Category: Silly things

The very lovely Katrijn of Singapore Tamtam has decided that I am worthy of the Liebster Award. Whee!

The rules that come attached with this award:
1. When you receive the award, you post 11 random facts about yourself and answer 11 questions from the person who nominated you.
2. Pass the award onto 11 other blogs (make sure you tell them you nominated them!) and ask them 11 questions.
3. You are not allowed to nominate the blog who nominated you!
4. Make sure the blogs you chose have 200 or LESS followers.

I’m not going to pass the award on, simply because I am sleep deprived and cannot think straight. Yeah, mental leap season is upon us. I know, I know, when the heck is it not mental leap season? Good times!

So here goes, the 11 random facts about me.
1. I cuss like a sailor. Terrible. I tried to stop but I can’t. It’s so unrefined and unbecoming of a kim gek but hey, if it works…
2. My feet is tiny, I wear size 35 shoes. It’s annoying sometimes because the shops run out of this size very quickly!
3. Despite my unruly hair, I have never straightened nor rebonded it. I don’t have the patience to sit at the salon for hours on end. This is why my hair always looks like the lion’s mane.
4. When I was a kid, I was often lonely and would stare into the night sky, pretending that the stars were twinkling down at me. That began my affinity with astronomy.
5. I have my mother to thank for my love for writing. She brought me to the library regularly when I was a child, and indulged in my love for books despite the fact that we didn’t have much money.
6. I’m stubborn like a mule. Once I have set my mind on something or someone, nothing can change my mind.
7. My kid peed on me after his bath this evening. Cheeky little bugger.
8. I may not look it but man, do I love my food!
9. I don’t keep my nails long, thanks to the habit instilled in me during my piano-playing days. Long nails make me feel all icky and weird, and they get in the way of everything.
10. Growing up, I have never been one of the girls who was popular or attracted the jock. Nay, I only drew the interest of nerdy boys. I don’t know why!
11. Even though I have the body of a stick insect, the mammaries of a pre-pubescent child and skin resembling an oil field, I have never been one of those girls who wished to be like a supermodel. Strangely enough, I never hankered to be perfect and was happy being gangly ‘ol me.

Part of deal requires me to answer 11 questions that Katrijn had for me so here are my answers.

1. What song or performer will make it onto every mix tape or spotify list you’ll ever assemble?
Adele’s rendition of Make You Feel My Love. It will always remind me of that time when I hit rock bottom and had to claw my way out slowly.

2. What book or article are you still thinking about?
Today, it’s Cloud Atlas! I am thinking that it might be a book that would appeal to me.

3. Where on the internet do you waste most time? And where on the internet do you find most interesting/inspiring/influential news and stories?
Actually, the Internet is my playground. I get distracted easily and move from site to site quite quickly. For news, I love New York Times. It’s really my daily fix.

4. What newspaper/website/twitterfeed do you follow to keep abreast of current events in your geographic area?
Channel News Asia.

5. And where will you take me when I come to visit?
The Botanic Gardens.

6. How do you meet locals in your neighbourhood?
At the lift landing and at the playground.

7. How would you describe your style?
Eclectic. It depends on my mood. Sometimes I am all about vintage Stepford Wives and other times it’s menswear for me.

8. What’s your favourite hobbyhorse to get on? What do you love to hate?
Hmm, that’s a tough one. I guess it would be the lack of flexible working arrangements in Singapore in general. And I love to hate ugly behaviour. People being rude, people being inconsiderate etc. Don’t get me started.

9. What parenting taboos or practices have you come across in your culture?
HA. HAHAHA. I’m all about breaking traditional parenting practices. I don’t feed my kid porridge, for instance. Many of my parenting principles run parallel to those of attachment parenting.

10. What parenting practices do you think should be adopted from elsewhere?
Gosh, that’s hard. I don’t think I know enough to say for certain. What I would like, however, is shorter working hours. If I can just get off from work 30 minutes earlier each day at 530pm, that would give me the opportunity to actually do stuff with my little man.

11. When and what made you change your mind?
Don’t know!

Phew! That’s a long one. I’m off to bed soon, please do take on the questions if you feel like! And please feel free to share your answers with me.

‘Twas a rainy day this morning and guess what went onto my feet? Why, my Fabulously Gorgeous wellies, of course!

I cut across the open air space on the campus compound to jump into some puddles of rain and oh my word, I haven’t had such fun in a while. I even retracted my steps to go back and gleefully kick out at some puddles that were begging to be kicked.

While everyone was hurrying along the sheltered walkway, I was madly splashing around in the open air. And that was super duper fun!

I’ve just started on this ridiculously addictive online community called, amusingly enough, Pupe.

If you have played with paper dolls when you were a wee kiddo, then Pupe would appeal to you. The premise is simple: you earn ribbons by uploading pictures of your fashion-related items such as shoes, bags, dresses, tights etc. With these ribbons, you can now purchase clothes and accessories for your virtual paper doll. Basically, it’s like shopping for things without using real money! You can also earn ribbons by commenting on the stuff that others have uploaded or when you sell off items.

I am so hooked onto it that I have been snapping pictures of the things in my exploding wardrobe, just so I can earn ribbons to buy more things. It’s madness. Anyway, here’s my poupee (the virtual doll) today, after four wardrobe changes:
!(imgcenter)https://yannisms.com/wp/wp-content/uploads/2008/04/poupee.tiff(My Poupee)!

Drop me a note with your email address if you are as bored as I was and I will send you an invite! We’ll both get 30 ribbons to spend. 😉

This is one of the cutest and best ads I have seen in a while now.

Dear Fallon, can I have a bunny please? Preferably the giant-sized red one standing in the middle of New York City?

Besides cute bunnies, I have been quite taken by some really ugly raving rabbids. They are stupid, bug-eyed, primitive and extremely hilarious. This is one of the most hilarious and ridiculous games I have ever played but it is so much fun! Some of the silly “trials” you have to pass in order to move on to the next stage: swing a huge cow by its chain to throw it as far away as possible, drown invading rabbids by squirting carrot juice into their diving masks, shoot the rabbids down with toilet plungers, play football with a rabbid as the ball, slap shut the toilet doors of rabbids doing their business or be shot at with toilet plungers.

Check out the video, it is so stupidly funny:

So this little bloggie went belly up and into a coma last week.

Except that I, the rather negligent and errant owner, did not notice it until this morning. Gah. Bad yAnn, lazy yAnn had a folder of pictures and mind full of words to share but just not the energy or willpower to sit down and write.

The geek mechanic went into overdrive and tried to locate the problem. The site is now partially up but there are little bits here and there that are not working. Please pardon its appearance while the mechanic goes off to douse the fires of some company crisis before resuming the repair works here.

But, here is something pretty (uh-hmm) to look at while the maintenance work is going on: ME!

Yes, in deference to certain bloggers who seem to have a knack for taking dreamy, moody pictures of themselves, Cat and I have decided to come up with a self-proclaimed Shameless Cam-whoring Week. Everyday for this week, we will be putting up photos of our lovely selves taken by…ourselves.

Admittedly, I am not new to the cam-whoring train but these LJ people are professionals. As Cat will tell you, we have discovered that it’s not easy posing for ourselves, let alone take flattering shots. But they have got it down to a pat. I bow down to their amazing, shameless selves. Goddesses, they are.

Anyhow, here’s the start of the Shameless Cam-whoring Week.
Shameless factor: 8

http://dna.imagini.net/friends/swf/widget.swf

Since I have been double tagged by both Hucks and monoceros, there really seems no escaping this meme.

3 things that scare me:
Not being able to see or touch or hear or sing
(Flying) cockroaches
The thought of losing a loved one

3 people who make me laugh:
Jimmy
My six-year-old nephew Dylan
Bill Watterson (with his drawings of “Calvin and Hobbes”)

3 things I love:
Writing
Music
Feeling of being in love

3 things I hate:
Disharmony and anger
Rude people who push past me on the MRT
Singapore’s humid weather

3 things I don’t understand:
Why humanities and the arts are largely ignored in our society
Why people have children only to abuse or neglect them
Why friends say they love you but just don’t bother to make the effort

3 things on my desk:
My precious iMac
A tape of my SCGS choir performance back in 1996
A jar of pineapple tarts

3 things I’m doing right now:
Putting off researching for my next articles
Waiting for the masque on my face to dry
Reading the Jimmy Liao comic books that I carted home from Shanghai last year

3 things I want to do before I die:
Backpack around Europe
See the glittering Christmas tree in New York’s Time Square
Teach my children to sing and dance and to appreciate the power of language

3 things I can do:
Speed read
Write a good article in record time
Burst into song from seemingly out of nowhere

3 things you should listen to:
The sound of raindrops falling
Victoria Chorale’s solid rendition of “Stabat Mater” during the World Choir Games 2006
Virgin Radio

3 things you should never listen to:
Politicians
Negative people who have no faith in anything
Boybands

3 things I’d like to learn:
Italian or French
To cook and bake
To be less quick-tempered

3 favourite foods:
My mother’s curry chicken/chap chye
Succulent rack of lamb
Juicy, tender wagyu beef

3 beverages I drink regularly:
Plain water
My mother’s teh-si
100-plus

3 TV shows/Books I watched/read as a kid:
Sesame Street
Ronald Dahl
Channel 8’s Wu Suo Nan Yang (haha)

3 people I have to tag:
Rie, Cat and Dopey