D is for Brain....dead?

Exams up and coming in a few days. A little hard pressed to finish up all my readings, not to mention understand what the articles are trying to say. I mean, these professors and intellectual experts....gawd, why can't they be succint and concise in their statements? every statement is riddled with a difficult word - sure I understand the words indivually but when you put them together, it's a complex brew that either blows up in your face, or you enjoy it totally. How can anyone understand a statement that has stochastic, dichotomy and epistomological in the same breath? Yuck. These intellectuals are all in their own dreamy world by themselves. Just too bad this real italian fake tod's has an english command far superior to mine, there's small chance my superficial attempt to answer the exam questions will impress him enough to get a good score. Ah well, there's always the assignment to work on.

First things first, I got my Ping Zong series out of the way. That is, a good several hours invested in the last 3 days to finish up the remaining episodes. There, I've watched it through the end, and then some. Got it out of the way, out of my blood, and now, finally I can focus on my studies. It's annoying when I'm trying to study and keep thinking about the drama series, it's like an itch under the skin you can't quite scratch, so I just had to do what I had to do - not that I didn't enjoy sitting my butt in the sofa for hours watching the show. All in the name of trying to get a better focus on my studies of course. Self-justification is pitiful but it helps. As much as I hate to admit, but the novel itself is predictably sitting on my table collecting dust. Haven't read a single page since the day I bought it. I'm so predictable.

On Sat, C took mom and I to eat durians at Balestier. Good stuff, really good stuff, but the first batch we had in early July were the best. Most power. Never had such powerfully bitter durians in years. I love my durians. Just love them. Now the quesiton was - what is it like to burp and fart durian at the same time? Hmm, we hope never to find out. Not quite a pleasant experience I would think.

Codie has been nabbed twice so far, I suspect Holly is the culprit but Slick would be the actual mastermind. Holly's not that smart, but all she would need is a little encouragement to do the deed. Slick probably created the opportunities for the kidnap to happen. Never underestimate a jealous beanie.

Excuse me are you a Goddess?

Watched How Much Do You Love ME? with cowcowboogie last night - originally we wanted to catch Pirates but somehow Shaw changed the movie schedule. Anyway, I like Monica Belluci and often I'd watch her movies just to watch her, and not really for the plot anyway. She's like the total embodiment of what a real woman should look like - all curves and lush beauty, a true sex goddess. Men weep for beauty such as that. I'd turn lesbian in a heartbeat if she's ever the slightest inclined to want to date me. Did I mention she has a great bod? All curves...so lush. YUM.

However the movie was a bit of a strange one, it was ok to start with and in the middle. They really exploited her sex appeal every minute possible - she's either in lingerie, or some sexy outfit or naked and pouting. In one part she asks the man, "Do you like my breasts?", I'm thinking, hell yeah. With boobs like that, what's there not to like? Men will die for those and women will beat a path to the plastic surgeon's door to get implants. Anyway, as much as I adore Belluci the ending of the movie was ....heck, I got totally confused in the last 15 mins. Cowboogie was bored to death, even big lovely boobs could not hold his interest. :P

Movie goes like this - guy strikes lottery, and finds the most beautifully sexy hooker he can, and offers her 100,000 euros/mth to live with him until he goes broke. Hey I wouldn't mind if someone offered me a similar deal, but I'll take the money upfront first. Yes I'm shallow.

There's a new addition to my dog family - latest member to join our cow-dog movement is Codie, a stuffed papillon courtesy of beeftonkatsu's efforts after getting 20 stickers (at $25 per sticker spending at Cold storage/ guardians) to redeem this newbie. That's $500 in groceries we're talking about in a 2 month timespan. Pretty crazy and very steep, and about 1/3 the cost of the real thing. But very very sweet and a lovely surprise. Slick wasn't too happy of course, Bis and Holly hasn't noticed Codie yet. But we all predict a huge dogfight up and coming. More details soon.

Teacher and Student

Finally tonight I have finished my first mba assignment. All 2,272 words nicely printed out in 12-font Times New Roman. I'm actually quite impressed with myself - can't even remember when was the last time I did a report like this. Probably in my poly days. Hmm, nearly 10 years ago. Wah. Anyway, it's a culmination of 1 week of hardwork, many late nights and stolen daytime hours in the office.

(At this point, the blog is interrupted as my toasty beefpotpie who has just dropped by, spotted 3 spelling and construction errors in the 1st paragraph of my assignment. He's flabergasted. And I'm stupefied). Alamak, gotta re-do and reprint my assignment. So, I guess it'll be a 2,272+3 words assignment after all. (CowpehCowpoo is flaming my assignment as I write).

Back to yoga - I finished a David Swenson weekend. He's a great guy, an extremely hilarious teacher and a wonderfully gifted ashtangi. He is one of those who has the talent of making everything so easy, in ABC, 123. Nearly 100 bodies packed into the studio just to bask in his presence. I even got my book autographed and a photo taken. Heee heee heee.

(Cowpoo has spotted even MORE structural errors at this point). Sigh.

There's a food thief in the house. Yesterday a bun which mom left on the kitchen tabletop mysteriously went missing, and only the alumnium foil was left on the floor. Holly was in the vicinity with her tongue sticking out. And today, when mom came home, apparently a youcharkway was found on the sofa, and the fried butterfly missing. Culprits could not be determined. Hmm, I wonder which of the dogs did it. Holly acts blur and Bis always runs into the crate for cover - he may or may not have done it.

(A prolonged silence from behind me, dare I hope no more errors found?). I hear a snicker.

.......

I hear a perturbed sigh. Should I go over and bash him up? Isn't there a toilet he needs to go to?

Fly away Time!

Time rushes by you when you least notice it! Gosh, when one has piles of work to do and a million tasks begging for priority, time just flies by. I barely had time to move my butt from my office chair to even take a leak, much less get a drink from the pantry. It's been a mad Friday. Even brought my laptop home tonight (ha ha actually for the purpose of trying to rush my school assignment).

David Swenson workshop tomorrow, hope I survive. He is like the king of ashtangi yogis (other than K. Pattabi Jois of course). Spotted brand new variants of KitKat at the supermarket just now - Mint and Orange!! YUM!! But wah, pricey leh, nearly 30% more than normal kit kat. But these are made in UK imports vs the normal made in Msia so must try lah.

2 weeks to go before exam, drats, this module I'm not as hardworking as the previous. Not because I don't want to, but because I'm trying to rush through the assignment for the previous module. Alamak, lesson learnt - my next assignment I better start early lest it limits the time available I have for revision. While I don't generally have a problem with OB theory, I still need to do justice to the real italian fake Tod's bag. He's a professor leh, so I cannot anyhow play-play and submit superficial answers.

Where does the time go? Haven't read newspapers in over 2 weeks! Even had to depend on my teriyaki cow to give me news snippets. He's quite a compelling story teller, that one. I vaguely remember something about some lebanese terrorist group with a funny name, tried to bomb a certain target and also kidnapped 2 of the supposed enemies. Now 2 countries on the brink of war and all their neighbours and allies got their fingers caught in various honey jars like an intricate spider web. Politics and war is tricky business. I'd rather concern myself with the next daily Poo Index and of course, the next episode in my chinese drama series.

Oops I did it again!

2 evenings ago I had considered cabbing home from the office as I was carrying my laptop. However I eventually decided to bus since it would save me $10 in cab fare. Guess what, did I mention HDB hub is a retail trap? At TP mrt station I rememebered the kiddos needed some yoghurt. And here we go again..my obsessive compelling supermarket disorder rears its ugly head. Oh that brie looks nice, oh cream cheese is nice too, hmm, why not I make myself a sandwich for b'fast next few days, let's get some tomatoes...and oh some juice...etc etc etc. Total supermarket damage, let's just say it's way more than my cab fare had I taken a taxi home. So there I was grabbling with my laptop, my handbag, my NTUC groceries bag, and a delifrance bag, tottering on my tod's heels home. :P

Assignment due in ....5 days....not getting much headway. Aieee.

Saturday madness

FINALLY I managed to locate and procure a copy of the much hard to find "Ping Zong" novel, at, of all places, Kino. Surprise surprise why didn't I think of going there earlier? Well given I've been busy with school I haven't an opportunity to pop by town, and also I'd thought Popular would have a better selection of chinese novels. Ah well, guess Kino rulez after all. Yay, saved me a trip down to Bras Basah which was my original intent after yoga.

C and I managed to catch Superman at last, and well, the new Superman guy really quite looks like Christopher Reeve. He's good looking as the man in tights, and dorky enough when he puts his glasses on. But wah, a pair of glasses as a disguise is so foolproof that NO ONE can recognize him as the guywhowearshisundiesoutside??? Not even the spunky and smart Lois Lane??? She should have written an article titled, "Why Spectacles are a Good Disguise". The movie plot was quite blah, it's a sappy romance story with the typical hero saves the day. Nothing spectacular which is a bit disappointing. And aiyoh, the actress who was casted as LL....well, I thought they could do better. She's so...blah. And why would they write a son into the story? That really spoils it. It's like fast track to the spiralling downwards of any future Superman movies. Just like X-men was great until the last installment. Alamak. Who would I like to see as LL? Nicole Kidman for one, but she already did Batman, so folks would get confused. My fav character in the show is probably the carnivorous pomeranian. I hate poms, but whoa, that one that ate it's buddy is cool. It's like, I love you, but I'm hungry. CHOMP.

As I had to miss the tv run of Ping Zong so that C and I could watch Superman, I was determined to catch the repeat on Sunday morning at 6am. Got back from the movie nearly midnight and I didnt' sleep till nearly 2am as my mind was still abuzz from the movie. I had set my alarm for 5.55am, but I still woke every hour between 2 to 5am to check the clock to be sure I didn't oversleep. I didn't trust the alarm, so I just had to be sure. This is the extent of my wuxia-mania chinese drama craze for the moment.

Assignment due in 1 week, still no pen to paper or words to document. Dying dying ....

Parting shot of the day - C asked me, "Do you know where Algeria is?", I ventured a tentative "It's in Europe......". If his eyeballs could move to the back of his head I swore they would, C could only sigh and shake his head pityingly. I tried again, "Err...middle east?". I heard a snort. Okay. How about Eastern Europe? Slavic countries? Another snort and then a dramatic sigh. "It's in the African continent.." he said with much resignation. Near the border of France. I'm incredulous, but then, after having left sec school for over 15 yrs, I'm not surprised my geog sux. I gotta keep up with the Discovery Channels. But aiyah, chinese dramas more compelling mah. I bet if I asked C where mt. Wudang is he would have absolutely no clue. He'd probably point to the the deserts of the Sahara. Ha ha.

Bah Rain!

What's the worst thing that could happen to a cow? Get turned into roast beef whilst attempting to run away from a fire, or having it's milk curdle to yoghurt or cheese whilst standing in the freezing weather? I'd say, the worst thing for this particular cow, is getting its precious leather wet from the blasted rain. Ohhhh my precious Tod's, who made their first beautiful appearance today, after much painstaking effort to buy heel-killers and insole protection, so nicely fitted on my feet to meet the great sunshine outdoors in its debut appearanc, only to be brutally ambushed by the cruel rain, the temperemental sky who was so unkind as to wrestle the rays of hope from the shining sun. I gasped in horror and my heart felt torn asunder as I saw the great deep puddles of water in front of me as I attempted to weave my way around to non-puddled ground in my attempt to reach my office. But alas it is not to be. Soaked to the pits my poor leather shoes. Oh woe is me.

And of all the curses and blazes I had forgotten to put leather protection on my shoes, a routine I endow on my beloved possessions (except for Slick who does not care for the fragrance of Eau de Leathery Cow). Oh woe.

Counting down...only a week left before my assignment is due. Still procrastinating. Sigh. Oh am I in trouble.

School's Out Again!

Woohoo!!! End of school week! Yay, of course, culminating in a cold-sweat nerve wrecking group presentation. It was a group of 4 with perspectives as different as north south east and west but still managed to come together with what I think is a job well done. We were the last to present, the unfortunate luck of the draw, but sometimes these things turn out favourably since it gave us time to observe everyone else. Sometimes things are just not what they seem, coursemates who are great researchers and thinkers can crumble like apple pie at the thought of giving a presentation. I surprise myself sometimes, I know I've a latent public speaking skill I seldom put to use, but can be effective and dynamic when called upon at the right moment. And indeed the right moment was tonite, and despite being thrust upon me at last minute I'm proud I carried through. Sense of elation and achievement. Ahhhhh. Ok now, if only I could will myself to speak up more during class, the last course and this one, I hardly mentioned two peeps in class. Sigh. Typical Singaporean. Ok lah, let's work courage towards the next one lor.

School's out! YAY! So err...back to zen and yoga! And of course....CHINSE DRAMA SERIALS. Hee heee heeee. But oops, actually supposed to get started on that assignment which is due in err.....drats, 1 week time. Uh oh, procrastinating bug bit me for sure. Write a case on business informations systems leh, wahlaueh might as well ask me go fly a kite (of which my cow will tell you, I can't do that well either). Too bad plaglarism is not allowed and will be marked down, otherwise I'll just copy someone's assignment. Now, as for this course at school which we just completed this week, I already have my assignment topic in mind. See the difference it makes when one has interest in something? Hmm, maybe I should prepare my final thesis based on Chinese swordfighting series. Wah. Win leow for sure. No no even better still - a thesis on the theory of the Daily Poo Index. Whoa.

Run Cow, Run!

In case of fire, what do you do? 1) Moo slowly to the next patch of greener grass; 2) Stampede your way around the field (flatten the grass, so no grass to burn, therefore impede movement of fire, therefore save the cow day); 3) wait for the fire to approach unsuspecting cows thus turning them into smoked BBQ steaks. Me, I'll probably grab all cow-ly Tod's possessions, err, and run for my life. Not forgetting Slick of course, lest he turns into some popcorn concoction of an unimaginable sort (he is a BEANIE after all).

So I've been made secondary fire warden of my dept. Whatever that means, but aiyah, when alarm goes off, I'll just shout to everyone, "EVERYMAN FOR HIMSELF!! RUN FOR YOUR LIVES!!!". Where got time to gather everyone, count heads, and make sure they file downstairs in orderly fashion? Hmm, should I ask them to partner up and hold hands with each other, and arrange them from shortest to tallest, just like in primary school days?

Anyway.....

Group presentation coming up in a few days for school. Everyone got adrenaline rush, staying up late and sneaking additional effort during office hours to do research. Wah I don't remember working so hard in a long time, but one thing can say, working with a bunch of engineers or tech guys has its merits - these fellas love to do research like crazy and they conceptualize and logic think very well. I got one china guy in my group and he literally can write the whole case and presentation by himself as he's done all the homework pat. I just trail in the dust at my cow pace. But much better than working in a group of all women because we tend to meander around in circles and get no where. What's a cow do with an MBA anyway? Can we eat it? Moo.

Case study of what cows have for brains

School this time is a focus on case studies, case studies and more case studies. Little theory, but lots of application in case studies. So err, Cuban missle crisis? Bush administration and the war in Iraq? Err, I really don't know about them because I have no interest in politics. At least I'm familiar with GE and Jack Welch. Phew. There's a group presentation this time and one guy proposed to study Intel, another wanted to use NKF and TT Durai as a leadership example. I know intel sells processor chips, and Durai vs the people in the case of the gold tap, but not much else. Ok if I had to give a presentation in Tod's bags, I win, hands down. Which about sums it up - small trivia, gossips and maybe fashion stuff I'll do well. The bang of the big businesses and the politics of the world, I'll go fly a kite. Was telling C about how we were discussing the Cuban missile crisis in class, and he asked, did we also discuss Watergate and some other thing about squealing (??) pigs? I'm pretty sure I got the part of the pigs wrong, he'll be rolling his eyes and udders when he reads this. Watergate is some scandal of some president and squealing pigs....well, they squeal when you try to butcher them into pork.

Haven't even started on the assignment of the previous subject yet, and it's due in 2 weeks. Die lah. Because the focus is on IT and the company. Me and IT and technology ain't got no karma, as obviously pointed out in previous blogs.

The latest irrational urge of the moment - in my free time I dropped by Popular to see if I could nab a copy of "Ping Zong", the original novel by Liang Yusheng. Wah, not only the drama series is impossible to find at vcd stores here (being a 2003 production), seems the novel itself is proving equally as elusive. I mean, Liang wrote some 36 (I think, or was it 44?) novels, and the store has just about 20+ titles. Of course as with any impulse urge situations, my version of arse luck always presents itself, i.e. things are never there when I want it. No Ping Zong. Can't even find a copy at the Bishan popular (yes impulse was irrational to propel me there). The thing about irrationality and women is, the harder to find, the more we want it. Yet I'm pretty sure the moment I manage to nab it, it will remain unwrapped and unread for days/ weeks/ months somewhere amongst the clutter of my room. Possession is 9/10ths of the law, the other 1/10 is cow brains (which I have little of, as you can see). Om Moo.

Back to the Classroom

Back to school again. Same old Yakun kaya toast, eggs and teh-si. Only this time the fake Tod's bag is a real italiano, easy on the eyes, and obviously knows his stuff. Makes the lessons more bearable.

Latest discovery of the thingsidontknow century - OHPs are not what they used to be, where we write on transparencies with marker pens and then flash them on the OHP. Now, we put pen to paper, and put the paper to the OHP, there's some high video resolution (or something) technology that projects the paper onto the screen. Wah. No need for transparencies and ink markers leow. We see every detail like video detail. Wah. Yeah I guess cow and YP will be laffing their udders off and giving me looks that say, where have you been in the last 5 yrs? :P Man, me and technology just don't gel. As can be seen from the fateful atom, megan, iggy disasters.

HDB hub is a retail trap. Does this sound familiar? Or maybe I'm just too guillible. Sigh. All I innocently intended to buy was some skin supplements and cheap ones too. Walked around several shops so I could make an informed purchase, determined not to spend too much money on it (i.e. less than $50 if possible). After all that ambling around I decided on GNC. What would have cost me $30, upon the checkout at the cashier, the big-eyed salesgirl pointed out to me, "Miss, would you like anything else? We are having GSS sale, and these supplements are having special discounts....". She points to one, and says, "GOOD FOR SKIN". It wasn't even a hardsell, but for reasons unknown I always succumb to retail folly. Needless to say, the cashier rang up sales worth more than $30. Now I have supplements I'm sure I won't even consume consistently after the first trial.

Dogs are sleeping now, Holly's lower jaw has a shorter bite vs her upper, so in sleep, her tongue often sticks out. She's pretty, but when her tongue sticks out, wahlaueh. I mean, just imagine yourself sleeping with your tongue sticking out ok? You get what I mean.

Retail danger

Gosh what warm nites. I perspire even standing still. Makes falling asleep hard too.

Now, what was I gonna whine about today? Oh yeah. Yoga is turning out to be an expensive affair. It must be some sort of criminal conspiracy to set up Pure Yoga at Ngee Ann City. Too much tempation. Last couple of weeks when I went to Pure during weekday nites, the only blah factor was cabs were hard to get going home as the taxi queue was incredibly long (as it always is at Taka). And taxis were slow to come, so I had to make a booking each time, with the fare eventually being $10. Ouch. This week I thought I'd save the taxi cost by MRTing home. Apparently not such a bright idea. The walkway to the MRT is fraught with retail traps; just yesterday I stopped at Watsons and bought some $25 of knick-knacks, not to mention snacks from crystal jade, breadtalk and mos burger. Total damage $30. Today, all I initially wanted was 1 bottle of herbal drink from the taka basement, but...oooh...the sugar cane looks nice (grabs a bottle)...oooh they have the white sugar cake which was a childhood treat my late grandma used to buy (grabs 2 packs)...ooohh the tub of red dates hasma looks nice (grabs a container). Continuing on my way out I pass by Four Leaves....ooohhh might as well get some bread for tomorrow. Total damage $20. At the wisma walkway I spotted a nice indie-style long skirt, look like maybe it could cost $50 but gasp..actual price $75. Lucky I had the good cow sense to steer clear from reaching for my wallet.

Sigh. Think I better stick to calling cabs.

On a good note, I have successfully recruited Yvette and Nicole into the Zen club. They have been influenced by me to take up yoga. Cows go zen. Moo. Fwahahhahaha.

When I was just a little girl......

Was cleaning out my cupboards last night as I had to make space for my ever bulgeoning yoga wardrobe. I came across a stash of photos and albums, oddities of memories long ago from school days primary though poly. WAHHHH!! I was a cute toddler, an ok pre-teen, a damn ugly teenager and mygawdwhatwasithinkingwearingthat poly student. Holy cow, in sec school age I look like my brother now, in poly....eeeuuuuwww, bad dress sense, even worse hairdo. People used to tell me I look like the this taiwanese actor Lin ZhiYing (not really a compliment since he's a he). Sometime in mid 20s I begin to look decidedly better, and now, I'm pretty sure I'm much better looking than in my early days. Thank god.

But these photos do bring fond memories of growing years, and even found a couple of group pics with my good polymates who was the highlight of a recent blog entry on Auntie-dom. Nearly 15 years passed since Sec school, and 10 years since poly, and yes I'm glad I'm still in contact with some of them. Ahh the good ol' days. Too bad I don't have pics and memories of the recent 5 yrs except dog photos, I'm not a big fan of photography, cannot even be bothered to take pics when I go on holidays. As I know of, there's only 2 pics of me and my dude cow together. Hmm. I've 1/2 a mind to post up one of my old pics just to see if you folks can identify me (ha ha ha) but then, I can't really figure out how to do it since the pics are in good ol' kodak paper format. Maybe some scanning has to be involved. Ugh, hazy on the details and even lazier on the actions.

Some zen updates - attended the 2 day workshop with Jason Birch on Prana/Meditation. It's really good stuff, except 30 mins of cross legged cuts off blood supply to my legs and makes me lose sensation. Others felt the same too. Need more practice. And wow, need a lot of practice to get that Nauli going. Time to move on the path of vegetarian-moo. Cows are vegans anyway. Ha ha.