By the way, I am still on hiatus.

Sleeping burns off more calories than watching tv.

Its a good thing i like sleeping more than tv watching =)

She huddled beneath the miserly scraps of old newspaper that were her only protection against the raging winter's wind. Even as she tried to snuggle beneath its frail insulation, heat dissipated, dissolving into the chilly night sky.

It was Christmas Eve, but she felt no joy. A small cluster of teenaged carollers shuffled past her, giggling softly, lost in their own world. If they noticed her, they made no sign.

Stopping at the door of an apartment a block down the streets, the carollers began yet another rendition of an age-old Christmas carol. It was a beautiful carol, and the voices were smooth and clear, filling the frosty winter's night with a peaceful serenade, much like a steady stream of warm buttermilk.

The girl shivered, oblivious to the golden voices. She could hear no sound - not the voices of the brilliant choir, not the forceful howling of the wind. Nothing. She lived in a world of silence, a vaccuum of her very own.

As she laid recumbent in the dark corner of the alley, she raised her eyes and looked longingly at the carollers in the distance. She stared enviously at the snug trenchcoats they wore; fuzzy ones at that. How lovely it would be if she had something like that to call her own.

Another wave of chill coursed through the girl's body as she watched the movement of the lips of the young carollers. From the deep recesses of her mind, a tune appeared and played itself in her mind. It was one of the few tunes that she could still remember. Instinctively, she began to hum along to the music inside of her head. She did not know if what came out of her mouth resembled the gentle tune, only that with every effort, her larynx trembled lightly. She closed her eyes and let the slight tremblings continue. It was hypnotic and she almost forgot about the sharp wintry coldness biting into her skin. Almost, but not quite.

The first snowflakes made their lazy descent down to earth.

|| listening to: Barenaked by Jennifer Love Hewitt ||

down with the president.

i say that merely to express my personal dissatisfaction with the meatball that is currently head of the nation, and by saying that, there is absolutely no intention of physical action. nor do i want to head a uprising. i'll leave that to dear darling mr. sun, thank you very much.

as anyone who has been faithfully keeping up with the taiwan political scene would know, the taipei city will be electing its mayor for the 2002-2008 term in december. and, as everyone knows, elections always bring about the best and worst of the politicians involved. unfortunately, this time we are seeing more of the bad side of humanity, so to speak.

it fills me with disgust to learn that after four long years, the head of the nation is still unable to accept with open arms his defeat in the 1998 taipei city election. worse yet, he has swiftly transformed his inability to generously accept failure into pure, sputum-spitting spite. you can almost see the hatred in his eyes as he stood by the progress party's candidate, vociferorating with all his might, the very juvenile 'Seven Commandments of Mr. Ma.'

in that very jarring list of commandments are words dripping with sarcasm - 'mr. ma can do no wrong', 'if mr ma says he did no wrong and yet the people insist that he is wrong, then the fault lies with the people', 'if everyone says that mr. ma is in the wrong and he rebukes that statement, then he did no wrong'... and so on and so forth.

kinda reminds me of kindergarten times, don't you think? oh wait, i don't even think we stooped that low then!

instead of putting his finger on what exactly mr. ma isn't doing for taipei city, he indulges himself in criticizing, and complaining about how mr. ma, after his visit to hong kong, did not report back to him. and just because of that, he had inferred mayor ma's actions as being 'disloyal to the country' and 'siding with the PRC'.

well hello, just because you were not granted hong kong visas because you are the head of the nation, doesn't mean that you have right to direct all your animosity to the mayor! what do you expect him to do huh? come running to you as soon as he steps off the plane? wouldn't that be more suspicious, should those big guns in Beijing be spying on this entire scenario?

how about picking up some genuine, factual, valid reports for once? what? can't do that? OH right, because there AREN"T any nits for you to pick. its just so much like Marcus Brutus justifying with his generalizations and assumptions, without even a tenth of his nobility and class.

in fact, such a sensitive issue of national loyalty should not be used as a matter of debate in the elections at all, and of all people to do such a low-down act as to gang up with the candidate to mock the CURRENT mayor, he, the president, just had to do it. I mean have you ever heard of anything like this before? the president ganging up on one of his cabinet ministers, so to speak. this just makes a whole mockery of the entire election, not to mention being an international embarrassment to taiwan, and the people who voted for him.

why he is even the president? look at his mandarin, if you can even call it so. he cant even pronounce his own name right, for god's sake. ever since he became the president, half of those overseas taiwanese are unable to understand his speeches because he refuses to make himself understood. i for one don't understand his speeches.

all this talk about including taiwanese in the nation's syllabus is such a joke as well. the entire world is undergoing globalization, and there he goes, trying to alienate his nation from the communications of the world. is that not taking a few hundred steps backwards while other people march on forward? look at the nation right now, less than 10% of the people know english, and STILL you are trying to add this internationally-unknown dialect into the syllabus? sure i understand that its going to help alot in your elections because people in the deep South are going to vote for you, but can you please for ONCE just think about the future of the nation and not your own selfish bonanza? sheesh. your own cabinet ministers can hardly understand the new textbook for goodness sake!!! OH wait, it shouldnt be that they HARDLY UNDERSTAND - its more like they TOTALLY DO NOT understand it at all. Watch the news, Mr. President, you'll realize what a big fat joke it is, with your prized ministers stumbling over a primary school textbook.

And wut? Ex president Mr. Lee has written a book by the name of 'Forgiveness and Kindness'? Is he running for the Dalai Lama or something? I would hardly dare to think that such a charismatic person like him would have sufficient material to write a book of such a bombastic name. Oh come ON, Mr President, if you want to talk about disloyality, why don't you talk about Mr. Lee instead? He for one is SO biased to the Japanese, being a halfblood himself.(no offence to any other person) Why don't you ask him why he resiliently refused to have his heart-bypass operation done in taiwan, choosing instead japan? ( yeah sure, the technology is probably better, but if you wanna think of silly reasons, then why not this one as well? its just as dumb as your HK excuse) Plus, Mr. Lee wants to give a copy of the book to Mayor Ma too, cuz apparenlty, according to him, Mr Ma just ain't forgiving enough.

Oh hello, would you care to review the situation here, cuz i think you got it all mixed up, mr. chen water flat. i wonder who is the unforgiving one here.

Has anyone realized that the other candidate, as far as this entry goes, does not even have a name? That's because he is so insignificant in the entire electorial process!!!!! I don't even KNOW his name!! and it doesn't even matter, because his election is merely a facade for that punk (yes i too am down to namecalling, but i am entitled to that, because afterall i am merely a 16 year old in the midst of adolescence, not a dang president!!!) that is the president to vent his frustration regarding his falling flat (no pun intending) in the election 4 years ago.

I say, poor candidate. He's really the one suffering now.

ALL HAIL THE HORSEY!!!!!

you go guy, win that election - come out and run for president in 2004!!!!!!!!

that loud-hailer has had its fun ;)

i have graduated.

for real.

wahahahahahaha.

and to think that S, JY and I snuck out of the school before we sang the graduation song and the reception.

but it wasn't our fault that the school decided to invite an entire bunch of narcissistic, ego-maniacs to address for like half an hour at one go.

oh yeah, like everyone's so ecstatic at the 'golden' opportunity to listen to you brag about YOUR daughter, YOUR niece, YOUR family and YOUR mountains of money. that just makes me (and i believe, ALOT of us) sick. my skin CRAWLS.

its OUR graduation for god's sake!!

right. i shouldn't complain.

i'm not from that school anymore, ain't i? =)

THIS BLOG
IS ON
HIATUS

My final report book comment:

Victoria exercises good self-discipline and is capable of working independently. She is a wonderful student to teach and shows determination to do well academically.

i have discovered that the best way to make myself want to blog is to put the blog on hiatus =)

so, without further ado,

THIS BLOG IS ON HIATUS!

Miss America Angela Perez Paraquio. 25:

"The first time i was in a pageant, the biggest feaer i had was the swimsuit competitoin. Its degrading to women. BUt when i found out the contest was for a scholarship, i said, 'i play sports - i'm going to play the game. I'll wear the uniform, I'll do wut i need to do to get that sholarship money because i want to be college educated."

abortion. are you for or against it? in other words are you pro-life or pro-choice?

i'm a pro-choicer =)

so yeah i reckon by saying that someone will come and hack my comp, and install some kinda trigger fuse so next time i switch it on, it goes kaboom and blows my head off.

which brings me to my point... if pro-lifers are so pro-life, then what in the world are they doing blowing up public abortion clinics, killing pregnant women, and pouring acid?

a bunch of hypocrites, that wut they are.

and incidentally, most radical pro-lifers are all white male.

mmm im treading into dangerous waters now =S

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ah come on, bring forth the radar.

betty botter bought some butter,
but she said the butter's bitter
and if i put it in my batter,
it will make my batter bitter

so betty botter bought some butter,
better than her bitter butter
and when she put it in her batter,
it will make her batter better

The largest regret I have right now, at this moment, is having to write the letter in english. I wonder if I will ever have the tenacity and ability to translate it into chinese, so that my parents would not have to access a foreign tongue to understand what their daughter has to say to them.

Dear mom and dad,

How are you both? Are you enjoying your stay in the cosmopolitan New York City? Please do take some time off to enjoy yourselves - go visit the museums, the art galleries, the breathtaking scenery. Pamper yourselves for you deserve it.

The school has asked every single student to write a letter to their parents. The letter, as explained by the teacher, is supposed to contain expressions of thanks and gratitude, and, as the teacher so carefully noted, it has to be written on fancy letter paper. I know not of the significance of the floral letter paper, with its floral scent, but I am aware of the great significance of the letter, and its importance to you both. In that way, I reckon this would be one of the hardest letters to compose, but I will try my very best.

I will be graduating from high school soon, in approximately a month's time. October 26th will mark the end of a large section of my education, and the beginning of my venture into tertiary education. Indeed, time does fly. It just seems like yesterday that I first stepped into kindergarten, with mom by my side. I remember learning for the very first time, the meaning of the two overused words in society today - 'hurry up', through the experience of mistaking it to be another girl's name. I remember too, among other things, my first day at Primary School, how I felt like a total stranger in a room of thirty-odd students, all of whom were foreign to me. I remember thinking how I would dearly like to have both of you by my side, to protect me and to satisfy my desire for known company.

I see clearly the pride in your eyes as you loudly declared to dinner guests that your daughter had managed to transfer into the top primary schools in Singapore under a Supplementary Program. I can almost visualize the joy you felt when you sat in the darkened SLF auditorium, as I lead the kindergarten graduation recital. While obvious distinction of merit might have fallen fewer and farther between, I still am aware of the pride and immense faith you have in me. I truly want to be worthy of the faith and to be able to bring on more sources of that pride.

Yet I do know that while physical achievements do make you proud, at the end of the day, it is the person that I have become that would truly matter to you. Mom and dad, I do hope that I can make you proud of me, in that aspect. You both have done a great job bringing me up, demonstrating by your examples how to live a virtuous life. You both are the most generous persons I've ever come to known. I've seen the way you both interact with other people, and how your expectations of yourselves are always so high, while freely giving concessions to other people. Sometimes what you both do make me mad. I perhaps will not ever fully understand why you carry on lending money to a certain character X, when you know that what goes out will never come back. I do not deny that at times like that, feelings of disgust at your foolish generosity have crossed my mind. I recall,. more than once, fuming about how you dismissively said, ' no matter' after certain unjust was dealed your way. Yet, slowly I am understanding that perhaps to you both, materialistic possessions do not matter that much anymore, for there are much more important things than that. Your forgiveness and values are just two of the vast pool of things that I am trying to learn.

I cannot think of any two other people bringing me up better than you both do. True enough, the punishments handed out by any one of you really did hurt; but while they hurt me physically, you were the one who felt the true impact of emotional pain. But I do thank you for correcting me when I am wrong, and for that sharp spank to draw me back on track, before little mistakes turned into huge, irreversible ones.

I know that I am not the perfect child, and at times I can be difficult, especially in terms of housework. But I truly wish to bring you joy and a very full heart to my greatest ability. I do not wish for you both to worry, although despite me saying that you will worry anyway. I guess it is perhaps due to the very deepset Asian tradition instilled in the household that affection has never been openly displayed. Yet, I am constantly aware of the love you both have for me and the little actions that you do to show that. They may seem like little things to you, like the way you both would stroke me to sleep when I was little, but they magnify themselves to gargantuan proportions in term of making me aware that you both do care alot.

Yet, I wonder if you both know my feelings for you too. I do not want to be the one left crying when someday you both have departed, leaving me with the regret of not having let you know about the way I feel about you both. It is a little self-serving maybe, but sometimes the simplest of words are the hardest to voice out.

Mom and dad, I want you both to know how much I love you. You guys rock! Come home safely, for I miss you both.

on the news: if your NEWater has brownish or yellowish tinges, please call 1800-684-6600

so much for NEWater being safe and 'just like regular water' (with a slight touch of chlorine of course)

for those who don't reside in singapore, NEWater is the product of the government's newest innovations - purified water, by the reverse osmosis process. Put in layman terms, it merely means that waste water is being treated to drinkable conditions.

now, i emphasize the word, WASTE WATER.

WASTE in this sense is biological waste products, the stuff you flush down your toilets - humus and urea. The works.

right now i have a bottle of NEWater (empty, i have no idea wut my brother did with the contents, but i have a sneaking suspicion that he has poured it into the kettle for he had been threatening to pollute the water supplies in the attempt to make me drink that repulsive substance) standing in front of me, squat bottle and ugly label.

can you believe that the government actually gave out a few thousand samples to all the victimized spectators of the 2002 national day parade? and now they are bribing school kids with their very environmentally-friendly and practical children's day gift of a bottle of waste water.

can you really be that superficial?

anyways, the very fact that the water that was in the bottle could have been last month's soup really puts me off. i mean, i would definitely not drink any single drop of that filthy liquid (be it previously ingested by some superstar or not) if i do find out it is NEWater that they are trying to force-feed me. ARGH no way. Over my dead body (but let's not tempt fate)

now, back to the very first line. brownish and yellowish tinge.... does that remind you of something or what?

EWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW now take that NEWater of yours and go away!!!

stay away!!

I stepped into the room and was immediately greeted by wisps of smoke, swirling playfully around me.

There, in the far end of the room was my grandfather; his gaunt and withered body clad in the almost translucent shirt that he wears, day after day. The metal keychain that he uses accompanied his every moment with a soft clink.

On his desk were scraps of wood, pieces of metal and plenty of tools. Placed conveniently on the floor was his familiar suitcase of jars of different shapes and sizes, some sprinkled with remnants of blackened tissue.

And within his arm's reach, was a pack of cigarettes; its content dwindling fast.

4:30pm -> jieying gets on the mrt to my place
5:30pm -> train stops due to a fire between yew tee and woodlands (!!)
6:00pm -> jieying heads for orchard in attempt to get to my place
7:30pm -> reaches but alights a stop earlier, so had to walk a great distance; serena arrives
8:00pm -> dinner at the coffee shop
9:00pm -> rediscovering the dart board
9:30pm -> time to hit the books, along with the 2nd viewing of LOTR (liv tyler is the bomb!)
11:00pm -> jay attack, chip engulfing
1:00am -> jieying goes a-showering
1:50am -> serena heads for the shower
2:15am -> my turn at the shower
2:30am -> robbie williams serenades us
3:00am -> preparation of bed.. flooring tonite!
3:15am -> 3 sausages on the floor
3:40am -> no sound from serena... first one to conk out hehe
3:45am -> Zzzzzzz
8:00am -> i awake, look around, try to sleep again (brother watching Lost World for the billionth time), dream
9:00am -> i awake, look around, reads the Pelican Brief by John Grisham, try to sleep, dream
9:45am -> serena wakes, looks around, tries to sleep, accidentally kicked me (i jumped, but don't recall), sleeps
10:30am -> we awake... finally
11am -> brunch at novena, and a bit of grocery shopping
12nn -> back home, borrowed vcds from neighbor
12:30pm -> book time, watched a weird deity show (serena and i didn't get it)
2:45pm -> prawn cracker cooking time!!!
3pm-> THE ONE. Jieying retires to the room for some on-the-tummy studying
4pm -> brother has tuition
4:30pm -> serena and i join jieying in the room for some afternoon napping to find jieying half-asleep (hehe)
5:30pm -> brother's tutor peering at the 3 sausages
5:30pm -> groggy me lets him out of the house (and later on realize that he probably waited for like 20 mins for us to respond)
5:30pm -> ZZzzz again
6:30pm -> time to cook dinner!
7:00pm -> dinner's ready! time to wake up jieying and brother
7:30pm -> done munching... brother YET to wake up
7:45pm -> brother finally awakes and starts to eat
8pm -> more prawn cracker frying
8:30pm -> serena heads to cousin's house in toa payoh
8:30pm -> jieying and i buy some stuff
9:00pm -> studying again! this time with another action movie
10:30pm -> jieying's parents take turn to ring
10:45pm -> jieying's parents coming to look for block 10 elephant =)
11:00pm -> rediscovering dart board part 2 - grand prix
11:10pm -> newest variation: the f4 shooter (holey jerry, vanness, vic, and ken)
11:15pm -> jieying's mom arrives, time to go home

12mn -> WE ALL MEET ONLINE again hehehe

now i kno who will be the perfect roomies.

serena and jieying! =)

i wanna write about the sleepover but apparently my brain isn't cooperating.

no worries though i will fill it in later on

oops.

page just loaded and the washing machine cried out for help.

i am going to go relieve it of the laundry =)

chao.