i'm part of a Seven Year Old Kid's Assignment!

somehow, i'm the official person everyone in the entire family ( immediate and extended) looks for to write letters. from letters to credit card companies, to telcos. And now?

i need to write a letter, as a reply to my cousin. i do hope the mail is making its way to my side of the world at the moment.

the instructions, as repeated by my aunt And mom- twice each ( Enough to go around the world 2 times) - are:

write in largish hand writing, type- printed kind of fonts ( otherwise known as N.E.A.T.L.Y.), grammatically correct, and free of all colloquial and vulgarities.

AND please use simple words he can read. you wouldn't want to embarass your baby cousin in front of his entire class.

=

the last time i checked? my cousin wasn't too much of an avid reader. but i reckon he's done enough to up his reading abilities by now.

and the best part of it? He'll be reading it out in class.

right. i'm worried already. for his and my sanity.

i want to see you.

I Want to see You at the SCHOOL FOYER on THURSDAY, 1 December 2005. gather there between the times of 1210h and 1215h.

Show me what you've got. Show me YOUR ATTITUDE!

oops.

managed to convince Jaime that taking pills with ice cream is equivalent to downing them with water. i sure hope he doesnt die tonight. *sits down and pray to God*

apologies.

wasted. they lie in a heap. never wanting to be abused again.

addiction.

i'm feeling so 'Hanging by the Moment' ( Lifehouse) at this point in time.

just like my candy addiction. sweet.

just like my box of jokes. lame.

just like a broken clock. no movement. no progress.

ok. too much details.

Pandora!

do give Pandora a try.

it is, to me, the online equivalent of the way hotels gather data about patrons's likes and dislikes. so. frigging. cool!

oh. and did i mention that it's got to do with music?!

there's so much i can tell you about how cool it is. BUT you'll need to try it to know. :)

paper cuts.

everyone used to cringe whenever i turned up at dinner or at school with injuries. not those of bruises or sprains. but those of cuts and scrapes.

i'd peel back the bandages and show them the wounds. but tell everyone that they don't hurt. not as bad as they appear to be anyway.

they don't hurt, really. for none of them can compare to paper cuts.

when you slice yourself no thanks to some freak little accident with paper, the pain stays there for way too long for something so small.

and such is most of life.

it doesn't really matter how many good things come our way, because there's always the nagging feeling left behind by the bad ones.

and paper cuts do just that. they heal well. but underneath it all, the pain of the memory still remains each time you stare at that spot.

* do bear with my weak analogies until i find myself in a better mood. perhaps i'd run faster tomorrow, focus better tomorrow, pitch successfully tomorrow. and it could be a better day then, you'll see. if i come out unscathed that is. *

is there someone playing a trick on me?

after tonight, there's no need to see the newsletter till it comes for distribution! and it's finally time for the team to rest before we start working on the next issue. :)

so, Chairman Xiao Pei aka Grace( who's in charge of design) insisted i was to leave early this evening. after passing by the Holland V. and Orchard area, jaime and i ended up deciding on going to suntec for dinner.

merrily walking around the basement level of suntec that houses all the f & b joints- which by the way is quite a significant number. we decided to head to kenny rogers since it was the one most within our budgets and with relatively large servings that would keep him happy.

so we took a shortcut, weaving through the mess of dinner crowd at the foodcourt.

and guess who we had to bump into? SY, on her first day back in singapore for the holidays. she was staring at us in bewilderment. so, she and i exchanged a few niceties( i've known her since she was in primary school i think). then jaime and i left.

i was pretty happy to see SY after such a long time. she hardly changed. looked pretty the same, just a little less tanned. possibly because both of us quit the sport awhile back...

until suddenly, in the middle of dinner i realized that her boyfriend's dad is my dad's buddy. and if she breathed anything about the meeting to him ( the boyfriend) i could be in for serious questioning soon.

and if the questioning sessions begins, i'll have to bid farewell to my private private life. because really, adults- most of them anyway- will never, ever leave any ground uncovered when it comes to prodding into kids's lives.

for the rest of the night, i walked and took occasional glances over my shoulder in hope that bad luck would not strike twice at suntec. ( what if it was HB? omg. the entire tp04 would know within the next two hours! what if it was... )

this may be paranoia on my part, but there's something to be gained out of it.

so, what's the lesson learnt today? when going out to dinner, do not ever go to places where the chances of bumping into people that you know is very high. otherwise you're really setting yourself up for potential trouble.

and when it does happen, people will turn around and tell you right off in your face that "you asked for it."

* disclaimer: the lesson of the day is only applicable to those who wish to keep their private private lives private for as long as they can. *

of replication, headlines and deadlines.

So i'm finally done. staying up till 2ish am. fiddling with the functions of Freehand as i tried to be accustomed to them before i set out on my task. i managed to navigate my way through most of the functions i needed for the night of (almost) impossible deadlines.

at that moment, i realized how well the Desktop Publishing module was taught. oh. i feel immensely appreciative and grateful ( not that i've never been before. but this time, it was made far more acute given the circumstance).

with the artwork- which was rendered unusable due to the lack of proper resolution and size- in hand, i sat at many a comfortable spot in order to keep myself going.

with my nomadic tendencies turned on, i moved my laptop and whatever nots - which i placed all into a box- from my study desk to the kitchen. then from the kitchen to my parents' room. and from there, proceeded to prop myself comfortably in front of the telly when Child of Our Time came on.

the entire team ( more accurately: The Team who was pulling the all-nighter to make my stupid outlandish promise to get the artwork out by Friday materialize) stayed up past 12 am. and the funny thing was, the entire experience became somewhat of a bonding activity.

we asked each other for help, worried about Text paths ( despite internalizing all the advice given, in my confusion, i saved over the wrong copies so i have no editable text layers for the original ones for some of the layouts now!), recreating certain aspects of the original design despite the fact that we were given freedom to change anything we wanted.

by the end of today, Andrew and I shook hands congratulating one another for being 'expert replicators' of them designs.

i couldn't help by smile to myself as i rode the bus home. and then drooled at the cool Touaregs that were used to shadow the ministerial cars to wherever they were heading to. and sat patiently through the massive jam that brought traffic to almost a standstill for an hour.

it was a good day. we've all made it through.

-

to all the folks who helped( since there's so many to mention, and some too shy to want see their names here. hahahah!):

for extending a helping hand. for volunteering advice without the want for returns or recognition. for going out of your way to see this project through.for taking us out of murky waters. for providing lessons that we could not having possibly learnt anywhere else in such a short period of time.

thank you. :)

-

please do not doubt me.

when i apologize.

when i express my appreciation.

when i express my inability to tell lies of any kind.

when i am remorseful.

when i am truly concerned and/or kind.

if you doubt me, then really, you don't understand me that well.

Absolute Sadness.

a couple of months ago, i found this at a site.

shared it with a few people over the course of the months.

today, i had the sudden urge to share it with everyone. something that most of us can relate with once in awhile.

hope you guys like it. and don't neglect your friends, promise?

* sorry that i'm too tired to upload it on some external host. so you have to content with this size you have here. *

LOVE- HATE.

i know you love me. but i know you hate me too.

oh yes Joscelyn. isn't that so true?!

ok. i've given you your five seconds of fame. bugger off!

*smirks*

bad start?

Matt had this to say about the start of school semester:

sounds like u always have a bad start but always seem to be on top of things at the end of the day.

-

i hope you're right dude. you were the least expected person to make my day. but you have!

makes me remember how you kept me going during a bad time in my life.

ok. i sense that i'm going to start going into too much details. i shall stop and go to bed- in that order.