Plug for movie JUSTIFIED!

I just got back from Sheares' Hall Production. One thing I've gotta say; it pays to be unoriginal. It worked for Actus' Dating for Dummies and it worked for Sheares' White Liars, Black Comedy. As I've really got nothing much to say about the production, I shall do a little plugging for something which caught my eye at the UCC.

Avatar.

If not for Zo Cards, I wouldn't have known about it. Weird that there was so little publicity regarding this and instead all the shit about I Do I Do eh? Funny enough, this being a milestone in Singapore Filmmaking has been a relatively well kept secret. Frankly, I don't understand why since it's being boasted as 'Singapore's First Sci-Fi Thriller'. What does 'I Do, I Do' have? Not another Jack Neo spam? I digress.

Filmed entirely in Singapore, AVATAR is directed by Kuo Jian Hong. Daughter of the late Kuo Pao Kun. Although I do not endorse Kuo's stage productions for the simple fact that some of them were blatent rip-offs (The Little Prince?!), I shall give his daughter a try (sounds so wrong) after I've checked out the trailer here. It's quite cool and I'm paying $12 just to see how Singapore gets shot as a futuristic (CGI) city.

After you've seen the trailer, consider this question for yourself. Evidently, this is something new to the local film industry. So far, Singapore movies have been nothing but heartland, heartland and more heartland. To approach a sci-fi genre in the context of Singapore is something unheard of... but exciting. I'm sure most of the comic geeks here would appreciate it. Especially after seeing Jenny Sparks blow up half of Singapore in the Authority (can't remember which volume)...

However, none of you may be able to catch this extraordinary movie unless it wins some major award overseas. Heck. This is a local film, but it's first screening's in Portugal. The trailer hasn't even been played in Singapore. How pathetic is that? Apparently it will be travelling to the 25th Ed of FANTASPORTO Film Festival 2005 followed by the ShoWest 2005- Largest Annual Convention for the Motion Picture Industry Las Vegas before coming to Singapore.

Locally, we only have 5 days of screening allocated for AVATAR. 7th March is the Gala Charity Premiere (i.e. $100 tickets) 8th March is SOLD OUT, 9th March is SOLD OUT/SFS Members only, 10th March is for GRP BOOKINGS ONLY which leaves 11th March for public sales. Essentially ONLY ONE DAY TO CATCH THIS ON THE BIG SCREEN. Now judging by the time and effort put into this, along with its international (and local) cast, is this fair? Is the film industry in Singapore going anywhere by splashing the latest Jack Neo crap over cinemas islandwide knowing that they only spent 30 days filming that shit? A resounding NO should be the answer. (Unfortunately it can only be Jack Neo bashing since no other local film-maker has the cash to produce anything right now for comparison)

Amazingly the only way to get this into GV Tampines would be for it to win some foreign prize. After which they will debut it in the Singapore Film Festival next year, going contrary to their submission requirements in that films screened in the festival must not have been screened for any public event or something. Only after which it might be released in the cinemas for maybe 1 month maximum. (Think 15. Which was utter crap...)

So for those whom really want to catch this show, I'm afraid you can't for another year unless they make it big. If not, I did purchase 4 tickets. 2 for me and my brother and the other 2 are for people genuinely wanting to support this local production. You can download a phamplet of AVATAR from the site link above to check it out. I can't possibly blog the entire phamplet (read: I am lazy). Contact me for the 2 tickets if you REALLY WANT to watch it...

Finally, in response to the other post below regarding plugging of movies by the ministers, I believe that YES, we should support the local film industry. But what we are endorsing matters. I do not wish foreign viewers to see a Jack Neo movie as a definitive representation of what a Singapore film is. Ironically like the chinese pop market, local singers have to seek out their niche in Taiwan, HK and China before returning to fame in Singapore. Why should this be so?

Sigh.

Plug for movie UNJUSTIFIED!

Before the ST Online ceases to be free, I surfed over to the forums section and went through the silly letters that some people bothered to send in. Imagine my shock when I found this:

-----

Plug for movie justified

WITH regard to Mr Henry Lim's letter, 'Why plug movie?' (ST, Feb 23), I do not see anything wrong with the two government ministers endorsing the movie I Do, I Do in a television commercial.

A great deal of good work has been produced by local movie makers. Countries in the region are showing a greater interest.

Support and encouragement from government leaders will give impetus to the industry.


Jeffrey Law Lee Beng

-----

Feeling quite amazed that there was another anti-Jack-Neo Singaporean in Singapore (other than those with the same surname as me) I gleefully did a search for the offending (to him) letter...

-----

WHY PLUG MOVIE?

I AM surprised that two government ministers lent their support in a TV commercial to Jack Neo's movie I Do, I Do. Is this appropriate?


Henry Lim Li Shun

-----

Kinda short. I was hoping for some friendly Jack Neo bashing. But I guess they can't really do that since he's endorsed by the government right? Ummm. I guess it's lucky for me that I don't watch television these days, I'd have been really pissed by the supposed plugging. Ah well. I shouldn't really waste time typing more reasons why the movie shouldn't be plugged, OR even released in the first place... you can just scroll below for that~

I just wanna comment that if countries are showing interest BECAUSE of Jack Neo, I think we can kiss the Singapore movie industry goodbye.

Oh... I still refuse to pay $15 for reading the ST forums.

How to Good-bye Depression

Came across this on amazon:

How to Good-Bye Depression: If You Constrict Anus 100 Times Everyday. Malarkey? or Effective Way?

I think constricting anus 100 times and denting navel 100 times in succession everyday is effective to good-bye depression and take back youth. You can do so at a boring meeting or in a subway. I have known 70-year-old man who has practiced it for 20 years. As a result, he has good complexion and has grown 20 years younger. His eyes sparkle. He is full of vigor, happiness and joy. He has neither complained nor born a grudge under any circumstance. Furthermore, he can make love three times in succession without drawing out.

In addition, he also can have burned a strong beautiful fire within his abdomen. It can burn out the dirty stickiness of his body, release his immaterial fiber or third attention which has been confined to his stickiness. Then, he can shoot out his immaterial fiber or third attention to an object, concentrate on it and attain happy lucky feeling through the success of concentration.

If you don't know concentration which gives you peculiar pleasure, your life looks like a hell.

It's true! Read the review for yourselves~

$15 a month? Try Channelnewsasia.com

I was mortified when the ST Online announced that they were gonna be charging $15 per month for people to access their website. Seeing the little feedback button, I hammered out a short letter to them...

I quote them "We believe that we have a good and valuable product that users will be prepared to pay for. It's also not a tenable business model to charge for the print edition, and not for the online edition."

Basically they don't wanna waste money updating a website for free. I'm actually not prepared to pay $15 a month for this. $1.50 maybe la. By the volume of the readers, $1.50 can make quite alot of money already ley. Haha..

----- ST website to charge for access from Mar 15 -----

Hi, unless I'm mistaken, the entire site will no longer be free and will only be for paying suscribers only?

If so, I've got some minor comments I'd like to make:

From what I know from my friends and relatives studying overseas, the ST online is perhaps one of the few ways they can keep in touch with matters at home FOC. I imagine not a majority of them will want to pay the additional $15 per month to suscribe to it should it become exclusively for paying suscribers only. Sure, it makes sense to charge for something that works. It IS Singapore's most-read english-language news website, for the simple reason that it's from the publisher of the only newspaper (that we care about) in Singapore and it's free. Charging for the ST online will probably lose you quite a majority of your readers.

Currently I'm studying in NUS and our lecturers like to browse the ST online early in the morning and drop us emails about updates on certain topics of interest in Singapore for certain modules. In fact, that was the reason why I bookmarked the link and kept coming back to read it for myself once that module was over. We all know that many students nowadays do not read the papers for the simple reason that it's too leychey (tedious) or such. Having a free online version for students is a plus point in keeping us up to date on the going-ons in Singapore. Start charging (we all know how poor students are supposed to be) and unfortunately we'll then be going to the other source of channelnewsasia.com (Mediacorp instead of SPH!) which doesn't have as much news, but since it's free...

Perhaps a section of the site could still be free whilst paying suscribers get more benefits like all the various supplements? Just a thought.

A nice Supper...

I just came back from a wonderful dim sum supper @ 126 Eating House, No. 126 Sims Ave 387449; located between Geylang Lorong 17-19. What can I say. The food was wonderful. Amazingly sinful and simply sumptous. *Mouth-watering*

The prices were alright. $3 for a plate, $2 for a plate.. then their pi-dan porridge was damn nice at $2 per bowl.

I didn't realise how stressed I was over the memorial until I realised that when we were driving back to KR with the windows down, anything and everything was funny. Tongue hanging out of mouth, hand waving out the window to flag a cab, head stuck out to imitate a dog, and my personal favourite... hand stuck out of passenger backseat and coming into the front passenger seat to scare Melanie.. whom really got scared~! Wahahaha...

Classic moment, plus I felt an adrenaline rush from the wind blowing in at 100km/h macham like going up a roller coaster. Really. It was so silly but fun... and when I got out at KR, my legs were actually shaking la.

Thanks for the wonderful supper which cost $65.20. It was great. I only paid $10. Mai ge gao. Next time treat drink.

Downside of the supper though is it's made me incredibly sleepy. I shall be turning in now and be up early tomorrow. TRY.

Goodnight~ :)

Some minor changes

I realised that the music playing in the background is really annoying. So I've removed it. Muahahaha.

On another note, I haven't started on my re-editing of my headings yet. So I'm pretty screwed. Sigh.

Ugh...

It is with a heavy heart that I'm going to sleep now in apprehension of things to come (or not). Thanks Steph for the free Havaianas slippers... appreciate that. Goodnight Seattle we love you.

Ooo..

Those whom know who I'm talking about should go check out the resident whiner's page. It's got a new post with pictures of Law Ball. And captions of 'my good friend xxx' and various other captions which make me cringe. He really reminds me of Wubing alias Stormxpress. Whom still owes me $300 or my X-men statutes back. Anyway, he didn't credit Melissa for the flowers he stole from her to take pictures with. Oh well. I credit her here. Melissa's nice flowers given by Ziliang are in the last picture.

Here's a bit of info for people that have missed Constantine's additional short after the credits have finished rolling. Apparently they have a segment after the credits which I missed too: Constantine goes to Chatz's grave and Chatz is seen to have become an angel. Nothing much hur. Irritating thing is, Chatz is like one of the few constant characters in the book and it isn't very right to see him die. Much less become an angel. Sigh. Oh well. Whiner boy commented that Constantine wasn't that fantastic. I guess they tried to put over quite alot of things in too short a span of time. If you've read the books, it'll be easier to understand many things (like underlying tones and all) and I'm quite happy that many scenes were lifted straight from the books. Afterall, a comic is practically a bona fide storyboard. So much easier to shoot I'd say. Overall I'd say I preferred Constantine very much over Elektra. No questions there. But Keanu wasn't bastard enough. John Constantine is the worst bastard you'll ever meet. Seriously. He goes through friends like water. He's the type that won't call you back after he's done with you. That is if you even survive after meeting him, cause it's a trend that all his new friends die on him. Except Chatz, and in fact, even the Priest is still supposedly alive la I think. Though the movie was adapted from Garth Ennis' version of Hellblazer, I much prefer the Warren Ellis writings. Especially Hellblazer: Haunted. It's about Constantine looking for the killer of his ex-girlfriend. And her name was... Isabelle! So maybe they picked up her name from here.. Hard Time by Brian Azzarello's not bad too. It's about how Constantine went to prison after handing a gun back to a suicidal man in the loo and the guy killed himself infront of Constantine. So he had to do time. And you'll go crazy seeing how such a big bastard John is and how he managed to turn the prison upside down... just by being a bastard. Amazing stuff. Try to read it if you can get your paws on it.

Finally, I'll like to comment on Jack Neo's 'I do, I do'. Just a short comment. Like... how the media blows up his shooting within 31 days (or is it 30?) as a 'feat' and holds it as a 'record'. I say thee nay! What happened to substance? What has happened to the singapore film industry if they're embracing a slipshod rushed job as 'another Jack Neo classic'? Not that I support Jack Neo's film nor consider them classic. The only classic they'll ever be to me would be 'classic example of a piece of shit'. Or something to that extent. I don't even have to watch it to know that it sucks. Bad. As does any other Jack Neo film if the audience actually understood what crap they were watching. By understood I mean how they've been suckered for a ride in parting with their cash to watch his trash. Jack Neo should just either be unoriginal and continue adapting or doing remakes like Home Run (from a beautiful Children of Heaven) which could actually get the cute little girl a Golden Horse award, or just disappear if he intends to do another piece of holiday crap like 'I do, i do'. Again I'm not in favour of Home Run. I don't like it. I don't like how he treats the audience like idiots, explains everything away (basically like hitting you on the head with a hammer going: THIS IS MY IDEA, THIS IS WHAT I WANT YOU TO THINK.. etc etc) and how he likes to pepper stupid and I do mean STUPID social-political issues into what could have been a potentially ok movie. Children quarrelling over water ala the Singapore-Malaysia water issue? Please lah. Just stop trying please. Anyway, I guess from my rant here that nothing good ever comes out of Jack Neo should convince at least some of you to stop spending money on his crap. Now shoo. Go convince your parents.

We are the Champions~

Finally after dunno how many years, NUS Windsurfing Club has officially taken back the Inter Varsity Challange Trophy from NTU. After 2 days of races and 6 races in total, I've managed a placing of overall 4th. Which isn't that swell considering that only the first 3 placings 1-3 are counted when tallying up the score for the varsities. Oh well. Personal achievement I think. It isn't everyday that one can safely say that he was planing whilst doing a course. Muahaha.

On another note, a SMU twerp ruined the rest of my day by trying to be politically correct. Our entire event was over and there was this buffet dinner for all participants. I was quite tired and pissed coz I had to get home but they were forever going on with the photo taking. So after all the photos were taken, I headed for the buffet table to grab a bite since my dinner wasn't done yet when I called home to check. There was this group of SMU people taking photos around the buffet area, so surveying the scene, I grabbed a plate and proceeded to join the queue where I thought it was the last person, in that the others were talking and taking photographs. So I then started taking the plastic utensils when this twerp came up behind me and asked, 'Do you know there's a queue?' Then I went 'yeah., I'm in it'. He went 'no you're not, all these other people are in the queue before you and he gestured to the group of SMU fuckers giggling and chatting in a disorderly fashion which in no way resembled a queue. I was running late, so I didn't wanna start anything up even though this boy sorely needed a good telling to and was majorly pissing me off. So I just went straight to the end of the line, behind people that weren't there in the first place and just proceeded to wait for my turn. But no. He wasn't gonna stop there. He had to talk somemore. I believe he said something to the effect of 'dare to cut queue when people are queuing up' which got me pissed because wasn't it supposed to be over when I've moved to the end of the line? Haven't you won your little victory? No siree... He HAD to add that. So I had to reply. I actually apologised. I said 'I'm sorry, but you guys were talking and taking pictures all over the place, I THOUGHT that my place was the end of the queue..." To which he GLEEFULLY exclaimed. 'YOU THOUGHT? YOU THOUGHT? Queuing up cannot talk and take photo one arh?!' Wah. Like that best la. If I didn't manage to control myself, I would have blown up and given him the worst verbal abuse he would have ever heard since his army days. Instead I dismissed him with a simple 'Whatever fuck'.

Seriously. Children nowadays should be taught manners. Sigh. I might be vulgar. But at least I'm polite. So, screw you SMU twerp.

Breakfast at Tiffany's

This got stuck in my head whilst I was floundering in the middle of the sea off PA today:

You say we've got nothing in common
No common ground to start from
And we're falling apart
You say the world has come between us
Our lives have come between us
See I know you just don't care

And I said "What about Breakfast at Tiffany's?"
She said "I think I remember the film
And as I recall, I think we both kinda liked it"
And I said "Well, that's the one thing we've got"

I see you, the only one who knew me
But now your eyes see through me
I guess I was wrong
So what now? It's plain to see we're over
I hate when things are over
When so much is left undone

Small updates on what's actually going on with my life now. Managed to get a 2 full sets of Marvel Legends 9 with variants. For retail. Thanks Metro Sengkang! Wahoo (This IS toycollector.blogspot okie..). Had an ok first race today and a really bad second race. Tomorrow will be the end of IVP WSF for 2005. Isn't it wonderful? Ha. Hopefully I'll get enough points to stay in KR. Helped did sai kang for TGIO on Thursday night and missed Criminal tutorial in the morning due to a splitting headache and lack of sleep. Followed by a pretty nice Law Ball on Friday night. Which lead to me sleeping at 3:30am in the morning and getting up at 8:30am for this morning's races. And yes. I still have 3 rheumatism afflicted fingers. Very painful. Ouch. That's my weekend in a nutshell. Stay tuned for more boring stuff... soon.

Waiting for (the) Resident Whiner...

I'm waiting for this guy to update his blog. Yes I know. Pathetic. Lame. Update your own blog some might say. Yeah well. That's what I'm doing now I suppose. Luckily this blog hasn't been circulated around Law Fac yet. Or else... I'd probably be on like 50% of the blog-stalkers' reading list. Anyway, back to the resident whiner. He's really really whiny. And pathetic. And lame. (I see a trend...) Nah, he isn't a splitting image of me. I'd commit suicide first if it were so. Basically, he loves to whine and bitch in his blog about law fac and everything nice and not nice about it. He loves to people drop (or is it name drop) and cuss and swear at those whom ruin his day and don't say hi to him. He basically thinks that the entire world whole revolves around him but everyone just thinks he's a fucking joke and a loser. And he's too moral to even type out the work fuck. Pui. I spit on your morality. Maybe it's my fault. Maybe I misread it. He probably was trying to brand drop too. Fcuk. Cock. Sorry, I have a low tolerance level for people that are obviously vulgar by nature and yet try to cover up by using mis-spellings or just basically swearing under their breath thinking people passing by cunt hear. So anyways, this guy loves and adores the attention he gets from his friends. Or lack thereof. I often see him alone, sitting in his special corner outside the library, adhering to some fucked up rule which he made for himself just because nobody invited him into the library to sit with them. It's so classic. Like a spoilt or stuck up brat sulking in a corner craving for attention. What's amazing is I didn't know all these until I was introduced to his blog by a group of my friends whom faithfully read and discuss his sad pathetic life in school. I mean. It's kinda scary to have people discussing your life right? Er. Right? But I guess it's bound to happen. Which is why I don't really blog about school. What's there to blog about school? Work? Long hours? Screwed up assignments? No... what we should blog about school according to him would be 'who noticed I was sulking today and came up and said hi to me or asked me what was wrong' or maybe 'who saw me sulk and ignored me. i shall not be his friend anymore'. Yeah right. You think your friends really cared for you? You got invited to Law Ball coz they needed to get the table number up to 10. Not that I'm any better la, I'm usually the last to know and the most slow to understand anything in particular. But at least I don't fucking whine about it. Whine whine whine (Actually I do whine about some people so cute so cute. But that's a different story...). And oh the replies that his friends leave for him. I don't advocate them too actually; especially the clinging piece of tar. Giving too much attention to this pipsqueak here only makes it worse for him la. He'll be like living for those comforting words.. 'Must take things easy..." or lies like 'God loves you and has a plan for you'. Yes. That's a lie. God hates you and doesn't give a shit whether you're in heaven or hell. Wait. He obviously wouldn't want you in heaven. Heh. Isn't that what you've always believed in? 'Nobody loves me everybody hates me, I'm gonna eat some worms!~' Bah. This guy's 自尊心 is so damn bloody low that it's irritating. Low self-esteem makes or breaks a person. I think sometimes it's inherent in a person how fucked up his/her life is going to be. No matter how hard they try to do change their lives to make it better, to make themselves more... sociable and likeable, it just doesn't work. If you're screwed up in secondary school (due to yourself being fucked up of course), your 'demons' follow you into junior college and subsequently into university and whatever work you're gonna do. But then again. We must thank God for people like him. So that at the end of the long tiring day, we can sit back, relax and read his blog and go... 'Thank God. I'm not as fucked up as him'... So, I thank you for the entertainment and I thank you for being there for us without fail to perk our day (and for providing discussion topics). Before anyone thinks I'm an asshole, I'm actually very nice. Really. Parting words:

You are a fluke
Of the universe.
You have no right to be here.
And whether you can hear it or not
The universe is laughing behind your back. --Detriorata (National Lampoon)

Doctors can be pretty funny...

gid·dy   
adj. gid·di·er, gid·di·est
Having a reeling, lightheaded sensation; dizzy.

drows·y   
adj. drows·i·er, drows·i·est
Dull with sleepiness; sluggish.

I asked the doctor for some medicine to counter my giddiness. And he gave me one which had the side effect of drowsiness. Isn't it weird? I mean. When I'm drowsy, I feel damn sleepy and can't move about. When I'm giddy, I feel giddy and can't move about much. Both make me inclined to lie down.

Isn't it just choosing the lesser of two evils because if I'm sleepy and I fall asleep, it's ok whilst if I'm giddy and I faint it isn't that nice?

Ah well.

You know you're really sick when...

1) You're unable to go visiting on CNY or any of the days because you can't get out of bed and crawling to the car is not an option.

2) Your vision goes blurry and you start seeing psychedelic colors in your living room without a disco ball.

3) You feel high as though you're floating around your house without needing to administer drugs.

4) Your pee burns despite all the water intake.

5) You have periods of cold sweat and hot sweat.

6) You simply cannot stand a cold shower.

7) You joints feel like an 80 year old's.

8) You don't recognise who your friends are over the phone (Sorry April!).

9) Your temperature fluncuates between 38.8, 37, 37.9, 36.1 and 39.7 (My personal record was 40.1 which kinda made me stupid...)

10) Your balls shrink. Oh yes. Burning. Ouch. Ugh.

Overheard from 'Dating for Dummies'

Amazingly the Actus Productions' 'Dating for Dummies' (DFD) was really good. Not that I didn't trust Liangwei, but I was very apprehensive about the quality of student productions in light of the recent disaster that was 'Morning Glory'. One one hand, DFD had an adapted script and this proved to be the winning formula because we all know how wonderfully inept student scripts can be. There were several mentionable moments from the entire play worth mentioning:

This was regarding what a guy SHOULD NOT say to a girl:

Girl: So which level of education do you have?

Guy: Er... College?

Girl: Which college?

Guy: NTU?

---Wrong answer, try again---

So which level of education do you have?

Guy: Er... College?

Girl: Which one?

Guy: SMU?

---Wrong answer, try again---

And you get the drift. Until he says 'NUS Law Fac' only then is the answer considered correct.
Sue my fac for bring elitist. I'll set my bunnies upon you. Afraid yet?

On a darker note, I am damn black la. My arms at least. My belly's still white. Had to wear a life jacket. I just learnt the hard way today that it IS possible to have too much of a good thing. I drank 10 cans of RED BULL at a go. And I'm now addicted to it. Yet feel sick when I recall the taste of the sickeningly sweet liquid again.

What is wrong with me?!

Is it just me?

Is it just me or is yahoomail giving everyone problems as well? I can't log into my email account and they keep saying my password is incorrect. That's weird la. I just checked it this morning lor.

What's going on?

Irritated.

I am remorseful for overhibernating

This is bad. Missed Westlaw and Contract on the account of my refusal to get up. Hope it won't be a vicious cycle.

Sigh.

Morning Glory is Up, iHide.

I've posted the ultra-long post on 'Morning Glory'.

First point to note, it's under the original announcement post as I worked on it before that and saved it as a draft. Hence the date of post is prior to the announcement post.

Second point. I 'GetTune'd some of the 'Morning Glory' songs from one guy in hall into my iTunes. Recording was terrible. Quality wise. You would have thought that the KR Rockers would actually have at least an MD Player or decent recorder to record the score. Hmmm.

Third point. If you have personal issues against me, we'll settle it like how the secret societies did in the olden days. Do pre-arranged fights in specified locations to ensure no loss of innocent life.

Fourth point. I'd be stupid to fight with you. I'll probably call the police. Meow.

Five point (note). Who wants to go to the KR Hall Bash? $15 per ticket at Rouge. Or is it Rogue?

It's De-Lovely...

I'm still not done with the Morning Glory blog yet. Gonna hash out the last bits tomorrow and hopefully edit it abit for grammer and spelling errors. But it's hard to type when one's emotional. The words just come out and well. Sometimes they're a little incoherent. So please bear with me.

I want to mention here a little something that I recalled from a conversation with my mum just last week. Prior to my returning back to school on Sunday night. I asked her... last time when my dad was dating my mum, where did they go to 'par tor' and also what did they do. I mean... the 70's must have been pretty boring right? Apparently, my parents did go to the movies and theme parks like Gay World. But not alot. Interestingly enough, they had a tier system. In that they had movie tickets priced differently depending on the location of the seats. So the seats in front would be the cheapest, followed by the ones behind and at the sides, then finally middle more expensive. My mum told me that on some occassions, my dad would ask her out, and they would happily happily go down to the movie theatre only to find that the cheapest tickets were sold out. Even though there were the most expensive tickets left, my dad would rather not watch the movie, and insteaad bring my mum to walk around. She did express that it was infuriating sometimes but she was extremely patient. To the extent that she eventually married this man. I recall the 70's was where people wore these hedious 'trumpet' pants; but my dad being a bore didn't. My mum told me that. Heh. It was quite funny... and I guess I like to ask her about the old days... coz I'm really curious as to how you know... people used to meet and date. Quite cool yah? Haha. But before anyone comments my dad is cheapo, we must consider his background. When he was young, only his dad worked, as a teacher. And they had to support 5 children. His money was only enough for daily expenses and to keep his naggin wife happy. My dad being the oldest didn't want to burden his parents too much nor deprive his siblings of anything... so yah. He was very thrifty. I guess in some ways I do admire what he has gone through to where he is today. Though my brother might disagree with me much in terms of how 'naggy' and 'irritating' my dad is, it's really something for him to be able to work his way up to where he is now.

I recall when he would tell me stories about how times were bad last time. That his scholarship to Germany was the only way he could pursue a higher education overseas and how every month he ate cup noodles and sent any available money back to his parents. Am I able to do that? I look at myself and I find that I am totally fucked up in this aspect. Spend money like fuck. No direction in life (other than graduate and get a job) and I take my parents for granted. I think I'm going to make my son work hard to achieve his goals. He won't get a handphone from my until like Junior College. Gasp Shock Horror some may say. But really. If they could do it in the old days, why can't it be done in the future? I was born with a bronze spoon in my mouth, I'll not let anyone take me for granted next time. I guess if I'm my dad now, I'd feel damn sad to see his youngest son spending money like water (on things which I myself cannot comprehend) and sometimes just wasting the weekend away going out with different groups of people. I only have ONE meal at home a week. How bad is that?

My brother likes to refer to my dad as old-fashioned and sometimes cannot comprehend how an Associate Professor can behave the way he does. Granted he's naggy. In fact sometimes he's so naggy I wondered why my mum married him in the first place. Guess how he proposed? Heh. Well, he didn't. He just asked told her one day; "next week we're going to the ROM on this day this day. Ok?" and silly her agreed. Hahaha. So unromantic. So like my dad. (There's hope for you nerds yet!) But I think back now and I smile at this. It's really VERY him. Unable to express his emotions. Unable to tell us straight the stuff that he wants to say. So it comes out authoratative and well. Naggy when we don't really wanna give him our 100% attention. I can live with that. After my brother was gone studying in the states for 3 years, I had to fill his shoes as the filal son. It wasn't so difficult. I guess. It was during army days and well, I simply had to stay home for a majority of the days. Which was fine coz I was staying out. During that period of time, I turned from the bad son (I was extremely naughty. And most of the time, it was because of my first girlfriend. Had alot of conflicts with my parents because of her.) into a relatively good son. Obedient and knows better what to do. I also knew what was going on in the household better.

Sadly, staying in the states for 3 years made my brother very much independent and he didn't really like being told what to do. So nowadays, he'll almost always quarrel with my dad over trival matters. Actually I was just told last week by my dad that he's really sad that the family was like drifting apart. Especially my brother. It's hard for him to talk to my brother now. I did tell him that he should be less naggy, authoratative and stop telling my brother what to do. But I guess he still didn't understand me. Then he brought up something which struck me. He was quite sad when he told me this, and I got quite sad when I heard it too. He said that he just wants to be able to live to see the two of us get married respectively and then he'll be contented and move on. For those not knowing, he contacted cancer in 1995. The doctor gave him 5 years. It's been 10. We seem to take for granted that the people around us will always be there for us... I guess I took my parents too much for granted. But right now, I can't do anything much except try to be home more and study and get good grades. It's what they want. It's the only thing I can try to give them.

So Minxiu, I'm sure you'll be reading this, and I know you still have disagreements with pa. But I just wanna tell you that it's not worth it to 'stick to your rights' or 'refuse to give in' due to whatever personal reasons you have. Remember him as who he is and not what he does. So what if he nags. Talk things through and clarify. I know it's irritating, but it has to be done. He's waited 3 years for you to come back and he's really quite sad to be unable to talk to you much and that you're perpetually against him. Sure, he's made mistakes, too naggy and made stupid financial agreements. But he's still our dad, and you're who you are today partially thanks to him. THANKS to him. Really, don't take him for granted because he might just disappear from our lives suddenly and it'll be too late to reconcile or even talk to him then. Be nicer and well, just be more tolerant. I'm sure you can do that... right?