I just read Postsecret and remembered something. The other day I was at Kino and saw a misplaced Postsecret book. I flipped through it to see if anybody slipped their secrets inside because I've read of people finding secrets in the books they bought. Of course, there were none. That kind of thing just doesn't happen here.. I feel bad that I think it's boring here.. Oh, but we'll have Youth Olympics! Hoorah! *clapclapclap*

Twos and eights

Today is such a nice date. 28022008. And since it's such a nice date I shall not talk about what I've been talking about, like, every other post, or more.. Today I got to draw cartoons for work. So much better than reading old newspaper articles. Although some stories are interesting lah. I like to know stuff..

What else shall I write about...? Ah, I have a french test this Saturday. I don't need to pass it to take the next level but I'd like to get full marks for it. Ha.. I just fear for my listening and speaking.. Listening more than speaking. My listening is so bad I usually have no idea what people are saying at all. I just catch some words and guess the gist of what they said. Sigh..

Oh the other day my french teacher asked us to draw plans of an appartment on the board and describe the rooms. We have a small class so all of us could have a go. I'd only drawn the first door and my teacher asked if I'm an architect. Is it that obvious?? Ha.. I didn't want to bother explaining (and wasting everybody's time) so I just said erm, yah. =P

Because our class is so small, the next level might only have one class and probably my teacher won't be teaching us. Actually I was supposed to be in the first class but I switched with somebody. Think I wrote about that already. I'm afraid that the other class is much more advanced than us. Because our class's door is always open for latecomers.. The other class's door is usually closed by the time I go to class. Ha.. So I think they are more enthu. And for your information, I'm usually not the last to arrive in class even though I'm always late.. The last lesson I was 15min late and I was only the second one. The girl who was first said she shouldn't have bothered to take a cab. Ha.. So poor thing. But I'm surprised she didn't think everybody would be late. Oh, I think because two guys were usually on time but one didn't come and the other was late. Anyway the teacher gave us mini mandarins, which was really sweet - both the gesture and the fruit. I think I'll miss our small class because we really get more attention...although I also have to provide answer more frequently.. But that shows that I'm smart so I don't mind that much. Hahaha...

Erm, actually I haven't really studied for the test yet. =P Just looked through my notebook a little and tried reading short short short stories in french. Oh and I attempted to translate that song in the last post. Damn the song really has a lot of R's. I hate that consonant. =P So troublesome to pronounce. I can hardly read the lyrics along with the song. Oh but I discovered a conjugation all by myself! I'm so proud of myself. Ha.. If you haven't noticed, I either have a very big ego or I'm easily pleased with myself. Ha..

Ok shall go to sleep soon so I can study french tomorrow. Byebye..

Song of the day

First of all, *clapclapclap* to all the winners of Oscar.. *CLAPCLAPCLAP* to Brad Bird! For Ratatouille.

I was listening to this French/English song all day. After listening to French radio online for a few days in the office I finally have an almost French song that I really like. The first two days I was listening via a link on a list of radio stations and when I heard a song I liked I tried to write down a bit of the lyrics so I can find out what song it is. Had my pencil over the paper and I realise I don't know how to spell anything I heard. Oops. It doesn't help that the French don't pronounce all the letters in the words and like to link their words.. Anyway the reception was bad so I checked out the radio station's website and used their direct links to listen to their stations. Pluriel.. And they show the titles of the songs they were playing. Great! And they show the last 5 titles too. How generous.

Ok here's the song Même Si (what You're Made Of) Lucie Silvas Feat. Grégory Lemarchal:



And the lyrics:

Just like I predicted, we're at the point of no return
We can go backwards, and no corners have been turned
I can't control it, if I sink or if I swim
'Cause I chose the water that I'm in

Ne jamais devoir choisir
Avoir raison ou tort
Au-delà de mes faiblesses
J'ai la force d'y croire encore
Même si l'amour s'enfuit
J'en inventerai les couleurs
S'il est trop tard, pour revenir,
Je remonterai les couleurs

There's no way,
You're changing,
'Cause some things will just never be mine,
You're in not love this time...but it's alright.

J'aurai voulu t'offrir le meilleur de tout mon être
Au lieu de partir, entre nous tout faire renaître
Plutôt que de mentir,
Aborder nos différences
T'aimer autrement qu'à contre sens

And it makes no difference who is right or wrong
I deserve much more than this
'Cause there's only one thing I want
If it's not what you're made of
You're not what I'm looking for
You were willing but unable to give me anymore

Et ce dont je suis fait
Tout entier je saurai te le rendre
Même s'il faut tout apprendre, tout apprendre
What's your definition of the one?

Comment définir l'amour sans toi?
Mais prêt à tous les sacrifices je refuse celui là
J'aurai voulu t'offrir le meilleur de tout mon être
'Cause these are the waters that I'm in

Même si l'amour s'enfuit
J'en inventerai les couleurs
S'il est trop tard pour revenir
Je remonterai les heures
Et ce dont je suis fait, tout entier
Je saurai te le rendre
Même s'il faut tout apprendre
Même s'il faut tout apprendre
Même s'il faut tout apprendre

The only translation I found was really bad.. So I tried to translate myself. Challenging sia.. And takes some time.. The only line I really knew was Comment définir l'amour sans toi? Which means How do I define love without you. Which you might not need to have known French to figure that out..

So then, after listening to it several dozen times, I googled Lucie Silvas to see which album the song was in and looked at her wikipedia entry. Which of course had a link to Grégory Lemarchal. And what do you know? Grégory Jean-Paul Lemarchal (May 13, 1983 – April 30, 2007)

At twenty months of age, he was diagnosed with the hereditary disease cystic fibrosis. In 2007, Lemarchal announced that his health was deteriorating and that he was ordered by doctors to take a few months off in order to recuperate. However, he died of complications from cystic fibrosis on the morning of April 30, 2007, waiting for an organ transplant.

There is no cure for CF, and most individuals with cystic fibrosis die young: many in their 20s and 30s from lung failure.

Are you kidding me? Can people stop dying for a while? The Oscars had a little video in memory of all the film people lost over the past year. I don't remember there having this segment in previous Oscars.. If I were him, at the moment that I realise I'm dead, my ghost will look at my dead body and say Fuck, what the hell happened?? You remember that Taiwanese actress who got into that horrible accident? I read that in her coma, before she died, a tear ran down her face. He must have felt the same.

Ok, enough about...that.. Have to sleep now..

To the poets

Ooo..watched another great movie yesterday.. Mystic River was great. I like. (Spoiler ahead) I'm so happy I realised who the killer was. The beginning made it look like it was obvious who did it but when it became so obvious and too obvious to be him. After I figured out who the killer was, I was wondering why nobody thought of him..

(Urgh I hate the Police & Thief trailer - which was just on TV. And the show itself. What a waste of Yann Yeo..)

The first movie I remember seeing of Sean Penn was The Thin Red Line, which I did a project on in sec sch. ...that was a bad experience...enough said... I think I remember liking the movie though. And then I really liked I am Sam too.

I sort of watched The Hours after Mystic River but I didn't really like it the first time I saw it I think. I found it a little boring.. I think I prefer watching a bunch of guys to (old) girls. Ha.. But Claire Danes was pretty in it. Did you know she was born just days after Heath Ledger? 12 April 1979 and 4 April 1979. I love my birthdate. =P

Virginia Woolf: Someone has to die in order that the rest of us should value life more. It's called contrast.

Leonard Woolf: Who has to die?

Virginia Woolf: The poet. The visionary.

Well, apparently recently many of us have had to be reminded to value life more. Then maybe it wouldn't have been in vain.

Update

Yawn... Sunday is Nua-day.. I'm supposed to do several things this weekend but I have done none. Oops. Woke up very late today 'cos I watched The Pianist till 3a.m. this...morning. I'd already watched it before and because I loved it that's why I could make myself stay up till 3 to finish the whole film. Adrien Bordy has the same birthday as me! ^^ 11 years before me. Aiyah, one more year and he'll be a Rat too.. Askmen.com introduced his birthday as "exactly 61 years after the Titanic went down". Ha.. I'm proud to be associated with Titanic also lah. And I'm glad it was the day Titanic hit the iceberg and not the day after, in which it totally sank, so nobody died on my birthday. =P

Polanski had Brody live the loneliness and desperation of pianist Wladyslaw Szpilman, whose life serves as the focus of the film. Brody was left isolated and starving in Poland, having nothing but emptiness and hunger to help him concentrate. He lost 30 pounds and learned to play classical piano in seven weeks. And thanks to his talent and chilling portrayal, he won the Oscar for Best Actor, challenging four former award winners like Jack Nicholson and Michael Caine -- a Hollywood first.

Ok, what else did I want to blog about? Oh my colleague, that colleague, suddenly called me by the right name. Out of the blue. I was so surprised. I wonder how she realised she'd been using the (damn) wrong name and if she realised how annoyed I was. And if she'd stumbled upon my blog by chance..

I spent this afternoon watching Coffee Prince on wb's DVDs 'cos I missed some episodes. I realised Ch U cut out the gay lines, which was like, 3 miserable short lines? Prude! And the lines were really tame too. So dumb. Anyway I like the show 'cos this guy's name has one of my Chinese characters in my name. The exact same Ye. (Unfortunately he's sort of the "idiot" in the show.. But he's quite funny lah.) It's the very first time I've seen it that's not in a dictionary and not in my name. The closest was this Hong Kong actor's name which was a similar Ye with a different side. His was "fire" and mine is "sun". My character means bright light. Not just light, bright light. I think his is just light. Ha.. This Chinese girl I met in my previous French class said people who used the name will give the impression that they are intelligent and worldly etc. Oh, how nice. Ha.. But the name was given, amongst others, by a fortune teller for my parents to choose, so it doesn't really reflect much on my parents.. But the other part of my name I have no idea what it means. It sounds common but with that particular side in the character, it's not found in dictionaries now. I saw it in a super old dictionary before but I don't remember it. Even the Chinese girl didn't know. And even the old old Cheena man who comes into the office occasionally doesn't know either. He said he'll check but obviously he doesn't remember.

Oh the other day this tuition agency kept calling me and when I didn't answer she smsed me. Twice. When I replied her she told me it's for this Aki yr3 module. No wonder.. She must have felt like she struck Jackpot. Ha.. And she said it's near my place. Unfortunately I don't remember a single thing. And I think it's mostly project-based and linked with Design so it's not really the normal tuition he/she needs. Oh well, too bad..

Ok I must do at least a few of the things I meant to do this weekend. I've got french test after next week. *fingers crossed*

Amnestic

I always think of things to blog about when I'm at work and then when I get home I'll forget.. -.-" Oh the girl from Popular is in Dirt. Not that I think anybody here will know what I'm talking about.. Courtney Cox is pretty. Anyway, felt like crap today at work. Aching all over. But then I remembered two songs that I'd heard over the radio and immediately liked and listened to them on youtube over and over. =P The last song I remember I liked the first time I heard it on radio was Mika's Happy Ending which I heard on Halloween and listened to the youtube video over and over.. Except the MV had an alarm clock going off at the beginning, which was kinda annoying.


Taylor Swift's Teardrops on my guitar




Sara Bareilles's Love Song



If the video isn't here you can see here.


I prefer the second song to the first 'cos the first is a little...high-school-girlish.. Hmm...What's that word? I don't like the story of the MV either. Anyways, Sara Bareilles's a singer-songwriter. I don't know if she wrote all the lyrics of her songs but I like her lyrics. Spunky.

Her song, Fairytale

Cinderella's on her bedroom floor
She's got a
Crush on the guy at the liquor store
Cause Mr. Charming don't come home anymore
And she forgets why she came here
Sleeping Beauty's in a foul mood
For shame she says
None for you dear prince, i'm tired today
I'd rather sleep my whole life away than have you keep me from dreaming

Cause i don't care for you fairytales
You're so worried bout the maiden though you know
She's only waiting on the next best thing

Snow White is doing dishes again cause
What else can you do
With seven itty-bitty men?
Sends them to bed and calls up a friend
Says will you meet me at midnight?
The tall blonde lets out a cry of despair says
Would have cut it myself if i knew men could climb hair
I'll have to find another tower somewhere and keep away from the windows

Cause i don't care for you fairytales
You're so worried bout the maiden though you know
She's only waiting on the next best thing

Once upon a time in a faraway kingdom
Man made up a story said that i should believe him
Go and tell your white knight that he's handsome in hindsight
But i don't want the next best thing
So i sing and hold my head down and i break these walls round me
Can't take no more of your fairytale love

Cause i don't care for you fairytales
You're so worried bout the maiden though you know
She's only waiting on the next best thing
I don't care
I don't care
Worry bout the maiden though you know
She's only waiting spent the whole life being graded on the sanctity of patience and a dumb
Appreciation
But the story needs some mending and a better happy ending
Cause i don't want the next best thing
No no i don't want the next best thing

Pig, Out!

I'm starving right now.. And I can smell dinner...

Yesterday I had really really bad diarrhea. I was crying on the t-bowl. Boohoo.. Decided to take leave today so I can sleep in, and then I got a cold and couldn't stop sneezing. I officially hate the year of the Pig. Ok, quit whining you idiot. 4.5 hours to our dear Rat! I've got glitter all over my hands because I was trying to "construct" the lantern I bought in Chinatown the other day. I gave one to a penpal. I hope she doesn't get pissed off with all that glitter... =P I can't remember what I wanted to blog about.. I blame the flu med. Hopefully the Year of the Rat will indeed be G.R.E.A.T. for us RATS! Do you know how proud I am to be a Rat? Ha.. 'Cos we won the damn zodiac race using our brains. Yeah! We're smart and cunning. I don't think cunning is a bad thing so long as you don't abuse it and harm good people. Harm bad people!

Young Hossan Sighting

I used "young" and not "mini" because Hossan is already quite mini. Ha.. The other day I went with my bosses and a colleague to a talk at a certain institution, so the people attending the talk were professors, teachers and students, plus erm people from don't-know-where like us? Ha.. There was this guy sitting at the other end of the room and the more I looked at him the more he looked like Hossan to me. Which meant I kept looking at him. Ha.. But only because he looked a lot like Hossan.. Was wondering if he was related to Hossan. Ha.. After the talk I went outside to wait for the bosses 'cos I wasn't sitting with them and the guy was there waiting for his friend too. On a closer look, he didn't really resemble Hossan actually.. So sad.. Anyway I was erm much more excited about it that day but the enthusiasm died down so thank goodness I didn't embarrass myself here. Ha..

In other news, the colleague who keeps calling me by the wrong name, and whom I generally can't stand, is finally leaving in the foreseeable future! I think I've ranted too much about her and that must have built up a whole lot of bad karma for me so I shall try to be nice. Because of personal reasons, she doesn't know she's being sacked for doing a pussy job thus far and thinks I'm leaving with her, so I've been kind enough not to let her know the truth and rub it in her face. See, I'm not such an evil person.

Meanwhile, I haven't received my first half month pay yet and I'm quite pissed off. I told my boss who told the woman who keys into the system and she at first said she did key in and then after I complained again she checked again and apparently traced it and said it'll come in with the second half month's pay. I got the email pay advice for the second half and not the first so I seriously doubt the money for the first half will be in. Once upon a time last year, I had to leave early and I gave my key to the office to the two part-timers that she hired and put in our projects because they said they would be in half an hour earlier than me the next day so I thought it would be fine passing them my key for them to lock up. Everybody else in the office were out those few days doing research. I told my boss about it. The next day I saw no sign of them, waited, and then went up to That Woman's office, whom she shares with many many people. She was not there and nobody knew anything about those two part-timers and my boss also didn't know anything so I had to look for this other lady who sometimes came into our office to do some work. Except I didn't know her last name or which block she was working at. Luckily somebody sort of knew her and told me. Turns out, the part-timers weren't going in so early and had given my key to That Woman, who told NO ONE about it, happily going to a meeting and she had to know I was going to our office in the morning and would need the key. Bloody hell. She could have just passed the key to somebody and leave instructions. She didn't even tell my boss she had my key. Bloody moron. So can you blame me for not trusting her? If my money is still not in I will be giving her a very black and BU SHUANG face when I confront her. I'm so looking forward to it.

I realise I haven't gone on msn at home for a long time 'cos i got all these offline messages that I didn't receive on webmsn at work... Meanwhile, my student's nick is saying teachers think very highly of themselves. Would you trust your teacher if he/she has super low self-esteem??

I wanted to blog about my "sighting" few days ago but I'm too tired to write about it properly now so I'll blog about it tomorrow. Ciao..