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This cropped up on my "Quote of the Day" corner in iGoogle:

"I'm not a vegetarian because I love animals; I'm a vegetarian because I hate plants." - A Whitney Brown

I don't often discuss local news headlines because I, like many others, am quite apathetic about the political scene. However, here are some recent headlines that have formed the basis of many conversations:

1) MUSLIM PROTESTORS DECAPITATE COW IN PROTEST OF THE BUILDING OF A TEMPLE: Malaysian lawmakers have condemned a group of Muslim protesters who trampled on a severed cow’s head in protest at the building of a Hindu temple, and remained defiant on Sunday over the act. In the latest religious dispute to erupt in multi-cultural Malaysia, local media said 50 Muslims on Friday took the head of the cow — a sacred animal for Hindus — to the central Selangor state government office and stamped on it.

2) MODEL SENTENCED TO CANING FOR DRINKING ALCOHOL: The case of Kartika Sari Dewi Shukarno has riveted Malaysia in recent weeks after she was sentenced to six strokes of the cane for consuming alcohol in public at a hotel bar in Pahang, the home state of Najib Razak, the country’s urbane prime minister. It is the first time that such a punishment has been ordered for a woman in Malaysia for any offence.

And filed under "Oddly Enough" in Reuters:

3) NO MUSLIMS AT BLACK EYED PEAS GIG: Muslims in Malaysia have been barred from attending a concert by U.S. hip hop band the Black Eyed Peas sponsored by Guinness which is owned by the world's biggest spirits group Diageo. The move comes after a Malaysian Islamic court sentenced a 32-year Muslim woman to be caned after she was caught drinking beer in a hotel and at a time when an opposition Islamic party has moved against beer sale

(All obtained from different news sources)

Last day at the job today. I have learned to:

- keep up with deadlines
- work under pressure
- talk a lot more rubbish
- write equity research reports minus the difficult financial substance seeing as how I have no prior knowledge of stocks
- stay focused while chatting on MSN, tweeting and blogging simultaneously. I am the mother of all multitaskers although my boss doesn't think so.
- how to quickly snap MSN shut when the boss rolls around
- get my boss two drinks in 2 seconds

After 1.5 months of having to wake up at ungodly hours, I will finally get to sleep in for another two weeks. Damn, I miss my bed.

I am not maudlin about packing up and leaving; I am overly used to the fact that almost everybody who enters my life is but an ephemeral presence. In due time, most will become erstwhile entities, if not faded memories trapped at the back of my head. Long ago, when I was 13, a much older friend of about 20 told me (I was so much more mature when I was 13) this in all her sagaciousness. That is, however, not to say that I don't treasure what friendships and relationships I've had and have. People forget; out of sight, out of mind.

Yet, I still cling to the naive idea that if someone is meant to come back into your life, whether you meet him or her while shopping for painkillers in the pharmacy, having dinner with your children some 13 years from now or walking down a busy street tomorrow, then he or she will. It is, indeed, sort of like saying, "let's leave it up to fate" and wistfully hope for a film noir star-crossed ending to a certain chapter of your life. Most days, I challenge that in a caustic tone: "your fate is entirely up to you!" But on moonlit nights I wonder who gazes upon the same glowing orb that I do, and I think of everyone who has ever come into my life, and what has become of them. And there in my mind they will remain. Until some 13 years from now, perhaps.

To the kind person who is currently reading this:

1) How do I stop this outbreak of zits?! It's pissing the hell out of me :(

2) For anyone who lives/has been to LA and/or San Diego

a) what's good to eat? I am open to absolutely anything and everything on a reasonable budget. I don't really believe in fine cuisine - neither can I afford it.
b) where do I go for awesome affordable vintage shops?
c) any other MUST SEEs?

I ate marmalade on crackers this morning before stumbling in to work at 615 in the morning.

It's irritating how the acerbic taste of citrus still lingers, like cruel words waiting to cookie crumble from the roof of my mouth.

Everyone in the firm has been coming up to me today and saying, "Omg, you're in the prime of your life, man. How I wish I was young and having a ball again...you know, doing batshit crazy things like having strings of girlfriends, snorting lines of coke and drinking like a fish".

Then it occurred to me that the best three years of my life have gone by and I don't have a gym bag full of crazay stories to tell. Not that I want to have strings of girlfriends, snort lines of coke or drink like a fish. Crazy does not merely encompass such things. I could climb Mount Everest...that'd be crazy. I could train for the Kona Ironman...that'd be crazy too. Well, whatever. I like to think I age slowly and have moral high ground most days, contrary to what some people may think.

We were talking about the following photo today over the wonder that is MSN -


- and I said I wanted a pet panda after staring at the delightfully fuzzy thing. Mind you, I am hardly into furry miniscule creatures and slobbering animals, unlike most other girls I know; I am a coffee-drinking, alt-rock-listening, platform-loving sort of person.

Anyway, he suggested colouring a chow chow black and white so that it could potentially look like a panda.

We then proceeded to name this potential panda-dog Zoe for reasons only we can laugh about until the day we die.

I love online shopping for several reasons:

My stupid Mac hung halfway while skyping yesterday and now it refuses to start up like a normal computer; it takes about 20 years to load and even then it hangs halfway. Conclusion: it serves absolutely no purpose right now.

!! Fknhskfnklsdfmsdl FML.

It now lies helplessly in the hands of what I like to call a "Computer Beng", although the dude works in an Apple store in Pavilion, not Accomix in Taman Segar. I fail at fixing computers. Guh.

Maybe now I can move on to non-computer related activities in the evenings, such as reading a book, watching TV and - heaven forbid - socializing!

My ideal outfit! I reckon I have contemplated buying all the things that she is wearing - from the Marc by Marc clutch (I wanted it in blue) to the white Zara blazer to the all-bow-down-and-worship Acne Atacoma platform wedges. And it looks like she is wearing my Topshop bandage skirt.

Now I want to go home and change :(

A: I'm eating cereal - so healthy!
L: Depends what kinda cereal right :D Frosties is good...milo cereal..
A: Bran with raisins. Yum.
L: Eee so healthy! Issit gross?
A: No I eat this everyday
L: Bran doesn't sound tasty though. I used to feed my horse bran when he was sick

I spent the morning reading this gargantuan thread of comments HERE (after having done all my assigned tasks, of course; I am an awesome intern kthx) flaming famed fashion bloggers like Rumi and luxirare.

Again, I bring up the pertinent question at hand:

Why the fuck do people take others so seriously?

Granted, plenty of these bloggers don't particularly express themselves in words very well, but what the fuck right nobody reads anymore these days. They're smart, they KNOW how to garner attention the way Paris Hilton amassed a ridiculous amount of attention with her badly made sex tape! Who reads whole essays discussing the volatility of Middle East politics anymore except gnarly old professors at universities who make money from writing such essays?

Granted, these popular bloggers may be filthy loaded rich and actually have enough to buy a pair of sky high YSLs or Chanel lace booties as and when they fancy. But if they have an ex-model mom/rich husband/hot photographer boyfriend to mooch off, hurray for them! Three pairs of Chloe boots in different colours doesn't make a difference to their bank balances. Sickening, yes, but shoes are harmless. Why isn't anyone deriding rich teens who openly abuse drugs? Shoes >> drugs. And really, what difference does bitching about how many shoes Jane has make anyway? She STILL and always WILL have an entire wall filled with shoes!

This is all a bit like reality TV but on the Internet. You know it's wrong and a fucking waste of time but you watch "Keeping Up With The Kardashians" anyway. Or "Malaysian Dreamgirls". (Hi ex-housemates)

Fashion blogs are probably not worth 120 300+ word mini essays filled with unpleasant comments, though. There are better things to put our time to, like actually earning money so you can buy some of these nice expensive things instead of just ridiculing others INCESSANTLY for owning them and photographing them on a daily basis. If anything, looking at beautiful things should make you want to work harder next time. As my ex-housemates like to say, "Why the hell are you so life-less?"

I read such things with an objective and sarcastic point of view. For every comment, there is a sarcastic subtitle somewhere beneath it in my head. Or maybe just a plain "LOL". After all, where would the world be if nobody got annoyed for no apparent reason at all? I don't think anyone would have evolved by 2050. We'd just be a bunch of really dull apes scratching each other aimlessly.

It's kind of hard existing in a corner trying to do your own thing - churning out reports, finding random facts about companies you've never heard of until 2 seconds ago - when one boss tells you to not go on MSN while the other blatantly does so and reads papers during morning meetings.

This is all heavily reminiscent of my childhood when my mother played The Bad Parent and my father the Good Parent.

Okay fine so it is a bit rude to read papers during meetings, but my brain wakes up upon reading the latest juice on Teoh Beng Hock instead of the latest on equities spoken in a language from another world. People in this business take themselves too seriously. Honestly. People in bloody general take themselves too seriously.

On another slightly more superficial note, my shoes from geisha rock are here!

A lot of people my age often blog about feeling jaded and bored with life. I can't exactly exclude myself from that lot, unfortunately. However, sometimes when life hands you lemons, you grab the lemons and squeeze all the fucking juice out of them.

Having said that, I am feeling particularly excited for two reasons today:

1) I will be flying to San Diego via LA this coming 11th September. The date is not on purpose, I think, because orientation starts on the 16th. What better way to discover America than exploring the city filled with blonde woo girls in skinny jeans and soy chai latte drinkers! My mother is feeling particularly anxious because she fears not being able to eat at will. She may be right. I am an unabashed and oftentimes hypocritical victim of this Hollywood need to be svelte and vain.

1a) I was on americanapparel.net; this always gets me going. I am also very excited at being able to visit The Wasteland and LA flea markets without worrying about the weather like I used to back in London.

1b) I have grand plans to visit Boston and New York in December. I think I've watched enough Sex and the City to get my jakun* levels all revved up. Not to mention about all the things people have been telling me about outlet shopping outside NYC.

1bi)I also want to eat a hot dog from a roadside stall on a rainy day in NY. I don't care what people say about the abundance of Michelin starred restaurants in NY and how I must try this and that place. Cheap street food is always the way to go.

1c) I want to hit up Vegas and pull a Katy Perry a la "Waking Up In Vegas" - me + Vegas = $$$$$

2) Tomorrow marks the start of what I'm hoping will be a mad capped crazy weekend. Heh. Here's to turning 21.

*jakun - actually an aboriginal race of the Malay peninsula, but over the years this term has come to mean something to the effect of "village chump" i.e. someone who hasn't seen much of the world.

I never realized how shout-y I get when I don't eat.

Wait, that's a lie.

I do realize, but I still don't eat anyway until someone forces me to because they can't take the shouting anymore.

ooh, have been assigned first get-out-there-and-interview-people task re: launching of PNB's Amanah Saham 1Malaysia Fund.

Need to engineer ways to cleverly manipulate people so they don't think I'm a nosy intern trying to pry information out of them. I am no lawyer.

Singapore in no particular order:








Tramped up and down air conditioned shopping malls in my spanking new pastel green and fuchsia French Soles. Was surveyed by a random man from Herbalife. Happily ate taro pies from BK upon arrival because I asked for it and I got it. Sat in the passenger seat pestering the already flustered and confused driver in more ways than one. Went to Mustafa at midnight and admired the shine of gilded Citizen watches in white fluorescent light and almost stepped on a rat in the cereal aisle. First night, ordered 40 satay sticks, 1 large plate of fried hokkien mee, 2 plates of vegetables (because apparently I don't eat anything else, he says), 1 plate of o chien - all for 2 people. We took about 90% of the food away because I can't eat that much since nobody really force feeds me anymore :( Second night, similar story only +3 other friends. Visited the comic book shop and oohed and aahed at the assortment of Lord of the Rings figurines I've been missing my whole life. Paid homage to Topshop Ion Orchard and came out with a pair of bright pink leather brogues I'm absolutely dying to wear but haven't because my spanking new pastel green and fuchsia French Soles are too cute to pass up - for now. Had my first filet o fish yesterday at someone's insistence. I left for home soon thereafter and I felt bereft, for the second time in two months. Sigh.