Sin Yee's blog post about Aussie lecturer

I just read Sin Yee's latest blog post, and I have to say, I empathize. Freddy Rodriguez is 35, after all, and most of you guys know that I have this thing for older guys.

Not that there were any experiences for me go on about this like I know what I'm talking about [insert sad face here].

Battery's running low on my macbook, 5%! Ciao ciao till next time, my amigos.

Apology to Sophia about RED/Joss Stone LP/Bridget Jones's Diary

Phia and Anzhu, if you're reading this, I'm sorry about watching RED first without you guys! 'Cause we never actually said anything about watching it.

And here's a continued list of the items I bought during Capitol's moving-out sale! Without pictures, though, because it's just too much trouble.

1. Me, Myself & Irene
2. Donnie Darko
3. The Automatic - Not Accepted Anywhere
4. Taking Back Sunday - Louder Now Part Two
5. The Used - Berth
6. Saosin - Come Close
7. The Dandy Warhols - ...The Dandy Warhols Come Down
8. The Dandy Warhols - Odditorium
9. The Dandy Warhols - Thirteen Tales From Urban Bohemia
(The three Dandy Warhols albums cost only $2 each!)
10. American Blues from the Putumayo series
11. Joss Stone - The Soul Sessions
12. The Datsuns - Headstunts
13. The Used - The Used vinyl

And last but absolutely not least - Joss Stone's best album, Mind, Body & Soul on vinyl! It's my early Christmas present from Sophia, too! She's awesome.

(I meant both Joss Stone and Sophia.)

I'm re-watching Bridget Jones's Diary while trying to finish up this blog post, but it's proving extremely difficult. Renée Zellweger is awesome. And all the British accents are making it hard for me to concentrate on this blog post.

Colin Firth is so friggin' charming as Mark Darcy that I can't help but swoon. And Renée is just so good at being Bridget Jones.

Gosh this movie is so funny; I love it.

Copying Sophia/Capitol's Packing Day/Good News/Movie With Heidi/Mom's Hospitalization

Because Sophia shared with us her wallpaper, I shall share mine with everyone, too. Ron mustn't lose to Jake Gyllenhaal.

Today was Capitol's final day. Well, technically yesterday was, but today we had to pack up all the remaining sale stocks, computers, documents, shelves and stuff. It was a bit melancholy at first, but then everyone was in such a great mood (since we didn't have to deal with the routine things like opening the store at 11am and dealing with customers), so we started having fun.

At first my colleague Gar Meng (whom I call Jiaming because he hates his Chinese name) kept singing Justin Bieber's Baby, because somehow Mark brought it up that he would never buy his albums for his sons.

So all the while everybody was exchanging banter and mocking each other and randomly bursting into random songs. Which was awesome.

Then Bob went to Cathay with the mover guys; they didn't know how to go. So that left Mark, me, Heidi and Gar Meng. After about an hour or two of packing up everything, Mark decided that we should all head to Funan for an impromptu field trip, and also to help look for a birthday cake for his son.

Right when we reached Funan, Chris called to say that he would be arriving in two minutes in the moving van, which resulted in absolute brouhaha. As in, chaotic haha's.

Bernard arrived to help out, but seeing as we've already done everything, he basically just came by to kick around Bob's deflated soccer ball and trash the place with us. We totally trashed it like rock stars.

After officially locking up the place for good (and writing "CLOSED FOREVER" in different languages on the glass door), we went to Ya Kun Kaya Toast [in that Xchange place, whassitcalled?] and hung out for a while.

Then Mark, Bob and Bernard went to smoke outside Raffles City while Heidi and I headed for the Cathay to see if there was any good movie to kill time with.

OH WAIT! Before all this, I have some good news to share with my fellow minions friends.

Those of you whom I've told that I'm going to be stationed at OUB Centre in Raffles Place, despair no more - I've just got the news that I'm instead going to Bugis!

It's no Taka, but still better than OUB. I have nothing against that place, just that it's full of office-y people that, honestly, quite bore me. I can handle cheena questions, rather than professional-talking professionals.

Going back to the topic at hand, Heidi and I went to watch the movie RED, which stands for Retired, Extremely Dangerous. It was good! I love Bruce Willis. And Helen Mirren. And Morgan Freeman. And that other guy.

Some of the jokes were slightly lame, but still tolerable, and the subtle ones are really funny. There was this scene where Mary-Louise Parker makes a jibe about Bruce Willis' lack of hair, and I couldn't stop giggling at that one, long after everyone has stopped laughing.
Sometimes I do that - continue laughing about one particular joke even when everybody else has moved on, so my friends tend to hit me in the arm and shush me during a movie.

Anyway, on a graver note, my mom went to the hospital today because of a hemorrhoid she got a week ago. She just couldn't take the pain any longer and finally went for treatment, and it turned out that it wasn't a hemorrhoid! It was a bacterial infection.

My poor mom.

She is currently undergoing surgery right now, probably. Luckily, I'm off tomorrow, so I'll be able to visit her in the evening with my dad after he gets off work.
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I'm watching a rerun of that show, Million Singer (title goes to show how bad the Taiwanese are at English), and I absolutely abhor Yao Yao. She acts cute, and to top it all off, she can't sing. At least if she could carry a tune, I wouldn't mind so much; I just want to get the show moving on so I can listen to Hebe. But Yao Yao is making my ears cry for earmuffs! Tsk.

Somebody remove her larynx.

Chilli Crossing Road

Indirectly, it was the chilli's fault that I almost got killed on Friday.

I was crossing the road from City Hall MRT station to Capitol Centre, when I saw this chilli crossing the same road as I was, but opposite my direction. So as I was staring at him, he suddenly started jogging across.

I remember thinking, "Hmm. There're no cars...why's he running?" Continued staring.

Then common sense set in and I realized I needed to look right for oncoming cars, and sure enough, there was one headed my way. That's why the chilli was running. I followed suit and got to my destination safely, but just barely. I'm sorry, Mom, for being careless with my life because of ogling. It's a stupid reason to die.

Guess what? Capitol Gramophone has been having a sale since the 10th of this month, so I've been keeping things away for myself, and today I bought a few more items. Here's a list of all that I've bought during the sale (just because I don't really have the inspiration to blog about important stuff + the fact that lists are one of my favorite pastimes):

Rhythm & Blues from the Putumayo series

The Soul Sessions by Joss Stone

Come Close CD/DVD by Saosin

Bridget Jones's Diary Soundtrack

Berth CD/DVD by The Used

Xmas List

I'm not Christian, so technically I shouldn't celebrate Christmas. But I shall celebrate the commerical Christmas, which basically carries no meaning, sadly. Just another occasion for people to pig out and spend like mad without feeling too guilty. Which sounds perfect to me, so...here's a list!

Inception: The Shooting Script by Christopher Nolan

It has all the behind-the-scenes stuff, plus it goes in-depth with the plot and ideas behind the story, which intrigues me so much. I need the book to fully understand and appreciate the movie even more!

The Extraordinary Secrets Of April, May & June by Robin Benway

She's the author of Audrey, Wait! 'Nuff said.

Thing from Robinsons at Centrepoint

I can't exactly state what it is, because we're getting it for Sophia, too. Phia, don't go a-lookin', please.

A Confederacy Of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole

It's a hilarious book. I can do without it, but it's going on the list because it [the list, I mean] seems too bare.

That's about it for now. I'll definitely update with more, seeing as how I can't seem to resist temptation.

Been Away

I haven't laid a finger on my darling macbook for the past three or four days, and it seems like Cupcake Corner has moved on without me.

I had about twenty gifts awaiting my acceptance (which felt awesome - woohoo!), then I got a pleasant surprise - my cupcakes were still unspoiled!

But my point is, as I went round to my neighbors' stores, I saw tons of new decor and layouts, which made me feel like I've neglected my beloved Brouhaha (that's the name of my Cupcake Corner) for a day too many.

I'm sorry, Brouhaha. I'm back now.

I have so many things to blog about! They're mainly about Capitol's moving-out sale, which started on the 10th of this month. Chris, our operations manager, told me I could be the Champion Cashier after this sale; my fingers were practically flying off the keyboard for typing the numbers so fast. Today I almost charged a customer, on his credit card, $922.00 instead of $92.00. Oops. Hehehe.

Last week, someone put on this pop compilation that consisted of Justin Bieber, Lady Gaga, Miley Cyrus, etc.

Justin Bieber's song, Eenie Meenie came on, and I was eating my lunch in the pantry. Almost choked. Anyway, I endured my way through the song, and the next song came on. Miley Cyrus' Can't Be Tamed.

Now, if you've heard that song before, you would know that it mainly consists of her screeching, "Can't be TAMED, can't be TAMED," in a highly annoying, nasal voice. So before I could subject my poor ears to that kind of maniacal screeching, I put down my chopsticks, walked out of the pantry to the CD player, and pressed Next.

Baby came on. Seemed like I was destined to be stuck with Mr. Bieber. Oh well.

Scary weird friend dying dream/Beauty pageant dream

I just had one of my weirdest dreams ever a few minutes ago, and I just had to blog about it immediately. I haven't even brushed my teeth yet.

I don't know how it started out, but I was friends with Neville Longbottom (of Harry Potter) in my dream, except his name was Neil. We were in a science lab together with other people, busy working on class assignments.

Then somehow afterwards, he approached me while I was leaving the school and asked to join me in whatever I was about to do, like he actually knew where I was going. So I let him follow me outside, which was this dark purple world. The whole sky was deep purple and there were high-tech monorail tracks everywhere, with flying vehicles.

I led him to the roof of this random tall building, and asked him, "Do you believe you can fly?" And he nodded.

In this dream, I had discovered a secret. If you possessed this common household item (I seriously cannot remember what it was!), you could fly. So naturally I had extras in my bag and I handed one to Neil/Neville. He was so scared about it, but he really wanted to try it. He had complete faith in what I said. So did I.

I'd done it a lot before in my dream, apparently, so I told him that, and that there was nothing to worry about. Just keep the thing in your pocket, and he'd fly.

Then I jumped. But funnily, there wasn't that feeling of freefall you'd get that wakes you up in the middle of the dream. Then the focus shifted to Neil. He followed suit, but instead of slowing down and flying, he just continued to fall rapidly towards the ground.

Then he hit it, and died.

When he hit the ground, my whole dream changed to this cartoon picture of the Earth, with Neil pasted on top of it in an astronaut suit. I say pasted exactly how I mean it. Flat on his back, pasted.

Then suddenly I was in the school hall, where there was an ongoing play. I was unconscious, floating above the stage characters in an astronaut suit. The students backstage pulled me to the ground - I don't know how - and I woke up (in the dream), blabbering and sobbing about Neil.

NO ONE believed me.

Then I caught sight of our discipline master, who for some twisted reason was the operations manager of Gramophone, Chris! I knew he'd believe me, so I ran to him and told him everything.

Suddenly the scene changed to a school hallway, with mud green walls. Students were walking in and out of the classrooms freely, every few minutes.

I was sitting in the doorway of a classroom with my friend Ruby. But in the dream, she wasn't my friend; she wanted to get me to admit to the murder of Neil.

She started questioning me about that night, even to the point of wanting to know what I was wearing, and why I had an extra pair of jeans in my bag. [The pair of extra jeans came from my friend Shuyi, who bought jeans for me and gave them to me on the day Neil died.]

Ruby even brought me to the school's administration office and made the teachers inquisition me there. By then I was so distraught over Neil's death that I'd started sobbing every time I tried to speak. The teachers eventually believed me.

Then I woke up, for real.
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Yesterday, I was late for work because of another dream that woke me up only at 10:22AM.

I was in a beauty pageant held annually between schools.

Ha, got your attention!

But it's true. At least, in my dream.

Miss Chia was the teacher in charge of the pageant contestants. At first I was just chilling with my friends in the canteen when some girl approached me and told me I'd been selected for the pageant.

My friends were all, "Go for it, Cheryl!"
So I said yes.

As I was on the excursion bus to the venue where they held the preliminary round, I suddenly remembered, "Oh shit, I have to catwalk."

The bus was filled with other contestants from other schools, so I knew none of them. They were giving me weird looks though, like, "Is this girl really a contestant? That's so wrong."

So when the bus let us out at a pit stop to freshen up before hitting the road again, I bailed.

I called Sophia on my cell phone and told her what I'd realized. Uh-uh, no catwalking for moi.

She told me that Miss Chia was gonna be majorly pissed off, which swayed me for a moment. Her wrath is scary. But the idea of catwalking made me shudder more, so I decided to escape that day for a while and meet up with Sophia, Anzhu and Rachel. Apparently we were supposed to be hanging out that day before I got approached for the pageant.

Sophia got a little annoyed on the phone because I was hysterically listing out the pros and cons of staying for the pageant, and she was playing Pokemon on her Nintendo DS. So I got annoyed, and hung up.

Then I woke up.
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Hardcore, huh? Two crazy dreams in two consecutive days. I should have gotten ready now to leave my house, but instead I had this insane urge to write down everything about my dreams before I forget any details. So now I'm late. But luckily, not for work. Just another ordinary off day today.

Which means I'm meeting Sophia and Anzhu, just to hang out. But we're going jogging later.

Yes, I am. Stop doubting me! Even though I can only run two rounds, it's still a start!

Till tonight, when I'll regal you with fantastic stories about how I flew ten thousand laps.

Running with chillies/facial stuff/bimbo aunties

I'm telling you guys, if there's one thing I hate more than bimbos, it's auntie bimbos.

I didn't know I had this aversion to them until I met one. Today.

(Well technically yesterday, since it's already 12:51AM Thursday now.)

She was wearing this super short dress which, frankly, looked like an apron.
One of the straps was falling off her shoulder. Clearly, aunties can dress like sluts, too.
The way she spoke, oh my god - bimbos' voices are already hard to tolerate; auntie bimbos are worse. It's like, how old are you now, auntie? You still want to act cute and dumb?

When she finally left after an excruciating half hour, during which she kept bugging me with questions that I already answered, I felt dumber, like my IQ dropped a few points. My poor brain cells. I'm into the negative numbers now.

So people, a word of warning:

Beware the auntie bimbos.

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I went jogging again on Tuesday, with Anzhu and Soph. It was GLORIOUS.

When we went in the stadium, first thing I noticed was the sheer amount of people compared to the few stragglers last time (since we went at closing time).

The field in the middle of the stadium had two teams playing against each other in soccer, and what made the whole experience awesome is that one of the teams were tomatoes. Some of them were chillies, in fact.

Anyway, I ran two rounds, walked two total. Not a bad start for moi. After jogging, as Soph and I sat on the bleachers waiting for Anzhu to finish her round (she's crazy; six rounds jogging, one round walking!), I tried to decide on the chilli I wanted to smile at, but I just couldn't pick one!
They were sitting on the bleachers beside ours, divided by a walkway. Before I could make some eye contact, they all went back to the field for another game. Argh.

I plan to get more Tuesdays off next roster.
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Afterwards we went to Hougang Mall, and Sasa was having a sale at the atrium! This is the first year that I've started paying attention to beauty products. Hasn't helped much, but it's a start, at least. Many changes this year!

We were already walking towards the exit (or entrance) of the mall when I caught sight of the sale and voluntarily strolled back to the atrium. Sophia told me later that she was actually shocked.

I like Ginvera products. Even their shower foam. I like the little flecks of herbs (or whatever they are) in the shower gel! Looks so yummy [for my skin].

Sophia said we are all getting girlier in our own ways. I began paying attention to my face (e.g. buying masks, cleanser, blackhead removers, etc.); Sophia started buying dresses; Anzhu just...looks girlier in general. Maybe it's her hair.

Is it a good thing? Or am I just succumbing to the superficial expectations of our society?

Whatever.

FATT/Bank Chilli Opportunites/...

Recently I started playing Nightclub City on Facebook, simply because Chand told me about her nightclub, which she'd described as a "geisha disco ball". That sounded extremely hilarious to me, so I decided to check it out.

The colors are way too bright and the graphics too in-my-face for me to get hooked on the game, but I did get some good stuff out of it.

For example, you could pick a genre of music to play in your club for your sets, so I clicked on Rock, and at the left bottom of the screen you could see the artist and title of the song your club was currently playing.

I fell in love with this band called Fitz And The Tantrums. They're really cool. Soul, indie and pop mixed together. You can have a listen at their official store.

I can't seem to download them online; no one's uploaded the album at all. All I can find are individual songs, and I have a habit of downloading whole albums. But, luckily, their shipping and handling costs are only US$3.15, so I figure I'll order it at the end of the month if I still have some money to spare. If anyone wants one, tell me before then.
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Lately I've been going to the bank a lot. Every day (except Sunday), we have to deposit the previous night's cash intake at OCBC Bank at Citylink Mall. I have to walk past the newly opened Hershey's every time, which makes it difficult for me to resist temptation.

But my main point: the popcorn shop next to Hershey's.

Before the stores were done renovating and setting up, I was walking past them to the bank when I saw this total chili talking with this lady outside the popcorn store. I heard his voice. His accent was amazingly cute! But that was the last time I ever saw him. The next few times I went to the bank, he wasn't there anymore.

BUT!
A new store opened recently, two stores before the bank. It's called Jericho - Dead Sea Cosmetics.
Now, we all know of those push-cart stalls that those hot foreigners tend? Yeah, now there's a whole store with those chillies. Both female and male, but I don't care about the former.

Today I went to the bank again, and while I was still mourning over the absence of Popcorn Guy, I noticed this total chilli chatting up a customer at Jericho. His accent was so hot.

I have since resolved to be the one going to the bank every time. I could use a respite from all those idiotic customers who can't seem to read.

We have this gigantic sign pasted onto the glass front of our store, indicating our moving-out sale starts on the 10th of November.

Apparently people can't read past MOVING-OUT SALE, or they are dumb. Ever since we put up the sign, I've been getting this:

"Is this discounted?"
"Is this the final price after the discount?"
"Where're your $15 blu-rays?"
"Can I get this at 70% off?"
"Is this on sale?"

As for the last question, sometimes they are so stupid at phrasing their questions that they ask, "Is this for sale?"
And I'd be all, "Yes, it's for sale."
Then they'd go, "But it's so expensive! How much would it be after the discount?"
And I'd answer, "Oh, you mean the moving-out sale? It starts on the 10th."
Them: "Oh! Not now? So I guess I should come back on the 10th."

After which I'd have to go into a long explanation about how the sale stocks would be different from the current stocks. Hellooo, which company in its right mind would discount the new Katy Perry/Maroon 5/Glee/Justin Bieber/Metallica/Toy Story 3, etc. stuff?

Thus, every day at work we have to waste bucketloads of saliva just to explain that No, we are not freaking having the sale right now. Get the heck out of my face and stop asking for discounts, you cheap asshole.


Phew. I feel better now.

44-minute post

I just looked at the time and realized: it took me forty-four minutes total to write my previous blog post.

Awesome.

Exercise/The Social Network

I have to say, exercise has never been my thing, and still isn't.

But I'm trying to do it. So shut your pieholes that are filled with, "Har har, Cheryl, you - running?!"

So yesterday (it's 11:59PM now as I'm writing this, so technically it is still yesterday) I went jogging with my two beloved minions friends, Anzhu and Sophia, and it was so stupid. We dawdled for a long while and only arrived at Serangoon Stadium at 8:23PM.

The guy there kind of chased after us and said, "We close at 8:30."

Thank you, mothertooter.*

So the three of us looked at each other and decided, heck, since we were already there (and after about twenty minutes' worth of walking from Anzhu's house, too), we might as well use up whatever time we had left. But that meant someone had to look after our things and naturally - being the awesome, pentastic** person that I am - I offered to do it.

The two of them ran one lap, then came back to me, ignoring my attempts to convey that there was still about five minutes left of exercise for them. Clearly, they weren't fluent in arm + facial expression language.

As it turned out, Sophia switched places with me and looked after our stuff while Anzhu continued with a second run, I with my first one.

What can I say about it? It was...dramatic. At least, in my head.

I was fine in the first half of the lap, breathing like how our Phys Ed teacher taught us way back in secondary school. So there I was, jogging like a seasoned pro, thinking, "Wow, this isn't bad! I'm doing so good! I feel like I just became healthy!" Then I caught up with Anzhu, and the pain began.

First I couldn't breathe properly. I was positively wheezing, in a totally non-positive*** way.

"Oh shit, breathe! What happened to in, in, out, out, out, in??"
"Crap, I feel like my legs are gonna give way soon!"
"Anzhu, I can't breathe!"
"Die, I can't feel my legs!"
"Should I stop?"

These were the various questions I pelted at Anzhu as I ran alongside her for the second half of the track.

In the end, I made it through the whole lap, and almost collapsed at Sophia's feet, if not for the recollection of the words, "You might die if you stop immediately after a vigorous exercise. It's better to cool down first with a slow jog or gentle exercise."
I'm not sure where I heard it - probably every single person I've met who possesses common sense.

So of course I continued jogging (although my feet never left even two inches off of the ground) on the spot. Then as we were chatting about the runs, I forgot about cooling down and plopped down beside Sophia, taking a sip from my 100Plus.

Yup, she did gasp at me about forgetting to cool down thoroughly.

All in all, although it wasn't a complete workout, I still think it was a good start, at least. Me, exercising!

We're doing it again on Friday, I think. Anyone care to join us?

*I didn't mean it; it was just for dramatic/comic effect.

**Pentastic means fantastic, but in Pen fashion. As for those of you who are going, "What's Pen??", that's another blog post altogether. It will be revealed soon enough. Just...remind me to blog about it.

***I know I could've used the word negative, but bear with it; it's for literary effect.

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This is basically another post. Because it's a completely different topic.

It's about the movie, The Social Network!

I like it.

It's kind of a biography, about the founder of Facebook (Mark Zuckerberg) and all the obstacles along the way. The jokes were subtle, the casting was good, and the dialogue was awesomely clever.

My only regret is that there weren't any hot guys for me to ogle. Sure, the lead guy was cute, but his character was too much of a clueless jerk to be appealing (to me). And the other guys - gay. I'm not sure if it was made to be that way, but they actually seemed greasy to me. I don't mean that in the oily way.

Go watch it.