Tempus Frangit

Goodbye......Dream Weavers

2007-03-02T02:52:00.000+08:00

As of 28th February 2007, I am officially resigned from my post at Y2:SPACE PTE LTD.

For some not in the know, Y2:SPACE has been my cave (aka my workplace) for the past 6 months, ever since joining as a fresh grad some time last September. They are simply put, an interior design firm, or interior & lifestyle specialists, as they preferred to be called. I wouldn't really contest those claims, if you do take a look at the portfolio on their website: www.y2space.com, revealing some of the swankiest interior spaces and pads I would probably die for to live in. They are truly masters of their game, and I was only too happy to jump in for a taste of how working for one of the more prestigious interior design companies would be like. Call it my curiosity if you may, for trying to explore multiple disciplines of design itself. As a concept designer, I was tasked with visualizing and expressing the narratives of the underlying themes to the decos.

Alas...after 6 months, it is finally time for me to move on to greener pastures. Much of the work proved too dauntingly monotonous, that I was afraid my creativity would start to take a nosedive to the bottom of the abyss of No-Life Zone. I cannot explain the lack of job satisfaction, but the most convincing reason from me would be that: furniture and fittings do not have a soul, however aesthetically pleasing or interesting as they may be. Whatever message a modern interior space is trying to convey, does not speak to me at all, not to mention the target audience are solely
the clients themselves, instead of the general public. Most of anything I do will probably not see the light of day in the outside world, and given my personality, the lack of attention can be very unnerving especially when you spend countless nights working till the wee hours of the morn and sleeping over, just to design places where rich millionaire playboys can bring their exotic catch for the day back to have happy endings on their 10,000 dollar bed. Fuck that shit, and fuck this job.

Rants aside, the only thing that has held me together these few months, would be have to be the warmth I felt from my colleagues while working there. They are fantastic people, truly devoted to their work, and are like family to me. Life would have been different without them. I was happy to leave this job, but kinda bummed to leave them. I guess goodbyes are inevitable one way or another eh? Sometimes I try to stay aloof and disconnected, for knowing the fact that when the time comes for me to go, it would be less painful.

I guess I'm not as tough as I think I am. :)

Here are some of the photographs we took together before I left.

The Y2 Girls. From Left to Right: Doris, Trianti, Apple, Kay, Ina, Peggy & XiuLan.
They ALWAYS bully me. Honest! :P~

My farewell gift from all of them. A Vabene watch that merges timeless style with a toy watch-like characteristics. Thanks so much!

Pooh... Puffs!

Leon, Apple & Trianti. We patented the action of going for 3 hour lunch breaks. LOL!

Taking a "Take 5" for the very last time at my favourite hangout spot in the company.

The Vabene watch aside, this is the best gift I received from all of them....an A3-sized card with all their well-wishes written on it. For a moment, I was only too happy and too sad at the same time.

Thanks for the memories at Y2:SPACE, guys. Despite all the ups and downs, we all laughed, cried, stressed out, and most importantly, worked together as a team when the going gets tough, and bonded together like family. I wish all of them well over there, as I get ready to embark on another chapter in my life.

Much love.

I love stuffing my face with food...

2007-03-02T00:16:00.000+08:00

....at nice restaurants! :)

Some pics taken during Sunday lunch buffet at the Equinox @ Swissotel with family.

Pretty interesting ceiling beam structure

Art in dining: Abstract forms & lineweights that look like shit. LOL

Random girl.

Intergalactic Planetary Planetary Intergalactic

2007-02-25T02:29:00.000+08:00

Although this is a pretty late post ever since the event on Monday, Day 2 of the Lunar New Year....Good Vibrations didn't really live up to the hype it was sort of generating ......

...not at least till the Beastie Boys together with Mixmaster Mike came in with their Afros, hats, shades and suits and took Fort Canning by storm!...doing their thang' like a bunch of old boys who never hit puberty; prancing, rapping and jumping around like it just didn't matter, well worth the admission price alone to see them live and loud!

Cut Copy was so-so only, and Jurrasic 5 was really disappointing as their regular sound guy was replaced by another, and the decks the DJ was playing on sounded like total crap...my old Creative Soundblaster shitty speakers could probably churn out more bass than they could.

I am too lazy to edit the photos this time round....so I am just going to leech them from Kay Lii's blog~ HAHA!

Here is me with our favourite arty farty couple, looking like 10 stacks of bak gua put together after the annual CNY cookies and bak gua binge,(hell who am I kidding? I DESPERATELY need to shed some weight even before all that), and soaking in sweat.

Old dogs still have it in them

The day was further satisfied after a trip down to Zouk, and attending to what was one of the best trance sets I have heard in months, courtesy of Agnelli & Nelson, truly refuelling my passion for trance music. After all, it was the very genre that brought me into the world of electronic dance music. I recall hearing Paul Van Dyk's For An Angel the very first time as I was browsing through my previous company's network folders when I was just 18+, working in MediaRing as a beta tester. Mambo nights were since then history. (HAHA! Yes I know.....)

No matter what people may say about the music or the crowd, no matter how cheesy it may be, you cannot deny the fact that trance music does have a mysterious alluring nature to it, unlike house music or other genres, the crowd themselves are not so adamant about the image they are trying to portray, they just want to cut loose and have some real fun, which is something I have learnt to appreciate back in my days in Melbourne, where the staple anthems on the dancefloor are what you call Hard NRG, or Hard Style. It was quite appalling to listen to initially, but twenty minutes into the set with bass-hungry shuffling monkeys, you start to realise that THIS IS WHAT clubbing should be all about, not just standing there like some music connoisseur sipping a Lychee Martini. Dance music without any airs to it. Sometimes I do miss the club scene overseas. I can understand how Wilson and some of my mates over there in Melbourne can fully immerse and sometimes lose themselves with the nightlife over there.

Give Trance a Chance! :)

Chinese New Year Songs Are Freaking Annoying!

2007-02-20T01:59:00.000+08:00

Yes. Every year, they never fail to annoy me to no end. And to make matters worse, my colleagues and my family members get into them and have little sing-alongs. Yucks! I know... they are all part of the festive celebrations and all, but wait till you hear the techno remixes of these songs vendors are playing on the streets. Totally takes the (yam)cake, I tell you.

By and by the way, it's been more than a month since I last posted on this blog. Work is really taking its toll on me, I can really feel my youth being sucked dry doing mundane and routine work everyday. Almost everyday I work till wee hours of the night, go home, with books unread, ideas unfulfilled, and words empty in my head, waking up to a bitter aftertaste like a hangover before going to work in the morning. Thank goodness I will be leaving the company by the end of the month, to fully concentrate on my adverting portfolio as well as a proper job-hunt to land the spot I've always been trying to achieve. While doing interior design has been fun for a while, it's something about furniture & fittings that I cannot relate to, mainly that they lack soul and character to them, aside of being aesthetically pleasing.

Back to my Chinese New Year celebrations, this year has been a really quiet year for most of us. For our reunion dinner, we had steamboat at the restaurant located outside my home along Tanjong Katong Rd, with Day 1 being spent at both our grandparents' homes.

Some pictures taken.

The Pen Cai my mum received from her friend.

Damn!! These Tai Tais sure know how to make use of their afternoon cooking class skills!

Preparing the Yu Sheng

My Grandpa was a B-Boy back then...windmilling & popping to the grooves of Teresa Teng. LOL~

...And I want his super antique storage case! :O

The cupboard mirrors were pretty freaky in a big empty room.

Relaxing by the poolside of the poolside of the house.

My sister counting her 'harvest' in the car

Hope everybody else have a fantastic Lunar New Year celebration this year! :)

I'm Mused

2007-01-17T21:05:00.000+08:00

The honeymoon start period of 2007 is now officially over for me.
Muse came, conquered and left Fort Canning Park,leaving 6000+ fans clamouring for more after an hour and a half. Matt Bellamy just killed the audience with his superb guitar and piano work, crooning and screaming their signature tunes with his trademark falsetto. While the bassist Chris & drummer Dom were stellar with their performance, how can one feel compelled to tear their eyes away from the music machine that is Matt? There may be many who don't like Muse and their songs, but to see Matt on stage is a mind-changing sight to behold. Many musicians don't take your breath away the way he does it so effortlessly, no many how many times you watched their videos on MTV or Youtube. Yun, a friend of mine, told me over MSN how she cried when seeing Matt sing Invincible, and for a while she saw him as an angel. LOL!!!

And before you know it. It's all over by 10.15pm. An hour and a half of Muse just doesn't cut it. We want more!!

Taken from Kurt's blog, here is the setlist for the night.

01. Knights Of Cydonia
02. Hysteria
03. Map of the Problematique
04. Butterflies & Hurricanes
05. Supermassive Black Hole
06. New Born
07. Forced In
08. Bliss
09. Feeling Good
10. Sunburn
11. Invincible
12. Time Is Running Out
13. Plug In Baby
14. Encore break
15. Soldier's Poem
16. Starlight
17. Stockholm Syndrome

While they banged out Stockholm Syndrome, my absolute favourite Muse track of all time, I was so hoping they would play Dead Star. But no matter, Muse rocked 2007 for all who were there!

Arriving at 7.30pm, anticipation for an hour...

.....and Muse fired up Fort Canning Park!

Me, Mo & Gillian....trying not to faint in the heat and lack of oxygen.

Saint Matt Bellamy crooning on his acoustics

Whip out those lighters!

Here are some videos I took for the event, Muse playing New Born & Stockholm Syndrome respectively. Matt kicks ass!

Clearer videos from Stomp.com.sg
http://202.157.174.100/20070117-muse-knight/Player.html
http://202.157.174.100/20070117-muse-hysteria/Player.html
http://202.157.174.100/20070117-muse-map/Player.html

Side effects

Post-Muse withdrawal symptoms?

With our voices hoarse from screaming, our clothes dripping with sweat, our bodies spent & muscles aching from from jumping and headbanging, our Converses soiled, we went home knowing it's time to snap out of the fever and get back to life.

MUSE!!

2007-01-16T01:15:00.000+08:00

My start of 2007 isn't complete....not before catching one of the greatest live bands in the world... MUSE....Live @ Fort Canning Park....in about 19 hours from the time of writing this entry.

I still remember how my jaw dropped upon reading up the information in late November, that the legendary UK trio is finally going to play here in Singapore. For the past few weeks, I have been counting down the days...and the day is NOW!

I have already taken leave on Wednesday, for knowledge of the giddyness that it bound to follow after fulfilling one of my lifelong goals.(okay that's a bit far-fetched...for I only started listening to them about 1-2 years ago)

For all who are going, we are gonna have a blast like no other! Here's a video to get everyone psyched up and ready to rock, reminding us why we are paying 87 dollars( or 100+ for the late birdies) to watch Matt, Chris and Dom tear up the stage, and why they are simply the Best Band in The World!

Sing For Absolution!!!

Homebrew

2007-01-13T01:57:00.000+08:00

There's nothing like Home Sweet Home.

If only it were so simple.

Satisfy your self-imposed worries, Sustain your self-denials, Suffocate your children. Save your breath.

Thanks a lot, Mum.

Knowledge Is The Weapon

2007-01-11T09:23:00.000+08:00

It's been ages since I last bought a book.

If you exclude the textbooks I bought for school.

For the first time in months, I stepped into Borders looking for a interesting read, and found it in the form of The Game by Neil Strauss. I shan't divulge too much information as to what it is really all about, all I can say is that its a guide of psychologically understanding the complexity and mysteries of a particular species, and eventually conquering them. Geee sounds dodgy doesn't it? Apparently the book seems to be quite the best-seller, so you GUYS shouldn't have any problems finding out what it is all about. It's science fiction. Word. LOL~

But it really has been some time since I had a chance to curl up on my bed after work, and hold a paperback to read for an hour or so just before I go to bed. Matter of fact is, aside from reading off the monitor screen and reading Juice magazine in the toilet, I hardly read anything else nowadays, given the crazy working hours of my current job, let alone reading newspapers and magazines and keeping track with what's ticking around the world.

And that's bad for an aspiring multi-faceted creative, where the name of the game is to stay in the know and go with the flow. Starting from tomorrow, I will dedicate part of my 2 hour lunch breaks to make trips down to the library or the bookstore to read up on things that matter or should matter to me. We can never know too much, and what greater satisfaction can you achieve throughout your working life, knowing that there's something new to be learnt every day?

By the way, Steve Jobs just announced the launch of the new Apple iPhone in the Macworld conference. Check out their website www.apple.com for more information and images on the iPod+Mac OS X killer device touted as revolutionising the mobile phone market. I may buy one, if they launch it with a price tag of USD 499(700+ SGD) here in SG, much too cool to pass up on! The only drawback would be.. you will most probably see every ah beng ah lian ah ma ah gong and their dogs carrying one when it launches in June 2007. June. God, what a freaking long time to wait for a phone. They'll probably come out with 5 megapixel camera phone or phones that can teleport you into another dimension by then.

Some photography taken for the day:

Inspiring message found in the toilet for your regular sessions

Float this way.

Banana yellow & bamboo

Talk to the hand.

Beam Me Up, Scotty!

2007-01-10T23:13:00.000+08:00

As I am typing out this entry, Mah(Drink-You-Better-F***ing-Drink!!) BRO Wilson should be on board the plane back to his glory hole in Melbourne, where he would probably be living the rest of his 365 days eating Aussie ham-bao baos, swaying his Afro long hair to the rhythm of druggy music, and shuffling till he's skinnier than Ah Meng in the zoo, and eventually getting his PHD in Pure Hard Dance. Zouk's dancefloor is gonna get ronerie-er once he's gone, and people would be seeing less of that BFSG.....Big Freaking Shuffing Giant.....gonna miss you motherfucker!

The night before however, we all did sit down for The Last Supper with the Jesus Christ of Hardstyle at our hangout place at HK Cafe along Upper East Coast Road, with the usual brady bunch of Mo, Kay Lii, Jazmin and Moses. In a bizzare twist, our conversation topics soon shifted into a discussion of scary movies, alternate realities and parallel dimensions, conspiracy theories, the incompetence of the American government, how the 9-11 incident could have been staged for an excuse to invade Iraq, the 'UFO' that was witnessed by people over here in Singapore, how the dissapearance of the Indonesian airliner may have something to do with it, anti-matter, Satanism, Led Zeppelin's 'Stairway To Heaven' played backwards, natural disasters, The Pandora's Box, Revelations, the Seven Seals, holy wars, as well as end-time prophecies leading to the impending Apocalypse. Phew, that's a mouthful.

Does it comfort you to know that we are likely to be the last generation to ever set foot on God's green earth?

Depressing nature of the subject matters aside, it is actually refreshing to get into meaningful conversations with people who also ponder about and question the unexplained. We can never be too careful or aware of what is happening at a bigger scale around us.

So....do you all believe in aliens?

Text-Ma Tazz

2007-01-09T02:16:00.000+08:00

http://thomasbroome.se

Black is the new Black.

2007-01-08T13:24:00.000+08:00

After another boring Saturday afternoon spent slogging in the office, I went to town to meet Randi to collect the free movie passes for Deathnote 2 that she won through her company lucky draw, and since she had already caught it earlier on a few weeks ago, she was very nice enough to give them away to me.

Earlier on in the day, popped down to Far East Plaza for lunch with my colleagues, as it was the closest shopping mall to my office at Stevens Road, and picked up this tee by local label Hooked Clothing from Sidewalk 10.

Been looking for a nice decent photo tee for some time already, and this one fits the bill just nice. It comes in a dirty faded dark gray hue, and has a nice abstract xray image of what looks to be a side profile of a human skull and some butterflies, and a nice text of 'Bitter Sweet Tears' at the back. Material is really soft and it fits really well. Nice pick up IMO.

Back to the topic at hand, went down to watch Death Note 2 with Gwen at The Cathay, just after we had a hell of a time trying to find parking near there. For most unfamiliar with the series, they will find the movie highly entertaining, as the battle of wits between the protagonists L and Raito(Light) unfolds in a dark twisted manner and reaches a climax at the end. I was kinda dissapointed purely because I was an avid reader of the manga series, and seeing key subplots and details, as well as the lack of proper portrayal of the characters' talents to their fullest extent, irks me to no end, thinking that they could have done it better. But at the end of the day, we have to give them credit for retelling this masterpiece of a story within the short span of 2 movies, with a surprising twist at the end that differs from the original storyline in the manga. For those who watched the movie and thought it was awesome, PLEASE try and get hold of the manga or anime series... it will blow your mind out of the water!

Went on down to Zouk for Nick Warren's set shortly after, and met up with my favourite chiggers Mo & Kay Lii, who just got back from HK( Unfair! I SOO wanna go there) and brought me back a nice little present.

I think that this has got to be one of the most stylish keychains I have ever received. Really digging the box and the sheer simplicity of it all, the black gloss, and angular rectangular shape as well as the black chain. Awesome. Simplicity rules. Thanks guys! Now I just have to figure out where to hang it, cuz' it's kinda big....... :P

Oh yeah for the record.....going to HK will be my new year resolution of 2007. Hahaha!

A Blank New Page...Again

2007-01-03T00:34:00.000+08:00

Another new year, another chapter in one's life. Another new year, and another series of new year resolutions, straight from the horse's mouths of the people around you.

A new year marks the return to school for some of the younger folks: new stationery, new bags, new kicks, new hairdo, new lunchboxes, new Gundam or Winnie The Pooh water bottles....
....ok I may have strayed too far away...new books and notebooks for all regardless of age, including myself, starting a brand new journal to pen down my deepest thoughts and ideas visually.

As I gleefully sketch and write inside the first page of my spanking new U-Grade A4 sketch book with the edging still so crisp and sharp, somehow deep inside my heart, I knew that the ending pages of this journal will never see the light of day. I have this tendency to use my journal throughout the months, ever diligently filling it up with everything and anything I come across or am thinking of, for the first few months before it starts to get doggy-eared and dirty from all the chucking in and out of my bag, and as my hectic life hits overdrive, I completely stop writing or drawing inside it, only to take it out to take down notes and minutes of meetings while at work. Thus the life of my journal ends at the 3rd quarter of its lifespan before I decide to get a new one again to kickstart my drive in writing all over again.

A bad habit? You can pretty much say so. Many a times I find myself feeling more and more disconnected from the things I set out to do in the first place, as time goes by. Much like new year resolutions, people can write or blog about their list of '100 New Year Resolutions for 2007', I wonder how many of them can actually look back into the beginning of the year by the time it's 2008, and realize if they have fulfilled any of these so-called 'resolutions'. Why say it out or tell the whole world about it, is it really a necessity to have new year resolutions for the sake of making youself feel better? By the time it's June, can we even remember what these resolutions are?

January
"My new year resolution is to lose 10 kilograms this year!"
February
"Chinese New Year is here. Screw losing weight! I wanna eat bak gua!"
End of story.

Familiar? Yeah that's because I happen to be one of those people.
Therefore, my new year resolution this year is to:

SCREW ALL NEW YEAR RESOLUTIONS, they bring nothing but emptiness and delusion at the end of the day. Just live your life and go with the flow, and not to snowball your previous resolutions from 10 years ago for the upcoming new years to come, adjusting your life accordingly as time goes by, without setting yourself a deadline.

Long live Fatty Bom Boms & bak gua!

Wiiiiiiiiiii.......Crash!

2006-12-20T22:57:00.000+08:00

You've probably heard or read about Nintendo's latest über-toy, the Wii, unless of course you live in a cave or live with monkeys.
The Wii makes full use of a motion sensor-enabled remote, allowing freedom of movement and swinging of your arms in relation to the nature of the gameplay, making it one of the most innovative consoles of our time. Quite a technological breakthrough in my opinion, altering the perception of gamers as to how games should be played, and scoring huge points for having the yummiest-looking design, setting itself quite apart from the PS3 and the Xbox 360.

However, such a toy with a 'sporty' nature, doesn't come without its fair share of problems. Here's one fine example.............

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Errmmm........whereby the person who took this image claimed that the controller slid out of hand and went BAM! right into the side of the TV, you be the judge whether this accident is staged or not.

But the matter of fact is that there have been numerous complaints surrounding the Nintendo Wii, namely due to the poor quality of the strap that is attached to the remote controller, let me rephrase that...Wii-mote(it's true! *cringes*) snaps and break after prolonged vigorous usage of swinging it around, and all these articles surrounding these incidents can be found on this website, the aptly named http://www.wiihaveaproblem.com

I have also read about people who are trying to sue Nintendo for injury caused by releasing a product with defects, let's hope this doesn't make the Wii any less popular, because it's a truly interesting concept console. While I think it's marvelous, it still won't stop me from owning a Playstation 3 eventually, to play the über-sequels of the über-games I played on the previous generation of consoles. (Note I have been using über a lot today, all thanks and no thanks to Jazmin and Mo for reminding me of this über-cliche word... hahaha)

Here's some videos taken from the site to end today's post...the first showing how fragile the strap is, the second one showing some very interesting things to try with you Wii when you get to play one. Haha!

Achoo!!!

2006-12-20T04:47:00.000+08:00

After procrastinating for so damn long, I finally made the effort to set up my online journal. The title blog name 'tempus frangit' is actually taken off the Sandman series of comic books by Neil Gaiman, which is Latin for 'time fractures'. To learn more about the portrayal of time as a figment of our perception, visit this web page here.

The Sandman series have always fascinated me with its intriguing storyline revolving around The Seven Endless and beautiful intricate artwork, weaving into a tapestry of magical fantasy and capturing the imagination of the boy inside me. I highly recommend anyone who is a fan(or not) of Neil Gaiman and haven't had a chance to read this marvelous series of comic books, to do so. You will be charmed.

Back to the topic of my blog, it's currently 5.15 in the a.m, and I couldn't sleep due to waking up around 7pm yesterday. Yeah, yesterday I took a day off work to see a doctor, cuz' I caught a flu pretty recently. Over the weekend to be precise. Mo, Jazmin & myself finally fulfilled our months-long wish to go for a full body massage, at the traditional Javanese massage place near Siglap. It costs around 50 dollars for an hour, and WAH LAU! it was freakin' painful, can? Try clenching two fingers together and rub it up and down your bone or muscle for a full minute. You get the idea.

As we made our way out of the massage place with our sore backs and necks, would you have guess it, it started raining like mad while we were halfway through walking to my car. That explains the pretty lightning flashes that carried on throughout the night before. As the pores on our skin are sitll open from the herbal oil used in our massage, and getting caught in the rain just spelled trouble. And so here I am now, blowing my nose off a gazillion pieces of tissue paper while typing this. Just as well, X'mas is around the corner and I have a red nose like Rudolph.

For now, I shall sign off and head to bed to catch some shut eye. Stay tuned for more entries to come. :)

*snort!*