Wednesday, 17 September 2014

I saw chinchillas being squashed. :(

This is what a chinchilla looks like when it's sleeping. 
 This is what a chinchilla looks like when it's smooshed against a wall.
You may now go back to your boring, chinchilla-less life.

Monday, 15 September 2014

Saturday, 13 September 2014

CHANGE Concert

Pinky Cheung

Here. Have some Jil Vidal singing a song. :D

Friday, 12 September 2014

The River Mat II

The river stones mat has been my little pet project for the past few days. So, previously, I got 2 whole bags of river stones and tried to hot glue them to the non-slip mat. Which ended up with them all popping off after the glue dried.

I then tried super glue - which was quickly abandoned cuz the glue began biting into the foam material.

After scouring the convenience stores in the neighbourhood, I popped by the hardware store. They recommended this glue.
The Power of Nails in Liquid Form
I was a bit skeptical at first. I mean, after having my hot trusty glue gun fail, what made them so sure that this glue would work? I gave it a shot anyway and bought 1 pack.

Lo and behold. This is the glue of the gods.
It worked like a charm. The glue took about a day to set but the stones were all securely stuck onto the non-slip mat. The sad thing is that I only had 1 tube of Selley's Liquid Nails Glue so I wasn't able to finish the mat. I was pretty happy though.

The next day, I popped by the hardware store to buy 2 more.

And oh! Before I forget! One thing I like about this glue is that it's pretty solid - well as solid as glue gets - like liquid putty. So it doesn't get all over the place like super glue or hot glue does. Pretty nifty.
Finally completed one. It kind looks like a foot reflexology mat. I like!

And two hours later...
Almost completed and ready to be brought to church! I ran out of glue, though. :( Time to buy some more tomorrow...

So I heard you were sick...

And I made this for you. :)
Well, okay. Here's the story. I heard, on Friday morning (1AM) that a close friend of mine had a kidney infection, and was hospitalized. So I decided to wait up till 6AM to go pick the freshest wildflowers and herbs from my garden instead of buying non-lasting flowers from the hospital.

Come 9AM, when I'm about to head over to the hospital, that I receive a message that she's been discharged. I'm happy that she's okay now... but... am I a bad person for being disappointed that she couldn't have been discharged later, so that I could have passed her this bottle of flowers? :(

Thursday, 11 September 2014

Marking my students' essays and ACTUALLY reading the contents of their essays at this hour is what reminds me of why I love my tutoring job.

Topic: Write about why a giant chicken crossed the road.

Scenario 1: The giant chicken hates all of mankind and runs across the road, smashing all the cars out of the way. <------ primary school

Scenario 2: A girl finds a giant rooster and starts stroking it. <----- primary school

Scenario 3: A hen went across the road to have a sex change. <------- secondary school

Are Singaporeans Really Ugly?

I don’t mean physically, mind you. Are we ugly in character? We’ve had lots of stories lately – ranging from shrieking aunties with a vendetta against ZARA tees to Singaporeans laying a literal shitstorm outside some of the more populous MRT stations. *coughHollandVillage*cough*

It’s easy to lose faith in our fellow Singaporeans in light of all these.

I’d be ashamed of being one if all this continued, trust me.

Something happened last Wednesday night that restored my faith in our fellow countrymen 
(and women. Yes, AWARE. I have not forgotten the women.)

So here I was happily riding home on the Mass Rapid Transit on a quiet Wednesday night, minding my own business and listening to my own tunes, when someone puked onto the ground next to me.

It wasn’t retching either. It was the threefold chunky waterfall of vomit. The kind that splattered all over the ground.


Here is a photo for your reference:
Instagram filter to make it prettier!
Some puke also happened to splatter on the surrounding ladies (and my hapless bag). Needless to say, there was a whole lot of feminine shrieking from the ladies – and some rather manly ones from the guys.

I’ve also never seen an entire crowd move to the centre of the train that fast. Maybe SMRT can take a leaf out of this guy’s notebook!

Anyways, the entire train carriage smelt of rancid fluids and the guy was still vomiting. After setting my bag a safe distance from the vomit radius, I was dishing out wet wipes to the guy like a sugar daddy at a strip club. (Okay… bad comparison)

Some of the aunties who got splattered on were shooting poisonous glares at him while the vomiting guy continued… well… vomiting. It took THAT long.

So there’s this guy getting all embarrassed and everyone’s avoiding him like the plague and STOMP: Terrorist Projectiles Stomach Acid at Civilians as Act of Terror.

Story ends here. Right?

It didn’t.

While I was being tissue free-flow uncle, a gentleman came over, supported the guy (and got splattered) and brought him to sit down. It seems like this simple open act of kindness opened up a dam for more kind souls to pour in.

A middle-aged lady came forward to offer him some of her medicated oil. Then another young lady (in her twenties, I think) offered him a drink and sat beside him, so that he wouldn’t be embarrassed by himself.

We get a whole lot of bad press in the media, talking about how millennials, and youths and wizened folks and governments and everything in Singapore is pouring down the drain in a perpetual mire. It’s easy to get convinced that this nation and its people are disgustingly hopeless.

Until you actually get to see people coming together to act in kindness. And I was given the privilege to see it all in action.

It all starts with a simple act of kindness.

The River Mat

For those of you who know me, you'll know that my hobbies go waaaaay beyond gardening. I happen to love DIY as well.

A few weeks back, I was checking out the church toilet and noticed the incredibly yucky floor mats in front of the toilets. Those had been there for at least 6 years. So... pretty moldy and nasty.

Surfing the interwebz for ideas, I chanced upon this fairly nifty tutorial on creating your own river stone doormat.

Pretty cool. You'll see the beginnings of my attempt to create it. All I just need now is to find that glue...

Saturday, 6 September 2014

The Hunger Cycle

DISCLAIMER: In case you haven't figured this out yet, the following comic is a work of pure satire regarding the behaviours of humans. There's no intention to mock a core belief of any individual.

“The more I live, the more I learn. The more I learn, the more I realize, the less I know.” – Michael Legrand


On reflecting on the the Hungry Ghost Festival, we have learnt many things from our observations. In celebration of our complete unknowing, we present to you:

1. Hungry Ghosts be Hungry.

The Hungry Ghost Festival doesn’t get its name for nothing. These ghosts have absolutely nothing to eat for 11 months straight. With nothing to do, nothing to eat and nothing to drink, immortality and the afterlife pretty much sucks for them.

2. Hungry Ghosts be Angry. 

Ever wonder why you should never step on those chalk zones? I’d be pretty damn annoyed if some random shithead stepped into my food. Now imagine a swarm of hungry ghosties with great hunger and little tolerance for mortal bullshit.

3. Hungry Ghosts be Fed. 

Them ghosties finally get their tummies filled up. Them ghosties be happy. Them ghosties be doing you favours.

4. Hungry Ghosts be Peek-a-Boo. 

5. Otherworld Economy Goes into Freefall. 

Ever thought that you’d be free from the woes of having to rely on money once you enter the Netherealm? Unfortunately, you don’t get to experience that, according to the Chinese belief. Your spooky income is gonna be dependent on how much joss paper is burnt this month.

6. Hungry Ghosts be Dragged Back to Eternal Torment. 

At least we now know that Pacman was education in giving us cultural studies…

7. Rinse and Repeat.

Loved this post? You can check it out as an ACTUAL cycle below. Just do the clickey.

Done in collaboration with Colin Chen.