Editor's Note: Bonus blog post! This was originally drafted by He Who Must Not Be Named when I was lounging around at his house. He never got around to finishing it, unfortunately, so after much dawdling and indecision on his part, I have decided to post it as is, to give everyone an exclusive glimpse into the way HWMNBN drafts his dissertations, perchance to learn his arcane ways and befuddle everyone around.

It's kind of like Pompeii - this post is frozen at one moment in time, in the middle of the creative process that is nw.t's outputting of verbal diarrhea. Never will it achieve whatever potential it might have had. It has been neglected, forgotten, cast aside; like a most cruel act of coitus interruptus, it leaves one unfulfilled and hungering for more.

Who knows what colourful delphinium this post might have blossomed into? What awards might it have won for longwindedness and bombast? What manner of perspicacious dealings would have been revealed? What new heights of reconditeness would have been scaled? How much further would we, his gentle readers, have been brought in our quest to master the Seventh Circle of grandiosity?

Alas! Only the Gods will know the answers to these and other questions concerning the meaning of life and the grain harvest seven years hence.

***

[Original time and date of post: 8/8/04 - 4:24pm]


Word of the day: "aphresis"

Am currently languishing on the floor tapping on my new wireless keyboard while Gabriel lies facedown on my parquet floor (still alive and breathing like a beached humpback whale).

Over the last few days the sudden impulse to blog has attenuated sharply, mainly due to the disheartening feeling of rushing to the damned cybercafe after work each day, only to arrive with an hour left before closing - hardly sufficient for a meaningful blogalogue.

Anyway, despite my original intention to lovingly chronicle all the travails of setting up the newsest version of my Life, now that I've actually concluded most of the major elements (the capstone being the acquisition of a new PC and Internet access from home) I find that all I want to do is pornographically stroke the matte black aluminium Lian Li case that now occupies place of honour in my demesne. (well, it's still sideways on my floor at the moment, the innards exposeed to the atmosphere as I've not quite completed transferring my old files over yet, but ...)

However, as Gabriel is currently nagging me to provide extra content for his edification and amusement (and he's too indolent to blog about our little excursions - although I can't blame him at present as I have been treated to the glorious sight of him sprawled drunk on a few sips of Orange Baccardi Breezer giggling intermittently), I shall proffer a few random observations at free-association.

- So far I haven't seen a single person in my apartment complex. However, I have heard TV sounds and occasional glasses clinking. Very Haunted Mansion.

- If you want to open a bank account (especially as a foreigner), you have to get a phone line first. But it is extremely hasslesome to get a phone line without a bank account. Such are the Catch-22s of expatriate life.

- My beautiful new PC is now up and running (with thanks to Gabriel again for helping me set up the extremely heavy computer desk). This PC is the closest to the godlike ideal of gaming power that I've ever owned - unfortunately, 3 years into "adulthood" and I still haven't saved enough .... but at least we progress.

Specs:

Athlon 64 3200+
1GB of Kingston DDR400 RAM (CAS 2.50)
200GB Seagate SATA HDD (Unfortunately I couldn't find a Maxtor 200GB SATA anywhere... sigh)
Massive Thermaltake copper fan cooler with car beng type blue lights
Gigabyte GA-K8N Pro mobo
Albatron (never heard of the brand, but this video card is a budgetary constraint for now until I can afford a Radeon X800) Geforce FX 5700
Lovely lovely lovely Lian Li PC-61 black aluminium case.

I anticipate that my social life will now wither even further as I can now catch up on all those games that I haven't been able to play since my old video card gave up the ghost.

- I just told Gabriel as he lay supine on the floor that someone had forwarded me How Girls Waste Time and he immediately convulsed in high pitched squeals of delight. How sad that he has fallen so far as to addiction to his growing popularity. I anticipate that, one day, like Cobain, the moral dilemma of purity of art versus pandering to one's groupies (as he likes to call them) will drive him to throw himself off a building. Let us hope no one is passing underneath at the time.

- The TV that my landlord has provided is very irritating. It only has one A/V port with MONO sound input. To add insult to injury, when I got my SCV box top via cash and carry, I discovered that the stupid thing couldn't tune to the exact frequency for cable vision!!! In the end, I had to plug it in via A/V cable, which means that if I want to watch DVDs, I have to switch cables around. Damn it! (however, this irritation is palliated by the fact that I'll probably be watching DVDs on PC from now on)

- When I went to NUS, I was accosted by a Christian missionary while waiting at the bus stop (he must have heard us discussing Talmudic practices). I sent him packing with a quote from

-

-A certain friend of mine has been busily two-timing



Things to blog about:-Trip with Gabriel to NUS + observations-First week living alone again-The joys of Ikea shopping-The Catch-22 of needing a bank account to get a mobile phone + SCV, but not being able to open a bank account without a local contact number....-Observations about anal security guards and mile high compliance manuals in new workplace.-Scary evil new boss-Making faces during conference calls-Amusement that three of my old secondary schoolmates are actually in jail-The not so joys of having to rebuild life from scratch with regards to personal independence-Supper with Ivan near the Indian temple-preparation for all night chor tai dee sessions