back when i was using my shitty old phone, i used to take photos of random stuff with the shitty vga camera. there was very little space on the phone so i had to be very selective of what i took.
i tried my best to make the pictures nice, but there was little i could do with that camera. if anyone else took a look at my pictures, they wouldn't give it a second glance. unremarkable, waste of time.
but it was more of what the photos meant to me. i knew what was in each and every photo, what happened at the time i took them. something that only i could feel. 3 years of my life, compressed into a hundred or so images.
out on the 'expressways' there were only 2 lanes with no central divider. this meant that oncoming vehicles (trucks, buses, such cute vehicles) were constantly entering our lane during overtaking. however this didn't cause much problems because we mostly stuck to the road shoulder anyway.
maybe except for the one time when i was overtaking a vehicle on my lane and then had to swerve to avoid a head-on collision with a BMW suv who was doing some double overtaking on his side of the road. but i didn't die so it was fun.
being the most experienced, i took up the rear position so that i could make sure that everyone in front of me was still alive. being at the back meant that i could go at a more leisurely pace and look around at the scenery a little whenever i wasn't in danger of being crushed by overtaking vehicles. after an unknown amount of time that probably felt a whole lot longer than it was, we ended up in the countryside. dusty roads lined with 1 or 2 storied buildings on both sides, but there were still huge vehicles roaring past us ever so often.
riding here felt the most peaceful, except for some villagers on bikes who didn't check their blind spot (no one does that anyway) and nearly hit mr confident, who for some reason decided to ride so close to them when the road was empty. i also got run off the road into the soil and mud a couple of times by crazy oncoming vehicles who did amazing turns to get to buildings on my side of the road.
and then it was up into the hills of ba vi national park. haha btw when we were at the bike tour company, we asked the ladies there for pictures of the places we could visit, like actual photos taken during previous trips. they said ok, after which they went to google images for us, so all we saw were jungle trails and aerial photos of the mountains.
the hill was only 400m high but at some parts it felt like we were riding into the clouds, and it was actually cold at the top. the road up twisted and turned for 8km, and at most parts it was just a nice steep drop off the sides, should one of us be so fortunate to try it.
the scenery was fantastic, although it was really cloudy so we couldn't see far into the distance. also, it wasn't really possible to look at the scenery and avoid falling down the cliffs at the same time so... yea better concentrate on riding first.
at this point, my bike felt really sluggish and could hardly get out of gear 2, probably due to a combination of it's heavy weight, small engine and poor maintenance, because most of the hills weren't that steep and i was pretty sure my vespa could handle it.
anyway i still managed to chug chug chug my way to the top, where we had to dismount and walk up a long series of steps to get to the peak where there was a temple. we ran up the never-ending steps because we had nothing better to do.
i think it was the 3rd or 4th day i was at vietnam, one night i just sat on the bed and realised i didn't know what day it was, or how many more days i had left. and i didn't care because it didn't matter one bit.
the last time i had such a feeling was probably during my long holidays in primary 3, back when i didn't know that there were 4 weeks in each month, and the holidays seemed to last forever because i genuinely didn't know when it was going to end.
one of the reasons we made the trip to vietnam was because we were inspired by top gear, and while on the trip, i met an english man/boy who spent 5 weeks traveling across vietnam, his only research being that top gear episode.
so in the spirit of top gear, we hired a guide and some bikes for our own motoring adventure. we rode from about 9-6, covering some 120km including a 16km trip up and down a 400m hill. a minor accident and some (very) close shaves aside, everyone returned in one piece, and more importantly, no one fell down the cliffs.
honestly i never thought i would end up riding in vietnam, because i was completely sure that i'll die. but well, i thought fuck it, and it was perhaps rather foolhardy, considering my riding mates had about a few practical lessons and ZERO riding experience respectively.
we were both shaking our heads in disbelief as we watched our zero-experience friend produce a pathetic attempt at 'testing the bike' only after we had paid the deposit (1.5 million dong). we thought he would die, but then we thought they wouldn't give us a refund if we pulled out, so we went ahead anyway especially after he very confidently said "i think it was alright."
of course, the traffic there is mad, but i really felt a thousand times safer riding there than back home, because the people there actually seemed to respect the lives of each other, much unlike in singapore. it's strange, don't you think, that singaporean road users do not understand the fact that their actions could kill someone?
our trip took us through the motorbike-filled city streets out into the 'expressways' flanked by miles of padi fields and thundering trucks and buses, and then to the rural areas populated by cows and bicycles. things started out ominously enough, when mr confident 'tested' his brakes by jamming them and going on nice long wobble in the middle of the road. but he stayed upright, and on we went.
time, it's like a silkworm, slowly wrapping your darkest demons in silk. a thread so thin, you wouldn't realise it's there, but as the days turn to months turn to years, the cocoon starts to form.
if you let time do its job for long enough, soon your demons will be nothing more than a ball of silk. it's still there, definitely, but it's harmless, perhaps it could even turn into a funny memory, like the fuzzy ball of silk that it is now.
but if you're not careful the demon might escape when the silk is still weak, easily tearing everything to shreds what time has spent so long trying to cover.
and then, the silk threads start to accumulate again.
these few days i've been trying to think of a suitably beneficial outlet for my anger, you know, like to harness it and turn it into a good thing etc, because there is quite a fair bit in me.
the only practical thing i could come up with is to be a professional fighter, which is really one thing i wouldn't mind trying. what better way to blow off steam than beating someone up (hopefully not the other way round) and getting paid for it?
besides, it is quite exciting, don't you think?
but let's say my fighting career doesn't take off, what other avenues do you guys have in mind? help me.
i just went outside for some water and saw the cat lying on top of the sofa so i thought i should play with her for a while.
she was looking at me very normally as i went closer, but the moment i reached out to touch her, she totally freaked out. she scrambled off the chair and ran away with her tail all bushy.
this freaked me out too, because it's almost 4am and the cat is spooked by something, either me or something that i can't see. and if it were something, it was probably behind me judging from the cat's reactions.
i've always believed that the speed of scientific development has caused humans to cease to be surprised by anything anymore. everything is popping out so fast that we just take every new piece of technological advancement or findings with a simple 'meh,' and life goes on.
for example, if scientists somehow managed to prove that ghosts and spirits exist, that they are made of quantifiable energy sources or perhaps even some form of newly-discovered energy, people will just think, "ok, so the world consists of humans, plants, bacteria and ghosts. great. now tell me something i don't know."
The researchers synthesized the 1.08 million base pair genome of the bacterium Mycoplasma mycoides -- which commonly causes mastitis in goats -- created from four bottles of the chemicals which make up the components of DNA.
They also added "watermarks" to the synthetic genome to distinguish it from a natural one. The watermarks included the names of 46 authors and scientists who worked on the project on the genome along with its own website address -- so that anyone who decodes it can send an email to the team.
Three sets of quotations including "to live, to err, to fall, to triumph, to recreate life out of life" from Irish author James Joyce were also included.
Venter told a press conference the team had started with a living cell, which had been transformed with the synthetic genome, adding the cell had gone through a "million steps of replication" and was now frozen in a freezer.
"This is an important step we think, both scientifically and philosophically. It's certainly changed my views of the definitions of life and how life works," he added in a statement.
wow, really? this article would be perfect for an april fools day joke, but it seems to be real. humans have now created life! the world ought to be more shocked than it is now, don't you think? or maybe you still don't fully understand the weight of this discovery, so let me underline it and put it in bold.
HUMANS HAVE NOW CREATED LIFE!
ok? see, creating life was something that many tried to do but no one thought would be truly possible. until now, that is. but somehow from my room i can hear the world collectively going 'mehhh, now bring on the synthetic human slaves.'
got back from vietnam today (yesterday) after a week there with 2 friends. the trip had been in half-fucked discussion for quite some time, until we got bored last wednesday and tried to book tickets for the next day (which failed, ended up leaving on friday).
we stayed at a backpackers' hostel for over half the trip and met a whole shitload of ang mohs there, and also came to realise that we were total noobs compared with some of them who have have sold their house and gave up everything to travel, or this guy who met a couple who have been on the road for 5 years straight.
it was strange meeting all these people (ang mohs, the number i talked to on the trip is more than i had in my entire life combined) who can just travel alone for weeks and months, and i imagine that it must feel great that your only worry is where to go next, and how long more before your money runs out.
the thing about holidays is that it always sucks to be back home and suffering from holiday-hangover, just like i am now. i'd probably be going somewhere else soon, anyplace where there're things to do. just not here.
poor trees they get no respect. everywhere i go, i see trees getting mercilessly cut down for construction space. trees that have been growing in their spot for decades, oh they don't matter because i need to build some shit there.
there's a little hill that i can see from my window, it's been covered by a dense canopy of trees since forever. and then, someone decided that they needed to build some shit and started cutting down the trees so that trucks could pass.
now the hill is almost bald and it just looks so damn miserable from here.
we all know that trees are good. they're gentle on the eye and good for the environment, not to mention they're home to thousands of critters, critters that now suddenly have no more home.
trees are so good and yet no one gives a shit about them, that's why the temperatures in this little island are soaring.
sometimes the builders try to make everyone feel better by planting rooftop gardens and whatnot, pretending that everything will be alright, cos you know, having a few plants on a roof is exactly the same as the few giant trees that were once here.
how would i describe my NS experience? it was ok i guess. in the end i got lucky and managed to get paid a lot to do very little, and also get to go home every day. i think most other people would describe what i had as GREAT, but well, that's them and this is me.
excluding NS, life itself too has been rather normal. i didn't feel like i've missed out on much, nor had any good things happened while i was locked away, perhaps only a stars concert that i couldn't attend, and maybe some others.
these 22 months have been rather stagnant too, like it has always been. nothing too big or too fun or too terrible to make me feel excited. or maybe that's just because i'm invincible and nothing can faze me.
i think the one thing that i missed the most was being free on weekdays, because i just feel very special being free when everyone else are at work or school. besides, weekends always feel too busy and crowded. weekdays are for chilling because there's nothing else to worry about.
i first knew of her existence when every single shit on msn had something about teardrops on their guitar as their display name. slowly i came to realise that my friends didn't really have teardrops on their guitars, but rather it was a taylor swift song title.
then, every girl and guy and their mother on msn wanted romeo to take them somewhere they belong. again, i came to realise that it was yet another taylor swift song title, but i still didn't take much notice of her nor her songs.
it wasn't until 2009 when i saw the music video on tv one day that i realised, WOW, she's hot! and talented! and she could sing so well! i was smitten. she's just so pure and wonderful, totally unlike other disgusting teen stars such as the slutty m*ley c*rus.
and then came that mofo kanye west and his microphone-stealing incident. poor taylor swift looked so sad and lost on stage. awww.
now let's all watch this video and have a crush on her too.
today i thought: within 20 generations, i would have had over 1 million direct ancestors, meaning my parents to my great-to the power of 20- grandparents.
within 31 generations, i would have over 1 BILLION direct ancestors (assuming no incest etc).
assuming that each generation takes 25 years (very high estimate), i would have had 1 billion ancestors over the course of only 775 years.
so many people just to create ONE me? i feel special already.
i was tracking an aedes mosquito around the room when it flew behind the fan and was sucked in. there was an audible 'ping!' sound and then it disappeared. i thought maybe the impact had caused it to disintegrate, or shatter into a million mosquito shards, but in reality, death is not that glorious.
i saw it writhing on the floor, still intact, perhaps missing a leg or two. above all my expectations, it's still alive now. but probably better off dead.
yesterday while playing soccer, i twisted my ankle after sprinting half the length of the court to make a last ditch tackle.
that's pretty normal, except that i was playing in jeans with some of the guys from my station. it was a game not worth anything, just an after work kickabout, but i just couldn't let it go.
today i was limping about the house thinking of these events when i realised that i had repeatedly fooled around when i had chances to score earlier.
i guess i'm not really concerned about winning, it's just that i really hate to lose.