VexeD | DexeV

It's strange. Everyday, you meet people and you interact with them. But these interaction doesn't mean anything. It doesn't make you feel happier, make you feel good or make you feel that life is meaninful.

In essence, we communicate alot to people in our daily work and life but these spoken words are as cold and lifeless as these letters you see displayed on your computer screen. We converse for the sake of conversing to get things done, to make our intentions understood. Remove this need of getting things done, I'm sure no one will be talking to anyone.

I wish I can ignore all these thoughts but I can't. I feel it all the time. Conversations that leaves your soul feeling empty and dark. Luckily, I know that there are a handful of people which I can still enjoy a quiet conversation with. These are the people that speaks from the bottom of the heart and makes you feel connected to them and these are the people you want to converse with to rejuvenate your soul....

I'm tired. Tired of dealing with people with facades, tired of expectations and the need to conform to what people think it's the right thing to do....

I'm standing here, in the middle of the busy street screaming for attention. No one bothers to stop. No one wants to stop. No one feels that they should stop.

Even though the busy street is brimming with noise, all I can discern is the overwhelming sound of silence...

Lazy Weekend...

Mmmm, it's been a while since I really rested at home during the weekends and I must say, I welcome the change, as compared to my usual nip zip of going office and ecp. I guess it takes an illness to halt a busy schedule and force you to downshift to a slower pace of life.

And i'm glad for that.

I slept like I never sleep before. I rotted at home like I never did before. And I felt truely relaxed like I never did before.

I hope I can do this once every month, the doing nothing part, not the illness part (not that hard to ask for right?)

And in such a relax state of mind, I had supper (actually it's more of breakfast/lunch/dinner combined) with pudding at vic street. And because I was relaxed, we slothed on the chair for like 4 hours while we ate and chatted w/o a care in the world.

Simply delightful. (esp. the part on free parking at night =p)

Backdated post and recent long weekend outings!

I found this picture in my hp while clearing up the phone memory. And this, is the Tiramisu which I painstakingly make (ok some of the castle peeps contributed by beatings the eggs for me so I can have my lunch) during the mid-autumn festival celebration at lab. park
















Last friday was Welcome night and the entire Zouk was booked from 7pm to 10pm (inclusive of free flow of house pour). The picture you see here is the obscene amount of whisky dry and tequlia shots we ordered....

I didn't really drink much and was pretty sober enough to tally what i had that night (in chronological order)

1. 1 Whisky Coke
2. 1 Volka Lime
3. 1 Orange juice
4. 1 Beer
5. 2 tequila shots, consecutively
6. 1 volka neat
7. 1 tequila shot
8. 3 whisky dry

Sunday was spent with some of my NUS friends at settlers cafe near china town, we had a couple of interesting games including this very novel way of playing Jenga..heh heh...

Dinner at UE square the very same day at Genki sushi with colleagues! LF, AHP and the japanese mafia girl was there....hahahah....gawd...she is going to kill me if she found out I wrote this about her.....

Expectations and real world screwups

You set a goal. You put your heart and soul into it.

Yet. At the end of the day. Things don't turn out the way you expect.

No one sees the effort. Nor the pain.

What do you then do?

What Kind of intelligence do I have?

Your Dominant Intelligence is Interpersonal Intelligence

You shine in your ability to realate to and understand others. Good at seeing others' points of view, you get how people think and feel. You have an uncanny ability to sense true feelings, intentions, and motivations. A natural born leader, you are great at teaching and mediating conflict. You would make a good counselor, salesperson, politician, or business person.

What Kind of Intelligence Do You Have?

Sweet Peanut Butter!

Ho ho....wendy bought this for me when she was in Aizu! And because of this, I bought bread so that I can have peanut butter sandwich (just squeeze on bread and you are ready to eat!) for breakfast every day (I don't usually eat breakfast). Yum yum.

Week in summary

Mi Week in summary is like margarita, 3 parts tequlia, 2 parts Cointreau, 1 part lime juice.
3 parts hard work, 2 parts frustration and 1 part slacking. Sigh.

Peak Period Food Stocklist

Ok... over the months, the stockpile has expanded and changed...and they are as follows

:: Green Tea
:: Breakfast Tea
:: Walker's Chocolate Chips Cookie
:: Loacker Chocolate Cubes
:: Fried Seaweed
:: Kong Guan Chocolate Biscuits
:: Cuppacinno Love Letters
:: Box of apple Chocolate
:: Box of Mint Chocolate
:: Peppermint Sweets
:: Mixed Nuts Mooncake
:: Dried Canberries
:: Pringles Sour Cream & Onion Chips

mmm...why do I have so much chocolates?

Heart Stone

Broom and heart stone.

My first....

Wierd.... How did I do this?

I. AM. SO. IN. LOVE.

Need I say more?

Uh oh....

Went for my usual long distance route... Home --> Mt Faber --> Esso Station near harbour front --> Harbour front --> home

Same as before, except on the last leg of the run... my right knee decides to protest by sending jabbing pain signals to my brain...

But, considering that I never stop halfway on my route in all my long history of running, I was torn between breaking tradition and ignoring my right knee...

I broke tradition. I broke my heart with it. I have never stopped in all my years of running til i reach my destination. But now i did.

Sigh.

Of Toys & Blankets

There are 2 plates on the table, one mixed grill , one lamb chop...

"you know, it's funny, why I don't believe in marriages"

pokes the french fries on the plate and start to swirl it around the brown sauce

"How can you commit a promise that will last a life time?"

Chomps on the fries...thinks it taste great with the brown sauce

"I think there are people who doesnt even keep their promise for a day!"

Me stops chewing on the fries and said, "well, i always thought i was the wierd one, but it seems i'm not alone. Sometimes when you are with a person for too long, you grow tired of the relationship. It's just like when you are a little kid and your mama buys you toys. For the next few days, that toy is your only source of entertainment, it means the world to you. But as the days progresses, the law of depreciation applies and the toy gets devaluated. And soon enough, we look for new toys to play with"

"But there is also another side of the story. There are some things that we keep closely to our hearts and refuses to throw them away. Take for example my blanket. It's been with me for so long but I just can't bear to throw it away (or wash 'em...TsK~) and it's something that I would want to hug to sleep... "

Plays with the cucumber on the plate and attempts to balance it on a fork...it falls back on the plate with a Plop... "sigh... so we are saying that if we were to marry anyone, it has to be someone like our cherished blankets..."

"should be...."

We both tinkered with the food on the table and pondered in silence...

Photos @ UH

Ok...these are 2 of the photos that I took at University Hall today with that princess( minus the broom) while she was figuring out her SLR (no, not the Mercedes 5.5l v8 one but the camera from Nikon) And no, these shots are from my Digital Cam, not her SLR.

yum yum snail noodles (me thinks)

I'm dreaming of nice yummy food...and this is the best puddy can send me... snail noodles...me thinks it looks delicious though she vehemently denies this fact.... in fact, she says it's so yucky...that someone starving to death will rather die than eat this bowl of snail noodles.

Toyota Vios FL

Introduction
Toyota has always been topping the sales chart in terms of volume sold in Singapore. The brand serves as a perfect example in business textbooks teaching students on "how to successfully create a brand phenominon".

Heck, it's so successful that the brand sells for itself. In short, if people are able to purchase cars from a mail catalogue, chances are, most people will select Toyotas without even batting an eyelid. That is how much trust we Singaporeans place in the Toyota badge. As how Borneo's Sales excutives puts it, "Trust is key"

So, what kind of criteria exists in toyota cars that make us Singaporeans trust the brand so much? I'm sure there are many factors involved but for the sake of this review, allow me to list down just 3 prominent factors:

1. Reliability
2. Quality
3. value for money

But wait a minute...no one review cars based on these 3 points(engine, handling, power, ride comfort are the norm), so why am I reviewing the Vios based on this? Allow me to explain:

Toyota Vios has been around in Singapore since the late 2002. And in that period of time from 2002 to 2006, I am sure every single car magazine out there would have reviewed everything about this car in topics ranging from "how many wheels does the Vios has" to "how many screws does it take to assemble the Vios". In short, the Vios is a tried, proven and tested product. It is as reliable as a screwdriver, as wonderful to look at as a bowl of fragrant white rice and sprints as fast as a bat from hell (heh, especially a manual vios...). To write another report on all these is about as exciting as eating a slice of plain bread (You know how plain bread taste like even before eating it)













So, bearing all these in mind, I've decided to write a car review based on what makes Toyota's car so popular. After all, a car review is to ascertain whether the product is up to standard or not, isn't it?

Reliability & Quality

Sadly, the moment I depress the clutch petal, the word quality was already out of the window. The Vios has exactly the same clutch feel as a G8 corolla...and that product was launched 8 years ago. The clutch is stiff and perpeptually springy. I suspect that if you were to drive in the city every day under start stop conditions, you could well be on your way to having well defined calf muscles. And my nightmare was just about to begin.

If you think a zero feel springy clutch is bad enough, try having a zero feel springy clutch & a gearbox that resists slotting into gear. Not only do you get well defined calf muscles, now u can have well defined left arm muscles, thrown in free. I had to desperately move off at 3rd gear because the gear box can't seem to engage first or second (but if you think about it, the engine's pretty good to be able to start off at 3rd gear).

Where is the quality? And if the quality isn't up to standard, where is the reliabilty? And what else unknown might be lacking?

Value for money

Luckily, I did not uncover any other flaws with the car during the remainder of the test drive. Every other components was exactly how a Toyota car should be. Good but boring(not that is bad). The engine is smooth and powerful (must be powered by Chilli padis from the Tom yam soup), the drive train smooth and vibration free, even the cabin is quiet, though not as quiet as it's elder sibling, the Altis.


Verdict
The manual vios is a let down. I really wanted to love it. Yet, the gearbox and clutch is such utter trash that I am prepared not to have it, even if it somehow manages to look like my dream car, the Ferrari F430. This is not what I would expect from a Toyota product. Not at all. At 45K, I would suggest getting the 4AT version instead. At least, the auto gearbox should be alot better and completely eradicates this clutch-gearbox problem, unless of course, you like to have well toned left limbs.

Comforting conversation...me thinks

damsie : jarvis

damsie: u know wat i like abt u?
binks: what?

damsie:many people are afraid to care too deeply for other people. for the fear of being hurt too deeply eventually. they figured tat the less u care, the less painful it'll be.

ie. if u dun gamble, u wun lose.
but of course, human relationships (kinship, friendship, bgr) are nuttin like gambling.

but insofar as i can see ... wary as u are, u habent close up your heart. u still love and care for people around u. u dun shut people out.

and u allow people to care as well. becoz u aren't afraid of reciprocating.
binks:u make me sound like a saint

=======================================

damsie - dark clouds looming over castle... says:

most men got a possessive streak.

damsie - dark clouds looming over castle... says:

this lambie

damsie - dark clouds looming over castle... says:

got a protective streak.

damsie - dark clouds looming over castle... says:

ya. If wat i said abt your feelings towards susu is any accurate, u do take it upon yourself to jaga the lil females around u. Eg. susu and pudding.

Binks: And so, the fellowship of the castle, bound by friendship and love, is formed. says:

i'm a watch lamb!

Binks: And so, the fellowship of the castle, bound by friendship and love, is formed. says:

*dons helmets n patrol ard the castle*

Binks: And so, the fellowship of the castle, bound by friendship and love, is formed. says:

*while eating dandilions pudding gave me*

damsie - dark clouds looming over castle... says:

u know they are capable of jagaing themselves. but if u can, u rather walk infront of them, just to make sure the roads are clear for them. and when u can't, u walk behind them so u can catch them shld they stumble. it's a.. how to say leh? a somewhat brotherly kind of feeling bah. dunno leh. My 2 pence worth.

damsie - dark clouds looming over castle... says:

but allow me finish my bit on this protective streak issue first.

I say tat's a flaw (though i wld also say it's a virtue), becoz... not everyone expect this depth of concern in a fren. so ... they dun see the impact of their actions on u.

My point is .. u end up getting hurt more easily than the avg person. and half the time, people dun even know.

Ok...here's something different for a change...

Ed: Kevin Carter didnt' directly get depressed due to this picture but of all the violence he had covered in his career as a photojournalist, financial and personal issues, combined.

爱情不能做比较

“我以为，我已经忘了你。




.................................................没想到，那是因为...




.................没见到你。”


Ho ho..thanks Damsie for finding this!

Fellowship of the food

And so it goes, a fellowship of us peeps, drawn by the power of the food, met up at Jackson's place to gobble those delicious food....
















One of the vase caught my eye and i can't resist taking a photo of it (just ignore the bag, it's abit wrong with the bag.)