rey's ramblings

An honest closure to the year '05

Music: Next Year, Baby - Jamie Cullum

2005. What could I say in one post that would justly
define the year from my point of view? Not much.
But I'll try anyway.

This year was about many things. Firstly, it was
about adapting to a new environment. A new class
in a different stream. Despite the seemingly huge
barrier to overcome, I got through all the obstacles.

I wouldn't fire off arrogantly by saying it was easy,
but I would definitely say that I far exceeded my
expectations.. I was really glad that most things
I worried about turned out fine. There were many
opportunities to make friends, some which I took
with happiness but there were also opportunities
which I had to be wary of. I must say I have to
thank God for his guidance in my life... Overall, to
look back at 2005, its definitely been a refreshing
change from the previous years...

To all the people who've been there for me or who
have known me throughout the year, a big thank you
for all the support. Here's a really short mention to some
people.

charisse/joel/marcus/vanessa/esther for all your
support as a team and walking with God. We've seen
each other through the ups and downs this year. Hope
next year will be even better! Thanks for all the fun when
we are together and being there when its least expected.

bryan - it's been really fun getting to know you (again). I
have to say that you're a really patient person and just
always very cheerful-looking! hope next year in nushs
will be a great one with the 4-day week! (P.S. I still need
my book back! XD)

changming - to be honest, at first i didn't think you would
be the outgoing sort but im badly mistaken! x) Always
give your honest opinion on things.. See you next year
in school!

daphne - thanks for all the fun chatting late into the night
during the hols! hope 2005 was a greatgreat year for you!
hope 2006's better! X)

javier - thanks for being one of my best friends in school, going
out & endless powerchatting about music, life & almost everything
under the sun! all the best for next year's O's! =)

natalie - our low maintenance relationship is proof enough (and
word enough) of our strong friendship! thanks for being there all
these years! hope next year goes even better for you! ;)

serene - thanks for giving all the spiritual advice throughout the year
and always providing a listening ear. hope next year will be a good
year for the ministry!

I hope those mentions did do some justice at least. My apologies to
anyone I might have missed out, its not that you don't matter.

Any New Year resolutions? Nope.

Not trying to sound presumptous here but most of
us (well especially me), would have slipped the thought
of any New Year resolution by February or March. It's
inconsequential anyway because you just can't resolve
what you want to do for the length of a year of your life
in a day or two. Everything's meant to be taken a step
at a time. Or you'll just end up tripping.

But nevertheless, I'm definitely looking forward to '06
despite the looming thought of the O's.

Since I'm an avid music listener, here's a wrap-up of
the top 15 (in accordance with my 2005 age!) songs of
2005 according to general popularity + chart success +
personal preference, so there's a slight bent to my liking
but it's mostly kept in check via popular success!
(Sorry for fans of indie music! This chart is going to be
strictly pop material...)

Bonus Tracks:
Cater 2 U - Destiny's Child
Goodbye, My Lover - James Blunt
Just A Ride - Jem
Pon De Replay - Rihanna

15. Wake Me Up When September Ends - Green Day
14. Photograph - Nickelback
13. Bad Day - Daniel Powter
12. Hollaback Girl - Gwen Stefani
11. Feel Good Inc - Gorillaz TIE Boyfriend - Ashlee Simpson
10. My Humps - The Black Eyed Peas
9. Sugar, We're Going Down - Fall-out Boy
8. The Pussycat Dolls - Stickwitu
7. Ordinary People - John Legend
6. You And Me - Lifehouse
5. Because Of You - Kelly Clarkson
4. We Belong Together - Mariah Carey
3. Since U Been Gone - Kelly Clarkson
2. Golddigger - Kanye West feat. Jamie Foxx
1. Hung Up - Madonna

Top 5 videos of 2005 !
5. Diamonds (From Sierra Leone) - Kanye West
A haunting moral message to viewers about the rampant
abuse of children in African diamond mines. A discourse
that is both eerie & strangely refreshing at the same time.
4. Dance, Dance - Fall-Out Boy
A rather unadulterated and frank look at high school drama
via the use of a seniors' prom. If you can't be bothered about
the antics & the mini-storylines, there's always the dancing
to gape at.
3. Because Of You - Kelly Clarkson
A video showing clearly well the long-term impact of a
divorce and parental conflicts on children. And it doesn't
have to preach at that.
2. Hung Up - Madonna
The Queen of Reinvention does it again with this
video seamlessly melding with the beats of the song.
1. Lose Control - Missy Elliott feat. Ciara & Fat Man Scoop
The ever-hip Missy Elliott brings a groundbreaking video
to the scene this year, grabbing a Best Video Of The Year
award at the VMA's along the way.

As a muse, I shall also list old songs that I rekindled
my liking for.

Sky Fits Heaven - Madonna
Time After Time - Cyndi Lauper
No Such Thing - John Mayer
Frozen - Madonna
Bohemian Rhapsody - Queen
Ray of Light - Madonna
Sweet Dreams (Are Made Of This) - Eurythmics
Like A Prayer - Madonna
Livin' On A Prayer - Bon Jovi
Come On - Ben Jelen
Drops of Jupiter - Train
Believe - Cher

That's all for the musical edition and the last & largest post of the year.

save the power of music, for yet another year...

I crossed the bridge at 8:50 PM

Thursday, December 29, 2005

The Beginning Of The End

Music: The Day And The Time - Shakira feat. Gustavo Cerati

It's fast approaching the beginning of another academic year...
Just under a week's time it'll be that day when you return back
to school and see both familiar & new faces. There's just something
inexplicably unfathomable to the feeling you get... It's neither
warm nor cold to put it across simply...

Watched Chronicles of Narnia yesterday at Lido with daphne
and my sister, it was mediocre in terms of epic standards. I'm
sure its popularity was greatly boosted due to it being released
in the Christmas season with its slightly ostentatious and glaring
tones of the yuletide season. But despite that, Chronicles isn't
much of an excitement as what was anticipated by fans of the book
and those who aren't alike. It followed the book a tad too linearly
and thus this play-safe approach to adapting the book won't bring
about something refreshing to the story.

The CGI effects weren't top-notch... Some stuff was just not
believable. However, the ending battle-scene does redeem the
movie to prevent it from slipping into "Flopped Epic" status.
Tilda Swinton's performance still managed to be remarkable as
the White Witch no doubt, due to her acting chops.

Today afternoon was spent purchasing any remaining books
needed for next year. Later in the evening, went down to the
esplanade to catch a Bells performance supposedly sponsored
by Maybelline New York as natalie was performing in it.

The performance went pretty well, drawing quite a large crowd.
Could see the effort put into the performance! Passed natalie
her christmas card before the performance also..

Afterwards had dinner at crown prince swensens with javier
and john. Passed them their presents after the meal too.
Thanks for the HMV voucher javier, will see what CDs I can
buy with it! =)

Later we just walked around from HMV to Paragon. Drank
raspberry frap at starbucks for the first time and found it
to be really great-tasting!

Couple more days to the end of the year.. Hope all goes well.

drifting into dreams this side of the universe...

I crossed the bridge at 11:57 PM

Monday, December 26, 2005

The Day After Christmas

Music: Christmas Time (Don't Let The Bells End) - The Darkness

It's been exactly a year since the tragedy of last year's
horrific killer tsunami that snuffed out hundreds of thousands
of lives. It's also a rather cruel irony that this occured on the
day after christmas. The perfect opportunity to strike when
everyone was partying the night before and thus would wake
up late the next morning.

And perhaps it's strange to ask this, but if God was indeed in
control of everything - the forces of nature, the world etc. then
why couldn't it have been stopped? Was it part of the plan for
216 000 people to die at one go? It's saddeningly uncanny.

Hopefully those affected will be able to move on.

Spent a bit of last night and this morning unwrapping presents
and reading through christmas cards from friends and relatives.
Thanks to all those who sent me their well-wishes via cards or
smses! Presents-wise, thanks to joel, charisse, vanessa, marcus,
and esther for the gifts yesterday! A new quiksilver t-shirt, leather
wallet, clive cussler books among some things... =))

Found out that one of my relatives (not sure which one yet) got me
the complete neverwinter nights diamond collection..! Won't have
much use for it especially since I doubt there would be time to embark
on a 120-hour plus RPG game next year.. perhaps after the O's but
it's a nice gift anyway!

don't let the bells end... Christmas time, just let them ring in peace

I crossed the bridge at 6:15 PM

Sunday, December 25, 2005

The Day of Hanukkah

Music: Joy To The World - Mariah Carey

First and foremost, Merry Christmas & a Happy Hanukkah
to everyone! It's yet that time of the year again when most
of us exchange gifts, smiles and love. But it's also very much
the anniversary of Christ's birth... Although many of us do
forgot or neglect this thought when we celebrate, there is
still something that has continued to prevail: the spirit of
giving.

Yesterday was fun and crazy to say the least... Went out
for lunch with gladys, joel and my sister. Decided to chomp
at ichiban @wisma after some thought. The sashimi there
is really heavenly for singapore standards! After that, went
for more shopping around the "orchard valley". It was so
awfully crowded that I was almost knee-deep in people.
But nevertheless, it was FUN.

Went back home at around 6 plus with my sister for our
annual relatives' christmas dinner! This year it was held
at our location and there was just lots of food to be occupied
with. It was slightly chaotic too with some of my younger
cousins and nephews running around like it was nobody's
business. There was also an opportunity to drink wine...
nobody really bothers about age-limits at this time of the
year!

Once the party was over around 10, vanessa called to tell
me that joel, marcus, charisse & esther would be going
down to orchard to countdown. So I took a train down and
when I got there it was really crazy! The streets were more
packed than it was in the day.. We were literally squeezing
through the mess. Marcus bought some cans of spray-foam
confetti things and we managed to find this platform on
the 3rd floor of wisma overlooking the entire street below.

The countdown culminated in utter madness with the road
completely lined with confetti. We had a sort of advantage
because nobody could spray us! X) But later we all made
a very bad mistake of going down. After 5 cans worth of
spray-foam all over me, we took some pictures and decided
it was best we be leaving before some kind of riot breaks
out.

The next day was really fun too. After the wonderful
christmas service & message, six of us again decided to
go for lunch at plaza sing's cartel. After gift-swapping,
I left to go home for our traditional christmas family
dinner outside, this year at the Holiday Inn Hotel.

Its really a guilty pleasure eating so much this festive
season. Haha, its kind of a balance though because the
starting of school would probably see me skipping meals
on occasion.

Christmas is over as I finish typing! Off to unwrapping
presents now...

to give and to receive, to eat and to...

I crossed the bridge at 11:53 PM

Friday, December 23, 2005

Shop til' you drop!

Music: Eurythmics - Winter Wonderland

Oh, it's certainly been a crazy week out so far and
I guess it's the run-up to Christmas Day where there's
just lots of events happening. Firstly, went out to go
gift shopping on monday with javier around the suntec/
citylink/raffles area. Didn't buy much though, just a novel
or two.

Wednesday was spent at joel's house with charisse, esther,
vanessa, marcus, cheryl, dan, joyce, beatrice and jia wei
preparing for our Christmas Day item which is basically a
medley of choral pieces going to be conducted by a very
energetic serene! We practised for really long - from 1 to 7,
with breaks of course. Hope we practised more than enough!

Dinner afterwards was at nydc, holland v. The girls left
shortly after because we guys planned a sleepover. We were
mostly having a movie marathon, watching batman begins,
starwars ep 3 and mr & mrs smith. Eventually, most of us
crashed around 3 after chatting for a while.

The next morning around 12, joel, marcus and me met
charisse, esther and vanessa at cafe cartel for lunch and
went shopping around orchard. To cut it short, the number
of shopping bags were definitely more than twice our
number at the end of the spree, mostly thanks to vanessa! X)

Decided to share a cab back home with esther later due to
what we deemed a completely impassable train system!

Today was mostly shopping with family after my sister's
secondary school posting. There were lots of purchases
made too, thus we were pretty weighed down. Managed
to find a nice set of Christmas cards too..

Cards-wise, I'll be sending about over a couple of dozen
cards either by post (which is highly unreliable at this
period of time!) or upfront. I'll also be buying gifts but
not for everyone... if not my wallet will probably go bust.

footprints embedded in the snow...

I crossed the bridge at 11:55 PM

Saturday, December 17, 2005

Serious Monkey Business

Music: Beautiful Love - The Afters

As a continuation off the last post, wednesday's BBQ
with javier, john and sean went ahead as planned. The
group was slightly smaller than expected though, due
to the absence of one or two friends. Overall, it was
quite fun going grocery shopping, playing board games,
preparing the food and finally getting to cook it at the
pit near john's house whilst blaring party music. We
chatted past midnight discussing on many topics.

The next day was a bit of a rush because I woke up
late due to getting back late the last night. But still
managed to get to Lido in time to watch King Kong
with natalie and bryan. The movie was certainly a
mammoth accomplishment by peter jackson. Despite
all the astounding visual effects and action pieces, the
acting was still superb and the dialogue sufficiently
solid and witty.

Although there are many inevitable comparisons to the
Lord of the Rings trilogy, King Kong definitely stands out
in a league of its own. The love scenes/romance are far from
cheesy unlike the 1976 remake which was a vigorous exercise
in ultra-camp & slapstick. The finale atop the Empire State
Building is a beautifully tragic re-envisioning of a cinematic
moment in history infused with much emotional pathos.

This 2005 take on Kong also goes much more in-depth to
the story than the previous versions, revealing more about
the characters and their purpose.

Sure enough, Mr Jackson's King Kong may have been a
remake but make no mistake; just as the original 1933 RKO
picture remains a classic, so will his version join the ranks of
its predecessor.

Okay, that's all for the review. Anyway, after the movie was
over we went around (window) shopping! Didn't really buy
any gifts yet but was mainly looking for ideas.. And we just
didn't know whether bryan was going to buy his bag or not!
Then we went arcade-ing at Zone X in the crevices of dhoby
ghaut mrt station, where I first saw the famed DDR-junkie
who treats the DDR machine as her gym session! XD It was
really amusing...

talking underneath the metal lattice...

I crossed the bridge at 8:18 PM

Wednesday, December 14, 2005

Colours of another life

Music: New Radicals - Someday We'll Know

In life, we've all had an innate desire to be in charge
of things. Like for example, to find out all the truths
about people that you know. To peel off all the layers
and see whats beneath. But sometimes I feel that it's
also the mystery that keeps us going, that gives us a
purpose. After all, the pursuit of truth lasts longer
than the discovery.

And maybe we'll know everything at the end.

Far from being mundane and humdrum-like, I've
managed to keep myself quite occupied these holidays
with a recent slew of parties.

First up was my nephew's birthday party on saturday
which was quite uneventful because most of my relatives
were there. But nonetheless, it was still fun to catch up
with my cousins whom I hardly see for most of the year.

Next up, was an end-year pool party organised by
charisse at her condominium on monday. Along with
joel, esther, marcus, vanessa and serene, there were
also charisse's friends from crescent, so it turned out to
be quite a crowd. At one point or another, everyone was
targeted to be thrown into the pool. There were those
that were lucky and those that weren't! X)

Aside from the pool antics, we also had one too many
card games and later, rather addictive sessions of 'pool'
in the guesthouse. The food was quite delicious, I think
charisse's maid cooks really good curry. =P

Right now, I'm in a rush because I've got yet another
party to attend to later and this time round, its going
to be a BBQ.

And she said: "Music maketh the man."

I crossed the bridge at 10:14 AM

Friday, December 09, 2005

A whimisical winter

Music: Faith Hill - Where Are You Christmas?

Perhaps due to all the nasty quips and angsty rants that
I've noticed circulating around recently for some time,
I've had this rather sudden quirky dream about the
relocation of everyone to a utopian suburbia. Quite the
senseless thought but nevertheless, probably poetic in
some way or another... =/

Christmas is just around the corner, a couple of weeks
away more or less. Despite that, the weather is still
horrid/torrid as usual with the immense sweltering heat
and damp humidity. A christmas in the tropics is probably
not very festive in terms of locality but nevertheless it is
unique, just like celebrating thanksgiving in beijing...

Why can't I find you?

The traditional festive mood isnt there but it definitely
puts a twist on the occasion nonetheless. And isn't that
the whole idea of global unity and harmony anyway!

Intrepid revolutions of the 21st century!

I crossed the bridge at 1:40 PM

Saturday, December 03, 2005

And the moral of the story is...

Music: Kanye West feat. Adam Levine - Heard 'Em Say

Popped by gleneagles hospital on wednesday to help joseph
out with his aromatherapy iso project. Its really quite a
peculiar topic to tackle but he's got a fairly large test group
so it should be okay. Anyway, the scents of rosemary are
overpowering, a bit sickly at times, but err.. stimulating
nonetheless. Could have come in more handy during the
exam preparation period though. =P

Discovered yesterday morning, to my utmost horror, that
my cable was spoiled/damaged/unusable. So I had to bring
the cable itself to the Starhub Centre at Plaza Singapura to
get it fixed. After that, hopped over to marina square to catch
aeon flux with javier and john, followed by dinner at swensens.

In my opinion, the storyline was a bit constipated. Too many
ideas were rushed into the span of an hour and a half. The
whole moral story of not meddling or tampering with science
was interesting but nevertheless one that has been recycled
over and over again by countless other sci-fi films.

The acting was on par nonetheless and the action, although
cheesy at times, still made the grade. However, the overall
storyline or the lack of it, is a probable cause of the movie to
sink into B-grade action flick status.

The final frontier of saturation...

I crossed the bridge at 2:11 PM

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