Didn't do much at the Rag house yesterday; woke up late coz I was tired from working-- I know, it was only three days work, but it equates to about 21 hours of standing, walking around, talking and persuading people and smiling even when you feel like throttling them and demonstrating the cleaning power of the household cleaner that I'm selling by pouring a whole tub of it down their throats.
Ahem. Wow. Long sentence. :P
So. Yes. I actually woke up at some time past 8 am; my infernal body clock is too finely tuned; even without an alarm clock, on my own, I will still wake before 9 am. My legs protested that they wanted more rest though, so since I didn't really have anywhere to be very urgently, I went back to sleep and only got up in the afternoon.
What I did accomplish at the Rag house, however, was that Ivan and I cleaned the kitchen floor and I cleaned up all the dirt around the sides of the kitchen sink. We were the last to leave the house, so after we'd finished cleaning up and packing away some of the cleaning things lying around, we lazed around for a bit before I decided to play around with the new nail buffer that I'd bought a couple of days ago.
I've been fascinated with nail buffers ever since I was in Primary Five and my senior buffed my thumbnail while we were on the school bus, going home. Hey, I was barely eleven then, and anything shiny or glittery was, and still is, infinitely captivating to me. :P
So I grabbed Ivan's thumb and started buffing the nail (during which he initially asked, "Oh, *that's* how it works?" Yes, dear; he thought it worked like a nail file.). When I was done, and his thumbnail was all smooth and shiny, he stared at it with a half-fascinated, half-mortified look on his face, and proceeded to announce that "My thumbnail looks *fake*."
I immediately convulsed in giggles. :D
Sunday, May 29, 2005
I'm a sales goddess, hahaha... :P I sold 43 tubs today!!! And 36 yesterday, might I add. Haha. So that means that the two shelves right behind me are almost completely cleared, save for 12 lonely tubs sitting stacked in two rows. :P And Jackson even told me that there was no more stock left downstairs when I told him that Steven had said to restock. :D
Turns out that Marina Square is far more crowded on weekends than it is on weekdays, and when one or two people stops by at my booth for a demo, usually a lot of others cluster around as well; herd instinct which works very well in my favour. :) So that means that I'll end up selling about 2 or 3 tubs per demo that I do, which is a very good thing indeed. :)
Anyway, I was on my way home; I walk through CityLink Mall and come out on street level at Raffles City, and today, near the traffic light junction between Raffles City, Stamford House and St Andrew's Cathedral, I noticed this stage set up.
Strangest thing about the stage that caught my attention was that the seats for the performance seemed to be set up below the stage. Walked over to the barriers that were set up around the area and read the small billboard attached to them with cable ties; they were a Spanish dance company, Producciones Imperdibles, performing this programme, Mirando Al Cielo (Looking at the Sky), wherein the audience sits below the transparent stage and watches the dance from below the stage. Hence, the chairs set up below the stage.
They were performing from today till the 31st, from 6.30 to 7.30 and 8.30 to 9.30, with a performance every fifteen minutes, each lasting about eight minutes, leaving the rest of the time for getting ready for the next dance and for the crew to change the lights.
Turned out that the performance was free, and there was a relatively short queue, so I thought, why not?
Headed into the queue; didn't get to watch the very next performance, but from where we were sitting, waiting out turn, we could still see the performance, albeit not from the angle that was intended. :) Was still lovely though; the four dancers, two male and two female, all dressed in white with the ladies in dresses with deliberately frayed and ripped hems, seemed to be characters in the dance just simply enjoying the music. The music itself was playful, light and enchanting; a little too happy for my taste, but I smiled while watching them dance anyway. :) At times, the dancers even leaned over the edge of the stage and engaged the audience below, waving, smiling or winking at them.
The dance that I got to see was much more to my liking; the music was a melancholy piece featuring a piano and violin duet. This dance really made use of the transparent stage; for half of the dance, the dancers, dressed in light, silky material of blue and purple hues, were lying down on the stage twisting around on their sides, somehow successfully simulating movements that would normally be performed on one's two feet.
It seemed to me like an exploration of the world somewhere between waking and dreaming, and love and vulnerability. The twisting on the stage somehow resembled fitful turns in sleep and when they did take to their feet, their actions were slow, withheld, sleepwalking, perhaps?
At one point in the dance, the two female dancers rolled and spooned behind the two male dancers, and in a slow, fluid movement, the two men got up, bent over double, carrying both ladies on their backs; an action that reminded me very much of children being carried to bed and of help being offered when there was no strength left. What struck me most during this part was that one of the male dancers was directly above me, and his eyes stared right down at me, somehow glazed and unfocussed, but clear and concentrated at the same time. Like he had no idea where he was going and how long he would bear his burden, but he knew that he would bear it all the same.
Right then, I teared and almost cried. Needless to say, I loved it.
And when I ran across the pedestrian crossing as the green light for pedestrians began flashing, my feet felt strangely lighter.
Turns out that Marina Square is far more crowded on weekends than it is on weekdays, and when one or two people stops by at my booth for a demo, usually a lot of others cluster around as well; herd instinct which works very well in my favour. :) So that means that I'll end up selling about 2 or 3 tubs per demo that I do, which is a very good thing indeed. :)
Anyway, I was on my way home; I walk through CityLink Mall and come out on street level at Raffles City, and today, near the traffic light junction between Raffles City, Stamford House and St Andrew's Cathedral, I noticed this stage set up.
Strangest thing about the stage that caught my attention was that the seats for the performance seemed to be set up below the stage. Walked over to the barriers that were set up around the area and read the small billboard attached to them with cable ties; they were a Spanish dance company, Producciones Imperdibles, performing this programme, Mirando Al Cielo (Looking at the Sky), wherein the audience sits below the transparent stage and watches the dance from below the stage. Hence, the chairs set up below the stage.
They were performing from today till the 31st, from 6.30 to 7.30 and 8.30 to 9.30, with a performance every fifteen minutes, each lasting about eight minutes, leaving the rest of the time for getting ready for the next dance and for the crew to change the lights.
Turned out that the performance was free, and there was a relatively short queue, so I thought, why not?
Headed into the queue; didn't get to watch the very next performance, but from where we were sitting, waiting out turn, we could still see the performance, albeit not from the angle that was intended. :) Was still lovely though; the four dancers, two male and two female, all dressed in white with the ladies in dresses with deliberately frayed and ripped hems, seemed to be characters in the dance just simply enjoying the music. The music itself was playful, light and enchanting; a little too happy for my taste, but I smiled while watching them dance anyway. :) At times, the dancers even leaned over the edge of the stage and engaged the audience below, waving, smiling or winking at them.
The dance that I got to see was much more to my liking; the music was a melancholy piece featuring a piano and violin duet. This dance really made use of the transparent stage; for half of the dance, the dancers, dressed in light, silky material of blue and purple hues, were lying down on the stage twisting around on their sides, somehow successfully simulating movements that would normally be performed on one's two feet.
It seemed to me like an exploration of the world somewhere between waking and dreaming, and love and vulnerability. The twisting on the stage somehow resembled fitful turns in sleep and when they did take to their feet, their actions were slow, withheld, sleepwalking, perhaps?
At one point in the dance, the two female dancers rolled and spooned behind the two male dancers, and in a slow, fluid movement, the two men got up, bent over double, carrying both ladies on their backs; an action that reminded me very much of children being carried to bed and of help being offered when there was no strength left. What struck me most during this part was that one of the male dancers was directly above me, and his eyes stared right down at me, somehow glazed and unfocussed, but clear and concentrated at the same time. Like he had no idea where he was going and how long he would bear his burden, but he knew that he would bear it all the same.
Right then, I teared and almost cried. Needless to say, I loved it.
And when I ran across the pedestrian crossing as the green light for pedestrians began flashing, my feet felt strangely lighter.
Friday, May 27, 2005
First day at work at Giant, Marina Square. Quite the screw-up over at the main office. Apparently, the person in charge of the Giant outlet at Marina Square didn't even know that I'd been employed. He'd been told that I was "unable to join (them)". -_-
Meh. Oh well.
The guy eventually arrived with all the promoter kit stuff though, and I managed to get started by about 2 pm. So I only worked about 6 hours instead of 8. Ha. :P
Anyway. Just for the sake of it, some of my observations about my new "colleagues" at Marina Square, in order of appearance. :P
Jackson Fernandez, one of the sales assistants in the Household Department, looks like a half-Malay, half-Indian guy; he brought me all the way down to the back of Marina Square and to the entrance of the Giant warehouse to show me where to get my promoter's pass. He's also one of the nicer sales assistants around in the Household department. The others don't really pay attention to me. Not that I mind; the other two seem a little... intimidating. :P
Steven Quek, head of Household. Looks like your typical aging father; lanky, looks to be in his late 40s or early 50s, and balding. Nice guy.
Hussin, one of the Loss Prevention officers at the security post at the warehouse entrance. Plump with a laidback demeanour and a smiley kinda face. Does make a poor, lost, blur thing like me feel a lot more at ease. :)
Ivan Lim; haven't yet figured out exactly what his post is. Seems like he's one of the supervising personnel at Giant, but he's also in charge of Reckitt Benckiser's (the company whose product I'm promoting. They're the company who also produces Dettol and Harpic, by the way) products. Like a middle man, but I just can't figure out the link. He's also the one who brought down all the promoter stuff for me and helped me set it up. From what he was saying when he was talking to some of the staff around Giant, it seems he's in charge of the Giant at IMM too.
Cecilia; short, with wet-styled, blond streaked, tied-back hair in a stiff, small ponytail that sticks almost straight out from the back of her head. She's one of the supervisors of the Marina Square Giant outlet. Er.. Don't let the lack of height fool you; she's mildly frightening and unsettling. Barely an hour into my stint as a promoter, she came by with Ivan Lim, stopped in front of my booth and started talking to him about me like I wasn't there.
Cecilia: So this is the new girl, ah? Will she be better than the auntie? (Here she turns and speaks to me) You sell 100 tubs in one day, can? Then like that good for me, I can clear stock faster. Can?
I wasn't so sure about that. Giant, Marina Square was almost deserted, even during lunch hour, and I'd quickly realised that it was likely it would stay that way for the rest of the day. I told her that there weren't many people around, which would obviously make it kinda hard to sell, and her immediate rejoinder was, "Don't tell me no people; you must be positive, yah? Must say you try; then I like you. Understand?"
What else could I say then but okay, I'll try. -_- (I don't even think more than 100 people walked past me today.)
After that, she proceeded to shout at Jackson (who was about halfway down the aisle on my left) about lunch and breaktimes, telling him, "You go for lunch from 12-1 or 1-2; tea break is 20 minutes at either 2.30 or 3 o' clock; you don't tell me you eat later; no such thing as lunch at 4 o' clock, ok?"
Did I mention that she's pretty loud? 0_0 Just watching her yell at Jackson, I felt uneasy about how much I'd be able to sell. And throughout her shouting, Ivan Lim was just standing behind her, chuckling the way that someone does when he's very familiar with another's behaviour. Needless to say, I didn't find it very funny. -_-
And then there're two other promoters that I met today, both aunties whose names I don't know, except that the one promoting Dove products is my mum's friend's sister; that friend is also the one who told my mum about the promoter job. With the two aunties around, I was considerably less lost, since they brought me to eat lunch with them and everything.
In the end, yes, the crowd was practically non-existent, but I still managed to sell 9 tubs. Quite all right, I guess.. the two aunties tell me that at Marina Square, as long as you "po ji dan" (literally, break the zero mark), it's considered good. That's just sad, in a way. Although, if I look on the bright side, if things continue like this, Reckitt Benckiser will *really* be paying me to stand around and do nothing. On the bad side however, I *do* have better things to do with my time, and if I sell more, I can still earn commission, after all. Sigh. I hope I won't be here for the whole 8 weeks of my employment. That would really be a waste of my time.
Meh. Oh well.
The guy eventually arrived with all the promoter kit stuff though, and I managed to get started by about 2 pm. So I only worked about 6 hours instead of 8. Ha. :P
Anyway. Just for the sake of it, some of my observations about my new "colleagues" at Marina Square, in order of appearance. :P
Jackson Fernandez, one of the sales assistants in the Household Department, looks like a half-Malay, half-Indian guy; he brought me all the way down to the back of Marina Square and to the entrance of the Giant warehouse to show me where to get my promoter's pass. He's also one of the nicer sales assistants around in the Household department. The others don't really pay attention to me. Not that I mind; the other two seem a little... intimidating. :P
Steven Quek, head of Household. Looks like your typical aging father; lanky, looks to be in his late 40s or early 50s, and balding. Nice guy.
Hussin, one of the Loss Prevention officers at the security post at the warehouse entrance. Plump with a laidback demeanour and a smiley kinda face. Does make a poor, lost, blur thing like me feel a lot more at ease. :)
Ivan Lim; haven't yet figured out exactly what his post is. Seems like he's one of the supervising personnel at Giant, but he's also in charge of Reckitt Benckiser's (the company whose product I'm promoting. They're the company who also produces Dettol and Harpic, by the way) products. Like a middle man, but I just can't figure out the link. He's also the one who brought down all the promoter stuff for me and helped me set it up. From what he was saying when he was talking to some of the staff around Giant, it seems he's in charge of the Giant at IMM too.
Cecilia; short, with wet-styled, blond streaked, tied-back hair in a stiff, small ponytail that sticks almost straight out from the back of her head. She's one of the supervisors of the Marina Square Giant outlet. Er.. Don't let the lack of height fool you; she's mildly frightening and unsettling. Barely an hour into my stint as a promoter, she came by with Ivan Lim, stopped in front of my booth and started talking to him about me like I wasn't there.
Cecilia: So this is the new girl, ah? Will she be better than the auntie? (Here she turns and speaks to me) You sell 100 tubs in one day, can? Then like that good for me, I can clear stock faster. Can?
I wasn't so sure about that. Giant, Marina Square was almost deserted, even during lunch hour, and I'd quickly realised that it was likely it would stay that way for the rest of the day. I told her that there weren't many people around, which would obviously make it kinda hard to sell, and her immediate rejoinder was, "Don't tell me no people; you must be positive, yah? Must say you try; then I like you. Understand?"
What else could I say then but okay, I'll try. -_- (I don't even think more than 100 people walked past me today.)
After that, she proceeded to shout at Jackson (who was about halfway down the aisle on my left) about lunch and breaktimes, telling him, "You go for lunch from 12-1 or 1-2; tea break is 20 minutes at either 2.30 or 3 o' clock; you don't tell me you eat later; no such thing as lunch at 4 o' clock, ok?"
Did I mention that she's pretty loud? 0_0 Just watching her yell at Jackson, I felt uneasy about how much I'd be able to sell. And throughout her shouting, Ivan Lim was just standing behind her, chuckling the way that someone does when he's very familiar with another's behaviour. Needless to say, I didn't find it very funny. -_-
And then there're two other promoters that I met today, both aunties whose names I don't know, except that the one promoting Dove products is my mum's friend's sister; that friend is also the one who told my mum about the promoter job. With the two aunties around, I was considerably less lost, since they brought me to eat lunch with them and everything.
In the end, yes, the crowd was practically non-existent, but I still managed to sell 9 tubs. Quite all right, I guess.. the two aunties tell me that at Marina Square, as long as you "po ji dan" (literally, break the zero mark), it's considered good. That's just sad, in a way. Although, if I look on the bright side, if things continue like this, Reckitt Benckiser will *really* be paying me to stand around and do nothing. On the bad side however, I *do* have better things to do with my time, and if I sell more, I can still earn commission, after all. Sigh. I hope I won't be here for the whole 8 weeks of my employment. That would really be a waste of my time.
Thursday, May 26, 2005
Rag house-cleaning today...
After our short meeting in the morning, we drove over to our new Rag site and I saw the place for the very first time.
It really is very nice. When we first stepped into the house, despite it being dirty and everything; the floor covered in about half a centimetre of dust and the corners and sides of almost every room playing receptacle to every kind of household pest carcass that you could imagine and their droppings; it still looked like it really had the potential to be a really nice place.
There's a kitchen (although there's no stove, so I guess everything we eat in the house will have to be instant or ready-made stuff, unless we can get solid fuel and mess tins, which shouldn't prove too much of a problem), a large living room and a washroom downstairs, while upstairs, there're two bedrooms, a toilet, two showers (but one has a bathtub) and another small room, which could become another bedroom, except that it has no air-conditioning, unlike the other two bedrooms.
So, today, we got right down to business; while some helpers moved out some of the disused furniture that was downstairs, we headed upstairs to begin washing all the dust and filth off the floors; Jasmine and I took off our slippers and walked around in the filth and dirty water barefoot from the very beginning, heehee.
Keyou even started singing some selections from Les Miserables, and I joined in at the parts that I could remember. Man, it used to be that I listened to the soundtracks of Phantom of the Opera and Les Miserables almost everyday and I knew every word of every song by heart. Now I don't even remember the last time I heard any of those songs.
We all had fun; the filthy water (it was *black*, I'm telling you) from upstairs eventually got channelled downstairs, making a black waterfall down the staircase, which eventually got cleaner as the day wore on. By the end of the day, we were finishing up with the living room and washroom downstairs. After that, most of the people who were helping with the clean-up were heading to the MC chalet's barbecue; I originally didn't want to go, but in the end, I thought, well okay, why not...
So, changed out of my house-cleaning attire and back into the jeans and shirt that I'd worn to school in the morning; was a good thing that I'd thought to pack my cleaning clothes instead of wearing them; at least I had a cleaner set of clothes to change into once we were done.
Ivan and Alvin and I made cheese prawns for everyone at the barbecue! Haha... See, thing is, they had prawns, but no cheese, so when Ivan and I dropped by the convenience store that the um.. "resort"(?) had, we found cheese and bought a packet. When we got back, Ivan and me started shelling the prawns and Alvin wrapped them in cheese. Only managed to wrap about half of the prawns though; wasn't enough cheese to go around. But everyone loved them. :D Cheese prawns are actually something that I learned of from Shaun during the first Rag barbecue that we ever had, so I guess this was sort of an eye-opener for the non-Raggers, haha. You should see the stuff that we eat at a Rag barbecue, man. I'd bet anything that it's better than what most people our age in Singapore can come up with.
Mostly coz we have Shaun. Haha. :D Seriously; how often in Singapore do you find someone trying to grill tomato halves sprinkled with herbs over a barbecue? :D
Diana made a comment at some point of the night, saying that I looked very feminine. I'm convinced that it was the shirt. I was wearing my new black shirt, one of those Giordano "Me" shirts; this one has green butterflies on the front of it, and it's a very "ladies-cut" shirt. Meaning that the sleeves are short and the shirt is quite long. Wasn't till I got home tonight that I realised that the new slippers that I was wearing also had a butterfly on each of them.
Huh. Whaddya know. I can actually match clothes. I might have some female sensibilities after all. :P
After our short meeting in the morning, we drove over to our new Rag site and I saw the place for the very first time.
It really is very nice. When we first stepped into the house, despite it being dirty and everything; the floor covered in about half a centimetre of dust and the corners and sides of almost every room playing receptacle to every kind of household pest carcass that you could imagine and their droppings; it still looked like it really had the potential to be a really nice place.
There's a kitchen (although there's no stove, so I guess everything we eat in the house will have to be instant or ready-made stuff, unless we can get solid fuel and mess tins, which shouldn't prove too much of a problem), a large living room and a washroom downstairs, while upstairs, there're two bedrooms, a toilet, two showers (but one has a bathtub) and another small room, which could become another bedroom, except that it has no air-conditioning, unlike the other two bedrooms.
So, today, we got right down to business; while some helpers moved out some of the disused furniture that was downstairs, we headed upstairs to begin washing all the dust and filth off the floors; Jasmine and I took off our slippers and walked around in the filth and dirty water barefoot from the very beginning, heehee.
Keyou even started singing some selections from Les Miserables, and I joined in at the parts that I could remember. Man, it used to be that I listened to the soundtracks of Phantom of the Opera and Les Miserables almost everyday and I knew every word of every song by heart. Now I don't even remember the last time I heard any of those songs.
We all had fun; the filthy water (it was *black*, I'm telling you) from upstairs eventually got channelled downstairs, making a black waterfall down the staircase, which eventually got cleaner as the day wore on. By the end of the day, we were finishing up with the living room and washroom downstairs. After that, most of the people who were helping with the clean-up were heading to the MC chalet's barbecue; I originally didn't want to go, but in the end, I thought, well okay, why not...
So, changed out of my house-cleaning attire and back into the jeans and shirt that I'd worn to school in the morning; was a good thing that I'd thought to pack my cleaning clothes instead of wearing them; at least I had a cleaner set of clothes to change into once we were done.
Ivan and Alvin and I made cheese prawns for everyone at the barbecue! Haha... See, thing is, they had prawns, but no cheese, so when Ivan and I dropped by the convenience store that the um.. "resort"(?) had, we found cheese and bought a packet. When we got back, Ivan and me started shelling the prawns and Alvin wrapped them in cheese. Only managed to wrap about half of the prawns though; wasn't enough cheese to go around. But everyone loved them. :D Cheese prawns are actually something that I learned of from Shaun during the first Rag barbecue that we ever had, so I guess this was sort of an eye-opener for the non-Raggers, haha. You should see the stuff that we eat at a Rag barbecue, man. I'd bet anything that it's better than what most people our age in Singapore can come up with.
Mostly coz we have Shaun. Haha. :D Seriously; how often in Singapore do you find someone trying to grill tomato halves sprinkled with herbs over a barbecue? :D
Diana made a comment at some point of the night, saying that I looked very feminine. I'm convinced that it was the shirt. I was wearing my new black shirt, one of those Giordano "Me" shirts; this one has green butterflies on the front of it, and it's a very "ladies-cut" shirt. Meaning that the sleeves are short and the shirt is quite long. Wasn't till I got home tonight that I realised that the new slippers that I was wearing also had a butterfly on each of them.
Huh. Whaddya know. I can actually match clothes. I might have some female sensibilities after all. :P
Tuesday, May 24, 2005
Attended NUSSU's combined Flag meeting today; I'd expected some bitching flying around, but when it *did* happen, it still turned out to be rather surprising.
Firstly, in NUS, it's quite well-known among the more active students and student bodies that the Halls don't like the Student Union. Why, I don't exactly know, since I'm not a member of any of the Halls, but I have a vague idea that it has something to do with the CCA points system and how the JCRCs (Junior Common Room Committee) of all six Halls have been unhappy with it for quite some time.
So, today, while the various faculty club and Hall representatives were taking notes of important dates and information during the meeting-slash-briefing, I was amusing myself making notes of who seemed to be doing the most bitching so I could blog about it later.
Productive of me, I know. But I *do* have some proper notes, don't worry; I wasn't completely inattentive.
Well, okay, the meeting started off fine, and it looked like we'd get to go home pretty early if we could get this finished soon. But, no. Where would the fun be in that after all; welcome to the world of University politics. Or at least, NUSSU politics.
Barely ten minutes into the meeting, Raffles Hall's president asked if NUSSU had actually asked for the Halls' consensus on.. the issue of the ticket sales for Flag, I think. Whatever it was, he seemed slightly pissed off, but he still managed to say it in a somewhat politely diplomatic tone, if you know what I mean.
(The ticket sales thing is another component that NUSSU's added to Flag this year, besides the normal can donations.)
And then the rest of the Halls joined in, saying that they didn't want to help sell the tickets for Flag Day coz they felt that they didn't have the manpower to spare, what with Rag and orientation programs going on concurrently. Then they said that all six Hall presidents had actually come to a consensus among themselves that the Halls would not participate in the ticket sales.
The faculty clubs weren't too bothered. At least, Xinyan and I weren't too bothered.
Can't say the same for Bizad. -_-
One of the representatives for Bizad (a guy whose name I CAN remember but I won't mention here) kept complaining about how the "larger faculties" would have an advantage over the smaller faculties in the ticket sales, and EVERYTIME he mentioned the "larger faculties", he'd say, "the larger faculties, like Arts".
If you've got a personal problem with us, let's take it outside, man. We don't love you overly much either.
But you know what the strangest thing is about Bizad complaining?
Bizad wins Rag and Flag every year. So it seems more logical that all the OTHER faculties should be complaining and asking where the hell Bizad gets their money from.
And then there was more complaining about how the points for the competition should be calculated. Yes, you read that right; the different faculties in NUS actually compete to raise the most donations for Flag, if you didn't already know.
Sad to see charity being reduced to a sort of competition, but that's the way it is.
Have a good feeling about this year's Rag and Flag, tho. :) We've got a real dedicated bunch of Raggers on our hands, and as for Flag, the comm has already gotten to work on some ideas as to how to raise more donations.
So.. hm. Maybe some "smaller faculties" really should watch it. ;D
Firstly, in NUS, it's quite well-known among the more active students and student bodies that the Halls don't like the Student Union. Why, I don't exactly know, since I'm not a member of any of the Halls, but I have a vague idea that it has something to do with the CCA points system and how the JCRCs (Junior Common Room Committee) of all six Halls have been unhappy with it for quite some time.
So, today, while the various faculty club and Hall representatives were taking notes of important dates and information during the meeting-slash-briefing, I was amusing myself making notes of who seemed to be doing the most bitching so I could blog about it later.
Productive of me, I know. But I *do* have some proper notes, don't worry; I wasn't completely inattentive.
Well, okay, the meeting started off fine, and it looked like we'd get to go home pretty early if we could get this finished soon. But, no. Where would the fun be in that after all; welcome to the world of University politics. Or at least, NUSSU politics.
Barely ten minutes into the meeting, Raffles Hall's president asked if NUSSU had actually asked for the Halls' consensus on.. the issue of the ticket sales for Flag, I think. Whatever it was, he seemed slightly pissed off, but he still managed to say it in a somewhat politely diplomatic tone, if you know what I mean.
(The ticket sales thing is another component that NUSSU's added to Flag this year, besides the normal can donations.)
And then the rest of the Halls joined in, saying that they didn't want to help sell the tickets for Flag Day coz they felt that they didn't have the manpower to spare, what with Rag and orientation programs going on concurrently. Then they said that all six Hall presidents had actually come to a consensus among themselves that the Halls would not participate in the ticket sales.
The faculty clubs weren't too bothered. At least, Xinyan and I weren't too bothered.
Can't say the same for Bizad. -_-
One of the representatives for Bizad (a guy whose name I CAN remember but I won't mention here) kept complaining about how the "larger faculties" would have an advantage over the smaller faculties in the ticket sales, and EVERYTIME he mentioned the "larger faculties", he'd say, "the larger faculties, like Arts".
If you've got a personal problem with us, let's take it outside, man. We don't love you overly much either.
But you know what the strangest thing is about Bizad complaining?
Bizad wins Rag and Flag every year. So it seems more logical that all the OTHER faculties should be complaining and asking where the hell Bizad gets their money from.
And then there was more complaining about how the points for the competition should be calculated. Yes, you read that right; the different faculties in NUS actually compete to raise the most donations for Flag, if you didn't already know.
Sad to see charity being reduced to a sort of competition, but that's the way it is.
Have a good feeling about this year's Rag and Flag, tho. :) We've got a real dedicated bunch of Raggers on our hands, and as for Flag, the comm has already gotten to work on some ideas as to how to raise more donations.
So.. hm. Maybe some "smaller faculties" really should watch it. ;D
Still feeling reasonably awake and aware at this hour, surprisingly, so to amuse myself, I've actually decided to do that silly thing which Ivan has on his blog.
Total volume of music files on my computer:
870 MB, 175 files (Don't have a terrible lot of music on my computer; I usually only keep those which I really, really like, and my Music folder also gets subjected to "spring-cleaning" at least twice a month, during which anything that I don't like as much anymore or don't listen to very often gets deleted away)
The last CD I bought was:
(That was ages ago, man; I'm not even sure if I can remember! Um.. *goes into room to look*)
The Best of Kevin Kern: More Than Words
Song playing right now:
One Night In Heaven by DJ Bobo
Five songs I listen to a lot, or that mean a lot to me:
Iris by Goo Goo Dolls
Everytime We Touch by Cascada
My First Love (Extended Mix) by Grenada
AlegrÃa by Cirque Du Soleil
Theme from Schindler's List by John Williams; violin solo by the wonderful Itzhak Perlman
(Have only just realised that this is starting to show just how diverse my music tastes are.)
Five people to whom I'm passing the baton:
No one. Coz I never bother anyone with this kinda useless shit, like those pesky forwarded emails, but hey, if you feel like doing this and putting it up on your blog, go ahead.
Total volume of music files on my computer:
870 MB, 175 files (Don't have a terrible lot of music on my computer; I usually only keep those which I really, really like, and my Music folder also gets subjected to "spring-cleaning" at least twice a month, during which anything that I don't like as much anymore or don't listen to very often gets deleted away)
The last CD I bought was:
(That was ages ago, man; I'm not even sure if I can remember! Um.. *goes into room to look*)
The Best of Kevin Kern: More Than Words
Song playing right now:
One Night In Heaven by DJ Bobo
Five songs I listen to a lot, or that mean a lot to me:
Iris by Goo Goo Dolls
Everytime We Touch by Cascada
My First Love (Extended Mix) by Grenada
AlegrÃa by Cirque Du Soleil
Theme from Schindler's List by John Williams; violin solo by the wonderful Itzhak Perlman
(Have only just realised that this is starting to show just how diverse my music tastes are.)
Five people to whom I'm passing the baton:
No one. Coz I never bother anyone with this kinda useless shit, like those pesky forwarded emails, but hey, if you feel like doing this and putting it up on your blog, go ahead.
Monday, May 23, 2005
Well, I made use of the public holiday to sleep in till 12 pm today; it's the latest that I've ever slept till in my life, might I add.
When I went downstairs to get breakfast, I opened the fridge and the first thing that greeted my still-somewhat-bleary eyes was this plate full of bright, *lurid* purple... something.
Finding something of that odd a colour in your fridge of all places, will wake you right up, I assure you.
So after the cobwebs of sleep had cleared a little, I realised that the bright purple something was actually dragonfruit. My mum had brought some back last night, and it turns out that it's a rarer species which has purple flesh instead of the more common white. My mum has stem cuttings of it too and intends to grow it. Yay. :)
We haven't grown much in the way of our own food ever since I was in secondary school and we actually had a long bean plant in our garden, so every month, we used to pluck the long beans and have them for dinner. :D And when my aunt came down from Malaysia once, she plucked some of the leaves and used them in soup. We didn't even know then that the leaves were edible.
But for some reason, my mum dug up the whole plant. No friggin' idea why the hell she did that... *grumblegrumble*
So. Anyway. Here's a picture showing both types of dragonfruit; apparently the purple one is called "red-fleshed dragonfruit", but really, it's purple. See for yourself.
Dragon fruit: white- and red-fleshed varieties.
Later, after lunch, my youngest sister and I were helping our dad to hang up the curtains at some customer's house after they'd been drycleaned; my sister and I were sticking the curtain pins in the curtains, and while we worked, we were chatting away and my sis was singing the song that they have on Cadbury Milk Chocolate commercials at irregular intervals; you know, the one which begins with "Wouldn't it be nice if the world was Cadbury". She's semi-obsessed with the little jingle at the moment. While the little ditty plays, it shows you a 3D cartoon that's part of the commercial, in which the whole world is really made of chocolate, including the people.
The commercial sparked off a little round of silly inspiration in us:
Sis: If the world really was made of chocolate, no one would go hungry, man.
Me: Yeah. Just imagine; you're watching TV, and you suddenly feel hungry, but all you have to do is lean over and take a bite out of the sofa.
Sis: Oh, but what if everyone was made of chocolate, haha...
Me: They wouldn't last very long in Singapore's weather, that's what. Everyone would melt, lah.
Sis: (after a brief pause) Chocolate tsunami. (Her eyes lit up with a silly giggle here :D)
Me: Yeah... and when that happened, people would be running to it instead of away from it, yeah? (Sis giggles) And instead of causing disaster, it'd feed millions! And it probably wouldn't do much damage; everyone gathered there would probably drink it all up before it could reach very far inland.
(Here, we both laughed like idiots for a moment before we eventually calmed down. And then my sis started at it again.)
Sis: Maybe we could try turning the ocean into chocolate.. everyone in the world contribute one tablespoon of cocoa powder...
Oh, the insanity that comprises my life. :D :P But that's about all the interesting stuff that happened today. Other than that, I managed to make more progress with my copy of Ray Bradbury's "Fahrenheit 451"; I'm almost done reading it. I highly recommend this book.
And while we're on the subject of books, BooksActually's site is now up! Go visit and order books!! :D
Oh, and if you remember the lovely song that I was talking about which was in the Kingdom of Heaven trailer, "Hope", I've managed to upload it somewhere, so you can download it here. Ladeeda. :)
Also, the song from Kenneth's blog, Tim McGraw's "Live Like You Were Dying".
When I went downstairs to get breakfast, I opened the fridge and the first thing that greeted my still-somewhat-bleary eyes was this plate full of bright, *lurid* purple... something.
Finding something of that odd a colour in your fridge of all places, will wake you right up, I assure you.
So after the cobwebs of sleep had cleared a little, I realised that the bright purple something was actually dragonfruit. My mum had brought some back last night, and it turns out that it's a rarer species which has purple flesh instead of the more common white. My mum has stem cuttings of it too and intends to grow it. Yay. :)
We haven't grown much in the way of our own food ever since I was in secondary school and we actually had a long bean plant in our garden, so every month, we used to pluck the long beans and have them for dinner. :D And when my aunt came down from Malaysia once, she plucked some of the leaves and used them in soup. We didn't even know then that the leaves were edible.
But for some reason, my mum dug up the whole plant. No friggin' idea why the hell she did that... *grumblegrumble*
So. Anyway. Here's a picture showing both types of dragonfruit; apparently the purple one is called "red-fleshed dragonfruit", but really, it's purple. See for yourself.
Dragon fruit: white- and red-fleshed varieties.
Later, after lunch, my youngest sister and I were helping our dad to hang up the curtains at some customer's house after they'd been drycleaned; my sister and I were sticking the curtain pins in the curtains, and while we worked, we were chatting away and my sis was singing the song that they have on Cadbury Milk Chocolate commercials at irregular intervals; you know, the one which begins with "Wouldn't it be nice if the world was Cadbury". She's semi-obsessed with the little jingle at the moment. While the little ditty plays, it shows you a 3D cartoon that's part of the commercial, in which the whole world is really made of chocolate, including the people.
The commercial sparked off a little round of silly inspiration in us:
Sis: If the world really was made of chocolate, no one would go hungry, man.
Me: Yeah. Just imagine; you're watching TV, and you suddenly feel hungry, but all you have to do is lean over and take a bite out of the sofa.
Sis: Oh, but what if everyone was made of chocolate, haha...
Me: They wouldn't last very long in Singapore's weather, that's what. Everyone would melt, lah.
Sis: (after a brief pause) Chocolate tsunami. (Her eyes lit up with a silly giggle here :D)
Me: Yeah... and when that happened, people would be running to it instead of away from it, yeah? (Sis giggles) And instead of causing disaster, it'd feed millions! And it probably wouldn't do much damage; everyone gathered there would probably drink it all up before it could reach very far inland.
(Here, we both laughed like idiots for a moment before we eventually calmed down. And then my sis started at it again.)
Sis: Maybe we could try turning the ocean into chocolate.. everyone in the world contribute one tablespoon of cocoa powder...
Oh, the insanity that comprises my life. :D :P But that's about all the interesting stuff that happened today. Other than that, I managed to make more progress with my copy of Ray Bradbury's "Fahrenheit 451"; I'm almost done reading it. I highly recommend this book.
And while we're on the subject of books, BooksActually's site is now up! Go visit and order books!! :D
Oh, and if you remember the lovely song that I was talking about which was in the Kingdom of Heaven trailer, "Hope", I've managed to upload it somewhere, so you can download it here. Ladeeda. :)
Also, the song from Kenneth's blog, Tim McGraw's "Live Like You Were Dying".
Sunday, May 22, 2005
Well, the exhibition promoter gig is finally over, so I guess my poor feet and legs will get to take a well-deserved break now. :)
Here's the thing: I was working at Suntec from Friday till today, at some Malaysian travel fair, outside Carrefour. I was working for this publisher called Goldentree Publications which specialises in and produces only travel-related stuff; things like maps and travel guides. And they needed people to help promote this new travel guide of Malaysia that they had, which really, I did honestly find quite comprehensive.
The thing is, because I didn't have any prior sales experience, I was working solely on commission basis. That was a bit of bummer when I was told, but I thought, why not; could still give it a shot anyway, just to see what it's like; the lady who was conducting the interviews, Josephine, also said that if we turned out to be good, we'd be called back for any roadshows that they had in future.
So here's the breakdown: I actually managed to sell 9 books on Friday; a lot more than I was expecting, haha. I was expecting ZERO, frankly! And in the event of that happening, I'd decided that I'd stop and find a better use for my time elsewhere. But apparently, that didn't happen, so I came back the next day. It turns out that I can actually be very glib when I want to be; surprised me most of all, I tell you. :P
Next day was kind slow, though. Odd for a Saturday, but maybe it was just the crowd. I sold 4 books before lunch, but after about three of four hours when I hadn't managed to sell anything and the people were just pissing me off, I decided to collect my pay and leave early. I actually didn't want to come back for today, but Josephine convinced me to. I thought that maybe I'd just come back in the morning, since I'd observed that during the mornings, when the fair had just opened, the people who wandered into the booth were more keen to buy after listening to me talk.
The only good thing that happened on Saturday was that Kenny and Rachel came by to see me! :D Felt so loved, haha. And Rachel bought me a bottle of Green Tea Honey Lemon drink. Which tasted suspiciously more like lemon tea than green tea, I think. Someone should tell the producer that. :P
Earlier in the day, William had also messaged me asking if the travel fair was on, but it turned out that since it was really just all about Malaysia, selling things like Malaysian resorts and hotels and tours, it didn't really have what he wanted.
I went down today, and just as I expected, the books sold easier in the morning, after which there was a lull period. But the Sunday crowd was good; our booth would actually get very crowded every 10 minutes or so, which was a good thing, coz then we could ambush people and pounce on all the interested ones, haha.
Today, there were 6 promoters around, and apart from one lady who seemed in her early thirties, the remaining five of us were all undergraduates.. sorta. I mingled around with them more today during the slow periods; most of them are from Engin. There's Zhi Han, who'll be going into Engin next academic year; his secondary school friend, Nicholas (who's a bloody joker, haha), who disrupted his NS and entered NUS Engin in the second semester of the last academic year; then there's another guy whose name I actually never found out, who's from Science, and since he's completed Year 4, he's sorta unofficially graduated, haha.
Then there was Fiona, who's this really pretty girl, an Engin Year 2, and it turns out that she was from IJ Toa Payoh! :D No wonder I thought she looked really familiar on the first day. :)
So Sunday turned out to be pretty good; I sold 11 books (double-digit!! YAY!! :D), and at the end of the day, Josephine actually paid me more than just my commission; so nice of her. :) Probably just her way of saying thank you for my effort and everything, especially since on all three days, I was the earliest there and I helped her set up a lot of the stuff and everything. :) During the day she even treated us to lunch, and later on in the evening, she had her husband buy a few of us ice-cream from Carrefour.
Also, she said that she liked me and that she'd call me back in future, and next time, I'll get basic pay! Despite the fact that the job didn't really pay as well as most jobs in the market, being commission based, I'm actually quite proud that I got through it. Now I actually do have some work experience to speak of, and if nothing else, I learned that I can do sales work, hehe. :D
Here's the thing: I was working at Suntec from Friday till today, at some Malaysian travel fair, outside Carrefour. I was working for this publisher called Goldentree Publications which specialises in and produces only travel-related stuff; things like maps and travel guides. And they needed people to help promote this new travel guide of Malaysia that they had, which really, I did honestly find quite comprehensive.
The thing is, because I didn't have any prior sales experience, I was working solely on commission basis. That was a bit of bummer when I was told, but I thought, why not; could still give it a shot anyway, just to see what it's like; the lady who was conducting the interviews, Josephine, also said that if we turned out to be good, we'd be called back for any roadshows that they had in future.
So here's the breakdown: I actually managed to sell 9 books on Friday; a lot more than I was expecting, haha. I was expecting ZERO, frankly! And in the event of that happening, I'd decided that I'd stop and find a better use for my time elsewhere. But apparently, that didn't happen, so I came back the next day. It turns out that I can actually be very glib when I want to be; surprised me most of all, I tell you. :P
Next day was kind slow, though. Odd for a Saturday, but maybe it was just the crowd. I sold 4 books before lunch, but after about three of four hours when I hadn't managed to sell anything and the people were just pissing me off, I decided to collect my pay and leave early. I actually didn't want to come back for today, but Josephine convinced me to. I thought that maybe I'd just come back in the morning, since I'd observed that during the mornings, when the fair had just opened, the people who wandered into the booth were more keen to buy after listening to me talk.
The only good thing that happened on Saturday was that Kenny and Rachel came by to see me! :D Felt so loved, haha. And Rachel bought me a bottle of Green Tea Honey Lemon drink. Which tasted suspiciously more like lemon tea than green tea, I think. Someone should tell the producer that. :P
Earlier in the day, William had also messaged me asking if the travel fair was on, but it turned out that since it was really just all about Malaysia, selling things like Malaysian resorts and hotels and tours, it didn't really have what he wanted.
I went down today, and just as I expected, the books sold easier in the morning, after which there was a lull period. But the Sunday crowd was good; our booth would actually get very crowded every 10 minutes or so, which was a good thing, coz then we could ambush people and pounce on all the interested ones, haha.
Today, there were 6 promoters around, and apart from one lady who seemed in her early thirties, the remaining five of us were all undergraduates.. sorta. I mingled around with them more today during the slow periods; most of them are from Engin. There's Zhi Han, who'll be going into Engin next academic year; his secondary school friend, Nicholas (who's a bloody joker, haha), who disrupted his NS and entered NUS Engin in the second semester of the last academic year; then there's another guy whose name I actually never found out, who's from Science, and since he's completed Year 4, he's sorta unofficially graduated, haha.
Then there was Fiona, who's this really pretty girl, an Engin Year 2, and it turns out that she was from IJ Toa Payoh! :D No wonder I thought she looked really familiar on the first day. :)
So Sunday turned out to be pretty good; I sold 11 books (double-digit!! YAY!! :D), and at the end of the day, Josephine actually paid me more than just my commission; so nice of her. :) Probably just her way of saying thank you for my effort and everything, especially since on all three days, I was the earliest there and I helped her set up a lot of the stuff and everything. :) During the day she even treated us to lunch, and later on in the evening, she had her husband buy a few of us ice-cream from Carrefour.
Also, she said that she liked me and that she'd call me back in future, and next time, I'll get basic pay! Despite the fact that the job didn't really pay as well as most jobs in the market, being commission based, I'm actually quite proud that I got through it. Now I actually do have some work experience to speak of, and if nothing else, I learned that I can do sales work, hehe. :D
Thursday, May 19, 2005
Tired...
I hate this stupid thing with having to look for a job and my mum breathing down my neck and getting pissed off with me for not getting one by now. She thinks I'm just being lazy, but I'm just damn worried that I can't hold a job *and* all my school commitments at the same time.
I'm worried that if I have a job, I won't be able to train for archery and I won't be able to make it for FOP meetings and I won't have time to do marketing stuff for matric fair; I'm worried that if I have a job, if I have to run off all the time for school stuff, sooner or later the employer will get tired of me... ARGH!!!!
I need a damn flexible job, in other words.
In fact, I think almost everyone involved in FOP is in the same boat as me; in that we all need really flexible jobs so that we can earn money and stick with our prior commitments at the same time.
Denise was saying last night as I was chatting to her over MSN that she thinks that I'm the worst off, coz I have archery outside of FOP commitments. I dunno about that, but I guess I probably do have more stuff to juggle.
But at least the competition will be over by mid-June, so after that, I could probably cut back on the training a little.
Oh, but speaking of training. :D
Arm muscles are developing. Surprisingly too, might I add. There's quite a firm mass of them on my right upper arm, near the shoulder, but since my two arms do different things in archery, the muscle growth is a little... imbalanced. I mean, my two arms will each develop different muscle groups more, so I might end up with a pretty fit-looking right shoulder, but a so-so left shoulder. Haha.
Ivan was feeling my right shoulder just yesterday and he said that he could feel the muscles, haha. And he's just jealous that his aren't that firm. Or so he says/ complains; "At least you have muscles... *mumblemumble*.."
Aww, don't worry, dear. You'll find the time to get them nice and developed soon. But don't overdo it, though. I hate overly-muscly people. They don't look human. And their proportions are all wrong, i.e.: men with inverted-triangle-like upper bodies.
Spent the later part of today going around collecting cans with Jianwu, Alvin and Keyou for Rag and washing them; good *grief*, some of them were absolutely DISGUSTING. We now have about 477 cans sitting happily in trashbags in clubroom anyway, waiting to be put to use on our float.
Typing this in clubroom now while Steven's outside playing Dynasty Warriors 5 on the PS 2. Think I shall go home and have my dinner now; have to work tomorrow. Some travel exhibition thing at Suntec, where I'll be selling travel books. I desperately hope that I'll be able to sell a reasonably large amount. Preferably a double-digit figure for each of the three days that I'll be there. :D :D
If anyone reading this is going to be around Suntec tomorrow and you don't mind buying a very comprehensive travel guide all about Malaysia and its outlying islands for just $18 (it usually sells for $23, apparently), come down and buy one from me, okay? :D
I hate this stupid thing with having to look for a job and my mum breathing down my neck and getting pissed off with me for not getting one by now. She thinks I'm just being lazy, but I'm just damn worried that I can't hold a job *and* all my school commitments at the same time.
I'm worried that if I have a job, I won't be able to train for archery and I won't be able to make it for FOP meetings and I won't have time to do marketing stuff for matric fair; I'm worried that if I have a job, if I have to run off all the time for school stuff, sooner or later the employer will get tired of me... ARGH!!!!
I need a damn flexible job, in other words.
In fact, I think almost everyone involved in FOP is in the same boat as me; in that we all need really flexible jobs so that we can earn money and stick with our prior commitments at the same time.
Denise was saying last night as I was chatting to her over MSN that she thinks that I'm the worst off, coz I have archery outside of FOP commitments. I dunno about that, but I guess I probably do have more stuff to juggle.
But at least the competition will be over by mid-June, so after that, I could probably cut back on the training a little.
Oh, but speaking of training. :D
Arm muscles are developing. Surprisingly too, might I add. There's quite a firm mass of them on my right upper arm, near the shoulder, but since my two arms do different things in archery, the muscle growth is a little... imbalanced. I mean, my two arms will each develop different muscle groups more, so I might end up with a pretty fit-looking right shoulder, but a so-so left shoulder. Haha.
Ivan was feeling my right shoulder just yesterday and he said that he could feel the muscles, haha. And he's just jealous that his aren't that firm. Or so he says/ complains; "At least you have muscles... *mumblemumble*.."
Aww, don't worry, dear. You'll find the time to get them nice and developed soon. But don't overdo it, though. I hate overly-muscly people. They don't look human. And their proportions are all wrong, i.e.: men with inverted-triangle-like upper bodies.
Spent the later part of today going around collecting cans with Jianwu, Alvin and Keyou for Rag and washing them; good *grief*, some of them were absolutely DISGUSTING. We now have about 477 cans sitting happily in trashbags in clubroom anyway, waiting to be put to use on our float.
Typing this in clubroom now while Steven's outside playing Dynasty Warriors 5 on the PS 2. Think I shall go home and have my dinner now; have to work tomorrow. Some travel exhibition thing at Suntec, where I'll be selling travel books. I desperately hope that I'll be able to sell a reasonably large amount. Preferably a double-digit figure for each of the three days that I'll be there. :D :D
If anyone reading this is going to be around Suntec tomorrow and you don't mind buying a very comprehensive travel guide all about Malaysia and its outlying islands for just $18 (it usually sells for $23, apparently), come down and buy one from me, okay? :D
Tuesday, May 17, 2005
Training again today... think I'm starting to re-adjust to the weight of the bow.
But best of all, today, Zhicong took some risers and limbs out of the "secret stash", so a few of us Logistics Cell people took the chance to grab new limbs and nice-looking risers, haha. Being in Log has its perks. :D
I got myself a lovely new Samick riser, dark blue at the ends fading into light blue in the middle, with a black grip, and *new* Progress-1 limbs! Hahaha... I think it's safe to say that Angel and I have the nicest-looking bows in NUS Archery now, lol.
Angel's new riser looks like mine, only the grip is a very light blue-green colour, to blend in with the colour of the riser around it.
Lemme see if I can find a picture of my riser on Samick's website...
Ah. Found it. :)
Went for job interview earlier today, and it seems promising; only problem with holiday jobs is that I'm worried that it'll clash with *EVERYTHING*. Especially since I'm involved with a lot of Freshmen Orientation Projects (FOP), and furthermore, my archery training is three times a week, with a competition less than a month away!! And I so desperately wanna win something for this one, NUS Indoor. ARGH!!!
Let's see what I'm worried about...
1. Arts Camp (pre-camp and camp itself; stay-in camp, so obviously I won't be able to work for a week or so)
2. Matriculation Fair (doing marketing with Ivan; have no experience with marketing, though)
3. Orientation Week (also involves a pre-camp and stay-in camp; also, I'm doing HR with Ivan)
4. Rag and Flag (I'm one of the people in charge of tech for Rag and I'm Flag DPD)
5. Arts Bash 2 (doing ticketing with Steven. Not so stressful, since most of the work comes only on the day itself, but now I have to go look for quotations for printing of tickets.)
6. Archery training 3 times a week!! (NUS Indoor 2005... I so desperately want to win something in Standard Class, before I have to move on to 'C' Class next year to open up spaces for the juniors; needless to say, competition in 'C' Class is a lot stiffer.)
Sigh. With all this stuff, I really need a job which is *very* flexible, preferably allows me to work from home, and which pays reasonably well. Currently, all I have to go on is waitressing at Ivan's workplace, which pays $6/hr, but it also does involve a lot of standing and walking around; you won't sit AT ALL for about 5 hours. I don't mind that so much, but well, it's very hard-earned cash indeed. And who doesn't want easy money, haha.
Anyone with lobang, please lemme know!!! Desperately need the cash, man.
And on a different note: I heard this song on Kenneth's blog today, "Live Like You Were Dying" by Tim McGraw. It's not as morbid as its title makes it out to be; it's more like one of those songs which encourages you to live life to its fullest, and what's more, it sounds almost exactly like something which I randomly thought up yesterday: "Live each day of your life as if it were your last one on earth; one day, you'll be right, but by then, you'll have nothing left to regret."
So, here's the song:
Live Like You Were Dying
by Tim McGraw
He said, "I was in my early forties, with a lot of life before me
When a moment came that stopped me on a dime
I spent most of the next days, looking at the x-rays
And talking 'bout the options, and talking 'bout sweet time
I asked him, when it sank in
That this might really be the real end
How's it hit ya when you get that kind of news
"Man, what'd ya do?"
He said:
"I went skydiving, I went rocky mountain climbing
I went 2.7 seconds on a bull named Fu Man Chew
And I loved deeper and I spoke sweeter
And I gave forgiveness I'd been denyin"
And he said, "Someday I hope you get the chance
To live like you were dyin'"
He said, "I was finally the husband that most the time I wasn't
And I became a friend, a friend would like to have
And all of a sudden, goin' fishin' wasn't such an imposition
And I went three times that year I lost my dad
Well I, I finally read the Good Book
And I took a good long hard look
At what I'd do if I could do it all again
And then,
"I went skydiving, I went rocky mountain climbing
I went 2.7 seconds on a bull named Fu Man Chew
And I loved deeper and I spoke sweeter
And I gave forgiveness I'd been denyin'
And he said, "Someday I hope you get the chance
To live like you were dyin'"
Like tomorrow was a gift
And you got eternity to think about what'd you do with it
What would you do with it
What did I do with it
What would I do with it
Skydiving, I went rocky mountain climbing
I went 2.7 seconds on a bull named Fu Man Chew
And I loved deeper and I spoke sweeter
And I watched an eagle as it was flyin
And he said, someday I hope you get the chance
To live like you were dyin'
To live like you were dyin'
Live like you were dyin'
But best of all, today, Zhicong took some risers and limbs out of the "secret stash", so a few of us Logistics Cell people took the chance to grab new limbs and nice-looking risers, haha. Being in Log has its perks. :D
I got myself a lovely new Samick riser, dark blue at the ends fading into light blue in the middle, with a black grip, and *new* Progress-1 limbs! Hahaha... I think it's safe to say that Angel and I have the nicest-looking bows in NUS Archery now, lol.
Angel's new riser looks like mine, only the grip is a very light blue-green colour, to blend in with the colour of the riser around it.
Lemme see if I can find a picture of my riser on Samick's website...
Ah. Found it. :)
 | My riser looks like this, except that the grip is black; one of these days, I'll use someone's digicam or phone to take a picture of my dear baby and upload it here. Which reminds me that I now need a name for my metal bow. Suggestions, anyone? Once again, use the tagboard to your left. :) I want something which sounds... cool, and not too cliched, if that points you guys in the right direction. :) |
Went for job interview earlier today, and it seems promising; only problem with holiday jobs is that I'm worried that it'll clash with *EVERYTHING*. Especially since I'm involved with a lot of Freshmen Orientation Projects (FOP), and furthermore, my archery training is three times a week, with a competition less than a month away!! And I so desperately wanna win something for this one, NUS Indoor. ARGH!!!
Let's see what I'm worried about...
1. Arts Camp (pre-camp and camp itself; stay-in camp, so obviously I won't be able to work for a week or so)
2. Matriculation Fair (doing marketing with Ivan; have no experience with marketing, though)
3. Orientation Week (also involves a pre-camp and stay-in camp; also, I'm doing HR with Ivan)
4. Rag and Flag (I'm one of the people in charge of tech for Rag and I'm Flag DPD)
5. Arts Bash 2 (doing ticketing with Steven. Not so stressful, since most of the work comes only on the day itself, but now I have to go look for quotations for printing of tickets.)
6. Archery training 3 times a week!! (NUS Indoor 2005... I so desperately want to win something in Standard Class, before I have to move on to 'C' Class next year to open up spaces for the juniors; needless to say, competition in 'C' Class is a lot stiffer.)
Sigh. With all this stuff, I really need a job which is *very* flexible, preferably allows me to work from home, and which pays reasonably well. Currently, all I have to go on is waitressing at Ivan's workplace, which pays $6/hr, but it also does involve a lot of standing and walking around; you won't sit AT ALL for about 5 hours. I don't mind that so much, but well, it's very hard-earned cash indeed. And who doesn't want easy money, haha.
Anyone with lobang, please lemme know!!! Desperately need the cash, man.
And on a different note: I heard this song on Kenneth's blog today, "Live Like You Were Dying" by Tim McGraw. It's not as morbid as its title makes it out to be; it's more like one of those songs which encourages you to live life to its fullest, and what's more, it sounds almost exactly like something which I randomly thought up yesterday: "Live each day of your life as if it were your last one on earth; one day, you'll be right, but by then, you'll have nothing left to regret."
So, here's the song:
Live Like You Were Dying
by Tim McGraw
He said, "I was in my early forties, with a lot of life before me
When a moment came that stopped me on a dime
I spent most of the next days, looking at the x-rays
And talking 'bout the options, and talking 'bout sweet time
I asked him, when it sank in
That this might really be the real end
How's it hit ya when you get that kind of news
"Man, what'd ya do?"
He said:
"I went skydiving, I went rocky mountain climbing
I went 2.7 seconds on a bull named Fu Man Chew
And I loved deeper and I spoke sweeter
And I gave forgiveness I'd been denyin"
And he said, "Someday I hope you get the chance
To live like you were dyin'"
He said, "I was finally the husband that most the time I wasn't
And I became a friend, a friend would like to have
And all of a sudden, goin' fishin' wasn't such an imposition
And I went three times that year I lost my dad
Well I, I finally read the Good Book
And I took a good long hard look
At what I'd do if I could do it all again
And then,
"I went skydiving, I went rocky mountain climbing
I went 2.7 seconds on a bull named Fu Man Chew
And I loved deeper and I spoke sweeter
And I gave forgiveness I'd been denyin'
And he said, "Someday I hope you get the chance
To live like you were dyin'"
Like tomorrow was a gift
And you got eternity to think about what'd you do with it
What would you do with it
What did I do with it
What would I do with it
Skydiving, I went rocky mountain climbing
I went 2.7 seconds on a bull named Fu Man Chew
And I loved deeper and I spoke sweeter
And I watched an eagle as it was flyin
And he said, someday I hope you get the chance
To live like you were dyin'
To live like you were dyin'
Live like you were dyin'
Friday, May 13, 2005
Meh. Bloody hell.
Still in post-"Kingdom of Heaven" happiness. And what do I find? Parts of the script that've been left out of the cinema cut.
Mr Ridley Scott, these had better be in the director's cut. Especially scenes like the following:
INT. A LITTLE ROOM IN THE HOUSE.
In a dreamlike sequence Balian, standing naked in a copper bowl, is bathed with sea-sponges by the girls [the women of the house].
INT. GODFREY'S BEDROOM. LATER.
Balian is sleeping on silks, in a breeze, in the shadow of window-lattice. He wakes, feels the fabric. He sees: a bowl of rosewater. He drinks it uncertainly, and then tries to eat the petals. Servant-girls flee, giggling.
The latter, I think we saw the ending part in the movie, where the servant girls were running away. But the eating the rose petals bit, no. How adorable. Maybe the cute little thing had never seen roses before. :P
But still. Jaysus Christ, if you're going to rate it NC-16, why not just let us se the nudity, damn it?! I mean, hey, I'm sure the guys would be quite happy to see more of Eva Green in that bedroom scene, and some gratuituous Orlando Bloom nudity wouldn't hurt. :P Yes, Gerri is a strange girl; there's no way I'd want to see a naked person right in front of me, but when a person's in character and on a screen, I have no objections. Especially when said person has obviously taken some time to shape up and does look very fetching. Heehee.
Speaking of which, Gerri wants muscles too. Gerri wants back muscles like what Jessica Biel had when she was in "Blade Trinity"; damn, they were well-defined.
Just wait till I find a picture of that shirtless Orlando Bloom scene in Kingdom of Heaven.. the one where he's out on the field with a bowl of water.Surprised the water didn't all evaporate already.
My pervy thoughts are just running along ahead of me and dragging me along for the ride, it seems. I mean, in that second missing scene, Balian's sleeping in Godfrey's bed! Very bad slashy thoughts. Heehee. :P
I should spend less timereading slash on the Internet, I think.
Oh, and look, how lovely; just found a piccie of Orlando Bloom's family with him at the premiere of Kingdom of Heaven. His sister's very pretty. And hey, the girl who posted it may be right; looks like it might be the very first picture of Colin Stone that we've ever seen. Colin Stone, for those not in the know, is Orlando Bloom's real father; it's a real soap opera of a family drama there, so shan't go into it. Go find out on your own if you're interested.
Have also found the song which was used in the original trailer; 'tis called "Hope", composed by Jonathan Elias and sung by Alanis Morisette, and can be found on a CD called "The Prayer Cycle", but sadly, for some strange reason, it's not included on the Kingdom of Heaven OST. Dang. Well, I've downloaded it anyway. :D
Argh, I want the "Kingdom of Heaven" soundtrack now. Shall have to update wishlist. But for now, shall go back to reading bits of random trivia. :D
Still in post-"Kingdom of Heaven" happiness. And what do I find? Parts of the script that've been left out of the cinema cut.
Mr Ridley Scott, these had better be in the director's cut. Especially scenes like the following:
INT. A LITTLE ROOM IN THE HOUSE.
In a dreamlike sequence Balian, standing naked in a copper bowl, is bathed with sea-sponges by the girls [the women of the house].
INT. GODFREY'S BEDROOM. LATER.
Balian is sleeping on silks, in a breeze, in the shadow of window-lattice. He wakes, feels the fabric. He sees: a bowl of rosewater. He drinks it uncertainly, and then tries to eat the petals. Servant-girls flee, giggling.
The latter, I think we saw the ending part in the movie, where the servant girls were running away. But the eating the rose petals bit, no. How adorable. Maybe the cute little thing had never seen roses before. :P
But still. Jaysus Christ, if you're going to rate it NC-16, why not just let us se the nudity, damn it?! I mean, hey, I'm sure the guys would be quite happy to see more of Eva Green in that bedroom scene, and some gratuituous Orlando Bloom nudity wouldn't hurt. :P Yes, Gerri is a strange girl; there's no way I'd want to see a naked person right in front of me, but when a person's in character and on a screen, I have no objections. Especially when said person has obviously taken some time to shape up and does look very fetching. Heehee.
Speaking of which, Gerri wants muscles too. Gerri wants back muscles like what Jessica Biel had when she was in "Blade Trinity"; damn, they were well-defined.
Just wait till I find a picture of that shirtless Orlando Bloom scene in Kingdom of Heaven.. the one where he's out on the field with a bowl of water.
My pervy thoughts are just running along ahead of me and dragging me along for the ride, it seems. I mean, in that second missing scene, Balian's sleeping in Godfrey's bed! Very bad slashy thoughts. Heehee. :P
I should spend less time
Oh, and look, how lovely; just found a piccie of Orlando Bloom's family with him at the premiere of Kingdom of Heaven. His sister's very pretty. And hey, the girl who posted it may be right; looks like it might be the very first picture of Colin Stone that we've ever seen. Colin Stone, for those not in the know, is Orlando Bloom's real father; it's a real soap opera of a family drama there, so shan't go into it. Go find out on your own if you're interested.
Have also found the song which was used in the original trailer; 'tis called "Hope", composed by Jonathan Elias and sung by Alanis Morisette, and can be found on a CD called "The Prayer Cycle", but sadly, for some strange reason, it's not included on the Kingdom of Heaven OST. Dang. Well, I've downloaded it anyway. :D
Argh, I want the "Kingdom of Heaven" soundtrack now. Shall have to update wishlist. But for now, shall go back to reading bits of random trivia. :D
Wednesday, May 11, 2005
Went to watch Kingdom of Heaven yesterday with Ivan, and it was really good. Also, it's the first Ridley Scott film in which Hans Zimmer isn't the man behind the score, so I really wanted to see what the music would be like. Wasn't disappointed, though; there's a lovely main theme which I just can't get out of my head, which has a strong backing of drums and is sometimes overlaid with some strange wind or string instrument which I can't identify, or a children's choir.
Music's by Harry Gregson-Williams though, which some video game fanatics may or may not recognise as the man who wrote the score for "Metal Gear Solid 2 : Sons of Liberty" and "Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater". Ivan said that some parts of the score sounded a lot like Metal Gear 2 to him; I concur on that. :P
Despite how great the film is, Ivan and I both realised after we watched it that there isn't a lot of publicity for it in Singapore, so to make up for that, I'll tell you now:
GO WATCH
KINGDOM OF HEAVEN!!!
I think that should be loud enough. :P
It's the same old "pre-modern history" kind of movie, set in the late 1100s between the second and third Crusades, if I'm not wrong, in a period when everyone (well, everyone with a religion, that is) seemed always anxious to earn merit in the eyes of their god; which really just makes you wonder anew if it just might have been that they thought that you could buy your way into Heaven. Was an interesting focus for me, looking almost solely at the city of Jerusalem, since before, when I was younger, all the stories that I used to read about knights and all that, "King Arthur" and "Ivanhoe" and all that sort of stuff; they never mentioned small cities on their own, only the whole of England. Although to be fair, King Arthur, in his story, wasn't really crusading; he just went off to look for the Holy Grail while his dream city was being built and only came back about... oh, I forget how many bloody years later. :P And for those of you who don't know (shame on thy heathen soul), that ideal city that Arthur wanted to built was Camelot; Arthur envisioned a city where every man would be equal before God, where justice would prevail and peace would reign always-- Camelot was supposed to be the embodiment of everything good in the world, so to speak.
Camelot was also the place where the Round Table was to be housed. The Round Table was the name of an order of King Arthur's knights; the best in the realm. The Table was also a round one because at a round table, there is no head, and so in accordance with the values of Camelot, every man is equal, even Arthur himself, to all the other men seated with him at that table. There were fifty seats at the table, and it was said by Merlin, who presented the Round Table to Arthur, that when the seat directly opposite Arthur's at the table- the Seat Perilous- was filled, then the table would be full, and when that happened, the order would fall.
I did realise however, years after I read that book, that if Camelot had truly fulfilled its purpose, then knighthood itself would have become needless and worthless. Counterproductive, in a way, hm?
Just like how I thought bombarding the city was quite pointless; while in the cinema, when they were two seconds into bombing Jerusalem, it suddenly struck me: What do you want a city for if it's going to be gone by the time you take it?
But getting back to the topic at hand, "Kingdom of Heaven" was a good show, albeit that during the first hour or so it starts to seem like it should be renamed "Ridley Scott's 'A Series of Extremely Fortunate Events'", given how quickly protagonist, Balian, moves up the social ladder. From a blacksmith with no kin left in the world, he suddenly gains a father (and there were plenty of snickers in the theatre when Godfrey said "Balian.. I'm your father." He said it in a very clipped, matter-of-fact tone, but that didn't really help matters either; especially since a "Star Wars Episode Three" trailer had been shown just before the film).
And his father happens to be a knight and the Baron of Ibelin. Immediately racks up his social standing quite considerably, of course. Oh, but then he gets made his father's squire; and this is a spoiler coz poor old dad doesn't last very long in the film (pity really; I love Liam Neeson's acting) and so Balian gets made a knight and the next Baron of Ibelin in a big hurry because he's all the kin that Godfrey has left in the world.
So he goes to Ibelin, gains the favour of his new people by helping them find water and irrigating their land; then he gains the favour of the royal household (just the King of Jerusalem and his sister, really) because the King thought highly of his father and not surprisingly after meeting Balian, thinks well of him too. And his sister, Sibylla (the King's sister, not Balian's), also takes an instant liking to this guy and is really friendly with him because she finds him an upright manand really, she just hates her husband and wants to roll with someone else whom she actually likes in the hay but you're not supposed to know that.
Also, Ivan pointed out that it's strange how a blacksmith turns out to be a master strategist in orchestrating the defense of Jerusalem, but then again, I suppose we're to believe that by the time Balian was defender of Jerusalem, some years had already passed. Which would have been in keeping with the history; the film starts in 1184, but Jerusalem fell in 1187.
So wow, it looks like everyone just loves this guy; don't everyone rush to adore him all at once now, you just might actually prove that he's capable of being smothered. But of course, there're the bad guys in power in films like these, and here they come in the guise of Reynald de Chatillon (pronounced: Rei-nald de Sha-ti-YON) and Guy de Lusignan (pronounced: gh-EE de Loo-si-NYON). I forget exactly who the former was meant to be, but Guy de Lusignan was Sybilla's husband.
I'll leave the rest to you to find out for yourself, since going on any further would spoil stuff in the story, but while it was a good film, most of the characters which feature in the film are historical characters which are heavily fictionalised.
Balian of Ibelin, while in actual fact, was the defender of Jerusalem and the man who surrendered it, was definitely not a blacksmith. Apparently, the Ibelin family were notoriously ambitious, and Balian actually married King Baldwin IV's (the leper King) stepmother; upon accomplishing this, the Ibelin family also proceeded to attempt to marry King Baldwin's sister, Sibylla, and his step-sister, Isabella, into the family as well. Said attempts didn't succeed, for reasons too long and complicated to list and explain here, though.
Oh, and King Baldwin IV? Now I realise why I loved the King's voice so much in the film, even though we never see his face; and even when we do, it is a terribly scarred one at that. King Baldwin IV was played by Edward Norton. Who really does have a lovely voice. And is a "beautiful boy" indeed. :)
And the strange thing in this movie is that for the first one hour or so, there's no actual dialogue. Just a lot of sage advice which everyone seems to be really keen at heaping upon Balian and awkward silences and rhetorical questions. This may be true only for Singapore though, since when I watched the initial trailer released on the net, I took note of a lot of scenes which I didn't see in the film yesterday, so there may have been a lot of scenes cut in Singapore. Damn.
But, in line with all the sage advice and quoteworthy quotes that I heard in the film, here're a few of them which I particularly loved:
"Holiness is in right action. And courage, on behalf of those who cannot defend themselves."
-Hospitaller
On burning the bodies of the fallen knights to prevent disease from spreading in the city, against the Bishop's protest that if a body is burnt, its soul cannot be given rest until Judgment Day:
"God will understand. If he does not, then he is not God. And we need not worry."
-Balian
“A man may move himself. A King may move a man. A father may claim a son. And then the man begins his own game. When you answer to God you cannot say ‘I was told it was thus’, or that virtue ‘was not the fashion of my times’. Remember."
-King Baldwin IV
And my favourite, the Knight's Oath, which, really is a very basic one, because there're a LOT of Knightly Virtues which a knight is supposed to possess. Compare the list that I'm about to present you with, with the quote from the movie later below.
Being Beautiful in Spirit, Charity, Good Cheer, Chivalry, Courage, Courtesy, Determination, Selflessness, Endurance, Faithfulness, Forgiveness, Friendliness, Happiness, Helpfulness, Honour, Hopefulness, Humility, Justice, Kindness, Loyalty, Mercy, Morality, Nobility, Obediency, Patience, Perseverance, Prudence, Sincerity, Sympathy, Tenderness, Truthfulness, and Wisdom.
"Be Without Fear In The Face Of Your Enemies
Be Brave And Upright That God May Love Thee
Speak The Truth Always, Even If It Leads To Your Death
Safeguard The Helpless And Do No Wrong
That Is Your Oath."
Even if it's really simplified, it still carries the same values; and it's a beautiful oath, anyway. :)
Music's by Harry Gregson-Williams though, which some video game fanatics may or may not recognise as the man who wrote the score for "Metal Gear Solid 2 : Sons of Liberty" and "Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater". Ivan said that some parts of the score sounded a lot like Metal Gear 2 to him; I concur on that. :P
Despite how great the film is, Ivan and I both realised after we watched it that there isn't a lot of publicity for it in Singapore, so to make up for that, I'll tell you now:
KINGDOM OF HEAVEN!!!
I think that should be loud enough. :P
It's the same old "pre-modern history" kind of movie, set in the late 1100s between the second and third Crusades, if I'm not wrong, in a period when everyone (well, everyone with a religion, that is) seemed always anxious to earn merit in the eyes of their god; which really just makes you wonder anew if it just might have been that they thought that you could buy your way into Heaven. Was an interesting focus for me, looking almost solely at the city of Jerusalem, since before, when I was younger, all the stories that I used to read about knights and all that, "King Arthur" and "Ivanhoe" and all that sort of stuff; they never mentioned small cities on their own, only the whole of England. Although to be fair, King Arthur, in his story, wasn't really crusading; he just went off to look for the Holy Grail while his dream city was being built and only came back about... oh, I forget how many bloody years later. :P And for those of you who don't know (shame on thy heathen soul), that ideal city that Arthur wanted to built was Camelot; Arthur envisioned a city where every man would be equal before God, where justice would prevail and peace would reign always-- Camelot was supposed to be the embodiment of everything good in the world, so to speak.
Camelot was also the place where the Round Table was to be housed. The Round Table was the name of an order of King Arthur's knights; the best in the realm. The Table was also a round one because at a round table, there is no head, and so in accordance with the values of Camelot, every man is equal, even Arthur himself, to all the other men seated with him at that table. There were fifty seats at the table, and it was said by Merlin, who presented the Round Table to Arthur, that when the seat directly opposite Arthur's at the table- the Seat Perilous- was filled, then the table would be full, and when that happened, the order would fall.
I did realise however, years after I read that book, that if Camelot had truly fulfilled its purpose, then knighthood itself would have become needless and worthless. Counterproductive, in a way, hm?
Just like how I thought bombarding the city was quite pointless; while in the cinema, when they were two seconds into bombing Jerusalem, it suddenly struck me: What do you want a city for if it's going to be gone by the time you take it?
But getting back to the topic at hand, "Kingdom of Heaven" was a good show, albeit that during the first hour or so it starts to seem like it should be renamed "Ridley Scott's 'A Series of Extremely Fortunate Events'", given how quickly protagonist, Balian, moves up the social ladder. From a blacksmith with no kin left in the world, he suddenly gains a father (and there were plenty of snickers in the theatre when Godfrey said "Balian.. I'm your father." He said it in a very clipped, matter-of-fact tone, but that didn't really help matters either; especially since a "Star Wars Episode Three" trailer had been shown just before the film).
And his father happens to be a knight and the Baron of Ibelin. Immediately racks up his social standing quite considerably, of course. Oh, but then he gets made his father's squire; and this is a spoiler coz poor old dad doesn't last very long in the film (pity really; I love Liam Neeson's acting) and so Balian gets made a knight and the next Baron of Ibelin in a big hurry because he's all the kin that Godfrey has left in the world.
So he goes to Ibelin, gains the favour of his new people by helping them find water and irrigating their land; then he gains the favour of the royal household (just the King of Jerusalem and his sister, really) because the King thought highly of his father and not surprisingly after meeting Balian, thinks well of him too. And his sister, Sibylla (the King's sister, not Balian's), also takes an instant liking to this guy and is really friendly with him because she finds him an upright man
Also, Ivan pointed out that it's strange how a blacksmith turns out to be a master strategist in orchestrating the defense of Jerusalem, but then again, I suppose we're to believe that by the time Balian was defender of Jerusalem, some years had already passed. Which would have been in keeping with the history; the film starts in 1184, but Jerusalem fell in 1187.
So wow, it looks like everyone just loves this guy; don't everyone rush to adore him all at once now, you just might actually prove that he's capable of being smothered. But of course, there're the bad guys in power in films like these, and here they come in the guise of Reynald de Chatillon (pronounced: Rei-nald de Sha-ti-YON) and Guy de Lusignan (pronounced: gh-EE de Loo-si-NYON). I forget exactly who the former was meant to be, but Guy de Lusignan was Sybilla's husband.
I'll leave the rest to you to find out for yourself, since going on any further would spoil stuff in the story, but while it was a good film, most of the characters which feature in the film are historical characters which are heavily fictionalised.
Balian of Ibelin, while in actual fact, was the defender of Jerusalem and the man who surrendered it, was definitely not a blacksmith. Apparently, the Ibelin family were notoriously ambitious, and Balian actually married King Baldwin IV's (the leper King) stepmother; upon accomplishing this, the Ibelin family also proceeded to attempt to marry King Baldwin's sister, Sibylla, and his step-sister, Isabella, into the family as well. Said attempts didn't succeed, for reasons too long and complicated to list and explain here, though.
Oh, and King Baldwin IV? Now I realise why I loved the King's voice so much in the film, even though we never see his face; and even when we do, it is a terribly scarred one at that. King Baldwin IV was played by Edward Norton. Who really does have a lovely voice. And is a "beautiful boy" indeed. :)
And the strange thing in this movie is that for the first one hour or so, there's no actual dialogue. Just a lot of sage advice which everyone seems to be really keen at heaping upon Balian and awkward silences and rhetorical questions. This may be true only for Singapore though, since when I watched the initial trailer released on the net, I took note of a lot of scenes which I didn't see in the film yesterday, so there may have been a lot of scenes cut in Singapore. Damn.
But, in line with all the sage advice and quoteworthy quotes that I heard in the film, here're a few of them which I particularly loved:
"Holiness is in right action. And courage, on behalf of those who cannot defend themselves."
-Hospitaller
On burning the bodies of the fallen knights to prevent disease from spreading in the city, against the Bishop's protest that if a body is burnt, its soul cannot be given rest until Judgment Day:
"God will understand. If he does not, then he is not God. And we need not worry."
-Balian
“A man may move himself. A King may move a man. A father may claim a son. And then the man begins his own game. When you answer to God you cannot say ‘I was told it was thus’, or that virtue ‘was not the fashion of my times’. Remember."
-King Baldwin IV
And my favourite, the Knight's Oath, which, really is a very basic one, because there're a LOT of Knightly Virtues which a knight is supposed to possess. Compare the list that I'm about to present you with, with the quote from the movie later below.
Being Beautiful in Spirit, Charity, Good Cheer, Chivalry, Courage, Courtesy, Determination, Selflessness, Endurance, Faithfulness, Forgiveness, Friendliness, Happiness, Helpfulness, Honour, Hopefulness, Humility, Justice, Kindness, Loyalty, Mercy, Morality, Nobility, Obediency, Patience, Perseverance, Prudence, Sincerity, Sympathy, Tenderness, Truthfulness, and Wisdom.
Be Brave And Upright That God May Love Thee
Speak The Truth Always, Even If It Leads To Your Death
Safeguard The Helpless And Do No Wrong
That Is Your Oath."
Even if it's really simplified, it still carries the same values; and it's a beautiful oath, anyway. :)
Saturday, May 07, 2005
The day before yesterday, Steven was making plans and inviting people to join in a DotA LAN gaming session after the exams had *all* officially ended; on the 6th of May, that is.
So... yesterday, we (actually, just Ivan and me, coz I think all the other guys had played the game before) learned that LAN gaming is quite fun. Sorta. (That's just me. Ivan seemed like he was enjoying the whole thing.)
I sorta grasped the basics, but was never able to make any significant contribution to whichever team I was playing on, except maybe destroying a couple or so of the opposing team's towers every now and then, and in the second game that I played, while following one band of little footsoldier troops (which drew fire while I attacked the higher-ranking enemy footsoldiers and the enemy's towers) I suddenly found myself near the other team's base, so I just merrily went ahead and started destroying the base's buildings. The footsoldiers did the same, of course. The game programmes them to automatically engage/ take down any enemy unit that they see.
So in the end, I found it enjoyable, yes, but it's probably the sort of thing that really becomes fun when you've actually got the hang of it. And I don't think that it's the sort of thing that I could get hooked on, thankfully. Steven and the rest of the guys have been raving about it for ages, and I don't think it'd do to add more things onto my obsession list. :P
So... yesterday, we (actually, just Ivan and me, coz I think all the other guys had played the game before) learned that LAN gaming is quite fun. Sorta. (That's just me. Ivan seemed like he was enjoying the whole thing.)
I sorta grasped the basics, but was never able to make any significant contribution to whichever team I was playing on, except maybe destroying a couple or so of the opposing team's towers every now and then, and in the second game that I played, while following one band of little footsoldier troops (which drew fire while I attacked the higher-ranking enemy footsoldiers and the enemy's towers) I suddenly found myself near the other team's base, so I just merrily went ahead and started destroying the base's buildings. The footsoldiers did the same, of course. The game programmes them to automatically engage/ take down any enemy unit that they see.
So in the end, I found it enjoyable, yes, but it's probably the sort of thing that really becomes fun when you've actually got the hang of it. And I don't think that it's the sort of thing that I could get hooked on, thankfully. Steven and the rest of the guys have been raving about it for ages, and I don't think it'd do to add more things onto my obsession list. :P
Monday, May 02, 2005
Ended up staying at home today instead of going to school like I'd planned; I woke up at about 9 and thought about going, but then wondered if anyone was in clubroom. I passed my key to Steven on Saturday night, you see; I could've called to see if anyone was around, but in the end, just got lazy and decided to stay home to do my reading instead. Anyway, it was bloody hot outside. -_-
Sometime in the evening, my youngest sister came downstairs and switched on the TV to watch the 2004 Teen Choice Awards that Channel 5 was airing. And for the first time ever, I saw what some of the artists whom I'd only heard of look like. Just goes to show how out of the loop I am with pop culture these days.
Jojo is one of them; I recognise her name from one of my middle sister's playlists, and when I saw her on the show, I was kinda startled. Her face looked 18, her height made her look 16 (heehee), and her voice sounded um.. 24.
And, also, I saw what Jesse McCartney looks like for the very first time.
I love his song, "Beautiful Soul", but I'd never even seen a picture of him before, so when I did see what he looked like earlier.. well, whoa.
Jesse McCartney. Damn cute. :D :P
And he's 18. God, I feel old. :P He looks scarily like Aaron Carter from certain angles and in some lights, though. And not surprisingly, the first time I heard "Beautiful Soul", I even thought it was Aaron Carter.
Also, on Friday night, while I was in school, I just had to watch "Smallville" on the campus TV network, coz the night before, while I was on the bus on the way home the night before, I saw an ad for "Smallville" and Jensen Ackles featured prominently in it! O.O
Heehee.
I read somewhere late last year that he was going to be included in "Smallville's" latest season, but paid no attention to it since I don't watch "Smallville" anyway, but when I saw that ad, I suddenly remembered!
Anyway, gratuituous picture for people to ogle:
Jensen Ackles! Woot. XD
Damn good-looking. When I showed Sheena a picture of him in a scene from "Dark Angel", that scene in which he's lying on his stomach on his bed, unclothed from the waist-up, she said, "Not bad, ah.." and quickly followed with, "Oh my God, look at those biceps!!"
Hahaha...
Sometime in the evening, my youngest sister came downstairs and switched on the TV to watch the 2004 Teen Choice Awards that Channel 5 was airing. And for the first time ever, I saw what some of the artists whom I'd only heard of look like. Just goes to show how out of the loop I am with pop culture these days.
Jojo is one of them; I recognise her name from one of my middle sister's playlists, and when I saw her on the show, I was kinda startled. Her face looked 18, her height made her look 16 (heehee), and her voice sounded um.. 24.
And, also, I saw what Jesse McCartney looks like for the very first time.
I love his song, "Beautiful Soul", but I'd never even seen a picture of him before, so when I did see what he looked like earlier.. well, whoa.
Jesse McCartney. Damn cute. :D :P
And he's 18. God, I feel old. :P He looks scarily like Aaron Carter from certain angles and in some lights, though. And not surprisingly, the first time I heard "Beautiful Soul", I even thought it was Aaron Carter.
Also, on Friday night, while I was in school, I just had to watch "Smallville" on the campus TV network, coz the night before, while I was on the bus on the way home the night before, I saw an ad for "Smallville" and Jensen Ackles featured prominently in it! O.O
Heehee.
I read somewhere late last year that he was going to be included in "Smallville's" latest season, but paid no attention to it since I don't watch "Smallville" anyway, but when I saw that ad, I suddenly remembered!
Anyway, gratuituous picture for people to ogle:
Jensen Ackles! Woot. XD
Damn good-looking. When I showed Sheena a picture of him in a scene from "Dark Angel", that scene in which he's lying on his stomach on his bed, unclothed from the waist-up, she said, "Not bad, ah.." and quickly followed with, "Oh my God, look at those biceps!!"
Hahaha...