Random Updates

Hey what's up. It's been a pretty long time since I last updated. I don't really know who reads this site anymore. But heck, I'm still gonna' keep this blog going because there's just too much good and bad memories in it to literally let it go.


Anyways, if you've been wondering as to what I've been up to during the holidays (yes, I'm a week over the holidays, but who cares?), then here's a pretty short update about my boring Life.


Well, I didn't get a job during the holidays because I told my parents that I wanted to make full use/ waste the entire of my holidays doing stuff on my own, be it rot to death at home or hand out with some friends. They were pretty skeptical about it, but I managed to convince them, adding that I should have full control of my Life, so that when I grow older like them, I wouldn't have to reminisce about my youth with full of regrets, wishing I could turn back time to rot to death or do stuff that I didn't have a chance to do. In short, I just didn't want to force myself into the working scene just yet. I know I'm not rich, but it doesn't necessarily mean I have to make myself addicted to the smell of money or the sensation of having bundles of it in my hand, and then spend it ridiculously on things bought on impulse.


Maybe it's just a lame excuse to not get a job. Moving on...



The holidays weren't really pathetic. I managed to down 8 books (yes, I love to read).

1. Ugly by Constance Briscoe
   
2. Damaged by Cathy Glass
   
3. Ghost Girl by Torey Hayden
4. Please Don't Make Me Go by John Fenton
5. When Daddy Comes Home by Toni Maguire
6. Twilight Children by Torey Hayden
7. My Friend Leonard by James Frey
8. We Are All The Same by Jim Wooten

The contents of these 8 books are phenomenal. There is no one best book to pick out of this lot. You should really get your hands on these books. They can be found in the Health Section in the Singapore Library, Humanities in Page One, Literature/biographies in other shops like Popular, but the best description for these books can be found at Kinokuniya, which labels these books as 'Survival Literature'.



Other than reading, I did meet Syuh and Jeanice occasionally.

One such event was when we visited Swensen's Ice Cream buffet. It was pretty neat, but we didn't last long as we were cold and could not go more than 4 rounds. However, it was still pretty nice to be all crazy and high on sugar with them.

Moving on...


I actually planned on changing my blogskin. My inspiration came from Shark Boy and Lava Girl (I love watching that show).

I loved the idea of the guy dreaming his way out of trouble, and Lava girl's hair (haha!), and so, I came up with this:

It's created entirely from Photoshop. If you take a closer look at my hair, it's PINK! But it's not pink in real life lah, I just edited because it looks pretty nice here.

I found a few other colours that I liked while I was messing around with my hair on Photoshop. I'll show it on another day. Anyways, after completing it, I found that I didn't really like it that much, so I've decided to scrap this off, and come up with another skin which is still under construction.



Well, I guess that's it for now.



Till then!





Loves.

Bizarre Ways to Die

Okay, this post is not about how I made death in the eye or anything like that. Syuh and I stumbled on a book in Popular Bookstore titled "1001 Ridiculous Ways to Die by David Southwell and Matt Adams". Intrigued by it, I flipped through the pages to read about the various ways to die.

'Eh Syuh, 1001 ridiculous ways to die! What's the dumbest way to die?'

'I don't know. Slipping and cracking the skull open'.

Yes, one of our tales about tragic death was about stepping on the air tubes of a patient in a hospital, and letting him die slowly. And yes, that's the post where we created new words like moster and horrow. Hahah. Click Here.

Anyway.....


At first I thought, no one would be dumb enough to buy this book and find a way to die here. And the price wasn't exactly a cheap way to die either. Could you imagine someone walking up to the cashier with that book, I'll bet there would be weird stares all over.


But after reading through some parts of the book, I realized that the deaths in the book were indeed RIDICULOUS! It was more like a joke book than a guide to die actually. Hahah.

And so, I decided to google the book today, and I actually found some interesting (and funny, in a sadistic way) deaths from This Site.

Here goes..

Oh, nuts!

Willie Murphy was more than a bit shell-shocked when an avalanche of peanuts buried him at a processing plant in Georgia, USA, in 1993. He never made it out alive.

Oh, chute!

Experienced skydiver Ivan McGuire went plane crazy one day in 1988 when he decided to film his 3,000m jump above North Carolina – he remembered his camera but forgot his parachute!

Water way to go

Things didn’t go swimmingly at all for a 59-year-old Californian when he sat on a pool’s badly covered drain. With a sucking power of 300lbs per square inch, he never really stood a chance. He died when his small intestine was sucked clean out.

Bird brain

Chicken thief Henri M’Bongo was forced by an angry mob in Cameroon to eat what he’d stolen - he choked to death on feathers and bone in the 1998 incident.

Casket case

French undertaker Marc Bourjade suffered a crushing blow when a pile of coffins at his workshop fell on top of him in 1982. Fittingly, he was buried in one of the coffins that killed him.

Hot debate

How far would you go to prove a point? Michael Toye from Hampshire had a burning desire to prove to a pal that white spirit is flammable – so he dowsed himself in the stuff and set fire to it. He died from serious burns six days later, in April 2007.

Heads!

A Ghanaian goalkeeper was killed instantly during a cup match when the goal’s crossbar fell on his head. Accusations of witchcraft were levelled at the opposition.

Rough and tumble

A fatal spin was the end result for Ray Washbrook when he climbed into an industrial tumble drier to remove some trapped linen in 1996. He was spun round for 20 minutes at 110 centigrade.

Goodnight... forever

Death by tampons sounds unlikely, but it happened to chronic snorer Mark Gleeson in 1996. The Hampshire man tried to cure his problem by shoving two of the female hygiene products up his nose. He suffocated as he slept.

Plane silly

A head-on collision with his own radio-controlled plane was what killed Roger Wallace from Arizona in 2001. He lost sight of the 3kg machine in the sun and it crashed into his head at 40mph.

Food for thought

The Belgian air force killed three men in Sudan when they dropped a crate of food on top of them. The pilots were taking part in a humanitarian relief effort and the idea was actually to save the Sudanese from starving.

Where eagles dare

Beware clumsy eagles if you ever go to Iran. Two car passengers died there when an eagle soaring overhead accidentally dropped a cobra into their vehicle. It bit them straightaway, killing them both. Fangs a lot!

Off the rails

After a row with his girlfriend, a 20-year-old man from Edinburgh hanged himself at Western Hailes railway station – on the ‘way out’ sign.

Crashing blow

There can be few unluckier people than the lone 18-year-old occupant of a farm in Belgium who was killed by an unmanned Russian MiG fighter jet! The pilot had ejected in Poland, but the aircraft flew 560 miles on auto-pilot until it ran out of fuel and crashed into the poor teenager’s home.

Die laughing

There’s laughing so much it hurts – but this was a much more serious matter! Alex Mitchell, a 50-year-old from King’s Lynn, guffawed so hard at an episode of hit BBC comedy show The Goodies in 1975 that he died of a heart failure. The sketch that led to his untimely death involved Tim Brooke-Taylor dressed as a Scotsman using a set of bagpipes and deploying the Scottish martial art of ‘Hoots-Toots-ochaye’ in a fight. His widow wrote to the stars of the show to thank them for making her husband’s last minutes of life so happy.

Ooooh.. You never know what;s too dangerous to try, and how simple yet tragic deaths can be. Who knows, you tear you ear while combing your hair because of your earring. Then being alone at home, with no key, no first aid kit, you panic and bleed to death.



Oh, the horrow.

If mother's were flowers, my mum would be the most beautiful one

When I went for the interview at TP, I was asked "What inspires you to be a teacher?"

My answer was, "My mother. Believe it or not, my mother is the most versatile person that I know. When I was little, I would tag along as she taught in her child care class. I would see that for hours and hours as I watched her in admiration. She taught phonics, art, music and movement, and about anything you needed her to do. She pushed a van that had broken down when she was having me in her tummy. She fixed pipes, climbed rooftops, and with her creativity, built or made things that were useful as tools around the house. She showed me that one had to be very patient when dealing with children. And I loved how the kids felt so comfortable around her. Adding the fact that my mum would talk about games, and ask them about themselves. Can you imagine how the kids felt, eyes all sparkly when they told their tales in excitement. My mum built a firm foundation for the kids, and that was not only through education, but by also making them into responsible and well mannered kids. Through her, I learned to love kids, and through her, I want to be there for the kids, and guide them through their journey in life. You don't have to be a mother to teach, but to teach, you have to be like a mother to the kids. And I want to be just that, just like my mum, to aid kids towards their success in the future".


I of course, exceeded the 1 minute limit that was given. But I guess, I made it a point to them that I did not look up to someone who was distances away, but someone who is just a few steps away, someone I love, and who loves me back.



Well, when I was younger, I never understood why my mother would always stand by the window to watch us as we make our way to the MRT or Bus. When we were away in camps or when my brother was in NS, she would check her phone every five minutes to wait for our calls. She always stayed up late to wait for us to return home, and there were many times where we came home and found her snoozing on the chair.

And sometimes, even though she was unwell, she would wake up early just to make breakfast for us. She would sit with us as we ate, and only go back to sleep after she saw us off.

Even when she was in Thailand or Malacca, she would call back every now and then to check in on us.



But all that, would of course be accompanied by nags. She would nag at us if we did things last minute. Sometimes she scolded us for not being independent enough, but when we did do things on our own, she would come in and do it for us. Then she would scold us again for doing things too slowly, or last minute. She always busied herself with out things, even when we could do fine on our own.

In an obvious way, my brothers and I are really pampered by her.


Sometimes, it annoys(it's not that we don't want her around, but she's a busy woman, and needs her rest!) us that she would rather stay up just to make sure that we have had our meals, rather than have an early sleep. And she would peep to check on whether we were doing fine, and would jump at the chance when we needed help. And how she always eat last so that there's enough food for us all. And how she'll eat the "not so nice" food, and let us have the nice ones. I guess that's what mothers are like, huh.


And the countless times she defended us against our dad (he's not the bad guy. It's just that having Commando parents is pretty tough sometimes. But it's a miracle my mum is brain washed at all.) And the times when she felt eh urge to slap someone else for bragging about their kids. She always treated us as the best of the lot. And she too, is the best of the lot.

She may nag alot, but then again, it's funny to see her kalang kabut around the house. And then when she realizes that we're laughing at her, she'll scold us and then have her revenge! Well, we treat her pretty much like our friend rather than mom. We'll tumble on top of her, hit her (jokingly), do things to make her ter pranjat, or just make fun of her. She too has her moments where she makes fun or imitates us.

Her "in" word right now? 'So gross', 'so lame', 'duh', 'whatever'. Hahaha, it's funny when she does it because she practically imitates me or my brother Vernon when we say it.



Anyway, a while back, more like many years ago, my brother and I bought a book for my mother, for her birthday.


You must be thinking " wah lao.. birthday leh. Treat her go spa or buy something she wants lah. Buy book, somemore both of you share... Damn gonndu man".


What can I say! I was only 8! And before you stomp to my home to smack me on the head, let me say that the book that we bought was actually SPECIAL.





Yes, that is the book.

It's about the size of your palm, and well, that's not the only special part.


What's the most special is the content inside. This mini book is actually a book of 43 quotes for mothers, be it quotes with heartwarming effect, or cheeky ones. And to those who still don't understand and love your moms enough, read, understand, then read these quotes to your mom. I'm sure it'll make a difference.

1. When you are a mother, you are never really alone in your thoughts. A mother always has to think twice, once for herself and once for her child. - Sophia Loren
2. Mothers are the most incisive philosophers. - Harriet Beecher Stowe
3. Instant availability without continuous presence is probably the best role a mother can play. - Lotte Bailyn
4. A mother's role is to deliver children obstetrically once, and by car forever after. - Peter De Vries
5. Children are the anchors that hold a mother to life. - Sophocles
6. Moter is the name for God in the lips and hearts for children. - William Makepeace Thackarey
7. There's no such thing as a non-working mother. - Hester Mundis
8. Now, as always, the most automated appliance in the house is the Mother. - Beverly Jones
9. If dreams were born where gardens grow, and mums were flowers, I'd pick you.
10. Whatever you would have your children become, strive to exhibit in your own lives and conversation. - Lydia H Sigourney
11. The quickest way for a mother to get her children's attention is to sit down and loo comfortable. (This is so true! I guess, it's become a habit (I'm sure for you guys too) for my brothers and I to disturb her whenever she's comfy. But we do know when to draw the line.)
12. A mother's love is a garden where the Sun always shines and the season is always spring.
13. No matter how old a mother is, she watches her middle-aged children for signs of improvement. - Florida Scott-Maxwell
14. A mother's love and tender care, makes happiness bloom everywhere.
15. Who ran to help me when I fell, and would some pretty story tell, or make it well? My Mother. - Ann & Jane Taylor
16. Who takes the children by the hand, takes the mother by the heart. - German Proverb
17. The more people study different methods of bringing up children, the more they have come to the conclusion that what good mothers and fathers instinctively feel like doing for their babies is the best after all. - Dr. Benjamin Spock
18. It's a wise child that knows its own father, but its one child in a million who knows its mother.
19. This would be a better world for children if parents had to eat the spinach. - Groucho Marx 'Animal Crackers'
20. I have reached the age when a woman starts to percieve that she is growing into the person she least plans to resemble: her mother. - Anita Brookner
21. Motherhood is the most emotional experience of one's life. One joins a kind of women's mafia. - Janet Suzman 'Observer'
22. To become a mother is not hard, to be a mother is.
23. Children aren't happy with nothing to ignore. And that's what parents are created for. - Ogden Nash
24. The are of being a parent consist of sleeping when the baby isn't looking. - American Proverb
25. A mother is not a person to lean on, but a person to make leaning unnecessary. - Dorothy Canfield Fisher
26. A mother's patience is like a tube of toothpaste - it's never quite all gone.
27. The first half of our lives is ruined by our parents and the second half, by our children. - Clarence S Darrow
28. Sweet little old lady wishes to correspond with six-foot student with brown eyes and answering the initials J.D.B - His mother (Advert in a student magazine)
29. A mother's first gift is Life, the second is Love and the third is understanding.
30. We never know the love of our parents for us until we have become parents. - Henry Ward Beecher
31. There never was a child so lovely but his mother was glad to get him alseep. - Emmerson 'Journals' 1836
32. A mother knows all about children. She knows abour dentist appointments and footbal games and romances and best friends and favourite foods and secret fears and hopes and dreams. A father is vaguely aware of some short people living in the house.
    
33. For the hand that rocks the cradle id the hand that rules the world. - William Ros Wallace 'What Rules The World'
34. Parents are sometimes a bit of a disappointment to their children. They don't fulfill the promise of their early years. -Anthony Powell.
35. They're a mysterious mob, mothers. - Robert Davies 'What's Bred In The Bone' 1986
36. A baby is an alimentary canal with a loud voice at one end and no responsibility at the other. - E Adamson
37. Even when freshly washed and relieved od all obvious infections, children tend to be sticky. - Fran Lebowitz
38. A mother's love trancends time and circumstances and endures forever.
39. Mother is another word for love.
40. The most difficult thing for a mother to remember is that other people have perfect children too.
41. Parents are the bone on which children cut their teeth. - Peter Ustinov
42. Parenthood remains the greatest single preserve of the amateur. - Alvin Toffler.
43. The joys are never fully experienced until all the children are in bed.

Which quote do you like? Mine are : 6, 9, 11, 22, 25, 26, 29 and 33.



I hope this had made a difference, because it sure has to me.


Loves.

What's your inspiration?

Throughout our entire Life, we tend to be confused and begin judging on the Great One, God. Some people believe that worshipping God, is the only way for peace, enlightenment, protection and Love. With a religion, people tend to be more inspired and determined in Life.

The christians have their Bible, the Muslims have their Quran, and the Buddhists and Hindus have their sanskrits. I'm an Atheist, so what do I turn to for inspiration?


Well, I turn to Books.


When I'm not out in the Sun playing sports, nor in school studying, I'll be at home, being a bookworm. Yes, A BookWorm.


I love reading Autobiographies of people as well as books that can change not only the writer's Life, the people involved, but also the reader's Life. And the five books that I love the most are Chicken Soup for the Soul and Books by Mitch Albom.



You can find a whole range of Chicken Soup for the Soul books Here


I love reading Chicken Soup for the Soul because not only are the short stories capture your attention, they have a deeper meaning towards Life, and is accompanied by a short meaningful phrase at the beginning.

The two books from Chicken Soup that I liked the most were, Chicken Soup for the Cat and Dog lovers (Reason being that I'm an animal lover) and Chicken Soup for the Teens soul (Reason being that I'm still a teen).


I guess these books catered to my every need, want and attention. It gave me answers that I didn't know were possible to get. It helped me to get over my grief of my dead dogs, and also answer the childish adolescence doubts that I had.



The other books, Tuesdays with Morrie, 5 people you meet in heaven and For one more Day, actually served as an eye-opener to me, to not only find deeper meaning to Life, but accompany the rest of your Life with forgiveness, joy and giving.

You can read more of the three books Here,Here&Here


The books by Mitch Albom can make you all emotional with the stories, feeling both guilt of your past, and determination to make your future better. It teaches you the valuable Lessons in Life that can change your future.



These are my inspirations, so what's yours?