Saturday, December 31

i have a theory

i have a theory that most people are currently in denial.

christmas was not fine. everything isn't, either. and nothing will be alright.

there is a reason why depression rates go up in the holiday season, and there is a reason why this is the time where everyone is reaffirming their beliefs and restating for themselves to see that everything is alright. that things are better.

in their blog, in their diares, in their journals, to their friends, to their familes, to their church, to their congregration, through text messaging, through phone calls, through email, though instant messaging, on television, on radio, in the newspaper, the books we read, the music we listen to, the television we watch and the movies we choose.

in the shower, in the mirror, in our heads, to ourselves, on our blogs.

Friday, December 30

black plastic (not a PowerBook G3)

the mousepad my Apple Wireless Mouse is sitting on? an IBM ThinkPad 240X.

how much do i rock?

atarax versus vicodin

cool. according to wikipedia, i'm addicted to painkillers. now if only i was a genius diagnostician. then i would be something.

though "Khoo, M.D." really isn't as catchy as "House, M.D.".

2006, onwards and downwards



In the year 2006 I resolve to:

Slap stupid people in the head.



Get your resolution here


problemo

i can't decide what to do today.

Thursday, December 29

Wednesday, December 28

what-fucking-ever

what fucking ever. this is what happens when you try. when you expect. when you plan. when you have hope.

you get disappointment, from being disappointed.

from your aunt's boyfriend, who wouldn't pick up his phone when he said he would, to your sister, who needs convincing to help collect a movie voucher for you and then leaves the area you're supposed to meet her in without so much as telling you that she was going to, to the entire nation watching the same fucking movies at the same fucking times, to subway suddenly being the ultra-cool, super popular food joint, all tables constantly full.

i fail to see how deigning to come down to town and risking my sanity to go out with and watch a movie with my friends should result in me being so smited by the powers that be. is there not one thing that can go right? i've read about people who always make it a point to find the one thing that's happened in their life each day, that makes that day worth living. always look on the bring side of life and all that. now i know that they must lead charmed lives. i find doing the same rather difficult.

everything blows. season's greetings. merry christmas. happy fucking 2006. onwards and downwards.

school is cool

it's the place to be during winter break.

"if you're not here, you're not cool!"

--Syed Shameer Shah

it's weird that only now am i in school during non-school days. oh well.

Tuesday, December 27

three am in the house of khoo

"wah, so long never shave already" --samaria khoo

Monday, December 26

grey's anatomy

please don't watch it. i don't want several thousand people watching the show i picked, liked, followed and loved before any of you even heard about it.

is nothing sacred any more? this isn't the first time this has happened.

Multimedia message


Multimedia message
Originally uploaded by aklw.
I was going to say something about this being a bit too early, but i was told that they have been up since last chinese new year.

Multimedia message


Multimedia message
Originally uploaded by aklw.
This is what i'm babysitting right now.

Saturday, December 24

Multimedia message


Multimedia message
Originally uploaded by aklw.
See?

Multimedia message


Multimedia message
Originally uploaded by aklw.
Facing southwards, this is what the sky looks like now. It is not going to rain.

bah, humbug

get off your sled and go to bed
don't you ever tire?
throw a bone i'm finally home
curled up by the fire
snow is falling from the sky
like ashes from an urn
sweet dreams my little one
now it's my turn

well christmas is going to the dogs
we'd rather have chew toys than yule logs
and things aren't looking very good it's true
so i'll just lay here and chew

now when i sleep i like to dream
of rabbits in the snow
jumping right into my jaws
from their rabbit holes
take one home and set him down
right next to you shoes
wake up to a big surprise
my gift to you

and christmas is going to the dogs
we'd rather have chew toys than yule logs
and things aren't looking very good it's true
so i'll just lay here and chew

and christmas is going to the dogs
we're scarfing down the turkey and eggnog
and things aren't looking very good it's true
so i'll just lay here and chew
so i'll just stay here and chew

dollars. not monkeys or donkeys.

it was eight-sixty-five to get home.

wow. amazing how one little thing like missing the last service thirteen bus can throw your entire day off.

it was already balancing precariously on the precipice, now it's gone over and down.

hey, i'm supposed to be at harborfront in less than nine hours. this means that i should have gone to bed over three hours ago.

cool.

Friday, December 23

three months ago


three months ago
Originally uploaded by aklw.
Life was actually exciting. Or, it was going to be. I miss China.

Multimedia message


Multimedia message
Originally uploaded by aklw.
I feel like going back to get my black jacket.

sweet home alabama

fricking weird people. i've been awake for less than ten minutes--i'm still on my fricking bed!--and they come in to tell me to come out and eat lunch.

hello? i'm still in my bed (read: thin mattress on the floor)? how about i brush my teeth and clean up and get settled into the idea of being awake before it is decided that i force-feed myself?

in related news, shocking truths uncovered about a couple of movies and a television show: sweet home alabama and legally blonde share female leads, and dr. mcdreamy from grey's anatomy is one of the male leads in sweet home alabama. the male lead from stealth (you know, the one who didn't die?) is the other male lead.

uh. okay.

i wonder what's for lunch, if they're so excited over it.

the red sea

"mine's over already. you still on your period ah? you started before me leh!"

four a.m. in the house of khoo

Thursday, December 22

you can take your s and stick them up your arse.

i am not in a good mood any more. and the medication is kicking in, so i shall proceed to sleep for sixteen hours. see you on the dark side.

Wednesday, December 21

the chronicles of ikea

"I wanna watch the lion, witch
and the wardrobe.
From: Kenneth Foo
3:47am 12/21/05"

my first response was: "yay for cs lewis and god."

samaria khoo came up with a better one: "then you should go to the zoo and ikea. the witch i don't know how."

i added the last bit, because my sister couldn't think of where one would find a witch in singapore, then appended my original response.

whoo. we khoos are hilarious.

gutted

i think i've decided to give up photography, and stop taking these bloody little buggers they call photographs.

life is exciting.

Sunday, December 18

teppanyaki burger

Hooray. They forgot about me, and I get fries and a teppanyaki burger instead.

hotcakes with sausage

This is appalling. I’ve been waiting over fifteen minutes for my Hotcakes with Sausage. Where are they?

"skynetglobal"

This is sad. The McDonald’s at my place finally gets wifi, and my mac can’t connect to it.

Like I previously said, there is no place more soulless to eat at than a McDonald’s. Anyone with half a brain knows that if you’re not eating with family, you’re with a group of friends so unimaginative they can’t come up with somewhere else to eat. Otherwise, you’re a sad loser who doesn’t have anyone to eat with, and fast food is the only place where the servers and the other patrons won’t look at you funny when you ask for and sit at a table for one (partially because you don’t need to ask for a table). There’s a third option, and that’s that McDonald’s is having a promotion and you’re just here to sample its new wares. But, really. Your idea of new culinary experiences is checking out their new rice burger? Go to Mos Burger.

When will my hotcakes arrive? When will sham arrive? All great questions that I can’t ask anyone outside of my Mac, because I cannot connect to the wifi network here.

Saturday, December 17

shock, horror, depression.

believe it or not, i wanted to be part of orientation this year.

popular

but i needed to buy blank CDs.

a wake

what am i doing awake?

i don't know, do i.

can't sleep. must sleep.

must try harder.

Friday, December 16

video killed the radio star

roland lim is extremely unattractive, and has no sense of color or style. he needs to do radio and get off television.

route thirteen

Now that i have my powerbook back, what? What am I going to do? Go back to school every day or every other tday? Sit at home and mope the days away? I no longer have real motivation to leave the house, with my powerbook and my xbox. I could stay at home all day long.

Diana Krall doesn’t sound llike she means it when she sings jingle bells. Which is all and good, but it’s not the attractive kind of uncheery singing. It’s the kind that’s painful; and difficult to listen to.

It would appear that no one has ever seen anyone with a powerbook on a bus before. The shinty glowy apple is new to them. The soft clacking of the keyboard. The subtle balancing of the powerbook as the bus shifts back and forth. The person sitting under it, typing away.

What’s he doing with a powerbook on a bus? Is he showing off? Maybe he’s from Nanyang Polytechnic, doing his homework. Or he’s a writer. Or he’s some very important business-type person, typing up a contract on his way to a client meeting.

Can’t be, what. I’m dressed down today. Polo tee and jeans. I half feel like making fake letter-type formatting at the tops and bottom of what I’m typing so that people will feel thrown off and the woman seated next to me won’t realize I’m actually writing nothing more than a blog entry.

Bishan Park? Man, have I chosen a weird bus route home or what?

Oh, and speaking of Diana Krall, I’ve decided I hate Jamie Cullum.

I don’t know how much longer I can take staying where I am now. Sooner or later something will result from the constant pressure, the constant watching everything I do and watching everything my siblings do., the weekends where going out is a danger, made to feel like a previllege.

I have now ascertained that Forza motorspot is included in the Christmas xbox racing pack, and now I want it. If only I had ninety0nine dollars.

How random one gets when one is on the bus, powerbook on his lap. The world is distracting.

Yio Chu Kang


Yio Chu Kang
Originally uploaded by aklw.
I now hate having to come to yio chu kang.

Thursday, December 15

how you been feeling?

it was apparant already. i wasn't exactly in a good mood days before departure, and i skipped ice-skating, something i actually really wanted to do, because to many people were going and i couldn't get a straight answer from the one person i would actually have wanted to come along. had a manic episode, then ran out the hostel to walk in circles for hours.

and, then, when the day of departure itself came, i was a daze. a walking cloud. refused to talk to anyone, especially those i considered closer or i cared about. barely acknowleged those i don't, those not privvy to how i was feeling. oddly enough those that weren't close or i didn't care as much about made up the bulk of those who asked about how i was. so it got to the point when, sitting in my living room for the last time, i was asked by someone i did care about and i thought was closer to me, i was too far gone to respond.

sat on the chair, walked around the apartment, laid on the bed, sat on the balcony floor, thought, listened, nothing. brought my luggage downstairs, out by the street. the last time i would be standing there, and of all things i decided to open up my suitcase to dig out the strap that was meant to be attached to the handle of my suitcase. it was meant to allow me to pull it along without having to lift up one end of the case, but what possesed me to notice it at that instant i will never know.

of course, i was the first on the bus when we could board. i couldn't take it any more, i didn't want to stand on the sidewalk and slowly contemplate the life i was leaving and the life i was headed back towards. i didn't want to buy cream puffs that would just make me miss the place more, right away. i didn't want to speak to anyone, do anything, i just wanted to sit and, as it turned out, cry my heart out.

i don't know if anyone did, but it was of no concequence if anyone noticed anyway. what could they have done, but offer their concern or lame enquires of "what's wrong?" anyway?

every-bloody-thing was wrong, dammit.

in the week before departure i decided to, against my better judgement, watch the series finale of Six Feet Under on my PowerBook, under the comforter, on the bed. it was comforting, but the ending depressingly sad, and made even more so by the excellent choice of Sia's "Breathe Me" as the soundtrack for the finale scenes, where they play out every character's death, intersped with Claire's Toyota Prius driving her away from her family, towards New York City.

Song 10: Claire leaves for New York. Everything Ends.
Sia : Breathe Me


guess which particular song i put on repeat on my iPod right after i got on the bus? i had her debut album and had already fallen in love with the song. i don't know how it happened, though, and whether it would have happened if i'd chosen something else or went without my iPod altogether, but like the clichéd dam bursting, it all came out. for the entire hour-odd ride to the airport, i let everything seep out, and bleed out, and cry out.

don't ever let it be said that you haven't seen me cry, if you weren't looking when i did.

when the airport loomed, i shut down. realizing that time wasn't going to turn itself back, the bus wasn't going to make a u-turn, i would have to get off and board the plane that was going to take me a step back towards the great nothing that was my birthplace, i switched everything off, got my luggage, collected the passports, and pushed myself on.

and that was supposed to be the end of that, but i guess i haven't yet let everything out yet, have i. right now i feel like i'm going through some weird menopause/mid-life-crisis kind of breakdown, except it's happening much slower than it's supposed to. when moods change often enough to confuse yourself, and you're paranoid, and uncomfortable in your own skin, you often anticipate a physical change to accompany that as well, and failing that you hope for something horrible to happen to compeltely devaste you and legitmize how you feel and let you show how you feel.

failing even that, you take things into your own hands.

Tuesday, December 13

my Eyes don't want to Open any more

It’s six-twelve A.M.

What am I doing? Writing the speech for the opening of “Eyes Wide Opened” (I didn’t name it), the exhibition put on by the students that went on the exchange trip to China.

Is it wise for the speech to be written less than five hours before it’s meant to be read? No.

Is it wise for the work for the exhibition not to be ready yet? No.

What happened? I don’t know.

Everything seems last minute, bad decisions made left and right, the wrong attitudes all over the place, lackluster and poorly arranged photo exhibition, meaningless journals on display, uninteresting-at-best artifacts gleaned from the few people who bothered to contribute any. People who turn up to do nothing beyond reading other people’s journals and fucking around with the music on the laptop. All work compressed into the last two days before the exhibit.

A committee of one is not one at all.

My biggest fear? This turns out to be worse than the PID exhibition. Now I never went to the PID exhibition, because no one would go with me, but I have a suspicion we might not make it.

And to be worse than a PID effort? Is really, really, sadly, pathetic.

Sunday, December 11

Multimedia message


Multimedia message
Originally uploaded by aklw.

Leftover melaka trip shot. Should have used a proper camera.

07-17-05_2303


07-17-05_2303
Originally uploaded by aklw.
hey, you know what? i don't know!

point a gun to my head, or twist my arm, though, and i'll venture the guess that there isn't one.

The Rain's A Pain, When It Does This


The Rain's A Pain, When It Does This
Originally uploaded by aklw.
What the fuck does it rain at night for? Most people are asleep so no one's going to be able to enjoy it. It's already cooler after the sun goes down. So, what the fuck for? Save it for when the sun is in the sky!

me, to me

i see we're flying high on the bullshit tonight, aaron.

kids, listen to aaron: don't read

i read too much, into too much, and too well.

i devour books, the newspaper, The Economist, magazines, read too much into awkward social situations, body language, tone, choice of words, reactions, apparent intelligence levels, what clothes they wear, what car they drive, what mobile phone they use, if they chose which mobile phone they use, Mac or Windows, kopi-peng or mocha latte, Gilmore Girls or Channel 8 dramas, HDB or condomium, music or popular culture, Pink Martini or Perfect 10, when my parents are fighting, when my father is being ridiculous, when my aunt is tense, when i'm not supposed to go out, if everyone's looking at my Motorola and drawing their own conclusions as to where or how i got it, who's waiting for my grandfather to die, who's waiting for my aunt to die so they can collect on her insurance and CPF and assets, when my mom is being normal and human-like, which my mom is being unreasonable and unfathomable, why i have to hide my PowerBook when relatives are over, why i have to stay in on weekends, why i have to endure the weekly sunday lunches, why i "was in Malaysia" when i was in China, when my parents are getting divorced, why they should have done it when i told them to do so when i was in primary two, religous: who is, and who isn't, and who will try to force it on you, who likes me, who doesn't, who confuse me, who's interested, who wants to fall asleep, who needs to get out more, where we all are headed.

it's one thing to be able to understand why China's bubble is going to burst, and why Apple can commandeer so much respect and marketshare when its core business isn't even ten percent of its market's marketshare, why some things are worth reading and some things i put down or never touch no matter how high they are on bestsellers' lists or how much i hear about them or how critically-acclaimed they are, or how Motorola is shamelessly catering to whoever will buy their phones, even why human beings act the way they do or do what they do.

it's another to spend your life overanalyzing everything from a one-word text message to everything little thing someone does or how someone treats you through an entire week, month, or life.

every little thing that you say or do; i'm hung up, i'm hung up on you.

Friday, December 9

chicken stuPID.

i paid ten dollars in cab fare to make it to Chicken Little (a complete and utter piece of filth missing one ingredient: PIXAR. bye-bye, Disney.) five minutes late.

this on top of being shouted at over the phone for not taking the train (i don't recall a train station being anywhere near Temasek Polytechnic. is it part of the Circle Line?), waking late and with this horrible crick in my neck, plus a migraine, plus allergies, plus being useless in school, plus not getting to see the video, plus, plus, plus.

i am so going to disappear.

Thursday, December 8

What are you doing here?


What are you doing here?
Originally uploaded by aklw.
What am i doing here? Waiting for my grandfather to die, so that i can kill myself, guilt-free.

Wednesday, December 7

it's a wonderful feeling

it's a terrible feeling, not being needed.

speak for myself

 


i've spent the good part of an hour establishing that the cd kenneth and jinghui (eta: dawn had a part in it as well, apparently) gave me for my birthday isn't copy-protected. i've even run it through four different Windows-based audio players. it's odd. this release, on this label, should be copy-protected. also note the big scary FBI warning label on the back. it features on the CD's cardboard cover, as well.

well, at least i won't have to exchange away the one thing i got for my birthday. not that i wanted anything reasonable, but yeah. it was nice. Posted by Picasa

Tuesday, December 6

12-06-05_1739


12-06-05_1739
Originally uploaded by aklw.
Don't just stop, run. In the opposite direction. As quickly as possible.

Sunday, December 4

Saturday, December 3

my passport.


I won't be here tomorrow, so here it is, right now. I wish i was aborted. I've had enough. There's nothing i want to do right now. I didn't want to appeal, and now i no longer want to re-apply. I don't want to be on this trip where people are going to try to celebrate my birthday even when i've warned them not to. I don't want to go anywhere, anymore. And i miss my time in china.

I hereby give up.