thebemusedphotog.com

December 25. Birth of the Lord Jesus Christ. Christmas Day. Wenyinyin. Imaginary snow. Incessant rain. Fat ol’ man in a red coat. Sleighbells. Carols. Gifts shopping. Parties. Weird recycle-able exchange presents. Logcakes. Roasted turkey & cranberry sauce. Fake fir trees with black ornaments. Church presentations. Christmas Service. Many many many church/christmas activities.

What does Christmas remind you of?

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Exactly 30 days to Christmas…And yet it seems like Christmas has already arrived.

• Toastbox and Banquet are already blasting christmas tunes.
• My obiang office building has put up the sad solitary tree, with the exact same decorations as last year’s. They probably just store it standing up.
• I’ve bought at least 4 presents for the family and close friends already.
• & Starbucks has started selling their Christmas blend.

Lately, I’ve been having breakfast with Darz at Starbucks before work. It gets me to work on time, and it forces him to wake up early to go to school. We’d get our freshly brewed Christmas blend and caramel macadamia nut muffin (Both come in gold foil packaging for christmas), and sit down to eat and chat. It’s the best way to start my morning.

Don’t ask me why a half-zonked, tall, tubby, and sloppily dressed boyfriend makes good company. Maybe it’s cos he hugs like a giant teddy bear.

It’s the moments between breakfast… when i stop to take in the christmas decor, christmas music, christmas merchandise, and hear my zoned out boyfriend telling me to hurry up and cut open the muffin so he can eat it with his coffee… that i think that Christmas has arrived.

And it’s nice…

My most highly recommended CD of the year…

Jars of Clay - Greatest Hits

I know Jars of Clay is an old band. I know most of these songs aren’t new. And, I know you’re only getting 14 songs for the price of the CD. This is just a compilation of some (not all) of their best songs. A great little pick-me-up album to rediscover the magic of Jars of Clay.

Track Listing:

1. Flood
2. Love Song for a Savior
3. Like a Child
4. Worlds Apart
5. Crazy Times
6. Frail
7. Unforgetful You
8. I Need You
9. Show You Love
10. Amazing Grace
11. God Will Lift Up Your Head
12. Dead Man (Carry Me)
13. Work
14. Love Is the Protest

It has the classic “Flood”, and the pop cult favourites “Love Song for a Saviour” and “I Need You”. Some of my new favourites include “Worlds Apart”, “Crazy Times”, “Frail”, and “Show You Love”. “Love is the Protest” is the only new song in the album, and it’s a great rocking song.

You’re probably wondering why I picked this band out of all the popular worship bands (read: Hillsong), and how it saved my soul.

[For the people who are gonna fault me for blaspheming my christian faith saying "Christ saved your soul! Not some band!!" Yes, I know that... I'm using the phrase as a figure of speech.]

At about the time I found this album, I was getting fatigued by the razzle dazzle worship songs of said popular worship bands. The worship experience was always great, all that jumping around, cheering, getting a high. But I felt dry. Empty. Lonely. I didn’t feel like the high flying, holy-moley christian that these bands portrayed and celebrated. And yet, I wasn’t going to throw in the towel. I just needed something else.

So I started looking for other bands. Bands that I felt would sing about secular things, or real things. Bands that struggled in their faith, the way I struggled in my faith. Bands that still chose to sing about God’s greatness, trust in His Faithfulness even when they could not see Him, hear Him, or feel Him. Bands that knew their God.

And I found this album.

“Worlds Apart” was the answer I was looking for. Jars of Clay was the struggling band, straddling both the mainstream music scene, and the christian music scene. The frontman himself admitted his own weaknesses and struggles in their website. And I found music I could finally identify with.

It wasn’t just their forthcoming and honest lyrics that I liked. Jars of Clay were famous among my non-christian musician friends for their beautiful acoustic guitar riffs. I remember atheist friends passing along chords for Jars of Clay songs and trying to teach them to me. With this album, I finally realized why they were so intrigued.

So yes, if you’re interested in trying something out of the usual Hillsong fare, get this album.

Or you can come borrow this from me. Whichever.

I discovered a cool new type of metal… Gun metal

And yes, it comes in the form of a cool watch too.

My dear SL was in a state of after-midnight delirium when she asked me this qn.

I love being asked something like this because I know I’d annoy a horde of people with my reply. Simply because that horde of people would do and think in the conventional manner. And I refuse to be anything like them.

My romance is NOT found…

• In a fancy piece of jewellery, because it doesn’t take the creativity of a gnat to buy one.
• In a fancy restaurant candle lit dinner, because there is no effort required except to sign the check.
• In a trip to a popular romantic destination, because EVERYONE’S been there before.

… and some other nonsense things that I don’t care for but a lot of people probably do.

Romance should be about unique experiences between two unique individuals. Doing things because the couple enjoys doing them. Not doing things because they are romantic things to do. Or because the character in the movie did it and it looked romantic.

Romance for the sake of romance is no romance at all.

So what is my romance?

My romance is…

• Going to pick up stuff from a friend’s place and taking a long detour, through Henderson Waves at night, to get there.
• Watching Hamilton blow a tyre and Massa’s engine die at the 3rd last lap, and arguing about which is dumber.
• Bringing my niece out with the family and hearing her call him “shu shu” for the first time in her life.

Do they do that in movies? No…

Would most people think it’s romantic? No…

Do I care? No.

*drool*

I’ve loved the Mont Blanc diamond ever since it came into existence. Not because I’m a Mont Blanc fan (which i’m not), nor because it’s expensive (which it is), but because someone somewhere ingeniously managed to cut a diamond into the shape of the Mont Blanc flower. It’s terribly clever.

It’s a pity though. Mont Blanc has never come up with a line of jewellery, featuring this diamond, that I’ve actually liked. The diamond always looks like an after-thought, either too tiny, or sticking out like a sore thumb. Nothing that makes me go, “Ooo, I gotta have that!”

So for now, I’m just gonna admire this flower shaped diamond by itself. And call it a “ya ya”, the way my niece says “flower”.

a thousand apologies to the avid readers of tbp.com

yes, I’m still alive, albeit a wee bit busy with actually having a life and more importantly… a job.

will start updating this place soon. i have tons of stories to write about, and pictures to upload and to distribute to friends and colleagues. (and yes, many of them have already given up on ever seeing their pictures.)

till then… ~cheers

p.s. why DO people end with “cheers” in every corporate email? i dun geddit. it’s like you wanna be seen as a serious drinker, always with a beer mug or wine glass in hand…

Apologies on this horribly back dated post. I couldn’t figure how to write it right, and then work got really busy and I couldn’t even try.

But anyway, this post is about valentine’s day. Mine, of course. And my good friends are all going “??!!!” right about now.

Cos I hate valentine’s day.

It’s the one day of the entire year that I don’t want to be on a date. The ridiculously priced flowers, the ugly and completely useless heart-shaped presents, the overly-priced bad dinners. I don’t need to go on a date with every single couple in the country. It just doesn’t seem very special anymore.

So as a rule of thumb, I don’t celebrate it. Last year, I think I worked through it, and Yk bought Cafe Verona to enjoy at home.

But we happened to celebrate it this year. And I must say, I rather liked it.

It wasn’t your conventional/planned vday, it just happened. We were going for one of his good friend’s family member’s wake at JE, so we met up at the station (the unplanned meeting). I found his favourite ‘fsck it’ notebook at popular and got two for him (the unplanned present). Then we got hungry and decided to get 2 $2.50 mee siam from FoodFare (the unplanned dinner) and sat down on stone benches at the bus interchange to eat and watch the buses rumble by (the unplanned date).

The $2.50 mee siam

It smelled like mummy’s homemade mee siam, which is why we bought it… and it tasted almost as good too…

Dar dar devouring the mee siam

That’d be me and my mee siam, with FoodFare behind me

I enjoyed it thoroughly. We don’t get a simple meal at a bus interchange like that very often. And although it was vday, I wasn’t reminded of it. We had none of that commercialised vday trash. We just got time to enjoy nice food, an interesting dinner location and most importantly, each other’s company.

So for that, I guess vday this year wasn’t too bad at all.

… questioning everything you’ve ever believed and done in your life.

… not being able to taste perfectly good Starbucks after a bad quarrel.

… crying yourself to sleep under the covers.

… looking for a good song to savour a bad mood and discovering that all the radio stations simultaneously decided to play bad music.

… feeling awkward and weird in the company of people.

… screaming your heart out alone in the car.

… having so much to say but finding no one to say it to, because everyone around you is too involved in your life and you don’t want to worry any of them.

Can anyone change so drastically that even their nature and their behaviour bears no resemblance to what they were before?

i blog when i’m bored. i’m bored when i don’t work. i should go back to work.

Today, I grieve at the passing of a loved one.

He gave all his years and dedication to our company. Working tirelessly, day after day, resting only when the rest of us did. He was never fazed by the constant changes in the editorial team, and the changes in partners. He worked without a word of complaint, only giving his best

He was a dear friend to me. A great partner at work. Although I had to admit we had our differences at the start, exchanged several vulgar words, we managed to work through that, and then he was an indispensable part of my working life.

Some people said I became biased towards him after awhile, preferring to consult his expertise on my personal work over anyone else’s. But I couldn’t help it. I had become so familiar with him that it was almost second nature to have him around to help me. 

On the first of February this year, at 12.15pm, he finally decided it was time for him to depart. Without any warning, he gave up his last breath. There were no signs of sickness or weakness, or any signs of aging. He was strong till the very last assignment. And I was there with him.

He was greatly loved, and he shall be greatly missed.

Rest in peace, my dear Canon EOS D60.

Work is never gonna be the same without you.