WHAT A MATCH.

Katong Laksa 2009 [Draft 0.1]

My grandfather sold Katong laksa on the same street for fifty years. Last year, he was relocated to Thomson. The sterile food court was just not the same. For fifty years, they called him towkay. The food court patrons know him only as 'oei.' My poor grandfather. He used to love his laksa like his life. Now, to him, it's just so much piss.

"Eh, Ah Kow," my friend John said as he punched his tray onto the tray rail. "Come on, serve up my laksa, like you always do. What are you doing? Writing that shit again?" "John, you don't understand," I sighed, "this is going to be my big break. Do you think I want to end up like my grandfather? Selling laksa for fifty years?" "Don't be stupid," he laughed, "nobody will buy that shit of yours."

Please. Prove John wrong.

[ to be continued ]

'5-1 and you finally manage to not fuck it up!'
So that's how big a lead Spurs needs. Was that the most humiliating thrashing of our generation? Signs point to possibly - I'm so glad I witnessed history in the making. XD

[Also, here's your obligatory *spoiler*Heath Ledger is Dead*spoiler*.]

Desperate pleading and last-minute negotiations extend our lease to May but no later. So it is to be curtains after all - we had come to love this place, the first time in five years and almost as many apartments, but living out of boxes, one must always depart.

When we returned from our sojourn in December, the last thing we learnt was that the overnight car wash at the kiosk next to our block had been cancelled for good - the other residents had complained about the noise. It had been a soporific for me, the sharp, harsh slashes of high-pressure hosing, an urban lullaby from eight to six.

Yesterday* I caught a glimpse of the setting sun through Venetian blinds and mistook it for a streetlamp. When I turned to look again, it was already gone.

*Actually last week, but it doesn't parse as well.
**Really only emo because school starts up tomorrow.
*** Waaah. Don't wanna go back to school.

So, since I'm heading back to school [boo, hiss] in a week and this sem is going to be even worse than the last what with the extra module, I figured I'd better set about restoring my twee good mood while I still have the chance, before college-emo insidiously swallows all. And you know what restores twee good moods? Candy cane hunting on City of Heroes! After half a day of getting stomped by Blights gift-raiding with Axn and Espn, we finally got enough candy canes to trade in for the furry gloves to counterpart the boots we took from the Baby New Year mish, so we took our flyer [Espn] and jumper [Divale] out to the Pocket D truck in the Chalet area to nab the Trucker Badge while the Holiday Event was still open. It is easier for flyers.

[ as taken by a jumper desperately trying not to fall off the edge of the floating chalet island ]

Hopefully we'll have enough time to repeat the candy hunt with our City of Villains girls before the event gives out on the 6th. Gift-raiding also yielded Axn and Espn the snowball fight temp power, which also yielded me this new icon:

Icon! I desperately want more icons, but I desperately need more icon slots even more. Even so, I couldn't stop myself from making a couple of new long overdue football icons for our neglected football comm waiting for impending revival, one of which I'm using on this post - because Rosa might well be the twee'est footballer that ever lived, and if he isn't, I don't want to know about it. As for the other one…well, Rosa might be twee, but he's also quite the bunny, and you know what they say about bunnies, so I'm not putting it in the post as it were…

Another thing that puts me in a twee good mood is BPAL - and when Scrunge's Christmas parcel [also a vehicle of twee-inducement - it came with stockings - that will be covered in-depth another time] finally got here after much delay from our dear postal service, we were treated to the realisation of what happens when you get several decant circle orders [Yule, Long Night Moon, Anniversary, Hony Mone, late Halloween split order] together in one go:

Okay, so the bottles all contain only an imp's worth, 80% of the imps are quarters or halves from frimp splitting and testering with Scrunge, and this is really considered a mere pittance by many enthusiasts' standards, but what a sight it was for us [sorry for making you do so much work, Scrunge. XD;;]. And we'd just gotten the box from Daiso on a whim to make our BPAL outbox for whenever we'd finally gathered enough duds for a small sale/swap - well, it currently serves as our 'yet to be tried' box instead.

And as far as trying goes, we are desperately trying - the Yule/Anniversary scents are coming down on the 15th, and there're a few bottles we would be quite sad to let slip - everyone says it, but El Dia de Reyes really is all that…and, contrary to most of the BPALing world, one of the sisters has us besmitten - but it's Rose Red, not Snow White. We're halfway through, and full reviews will pop up on Mae's lj before long, I expect.

All in all, my twee good mood is a lot healthier than it'd been in my last post [though the looming shadow of college does go a far while in setting me desperately inclined in that direction while I still can] - so much healthier, in fact, that I'd decided to step down a little regarding my dad, what with his birthday coming up and all. Hah, birthday nothing - once again, he's engineered his schedule to take him out of Singapore on the big day we'd already made plans and checked prices for. His loss.

So my twee New Year good mood has been utterly and actually quite ceremoniously dashed. I should have guessed something was up when he offered to take us out to dinner at the Country Club, but I didn't expect it to be this. "Well, May," he innocuously starts after dinner concludes, "I wonder which school you'll be going to this year." "You'll have to wait for the results to come out and see," she recites. "Yeah, it's just that it makes renting a new house quite problematic," he finishes, very carefully not looking at me.

( I've used that subject line before, haven't I? )

tangled web presents…Giselle | 2007 …e.n.d.l.e.s.s… Prelaunch @ TDA
From l to r: Queen of the Wilis, Albrecht, Giselle, model for die verlobte, model for der fremde, model for die säugling, petrified cat.

[ PLEASE CLICK HERE FOR MAE'S TDA REPORT AND MERCHANDISE PICTURES ]

If I might have seemed somewhat antisocial [or at least somewhat zoned out] yesterday - massive apologies!
I was delirious for most of the event…well, yes, from lack of sleep too, but mostly, I suspect, from glue fumes.

I had my doubts about dealing at The Doll Affair this year end, considering that both of us had papers into December and were eventually left with about one and a half weeks to rush the stash. In retrospect, if we hadn't been so fixated on having an actual display setup [DISPLAY SETUP. SO SMART. WHAT WERE WE ON.], we might actually have had a decent amount of items to sell, but obviously EOY habit is so strong, we really didn't realise till we were at the event that we should have dispensed with the formalities. Oh well - if we'd done away with the display, we would probably have added about five times the amount of fake-grass to fill up the space…and if the admin hate us now…

( Event and Dealing Thoughts and Experiences )

Though my recollection of the event is a terrible glue-induced haze, here are a few shout-outs:
Thank you, raydance, for giving us money being so nice to us, both yesterday and the past couple of weeks! [I was just about to tell Mae right before you arrived that I was thinking of buying the SD shirt myself [financial genius, I know] if nobody wanted it since I liked it so much. XD I really hope your new girl will like it!]
Thanks, night_child80, for making sure we were alright. XD Sorry we were so zoned out!
Thanks, gothiquelolita, for proxying for us for the ZB interview - sorry for all the trouble!
Thanks, blue_meddy, for being in tune with Mae's moneysucking psychic waves and ferrying the money in at just the right time. XD
Thanks, sassystrawberry, for letting us have Harmony at our booth - I love her soooo much. T_T I hope male Miniyou's shading is fine now. ^^ [Also - thanks, Hanhow, for helping us with our luggage! Sorry for the trouble XD;;;]
Thanks, starsthatshine - I hope that you like Reina's faceup!
Thanks, bankevair, for your lovely comments and for the offer! We didn't dare to nab the eyes in the end - luckily, because we came back and checked: Yana can't wear that size. T_T I hope Pudding's faceup is alright!
Thanks, lavenderlilz - I hope you get the head you want! ^_~
Thanks, district10, for stopping by - I am SOOOOO sorry we were SOOOOO out of it by the time you came by! T____T I was seriously having trouble stringing words together into sentences by that point, and when I roused enough out of my stupor to look for you again, you were gone. WAAH, I'm really sorry!
Thanks, jshan, for keeping me awake, or sane, or both. I mightn't have made it through the event if you hadn't come and sparked my degenerating brain cells into indignant activity by telling people Tea cost 1kUSD without talking about how limited she is. XP And thanks for minding the booth for us [especially when Mainey went AWOL and walked by us, giving us a heart attack], ya? :D Ah right - also, thanks for parking Laurie and her cat, who seemed to attract the attention of many paedos…
Thanks, sukuishi for…hm. For pity-buying a postcard of Sei. [NO THANKS FOR WALKING BY US WHEN YOU WERE SUPPOSED TO BE MINDING OUR BOOTH. …Okay lah, thanks for minding our booth when you weren't going AWOL and giving us a heart attack.]
Thanks, antiquarianism, for the engaging conversation and for buying stuff from us. XD I can barely believe you still have our ancient postcards!

And thanks to everyone who stopped by and showed interest in our stuff or said hi! ^__^ We haven't seen some of you in so long and it was great to see you again! [If only we weren't so stoned. XD;;;] Some of the people I can remember are erushi, edaburi, lightlybattered, nescienx, lil_kitt…gah, if I missed you out, I'm REALLY sorry! Thank you so much, all of you!

In conclusion - In spite of my fears [and glue-sniffing], I really enjoyed myself there and dealing a lot more than I was afraid I would. We're SO back with a booth next year [if you guys will have us!], and hopefully we'll be bigger and better and actually have more than three shirts to sell.

…Also, tangled web:reload and …e.n.d.l.e.s.s… will be up in the first quarter of 2008. Really. XD;;

[P.S. If you're feeling generous, we still have postcards here. XD;;]

On the Eve of Destruction,
as I look back at All these Things that I have[n't] Done,
I recount the lessons we have learnt:

Don't fight nature.
Don't fight fate.
And most importantly, Don't F[ight] the Reaper.
The Winner takes it All.

...Be Safe.

Ah...yes. We rather neglected to mention we were gone, didn't we?

For the first time in…*goes to check*…over half a year [egads, Mae must hate me] I've finally succumbed to sangrose10 - three pieces of varying degrees of quality [i.e. 'not very much' to 'crap'], anatomy warnings and explication in notes. The characters may or may not look, ah, familiar.

[ please click thumbnails for sangrose10 posts ]

_______

My current panic topic is the Postcolonial Poetry final on Friday, not least because Prof. Patke is only the most terrifying [and, sadly, terrifyingly brilliant] professor I've ever had. He's so terrifying, in fact, that after taking his 'Science Fiction and Fantasy' module in the early semesters, I spent the next three years carefully avoiding his subjects with dread fear. Alas, my reluctance to take a class on Friday did me in this sem.

And yet - I AM SO NOT IN A STUDYING MOOD ARRRRRHHHH *DEATH TIEM NAOW*
_______

I actually did upload more icons to celebrate Scrunge's paid time giftie.



1. Hay why looks so familiar.
2. Okay, here I'm just cheating.
3. I need more Tea icons! [Laurie of Small Wonder appears courtesy of jshan]

I uploaded them before realising I'm running out of icon slots. I can't believe I'm running out of iconspace, there's still a ton I mean to make. [I'm getting too fond of using that…]

Well, so I am posting the birthday swag on [a] Monday [technically]… *is bricked* So I deserved that. XD;; I'll make it snappy and get to the loot!

( UMPC and Pony and Transformers, oh my! [w/ cameo from Tea] )

_______

Once again, fluff and thanks for all your birthday wishes~

Special thanks to those who took the time to post pics…
edaburi with Ari...bittenbefore with Keisa...night_child80 with Caleb and Colette...
aichaku's Glitter Graphic...starsthatshine with Ryo...and fullcircleagain with a bunny! XD

And thankies to those who did it through MSN and comments…
sukuishi, sassystrawberry, techn0irkyashieru, ruthieangel, afuna
eluneth, erushi, pumabaerchen, kaisuki, starshipangels and lightlybattered!

And so passes another year - thank you so much, all of you who wished me Happy Birthday in one form or the other! I appreciate it more than I can say - that is, I will say how much I appreciated it come Monday, when I finally have this 5k word essay that is murdering me in the bag.

In other words, I've seen and loved all your birthday wishes but can't reply right now due to killer essay - but I'll definitely reply on Monday with birthday swag, so alas, till then! *poof*

This is the post I'm posting to get Mae off my back about it. The next one will be the one about school with complimentary demon baby.

I probably neglected to mention that we got into Transformers G1, largely as a result of my stubborn sticking to tradition and refusing to watch the movie without reading the book first - or in this case, five DVD boxsets. If you've seen Mae's lj lately, this won't exactly be a surprise. But I'm not here to elucidate, I'm just here to artdump.

Giant robots are not my proclivity, but I do try; I do Transformers fanart both giant-roboty and humanised. Giant roboty, not surprising, is the one that takes a lot of time…possibly not so much the drawing, but more the obsessive screencapping for reference and mecha-mapping that I have to do before I start on anything proper. This is the reason why I've only really drawn Starscream - I haven't had the time to map out anyone else, and I had to map out Screamer because this was the only way I could get Mae to watch the movie in the cinema: this shirt - proudly terrorising people since 25th July.

Just scrambling in and out to post this: Sei, of all people, makes a special appearance for a special someone we've known since the days only he and Tsuki were around...of course, it might have come off better if we weren't already a day or so over - sorry, muted_hitokiri! Can we blame it on Sei and his penchant for being [fashionably, he insists] late? ^^;; [Also - *someone* has just arrived, courtesy of the post! I await further instructions. XD]

Ever since grad school started, I've been implementing a rigorous schedule for getting all my readings done one day ahead of time. It's a careful balance of discipline and nuclear fission. Joey was in town with Rey last Saturday, and we couldn't let some of our favourite people drop by without spending some time with them [also, Tsuki would have murdered us if we hadn't gone to worship at the shrine of Uno…] - just one day, mind, more accurately half a day…

Cue Tuesday night Wednesday morning…the sun also rises…Adorno still flays my struggling committed self…

One day, people. Another dear friend is in town this Saturday… [But how could we miss it, c'mon…]
_______

( Melodramatic soap opera with kids. And, oddly, pirates. [Aka our evening out with Mistula.] )

Ren made out like a pirate bandit at the Manikako booth, spending 25 of our dollars and bagging herself a new friend. He was made by Gabie Osorio; he matched Ren's clothes and he was brokenhearted, so she was thinking it must be fate. So far, we know him only as 'The Sackguy'; this might change.

only the brokenhearted | 5 x 400*600

[ click here for shoot on DoA | click here for shoot on tangled ]

"'cause there's a place where we can go,
where we will not be parted.
and who alone will enter there?
only the broken hearted."
- Broken Hearted [Eric Clapton]

( The sad story of old Domuya and my four-year-long Pullip pipedream… )

So Leprotto was my first Pullip love. Remember this was years ago, when that airbrushed blushing on a Pullip was still an exciting noveau adventure. When I realised I actually wanted a Pullip, I realised too that Leprotto would always be that elusive pipe dream [that was also, by now, probably sadly outdated…] Thus it came to be that I got a Little Leprotto [that serves as Ren's Leprotto, harhar] and a Momoko, but still no Pullip - for which I swore I would never capitulate till I came across another that stops me mid-thought like Leprotto did.

Turns out I'm an incurable romantic.

Meet Brocéliande [née Blanche].

I was not so pleased with the acquiration process, of which more I shall not speak. Nor was I so impressed with the condition out of box - there was an errant gloss patch above her eyebrow I had to sand and reblush [along with a few other print defects I could not repair], and a section of the undermatting in her wig had not been cut and had ravaged the rest of her locks. And I already considered myself lucky, because the other [I was given choice between two] one I did not bring home had a chip in her eyebrow MIB. It took a night's work to repair the damage, but after the storm [and reglossing over her mysteriously matte lips, and ironically matting her not-so-mysteriously shiny body, and clipping badly-placed lashes…I've been spoiled by Volks, haven't I…], I was rather taken anyhow. I love the pleasing Pullip faces, and there's nothing I like better than to pass by Brocéliande, toting her wreath with good-natured patience, and pat her on the head. We've had her for about a month now - yes, it took me that long to name her. XD;;

( Clothed in White Samite… | 5 x 400*600 )
_______

You might have noticed I mentioned a Momoko, or you might have noticed said Momoko on Mae's lj a couple of months back. I can't really explain why we seem to collecting fashion dolls with product names that start with B. All I know is, there we were, there was Hong Kong, there we had the chance to buy either Shirayuki, whom I had thought was my dream Momoko, or Baby Blue Labyrinth [aka Mizuiro Labyrinth], and we came away with The Blonde One. This might have something to do with the fact that I found Shirayuki's faceup disappointingly stark and BBL's everything surprisingly charming…or the fact that Mae was more or less head over heels - a very rare development - over BBL and might have chewed off my leg otherwise. [Also, half the price…]

And if you thought Brocéliande was pushing it…trip over to Mae's lj meet…

Benoîte Brightlingsea Laurentine, who roams the wilds and the sea with three names.

Hullo peeps. I'm not dead yet – at least, for now. You [all one of you who read this, yes] might have noticed my constant ululations about the horror and agony of my eighth and last semester of Undergrad studies at NUS previously this year, and you might too have noticed that I have been oddly reticent about the horror and agony of my ensuing future. Thus, it is probably not much of a surprise that, yes, in spite of my unending ulalations, I have signed on for three more semesters or so of Grad studies at NUS. [Yes, this was the primary source of the administrative anguish subtly alluded to through the college entries of this earlier year – every time I griped 'school kills' what I really meant was 'I CAN'T BELIEVE THEY LOST MY REFEREE'S REPORT.'] What do you do with a BA in English?^TM As if this new-found grappling with that eternal perplexing question weren't enough, in one and a half years I shall have to grapple with its subsequent counterpart: What do you do with an MA in English [or "Literary Studies", as it were]?

That is - if I survive that long.

Classes have just started, and they are an absolute bitch. Not the ordinary kind of bitch who laughs cruelly in your face in front of all her friends when you stammer an attempt at conversation, but rather more the sort who pretends she wants to sleep with you, but in actuality lures you into her handily prepared hotel room, wherein she proceeds to steal your wallet and your kidneys. By the time you wake up in a bathtubful of ice, it is too late. I have woken up, and it is not good. The police won't believe me because everyone knows it's just an urban myth. I thought trying to get into the whole shebang was bad - when Debdeb informed me competition was…stiff for the course, I was already starting to pack up another set of documents to send to, oh, I dunno, NTU or something. As it turns out, getting in was only the part of the process that might be properly termed 'own-foot-shooting.' Possibly what is worst is that most of the other students are anywhere from three years to three million years older than me. We have university literature lecturers in this course. We have the lecturers of the university literature lecturers in this course.

"Introduce yourself, why are you taking this course?"
Distinguished gentleman with briefcase: "Well, I know one of the writers featured in this module…Boey Kim Cheng was my classmate."
Me: "Well, I didn't want to take a class on Friday."

Inadequacy is not just an entry in the OED.
_______

Mae posted this a few weeks back, but I'm going to link to it anyway; goodness knows Tsuki needs more airtime on my lj [though he still is by far and away the most used tangled tag I have. XD]

a study in monochrome | 7 x 400*600

[ click here for shoot on DoA | click here for shoot on tangled ]

Mae really liked this set she took, though I'm not sure whether it's because of the artistic values, or because she just sat him down and snapped, as opposed to the usual yards of props and cloth [or lying flat on insected grass] she has to set up. Oh Tsuki. So melodramatic, so queeny, so OTT. My personal image of him of late has always been of the straight-banged, dewy-eyed 50s starlet. I don’t think he particularly appreciates this… He's so terribly out of date, really, but I'll probably always adore him endlessly, decrepitude and all.
_______

Apropos of nothing - actually, apropos of what's "Now Playing"...I don't know if my burgeoning affection for The Mountain Goats is a sign that my musical education is flourishing, or that...I don't know man. I mean, Cold Milk Bottle is so bloody adorable it makes me hurt, almost - and it sounds mainly like some guy and his guitar recording in his basement...and the mike is too far away from his face...

This Transformers meme was ganked from Far Cry, and by ganked, I mean she made it, and I love it.

Take a picture of your car and tell us/me what it would be like as an Autobot/Decepticon.



( Downgrade | DECEPTICON )