I’ve never laughed so hard in a movie theatre.

If you’re very at home with the Singaporean culture, understand what it means to be arrowed, know what law by law means, and appreciate some slapstick humour, I’m sure watching the movie will be well worth your money.

The film successfully depicts the Singaporean trademark — the reluctance to bend the rules. Thus, the title, complete with a pun, aptly captures the common Singaporean attitude: to always go by the books (”the black and white”), to simply follow loh.

A must-see for the aforementioned.

The film is raved to be the forecasted best lesbian film of the year, but I didn’t like it. Maybe Sam falling asleep barely a few minutes into the movie triggered my annoyance with it, but I simply didn’t like the fact that the movie portrayed the protagonist as some psycho lesbian predator.

It was definitely intense, the feelings the protagonist possesses for her “prey”,  but for it to be intense to the extent of being psycho turned me off.

I don’t really blame Sam for falling asleep I guess. The film resonated thick British and Irish accents and had no subtitles, so Sam could not understand what was happening and thus the beckoning of dreamland enticed her.

The title of the movie is such that you question whether the student-teacher affair is the only scandal touched on, but the film appears more to me as The Diary of a Psycho instead.

Or maybe I’m just biased, disliking movies that depict homosexuals in a negative way. Watching this film gave me the impression that people who watch it will bring home the idea that lesbians are intense psychos who are obsessively possessive towards their prey.

The other day when Sam and I had dinner at Cosy Bay and took a stroll beside Kallang Basin, I had many anecdotes to share with Sam about my canoeing/dragon boat days.

There were 2 dragon boat teams racing against each other in the darkened sky, shouting the familiar commands that echoed in the buildings alongside the basin. The consistent one-sound thuds that came from paddles penetrating water signified that the team was making coordinated strokes, enabling their boat to thrust forward, gliding steadily ahead.

The well-acquainted smell of group sweat blended with salty water. The familiar initial shock of cold water during showers. Hateful abrasions on butts and arms. Getting ant bites. Walking on shit-like mud. Perspiring like every pore of your body is producing sweat during circuit training (which was torturous). Wearing stinky life vests.

Mr Sng’s biscuits. Running together with one spirit. Rowing together with one heart. Cheering each other on and pushing ourselves for the betterment of each other and the team as a whole. Sharing bottles of tap water every training. Applying ointment and plasters for each other. Qiu Lian Ban Mian. Chicken Chop. Ah Balling tang yuan.

It’s been 3 years since I last touched a paddle, but the memories are still vivid especially when I go past the area. Jogging to Kallang Stadium; jogging to Suntec; risk stepping on acorns walking/jogging whilst hugging life vests, water bottles and sponges from SDBA (Singapore Dragon Boat Association) to KLSSC (Kallang Sea Sports Club, or we call it KL for short). Taking bus 133 together from school and then taking the MRT home. Meeting every morning to do pull-ups, and then rushing up for flag-raising in wet shirts from perspiration. Lunching together at our designated table.

I met the team for a Chinese New Year visit to Mr Sng, our dedicated coach, as we do so every year. Our bond is a rather silent thing. It never verbalizes, but manifests itself in the laughs, the meals, and even the silence. Mostly the silence I guess.

Been wanting to blog, but I haven’t got photos to entertain because I can’t upload my pictures to the server since I’ve got a low-speed connection at home. It keeps failing to load.

I’ve reformatted my computer! So happy! I feel that my lappie is so much cleaner now, and hope it stays this way. Since it’s so easy to reformat an ASUS computer (just press F9 when the ASUS logo displays during the reboot), I’ll reformat as and when I feel it’s too clogged up. If only we could do the same with ourselves, eh?

Ok, actually I don’t like blogging about nothing in particular, but I couldn’t resist the itch to go “plod plod plod” (typing sound) on my now-very-clean laptop, so here I am rambling on. I’ll try to go to some place with a wireless network to get my pictures up to entertain better, alright?

After the mad rush the past few days to get my project done and up, here’s bidding goodbye to my high-level view of Singapore’s cityscape; the spacious workspace; the high-tech IP phone; my companion for the past month - the Fujitsu Lifebook; the very professional email address and signature; and all my friendly and approachable colleagues.

There was no hype over Valentine’s Day for my girlfriend and me, so our attempt at having a romantic dinner at Cosy Bay (near Kallang Stadium, near No Signboard Seafood Restaurant, The Oasis, and Jumbo Seafood Restaurant) sorta killed our moods. I would have very much preferred a Black Pepper Crab dinner, or a Roti Prata delight rather than pricey western bites that just wasn’t as delectable.

The Onlydinner group has been talking about staying over together ever since we graduated I think. Call us deprived slumber partyers but anyway it was finally realized over the weekend that just passed, and at the renowned Swissotel Stamford Hotel. It’s not everyday that you get to stay at a luxurious hotel, let alone Singapore’s highest one, and I am glad I had such an opportunity (and at such a low price, thanks to a certain person with half her name akin to Pooh bear and the other half a Flintstone). Perhaps the high expectations of such a luxurious hotel made me feel that it didn’t live up to its name, and little things like leakages, a squeaky tap, and a faulty air-conditioner made me cringe in disappointment of the slip from perfection.

Reina didn’t want to post the funny pics in her blog, so here’s the funnies:

I hope my “accomplice” won’t mind that I’ve posted some really throw-face pictures of her, so I shan’t mention her name. People may not recognize her from these pictures anyway haha.

It was fulfilling to spend time with my SCGS old pals, but very straining on the stomach. Instant noodles at 2 or 3am and an overload of McDonald’s breakfast in the morning didn’t work very well for me and gave me loose bowels. :S

Nevertheless, with a great view of Singapore, old pals, and the pleasures of picture-taking, it was worth it. Lay Shan, you were greatly missed!

On 39 Arab Street lies a cosy home-like cafe that is open for most part of the day, up till 3.30am on weekdays and 5.30am on weekends. With a wide selection of food and beverage, and an array of flavours of sheesha tobacco for your indulgence, Cafe Le Caire serves as a very comfortable place to hang out with close friends and acquaintances alike.

Our order of Sheesha (Rose & Mango flavoured) cost S$12, a Bagalawa Shake S$6, and a basket of fries S$4.50. It’s an affordable place to chill out and forge tighter bonds.

If you recall my last post on this whole gay sheep controversy, I wasn’t too pleased about it. And I’m peeved again after I spotted a Review article in today’s Straits Times.

It’s all a question about whether homosexuality is nature or nurture, genes or learned behaviour.

I had quite interesting comments for the post by the way:

Comment from emptypockets | [e]
Date: 7 January, 2007, 12:40 am

If it sounds too insane to be true… maybe it is.

I looked into this story in detail. Basically, (1) the scientists aren’t trying to cure gayness, (2) they haven’t been able to change sexual preference in sheep, (3) this is part of a large field of research trying to understand the biological basis of behavior that the article ignores, (4) this research is months to years old, and (5) the article also got the details of the experiments wrong (they didn’t inject hormones into brains or use electronic sensors). I interviewed the researchers themselves and read their papers.

What’s weird is that the Times knew all this was false when they printed it.

Comment from udo schuklenk | [e]
Date: 7 January, 2007, 7:14 pm

‘emptypockets’, whoever you might be, busily defending this research again (any chance you might be involved in it yourself?). In any case, taking your points 2 and 3, it seems clear that this is research trying to understand the (if any?) biological basis of sexual preference (3), and it is trying to change it (2). QED

Anyway, have a look at some quotes I extracted.

” …if you figure out how to make sheep gay, maybe you could figure out how to make them straight.”

“Science will gradually convince us that sexual orientation is innate, more like skin colour than character.”

“We may come to view homosexuality as we do infertility — as a disability”

If you really advocate that homosexuality is an inherent quality of humans and animals alike, why the hell are you even conducting experiments to try and change nature? How can you call it a disability when it doesn’t affect our normal everyday activities? Shouldn’t you be spending more time, effort, and money on the other “disabilities” of our society such as the disabled to improve their quality of life instead of harping on this “innate” characteristics that is simply part of human nature as you so claim?

Do you always do things out of your own accord? ‘Coz sometimes I find myself doing things because I have a name to keep or a certain institution’s reputation to uphold.

Sometimes things really beg the question of what’s in a name.

Although in a highly-reputed government board of the country, I don’t really see how one can push for creativity or diversity when clicking on many intranet sites gets me the following message: “You have not enough rights for this application. Please login with a username and password which has sufficient rights…”. Moreover, sites like Fridae are banned because it deals with “gay and lesbian issues”, and all sites that “provide info on or cater to gay and lesbian lifestyles, including those supporting online shopping; but not sexually oriented or issue-oriented”. These sites are blocked, along with many other sites that are sensitive or are not in line with our government’s beliefs.

So working here may sound oh so wonderful and all but why would you want to work in a place where the very essence of your life is depicted so lowly, on par with all stereotyped vices and dregs of society.

Yes I know I have to live with this all my life (the victimization and partiality, not the job), but by being a civil servant and living a different “lifestyle” from what is preached, I think I cannot answer to myself.

It’s different from dragging myself out of the bed every morning to get to work even when I really want to sleep or be with Sam. The struggle in the morning gets combated when I think about how I cannot screw up this internship, maybe because I don’t want to be a bad example of Singaporeans from Fudan, or I just don’t want to give myself a bad name. You do notice that every job application form asks whether you have ever been dismissed from a government office.

But sometimes I hate the way names have such great effect on people. It’s really just an illusion. And I can’t believe I constantly succumb and get deceived by these misimpressions.