Tuesday, January 31

Vital Information For Your Everyday Life

when taking your grandfather to the bathroom for a shower after he has made full use of his diaper, do not be wearing a brown t-shirt (especially not one that your aunt got for your for Christmas) or any brown clothing at all.

that, is all.

Sunday, January 29

chinese new year not so far

i feel it is my utter and outright duty as the person i am to inform you that i have already been awake for two hours.

my siblings, whom i've chased away to my mother's place for the week (for the purposes of sanity) are still asleep. i also suspect that when i called my mother to tell her when was the optimal time to drop the kids off here, i had woken her up.

purposes of sanity, indeed. and to think that i thought i might not wake on time even with three alarms set at regular intervals (i have only be harder on myself for classes and, more recently, dawn's photo shoots) between seven and seven-thirty--at eight-thirty my aural world exploded inside my head as a lion dance troupe did their thing next door.

Saturday, January 28

i hate mediacorp.

how DARE they combine The Free Design's "I Found Love" and that INSIPID "Don't 'Cha" by The Pussycat Dolls to promote Desperate Housewives?

it is time they started paying me not only a salary, but compensation for the emotional trauma as well.

dawnst-grapher


shot by dawn, on a Cambo SF large-format camera.

nowreading


Love Monkey by Kyle Smith

Friday, January 27

bruschetta

Karen Cheng is to blame for my sudden intense craving for bruschetta.

Multimedia message


Multimedia message
Originally uploaded by aklw.
Is it Valentine's already?

Thursday, January 26

INFO BOOTH

if you were lead here by folded paper airplanes, you're in the wrong place...

1. Grab the book nearest to you, turn to page 18, and find line 4.
"... advanced deception techniques to make herself appear, from the..."
no, i'm not reading some techno-spy novel. the entire line is as follows:

"Then there was that horrible incident with the 34A, the one who used advanced deception techniques to make herself appear, from the other side of her sweater, to be a 34B."

2. Stretch your left arm out as far as you can.
no, i will not. fan blades hurt, especially when they're spinning rapidly.

3. What is the last thing you watched on TV?
the setup menu on my VCR, from when i was futilely trying to tune into TV2.

4. Without looking, guess what time it is:
eleven PM.

5. Now look at the clock. What is the actual time?
ten fifty-four PM.

6. With the exception of the computer, what can you hear?
the Panasonic fan.

7. When did you last step outside? What were you doing?
about six hours ago. retail therapy. ended up with a red shirt from Esprit and an inadvertently metallic magenta hard disk enclosure.

8. Before you started this survey, what did you look at?
the Coca-Cola Zero website.

9. What are you wearing?
dark blue Canterbury rugby polo, striped boxers of indeterminate origin

10. Did you dream last night?
yes.

11. When did you last laugh?
probably nine hours ago, in the studio

12. What is on the walls of the room you are in?
starting clockwise from the doorway: door, built-in wardrobe, 3M Command™ wall hook, Top Shop plastic bag, curtain rail, a pink heart-shaped cushion that has "My Angel" and a canine couple stitched onto it, a russian pull-toy from Haerbin, the window, the window grille, wall power socket, Nokia travel charger, Panasonic air-conditioning unit, doorway.

13. Seen anything weird lately?
yes.

14. What do you think of this quiz?
the answers to the questions, mostly.

15. What is the last film you saw?
Wallce And Gromit: The Curse Of The Were-Rabbit. bloody good, too.

16. If you became a multi-millionaire overnight, what would you buy?
the Armani Exchange knit blazer everyone knows i covet. the rest will fall into place.

17. Tell me something about you that I don't know:
you're my computer. you probably already know all there is to know about me.

18. If you could change one thing about the world, regardless of guilt or politics, what would you do?
there is nothing that can be done for this world.

19. Do you like to dance?
that depends.

20. George Bush.
he really shouldn't have gotten together with that Barbara.

21. Imagine your first child is a girl, what do you call her?
Portia. or Lorelai. or Dorta.

22. Imagine your first child is a boy, what do you call him?
Porsche. or Ed. or Garçon.

23. Would you ever consider living abroad?
already have, and have already.

24. What do you want God to say to you when you reach the pearly gates?
"Gotcha!"

25. 4 people who must also do this in THEIR journal.
who? what? if they do it in their journal, how will i ever be able to read it?

life on mars

mars bars are disgusting.

television rights

refer the post that complains about Stargate Atlantis only showing on TV2.

on my last trip to Melaka, i checked out a copy of this TV magazine in the salon my mom was getting her hair done in. it had Stargate Atlantis scheduled for Thursday nights at nine PM.

today is Thursday. my phone rang at eight-fifty PM to remind me that Stargate Atlantis was on TV2 tonight. i even set the alarm ten minutes in advance so that i would be able to tune the TV to the right frequency if required.

at eight fifty-four PM i remember that, due to foreign broadcast rights issues, StarHub no longer provides broadcast feeds of TV2 and TV3. paradoxically (the word used by Bloomberg news services to describe the situation), TV2 and TV3 still show right up on your TV if you were to use the aerial antenna feed instead. i didn't bother with the aerial feed, they wanted to watch Love Concierge.

oh what a beautiful cuntry we live in.

motopink

see? it really is motorazrpink.

xinnianmoto

so this was a crappy day.

no dawn, not your fault. not like it helped things, but not like it made things worse. at three, when everyone left for class, i left for Tampines Mall. which just got another make-over, and now looks like it was sponsored by StarHub. trust me, go look at the signage in the mall. Esprit at TM didn't have a men's section.

off to City Hall, to get to the Esprit at Raffles Place. bingo. they have my shirt, last piece, just my size. perfect. buy. go back to station. on whim, decide to go to Funan to get a new enclosure for my portable hard disk. i mull over it, ask the shopkeeper about Mac compatibilty, find out that it was only ten dollars, and leave with it.

then i come home, and my sister, who supposedly didn't have time to meet me in town, is taking forever to get dressed in the bedroom. i get pissy, throw things around (i've always wanted to know what kind of sound my PowerBook would make if i threw it onto a table. now i know) and tell her to leave immediately. then i open up the hard disk enclosure i've just bought, and holy hell, it's the same color as the Motorola RAZR V3 PINK.

happy lunar new year, folks. it's going to be a great one, i can feel the foreboding in my bones.

Love Monkey, p15

"When the endearments are concluded, I start feeling hungry. I assemble a repast of Ramen Pride noodles and two pieces of stale white bread smeared with poor man's pâté: chunkless Skippy. I know. A guy in my position should not be eating Ramen Pride, but the store didn't have any Ramen Shame."

Wednesday, January 25

money, money, money

aaron, you have spent too much money yesterday.

MOS Burger meal
$10.00 or less
FotoHub 35mm color film developing and prints (3R, matt)
$12.80
Café Galilee iced expresso
$02.60
EZ-Link card top-up
$10.00
IKEA Original pleather mousepad
$09.90
IKEA Restaurant & Café Meatball Combo Set
$08.80

a ten-dollar pleather mousepad is the last thing you need.

at least you didn't buy the A|X jacket. yet.

Friday, January 20

jilin, china

was it silly of me to have kept two extra AccuWeather widgets open, one to track the weather in Shanghai and one to track the weather in Jilin? yea, it probably was. can't fight the wist, though.

yes, jiawei, my weather predicting is slightly less accurate now.

this family...

... is an annoyance.

Wednesday, January 18

the fricking weather

in a matter of seconds the weather goes from "i'd rather die than go out" to "i'd rather die than have to stay in--i want to go out!".

i hate this cuntry.

also, i think i enjoy writing too much. maybe dawn was onto something with the dream where i told her i was giving up design and moving on to a degree in English Literature...

window shopping

"You know what I can't wait for? The reunion show. Because either it needs to be revealed that Diana was just some sort of asshole who pretended to be nice on camera, or Santino needs to get his ass handed to him on a platter."

Sunday, January 15

"trust it to be on bloody Fashion Street, of all places"

the first episode of Project Catwalk (the british Project Runway) is ready for the watching, and two Sufjan Stevens albums plus one Beatles cover album is ready as well. yet this is still a sucky day because:

A) i have discovered that a pair of my favorite contestants are already "out" of Project Runway Season Two,
B) the Khoos are arriving within the hour or two
C) the ridiculous/disgusting mango cake just arrived, and i had to sign for it. observe:

ton anniversaire?

today is the celebration of my grandfather's ninety-sixth birthday.

normally i love a good party. this? isn't one. i hate the guests, i hate the location, i'll hate the food. i can't even say "well at least there'll be cake," because the cake is this ridiculous mango fruit cake that they order every year from Prima Deli. it is disugsting. it is a waste of cake.

but, hey, it's my grandfather's party. he might not like it himself, but i'll be there. not like i can
be anywhere esle.

also, what the fuck am i supposed to wear? SOMEONE PLEASE CALL TOMORROW MORNING AND ASK ME OUT, so at least i can wear a nice shirt and jeans and say i'm going out after. without something like that, what do i wear without looking or feeling ridiculous? oh, how i wish i could put on a jacket tomorrow and leave right after the main part of the party, but while everyone's still there.

my alarm is set for nine A.M. so that i'll wake early and won't be caught off-guard by the Khoos. I guess it's time for me to go to bed, then.

Saturday, January 14

skyworks

"They will see us waving from such great heights
'come down now,' they'll say

But everything looks perfect from far away
'come down now,' but we'll stay..."

teflon/flith

my Apple Wireless Mouse feels a bit heavy and slow on my ninety-cent IKEA mousepad, but glides like it's made of/on teflon when i just use it directly on the tabletop.

the difference is akin to that of dragging your feet in mud/quicksand, and swimming.

but i don't want to ruin my mouse any more than i already have. cellophane-tape to keep the metal tab under the cover in place, slight squeaking noise when playing with the button, micro-scratches all over.

and the tabletop is filthy. and might scratch the bottom of my mouse. maybe i should just buy a new mousepad.

auf wiedersehen

there is no one to go out with, today.

this/that is sad.

Wednesday, January 11

john wayne gacy, jr.

"And in my best behavior
I am really just like him
Look beneath the floorboards
For the secrets I have hid"

and we live in a beautiful world


and we live in a beautiful world
Originally uploaded by aklw.
Homes, sinking like like stones, all that we fought for.

MacPod, MacSight, MacLife, MacWork

a word about the new naming convention for Macs and Portable Macs, seperated from the previous post becaust that was getting a bit long.

i maintain that MacBook is a silly name. something better needs to be invented, and it needs to be done in time to change the laser engraving on the first units setting sail in Feburary [meaning: nothing can be done].

i, however, on some twisted level, undersand the new naming convention. right away i could tell it was to bring all the Mac names in line, all incorporating the word "Mac". Macintosh, iMac, Mac mini, MacBook Pro.

next? MacBook [replacing iBook], and Mac Pro [replacing Power Mac].

then something else came to me. why jump away from "PowerBook" and "Power Mac"? why desecrate and demolish years of product branding and identity, only to replace it with a kiddish "MacBook" moniker, and an even-more-kiddish "Pro" designation?

because these new Macs no longer run on chips of the PowerPC architecture.

ah... but we still need a better name. MacBook. we may all get used to it, but it will still sound odd.

also, i hope no one decides to be additionally stupid, i don't want to see the MacPod or the MacSight or MacLife or MacWork.

my first phone, MacWorld, kenneth's PowerBook

yesterday, my sister lost the first mobile phone belonging to me that i not only paid in some part for, but also chose. my beloved Ericsson T68m--broken volume key, fuzzy-erratic speaker, non-working "0" key and all--is now in the hands of some theiving idiot who cannot find anything better to steal beyond a crappy Ericsson left behind in the Shaw House Isetan Top Shop dressing room.

sad (me).

today, the MacWorld January 2006 conference was on, replete with Steve Job's infamous keynote. here are the new products (in order of reveal)

Mac OS X 10.4.4
please, please, please fix the inability to connect with the ridiculous Nokia WiFi base stations. other not really interesting, will report if there's anything when i do a Software Update.

iPod Radio Remote
i would much rather this not happen or exist. those who listen to radio don't know what they like, don't like anything, have poor taste or no taste in music. well at least people can no longer say that it is simply because they cannot listen to FM radio on their iPods that they hence must buy a "Creative" product.

looks odd, comes with shorter set of earphones. would rather earphones be excluded and product be cheaper. i don't use the standard earbuds that come with the iPod any more, but then again people who are going to listen to radio probably don't care too much about how their music sounds.

while we're on the topic of FM, i have come up with two instances when i actually want to listen to FM radio: when something i don't mind watching is broadcasting on TV Mobile, and when i want to listen to the live broadcast of The Don And Drew Show instead of waiting for the lagging-behing-very-much-in-terms-of-updating podcast.

iLife'06
new iPhoto 6(capable of up to a quarter-million photo Library), new iMovie HD 6, new iDVD 6 that supports third-party DVD-writing drives, new webpage/blog creator called iWeb.

iWork '06
simply new versions of the iWork suite apps, Pages 2 and Keynote 3, with new features. ho-hum.

iMac (Intel)
people have been waiting for the first Intel-based Mac. this is it. indentical in featureset to the PowerPC-based iMac G5, "just" two times faster, thanks to the Intel Core Duo processor.

specs-of-note:
Intel Core Duo processors, up to 2.0 GHz each
PCI Express ATI Radeon X1600 graphics
SATA hard disks

"What's an Intel chip doing inside a Mac? A whole lot more than it's ever done in a PC."


one more thing... MacBook Pro
first things first--i abhor the name. it is silly, stupid, sounds dated, ridiculous, horrible, terrible, no good, very bad.

next. four to five times faster than the PowerBook G4s that preceded it, with a slight redesign and new technology inside, this is more than anyone could have hoped for. "the fastest notebook in the world."

specs-of-note:
Intel Core Duo, up to 1.8 GHz each
built-in iSight
ExpressCard/34 slot
PCI Express ATI Radeon X1600 graphics
SATA hard disks
now with Front Row

design-notes:
1" thick--thinner than 17" PowerBook G4
new MagSafe power adaptor with plughead that's magnetically attached--prevents damage and reduces undue wear-and-tear
new lithium-polymer batteries
all exhaust vents moved to the rear of the MacBook Pro
wireless antennae moved to the display hinge [thus discrediting the Authorized Apple Serivce Provider's excuse for not fixing my hinge--my own 12" PowerBook G4 creaks and "cracks" like crazy if i attempt to open it slowly, and QCD dares tell me it can't be lubricated because it's a result of the internal cables resting on the hinge.]

final words about MacWorld 06: where the hell is the bloody Apple Wireless Mighty Mouse/Mighty Mouse Wireless/Mightier Mouse?!

after all this ado, kenneth phones to tell me his PowerBook has gone off the deep end, and i try to help him for forty-five minutes before telling him to check if he's warranty is valid, and that i'll go over today after physiotheraphy with my grandfather.

THEN, my brother pulls an Exorcism--he wakes up and throws up all over himself. it was ugly. it stank and stinks.

so how am i supposed to go to sleep now.

one more thing

MacBook Pro?

shit shit shit.

Tuesday, January 10

we're going on a hunt

oh, but do i ever hate it when my browser crashes on me, and i lose fifteen open windows.

memoirs of a samaritan


memoirs of a samaritan
Originally uploaded by aklw.
Memoirs Of A Geisha Samaritan

santa maria

why do i get the sudden, rolling, ominous feeling like i've screwed everything up, and there' no more hope, and i should give up?

Monday, January 9

von trapped

"if this isn't the theater showing Memoirs Of A Geisha, then why are all these people coming out going 'eehhh.' ?"

Sunday, January 8

jaguar/birthday

time goes by. my grandfather's birthday is next weekend--i'm happy he's making it past another year and all, but it means i can't go out next weekend as well. not that i had anywhere in particular to go this weekend, but it was sort-of consoling that i couldn't have gone anyway. two weeks in a row, though, and it's just depressing.

my first uncle's jaguar x-type is broken. the air-conditioner doesn't work, and the engine keeps running even after the ignition is turned off. so they're in the hyundai sonata today. both are the same shade of odious champagne gold.

my wheelchair aunt forced herself into lunch today, displacing my grandfather at the table. considering she's normally off at a corner meditating to avoid having to socialize over lunch, this is unwelcome and annoying. it tends to be that under normal circumstances, she adds little to an event, but takes away a lot.

i have forgotten the point of this post.

old/shit, new/shit

a new Stargate Atlantis is ready for the watching, but i decided to save it for tonight, the end of the weekend, something i really need a pick-me-up for. nip/tuck, by the way, is getting steadily darker and more disturbing. who've thunk that, considering the issues explored in the first two seasons. heck, in the first season alone there was enough cause for our dear old friend the MDA to cut out entire chunks of the episodes broadcast here.

also, which is it? Nip/Tuck, nip/tuck, or NIP / TUCK?

the first is how it's commonly referred to in print and other publications, the second is how i prefer it and how FX Networks refers to it, including in promotional material and the website, and the third is how it's laid out in the opening sequence of the show itself. does any one know?

in seven and a half hours, first uncle will be here for the weekly lunch. my mom expects me to be over at her place in the afternoon, but my caretaker/aunt's gone back to malaysia for the weekend, and will only be back around nine PM. my first aunt, however, has to go back to the office and so will only be here at five PM. i don't really want to have to head out, or have to think so much about going, or before i can go out.

and, then, there's the week ahead. confusion, listlessness, a sense of non-belonging, a lack of purpose and drive. when's the next birthday? what's the next movie? who's buying a tablet? who's looking at powerbooks? is your home network broken? did windows finally give up the ghost on you? recently upgraded from an O2 xda mini to an O2 xda atom, and need help moving stuff over? should i still go over? should i still go to school? what are you coming for? what are you doing here?

these are the things i have to look forward to. or else i lose everything, including all keeping all my shit together.

"You only live twice...
Or so it seems--one life for yourself, and one for your dreams...

You drift through the years...
And life seems tame...
'Till one dream appears, and love is its name...

And love is a stranger...
Who'll beckon you on...
Don't think of the danger, for the stranger is gone...

This dream is for you...
So pay the price...
Make one dream come true, you only live twice..."

- "You Only Live Twice"
, Nancy Sinatra

Saturday, January 7

a mess on the mattress

the mess is me, by the way.

i think i'm starting to put the weight that i lost whilst i was in china back on. must stop eating completely.

i am certain that somewhere within me is a thin person ("just the one, dear?"), just waiting to break out. however, i eat when i am depressed or upset, and there's no lack of food where i live, and where i live is very often upsetting. also, my life is very depressing.

hence.

went over to dax-and-cedric's today. got updated on a number of the lives i have neglected, and felt a bit left out, as i usually feel when i am around human beings not related to me by blood (conversely when i am around human beings who are related to me by blood, i feel far too left in, too involved). the fan-tastic burger by mcdonald's is horrible, so horrible i've decided to forget how it tastes and what it was, lest i become biased against the rice burgers at mos burger, which i've never tried and have been assured are miles better.

apparently matt got sent off into the army by xuan today. now, if it wasn't bad enough that xuan was the sender, it appears that he's already found someone he loathes in his bunk.

it's five AM. what am i doing up? right, my sleep cycle now starts at five AM and ends at three PM. must do better, must try harder.

i'm caught up. i don't know what to do.

Thursday, January 5

postscript

ignore the hyperlink in the post below. the original site's been taken down, and now it's some weepy we-didn't-raise-enough-for-charity pseudo-blog-entry.

tomorrow i am going to initiate the return of the guitar and the CDs, and the thumbdrive, and i think the Nokia. i almost forgot that i own a horribly mangled Nokia 8910.

i am so sick of this life.

oh, and one more thing (no, i'm not going to pull an iPod out of my jeans)

i have no clue how to react to the fact that kenneth went to mosh.

so for now i'm sticking with nonchalant-i-don't-care. in public, that is.

where there is free reign? i will get fucking upset if he went because it was a photo opportunity. because when i have expressed my feelings (or lack thereof) for an event that was quite simply taken from me and run out of my hands, i don't expect you to attend to take fucking photographs.

it feels like betrayal and treason, but that's just me being dramatic. there's nothing wrong with him going. there might be something wrong with why he went. there's definitely something wrong with the decision to let me find out nonchalantly, over his shoulder, referring to his photoblog.

now, if i'm flipping out because you like to wield a camera and release shutters, imagine how i'll react if it turns out you went because of friendship.

and, no, this isn't some cowardly, random, anonymous vent resulting from my inability to confront. life is exciting enough, and there will be a time for this to blow up and blow over, but right now i'm not up to it, when nothing is certain.

i remember complaining that livejournal didn't have a manic-depressive mood. blogger doesn't even have moods. so here it is: MANIC-DEPRESSED PERSON. DO NOT APPROACH WILLY-NILLY.

oh, and, also

whatever possessed iTunes to think that leaving out an alarming number of Madonna songs from auto-updating would be a good idea?

the haves and the have-nots

i cannot believe it. TV2 broadcasts Stargate Atlantis.

that's, like, a Malaysian television station. how can it be that they have that, and all we have is Stargate SG-1? which i don't watch?

in other news, my sleep cycle is still screwed up.

Wednesday, January 4

01-04-06_0444


01-04-06_0444
Originally uploaded by aklw.
And that's all there is to it, really.

Tuesday, January 3

i may have watched wallace & gromit: the curse of the were-rabbit, but i've met king kong.


03-01-06_1956
Originally uploaded by aklw.
the perils of public transport. shot by sham, on his motorola razr, whilst on sbs transit service 65 running away from town.

eureka

i don't see why it takes you until now, at four in the morning, to come up with this, but why not just freaking buy a cheap seventy-dollar DVD burner for your Windows PC?

not exactly as elegant as burning DVDs right from your Mac, but it's cheap--hence feasible. finally the CD-Rs are going to stop stacking up.

Monday, January 2

testing Compose mode

hellomoto
and, now, in
technicolor.

Sunday, January 1

Two Man Scan


Two Man Scan
Originally uploaded by aklw.
The world's first two-man scanner.

He's been summoned


He's been summoned
Originally uploaded by aklw.
Sham please housetrain your pets.

The Sham, The Bitch And The Wardrobe


The Sham, The Bitch And The Wardrobe
Originally uploaded by aklw.
This is the mountain of unwanted computer hardware also known as shit that fell out of sham's wardrobe.

lullaby

i know too much.

i know, too late for that.

the new year; an other one

Here i am, six hours into the new year, not a clue what i'm going to do for the rest of my life. And it's killing me, not letting me sleep, keeping my brain on a continuous cycle of thinking and remembering and worrying and being afraid. And this is where i know: Life is not going to get any better.