Somehow, this song always manages to touch my heart.
There comes a time When we head a certain call When the world must come together as one There are people dying And it's time to lend a hand to life The greatest gift of all
We can't go on Pretneding day by day That someone, somewhere will soon make a change We are all a part of God's great big family And the truth, you know love is all we need
[Chorus] We are the world We are the children We are the ones who make a brighter day So let's start giving There's a choice we're making We're saving our own lives It's true we'll make a better day Just you and me
Send them your heart So they'll know that someone cares And their lives will be stronger and free As God has shown us by turning stone to bread So we all must lend a helping hand
[Chorus] We are the world We are the children We are the ones who make a brighter day So let's start giving There's a choice we're making We're saving our own lives It's true we'll make a better day Just you and me
When you're down and out There seems no hope at all But if you just believe There's no way we can fall Well, well, well, well, let us realize That a change will only come When we stand together as one
[Chorus] We are the world We are the children We are the ones who make a brighter day So let's start giving There's a choice we're making We're saving our own lives It's true we'll make a better day Just you and me
Alone in darkness at 11:57 PM
Saturday, February 13, 2010
And so, Chinese New Year is here again. The festive season to enjoy your bahkwas, love letters, pineapple tarts, mandarin oranges and whatever else fits inside your mouth. And as usual, I am blessed with the privilege of enjoying something a little extra which most people dont get to in their lives. Insults about my looks and weight.
You heard that right! It is that time of the year again! So come on down and make fun of your friendly relative Austin! Going at just some calories an insult, each one is bound to touch his heart in ways you can never imagine! Dont be afraid to throw everything you have at me! I cannot imagine that there is possibly any more insults which I havent come across.
Went to both grandma's house today. And already, plenty of words thrown around about my size. I have a grandma i cant understand half the time, and today, there was this bittersweet moment where I could understand exactly what she was saying. Felt pretty good to be able to communicate at such a level. But then again, I understood her because she pointed at me and showed me this face.
Ever imagine your grandma do that? DONT.
Sighs. And it isnt even the first day of new year yet. I think the avalanche of jokes and insults will be arriving as expected tomorrow.
Gahh. No wonder I never had any particular liking for Chinese New Year.
Oh well, for those of you who do, Happy Chinese New Year. And of course, Happy Chinese New Year's Valentine's Day!
Alone in darkness at 11:11 PM
Friday, February 12, 2010
"HELLO!", I said. "HELLO!HELLO!HELLO!", a strange voice greeted me. [It just had to be 3 times. Hi My Sweetheart is proving to be an addiction that is going to be difficult to overcome.]
Oh wait, thats my voice, and those are echoes. Hahaha. Theres nobody here! If you are reading this, by any chance, you're either a pretty damn good friend or a pretty damn persistent stalker!
The cobwebs hanging around all over the place bares proof of my heartless abandonment of this once-sacred escape. This day last year, I wouldnt have, even in my wildest dreams, imagined such an extreme state of detachment from this personal space for such a prolonged period of time. I used to visit abandoned blogs and, shocked by their barren state, tell myself that there was no chance in Oompa Loompa Land this was gonna happen to mine. But alas, "what will come, will come." Well in this case, given the circumstances, you could say, "What has come, has come."
Wow, a solid 148 days. Thats how long its been since I last blogged. Hell, I even doubted my spelling of "Hello" while typing that first word of this long-overdue post. Trust me when I say I actually googled it to make sure I spelt it right. Thats how long I havent been excercising my literary abilities, let alone hold a pen, save for yesterday when I was decorating Alicia's bacteria-filled stapler which gave me sore-eyes. And also of course the travel forms required by customs during my trips overseas to Taiwan and Vietnam, but more on that in a later post.
Well, its now officially 12 am on 12 of February 2010. Which also quite officially means I have exactly 59 Days, 10 Hours and 45 Minutes till I am off to serve the country. Hopefully I have more luck with guns than I did with books. Sighs. I started feeling the dwindling of the time I have left since some of the guys went in last week. Living life knowing that the "end" is near is no joke. No offense intended, but you literaly feel like you have fucking genital cancer and that your days are numbered. Friends who fall into the before-mentioned cancer-patient category, Im sure you realise how sacred life is, and how precious the time you have with friends, family and loved ones is. Well, it doesnt take cancer to realise that. Enlisting for National Service tends to have the same effect on people.
Okay, please allow me to digress. I KNOW some people are already in Tekong, and I KNOW some people are going in even earlier than I am. I KNOW, okay? And I plead temporary ignorance. So please, just grant me the luxury of wallowing in self-pity and drowning in exaggerated misery.
Now, back to my original point. As enlistment day draws ever nearer, there seems to be this ticking and tocking of the clock ringing inside your ears that just feels like its getting ever louder. Thinking about the time you have left just makes you really really sad. Its a kind of sadness that neither endorphin-releasing chocolates nor Gelare waffles with raspberry ice cream can make any better. Trust me, I tried. But on the other hand. Choosing not to think about it brings about this doubt that you're never going to be making productive use of whatever time you have left. So you're stuck in this in-between lala land which is somewhat like being made to choose between a certain DM T or a certain CT C, if you get my drift. Dang. Listening to Joe Hisaishi's Ashitaka Sekki from Mononoke while churning out this post is making me sob like a 5 year-old girl.
No, of course Im kidding.
Anyway, enough of enlistment talk for today. I shall reserve that tolerant heart of yours for my national service rambling on another day of pre-army blues.
While waiting for the bus just now, I noticed a phenomenon that never really caught my attention.
Im sure everyone is familiar with the the bus interchange culture which exists as a result of Singaporeans' unwillingness to stand in queue for their buses. Be it laziness or convenience in the cases when commuters have more than one choice of bus, more often than not, many are hanging around the queues of their buses but seldom in them. Yet for some reason, they honourably obey a certain hierachy of boarding priority by patiently allowing those countrymen who bothered to get in line to board the bus first. That, I knew existed. [On a side note, how "Stand-arounds" are able to patiently wait for "Queuers" to board yet push and tussle with each other for a chance to board first, I do not know. But its sure as balls makes for a good laugh.]
What I never realised was that this boarding hierachy consisted of more than 2 parties. Other than the "Queuers" and "Stand-arounds", there exists this third unknown entity which I will now call the "Queuers-who-queue-in-the-wrong-queue". These people are the ones who have the tendency to exercise illogical behaviour. While they realise that they have more than one bus option, they still delibrately opt to stand in line for one of the buses available to them, all for the chance of priority boarding on at least one of the buses they are able to board. Of course there are those who genuinely enter the wrong queue, but they are the minority as far as Im concerned. And if you are one of them, stop cursing me with black magic and PUT DOWN THAT VOODOO DOLL. I have no issue with you.
Anyway, as I was saying, those belonging to "Queuers-who-queue-in-the-wrong-queue" often resort to the art of extensive body-contact and toe-trampling to get out of line when their other bus arrives first. What surprises me more is how the "Stand-arounds" are so willing to accept their baseless assertions over a higher boarding priority, just because they bothered to stand in a queue, albeit a wrong one.
The Singaporean mindset never ceases to amaze me.
But as a Singaporean, even though I havent the slightest idea why this is happening..
I just follow lorr.
Alone in darkness at 12:00 AM
Doomsday
Profile
Name: Austin Tay Zijing
Birthday: 11th April 1990, Aries
School: Tao Nan School, Victoria School, Temasek Junior College
E-mail: tay.zijing@gmail.com
MSN Messenger: tay.zijing@gmail.com
Friendster Profile: Here
Bingbox Profile: Here
Location: Singapore, Bedok
Favourite Sport: Soccer
Favourite Club: Manchester United
Favourite Euro 2008 Team: Portugal
