Simpler Times

peace+love

Plane Ride

I love Singapore. I don't know if I can live there, but every time I take a trip down south, I decide for myself that I should settle down there. Stuff like this little skatepark just outside an MRT station across a shopping mall makes me feel like I'm in New York (though I've never been there). There are, however, too many malls but I'm sure there are nice quiet, secret, awesome places waiting to be discovered.

Okay my Singapore trip was crazy. It's my first time travelling by plane to a place for a few hours and then sleeping in the airport waiting for our early morning flight. But it was awesome. My feet hated me for it but it was worth it. I was just dead by the end of the day. I felt so dirty and was aching for a bath like a smoker aches for a cigarette in a no-smoking zone. But somehow I managed to survive not washing my hair. Just told myself to suck it and assured myself no one cared if my hair wasn't washed. Lucky for me I packed my facial wash. It felt so good washing my face and I will never take it for granted again.

That brings me to the subject of public toilets. I'm so lucky we went to Singapore for the concert and not any other place nearby because the toilets were so clean and there was enough space for me to imagine that I was at home in my bathroom brushing my teeth. It was awesome. I didn't even bother about people coming and going while I brushed my teeth (quite messily) with satisfaction.

And I think the trip would not have been as awesome if not for my two travel buds Adeline and Jonny. They kept me entertained (sometimes I just dozed off in my brain) and I helped avoid multiple time-outs (according to Adeline).

Lykke Li's concert was AMAZING! It's my first concert where I'm sitting down and far away from the stage. But it turned out damn well. The lightings and the stage setup played a good part of it. I learnt that Singaporean youth can also get a little unruly and unbecoming. Nice. A super fan actually got up on stage and freaked Lykke out abit. 

Good show. Also, I didn't know the lyrics to any of her songs, but mind you I know most of her songs. It's just that I can't make out what she's saying. So I usually make up the words. Probably not the best idea to do it at the concert, though.

Jonny took a nap during the opening song, Jerome. The opening song, really, Jon?!

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Rush much

Most unrelated photo for a blog post in the history of this blog. Because I just love horse photos. (source)

Woohoo I finished The Inheritance of Loss today. Just checked the dates and it's exactly one week. Awesome. Such good timing. I'm  not ready to start with Tolstoy's adulterous woman just yet so I'm just moving on to Sophie's World.

Kinda embarrassing seeing as Sophie is 10 years younger than I am but I'm only learning now what I should've learnt when I was 14. Quite sad but that's life.

Tomorrow I'll be off to Singapore for a day with Adz and Jonnyboi for a Lykke Li concert at the Esplanade hall. Should be amazing. Hope to get some fun photos. Should I lug along my Diana F+? Hmmm.

I can't believe though that I'm planning for how Adeline and I are going to get back to our place from the airport the morning after next. But it's all good. Now I know roughly how to get around town by bus. Not that I'd want to, unless I was insanely desperate. Woohooooo Diane's all grown up and more. *cue applause*

Okay I need to get packing. Need to wake up earlier than usual. Need to be super ready. Need to stay fresh. Probably gonna be the most tiring Singapore trip. Until the next, of course. Woohoooooooooo

peace+love

Read the words

(source: Everything Reminds Me Of You)

OK there are just too many things on my mind that I want to do. So I'm just going to list them all down..

-Read a book

-Finish it in a week or two

-Cover some songs on the piano

-Write something, anything

So maybe I should've just wrote this on a piece of paper. But if they're here I'm compelled to actually do them and produce some results. Hopefully.

Right now, I'm reading The Inheritance of Loss. (Oh, I'm still stuck with Anna Karenin so I decided to screw it for a while and take a breather haha). I forgot how well writers of Indian descent described things. It's different. I can clearly see it in my head the scene the writer describes. I've been thinking of re-reading A Fine Balance. That was an eye-opener, a horror story. I think I first read it when I was 16 or 17. Damn.

As if I don't have any new books to read. The list is too extraordinary I don't know when I will be done with them. Right now when I think of all the books that I must have, I feel really bad because I haven't read the books that I have now. I think there're easily 20 unread books in my collection. Oh God. And I still don't have the ones that I really really want.

One is never satisfied, eh.

But that's how people keep on living because there will always be more things to live for, to fight for, to work for. The vicious cycle.

It will never be enough, what you have now. Never. We always want more and more. That's life.

Song of the day (or week): 3 Libras - A Perfect Circle

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Just Move

MOVE from Rick Mereki on Vimeo.

This is my dream. But isn't it everyone else's too?

peace+love

Robot Love

(source: Contagious Magazine)

I just came across this short film by Spike Jonze (sponsored by Absolut Vodka, oh yeah) called I'm Here. He made it after doing Where the Wild Things Are. I just thought it to be quite a sweet coincidence because I just decided to get off the internet and start reading some old magazines I bought a while back (old as in more than a year ago so I bought it for 5 bucks). This particular one I bought, Dazed & Confused, had Tilda Swinton on the cover and I just thought it would be really interesting. And I was right. There're some awesome stuff to read in this magazine.
Anyway, there was an article about I'm Here and I thought to myself, damn I forgot to watch this the other day. So I did this ugly thing I usually don't do and that is to read a sort-of review of a movie/short film before actually watching it. It turned out to be not too bad.
About the film, I felt like it was a world where robots were made but weren't appreciated enough. I guess it's just like how some of us are today, with mobile phones and computers. We just take them for granted and when they're broken we just buy another. Maybe it could be the same for people as well. Taking others for granted because you get too comfortable with them and expect them to 'perform' a certain way, at a certain level.
I think Andrew Garfield (mainly his voice) was the perfect fit. Just perfect.
Sometimes I prefer not to over think on the message of a movie/short film.
I'm Here is about love. Robot love.

peace+love

My own Shark Week

(source)

I know it's not shark week or anything but this shouldn't be talked about only during shark week. Something needs to be done. I want to be a part of something, anything, to help stop this.


I just watched in horror a video of Gordon Ramsay's show on shark-finning. I couldn't do much but just burst into tears, shamelessly. I didn't want to finish watching it but I forced myself. I have already stopped eating shark's fin soup for many years (I'm gonna guess around 10) and even now when they tell me "Oh, it's fake, it's just crab meat. There's no shark's fin in this soup, really", I respectfully decline.
What I didn't realize is that in China/Taiwan/Hong Kong/China towns around the world, there are restaurants who serve real shark's fin soup for a fortune. And people pay with mouths wide open.
I don't know for sure but Ramsay says the shark's fin soup doesn't taste special at all. There's no real taste. What you're probably tasting is the soup and the shark's fin could be just a piece of any other meat or just plain noodles for all you know.
The worst part is when Ramsay (invading personal space, I have to admit) asked the customers about the inhumane practice of shark-finning, they just plainly said they did not understand the situation. Basically, they just admitted on television that they were a couple of ignorant people. But in this case I have to say ignorance is not bliss.
There are shops out there who are selling thousands of sharks' fins. Thousands.
These sharks, even baby sharks, are just finned and thrown back to sea to die. Because it's not worth it to have the whole body of the shark. People need to survive and this is how they make their money.
But it's definitely one of the worst ways to earn a living. I cringe watching on video. I can't imagine how Ramsay could just be right there watching them fin these defenseless creatures - alive, their poor bodies are still moving after their fins are cut off - then throw them back into the water, blood-drained and all.
I wish shark-finning would be made illegal. Banned. But then I know, in my heart, that it won't stop this atrocity. Just like drugs. People still get a hold of them. Just like alcohol in the 20s. Moonshine.
I'm very afraid shark's fin soup is going to be another 'moonshine'. My idealistic side is hoping this can be stopped and forgotten forever. To hell with tradition and what-not. Your ancestors are dead and gone. Deal with it. Create new traditions and memories for goodness' sake. Damn.
Please stop eating shark's fin soup. I'm feeling bad enough that I'm finding it hard to give up fish and chicken sometimes.
I'm feeling mighty useless right now.

peace+love

Ponder

Here's to a good and productive Sunday. Sending positive love-filled vibrations out to the world.

peace+love

mission statement

Schoolbus Still-Life by Loree

I have a mission for Sunday: CHORES. I am going to do some serious housework tomorrow if that's the last thing I do. 

How dramatic was that?

Anyway I was just thinking about how I always neglect taking care of myself because of the worst reason in the world. I'm lazy. Yes. I'm actually lazy to slap on some moisturizer after a bath, sometimes. And sometimes, after taking off my makeup (which is such a feat for me), I forget to put on some moisturizer. It's always that moisturizer factor. And I have grown quite tired of me being so uninterested in myself. If I'm not interested in myself, how am I going to expect anyone else to be? I don't mean I want to attract boys or anything. Just anyone. I am that person who believes that if you know you look good enough, you feel good and there's some good positive vibes right there. With that, I believe you will be able to attract people with your presence and confidence and yeah you'll have to know how to make good conversation.

I don't know about you but I guess that's how I am. If I'm being very self-conscious about myself, I'm not going to even look confident, let alone be confident mentally.

One more thing. I can't seem to start writing anything besides ranting in this blog. I've lost touch. But I promise myself that I'm still going to try. I have some ideas for a story I just need to start writing. I have this problem where I cannot use Microsoft Word. It's like a really bad relationship we have. Even when I had lots of assignments to do. I just couldn't bring myself to open that program and start typing. Maybe it's the typing.

Maybe it's because it looks so empty I have no idea how to fill it up. Man, do I make the worst painter ever (that's something I thought I would try to pick up too. One can dream). 

You see how I can go on and on? I just can't seem to give you a nice story. It's always patches of things. Like a patchwork quilt.

peace+love