at the same time? :|

Noah and the Whale - 5 Years Time

Awesome ukulele song!!

Arcade Fire singing about.. Singapore?

Feeling an overwhelming sense of ennui. Not sure where this is from. Spent most of my National Day holiday in bed reading and watching movies, and not feeling any better from it. I could have spent time with Dave, since my parents were driving over to Jurong and offered to give me a lift but I chose to stay home instead. It's so weird.

Maybe the ennui has got to do with the conversations that Dave and I have been having. Spurred by depleting bank accounts (perks of being a freelancer: it's August and you've yet to be paid for work you submitted in June! Hurrah!), talk about future work projects and friends relocating, we've been asking ourselves the same few questions. Where do we go from here? What do we want in the future? What do we -not- want? Where do we belong?

Somehow this Arcade Fire song sums up what I feel about living in Singapore right now.




They heard me singing and they told me to stop,
Quit these pretentious things and just punch the clock,
These days, my life, I feel it has no purpose,
But late at night the feelings swim to the surface.
Cause on the surface the city lights shine,
They're calling at me, "come and find your kind."

Sometimes I wonder if the world's so small,
That we can never get away from the sprawl,
Living in the sprawl,
Dead shopping malls rise like mountains beyond mountains,
And there's no end in sight,
I need the darkness someone please cut the lights.

We rode our bikes to the nearest park,
Sat under the swings, we kissed in the dark,
We shield our eyes from the police lights,
We run away, but we don't know why,
And like a mirror these city lights shine,
They're screaming at us, "we don't need your kind."

Sometimes I wonder if the world's so small,
That we can never get away from the sprawl,
Living in the sprawl,
Dead shopping malls rise like mountains beyond mountains,
And there's no end in sight,
I need the darkness someone please cut the lights.

Arrested development, and not the tv show

Another year, another number.

The thing about birthdays is that you never really feel that you've gotten a year older, or gained a year's worth of experience or wisdom overnight. I think it has been especially true this year since the only things I did today was work (sent out an article to Mel!), negotiate on possible new freelance projects, watch a couple of Mad Men episodes and try to sleep off this flu bug. Not exactly a day of great self-introspection or self-discovery.

But I don't know what it is, but somehow I am less inclined to feel that I am stuck in a state of arrested development, unlike other years when I felt like a kid playing grown-up and viewing LH as a 'school' (because there was a point where everyone was somewhat single, around the same age band and drinking ourselves silly at media parties).

Maybe it's the freelancing gig, where I now have more responsibility to myself to get shit done. Maybe it's because I worry about things like money, passive income and cashflow (if only people paid freelancers on time!).

But I have to say that my life in general is pretty good. There are bad days when all I want to do is curl up underneath the duvet and sleep, and there are bad habits that I need to quit (like checking emails first thing in the morning even before I brush my teeth or pee). But there are also good days, such as the recent realisation that there are so many dysfunctional relationships and families out there, and that I am truly happy, lucky and privileged to have all these special people around me. There are those great days when work just kicks up a notch and there's a buzz of lingering happiness after completing a good story, conducting a good interview or teaching a class and feeling that they've learned something..

Or sometimes it is just the dizzy heady afterglow from beer (it typically takes two Erdingers to hit that sweet spot!) and having great friends all around you..

Sometimes I worry that I'm not doing enough in my twenties. Not meeting enough people, not accepting enough jobs, not going out enough, not saying yes to opportunities.. But then again, life isn't a sprint but a marathon. So while I think I would like to try living in a new country for a while, I'm not going to kick myself over the missed opportunities like not agreeing to work in KL.

Life's too short for regrets.

But there are still things I want to accomplish, boxes I want to tick.. and somehow I actually feel that I am better suited to achieve these goals now that I'm a freelancer...and that is really exciting...

But anyway, here's a post by a yoga blogger Nadine Fawell on what makes an adult a grown-up.. It's a post that I really like.. :)

• Realising that what other people think of you is none of your business. You are not on this earth to be liked by everyone. That said, have opinions and make judgements, and be OK with that. It’s fine not to like everyone, just as it’s fine that not everyone likes you. Oh, how I wish I had this one down.
• Putting greater store on being respected than being approved of.
• Understanding what healthy boundaries are and maintaining them. With a certain amount of discomfort if necessary. I battle with this one too. On account of still wanting to be universally liked. One day, I will totally root out my people-pleasing tendencies and then I will be able to count myself as a Real Grownup.
• Expressing your sexuality for yourself, in a way that is a celebration of life, and not some attempt to please or manipulate. I’ve run into a few people with serious issues in this regard. Folks, I’m here to tell you that therapy is worthwhile. Get some. Grownups don’t go around messing with other people’s feelings because they are too selfish or immature or whatever to admit to what they are doing.
• Taking responsibility for your finances. I think I’ve had this more-or-less under, um, control for a long time, on account of being (cough) a control freak. But I agree with Burk Krohe when he talks about a lack of a job being embarrassing. Dudes, you are grown up. Don’t be leeching off anyone else. Not your wife, not your mother/father/aunt/housemates. They probably won’t be around when you are old. In fact, if you keep leeching off them, they definitely won’t, and who will look after you then?
• Learning to cook, or, at the very least, assemble food. Again, it’s Not a Good Idea to rely on someone else to nourish you. In any case,cooking is fun, and the food you make at home is invariably tastier and cheaper than takeaways or restaurant food.
• Keeping your houseplants alive.
• Getting enough sleep, taking your vitamins, doing enough exercise, generally taking care of your health. You don’t have to do this when you are 18 (all-nighters, anyone? Two or three nights in a row?) but as anyone in their thirties can attest, this state of affairs can’t last. I get three hours of sleep, and I am wrecked for days afterwards.

David finds his old violin

And proceeds to play it badly....

Freelancers Day Out!

Working in the gorgeous National Library. This has to be one of the most scenic places in Singapore. Best of all, it's free! I'm such a sucker for public/civic spaces.

Mommy and me!

The iPad and iPad-mini!

Kim Jong Il's forgotten son

Day two of unemployment

What I did on my second day as a freelancer/unemployed bum:

- Woke up at 10. Didn't want to sleep in for too long because that really gets on my mom's bad side after a while.
- Chatted with a few friends on gChat
- Cleaned my room
- Gave the agency that I rejected yesterday my per-word fee
- Went into the city to meet said agency to get briefed on the freelance feature
- Went for hot yoga class. Turns out I read the schedule wrongly and ended up at Hot Flow when I thought I was attending the Hot Yang class. Big mistake, because Hot Flow turned out to be so much more physical. Half the time in class, I was looking at the teacher like she was insane.
- Movie and dinner with Dave!

First day of unemployment

So much for being unemployed!

My first day of unemployment looked something like this:

• Woke up early to go to Bugis because Dave had a job interview with an arts school.
• Went to the library to because I received an email about a freelance writing proposal and they wanted my quotation fee todaytodaytoday.
• Paid five bucks to use the computer at the library. (This is also why I need an iPad now, Mom!)
• Had lunch with Dave at Miss Clarity's, aka The Restaurant that Barbie Built.
• Went back to the library because the agency that was commissioning the freelance piece wanted a flatplan and a timeline of the work nownownow. (If only I had an iPad..)
• Walked around Sim Lim while Dave was looking for some spider, which I learnt was not itsy nor bitsy at all.
• Went back to the office to check the magazine colourproofs and to pick up some other personal items I had left behind. Also, colleague gave me a $20 Borders giftcard as a parting present! Whoo hoo!
• Took the direct bus from the office back home. It's something I've always wanted to try, but couldn't justify spending the extra 20 minutes of commuting time on.
• Worked on my lesson plans.
• Rejected said freelance work because the client/agency could not meet my writing fees. Decided that it was wayyy too much work for too little money.

So really, not exactly the best first day of unemployment or the type of "break" I had envisioned. But it's such a strange feeling of superproductivity compared to the 12-hour days when I would work in the office and still leave work deflated about the amount of work I have yet to accomplish.

The end of an era

Busy clearing out my junk at work, but guess what I found in my personal folder!

Yeap, I'm going miss these little things when I leave..

Before I go...

To make sure I get everything in order before I leave next week, I
have resorted to a to-do list that even has little boxes for me to
tick off when I complete a task!

Fangirl

I can has new Tegan and Sara shirt! This was bought by my colleague
who went to the Melbourne gig and got me this shirt from the
merchandise stand. So jealous!!

Open up your loving arms, watch out here I come

This song makes me feel like dancing, except that I'm cooped up at my desk trying to transcribe some lousy interview with a guy who talks in a Swedish accent. IKEA IKEA IKEA!

Haiku of the day

The weekend is here/
Now it's tine to drink some beer/
Glug glug glug glug glug

48-hour film shoot: 1.39am

Done with the train station shoot and on to the second location, which
happens to be at the Kopitiam near Singapore Management University.

48-hour film project: 11.20pm

The actors are here and we're on our way to our first location to
shoot! Right now the co-directors are briefing the actors on the story
and on what they should say. There really isn't a fixed script and
they've been asked to improvise their lines to some certain extent.

48-hour film project: 9.34pm

On a location recce at the new Bras Basah station. The station
interior reminds me vaguely of the set design in the movie Gattaca,
which was one of the sci-fi films that inspired this shoot.

48-hour film shoot: 8.43pm

We park the car at Plaza Singapura to do a little bit of location
scouting along Orchard Road. Because it is a public holiday and/or
Saturday, it's hard to find a carpark and I end up having to park on
the eighth level - the open-air floor. I never even knew this place
existed.

48-hour film project: 3.05pm

Production meeting in Nicole's room, talking about things such as the
visual effects execution and choice of wardrobe and props.

48-hour film shoot: 1.20pm

Waiting for Nicole at West Mall, so we decided to swing by Udders
while we wait. I'm having Chocolate Orange Bitters, with triple sec in
it. Mmmm.

48-hour film project: 1.10am

After a short break, the team convenes again at Nicole's house to finalise the details (such as convincing the male actor to come onboard) and the final plot.

We bring ice-cream because sugar is good.

48-hour film shoot: 8pm

Went to Al-Ahmein for palak paneer and butter chicken while Nicole and Dave bang out ideas for their film. Memory vampires? Chance encounters? The sci-fi genre is fun.

We stay there till 11.30pm and I also received a $10 parking fine at it too. Bloody ticket wardens flock to me like a moth to a flame, seriously.

48-hour film project: 7pm, 30 April

I arrived one hour after the briefing started, which is just as well,
seeing how I wasn't too keen on listening to the rules. (For one,
there's a rule that there shouldn't be payment for actors.) I did
manage to see the various teams draw for their genres. Dave and
Nicole's team, Method Madness, drew the sci-fi genre, to some applause
from other filmmakers.

Top dawgs, part two

Lisa and Dave circa 2006

Guess what i just found!

This photo was taken during one Chinese New Year holiday when we went to HuangShan in China, along with just about every other relative on Dave's side of the family, it seemed.

Yea, we were the top dawgs in our matching beanies yo.

Vampire pigs are teh yums!

[9:35:48 AM] Lisa: http://travel.nytimes.com/2009/12/20/travel/20choice.html
[9:35:49 AM] Lisa: oh
[9:35:53 AM] Lisa: this is what i plan to eat in bali
[9:36:04 AM] Lisa: esp the suckling pig
[9:36:05 AM] Lisa: Mmmmmmmmmmmmm
[9:38:02 AM] Angeline: SARKLING PIK
[9:38:06 AM] Angeline: NOMNOM
[9:38:17 AM] Angeline: im so hungry. and i just saw tht linguine asparagus thing :(
[9:38:33 AM] Lisa: lol i first read it as SPARKLING PIG
[9:38:42 AM] Lisa: and my first thought was - vampire pig?
[9:38:44 AM] Angeline: LOL it's a vampire pigh
[9:38:45 AM] Angeline: OMG! psychic

Ode to the mempat trees

From my bedroom window, there's a view of two huge mempat trees, one with pink flowers, the other white. Now that the flowers are in bloom, all week long, my favourite thing to do the second I wake up is take a long look outside the window, marveling at the pretty pink tree because it looks like a huge fluffy cotton candy sweet and admiring all the cars that have been shrouded with flowers. 

But I woke up today to find that the trees are now approaching their barren boring state. Bye mempat trees, I will miss you. :( 

Random pictures from a Thursday

I'm in the press! I'm impressed!

Sweet, I'm in a ZDnet Asia story about free Wifi on Singapore's transportation systems!

Singapore-based magazine editor Lisa Cheong said she welcomes the provision of Wi-Fi on public transportation, and would be encouraged to choose one transportation service over a competitor if Wi-Fi is provided.

In an e-mail interview with ZDNet Asia, she said Wi-Fi would be especially useful in situations where 3G reception is spotty, such as on the underground subway network. Cheong, who has a mobile data subscription, pointed out that she would choose Wi-Fi in such scenarios for the more stable connection offered.

She added, however, that a big deterrent to using Wi-Fi on public transportation would be a cumbersome log-in process. Compared to Hong Kong's public Wi-Fi service, Singapore's Wireless@SG's log-in process is a turn-off.

This is so much cooler compared to the times when Lian He Zao Bao used to call me to get my opinions on boring HR stuff.

Song of my life

St Vincent - providing hope for my next phase in life. *crossing fingers*

Bear with it!

Poor panda bear has been straitjacketed, blindfolded and made to listen to Nine Inch Nails on loop (the favourite band of the associate art director, made evident by his NIN desktop wallpaper and flyer) by the designers!

Day One of Project Greenthumb

A local branding consultancy recently celebrated its 10th year anniversary, and sent a box complete with packets of soil and wheat grass seeds to the respective media liasions, ie me! :)

This is the perfect opportunity for me to express my inner green thumb. The last time I wanted to do anything like this was when I was nine and wanted to join the gardening club at CHIJ headed up by the nuns. On what was supposed to be the first meet, it started pouring. And all I remember was arguing with my mom and being really adamant that the meet would still go ahead despite the rain.

I did eventually turn up early to school that day, and true enough, the meet was indeed cancelled due to the shower. What was even worse was the fact that my friend and gardening club buddy Andrea Bean (I am seriously not making this up. How perfect is the name?) flaked on me and never showed up early anyway. Thus began the disappointment in gardening....

(I'm not even going to mention the eco-system plant that I received a few years ago that was supposed to sustain itself in a closed jar. It died on me eventually. :( )

But it will all be different now..

So I came home today and planted wheat grass seeds after soaking them in the water for 20 minutes. And according to the instructions that came with the gift, wheat grass is expected to sprout in 7 to 12 days.

Let's see how this works out, shall we?

At the lovely St. Vincent gig!

She played all my favourite songs, except my favouritest song of all,
Laughing With a Mouth of Blood! But it's okay because we got to talk
to her for a bit during the autograph session and she was so nice and
lovely! <3

Mameshiba army

My army of mameshiba plushies grows bigger by the day! My two newly
acquired plushies are the two tiny ones which Chiam bought for me on
her recent work trip to Japan!

The red one was bought by Dave's brother when he went to Japan last
month.

This is not including another black bean mameshiba I have in Dave's
house!

Hee hee hee!

Spotted on Chat Roulette today

- One wanker. Like literally. I shrieked and immediately hit the 'Next' button
- One US military man who couldn't stop laughing at the sight of our teddy bear
- One teenager (?) who didn't know what a 'paw' was. "It's a bear version of a hand!!"
- And a panda bear wearing a FedEx t-shirt carrying a pink pen with a hugeass pink flower on top of it. Yes, my friends, that was the avatar that Angel and I shared because we didn't want to show our faces to random strangers on the internet.

Yeah, I think my Chat Roulette curiosity has been piqued.

Edited to add: Angel and I went on Chat Roulette the second time before we left the office today, and strangely enough, we had quite a semi-pleasant experience. For one, no one was trying to show us their penises, and secondly, I think people took us more seriously when they saw half of our faces compared to a stuffed teddy bear. Some of the people who we briefly chatted with our second voyage on CR included Chinese chap whom we tried teaching how to do the 'square' dance move, a Portuguese toy store owner, a French guy who was pretending to be impressed with our really bad French and a German guy with the Trainspotting stencil on his wall who talked about the bizarre characters he's seen on the site.

Then you realise that apart from all the whackos flashing their genitals, maybe they're kinda like us - bored, curious or just looking for someone to talk to.

Days like this

Days like this, it really sucks to have no boss/supervisor to ask for help or to refer to for guidance. And it isn't as if I don't *have* a boss or that I'm working freelance as well.

*mope*

Lady Gaga oughta be proud

Since it is Chinese New Year, it's only appropriate to post a video that I think kicks the arse of all the other repetitive dong dong chiang songs out there.



Even with his offkey backup vocals and really ugly decor, this. guy. is. all. kinds. of. brilliant.

Same cat, different feet

I found out that this cat likes plopping itself down at people's
feet!! :)

Cat in the grass

Joke of the day

What do you call a dog dressed as Sherlock?

Sherdog!

Hahahaha. Thank you.

Mayor me!

Sadly, becoming a mayor of my office didn't give me a kick I thought it would. Damnit.

Monday morning

Thus begins my spiral of shame and self-loathing. Good stuff.

I are serious cat

see more Lolcats and funny pictures

Saw this pasted on Jen's door in an episode of the IT Crowd last night. I love it!

Sign inspired by The Office

It was Soren's 30th birthday celebration so we ate pizza, made the exact birthday sign that appeared in an episode of The Office, and fashioned paper hats out of the day's International Herald Tribune newspaper for everybody.

(Also, if you work in the Raffles Place area, I would recommend Perfect Crust because they make pizzas the way I like them - ie. with a thin crust. And the pizzas are relatively cheap, as compared to the bigger chains. Mmmm.)

Wait, they don't love you like I love you

I pretty much bootlegged the entire Yeah Yeah Yeahs gig with my trusty iPhone (*kisses iPhone*) when they played at the Esplanade earlier this month. Unfortunately, I had to delete most of the files because the gig was SO LOUD that the recording quality turned out to be pretty poor. (Yeah cos it's a rock concert...)

But I love love love this acoustic version of Maps, which the band plays at the beginning of their encore.

In this recording, as Karen O says her thank yous, you would hear things like..

Me: MAPPPSSSSS MAPPPPSSSS!

Melody: What is she wearing?

Me to Dave: This is Maps!

Dave: Is it?

Me: Yesss, they always play an acoustic Maps.

Dave: But where's the *imitates drum solo beats*

Me and Melody: (When Karen O is introducing the additional guitar player who isn't formally part of the band) Sorry you won't be part of the band! We don't care about you!

Melody: Where is he? Maybe he went to the toilet?

Dave: He's a love child of me and Chris Pahlow!

Link to my dropbox download:

Yeah Yeah Yeahs - Maps (acoustic) and live at the Esplanade (right click and 'save as')

Yeah, fun times. :)

Midnight movie

On a spontaneous decision to watch a midnight movie, we had to make a tough decision between Tooth Fairy and Legion. The first scored a 15% rating on Rotten Tomatoes while the latter an 18%.

Tough choice between shit and shittier.

What happened to the art of storytelling? Have audiences been dumbed down? Or has Hollywood's monopoly meant that film studios now shoot for the lowest common denominator?

Or has it always been this way and I've just become more discerning of where I put my money on now? Plus, with a wider array of entertainment choices, I don't really want to spend money at a movie being bored. (Lord knows how many movies I've tried to stay awake at).

But it's now our turn to be served at the popcorn counter. And if you're wondering, we went with Tooth Fairy, only because it had an earlier screening time and I have free movie vouchers.

Darth Vader the farmer

Old darth vader had a farm
E I E I O
(what the ledge behind my desk looks like)

My profound question of the day

  

Why are Chinese New Year songs always so noisy? Full of synthesized music, unbridled enthusiasm and CYMBALS. Lots of cymbals.

Little Lungs

Another An Horse song that I love.

"But sometimes, it gets a little cold inside / And I know you tried, yes I know you tried"

How to stop a party invitation in its tracks

[9:23:15 AM] Party person says: Hi Lisa do u hvev anything on this Fri?
[9:23:40 AM] Lisa Cheong says: yeah
[9:23:47 AM] Lisa Cheong says: have an interview in the evening
[9:23:50 AM] Lisa Cheong says: wassup
[9:23:55 AM] Party person says: ok oh.. how abt night say 7pm onwards..
[9:24:10 AM] Lisa Cheong says: my interview is at 7
[9:24:28 AM] Party person says: after that?
[9:24:53 AM] Lisa Cheong says: not sure

And just like that, I managed to dissuade the party person from inviting me to her birthday party. It's okay, because this isn't the first time she hasn't invited me to one of her social events. :)

Better photo

Ride Sally ride

"Maybe this ride can get me to the cheezburger factory!"

The haves and the have-nots

Couple of weeks ago, I attended one of the strangest press conferences ever. I say strange because for one, the press conference was held in the boss's apartment, right on the 68th floor of The Sail @ Marina Bay. I knew this the minute I stepped into the room, because everybody was sitting on plush sofas instead of your formal work-like black chair, drinking coke out of expensive crystal instead of your typical office mugs. Plus, there were personal ornaments around the house, such as family photos and an expensive CD player mounted to the wall.

The boss of the Indian conglomerate which called for the conference is a character by himself as well. Not only did he have a photo of himself on his desktop (who does that?), he would wear shades and a hat indoors, and never once did he take them off. Even when there was a point in time when we were all shrouded in darkness, save for the presentation screen.

And even as I was examining the personal photos that were on the wall or the corporate brochures, the boss was wearing the same hat every bloody single time. Perhaps it is a brand signature for him, but later on I asked Dave the very important question: "Do you ever think he keeps the hat on while he has sex?"

Just yesterday, the boss appeared in the newspaper again, because he had apparently made a very large donation to an Indian cricket club to play in Singapore. And if you didn't know who he was, the article kindly started off by reminding you that he was the flamboyant businessman who had stirred waves in the real estate market two years ago when he made the offer for the apartment where the press conference was held.

How much did he pay for the apartment?

$15.8 million.

I didn't finish reading the rest of the article, mostly because I wasn't very interested in learning about why he had sponsored the Indian cricket team or how he plans to raise the profile of cricket in Singapore..

But $15.8 million? Some people would need to work for several lifetimes just to earn that kind of money - and on the other hand, we have people who are currently living on less than US$1 a day.

Man, we are really living in a time where the divide between the haves and the have-nots just grow further and further apart.

Fall at your feet

Aww, the cat likes snuggling up to Angeline's foot!