No pictures from last night unfortunately, but I will miss all of you and Sams. Hope everyone survives our TK obsessions, looming deadlines, tank-repairing and Britney anticipation. So till then, much love! xxx

As September ends, this marks several things. Firstly, I have completed my mandatory trip to Malaysia. I'm not sure if I'm considered Malaysian, because apparently somewhere in the dusty (Oh Mom forbid) drawers of my home, there lies a Malaysian citizenship certificate belonging to me. In any case, comments about the trip shall be kept to a minimum, because I do not wish to be detained for 2 years under the ISA.

Secondly, the packing begins! There appears to be (minimal, yet present) space in my suitcase, although the impending arrival of shoes and miscellaneous items seem likely to complicate things.

Packing light is so much prettier. :(

Thirdly, I did not get local pens in the end because I was too lazy to walk from AMK hub to the Popular probably about 400m away, which saddens me, but at the same time I am giam and also maybe it's time to get used to overpriced British pens.

Fourthly, I really think the horoscope on iGoogle is highly accurate.

Fifthly, where has N disappeared to?

Sixthly, I want a preppy blazer. :(

So in light of the recent financial turmoil (no, I am not going to write a post pretending that I have enough intellectual credibility to completely dissect the situation), I just had to share the following blurb from Bloomberg, because it really is quite funny.

From: Bright Side of a Total Financial Market Collapse
Point #4: We have lots of new houses.
Not all of them have people in them, sadly, but that's a minor detail. Even better, no one has had to pay for them, and probably never will.

[read more]

On the other hand, as a typical university undergraduate who has been impressioned upon from a young age that i-banking is The Lucrative Industry, the recent financial crisis has got several implications.

1. After hearing from good old cousin Pete (not a real name) that being in the financial industry can earn you big bucks, I have not considered any other career choice.
2. After working on my CV for the past 5 years to get myself a prestigious finance internship in my next summer, it all seems irrelevant now that these firms no longer exist.
3. As I convince myself that fewer firms just means greater prestige and greater competition, the share prices of these firms continue to tumble like a stack of Jenga blocks.

Quite simply, for the average undergrad, I wonder if recent events have just translated into a complete alteration of the all-too-vital internship landscape for next summer. In the coming months, the university career fair will be missing the prominent Lehman Brothers (I think I still have some kind of freebie from them). Other prominent high-flyers might not choose to be there. It's weird how just a couple of weeks ago I had signed up for my internship application account, and now how "I am very keen in experiencing for myself first hand the intensity and excitement in the front office of an investment bank" just seems to take on a whole new level and to be honest, just doesn't quite cut it anymore.

In last year's Asia-Pacific Careers fair which CUMSA organised, only finance companies were featured, with the clear assumption that that was where young undergrads' priorities lay. What I'm keen to know is whether these priorities are going to change in the midst of billions of buckeroos flying left right and centre.

I mean, I don't mean to be myopic, but I think Wall Street should get its act together, for all the recent drama is causing several young and hopeful undergraduates to reconsider their future in a way like they've never done before. That, is peril for the average 20 year old and the future of our nation.

So yesterday being bored (wow, this is looking like such a trend), I decided to configure my iGoogle as my homepage, using this as a very nice background for it. You know, the whole Japanese sakura, origami-like feel can actually be quite therapeautic.

And obviously being me, a very very proud Scorpio, I have to have a daily horoscope as part of my iGoogle homepage. So today's horoscope reads:

Positive feelings about yourself allow you to feel better about others in your life, too. Normally, you want your friends to be reliable and can get upset when they are not. Now, however, you are more accepting of them because you are not feeling insecure. Even if your relationships are working out well, you still should take the time to communicate your appreciation.

I take this as a sign that my wounded soul is being healed from within. Thank you, iGoogle for teaching me to open my heart.

I think I have decided what my problem is. My problem is that I'm bitter and I'm annoyed that I'm bitter because bitterness is really the summation of wallowing in self-pity and blaming the rest of the world for it but yourself. I googled 'how not to be bitter', and I got results to do with chocolate, Jennifer Aniston and a quote which read "If life were not so bitter, revenge would not be sweet." Hm, now wouldn't that bring about the desired results.

I hate the people who brought about changes (possibly permanent) to my life, and I hate that they probably think I'm over it. I hate that they are happy, and I hate that the rest of the world is happy, and I hate that okay while I've got a beautiful relationship and all, without it I am nothing. I hate that if I run into them, there would be exchanges of "Hey oh my gosh, it's been so long! How was your summer?" and I would have to be all smiley when deep down inside I don't really give a shit. And yes, I did use the word 'hate', or okay fine, temper it by substituting 'hate' with 'don't care much for'.

I think I hate the world (or at least this part of it) so much that I can't even be bothered to find new friends, because a) I'm very happy with the ones I have right now and b) I have no time for this whole pretentious crap of making friends just because I need to keep myself happy and satisfied. Oh wow, no wonder no one would become my friend.

Then I look at the new friends I have made over the summer and I wonder, why can't things be that easy all the time? Maybe the worst thing is that it is to a large extent true that I have brought all this upon myself. "Dug my own grave", as one of them so kindly put it.

Anyway, why have I written all of this? Because when googling, someone in Yahoo answers suggested I write down everything I was feeling. Hm, it works... marginally. But ok whatever, the first step to a cure is self-admission. I admit I am bitter, and I wish to eradicate this bitterness. Hence, I shall try to live with purpose and in so doing find new purposes and search for the finer things in life. I will rise above. I will rise above my feelings of bitterness, rise above these people who are the cause of my bitterness, and view them collectively as peasants unworthy of my time, effort and emotion.

I suppose being bitter might not always be bad if it gives you yummy bitter lemonade.

Does one have to be a prat to get over one's bitterness? Anyway, I'm convinced somehow, that life this year will be better, in spite of my telling myself that term after term.

The other day, I was looking at a friend's blog and I realise damn, taking nice pictures from other places is a swell, cheap and easy way of making your blog look pretty! Since I'm a sucker for pretty things, I have decided I should source for nice pictures so that this page can be more pleasing to the eye.


Haha okay, I'm so not used to this. That however, is the mod camera strap from Design Doma. Okay, I'm not here to rave about um camera straps though, Design Doma has to-die-for stationery and it's really been a while since I've visited that omg-so-cute-I-can-spend-2-hours-in-here Korean stationery store in AMK Hub.

What strikes me most about Design Doma is this whole vintage element that I can only hope to emulate. I know all this I'm-so-into-old-Hollywood thing is highly pretentious (I mean like how many Blair Waldorf's can there be right?), but in all honesty there is something rather appealing about old bicycles, bad hairdos and faded colours. So let me leave you with my must-own diary/planner for the year 2008/2009.

Gorgeous, huh? Now that's one way to make planning less of a chore.

So I'm going down this all-too-familiar path of writing the First Post - saying that oh this is a brand new year, and I would love to keep people updated about my life if they are interested, and more importantly, this is an outlet to hopefully vent as little frustration about my life as possible and also share the happy things with those dear to me back home, etc etc. Okay whatever, this is so yesterday. (This, my friends is also known as Praeteritio)

Okay, down to more concrete things, which I prefer to do in list form because it is more organised and I shall make it a point this year to believe in organisation.

1. I depart sunny Singapore on the 29th of September with both a fond and heavy heart.
2. I make my yearly what-almost-seems-like-a-pilgrimage trip to Malaysia from 20 - 25th September, only this time we go to Genting for... one day, in what appears to be an attempt to disguise this trip as a yay-inducing vacation.
3. I am too lazy to tell people about my new intent to start blogging again, so if you're reading this it means yay! - I have made progress in stripping myself of laziness.

Anyway, more posts coming up on my unexciting life, and the far more exciting world that's going on outside my 4 walls. This is what happens when you're holed up in your room for one whole day and have absolutely nothing to do other than to talk to yourself on the Internet. Hey, it does stay kinda fun for a while.