yet another day of my life crept by, and yet another day i felt myself degrading into a pusillanimous potato. a purveyor of procrastination. of a prosaic profile. i would say its akin to a slow decomposing process, and i had front row seats to watching myself rot away. talk about armchair critics.. literally... any the ways, with unprecedented levels of resolve and unparalleled detemination, alright alright since honesty prevails, when push comes to shove, lest i inaugurate a new era in human decomposition research, i decided to work. yes. take up a job~ much credit to yin for her sarcastic yet inspirational smses to get me moving! and jy for the other job offer! last but not least shian for her introduction to my working place! well me working place is hui lau shan beside international building along orchard so the human traffic is pretty good for business, and we get around 3 peak hours a day, whereby every1 is sooo bz i dun tink u can afford to stand still for half a minute! hehz we sell everything mangoish here, we do sell other fruit desserts, but the mango here is apparently too good to be true so u should try G5, B8 or A8, sell like hotcakess =D ok enough. wats this? a medium for advertising? *grinx* well the clientele is HUGELY varied, i've seen yuppies, tourists, ang mohs, lesbians, gays, teens, oldies, nsmen, students, and celebrities. hmmz so far i've seen patricia mok, beatrice chia, chen hanwei and 周崇庆 during my 3 day stint~~ and i served them all!!!!!! but they dun recognise mee =X but i must say they handle the popularity status really well, with all the glaring stares, pointed index fingers and noisy whispering when ppl realise they are in da house! and the shi fu who prepares the dessert is from hongkong so he speaks only cantonese.. and a decoding system, i say, has to implemented for linguistically challenged ppl. like... me. =P oh ya, he likes to blast cantopop over the radio too.. and i can easily rattle off a few canto songs in my mental playlist.. i think he's got like only 1 cd.. so i can hear the same songs up to 4-5 times a day... tts seriously.. brainwashing =X hehz tts about it.. gonna rest my legs.. 10 hours in vertical transition a day from 3 to 1am smacks of fatique. pwns me thoroughly~~

b4 i leave, here's a panacea for boredom~

how quickly can you find out what is so unusual about this paragraph? it looks so ordinary that you would think that nothing is wrong with it at all, and, in fact, nothing is. but it is unusual. why? if you study it and think about it, you may find out, but i am not going to assist you in any way. you must do it without coaching. no doubt, if you work at it for long, it will dawn on you. who knows? go to work and try your skill. par is about half an hour. =)

alright.. sleep beckons. waiter jon, signing off.

"Lonely Girl" - Jon B.

So he started out takin' you out
Doin' what any man would do
Sayin' any and everything to just get with you
I can't say I blame him for a girl as fine as you

So he played you out, ain't no doubt
He was runnin' game on you
After all the fun he was through with you
Any way that it goes down girl, he's the one that's gonna lose

Don't cry lonely girl
If you need somebody girl
I know you feel deserted
And you can't find your way back home

It was hard enough, growing up
Being as beautiful as you
Trying to save your love for the one that's true
It's not always so easy to know what's right to do

It's your first mistake, you can't make
Make someone be down with you
Why do you even take the time out to call that fool
When you know deep in your heart that he don't care 'bout you

couldn't stop laughing when i read this... sounded like an article from talkingcock.com. taken from sk's blog:

Raffles JC to warn students against 'taupok'
Source: The Straits Times (12 Jan 2005, Wednesday)

RIBS may be fractured, arms or legs broken, or ligaments torn.

But 'taupok', in which students gang up to pile onto one of their brethren, is common in schools here, though principals say they neither condone nor encourage it.

The prank starts when one student signals five to 10 others to pile on top of a targeted friend - flattening him like a piece of 'taupok', or compressed brown tofu.

Students say it is spontaneous, and targeted at boys who are good friends.

But what seems to be a game is a cause of concern for some parents.

Mr Justin Situ, the parent of a first-year student at a 'premier junior college in the Bishan-Ang Mo Kio area', wrote in to The Straits Times Forum pages yesterday highlighting the dangers of the activity.

His wife, Mrs Situ, told The Straits Times yesterday: 'These boys aren't trained to cushion the weight. What happens if someone gets seriously injured?'

At Raffles Junior College (RJC), students will be cautioned at today's morning assembly that 'taupok' may cause injuries.

Principal Winston Hodge said it was not an approved activity or part of the orientation programme. A parent had complained recently, and a teacher had to break up a 'taupok' on two occasions, he said.

In a statement, the Education Ministry said that the incident referred to in the Forum letter was 'not an approved activity' and the 'principal will take appropriate steps to advise students against such activities'.

Students, however, feel there is nothing wrong. An RJC student, who asked to remain unnamed, said it was a 'tradition in many premier schools' and 'activities like rugby and soccer were more dangerous'.

National Junior College student Chua Yu-Xi, 18, said: 'It happened in secondary school, but by junior college we grew out of it. We back off if we see the bottom person is in pain.'

But it can be dangerous for those at the top as well as at the bottom of the pile.

Said Dr Lim Lian Arn, consultant orthopaedic surgeon at Raffles Hospital: 'Depending on what position they are in, the people at the bottom or even in between can suffer rib fractures, limb fractures, asphyxiation, and tear a ligament, among other things.

'Those at the top have an added risk of falling and suffering additional injuries.'
Students don't seem to be daunted by this.

Said Mark Chen, 18, an RJC student: 'I've been 'taupok-ed' before and it's actually quite fun. It's usually not painful because everyone piles on quickly and gets off just as fast.'

--------------------------------------------

Put an end to this dangerous JC 'game'
Source: The Straits Times (11 Jan 2005, Tuesday) --> the letter to ST Forum

I AM a parent of a boy studying in a premier junior college in the Bishan-Ang Mo Kio area. Recently, it has come to my attention that rowdy behaviour is threatening to compromise the safety of the students.

According to my son, the violent act is dubbed 'taupok', a reference to a highly compressible piece of brown beancurd. A student would shout 'taupok' and other students would pounce on the targeted person, drag him down forcefully and climb on top of him. Due to peer pressure, more and more students would join in until the stack of bodies is about a metre high.

This violent act is supposedly done in the name of fun but, as a parent, I feel that it is potentially dangerous and even life-threatening.

Furthermore, the 'taupoking' is not a rare occurrence. It can happen up to five times a day, anywhere and to any person.

During the orientation programme for Year One students, even a person standing on the stage during a performance could get 'taupoked'.

Supposing that an average person weighs 60kg, a typical group of 15 would weigh almost a tonne. Just as a person cannot survive without air for three minutes, I am very sure that the human backbone cannot bear the sheer weight of a thousand kilograms.

What happens if the victim's spine breaks? Or if he sustains any other injuries? Who will bear the consequences?

Fortunately, my son has not been a victim of 'taupoking' yet, but he still feels rather uncomfortable about this dangerous act. Also, he feels obliged to join in due to peer pressure, as everyone else is doing it.

Some would say that 'taupoking' is perfectly safe if one assumes the correct position, with one's elbows and forearms touching the floor so as to support the weight, like in rugby. However, not everyone knows the correct position to take, and when surprised one might also forget to assume that position.

I write this letter in the sincere hope of preventing a tragedy. Hopefully, we can keep 'taupok' where it belongs - in that delicious bowl of noodles.

Justin Situ Ren Jun

yea, issues of environmental concern befall us. the lurid details continue to fester, plaguing newspaper front pages with lugubrious content. almost nobody expected a receding shoreline to herald a devastating tsunami. the 1st wave comes and goes. and the 2nd emerges. a wave of love, a concerted effort of compassion and fraternal feelings. may the 2nd be more impactful than the 1st.

on a lighter note, singapore beat indonesia 3-1 in the first leg of the tiger cup!!! talk about bottles filled with urine, lighters and corncobs as projectiles.. and tt means a 2 goal advantage in the 2nd leg, but still, lets not get complacent, shall we? =) 90 mins away from tiger cup glory, all de best~~

the dawn of the new year marks the start of a new phase of life. i confess i never took a liking to change, yet in life the only constant thing is change. i wonder where everyone in me class would be in a few months time, perhaps in a couple of years time we could meet to catch up, and wax lyrical about junyi's accomplishments, qingyu's sotongness, hum's lacking-thereof, amelia's shrills, and even richard's .. richardness. everyone. i miss, i'll miss.

Friends are like credit cards,
we need them forever...

first, a minute of silence for the victims of the tsunami... (no, that's cheating!!)

time flies. in a blink of the eye, everything seems over... everything's lost. i feel a void (as i often do), losing goals in life (i wouldn't say i achieved them).

these couple of months will be hard to bare; a challenge to the heart, mind and soul. i could turn out an emotionless eating machine or maybe a fully-permeable couch potato... haha... who knows? but still, every cloud has a silver lining (i really wanted to use 'there's always a rainbow after the rain' or 'just as the sun comes after rain so will joy come after pain' or something along that line...but erm... managed to control this urge...lol). i would have attained nirvana.