Gah. Every time this happens, I tell myself - never again, but a few months later I inevitably succumb to temptation again.

I fell asleep at 9:00pm or so, see, and woke at around 4am. Gah.

Luckily my mother had helped me to do some things, so I'm grateful to and for her.


I went swimming with Yiliang, Andrew and Nigel yesterday. I haven't been swimming for a while - since my BMT categorisation test (aqua-jogging doesn't count), so it was nice to frolick for a while in the water... until the security guards came to chase us off, that is. Maybe they didn't like our 'Hiroshima's and 'New World Order's (I've no idea what the hell those terms refer to, but Yiliang claims that those who have watched Cradle 2 The Grave will know). Nigel's friend lives in the condo whose pool we were using, but he wasn't around at the moment, see.

So after being unceremoniously shooed off the premises, we had a spot of early lunch, then went down to Bugis. Somehow, I started feeling very drained on the train, and a malaise afflicted me for the rest of the day, and I was uncharacteristically laconic, even.

The basement of Bugis Junction was filled with all manner of Japanese outlets selling assorted snacks. There was one shop selling 'Japanese Sponge Cakes' and when I saw that they were made from 'Japanese flour', 'Japanese honey' and other 'Japanese' ingredients, alarm bells started ringing in my head. Now a general rule for Japanese things is that they are nice, but come in small quantities. This is especially evident with food products made in Japan, thanks to the sky-high tariff protection that the lazy and spoilt Japanese farmers (but aren't most rich world farmers that way, demanding protection as if it were their birthright?) enjoy. Yiliang bought two packs of 15 sponge cakes, and indeed they weren't as nice as the free samples, while being comparable in price to his cigarettes!

From then till I left, Andrew was shopping for the best price on a Clie SJ22 / SJ30/ SJ33. And he kept cajoling me into buying one! I did not give in to his blandisments, though. I did get to try out some Clies through the course of the day, however. The profusion of models is really overwhelming. I think Sony wants to try to overwhelm the consumer so they can't compare models effectively :) Clie buttons all suck, especially the Up/Down buttons. Palm buttons are much easier to depress. I might understand if the application buttons were depressed so the unit would not turn on accidentally, but why did Sony make the Up/Down buttons so hard to press? Argh. The Clie styli are also pathetically small. I also don't like the brushed metal lookof Clies. Maybe I'm conservative. Or maybe I'm just too used to Palm models. I tried writing on Nigel's Clie but it seems my Grafitti skills have deteriorated after a year of atrophy. Oh well.

Later we went to Sim Lim to look at even more toys (and to try to find freebies for Andrew's Clie). On the way we had dessert at a hawker centre - the heat was even worse than if we were in the sun. No wonder air-conditioned places can afford to charge such a high premium. I asked for an Ice Jelly, but the stupid hawker gave me an Ice Jelly cocktail, but by then I was too dazed to complain.

YMCA was conducting a blitz on Saturday, and students with their cans were all over Singapore. Earlier Andrew had graced one girl with $2 at Choa Chu Kang, a most generous donation, ad on the way to Sim Lim I donated $0.50 to a Raffles Guy (which earned me a rebuke, of sorts, from the former - "Donate to your own school right!"), but refused the sticker she proferred, as I have decided to forswear these stupid flag day stickers.

At Sim Lim, there were many nice things - not only PDAs - that I want to get, like a CD-RW drive and MP3 player, but I'm just too lazy. Maybe after I ORD. Also, in a secluded corner near the top, there was this girl selling pirated CDs with Application Software from the top of a carton. Looks like the raids can't deter the hardcore sellers from ths hallowed haven of priacy!


As I work laboriously on my tract (which few will start on and even fewer will finish), bringing it slowly to completion, I realise that my beef isn't really with the putative god or his existence.

More, it's the vagaries of man-made, organised and interpreted religion, which often is used to manipulate people, imbibe them with illiberal and/or conservative beliefs and use their money for questionable causes, all under the guise of following the will of this god. Bah.