Met with Yisa at the Heeren yesterday. Crepes and Cream doesn't serve pork. Evil!

There was this Praise and Worship roadshow on the grass patch oppposite the Heeren. How (*ahem*) insensitive! It's Hari Raya, so, as in Malaysia, we cannot do anything that might conceivably offend Muslims. Hell, the whole month of Ramadan is holy, so during the month all bars must be closed down, prostitutes stopped from operating and no pork can be sold.

After that I wanted to go watch the portion of Evil Cult that turned up carol at CHIJMES. Yisa made some effort to keep up with me, then gave up and let me lope there. Along the way, I stopped and talked to Chris Lin (the Commando Clerk who used to sing under tables, not the hairy cadet who used to compare his thrusting power with Melvin's in overturning my table), who was going to eat Bak Chor Mee with his friend.

At CHIJMES, 15 of them were performing in their normal performance attire - a little unsuited for an occasion as this, I thought - under the baton of Kelvin Chan (*clap*), serenading diners as they ate and moving from establishment to establishment like itinerant mendicants. And at the end they indeed got paid by an Italian matron, the owner of an Italian restaurant, but with Lemonade and Fruit Punch, not with their supper.

Overall, I felt that the performance reminded me of a well sequenced MIDI - no matter how well you sequence a MIDI, no matter how realistic the voice library is or even how you tweak the rendering for excellence, it can never compare to an MP3 ; there was a lack of accents and dramatic pauses in their renditions of the songs. And towards the end, they got twangy and *really* off. They might have been fatigued, but I've done a 2 hr gig with RV before, in Pasir Ris, though by the end my feet were nearly dropping off. Maybe they need TBS to whip (woah) them back into shape.

At one point, the carollers walked into China Jump to perform. The place was deserted. I'd have thought that it'd be crowded, this being a friday and public holiday's night - this after all, was the place where people were licking each other's belly buttons the other time (if my failing memory serves me correctly). Sicheng echoed my thoughts when he offered, as a reason - "All the Muslims aren't here". ;) Incidentally, Mr Reeves was being interviewed on one of the sports channels at the time. Hehe.

One of the teachers in charge - a new one - was present, and she's so young that at first I mistook her for a J3.

Jason - who's really shrunk after JCC (Jungle Confidence Course) - was there also, to say hello, as I did, to the RV juniors and probably to acquaint himself with a new generation. And earlier I greeted, perfunctorily, Moses, Enbin and Edwin as they were sitting outside one of the restaurants.

Many of their scores were suspiciously familiar and indeed on confronting him, Kelvin admitted that he stole them from Nellie. It was nice to hear songs I'd last sung in Hawaii in 1999 *wistful*

Some of them were affected of the bad habit of, when singing a lively song, flailing their arms around, grinning like fools, shuffling around and looking at each other from time to time. This is one level of degeneracy below "jerking head and shoulders when you sing". It's quite funny to watch really, but rather distracting.

The material of the skirts looks like it's cheap PVC. It certainly has the dull sheen of PVC. Yeech. And some of the girls lost their flowers. Lucky no guys lost their cravats :)


Why are Mambo and Quiksilver shirts so popular among guys? Maybe it's the same as for pool :)


I just got savaged (and I do mean savaged) again. Of course, I was baited to rant here, or to others, about my complete lack of culpability. And though the person professes not to want to "touch [my] site with a ten-foot pole otherwise", I wager that somehow, the person will come to know of this.

And no, I haven't and won't be "trumpeting [my] lac (sic) of fault to all and sundry". My fault, often, is in talking too much. And I talk too much in camp too, which is why people get annoyed sometimes too. Though I won't begrudge them whatever fragment of amusement they may garner :)

I sought to apologise, and got several unwarranted (?) barbs thrown at me. Oh well. I suppose if you take things personally, you do tend to get quite insulted, just like why I'm outraged whenever someone in Saudi Arabia gets his head lopped off with a sword for apostasy or such other offences under Sharia. So maybe I should stop caring about male genital mutilation also. Nevermind. I suppose everyone needs some personal causes, whether mundane or eccentric.

Dammit. This is such an inconsequential matter. If it was of any consequence, I wouldn't be quite so flighty.

Add to that someone else's seeming weariness with me. Tim said maybe I seem to fall out with many people because I know a lot of people. Mayhap.

I was discussing with Yisa how I wanted to try not to piss people off so much and he asked if I was sacrificing my individualism to conform. Actually I think that often, what irks others is not that I'm weird or offensive, but I choose to broadcast that to others :) Perhaps it's the exhibitionist streak that is the problem.

This seems to be a trite topic, and I've exposited on it at length before. I wonder why I come back to it every now and again? And when all is said and then, my thinking before making any move would mean that the magic of the moment would always be gone, and I'd never ever say or do anything as a result. To different people be different gifts. Maybe I am just not gifted in this arena like others.

Maybe I should just go into a corner and hide.

2:40PM:

"when i first knew you, i really couldn't stnad your brand of humour, and commentories.... they too made my blood boil... hence my earlier stand-offs with you.

You have a knack for saying things that many pple think and nobody says. Of course you'll piss some people off. That's the reason why the majority say nothing to begin with."

People say the thing is I just talk too much. Well, you know what they say about Silence being Golden.

"and the argument about judging... who can truly judge a man? :/"

What can change the nature of a man? Okay. That has only peripheral relevance. Never mind.

When I want people to take me seriously, they don't. When I don't want them to take me seriously, they do. Bah.


At least, out of this, I got some very interesting and meaningful views from people. About more ways than one why the person in question was so pissed off, and other complementary matters. Thank you to all who were discussing the meaning of life and related matters with me :) (In the unlikely event that you come here)