conversation

overheard in chinatown a few days ago, between ah chek to china lady.

ah chek: “你喜欢女人吗？”
china lady: -mumbles something-
ah chek: “老老的可以吗？”
china lady: “都可以...”
ah chek: ”你老公那条大不大？”

that's when i lost my appetite and fled from the long tableful of people.

i sms-ed this to a friend, and the conversation went like this:

me: “is 你老公那条大不大？” a common question?
chris: ”did someone ask you this?“
me: “nope. that was a conversation between an ah chek and a china lady.”
chris: “我还以为有人这么问你。要是有人这样问你，你叫他等一下然后打电话给我，我下去show他。”

[my expression: O_o]

aaaaaaaaaa

it's nine! omgoodness it's NINE!!

>_<


damn dress!

aaaaaargh

it's eight! it's eight!

aaaaaaa

finals

i got through to the finals, for both pageants.

woo!!!

The Onion: Ninja Parade Slips By Town Unnoticed Once Again

The Onion:Is The Government Spying On Schizophrenics Enough?

hours and days

these days when i think of when i need to get to a certain place and then how to get there i start thinking in terms of cost-effectivity. well. ish.

how much time can i afford? do i know the place? what are the ways i can get there and how quickly i can get there with respect to different modes of transport?

then i question: how much does it require? can i afford it? is it necessary?


recently, there's been lots of calculations and estimates and with the grace of God, i am able to get through all of these times very well. somehow, just somehow, i'm able to get to the various places that i need to get to on time and in good shape. each trip i make seems to be a miracle.

take this morning for example: i was headed towards courts at tampines from home at about 7-odd in the morning, and i was able to get a quick cab quickly and for some reason managed to avoid all the heavy traffic. the rest of the girls who came later than i did got stuck on the roads and oddly, we all used the same highways to get to where we needed to get to. miracle or what, huh. hehe

and yes, in case you're wondering, i was praying for smooth passage and being on time. that definitely helped. these "little miracles" happen so often that i pray more and more often and i know that it will turn out just the way i had prayed for it to.

...come to think of it, there aren't "little miracles" or "big miracles" - miracles are miracles are miracles - one is as miraculous as the other. geebus, i have the sudden urge to crow in exultation that HEY YA SUCKERS! I'VE GOT THE BEST ALLY IN THE WORLD!

...but i refrain from that.


instead, i shall.... smiiiile, and know that i'm in excellent hands. -SMILE-

300 Penguins

THIS, IS, SPARTAAAAA!!!!

preview show

ho boy, the preview show was good! i was surprisingly calm on stage and it was alright, methinks. i know the audience loved my singing and i know they loved my performance. singing that saucy song with jazzy overtones is indeed a good choice. things went on without a hitch, despite the pitch being too high - perhaps it was because i couldn't hear it so well, so i sang at a pitch i was comfortable with.

also, perhaps because i had stayed up the night before my voice was slightly smokey-sugary, so it's all good. lol


personality shone through and it was a good show by all. haha!

AAAA

it's 3am and i still can't get the pitch to go down on my mac! bloody hell!!! >_<

karma

well, what happens will happen. i know i will take it all well, and with grace, for i am a comet.

i will meet someone in july. i don't know who that person will be, but i think he brings me love. what is this feeling that i have throbbing in my chest right now?

it makes me want to cry.

...must be gas.


well, june's almost over, and it has indeed been a month of learning as i'd predicted. for what it's worth, i know i'll be happy in july, then will come august. august will be a month of trials, but that probably means i'm successful in my pursuits. meaning more challenges to make me grow and i become someone better.

after that, it all seems to settle down into a sort of a pattern, so august probably signifies some sort of a change, like me trying to get used to a new environment or work arrangement.

come to think of it, that's also when i plan to move on from sankei shimbun. yeah, once media always media. i love it! whatever it is, it'll be good. it's going to be good.


it'll be a good life! i know it will be. for i am a comet. as i always have been. i can't stop; i don't stop.

people are comets. we all are; and we can't stop. this is my time; our time. we don't stop.

not until years later at least, when we've gained the sheen of pride, a little bit of arrogance and accumulated life experience, beauty, charisma.

then we become people again, and learn to slow. that is when we glow from within. truly glow from within. in Jesus' name, i pray.

amen.

tailoring

so i am taking part in pageants.

one is called ms sweetheart, and right now i'm going to have to rent a gown. it's going to cost me between 100 to 200 thereabouts and it will be of general size and proportion. the tailored one is going to fit me to a tee, but it's going to cost about 600 >_<


OMG

i hope i can find a pretty gown! i hope hope hope i can find a gown.

ace

and i aced it! WOOO!

bees?

yeah. they're here. good lah, ego boost.

politically-correct

yeah, politically-correct. there are some clashes with the dates for the two competitions and i'm appealing to have the cake and eat it too.

being nice and politically-correct has never been more crucial!

word of the day

lachrymose \LAK-ruh-mohs\, adjective:
1. Generating or shedding tears; given to shedding tears; suffused with tears; tearful.
2. Causing or tending to cause tears.

dancin' cockatoo

dancing to backstreet boys, no less

Minesweeper: The Movie

"WHY ARE YOU HERE SOLDIER?!"

such cheekiness!

hehehe all the things you need to know about waxing, HERE. it's very cute.

manicure

yea, i did it myself.

i bought myself a pair of cuticle clippers and groomed my good self. trimmed my nails and buffed the edges, followed by a layer of gloss.


and it makes me feel like a million bucks. with lipgloss on, of course.

cardboard

i don't know about you, but i absolutely resent having to wipe my butt with paper that feels like cardboard.

i know the butt is a place where the world doesn't see unless you're at the beach, that it spends majority of its time being covered up and sat on. but if you've ever had to endure through an episode of having to clean up after you're done in the loo, you will know how unpleasant it is to have what feels like rough cardboard being used on the rump. well, your rump. my rump.

oh, heck. our rumps.


our office block has that issue.

now, i know i don't have a butt of gold, neither do i insure it like a certain missus lopez did; i know you don't, neither. and neither are you someone to speak about things as such when it happens to you, because you are too polite. i know.

fortunately (or unfortunately) i am precisely the kind of person who will mention this to anyone who would pause and listen - it is an act against humanity to give us rough loo paper.

for the magazines that pelt us with images of impossibly smooth skin and pert boobies and high backsides (g-string adorned, no less), can you imagine the feeling of having eaten lunch then sitting down on the butt the whole day? that has just been rough cardboarded??

i mean, i've just had breakfast, i just had lunch, my ass's going to swell to the size of canada with cellulite and i have to paper my behind with that? hello?

a little perspective here?


alright alright. seriously, paranoid fat jokes aside - i think that having cardboard-like loo paper is honestly ineffective. it is, more importantly, not cost-effective.

why?

because when it's tough and hard to bend, it doesn't get to the places it needs to get to. so what happens is that we use more of it. so when building managers make the decision to buy cheap loo rolls, they're actually doing themselves a disfavour, simply because it's ineffective and therefore people use more of it. because it doesn't get the job done.

and we don't like to exfoliate our pretty behinds any more than we need to neither, especially if we can't really see what's going on when we're doing that ourselves on a loo break. the only way we judge if we have a clean arse is when there's no more er, colour on the paper.

and we won't know if the paper has missed the spot if it refuses to conform to the shape of our derrierres. the way nature intended it to be.

and by the time we find out that we had indeed missed something, it's too late. by and by we will learn that we can't be safe enough and we use more paper. capisce? only then it'd not just be "bye-bye utility savings", it'd be "bye-bye environment" as well. so do you see that there is actually a direct relationship between tough loo paper and money and more importantly, the environment??

do you have any idea how much loo paper each building uses? every day? save the earth, people! if not then at least save the utility budget, sheesh! i'm trying to help you, here!


now there's a lot more i'd like to say about how the provision of softer, better loo paper will improve the economy (employees less worried, less grouchy, confident employees, workrate improves - the likes), but i'm sure you get my drift. because, well.

y'know. it's rough on the muff. and muffs must never be roughed. never. not if you want your economy to collapse on you.


so.

i don't know about you, but i prefer soft loo paper. because i prefer to have my economy intact.

sale!

sale sale sale the great singapore sale!

i feel so lucky i work right in the middle of town, i feel so lucky i can hop on across the street no matter rain or shine and use that lunch hour to go shopping when there are no crowds; oh my maninni goodness i feel so lucky i could bust a vein.

but seriously.


great proximity to great singapore sale = goooood

conditioned and booked

i recall having wanting a brand new air-conditioning machine just a few days back (last week?) and this week, my landlord told me to leave my room door unlocked so the air-con people could come and fix a new one!

wow, how cool's that?? : ))


also, i'd given a book i'd bought (millionaire mind by t harv eker) to someone i thought needed it when in my mind i was like, don't give it to her, don't give it to her - and what did i do? i went and gave it to her.

BUT. the next day, literally, a package came for me. and in it, hey! there is a copy of the very same book, in hard cover! imagine my elation and surprise!

yes i'd ordered it, from the self-same t harv eker, but i'd expected it to be another book, another programme, but wow, look! isn't this great? : ) it's odd how the things that you give away simply comes back to you. reaping what you sow, eh, pei?


thankfully you'd sowed good seeds!

oh, yeah

oh yeah.

i found out, today, during the two-and-a-half hours worth of waiting, that i am famous amongst the japanese media in singapore, thanks to my boss. -_-

i'd exchanged my namecard to this japanese gentleman, who upon seeing my name said "ahhh, you are famous, loren-san!"

O o whaat??

followed by, "fujimoto-san is very proud of you!"



i still cannot make head nor tail out of it. was it something i said??

press conference

i was at this ASEAN press conference today for the myanmar situation and what ASEAN's going to do about the nargis situation and the impasse that the junta's been putting up – suffice to say, there was a lot of waiting.

the conference was scheduled to begin at 3:15pm but the media were to register at 2:00pm. thus we waited. till 4:30pm.

it was only then that the ministers of ASEAN arrived in full. many burning questions were unanswered by the ASEAN committee, though these things are for sure:

1) ASEAN (ministereal level) is coming up with a mechanism to handle aid and quickly and efficiently distribute aid to affected areas.
2) myanmar's very first step in rectifying the situation is to accept medical personnel from ASEAN into affected regions to dispense medical assistance.
3) foreign aid will only be accepted under the condition that it will not be politicised.
4) how the mechanism works or what it is, has not been established yet, but they are going to talk about it. in fact, surin (ASEAN secretariat) will be headed over to myanmar to get the ball rolling in the next two days.


perhaps the perceived avoidance of the burning questions are practical, though it can be seen as a shielding of myanmar and therefore raise more questions and eyebrows. questions like, "is the junta going to get away with leaving so many people to die while aid waits outside of its doors?"

ASEAN almost kicked myanmar out, but did not, having been persuaded otherwise by an internal member. perhaps it did not understand why myanmar's this touchy about certain situations initially, that maybe it was afraid of political strings attached to the aid that hovers right before its nose.

dangerous, i'd agree; and equally dangerous to do nothing while your own people die and the world watches on with you. perhaps that was why myanmar hesitated for some time, not quite knowing what to do about the disaster with the poll in tow. it's easy to make murderers out of the junta, regardless of whether they are or are not, if they meant to or otherwise.

personally i think there must be sufficient reason that ultimately ASEAN did not haul myanmar's butt out the door. for today it was with a united front that ASEAN spoke, though i foresee that myanmar will continue to draw sharp questions from the media. to answer them truthfully may spell myanmar's own admission to its fear of being seen as weak, or that the junta is indeed well, militant, to say the least. or both.

it can avoid questions, saying that they need to look forward and the issue here is to save the people and report on the current developments instead of pursuing the past while they come up with palatable reason as to why the delay during such a time and situation. perhaps, perhaps. then again, that's my take.


well, now that they've thrashed it out on the ASEAN table, let's hope this works out better quickly, that people won't have to die slow diahorrheac deaths. here's praying the "mechanism" gets worked out quick (hopefully even faster with indonesia's input) and that it will quickly get implemented.

newspapers-gone-away

earlier this week, i found out that hey, our saturday and sunday papers are not there. so i called our paperboys and told them about our missing papers and they dutifully sent them over.


then i took a day off on tuesday as i needed to see the doctor. when i went to the office on wednesday – hey! our papers are missing again!

i smelt a rat. the paperboys aren't that careless nor lazy. in fact, they're pretty efficient. and good-looking, in a newspaperboy-ey kinda way.

ahem.

so feeling a little incredulous about having our papers stolen, i sought out the cleaner lady and asked if she'd taken it or seen it or seen anyone taking it – nope. she saw it, but she did nothing with it, left it at our doorstep. alright, so i looked around, poked about in dustbins, walked past glass doors several times and if the doors were wooden crouch down to trodden-carpet level to try to spot ravaged remains of my poor weekend papers through gaps under the doors – no not really. but suffice to say, i looked around... and since i didn't take it upon myself to barge into offices swinging my corded office phone like a morningstar while unleashing a warcry* – i figured it's going to be hard to get my papers back.


i was miffed. i needed my papers. so i asked if the building overseer might help me out with this, we rely greatly on newspapers, we can't do with people taking our newspapers! we are all upright citizens of singapore, honest inhabitants of the building! nobody should be taking anybody else's papers! i mean, what am i going to torture my boss with???

these people! they need to go to craftyhands school**.





* it would sound strangely like "OVERTIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIME!!!"

**they'll teach you to steal valuable items, first. not that i've been there.

Numa Numa Dance Misheard Lyrics

eep!

back to loren-shell! full speed! ><

polite as pie

"Well, Ben Rogers, if I was as ignorant as you I wouldn't let on. Kill the women? No – nobody ever saw anything in the books like that. You fetch them to the cave, and you're always as polite as pie to them; and by-and-by they fall in love with you and never want to go home no more." - Tom Sawyer, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn

brr

wow, look at the rain.

the office's cold enough as it is in this air-conditioned nation - and still it rains. cold!

Amazing Grace

"Amazing Grace, how sweet the sound,
That saved a wretch like me....
I once was lost but now am found,
Was blind, but now, I see.

T'was Grace that taught...
my heart to fear.
And Grace, my fears relieved.
How precious did that Grace appear...
the hour I first believed.

Through many dangers, toils and snares...
we have already come.
T'was Grace that brought us safe thus far...
and Grace will lead us home.

The Lord has promised good to me...
His word my hope secures.
He will my shield and portion be...
as long as life endures.

When we've been here ten thousand years...
bright shining as the sun.
We've no less days to sing God's praise...
then when we've first begun.

"Amazing Grace, how sweet the sound,
That saved a wretch like me....
I once was lost but now am found,
Was blind, but now, I see.

Numa Numa

the very first one i saw! made me smile, this one. : ))

falls

i fell.

i fell twice in three days - once on the staircase going up (thank heavens it wasn't when i was coming down) and once during a mad chase of an errant sparrow in the house. i was chasing it with a frying pan and believe me, i'd've smacked it one if i caught it.

hm. i suppose my knees are showing the bruises.


i wonder if i can ever catch a sparrow.

foreign press conferences

so i attended these two press briefings yesterday and today at the japanese embassy, and both briefings were completely in japanese - a language that i only recognise a few highly-utilised words.

like "udon". which was not mentioned.


so the talk was about myanmar and the aftermath of having a tornado dance on it just six days back - i've been reading about the disaster and i couldn't help but curse the military junta for being idiots about international aid. you accept supplies yet keep your well-meaning neighbours at the door when your own people are dying???

talk about sticking one's head in one's own arse!


so the japanese embassy called us journalists to give us the latest updates for japan's latest moves with regards to myanmar's situation – japan is pledging US10 million to myanmar, and that myanmar's to make necessary arrangements to receive it on their end. of course, there are mentions of warming ties between japan and china....

so if you're wondering how on earth i understood all of that mentioned above – there's this wonderful lady mayuko-san – also a reporter, who translated the main points of the entire briefing to us three non-japanese speaking people and made sitting there listening to a language i could catch no word of worth it.

sorta.


well throughout the half-hour briefing, i kept having the urge to giggle. simply because it was very tempting to do so. i mean, here are officials in solemn gray suits seated behind serious-looking wood-topped desks in a brightly-lit room with a cream backdrop, speaking solemnly in a language i couldn't quite understand – how can anyone not have the urge to laugh in such a situation??*


anyways. i wondered if they'd call me an anti-japanese heathen then proceed to howl me out of that place.

i wondered if i would have an ally mcbeal moment, and i fought it. i possibly shouldn't have, for the more i fought it the more i wanted to giggle. when they're talking about a disaster-swept myanmar.

that would probably spell the end of my japanese reporting career - possibly until i explain that i understood no word of japanese and that the speaker's rhythmic scratching of his sleeve made me think of a geisha strumming the strings of her whatever it is that they strum. ...somehow i don't think they'd be charmed by that.

the more i contemplated it the bigger the giggle became, oh my goodness me; i'd've stuck it if hadn't focused on how it's not funny, how it's not funny, how...


thankfully, i was able to dissipate the giggles and was straight-faced and poised throughout so the half-hour passed without incident. then the briefing ended and we left the building.

and i went to harry's and congratulated myself with half a pint of kilk's. perhaps i'll encourage acts of willpower with a nice gin-and-bitterlemon next. ;)



* it's like hiding from someone and suddenly having to sneeze just as the person is walking past you.

wiped

don't be fooled: the only way to wipe it all out is to reformat.

cheese

oooh yes. oh yes yes yes yes – nothing beats an after-dinner snack like a small sliver of onion-and-chives cheese on ritz biscuits.

nope, i'm not your traditional/elegant cheese-eater. table water is for when you have some prized buffalo cheese imported from switzerland. then i'll go for table water. otherwise.. .ritz. yum!

hmmm. i want to have someone to share all of these with. i want a fellow mouse :)

korean traffice police with wonder girls

hahaha you can watch the original one here at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HQTIsi0IlZc. for best results, view the original first, then view the spoof.

Teh Ghey Cabal Dance

WTF but this is VERY NICE! hahaha made my day!

Aerosmith - Pink

groceries

i went grocery shopping today, and am delighted to find out that hey i can make myself an udon dish! like, a proper udon dish with miso soup and veg and plump, juicy shrooms! :))

i would've loved to cook and share it. haha! pioneer-woman-but-not-quite - she did spaghetti and i'm going to do udon LOL

but since marlboro men aren't readily available in this part of the globe, all the glorious udon and shrooms will be mine!


mm. that is a thought fit to cheer a destitute up! :) yummm

ikissyou.org

apparently, this one is by some chap by the name of mahir. interested parties, please click HERE.

them napkins

so. today i met a lady friend of mine up to get my grubby lil hands on this great facial product that her mother (the genius) has created - and as she was handing that precious pot of gold to me she mentioned that oh yeah, here're your napkins.

thus she passed me this pretty flower-printed eco-bag with two cubes of ..something.. inside. then it struck me: those were packs of well, napkins* she had bought for me some days earlier!

what's special about these napkins is that they come with silver nano technology (top most layer), far infra-red rays and negative ions (second layer) followed by er, several layers of cottony absorbers, super absorbent polymer, ultra (not just transpiring, but ultra) transpiring membrane - whatever that means. (postscript: it translates to, if you hadn't clicked on that link provided, that it is er, easy-dry)

at first glance anyone would wonder why the hells anyone would want silver nano technology stuck near where the sun don't shine. truth be told, so did i, at first.

i supposed, when i was told about the miracle napkins, that every person would want to feel expensive once in a while and while silver can't do squat to add to the quality to whatever it is you want to add quality to - there are some who actually can tell the difference between silver and silver nano technology. luckily for us ignoramuses, there's always GOOGLE to help us out.

then there's the infrareds. hmm. sounds kinda hot and it's already humid down there without any help and we all know the conditions that best describe tropical mangrove swamps.

but i digress. google results say that INFRARED RAYS have a myriad of uses, from thermography to astronomy. so alright, i dig the silver nano. but infrared? hm.

aaanyhoos. according to my lady friend (who is not a napkin-peddler, by the way), this pack of tech completely alleviated her period pains. so its price ($5.60 for a pack of 10, gotten at a discount) is not without reason. that's coming from someone who suffers monthly discomforts - for someone (me) without much discomfort in times as such - well, why not.

what's it going to do, bite me? for all you know, its continual use may regain me my virginity.**



* the sanitary sort. some come with wings, some fly.

** okay, i kid. i'm actually quite excited about this product. ;)

week

the week past has zipped by, faster than a thought too fleeting to recognise. of course, i exaggerate.

i don't know why but this past week i'd been living in my own world without really meaning to, for some reason.

result?

a great deal of distracted-ness, missing to do the things i would have otherwise noticed. i felt and still feel cerebrally slow - it's a horrendously irritating feeling. like lagging internet services ( a certain lord regan would be able to testify).

like tonight. i was gaming and teamed up with this sweet-natured person in my guild (rather, she was helping me out. "teaming up" sounds more equal than it really was) and i think i - amongst other things - made her morning just slightly pricklier than normal. >_<

bad way to start any morning, i suppose.


is something bothering me, really? if there is, i can't seem to put my finger on it.

invitation

an oily acquaintance of mine called me out of the blue today to ask me if i'd like to join in his game on Labour Day (he's trying to get a group together to play dungeons and dragons). this was ow the conversation went.

Oily friend: hey xoren, i know i don't call and we only meet once a year - would you be interested to join my game?
Me: (brief pause) er.
Oily friend: i promise not to harass you too much; these guys are new lah
Me: uh, sure. tell me more though.
Oily friend: [unnecessary details]..and a girl.
Me: a girl? you mean i'm not the only girl?
Oily friend: no. there's another girl.
Me: (uppity voice) then no. i'm not the only girl there, donch want. (humph)
Oily friend: (immediately) okay i lie - you're the only girl.

strangeness

if the world only has ONE mobile phone charger, i can safely call the owner Lord of The Rings.....

dancin' robots

dancin' robots! see HERE. nice choreography! :))

mind travelling

so my mind wanders, okay? i had NOTHING to do at work, i swear.

anyhoos, i was surfing and i came upon these sites. haaha funny stuff. THIS ONE tells you about yourself, it's a little like the twelve animals of the zodiac - kinda fun. i'm a green pegasus, hey how cool's that? a green pegasus! :)

THIS OTHER ONE though is a little bit quirky... and about the bacon bra: eeeee

the impression my subconscious has

apparently, my subconscious thinks highly of junwei.

i dreamt that he had sent me a response via sms - and apparently we're talking about porn and how international porn (playboy) is "decidedly international" while local porn (playeur) is... lingerie showcases masquerading as porn.

and his sms response went something like this: "Well, not really because porn to a man is like a meaty dish complete with a good hard drenching of sauce... international magazines invariable talk about the girls, the artist taking the shots or doing the stlying, their personalities/coquettish behaviour, the magic and glamour make-up offers and its unashamed exploitation, the set... it will also include the girls' pouting at and flirting with the camera (and as in tandem, the photographer behind it) while lying about their ages, in outfits nobody'd otherwise wear. and it's brilliant if you look at it [the situation].


"the pictures are also more artistic than pornographic - artistic because the girls are treated more like sculpture than person, instead of the generic, similarly-proportioned bodies that plaster sub-standard (local) magazines.

"it's really a twirl when your body incites the shyness of the business world."


bravo.

Wednesday Mornin' 4am

i woke up this morning too early for anyone's good - 4 am - and these are my thoughts as i laid in my bed.

4:26am I woke up too early today, for some reason. too early like 4. so i cocooned myself in my blankets, hoping the cool air-conditioned er, condition would cajole my impetuous awareness into slumber. no luck. [turning and tossing occurs with some additional details and me finally giving it all up with a great big yawn - an ackowledgement that i'm bloody awake]

so i stared at the ceiling. it's not as unpleasant as one might think, considering i'm half awake, warm save my nose poking out from the geography of blankets i'm under, everything's quiet and it's not even beginning to light up outside. the sun's on its way, i understand, but don't care. not yet, anyway.

5:38am. i find that staring at the ceiling is, at this juncture, rather pleasant. of course, i may change my mind if i had someone snoring beside me while i contemplated the whitewash... then again i would probably decide to roll into the other and feign unconsciousness, searching for a cuddle and murmuring into his back. either way it is better than staring at the overhead fan because, i find, i cannot do it for long.


6:35am birds, you can afford to shut up.


6:46am thank you


6:51am to think i crouched this way and that during these few hours hoping to catch some sleep. the sun has arrived. >_<

anonymous

i keep getting anonymous phone calls lately, for some weird reason. :/

those numbers are "private" - could it be..?


..nah. it can't be.

death and taxes

wah shit! i don't know how to file taxes!

DIE LAH

secretary of the US.. ish

i attended my virgin unassisted mic-jousting session today. suffice to say, was i glad i have long arms!

as it was, mr hill (christopher) arrived at the airport to allow us members of the media to hound him a bit about the N Korea situation, how talks would be like, if they're making progress or is N Korea going to hypnotise them into giving them more time more money - again.

okay, it's not quite put that way and those were solely my words.

mr hill in person seems alright, and a friend of mine would say that he's a diplomat, not a politician - a distinction i failed to make. well, y'see, a politician more often than not are "nice guys" in demeanor, while diplomats tend to be "nice guys" in essence. of course, that's generalisation, but that's why i used phrases like "more often than not" and "tend to".

so mr hill seems alright; he seems to be the kind who has learnt the er, art of saying many things without saying anything. which means that he's probably earned his rights - "rights" - to be where he is right now. but that's a diplomat's job.

i doubt he'd be trying tricks like that with his wife. heh.


but i digress. so it was my virgin unassisted mic-jousting session at the airport today - i had no idea how heavy a 150-gram (guesstimate) audio recorder can feel at the end of your fingers when you're reaching through necks and past ears to place it as near to the speaker as possible. it gets heavier every minute; thank heavens mr hills only spoke for 18 minutes.

and i'm not the only shaky-armed around. there were others whose audio recorders trembled like mine did. hahah i wonder, if i were to do this often will i have slimmer arms? LOL

the questions women ask! XD

no, really

i don't have anything valuable to say right now.

i'm tired. worn out. hey look, there's a hole on my back, like a patch of fur missing from a cat's coat.

worn out. :'(

trip outside

well, i had decided to pop outside for a spot of education fair today, and suffice to say, i was unimpressed by the stuff they had on display. luckily for me, an angel told me about this scholarship mastercard's offering and i'd set myself at least fourteen reminders so i won't forget to call them up on monday.

i'm kidding - i only have five.


anyhoos. i had some time to burn before i got there (friend was late) so i stepped into bysi and took a look. what a look! haha

i looked, looked, looked again and twirled in it then put them dresses back, saying i'd come back for it later (giving myself time to cool off and see if the "second look" changes anything). so lunch, banter and minor walking at the fair ensued and i dragged my hapless male friend (who wants to do fashion design, by the way) to go "look at dresses" with me.

i can't understand why straight men want to do fashion design. hm. maybe he's... no. he can't be.

it might be that he gets to measure, then. -cough-

well, this coming from someone who insists that he's got his whole life mapped out and is missing only ONE ingredient: a rich tai-tai? lol

he cracks me up, this guy. he can be my best girlfriend any time. after he sends in an application form, i mean.


right. so. thanks to two unforgettable fights that happened in a single shopping trip and therefore having learnt the fine art of asking for the mens' opinion whenever you're out shopping with them - i asked Hapless Male Friend for his opinions. who kindly and patiently obliged. i thought that was really nice of him. to be fair, though, i did lend him my free weekend newpaper to read while i did the necessary.

mmmmmmm i remember a time when i was shopping with -


hm. ah, reminiscence can go stare at itself in the last changing room - for now, hello pretty dresses! :)))

the burger guy

this guy's passion is burgers. i'm serious!

sensei

trading

and yes, i've come back to trading, after all the pussy-footing, finding my feet. i'm going to learn how to trade, proper.

whaddya know, this position is wonderful!

conversation

Me: oh my gosh, how long's it been?? five, six - years??
Him: yeah, more than two lifetimes! (rolls eyes, grinning)
Me: goodness, really??

[lots of catching-up chatter ensues]

Me: so... wait. i have a politically-incorrect question. are you straight?
Him: no. i'm tri-sexual.
Me: [rapid-fire blinks]
Him: means everything also try once.

the red stream

the red stream is here. it's making me droop around the edges - what i hope outsiders will see as the pretty draping effect of a flower.

but meanwhile, i am having none of the blemishes i so often sport back then.


yeaa, life is good to me!

bintan

bintan was great! i didn't know i could like a beach this much, i didn't know the sea could be this much fun!

the company, and oh, the company. priceless!

showers 'r' us

yeahhhh it feels like that sometimes!

type of investor

i've been reading a book titled "the cashflow quadrant" and had come to a part that categorises the kind of investors there are. one particular one i read about is "stewards of money" - these are the kind of people who put together their own components in an investment programme and buy it, and they more often than not hand down the legacy of wealth over to the next generation via education on how to build money.

even in death, they control how the money is handled. amazing.

i must be of at least that level - so that means i must read. learn, read, read, read, learn.

something by scott feschuk

fucking good read! ON NATURE.

kickass comic

HERE is the kickass comic.

bear in mind that it's R-rated, cause of nudity, swearing. but a kickass story.

boating no more

mm. not going boating no more.

rain's provided us both with an excuse to postpone it.

stalked?

i do believe i have a stalker.

he sms-ed me, "You play game till very late last night. Ha......"


hm. this is coming from someone who does not play games.

response? "Ya."

no extra attention given.



...sometimes i wish i needn't do this myself.

don't mistake me, i like being strong and independent. i just wish there were someone who would offer to kick butt for me - so i know when shit happens if it happens i have a person i can count on.

may that person be the man whose chest i lay my head on at night.


cause... at the end of the day, boys are boys. these are the kinds you play with for a while then put aside cause they are in essence still children. how do you tell, really?

well, they are the ones who "have also can, don't have also can" or "if she wants she'll come if she don't want she'll leave" and therefore not do very much throughout the relationship. it might kill them when you leave, but they won't stop you. because they "respect your decision" and therefore won't even try to stop you.

no wonder divorce rates are high - it's because of the rise in respect.

-snip-

anyhoos. it takes a man to show stalkers JUST WHAT THEY'VE GOT - and believe it or not, it really makes a woman proud to be his woman. cause then the chap'd have pride AND the balls to back it up with.

i'm going a-boating

i'm going a-boating tonight. it'd be nice, i think.

heart's heavy, for some reason. could it be the rain?

message of the day

message of the (good fri)day is - what i've retained, that is - is, PURPOSE (to be found trying to get my attention via a sledgehammer to the head); and ..see below.

-ahem-


as a certain pudgeyCHOKE - dignified - pastor told us a story just now when asking us the question, "what would you die for?"

he opened by recounting this autistic savant named johnny, who lived on rio's sandy beaches.

autistic savants are not just autistic, they are gifted. some savants can do phenomenal mathematics, some can repeat whole symphonies just by listening to it once and some have amazing photographic memory - and this one sculpts sand.

so each day, johnny would build sandcastles. sand sculptures, if you will.

he created magnificent sand sculptures of buildings, of scenes of amazing intricacy... and on the same beach, was a group of irritating typical hormonally-powered teenaged moronsCOUGH - boys - who would come along, and kick it all down. every day.

sometimes the johnny would cry, but most of the time he just let them: after all, it was only sand and there was always tomorrow.

then one day, johnny built a magnificent one of *his home, with its windows and doors, beautifully detailed down to the climbing bark that clung to the red brick wall surrounding his house. as usual, the teenage [deleted] came along, and began kicking it down.

but this time, johnny fought back. he wanted to protect his work. three big boys against one boy who builds sand sculptures... in short, they kicked his head in. he was sent to the hospital and was in the intensive care unit for two days before he finally died on the operating table.

and the question the pastor posed was, "what would you die for?"

what would you fight to save, what are you so protective of, that you would give your life for it?

...the above was a story - there was no johnny, and the tragedy did not happen (trust me, i was half-smirking to myself too when i heard the pastor say the above-mentioned was not true :/ ).


then he told us another one, this time a real incident.


there was this lady, inez, i think her name was, who was friends with this person, frank. they enjoyed the same things, they worked on similar projects ... inez had found things in frank that's similar to herself and frank found traits that are similar to his.

needless to say, they enjoyed each other's company very much. the friendship grew and later it had become apparent that their friendship could become intimate. the problem is, she is married.

it was apparent that he likes her, and she knows she likes him. she knew what she had to do.

so she typed this letter, addressed to him. it read: "unless a friendship is dead, it will always grow into something more. But when a friendship becomes something that compromises the commitments to those we love most, it can never be."

she mailed it.

in the pastor's words, "'i mailed it; i saw it disappear,' she said. 'it ripped half of me away inside, but once i had done that, i felt the burden shift. the problem has been taken from my shoulders, to be undertaken by God. it is only then it is out of my hands and dealt with by Him.'"

the pastor continues to say, "more often than not it is usually what you have to do before God may take the burdens from our shoulders..." (i think that's what he said in closing)

however inaccurate my recounting of his sermon** today, i do get the idea of what the pastor's trying to say. i found myself asking the same thing: what would i give up my life for? is there anything i would fight and fight hard to protect and retain?

..right now, i have nothing so very magnificent to fight for. other than My Lord, God's honour should anyone attempt to sully it.


but i know what i want in the future.

i want a home. i want a home, a big home, a house with a big garden, so i may provide sanctuary for my beloveds. i know that a sanctuary does not a garden make, but a sanctuary is more complete with one humongous garden. and anti-mossie devices, of course.

so. may my beloveds find peace in my house, a house i share with my husband. i will find that house, then i will create that home and fill it with love. i will be generous with food in the larder, so all who wish to eat need not scrounge.

thus i honour Him. praise be, praise be.




*actually, the pastor said johnny had sculpted jesus, the one with arms outstretched - the one that is erected in rio, i think. i had substituted it with johnny's home because it might be easier for non-christians to digest.

**there was another story the pastor mentioned, but i thought that might have been a little too much to wash down in one post.

good friday

today is good friday, therefore a very good friday to you.

i went to church this morning, felt i needed to, like i've been pointed at by a large invisible hand that went "you! go to church tomorrow!" and so i went.

good thing i did, too. the service was alright, we sang songs and worshipped... and through the events of two days past, i'd asked a pastor to pray for me - and she did. funny thing though, that when she prayed over me i heard her words with my eyes closed and somehow, with the closing of my eyes the tears flowed. oh good heavens they flowed.

i didn't feel much inside, just that i'm very aware of the tears flowing and they were hot. i didn't feel bad or abused or... you know - negative.

but the tears made their presence felt.


after that, i left, feeling the same as before, not feeling very different but imagining, as i walked down the steps of the church's entrance, that i would be a shining beacon of light and somehow, goodness.

a little odd, considering i'd never really thought of myself as "good" before. people who play dungeons and dragons will know the following analogy: i tend to be chaotic-bochup than chaotic-good. one person i know is lawful-neutral (jenn) - given that she studied and is doing law and is pretty neutral in terms of punishment (keywords being "pretty neutral")...

but i digress.

so being the chaotic-bochup person (read: the suka-suka go do random things without really being bothered about others' reactions kind) that i am, i had somehow fancied myself a shiny beacon of light after having leaky eyes.

mm. random thought: do you think pastors have this natural priest ability called "summon tears"? (okay, jenn's so going to smack me for that)

heh.

choosing men

y'know, when i choose my men, looks used to be way down on the priority ladder. why? because i know that looks fade and if he weren't hawt ladies won't be very attracted to him – unless, of course, he's got shitloads of money.

that's why i tend to choose people who are, first and foremost, smart. the girls will know that not all of my interests are hawt. in fact, only a few were hawt. in fact, there was only two. wait. three, one of whom i did not find hawt but others seemed to find irresistible, for some strange reason. : /

anyhoos.


so. brains, right, is the first one to come up. if he ain't got brains, he sure as heck ain't got no sense of humour. not that one is interchangeable with the other, but the lack of the former more often than not denotes the lack of the latter – and we all know we gotta laugh a little sometimes.

...just not at the boyfriend, all the damn time.


can you imagine how sad that would be??

and if he doesn't have the wit he'd better have the smarts. so at least if he pisses you off you know it's a "worthy foe" instead of some lame duck who couldn't hurt you even if he hated your guts.

(this is different from having someone who loved you so much that he cannot bear to hurt you. VERY. different.)


second, i look for whether he can express himself well. if he can, he probably can make you laugh as well (brain/humour factor comes in here) and chances are he probably charmed you into getting together with him.

you'll know it if that's the case, because you would've been the one chasing him, not the other way round. unless, of course, you're every bit as good as he is, which probably means the playing ground will be more level (read: good thing).

a close third, is very simply, how he does in bed. i mean, seriously. if a man can show a woman a good time it's one more reason to stay. but if he's wimpy in bed then hey, it's like being together with a man who SNORES: you either sleep together or you don't. again, the ability to communicate comes into play here. no matter how good he is or how his dipstick resembles a baseball bat he still gotta know how to wave that magic wand to suit different kinds of spells.

because sometimes – just sometimes – that's not really possible without (say it with me) communication.

i mean, what if you like it like this and he does it like that? or he likes it that way and you prefer it so? trust me, it's going to need more specifics than "more uh-uh less ah-ah."

so there.

lastly, it will be whether he's got the "x-factor", so to speak. does not necessary mean good looks, but rather, the aura of sexy competence that says "hey joo. i is sleek rogue banker, hear my hunky rasp."

yes, one of my previous liasons was exactly like that. well, sans the "hey joo, i is..." part.

but oh, gawd, that one. that very one who sports a suit (yes, i do admit suits makes me do funny things) – he's not good-looking but oh good heavens, he's smart, savvy, suave, sexy, sexual – that's the one who causes literal sparks to zing when we are near each other, suit or no suit. it's not just his effect on me, it's my effect on him, too.

a-mazing, that one; it's not often that you find someone who turns you on like that. but well. there's are reasons why we didn't get together. we didn't have the second aspect with each other. that and that he is spoken for. :P


but ah, things we do when we're young and foolish.

Amazing French Beat Box

courtesy of moomoocow

foraging in KL

well, so i'm in KL for a few days, and like the last time, it's for work.

only this time i'm staying longer than just two days - so that means i've to really walk around to find food outside of the darned hotel. so, right, today i find myself inspired enough to buy food from the hotel, and i was right to trust it (i ordered chicken curry) - and it was good...

then came dinner. i didn't want to stay cooped up in the room and hello, i'm in another part of the world, it'd be a shame if i didn't take the chance to look and walk around, take a few pictures here and there, do the tourist thing. so i did, but the main thing is that i need to know what to eat.

and just now, i felt like eating hokkien mee (recommended by jenn) - and since i've no bloody idea where to get myself a bowl, i decided to do a search online. and voila! makan kings came up. and thus inspired i took to my literal heels and walked my jaunty walk out of the hotel... only to find myself at the sidewalk (duh) with no apparent mamak roadside stall boasting "MALAYSIAN HOKKIEN MEE" in sight.

but what'd i expect, really? it's outside of the damn city, near the twin towers - did i really expect mamak stalls?


...actually, yes.

but then i admit i was naive. but having walked ALL THE WAY to KLCC (wah lan eh) directed by strange people who point the way then carrying on with their walking without waiting for "thanks" - i concluded that KLCC is like our takashimaya. the only difference is that the A&W sucks and the soupe in the chinese restaurants - or the one i had my soupe at at least - is "too salty".

in the end, i left both places with food barely halfway eaten. it's horrid. the "restaurant", too.


the next time i eat, it will be at mamak stalls, i swear. if there are NO mamak stalls out on the hotel sidewalk, i will FIND mamak stalls at SOME sidewalk. and i will bring pochai.

Japanese hahas

well, there are MORE from where that came from, and THIS ONE - on dating - takes the cake.

be sure to check out the following: -

Volume 2
Volume 3
Volume 4

Sushi: Japanese Tradition

huahahahahhahaa

in view of recent events...

gobstoppers

for those who are wondering why i brought up gobstoppers -

well, gobstoppers are traditionally sweets - big round balls of sweets made up of different flavours. :) there's strawberry, cola, chocolate, raspberry, orange... and the unpopular ones like licorice, tuna, earwax (if you're a harry potter fan).

well, people are like gobstoppers.

some may argue people are like onions but i'd say otherwise. onions don't have hearts. and they make people cry. so there.


well, anyway. people are gobstoppers because each and every layer (facet) is different. some layers you like, some layers you like very much and some layers, well: tuna.

every one of these's got these many layers to them, each gobstopper's pretty different from each other. ones you get from asia are probably a little bit milder, a little bit more "exotic", like that chap russell peters mentioned in chinatown - while those you get from say, the americas and europe are probably flavoured like fried chicken. with mayo. and guns. and "his gobber rights".

come to think of it, those from tibet probably taste like goats cheese... in the good way. if you like goat's - ahem, mountain goat's cheese. you probably can eat bread with that gobstopper and feel that it's the best meal in the world. if you like goat's cheese.


anyways. so everyone's a gobstopper. when you're friends, sister/brother, boyfriend/girlfriend with someone, you know there are different flavours to that person. it's a matter if that gobstopper is an old gobstopper or not. or if that gobstopper is one you can do without.

for family, you can't just spit that stopper out. for people you call friends - probably not, neither. considering you don't have to live with them and chances of you needing to evict them from your life altogether are well, low. having said that though, i'm sure we all understand that friends're going to be the the most important people in your life.

for girlfriends/boyfriends, well. you may be going to have to spend the rest of your lives with them and that's intense, right, so it's best to taste each and every one carefully. it's a little bit like eating a lolli (this is when you're "just dating" - you can still taken them out of your mouth when you want to talk) but when you're married sometimes the lolli loses the stick and becomes a whole real gobstopper. cause that's what happens when you actually live with each other.

sometimes people can't deal with having bought a gobbie and having to have it in his mouth, as a result they try to move it to the side of their mouths so they can speak resulting in them seeming socially inept. some try to spit it out, because, well, "it wasn't what they expected" or "the flavour changed!"

lol

reasons to spit, really.


with human gobstoppers however, each time you spit one out, you cry. because it hurts that damn much when she punches you in the mouth. no doubt, you have other teeth and sometimes new teeth grow - but hey.

i don't know about you, but i've come to the point in which i understand that people will always be gobstoppers (and i'm quite done being punched in the teeth). sometimes they come from a pack that reads "underlying pickled corn flavour" and other times they come from ones that read "addictive poppadum that's too salty overtones throughout".

and sometimes, just sometimes, they come in packs that simply translates to "just right.*" : )





*fineprint: "with occasional flavours of double-boiled wintermelon and pork laced with cinnamon."

to illustrate...

to illustrate i shall have you see this presentation - done by jon, on what he went through.

gobstoppers, eh. now there's a man.

i know!

i know what i want! :D

someone like jon! and i want to be someone like heather (who is the author and owner of dooce.com).

haha i know i love a party and i'd love a friend for a husband - and these two are married the best way some people are married - yeah, like lim yew beng and tan kheng hua. she's got her quirks and he understands and takes it - loves it. and she does the same, despite being in-his-face about it occasionally.

though.. she's probably the more flamboyant one in both cases. haha


hm. am i different from these women? i want to be more active with my life. more, more active.

so how did she do it? well, it doesn't matter. i think her most basic personality trait is to dare be herself and simply stay that way.

people who say "you changed" don't understand that people change - people are always changing, especially when growing up (ie: from age 2 to age 36 for women, age 2 to age 50 for men. and when they finally grow up, it's nearly time to die).

the bottom line is to continue to love and support that person... like how jon did (amongst other things) when heather was clinically depressed and refused to take medication due to the stigma. boy, i love that man!

you go, jon! they don't make men/geeks like you anymore!

blog winners

and these are it:

2008 Weblog Awards winners:

Best web application for weblogs: Blogger
Best Australian or New Zealand weblog: Reasons You Will Hate Me
Best Asian weblog: Freshly Squeezed
Best African weblog: Dotty Rhino
Best European weblog: Chocolate & Zucchini
Best Latin American weblog: The Wired Blog
Best Canadian weblog: Attack of the Redneck Mommy Monkey
Best American weblog: Dooce
Best photography of a weblog: I Can Has Cheezburger?
Best art or craft weblog: PostSecret
Best food weblog: The Pioneer Woman Cooks
Best fashion weblog: Go Fug Yourself
Best weblog about music: Said the Gramophone
Best gossip weblog: Dlisted
Best entertainment weblog: Television Without Pity
Best sports weblog: Fat Cyclist
Best weblog about politics: Crooks and Liars
Best computer or technology weblog: Lifehacker
Best topical weblog: I Can Has Cheezburger?
Best GLBT weblog: PerezHilton.com
Best teen weblog: Sarcastica
Most humorous weblog: Overheard in New York
Best writing of a weblog: Confessions of a Pioneer Woman
Best group weblog: Jezebel
Best community weblog: PostSecret
Best-designed weblog: Dooce
Best-kept secret weblog: So Very Alone
Best new weblog: Jezebel
Lifetime achievement: Heather B. Armstrong
Weblog of the year: Dooce

charmed life?

wow, hey.

looks like i'll be flying off on monday. anwar again, personal interview this time. i must bring my best attires then!

thinking

hmm. i was wondering if i should take pictures of the places i've been to and the places i'll go to... and what about the people that i'll meet?

i wonder. hm.

words

bedizen. citizen of bed. bed citizen.

but really.


bedizen \bih-DY-zuhn\, transitive verb:
To dress or adorn in gaudy manner.

as per

At 18, he attended a party "frizzled, powdered and curled, in radiant pink satin, with waistcoat bedizened with gems of pink paste and a mosaic of colored foils and a hat blazing with 5,000 metallic beads," according to Michael Battersberry in "Fashion, The Mirror of History."
-- Donna Larcen, "Details Details: Everything Old Is New Again", St. Louis Post-Dispatch, May 19, 1994

regret

...right.

it's a mistake to watch these vids while having my mask on.

Boypren

lol reminds me a little of my experience with my ex's mom! damn funny hahahah

Band-Aid?

oh, good LAWRD.

i'd SMACK HER if she were REAL!

Buhlud.

hahaha oh golly, this tickles me from the inside! so cute!

Charlie bit my finger - again !

haha silly kid...

flowers in my pants

the birds may chirp and the butterflies might's well dance around me. -_-

visitor

we had a visitor in the office today, mr hanada, his name is. he came by to visit my boss, and before he left, he asked for a namecard.

i don't know if it's a japanese thing, if he was being polite - he said my name is very pretty and i'm pretty, too. i'm flattered, though... i do wonder: is that how the japanese are polite?


-chuckle- think so much for what? just be gracious and say "thank you".

mm, i think my boss was pretty proud of me today, for mr hanada's praise. it's a pride thing, ya? ^^'

lighter

wah, shiok.

i had a magnificent - time - at the loo. one of the luxuries in life. better than sex.

mmm very clever

this is going to be a great game.

smells like fun

i practically ran out of my house when it was still drizzling, to hop on a bus, right, to get to holland vee, right, to buy myself some bottles of moisturiser because airport security think i can make a chemical bomb with moisturiser on the airplane.

i'd sooner hurl that bottle of moisturiser at someone than to have to mix it with whatever-they-serve-inplane and have the passenger seated beside me wonder why am i adding the chicken mayo sandwich to the moisturiser??

anyway.

so i was at watsons, right, looking for that olive-scented moisturiser (also by watsons) that i liked so much when i came up on the pantyliner section, right. then oh yeah: i needed pantyliners.

so i picked up a purple pack, right - and the pack of pantyliners smelt like lavenders. in spring.

meh

i'm tired just reading those words i typed (entry drafted).

loving someone shouldn't be this hard. fuck this.

malaysia

malaysia was fun. i wish i had a little more time, a stronger brolly with me to walk around under.

suffice to say, the weather was erratic. the place was fine. it'd been slightly dramatic, the way i like it and would've been absolutely perfect if i had been afforded more time to walk around after sunset with the rain beating suicidally down on us all... but nooooo

nabeh. only got TWO HOURS to eat look around try not to get mugged and totter back to hotel to make calls to political factions. -_-


but! i managed to find a nice cupcake cafe to have dinner at. it was nice, that one. they played elvis when it was storming outside. suitably irreverent in such weather.

everything about that evening was a little like ole mo-town detective story - dark, monologue-ishly mysterious -laugh- it was nice while it lasted.

articles that make my eyes tear

it is articles like these that make me want to smile.

i want a fairytale lovestory like tony leung and carina lau, too.

eee

from reuters

a1487reutrr i BC-HEALTH-MILK-ALLERGIC 03-03 0507
BC-HEALTH-MILK-ALLERGIC-KIDS
Severely milk-allergic kids can be desensitized


NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Children who have a potentially life-threatening allergy to cow's milk can often "learn" to tolerate milk through a carefully orchestrated, supervised program in which they sample milk in progressively higher doses, research suggests.

After one year, more than one-third of cow's milk allergic children who completed the program had become completely tolerant to cow's milk and more than half could tolerate limited amounts of milk, the research team reports in the Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology.

"Desensitization, or 'specific oral tolerance induction,'can be achieved in a significant percentage of children with very severe allergic reactions," Dr. Egidio Barbi from 'Burlo Garofolo' University of Trieste told Reuters Health.

Current strategies for managing children with severe food allergy -- avoiding the food entirely and carrying epinephrine auto-injectors to quickly halt an allergic reaction -- are only partially effective and have a negative impact on quality of life for the entire family, Barbi and his colleagues point out.

For these reasons, the researchers investigated the safety and effectiveness of desensitizing children with a history of very severe allergic reactions when exposed to even minor amounts of cow's milk.

Their strategy consisted of two phases. During phase one, the children spent 10 days in the hospital where they were given drops of diluted milk in increasing doses and concentration each day. During phase two, the children followed a similar protocol at home. Parents received written instructions on how to gradually increase the milk dose and were taught how to spot and treat any allergic reactions.

Parents could also contact a doctor involved in the study at any time.

After one year, 11 of the 30 children who completed the protocol were able to tolerate cow's milk and dairy products without any restrictions.

Moreover, another 16 children who completed the desensitization program were able to tolerate limited amounts of cow's milk, resulting in a "striking improvement in quality of life," the investigators note.

The fact that most of the children could tolerate at least some cow's milk after the protocol "is important because the danger associated with accidental exposure to small amounts of cow's milk is significantly reduced," Barbi and colleagues write.

Three children who had persistent allergic symptoms were not able to complete the milk desensitization program.

"Desensitization carries a definite risk of reactions, especially in children with a severe history," Barbi emphasized. "For this reason, it should be restricted to highly defined medical settings."

Nearly all children who participated in the program had at least one allergic reaction, mainly skin or stomach problems, which occurred from a few minutes to 2 hours after ingesting milk and were typically managed effectively by the parents. In most cases parents chose to continue the desensitization program "in spite of frequent symptoms," the investigators note.

Barbi and colleagues say they are encouraged by their results but warn that "far more research is needed to confirm the safety of this approach."



SOURCE: Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology,
February 2008.

REUTERS
Reut 20:29 03-03-08

games and boys

i went out with mikey today, met two new ladies and a whole bunch of boys.

we had drinks, we went to dota, we had fun.


and it was a nice day.

sunday

sunday. wow, it's fast. i held on to saturday, i did! and when i woke sunday was halfway gone.

i'd called a friend when i woke, we had a chat. it was a nice thing i had done, to call. though... i probably shouldn't have.


wow, i had been having the sense that i lack direction again. i mean, what i do is very nice and all, but it hardly makes me think. i like the fact that i am up to date with everything going on around the world but... i have to say that unless i'm trading, it's probably not a really good place to be. hm. i wonder if ..i wonder if a certain friend's mother -

haha


it's a friend's mom, for crying out loud. why'd i be bothered about someone else's mom? i feel so tired suddenly. it's strange that i should be contemplating how to fall on a chopstick and have it pierce my heart. lol heart kebab!

i wonder what the surgeons would say.


surgeon one: "sheesh, young people these days! and chopsticks! ever heard of knives? tsk."

surgeon two: "yeah, stupid kid. kids these days think that hearts are easy to mend. ever tried to fix a skewered plastic bottle?! with chambers built in??"

anaesthetist: "you guys think you have it tough, but we who play support roles have to make sure the person's still sustained. chemicals, bah!" -curses-

(an argument ensues, ending with the anaesthetist thumping his mask on the floor)


hm. i wonder if that would then convince me that i do indeed have my heart with me, here, in my chest. it's been nowhere else but here. i can feel it beat, can't i?

i wonder if i'm spiraling out of control like britney spiralled out of control. i'm still pretty together, aren't i? the gloom i'd chucked into the rubbish bin, i'm going out and getting more air, i'm still working...

haha phone call. it will be good to focus on someone else for a while. i've got love to give, here. let me give it to someone who's willing to receive. : )


i think it's time for me to move out, too. move on out, move along. somewhere else, hey. :) babes, if you hear of places out for rent at a reasonable price, do let me know. it's time i moved on out.

fight

i fought with a friend today. over some other friend's rudeness.


i was quite upset, suffice to say.

another friend advised me... that maybe i perceive everything as a slight towards me because of my childhood (she knows probably as much as the girls know) and thinking about it, there may be possibility that it might be true. the way i keep the office clean, the way i buy food for the office; the way i seem to be amassing friends to be family...

maybe that's why i am this picky when i choose my friends who i am very protective of. maybe that's also why i get hurt more easily than most.

..yeah, that might be why after i get hurt i realise that they're not family, but friends. then i realise that even family members fight sometimes, and that's the only idea i have towards friends, trying to keep them as family. a great deal of the time i flounder, because i don't quite know what to expect.


quite a bit of the time i watch, try to be happy with just being there and trying to fit in so i don't cause too many ripples or dead silences, so i can simply be in the same environment as my friends without disturbing them too much as i know i sometimes make people uncomfortable. heh.


it's a bit like keeping goldfish in a bowl, somewhat detached, but longing to be inside of the bowl with your beloved "fish" - and when you finally do immerse yourself in the same waters, you are a little bit antsy, a little bit careful, a little excited and at the same time delighted that these "fish" are the same "fish" you are; that you have actually known them practically all your life. so why does it feel like i am the kind of fish that gets out of the bowl and walks on twos sometimes?

how come so many people do not understand what i say?


tone? pitch? words? methinks i may have to type every thought i have into bite-sized little pieces and have every possible little quibble mapped out and nailed with precise words so very literal minds can read them and understand - on the surface - what those words are trying to translate into.

not you, probably. you probably understand what i'm trying to say, because you give extra thought, like thinking, "what happened," or "why does she say this," or something to the like.

then again, maybe you don't. haha


..fish. "fish". i'm one too, so why does it feel like i'm in a bowl - "bowl" - one so very different from yours? so vastly different.