terse & at large

GRRRRR. Arrrgh. And sometimes a travel log.

Friday, December 31, 2004

Hiatus

It'll be a while before I blog again.

I'm rushing to finish off the work that's in my 'IN' box (at last count: a wedding, a couple of portfolios - one of which is mine - and a debate team) before the possibility of having to leave the country on-assignment (sort of) kicks in. Am on stand-by right now, and the idea of having to go off on this trip is, at once, both scary and exhilarating.

I've been at Mercy Relief the last two days helping out with odds and ends (and I'll be helping out again tomorrow), and I must admit, there are times I'm not too pissed off to be a Singaporean.

So.

Again, don't check back here too regularly; I won't be updating for a while.

Wednesday, December 29, 2004

Thought

Did you come up with that yourself, or did you learn it from a friend?

Monday, December 27, 2004

Evil

Will the man's evil know no end?

Was watching 'Hitler: The Rise of Evil' tonight and at the end of it, the DVD refused to to allow itself to be ejected from my Powerbook's DVD-ROM drive. I tried, for half a fuckin' hour, everything I could within limits of the hardware (short of throwing the damn thing out the window and picking up the pieces afterwards) I had and finally had to jiggle it free using a Leatherman tool.

Damn him.

Thursday, December 23, 2004

The Crew, Sans 2

From the most recent wedding:


The Crew
Originally uploaded by Terz.

Wednesday, December 22, 2004

Six Before 6

Man, some people, despite what they say or how they act, are way too full of themselves.

***

Anyway.

Anyone else wishing that 24 December would just come and go, quickly, so that we won't have to sit through another showing of the "Three Kings in Beijing" TV trailer? I mean, 'Moon River' is cloying enough not to have it sung three-tenors style.

(And somewhere in Singapore, a Singapore Idol reject is saying, "See? See? It works!")

***

The new Navy ad: here.

Putting the whole 'Huh?' factor aside - I mean, c'mon, seriously, who's going to take any military force seriously? Transmariners...? Sigh - I'm just wondering who the heck in the ad agency thought of that, and who in the NRC signed off on this?

This just in:

The Chief of Navy's Office has just released this statement: "With immediate effect, the Chief of Navy will be known as Optimus Prime. He's more than meets the eye!"

***

"Something tells me you're real sweet... Can I have a sample??

chat w me? I'm waiting... :)

sms Hi to
7****sms@99ct"


Uh, can I puke? Can I sue?

I don't want these messages in my SMS inbox.

C'mon!

***

Amazing how many ex-students, acquaintances one can run into while Christmas shopping:

- 4 ex-students (including the one who looks like Slyvester Sim, with the purple hair);

- 1 videographer from the last movie I was on; and

- 2 ex-girlfriends: one by herself, the other with a kid.

- ...


Sigh.

I hate the holidays.

***

The wedding on the weekend was a mess of blurred images, memories of a pain of some sort throughout the day and of waking up to a glorious sunrise streaming through the large windows of our room at the Ritz-Carlton. And oh! People (I hesitate to use the actual term running about in my head) calling Kay and I, "cameramen".

OK, here it is, and I won't repeat myself: I am not a cameraman. I have a camera, yes. But that doesn't make me a cameraman. That makes me a photographer (or as the cabbie one day had to be told: FOE-toh-GRAPH-er). Please don't call me anything else but that.

Friday, December 17, 2004

Quickness

Just had to search my university's database for the alumni thingy tonight because I'd foolishly deleted the email with all the information, and I couldn't find what I'd wanted searching Yellow Pages or even Green Book (all I had were the notion that we're meeting in a pub and that the pub was along Boat Quay).

We so need a better search engine for goods/ services in Singapore; it's apparent, to me anyway, that the Yellow Pages isn't doing its job.

***

Resting at home now. Spent the bulk of last night and very early this morning going through the look for the new series I'm working on.

In about three hours, I'll be leaving for Parkway Parade, where the missus is picking up a new batch of disposable contact lenses, then to Boat Quay for the alumni drinkathon, and finally to International Plaza for a stag party (of the non-boozing sort, apparently - it might be all-night Battletech, for all I know).

Hmm. Booze. Wargames. Possibility of a LOTR extended DVD marathon...

I need more rest.

Thursday, December 16, 2004

Four Again

OK.

Finally. A breather.

From work, from DVDs rentals, from watching the LOTR Return of the King Extended DVD set (twice), from digital imaging (love the results - will post on Fotolog, or here, soon enough)*, from winning the latest RDA quiz at SODs (finally! Despite my fucking up on the choice of our joker round - still got 7 questions correct in spite of that - we won the quiz by being able to name the eight reindeer that came before the Rudolph).

And with the festivities of a wedding coming up this weekend, I really need it.

***

Strangeness is watching the kid you taught in Sec 1 growing up to become an NS man.

***

Strangeness is also taking on an assistant when I feel I'm still in the process of learning to be better at what I'm doing.

***

* OK, someone convinced me, so, a teaser:


Waiting #3
Originally uploaded by Terz.


Poem's by Neruda, in case anyone's wondering.

Monday, December 13, 2004

Some Kind Of Wonderful

Just back from a great photoshoot. I did say that I would hit the sack first before I did anything else, but:

6 hours, 5 changes of clothes, 4 different white balance settings, 837 RAW images and one wonderful model.

Best shoot ever!

Happy sigh.

Wednesday, December 08, 2004

Whew

After three weeks of little or no sleep, I'm finally allowed to sleep in today. Was out drinking with the cousin and his friends till about 2 am last night (it's amazing how short distances appear from 70 storeys in the air), and then slept in till about 2 pm today.

Pure. Heaven.

Still don't have anything else to blog about. But I'm back.

And I'm angry.

Sunday, December 05, 2004

Eighty

A little bug that's been going around:


The Ultimate Eighties Quiz
:


***

And from the same website:

Friday, December 03, 2004

Two again

I know I said in my reply to Nardac's comment yesterday that I wasn't in the mood to be blogging, what, with all the work I've been doing. But after last night's further adventures with the fuckers we call cabbies, I've just got to get this off my chest.


People have been asking me, "What the hell's my problem with cabbies? Why is it that my blog is about nothing about complaints about them?"

Well.

Where do I begin?

How about with a little anecdote about how I had to fuckin' call a cab to get from the Bugis area to Robertson Quay, and how the fuckin' cab fare came out to less than the current booking fee?

(I have the receipt to prove it. I didn't believe it last night, I still don't fuckin' believe it now.)

Or how morons had the 'On Call' sign displayed prominently on their windscreens, but would still slow down to see if the fare standing by the side of the road was heading in their direction?

Or about dipstick in SH2600M who was going to Jurong and then when told that I wanted to go to Roberton Quay, said no? Apparently, it's not in the same direction. "Out of the way..." Yeah, fuck that, I'll bend your face out of the way. Or his buddy in SHB2680-something or other, but also in a Yellow Top taxi, who slowed down and sped up again after he drifted past me. What? My cleavage not revealing enough? I wasn't showing enough leg? Didn't have the Jurong or Clementi-bound look? When the fuck did the taxi service industry became a sellers' market rather than a buyers' market?

Or how, despite making claims that cabbies do not disappear when eleven o'clock comes around, cab companies cannot account for the sudden dearth of cabs when it hits the twenty-third hour of the day? But, amazingly, there would suddenly be a cab just round the corner ("your ** cab will arrive in three minutes...") when you make a booking?

Or, despite having x-tens-of-thousand cabs, run by five operators, on the road, they never seem to be around?

How about this for a suggestion?

Close down all the fucking cab operators, sack all the motherfucking cretins driving the cabs, and then give out the thirty thousand taxis COEs to cars. Because the LTA sure as fuck isn't making anyone think twice about forgoing owning a car in favour of taking public transportation. I, for one, am already thinking about getting a car again.

Fuck public transport. World class transport system, my hairy yellow ass.


This explains things enough for you?

***

On a side note, I'm through.

I give up.

If people aren't going to know what I mean when I say things, then fuck it. I'm not going to keep giving. Or giving in.

I'm not meeting people where/when it inconveniences ME. I'm not going anywhere I don't want to go if I HAVE SOMETHING ELSE ON. And I sure as hell won't be bothering to fit MY PLANS (or even MY LACK OF PLANS) around OTHER PEOPLE'S SCHEDULES, WHIMS AND FANCIES. Especially if OTHER PEOPLE are going to make me spend money I DON'T HAVE to go SOMEWHERE I DON'T HAVE TO, because they're too dense or too self-absorbed to realise it.

So do whatever the fuck you want. I will do what I WANT.


This explains things enough for you?