Mom & Dad are cominnggg to townnnn!

Oh yyeeeeaaaahhhh!

My dearest Dad and Mom will be paying us a visit in less than 2 weeks time! Woo hoo! Sounds like my Dad has some neato stuff for me again... mwahahahah... I'm like a little schoolboy when it comes to prezzies from Daddy... can't wait! *rubs hands gleefully*

Eleanor just had her first Halloween trick'or'treatin' experience! She dressed up as a adorable BatGirl... check out this EXCLUSIVE OMG-SHE's-SOoooOO-CUTE photo! Heheheh!

Also, this will be the first time my parents will be meeting my lady love, C. She's pretty nervous, anxious and excited. I'm kinda keeping my cool. :P

Mmmmm... looks like it's gonna be a real fun and memorable visit!! C and I are working on a nice menu to let my parents have a taste of her cooking... me? I'm just a helper lah - of the 3 important C's of meal prep - Cut, Cook, Clean - I can Cut and Clean, still haven't mastered the art of Cooking yet. So I'm gonna need a little more time (maybe another 6 months?) to get that part straightened out. Hopefully I'll be ready by the time I fly home next year for CNY (Chinese New Year)!!!

~~ Hungry Hungry Hiippooos! ~~

Public Behavior observed

Saw this article at Tomorrow.SG: "Are Singaporeans pigs?"

For most of us, this is not new... I've seen discussions on this as far back as elementary school, during my home country's Courtesy campaigns (started on the year I was born, no less). Singaporean tourists has had a long history of harsh words from folks in host countries about their bad behavior. Of course, being a tourist and international student myself, I often find that sweeping statement a bit over-reaching. I do agree that there is a percentage (of which I don't know how much, it might be 25~50%) of people who go abroad and act as if the rest of the world owes them something. And I feel that this kind of behavior extends across mostly in folks who originate from a lifestyle that expunges one of these traits: the "getting the most bang for the buck", or "doing the most in the least amount of time" and of course, having the "it's free, right? Just take!" mentality.

Living in the US for 4 years running (I hope to fly home during CNY '07 for a visit!) showed me how the old saying, "do unto others as you would have them do unto you" is so important in society.

From every country there will be black sheep, so I believe that it's not fair to use such broad statements to mock folks based on their nationalities. I've heard/read horror stories about the flippant & egocentric behavior of tourists from mainland China, Hong Kong, Malaysia, India, and naturally, USA... but in turn, I have good pals from China, Taiwan, Malaysia, India who don't not behave like some of the incorrigible 'touristy' folks as described (funny thing is - they too have similar experience observing others behaving badly). But I digress.

So I compared my experiences of staying here in Ohio with my visits to Toronto and California. Big City People 'living in the rat-race' want things to move fast (they drive more agressively, don't hold elevator doors, etc), and they are more -often unwittingly- self-centered (putting themselves and *often but not always* their immediate loved ones as top priority) and materialistic (preferring a fancy house, a fancy car and other luxuries over things that "just good enough"). Such behavior IMHO is most obvious in life-long, metropolis-dwellers with tall agendas (e.g. Singaporeans).

I find myself behaving a little 'nicer' as I acclimate myself to the slower pace of life in Ohio. I use turn signals to change lanes, I stop for pedestrians (not there are that many), I hold lift doors for others, I open doors for people behind me, etc. It just rubs off you when you witness so many others doing it and it brings smiles across the faces of those who observe it.

I certainly hope that in the next century, the pace of life in Singapore will slow down by a few hours, or perhaps a few days… when people will learn that sometimes, once they are outside of their workplace, they don’t HAVE to rush to catch that TV show, they don’t HAVE to beat that red light, they don’t HAVE to catch that train, that don’t HAVE to answer that damn phone call or SMS right away… instead, they can step out to a place like Marina South, just take a deep breath, look up at the clear blue sky, and... fly a kite.

Life is short, so have a little fun, folks! Don’t stress out and know that the most important thing is to stay healthy! Healthy = Wealthy = Wise. I learned that the hard way in college... it landed me in hospital!

Oh and don't forget to take a little time to tell your loved ones (i.e. your spouse/GF/BF, parents, grandparents, kids, cousins, etc.) how you appreciate them! It can be anything, from a warm hug, to a softly-spoken "Thanks and i love ya, y'know?" or simply a phone call to ask "How are you doing?"... I had a good friend of mine remind me of that, so I hope you can try it too!

To my lady-love: Missing you much, hon... I'll look forward to seeing you back in Columbus tonight!

NW-Asses can suck my ballz

DISCLAIMER: Look, this is a rant, so kindly do not take this too seriously... (read: Don't sue me)

/begin rant

As anyone of you who takes to the air when travelling from place to place, I'm sure y'all can empathize when a traveller gets stuck during a stopover. Well, this just happened. My lady love, C, was supposed to be attending a conference @ Kansas, MO for the next 3 days. Well, midway on her journey - during a stopover in Detroit (of all places! Ugh!) - between Columbus and Kansas... guess what? Yep, her flight plan was messed up - it got 'downgraded' and because of that they couldn't fit all the passengers into the (physically) SMALLER plane - KNOWING DAMN WELL that the flight was FULLY BOOKED... Now, let your brain digest this a bit: nwAss REDUCED the number of seats during a FRICKIN' STOPOVER, in a FRICKIN' FULLY-FILLED flight. WHAT THE FRICKIN' HELL is WRONG with them?! *taps head with finger angrily*

So, my dear C has her check-in luggage bag (containing all her clothes, personal effects and essentials) on its merry way to Kansas and she is stuck in Detroit... oh and, btw, the next flight they've got is taking off the NEXT FRICKIN' AFTERNOON (they did put C on a wait list for an evening flight - which was, guess again... FULL... Grrrreat)! Oh swell... thanks nwAss! There goes the hotel arrangements, colleague/official meetings and conference preparation as a whole damn day is lost.

Well, to show how SORRY they are, they compensated C with some airport meal/food coupons and lodging in a nearby airport hotel.. and naturally, some frequent flyer credit for future flights. Pfffffft...

Dear nwAss, when you cock up like that, you had damn hell better give an official apology letter and CASH/CHECK compensation to ALL your passengers that you can't squeeze in because your damn flights won't fit the booked load! You actually give pissed off passengers CREDIT TO YOUR AIRLINE's FLIGHTS so that "DIDDLE-DO-DEE-DUM" you'll get another chance to shaft them from behind again?! Oh right, umm suuuure, thanks.

Sigh. This really bothered me coz this is the second time nwAss cocked up - first time was with my mom's flight back to Singapore - as usual - during a stopover.

nwAss, I hope in the good graces of Gawd that you brush up your resource planning and keep in mind that once you have your planes filled (which is a good thing, no? More passengers means more $$$ / gal of fuel used), they'd prefer to stay on their intended flights. A delay is one thing, but kicking people off their intended flights mid-way is N O T a BRIGHT idea.

/end rant

Humor 1 Maturity 0

Heheheh... this post of a online science news clipping came up on Slashdot. Check out the title:

"Hubble Discovers Dark Spot on Uranus"

(it's just SOOOOO RIPE for humor) Read the comments that come after...

*snicker*

*chuckle*

*muffled laughter*

*LOL*

*ROTFLOL*

I TRIED to be mature about this!