irreversible

i have no clear recollection of anything that happened before my life in japan. it is as if i only began to live the moment i left my hometown. as if what happened had been too frightening and i had wished those memories away. but i know they used to be there, collecting in the space between my ears, because they surface now and then again when i least expect it and this is the time now to record each individual fragment before age strips me of my cognitive abilities.

(more…)

dropped by the bookstore today to pick out something for a friend’s birthday gift, and somehow ended up spending more time among the shelves than originally expected (read: until store closing) hello, self-control?


some interesting reads i spotted:

screenplay of the Mummy which comes with japanese translations, meant for english learners.

having the book would really come in handy in situations such as:
- when you want to make an excuse to leave early, you say “This place… is cursed.”
- when describing someone who has just gotten botox, you say, “He’s fully rejuvenated.”
- when expressing gratitude on behalf of a transplant recipient, you say “[He] thanks you for your hospitality. And for your eyes, and for your tongue.”
mmm nifty.



singapore recipe book – co-written by a group of japanese, endorsed by a french
authenticity is obvious from what is written in the preface “hainanese chicken rice, national dish of singapore originates in hainan, china…”


what really alarmed me was the extent Twilight merchandise dominated the shelves.
(picture coming soon)
we can now safely deduce the sanity level of girls in japan.
im just really appreciative of the fact that noone in my social circle has tried to preach Twilight to me.

somewhere between the time i arrived in japan and now,
i developed the habit of making flippant remarks when foreigners comment about the size of Singapore, such as
“it’s smaller than (insert whichever city convo is currently taking place in)”
“you probably dont even need a day, you can tour the entire place on a stopover”
“it only takes a half hour to travel from one end of the island to the other”


being underestimated works to your advantage, most strategists will tell you
but ive realised now that it is only responsible to get the facts straight before making any statement, even when it’s just some sarcastic answer offhand.


so ive been a good girl (do you hear me, santa!), and done some much overdue homework.

singapore is approximately…
9 times smaller than shanghai
3.5 times smaller than taipei
3 times smaller than tokyo
2.5 times smaller than london
2 times smaller than los angeles
2 times smaller than new york city
2 times smaller than bangkok
1.5 times smaller than hong kong
(and holy moly! 1.2 times larger than seoul!)




complimentary reading for today
Why We Needn’t Feel Insulted by That Insult
i think it is a rare joy to be able to laugh at someone’s expense when they’re supposedly making fun of you

since ive left the nest…

sometimes i think im only flying forward because looking back seems to imply ive failed in some way or another.




on criminal justice in Singapore, an American peer comments

“How can police officers be allowed to patrol armed, while civilians are forbidden to own any weapons? … that’s ridiculous.”


now i know how LKY felt
i just wish i had the facility with words to express my indignance as well as he probably did

but what i really want to say is

i love you.


and im sorry i left you for another.
i dont know when i will be able to see you again, but i do know that the memories we built together will forever be irreplaceable.
without you, i wouldnt be who i am today.

thank you, Singapore.
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in an effort to contribute to energy conservation
the university urges students to take the stairs instead of the lift – which has then led to the prevalence of signs around campus that say:

at first glance it makes perfect sense doesnt it?

until today my prof pointed out that he had been appalled at first because he thought he had to run up and down the stairs as many times as possible!

the point of this entry is actually not about comical English usage in Japan, but the fact that after nearly 2 years of walking past that sign, i had been completely unaware of that glaring mistake, and would have been still.

with constant exposure to mutilated English in Japan and laughing over it so many times like it was no big deal, I might have possibly reached the saturation point where familiarity engenders blasé indifference. and thus verifying my prior suspicion that Japan has indeed taken a toll on my standard of English…

random chunks from the boundless excitings in my life~

so in todays semantics lesson
prof was explaining the Principle of Compositionality- basically its how we need a general formula to help us derive the correct meaning of a sentence so our brain wouldnt go haywire were we to write out rules for every single possible sentence in the universe

and he said “well look at the frequency with which Windows crashes, for example.”

and i was the only one who laughed
(apparently the Windows OS has more than a million lines of codes and rules)

so after class i went up to him and asked
“are you a Mac user?”
“yeah, why?”
“well it explains the example you gave just now”
and we both laughed and agreed WINDOWS SUCK.

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cooking for one person is always a headache for me lol because i can never seem to rmr what ive already bought and looking at all the cheery coloured fruits and veggies makes me want to buy something (im kinda an impulsive shopper when it comes to food lol) and i end up having excessive groceries in my fridge and not being able to finish them before they rot or expire and buying again and forgetting again and…..
well you get the picture.

something et mentioned led me to discovering, and ultimately droooling over this ingenuity!

i never knew chalkboards were actually painted on!!