I'm sure you guys have probably seen these already, but in case you haven't, enjoy-

I do not make it a point to follow overseas politics, but every few years I find myself unusually interested in the American presidential race. The last time, I marvelled at what even possibly made Bush a candidate, but predicted that his personable idiocy nature would be in greater favour over Al Gore's rather unlikeable persona, and unfortunately that came to pass. I wonder if this time family history will again be a risk factor for outcome: Bush Jr after Bush Sr, Clinton after Clinton. And please excuse my lame jokes as I've been through a traumatic COFM paper today.

For the record, I find Hilary Clinton contrived and I dislike the way she kinda rolls her eyes condescendingly whilst talking. It's like as if she knows a secret, and the secret is that she's SMARTER THAN YOU, BITCH! With all due respect though, she does appear way more intelligent, better spoken, more experienced, and just always makes more sense than Obama. At the start of Bill Clinton's presidency she was forced to take a backseat from her own political career because people perceived the First Lady to be controlling his decisions. I guess her Type A butch personality is not always popular with the public, but she does have an almost diabolical motivation to succeed.

And yes, Michael Moore might have over-glorified her in Sicko, but the truth is that she has always been championing universal healthcare. And I'm curious to see what she would do to turn things around if she had her way. I wonder if she can really deliver on all her promises, and whether they are even feasible in the first place.

As for Obama, I know everyone says that his idealism will help maintain America's relevance, but frankly I'm not really feeling it. Granted, I do see some similarities with JFK, but the problem with Obama is that he's not always articulate, and tends to mumble and stutter in his more spontaneous moments. And sometimes he reminds me of Bush! Just a slightly updated, younger, and ethnically diverse version of him. I do believe that he would make a good president someday, but that he just isn't the right person for the job now.

And then again Hilary's whole haughty "ready at Day One" thing is getting a bit lame, and totally not endearing her to the portion of people who just think she's too full of herself. Sure, she's like a gazillion years older and more experienced than him, but I do think that Obama probably has more humility and is more likely to "do the right thing" where difficult lobbying is concerned.

Also, I admire that he opposed Iraq back when fighting terrorism was popular, and I think that anyone who wants to end the war is a massive step up from Bush. I have always said that they were wrong to intervene without proper grounds, and imposing their values of free will on others is itself a hypocrisy.

Anyway, if you want a bit of a laugh, there's this parody of the Umbrella MTV. It's a bit lewd, but damn funny:



Lastly, wrt the republicans: I think their era was totally over at Bush. I'm greatly opposed to McCain's righteous pro-war sentiments, and honestly I think his Hanoi Hilton story is just so 2000, which was, you know, the last time he ran and lost the presidential race. As for Huckabee, there's no chance that he'll even win the nomination, which is bad because he's the most sincere of the lot, and good because I doubt a Baptist minister is the best person to lead the greatest secular nation of the world. And also, for moral reasons I am personally pro-life but I don't think there is any feasibility in overturning Roe vs Wade, and nor do I think it tackles the issue of rising teen pregnancy in the west. Which reminds me, I want to watch Juno!


p/s: From now on, I shall be typing in sentence case and adding titles to my posts! It seems that I have in fact outgrown msn grammar.

Who Are You and What Have You Done With Aragorn?


anyway, it's important to end with a good taste in the mouth, and so, may you behold the specimen below. i don't care that matt damon / patrick dempsey might have replaced him as The World's Sexiest Man, because really, they too have absolutely nothing on him...

as predicted, i am now OFFICIALLY FREAKING OUT. i've just been through the shitload of things which i still need to do, and it seems that it is just physically impossible to finish everything by the CAs. and that's considering i almost completely forgo sleep for the next 2 weeks. i am so so so f---ing screwed. my [miserable] life is over. i am going to die. argh! kill me!

i hate myself for falling prey to the clutches of such an emo boyband, but, in my defense, the lead singer ryan tedder is almost truly without any boyish good looks. facewise, at least. actually, he's kinda like issac slade from The Fray, except with better hair :P anyway, the fact that i'm not just in love with them aesthetically promotes me from being yet another infatuated fangirl. on the downside, i've become weirdly addicted to Apologize and find myself breaking into little bursts of the song at regular intervals during the day. in my eyes, today at least, One Republic can do no wrong.

also, i have to admit that the Timbaland version is definitely inferior to their original version. in fact, i'm not sure exactly what it is that's so great about Timbaland. is it his prediabetic obesity? his lack of dancing skills (remember his Promiscous Girl performance with nelly furtado)? or is it the way he infuses the most random basses and vocals and turns good songs of all genres into watered down R&B remixes?

the only good thing about the Timbaland music vid is that it features the band in their natural habitat, and their insanely talented grammy-nominated songwriter and lead singer playing the piano. perhaps it's the empathy i feel for all who've been through years of torturous scales and the world's most godawful Bach and Debussy pieces, but somehow hunky guys playing emotive piano just really tUrnS me on :D i kid, of course. or maybe not! haha, you never know.

for the sake of comparison, here are the 2 vids. make sure you check out the first one, which is the original version. i love the way the images and sequences just blend so perfectly with the music. in a sense, it's exactly the way choreography should be- made for the music, and not just sets of 8beats forced into any song that comes along.






so, apart from my new obsession (which should pass in a day or 2), life has been kinda crappy. i think i've reached the stage where i treat CAs as just another set of shitty days, and nothing to get too worked up or upset over. that being said, i am also on the verge of Freaking Out Big Time, because i have less than a week yet and i am nowhere near finishing microB (thanks to the ID lecs which i totally thought were useless), AND i have almost entire syllabuses of pharmaco and NS ahead of me. ya, and it does actually sound worse now that i've typed it out =x the good thing of the past week though, was that valentines day was really nice and... mark is so sweet! way more charming than matt bellamy. although truthfully, i never really -really- liked the Muse singer much anyway. but still.

oh! and i feel like i just HAVE to do this now because i watched the entire first season over the CNY break:

that's all for now. you know you love me! xoxo, gossip girl.

:D

the first 3 days of CNY have passed with minimal fuss, and i'm glad that the visiting is now (hopefully) over for another year or so. it's not that i'm an -entirely- antisocial misfit who'd rather stay in and youtube/sidereel her life away, it's just that i'm not so hot on all the forced pleasantries that are required during those prolonged ang-pao harvests.

it's not like i even think that ang paos are the great deal in the Chinese tradition that lots of people make them out to be, since i learnt from a young age that whatever money i get usually barely covers the losses that the parents have to bear on these trips. i just think that giving money is such an insincere way of wishing someone well- it's like saying 'here's 10 bucks worth of health for the new year'. besides, the amounts are so arbitrary. does more money = more luck? if so, are all non-chinese doomed to have nothing good happen in their lives ever? and will i go to hell for wearing black jeans on the 1st day???

i don't understand what drives perfectly rational people to collectively adhere to a set of rules that aren't even REMOTELY grounded in logical fact. it's one thing to wear bright colors on happy occassions, but to insist you don't wash your hair because it might 'wash away good luck'??? does anyone else just think that's insane? and seriously, which newborn would be able to love a mother who hasn't bathed throughout her confinement? think of the smell. and the bacteria. it's just too gross!

and another thing, is it easier to accept these baseless traditions than it is to accept evidence of divine truth? and supposing you -do- already believe in a God, how do you reconcile your religion with the various other Gods of Wealth whom the bulk of CNY traditions aim at attracting? it seems like a bit of a hypocrisy to me.

anyway, apart from being a complete wetblanket about the festivities, which by the way i am not because i just LOVE yusheng, i've also had a bit of fun. yesterday i bai nianed at mark's house and was tricked into paying a visit to his humongous dog of a german shepherd. apparently when mark says that she's 'tied up', it doesn't mean that she's in a cage. which is basically how i ran out of the kitchen completely horrified and hopping and screaming when i was greeted by this hugeass wolf-like thing barking at me. i was so scared i thought i was like going to die or something. thankfully that was the only major incident of the day, as i don't think my weak heart could have taken much more.

later on i got to catch up with gerard and vanessa at her CNY gathering, whereupon we concluded that we have just so much work to catch up with that we need to start like now. and then i discovered that gerard shares my favourite pasttime of watching Friends reruns, and that we're both midway through re-watching season 5! what a coincidence :P oh, and i've decided that i want to go to japan during the june hols. land of meiji, here i come!

as for today, i had quite a nice lunch at sushi tei in gardens, after mark came over to bai nian. and then my sis brought her stupid friends over, and jumped on me whilst i was in deep sleep. as in, she literally pounced on me over my quilt. i was so pissed that i spewed a bunch of vulgarities, called them all bloody bitches (although i have come to believe at some point that this bit was only part of my imagination) and then slammed and locked the door. at least we know who'll be winning the scary sister of the year award now, haha.

happy CNY everyone! and for those of you who just CAN'T tear yourselves away from peanut cookies and lapis and tarts and everything else that's good and yummy about the season: i feel your pain! my throat is totally sore and yet i am still compulsively downing mouthfuls and mouthfuls of horrible dry, throat-killing cuttlefish, like a machine that won't stop till the whole box is empty! but anyway, who needs a voice??? talking is so overrated man. just remember to REHYDRATE! and sleep more!

see you soon! :)