Cottage Chic?

Apparently, my interior design style is
57% cottage chic
29% contemporary
14% zen
(http://www.sproost.com/)
--> thanks to unacandela :)

Cottage Chic

Who says that cottages can't be modern and chic? Who says that they have to be floral and cheesy? Not you! You love the carefree spirit that the cottage interior inspires, but you are also serious about your appreciation for modern art and hip treasures. You love old and new alike, and love to highlight them all to expose the uniqueness of each. What better way to show off these treasures than with a light background?

Sounds like a type of cheese to me :P

What's YOUR style?

Strangers in the night

Something funny (and a little bit creepy) happened to a friend of mine a couple of days ago.... I will not be using real names to protect the identity, but her name rhymes with cinta :P

It was around 8.30, and she decided to pop by the neighbourhood supermarket before meeting her friend at a nearby kopitiam. The minute she steps in the supermarket, a man came up to her and said :

Creepy man (CM) : "Can I be your friend?"
Friend (F) : (shocked in disbelief) "W...hy?"
CM : "Well, I just want to get to know more female. I have been working in a male dominated environment for the past 19 years."
F : (speechless.......)
CM : "Can I buy you a soya bean milk drink?"
F : "Errr.... I have to go meet my friend now. Bye."

And then she went to meet her friend, and you know what? The guy is stalking her!! Standing in a corner watching them!!! Creeeeeeeeeepyyyy with a capital C to the max!!!!

The Italian Man Who Went To Malta

An old post..... but for the benefit of those who have never seen this, here you go... :)

The Virtue of Not Knowing

I'm going to start this post with a reference to the bible. Don't worry..... I'm not trying to convert anyone here, nor am I trying to preach about anything...... if you know me well enough, you should know how "religious" I am. I'm just expressing how I feel about this topic.

OK so here we go. You can read the reference to the bible passage here 

Basically, there was a worker who agreed to a certain amount of money for the work that he did, but when he found out that other people who are doing less work are being paid more, he got mad and complained to the master. But then the master say "Friend, I am not being unfair to you. Didn't you agree to work for a denarius? Don't I have the right to do what I want with my own money? Or are you envious because I am generous?"

My initial reaction to this passage is "WTF??? That's not right! This is against the very foundation of fairness and equality!". I even asked my dad what he thinks about it, and he couldn't give me a satisfactory answer as well. The more I think about it, the more furious I get, because this particular passage is exactly happening in my work. Am I just suppose to be cool about it and accept any unfair treatment that comes my way???

After that, I tried not to think too much into it, and I have actually forgotten about it for quite a while.

Then, it suddenly dawned on me, what if I'm not supposed to interpret it that way? Perhaps there is a hidden message behind the passage? Again, I'm not trying to preach here.... I don't even know if I am right, but at least it doesn't make me lose faith in my religion just because of one passage.

I think that the passage is trying to say that you should be contented with what you have and you shouldn't compare yourself with other people. My parents have been teaching this to me all my life (even though I think they are not doing a very good job of applying it to their own lives, but nonetheless.....). I also think that it would be easier to not compare yourself if you do not know about certain things. For example, in the passage above, if the worker doesn't know how much the other worker is getting, then he would not be mad. So, moral of the story is : "Don't be so kepo lah!"

However, I'm not sure if it can be applied in this modern world. With the advancement of technology, information is much much easier to be obtained now compared to when the bible was written. Also, we believe that people who are knowledgeable are superior to people who are less knowledgeable. So, in a way, it is contradicting. Does this mean that the smarter we get, the more unhappy we will be??? Are we supposed to be ignorant and only cares about our own life???

Aiyooo..... so cheem one!!!

Gossip Boy

Gossip Boy here, your one and only source into the scandalous (well, not really) life of....... me!

OK, so obviously I have been watching too much Gossip Girl. I actually finished watching the whole season 1 (18 episodes) in 1 week, thanks to the long Good Friday weekend.... (which turns out not to be a really "good" friday, but that's a whole different story).

I didn't really like it when I first saw 1 episode on the plane last year, but turns out it can be addictive :P

So let's talk gossip. Spotted at YouTube, a new post from KevJumba, whom I follow from time to time.....

After seeing the video (and based on personal experiences), I kinda agree with him to some extent. I'm sorry to say this, but as the song in Avenue Q musical says... "Everyone's A Little Bit Racist". When I was young, I didn't really think too much about this. My parents lived in Indonesia their whole lives, and did not interact much with people from other countries. But now, as the world shrinks (thanks to the internet and other advancements in technology), we all have to deal with many people from various countries and cultures. Especially now that I'm working in the regional office (where I have to deal with ang-moh bosses), I personally experience incidents that sometimes makes me wonder "AM I INVISIBLE?". I'm not generalizing by saying that all angmohs are racist, but there are some that are just plain rude and disrespectful, and unfortunately I have to deal with them.

But don't fret.... if there is one thing I learn from watching gossip girl.... I'm the queen bitch king of passive aggressive around here, and I'm not backing down. 

Till next time....
xoxo
Gossip Boy

Typical workday

7.10am : Hoahmmm..... open my eyes a little bit.... Most of the time I will be conscious 5 minutes before my alarm sets off, except if I'm really really tired, or when it's weekend. My body is weird like that.

7.15am : My handphone alarm goes off. Hit the snooze button, go back to sleep.

7.30am : Last sign that I need to get up... hear my flatmate opening his curtain and going off to work. Finally get up and take a shower.

8.00am : Go to work.

8.30am : Arrive at the office. Turn on my laptop and wait 10 minutes for it to "wake up" before I can start working.

WORK [wurk] : exertion or effort directed to produce or accomplish something; labor (dictionary.com)
So what have I produce/accomplish during my work? Hmm.... good question.

5.30pm : Official working hours are over. From here onwards there are many options..... typically my after work activities will either be :
- Go to the gym
- Have dinner with friends
- Go back home and do nothing/watch tv
- Watch movie at the cinema
- Go shopping

Lately I feel like my days have become too predictable.... sometimes I'm thinking about taking up some after-work courses, but I think I'm too lazy for that haha.
Any suggestion to spice things up?

Kindness

Haven't been posting for a while.... then suddenly this morning inspiration comes to my mind....

Topic of the day is : kindness. Recently I stumbled across my friend's friend's blog post about the kindness of strangers in Singapore. You can read about it here (http://xprsso.wordpress.com/2009/03/11/the-kindness-of-strangers).
This morning I have my own similar experience... it was raining pretty hard this morning, and during the 5 minute walk from the MRT to my office, there was this girl who didn't carry an umbrella and braved the rain. She was first to reach the traffic light junction and I was right behind her. I was going to offer her to share the umbrella, but for a second there I thought about the blog post and how girls react to this kind of offer. On the other hand, offering a ride on your car in the middle of nowhere and offering to share an umbrella in the rain are two different situations. I hesitated, and luckily there was another woman who came and shared her umbrella with the girl.

So it got me thinking.... I've always tried my best to be kind/helpful to people that I know. However, there are certain unwritten rules of society that prevents me from being nice. Especially because I'm a guy. Most girls don't believe that a guy can just be nice without having an ulterior motive. Well, maybe most guys do that, but trust me, some guys are just plain nice and helpful. What is wrong with being that way?

However, looking at the other side of the coin, I can understand where this stereotype thinking is coming from. There are just too many cases of kindness gone wrong. It's a harsh world out there, and it's better to be safe than sorry.

And this leads to the never ending cycle..... because of this thinking, guys stop being nice, and girls thinks that guys are just arrogant and doesn't act all gentleman-ly.

Another interesting aspect about this 'incident' is.... what if it's reversed? Would I take the offer if someone offers to share an umbrella in the pouring rain? Although, in the first place, there is very little chance that I would be caught in the rain without an umbrella (helloo, it's Singapore!), but I think it depends on who is offering the umbrella :

1. Another guy
Chance of happening : 0.1%
Result : Unless it's hailing ice cubes, most likely NO. I mean, guys are born with ego the size of planet earth.

2. A normal looking girl
Chance of happening : 0.2%
Result : I wouldn't mind.... better than getting soaked.

3. Angelina Jolie
Chance of happening : 0.00000001%
Result : A definite YES ^_^

What do YOU think? Leave comments for discussion :)