why wy?

I'm sitting here in school, listening to someone else's ipod as it blasts very loudly from their ears. She likes 80s rock and pop. I'm so tempted to say to her, can you skip to the next song, I don't like chicago. Come on, an ipod is meant to be your own personal music headspace, not imposed on others like inane radio chatter.

This brought back waves of nostalgia, I have faint memories of watching this again and again on tape as a kid. It was a favorite, next to star wars episode 4. The cheesiness of the plot was lost on me then (Ghettoman - In the ghetto, we don’t say ‘SHAZAM!’ to get our powers, we say ‘KAREEM!) and I don't think I would ever want to watch it again because it would just cheapen my memory of it. Or maybe I would, as long as there is a lot of alcohol present.

Glimpses of news in singapore frightens me, the prop-hitler group (thanks chlim01), another body parts murder. I can understand the need to rebel and be non-conformist at 15, I remember being asked to come up with something that Singapore would need in 50 years, and we suggested a one-stop cematorium-florist-ntuc shopping centre, which is definitely less funny now. But I've always thought supporting hitler is strange, even more so when you would be persecuted under his regime (except for the blond ah bengs/lians with their tinted contacts). It's up there with aussie comedian john safran trying to join the neo-nazis despite being jewish. At least that was a joke.

I don't know if this says more about me or the company I keep, but I actually know two people who have started a sentence with, "Now see, if I was a dictator, I would..."

And if you are reading this at work, there's another quiz to find out if you are too smart for your job. I got frightened away by the maths section so now I've never know.

Things not to do on my next bike ride
1) wear flared jeans or pants. the fraying edges have a strange attraction to the chain....
2) go to both the library AND the supermarket. Books + groceries = heavy.
3) talk on the handphone and cycle at the same time. Actually I am not proficient enough to do this yet, but i've seen the cuts and bruises of someone who has.
4) drink and ride. apparently it is illegal and you can lose your car license if you are caught.

The week has just flown by, the highlight(s) are being beaten by mr hip replacement and beating up someone in aikido. Well, we throw each other around but this was an after-class no-technique-involved wrestle. He was about my size and i'm pretty sure he held back a bit because nice guys don't hit girls. For once, "fighting like a girl" is not an insult.

This is the coolest quiz ever, off boing boing, to see if you can tell computer programmers and serial killers apart. Go try it, you may have a future career at the FBI profiling unit you never realised possible. I'm pretty sure they won't want me, and neither will Java...

And now that auction sites are commonplace, what about getting stuff for free? From bbc, freecycle is like ebay but it is people giving away stuff for free. There is a singapore group and you have to have a yahoo account. From the melbourne group, this is what some people are giving away:
four laying hens (already taken, had a lot of interest)
black and white tv
old computers and modems
furniture

On tv last night, there was a bimbo programme on how to dress bohemian: Just throw together things that don't match! In the land of ugg boots and trackpants, the leopard print skirt-vintage purple blouse combo is king.

Me and da pink ting went for a beginner's ride ( billed at 10 to 15km, but I strongly suspect they mean one-way cos it felt like much further to the city and back) organised by the local cycling club. It's a good thing that cyclists and divers have neon as a fav colour, because I saw them start off and had to give chase. About 300m and several turns later, finally managed to have a word. They were getting curious of da pink ting following behind. It was just four of us, me on the oldest bike and three retirees on nice new mountain bikes (it was monday morning).

Perhaps retirees is the wrong word to use, think ageing adventurers. These people ski, canoe, sail... in fact, they were cycling on their harder bikes today, ie smaller wheels, so requiring more energy to pedal; the good ones they keep for the over 40km rides. I managed to keep pace with the only guy present, Bill, except going uphill when he was slightly faster. His wife Lisa - who can absolutely cream me, even on her 'harder' bike - told me very casually later, oh, he's had a hip replacement. On his cycling misadventure, puck blamed his brakes, I'm pointing fingers at Bill's better gear ratio.

When Joe and I grow old, I hope we will be as fit as Bill and Lisa, but you know, without the plastic hip. I've had an excessively active day today as well, climbing in the morning, a cycle to the shops with a hill in the way, and aikido at night. Now I just want to crawl in bed and stay there.

Now that you're done laughing at me, here's something else:
top 10 pub names in the UK
1) The quiet woman, york (sign is a woman carrying her own severed head)
2) The inn next door burnt down, bedfordshire (nothing like honesty)
3) Donkey on fire, kent (would the flaming ass be a better choice?)
4) The duke without a head, kent (well, as long as the beer has none)
5) Bull and bladder, brierly hill (this one sounds disgusting)
6) The round of carrots, herefordshire (it just feel wrong, not manly enough for a bloke to stop by after work)
7) World turned upside down, london (after having a few)
8) The leg of mutton and cauliflower, surrey (pub meal?)
9) The bucket of blood, cornwall (i wonder what they do for halloween)
10) The office, sheffield (so that you can say, honey, I stayed back late at the office)

I have reached new lows in internet slutdom - sitting outside a friend's door, my laptop fired up, surfing on his wireless broadband connection waiting for him to come home. And no, I wasn't stalking him, there was just a miscommunication about time. Really.

On a religious note, the quote of the week:
"God is wireless, God is everywhere and God sees and knows everything. Throughout history, people connected to God without wires," a corporate executive in the wireless industry told the paper two years ago. "Now, for many questions in the world, you ask Google and, increasingly, you can do it without wires, too."
- The New York Times, on Google and God.

You know all those people who claim to see Jesus or Mary in a potato/cheese sandwich/cloud, this is someone the opposite - seeing hidden pictures in Michaelangelo's Sistine chapel fresco. Two doctors are claiming that the man hid pictures of anatomy, the lung, the heart, amongst the angels. I'm not sure if people are just seeing what they want to see, like in that fundamental quantum physics experiment, or it could have just been the medieval version of the easter egg.

I would really like to see the monty python musical if it comes, spamalot (winner of a tony for best musical some more), but a morrissey musical sounds intriging. who else would make a good musical? let me know.

good old new paper has an interesting story about a 2000-year-old date palm growing again, there's a sense of hope in that something practically fossilised can grow again.
The bbc has beethoven on tap - ok, for download - today, and more files in a fortnight I think.
Head to boing boing for pictures of a urinal too pretty to piss in, and animated fish developing emergent behaviour. On my way to school today, I saw a flock of birds just flying in circles. It was amazing, the way the light glinted off them and made them disappear at certain angles, and then they reappeared.
And one of the best star wars comments comes from a seven year old, on watching the old trilogy for the first time:
"So, does this mean that R2-D2 is really the main character in Star Wars?"

tyger tyger has a sublime post about clouds and a less than sublime one about very hot korean chicken. And yes, I've often thought of having a double life, or a teleporter, so that I can study here and hang out at ak's or johan's or even in hong kong, on weekends.

A couple of links that made my week:
Put a tiger in your tank, but sheep urine is better for the environment, really.
From mr brown, a link to the women's driving olympics, killer pictures!
and also, a list of journo cliches. Some of it is sadly true.

They are going to start showing the new season of law and order: criminal intent here, and chris noth, aka mr big, will be on it! mr big! sigh. Unfortunately it will be on at the same time as the napoleon miniseries... decisions, decisions. It's funny how exam-time makes you appreciate all the lazy pleasures in life.

I've made a little list of the things I want to do in a week.
Read fluff fiction, fall asleep and read again.
Cycle on my brand new second-hand bike. It's an old-fashioned road bike, with the gears in the centre, 15cms too far from the handlebars in my opinion. And it's pink, with a white seat. I hope the other road users are not too busy laughing to give way.
Make mayonaise the old-fashioned way.
Go to the aquarium, stand under the manta rays and pretend that i'm diving.
Go to the museums, pretend to be cultured.
Climb!

my former classmate alvin has started a blog, and he briefly mentions what singaporeans are doing to get into the record books, like wearing balloon hats and making rojak (not at the same time, unfortunately). My own personal record is playing 10% of my ipod, yes, 572 songs, straight through on random, no playlists nothing. It took slightly over a week, listening to it as you would a radio, turning it off when you go out or watch tv. Putting this in perspective, it will be completely useless taking an ipod on a deserted island unless the coconut tree has a powerpoint. The play button has turned up some gems, songs I'd forgotten or don't get played enough, like christmas carols, bare naked ladies, radiohead, and some embarrassing ones that are heading straight for the recycle bin.
I had to take passport photos at the booth today for work, and it is not a good idea to put in your money THEN try and read the instructions when nothing happens. As a result, I have a really crummy first shot, then three surprised ones. Luckily they only need two.

Exams start tomorrow.

NASA has an article on one of my favourite pleasures - the nap. I once wrote an essay, in secondary school, about my hobbies, and nearly failed it because I put sleeping as a hobby. I still think it is a legitimate one, you spend at least 6 hours a day doing it, I never can get enough of it, it makes me happy... silly pedantic teacher.

Getting distracted, am watching a fascinating docu on the egyptian rulers. Apparently, one line of rulers had elongated skulls, so it was not just the tall headpieces they wore. Ancient politics is so much more interesting than watching c-grade aussie celebs go to circus school or d-grade white trash scheme in big brother. Foreign policy in those days involved marriages, alliances, cleopatra sleeping around with the heads in Rome. (Imagine madeline albright doing the same - brrrrrr - condoleezza rice not so bad.)

Mr Brown where are you? Granted the man is busy - blogging convention, writing articles, new baby on the way - but I am having a serious withdrawal from his funny-as-heck podcasts. It is so good to hear singaporean voices arguing, although admittedly this is melbourne; throw a stone anywhere in the city and you will hear singlish or singaporean-style mandarin. You really can spot them a mile away, in the toilet, in the cafe, and everyone eats at the Mekong, a vietnamese institution on swanston street. At least half the tables there on a Saturday night (including mine) spoke in the same tones and inflections. An instance of viral tourism I think, an okay place gets rave reviews from travellers, students take their folks there and, over time, becames the must-try place for anyone visiting.