Bird..

there was a bird outside my window today..


noisy fella.



i stared at him.. and he flew away.

Rest.

Work's over.

my life as a worker drone has ended.. for now.
Worker Drone #095659 has ceased function.

all's *temporarily* right with the world.. and hello to waking up in the afternoons again.


but somewhere inside im still all roboticized.
i won't be surprised if i answer any phone calls with "good morning, this is ian from NTUC Income."










the sky burned today.. possibly mourning the death of Worker Drone #095659. or maybe the death of my sanity. i don't know.

Sick and tired of it all
why do i even care anymore?
every person that came along
has walked straight out the door

the effort and time put in
all down the drain
caring about somebody
what does one have to gain?

sure, some say
an effort is all it takes
it's okay, they'll understand
when you make mistakes

what can i say?
i laugh and shake my head.
i should forget it all..
i'm heading to my bed.

"You were born to be loved.."




amazing indeed.

turn off the music on the right to watch this.





sometimes i wish i were a simple worker drone..
these sleepless nights of staring blankly into the ceiling and inexplicable emotion are becoming increasingly difficult to bear.

Uniquely Singapore.

remember the advert on channel 5 where a woman reserves a seat using a tissue packet?
i thought the whole thing was wholly exaggerated and that singaporeans surely knew better.. until now.


i was chased out from my seat at the TM foodcourt - here's how:

my workmates and i arrive there and after much time manage to get a seemingly empty seat. there were 2 things on the table - a half empty tissue packet and a crumpled up brochure.

so i volunteered to sit there while the 4 of them went to get food.
2 minutes later, this working-class female walks up to the table, food in hand; she had this shocked expression on her face.
i looked up at her and said "err.. seat's taken."

she looked even more appalled as if i'd just murdered one of her relatives and asked, " you dunno this seat occupied meh?"

i said "no ma'am, this table was empty when my friends and i got here."

she looked as if i was hitler: " didn't you see the tissue packet?"

the advertisement came to mind. i was about to argue when her friend (an even more auntie-looking person) came up and said roughly: "why? you never see my paper there?"

apparently the tissue and the crumpled brochure were to indicate two people were sitting there. faced with the potential threat of hearing the aunties raise hell, i moved from the seat and we had to spend half our lunchtime finding seats.

the two creature's relatives would weep knowing they were related to things like them.






uniquely singapore indeed. how does the presence of an insignificant tissue packet justify the presence of a person seated there?

the idiocy of some singaporeans speak volumes about our supposed "well groomed" society.


my mother got some tissues some time back which i feel might help me in my future endeavors for food in the foodcourt..

The Spiderwick Chronicles.

The Spiderwick Chronicles.



excellent movie. it's been ages since i've seen a world that captured the imagination like this.. be it in books or movies. granted, i have a penchant for worlds like this - but this film truly brings the world of Spiderwick across.

to save everyone's time, you can read a synopsis of the film here. SPOILER ALERT.

the lead character, Jared grace, is played by none other than Freddie Highmore..

and so is Jared Grace's twin brother, Simon Grace.

the acting is seamless - i didn't know both boys were played by the same actor until i read the wikipedia entry again. this is truly movie magic at its best.

Freddie Highmore manages to act rough and tough as Jared and a goody-two-shoes as Simon both at once - which is amazing considering they can both be onscreen at the same time. his acting brings the two roles he plays together so smoothly that the interaction is almost flawless.



the camerawork was good - what more can you expect from a film with a budget of $100 million? the CGI is delicious - one can almost feel the world come alive despite the fact that it was filmed almost entirely on blue screen. my only complaint is that some of the creatures look too.. animated. but only some. the rest were wonderful.


i can't comment on the story - it's an adaptation from the book series after all. despite a few mentioned discrepancies, i enjoyed the movie from start to finish. the only concern comes at the start - when a whole lot of mumbo jumbo and internal lingo is flung at the viewer.
it may be a bit hard to digest for the general populace who might not be as exposed to these terms and names as people like me.. but one gets used to it after a while.




The Spiderwick Chronicles is a film well worth watching - its good, clean entertainment (notoriously hard to find these days) and almost a perfect modern fairytale - much like the folklore and tales of old.








has one ever felt that sense of loss when one finishes a book; closes the last page and seals the story away?
the characters that one has felt a kinship with from page one to the end are gone forever, and your friendship with them lost?
sure, they would always be there, but the magic of the first reading is now gone; the story no longer a new journey but a vague journey back into blurry memories.

it's amazing how books can stir up so much emotion.


and speaking of emotion, one comes to the topic of friends.
they can be likened to apples in a basket. one happily trots along one's path of life with these apples in hand. however, life slowly but surely takes its toll.

some apples decide they need a breather; they roll out of the basket into new land. some do return, but some don't.

some apples feel they need to move on to greener pastures (in this case more fertile areas), and so they tumble out to find their own little spot where they can grow and flourish.

some apples go bad from the inside; nothing changes on the outside, but when one reaches in, the awful smell and mushy flesh give the game away.

inadvertantly, the apples will go one by one - until one is left with nothing but an empty basket.




how empty is yours?

happy st. pat's day.

headed down to boat quay with praba to catch hafeez's performance and managed to get a few shots in thanks to praba and his camera.

enjoy.



i still have no idea what star wars has to do with st pats..

maybe he owned a lightsaber?

SYBIM (SYrens Bbq In March) pics.



Cell outing pics.


more to come.

Transformers Animated Optimus Prime (Cybertronian Mode).

estimated time the toy hits retail: may/june.
and yet i have it.. for retail price.

such a mystery, no?

deciding to blow the dust off my dslr, i did a mini-shoot of my little friend in various poses:











tabletop photography is so much fun!
hohoho. ebay should hire me.

kudos to the fellas over at The Falcon's Hangar @ Waterloo centre.





back the the miserable sniffling, sneezing and snorting back of flu that is my life now.

What Ian Means

You tend to be pretty tightly wound. It's easy to get you excited... which can be a good or bad thing. You have a lot of enthusiasm, but it fades rather quickly. You don't stick with any one thing for very long. You have the drive to accomplish a lot in a short amount of time. Your biggest problem is making sure you finish the projects you start. You are usually the best at everything ... you strive for perfection. You are confident, authoritative, and aggressive. You have the classic "Type A" personality. You are very intuitive and wise. You understand the world better than most people. You also have a very active imagination. You often get carried away with your thoughts. You are prone to a little paranoia and jealousy. You sometimes go overboard in interpreting signals.

What's Your Name's Hidden Meaning?

hmmm. random calculation or not, this thing is pretty accurate.

Monotony.

pics from jared's birthday party.


great stuff.



the routine sets in - wake up, work, get home, sleep. and the cycle repeats. much like a worker drone going about its duties.

one cannot question, cannot think for oneself, cannot stand up - big brother is always watching and listening. keep in line, or be assimilated.
individuality is not an option.

a worker drone has a few friends.

the only ones he has are strong but stay true. some, however, have been lost... somewhere. he doesn't know. drones just like him who once had some semblance of interaction.
they're gone now.

and he's not sure if he cares anymore. there's just too much going on for a simple worker drone to process.




what the worker drone knows is that whatever's going on is what his Master decrees.. and he knows that his Master knows best.

Good Morning..

good morning, this is ian from NTUC income.
i'm calling with regard to your password enquiry for policy online, or POLE.
i will need to verify your NRIC, birth date and address before i can send you the password.
...



i repeat this many many many times a day.


being a part of the worker drone community, my days have little meaning - wake up, work, head home, use com, sleep. repeat process.
my energy has been sapped mercilessly through the phone line and leaves me with little strength to do much else at the end of the day.





now, onto the topic of the day.

if one is a christian, has one ever heard this phrase "lying is a sin - sinners go to hell."
if you are, you probably have - many many times in fact.

IMO, this statement is overused and used too loosely.
going to hell is certainly not a thing to be taken lightly - so why is this statement being used so nonchalantly (i.e to express disbelief; the other person may in fact be telling the truth.) so much so that it has become like a simple phrase uttered without thinking?

true, lying is a sin.
sinners do go to hell. but does one condemn them?
one should be aiming to bring them to the Father instead.

all have lied - all have sinned. why then should one condemn the other person if one does not believe what the other person says? who is one to judge?


there have to be alternative methods to express disbelief - whatever happed to the traditional "really meh?" or the intellectual "prove it!"?
do christians have to show they're christians by overusing the words sin and hell so loosely?
one throws the whole notion of the forgiveness of God out the window when uttering the phrase "lying is a sin - sinners go to hell."



we're all sinners after all.
its just by His grace that we're forgiven.










no condemnation btw. =D