The Exclamation Mark Blog!

What the hell?! I was at my cousin's housewarming party on saturday, and his mother (my aunt) gave me 2 CDs as my Christmas present. The first was Twin Cinema by The New Pornographers, and Get Behind Me Satan by the White Stripes. I had already earlier opened the Twin Cinema album to take a listen to it.

When I reached my cousin's house, I left both CDs in a plastic bag and left it on his table, in his room. I soon proceeded to use his computer after that, since he asked me to help him take over his game of Dota. One would of course think the table is a safe place to put your CD, considering it is your cousin's room after all. But after my cousin took it out once to inspect it, and put it back, it mysteriously disappeared after I got off from the computer.

I only had my Twin Cinema album left in my plastic bag. Bloody freaking hell. I searched high and low for it but still couldn't find. I asked my cousins to find their bags but still it was nowhere to be found.

Then I remembered I was alone in the room with my cousin's cousin (in other words, my distant relative) at one point of time. And since I was so engrossed in the computer game, he might have took advantage of the moment to steal it away. It may be bad or presumptious of me to jump to such conclucsions, but the circumstances point to that scenario I'm having in my head.

BAH!!! WHOEVER STOLE MY CD, MAY MAGGOTS EAT UP YOUR FLESH!!! MORON!

Christmas just whizzed by me this year. Blink an eye, PooF! and it's gone. Then again, that's pretty much the case every year isn't it?

I'm not sure if I did do anything significant this year. Afterall, you don't call Christmas shopping and present exchanging activities of much significance right?

I actually kind of regretted not writing enough cards to send out to my friends, especially those in my church. I got so caught up in frantically finding gifts for people and myself that I actually forgot the one most genuine way to show my appreciation for others. I in return, received a huge pile of cards! The feeling is just great; to read about the wonderful things a person has to say to you, to let you know your significance in his/her life.

All the same, sometimes I just can't shake off this intense sense of loneliness while its Christmas. Is there something wrong with me?

Sorry for the lack of updates and not catching up with my blog reading. Dota addiction is a major impediment and deterrent from me engaging in any blogging related activities. But since Marilyn has bugged me to update, this post is half obligatory, half voluntary. :D

I sometimes wonder the whole idea of Christmas.

To Christians, it is one of the most reverred and anticipated occasions in the entire year. Obviously, it doesn't take a genius to realize that it's the day of celebration on which Christ was born. As such, to people who believe in Him, it's natural there will be some joy that comes along with the occasion, because we're reminded of Christ's sacrifice for mankind.

But I'll save the preaching to the choir.

It's just that in the past few years, I've always felt upset, even mildly repulsed, that people all over the world are celebrating Christmas, and yet do not believe in Christ. Non-Christians are all partaking in the tangible Christmas spirit - a practice that was once oxymoronic - and are in a perpetual celebratory mood during this whole festive season. Merry making, mindless fun, flagrant gluttony, etc.

It's just weird to me why people would want to celebrate Christmas when they're not Christians. It's ok to be in a festive mood, since this is about the end of the year and the new year is about to start, and of course the oft self-delusionary conceptions of new beginnings in the coming new year are the predominant thoughts/sentiments on the minds of people, when often change is determinant on hard work and not whether the new year has started.

As ms beautifuk mentioned, it is totally ridiculous for non Christians to celebrate Christmas, with a rationale along the lines of "Chinese do not celebrate Deepavali, so non-Christians should not celebrate Christmas too".

I think that's rather true, though I'm not in complete agreement. I think its normal to feel cheery and all perked up during the festive season, but to celebrate Christmas without a belief in, or ignorance of its true meaning would be a little weird. If you really wanted gift exchanges, you could have carried out out any time in the year!!! RIDICULOUS!

I'm just praying people will actually start to celebrate Christmas for what it truly is, and understand its real significance, so it doesn't just become a blatant excuse for one to engage in hedonistic behaviour and licentious, overly self-indulgent lifestyles.

These few years, I have my fair share of great presents from my relatives, so I shall not complain too much anyway. But no matter what I receive, it just doesn't seem to compare to the best gift in the whole world - that comes from above, which I'm reminded of everytime time Christmas comes.

****

Christmas crowds are a serious nightmare. Throngs of people pounding the streets, vehemently and relentlessly scouring shop after shop for presents for friends and family, and of course, themselves.

Too much attention is being given on the presents given. It's like the giving of presents has been conflated with the true purpose of Christmas. The presents are an indication on the giver's part that the receiver is important to him to some degree. But why not just a nice thanksgiving message? I believe sincere, handwritten words sometimes speak more than routine present giving.

I'm going out tomorrow to complete my last minute shopping. HELL NO WAY I AM GOING TO GET STUCK IN THE CROWDS! I have to rush down to the mall in the morning, lest the shops are splling with customers. Kiasu-ism runs in my veins i guess.

Last but not least, to all the Christians

Merry Christmas!

And Goodwill to all men!

I'm feeling rather exhausted these couple of days, hence the lack of blogging related activities. But last I checked, I got both Tomorrow-ed and Miyagi-ed, though the latter quoted me as The Rogue Slayer, when I was actually posting through Mr Moron, not that it actually matters. I think my whole Jekyll and Hyde thing isn't really working anymore, since I'm pretty much being myself when I'm blogging these days. And anyhow, this blog doesn't show the name of the person posting, so I guess it's hard to check the blogger putting up the post.

So thank you all readers for boosting up my rather pathetic readership to a slightly more decent but nonetheless still pathetic figure. Haha! Then again, I'm not complaning! Baby steps!

I'm going to post something about Lee Kuan Yew's interview with Time magazine sometime soon, but I'll leave you with the uber uber cool facts about The Chronicles of Narnia today:

1. The most important thing to know: author C.S. Lewis was a famous atheist-turned-Christian, and "The Chronicles of Narnia" - particularly the best-known "The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe" - are widely considered an allegory portraying themes of God, crucifixion and resurrection.

2. There's a reason you'd want to keep your "Narnia" books on the shelf next to the "Lord of the Rings" trilogy. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien were pals and met regularly at a British pub as part of a writers group that spawned both classics.

3. The seven "Narnia" books were originally released in nonchronological order, with the book depicting the creation of Narnia, "The Magician's Nephew," coming in as Book 6. The series was later re-released in chronological order, but diehard fans say it's not the best way to read them.

4. If the movie is a hit, there likely will be a collective clambering to take the six other books onto the silver screen; still, there are some who believe that won't happen because of descriptions of a neighboring country to Narnia in the book, "The Horse and His Boy," that some consider to be anti-Arab.

5. Skandar Keynes, the boy who plays Edmund, auditioned for the possibly career-making role without his parents' permission. They'd left on a trip to Japan, leaving Keynes in the care of his grandfather and with explicit instructions for him not to audition for any roles while they were gone. However, the casting director conspired with Keynes and the head of Keynes' school to coax Grandpa into agreeing to the tryout. We'll assume the young actor wasn't grounded.

6. The film was shot chronologically for many reasons, not the least of which was that it starred four growing kids. During filming, William Moseley (Peter) grew about 3 inches, Anna Popplewell (Susan) grew half an inch, Keynes skyrocketed 5 1/ 2 inches (plus a voice change), and Georgie Henley (Lucy) grew four inches.

7. The wardrobe used in the movie was specially carved with elements of the Narnia mythology as played out in the book "The Magician's Nephew," including references to The Wood Between the Worlds, Fledge the winged horse and the first sunrise.

[via Narnia Fans]



And now, even more juicy than that, teasers for X men 3!!

Watch the trailer here.

It is so good, you're gonna faint from joy after watching it. And you're gonna pee in your pants while waiting for the trailer to load up in your browser.

Some fast facts:

1) Halle Berry's back as Storm! And with a new uber cool hairdo to boot.

2) New Mutant on the block -- The Beast. He's a friendly big burly blue mutant scientist. A good mutant.

3) Famke Jannsen. Her Royal Hotness is back!

4) besides the beast, there're a few other new mutants too. For example, Juggernaut, the evil mutant will be in the coming movie, although he looks nothing like the cartoon version.


I'm already salivating now in excitement!

The bombshell got dropped on me a few days ago on the bus, while I was watching TV Mobile.

Horror of horrors - Singapore Idol is back.

Actually, that can only mean one thing for me : lots of bitching sessions over the contestants of the show, as well and mindless rantings on the blog.

I think its no secret that the talent on our local version of the Idol show is absolutely abysmal (I'm channelling some Simon Cowell here). In fact, I think William Hung doesn't even seem too bad as compared to some of the contestants (though some of them aren't even there to compete, but rather to whore for attention) on the show.

I was a volunteer on the crew for Singapore Idol last year. I helped out in the ushering and some crowd control during the first few rounds of the auditions, and on one of the days I was a runner to a producer on the show. I've actually seen some things happening behind the scenes which actually totally changed my view on the nature of reality shows. the fact is that bias is very much a huge part of the nature of the show, especially in the early rounds, where producers' opinions actually mean almost as much as the judges' themselves.

Well I didn't get anything for volunteering for the crew (read: cheap labour), except having our meals provided, and 2 free t-shirts with the 'Singapore Idol' logo on them. I actually did it more in the name of fun. Of course, fun was what it was because I got to see all the horrendous auditions and laugh myself silly.

I only stopped laughing when I realized there were actually some terrible ones that actually got through to the semi-s, and subsequently, the final 12 too.

Judging from the (rather unwarranted) success of a certain contestant in the 1st season of Singapore Idol, my now retired co-blogger Marilyn has come up with marilyn and berton's (that's her friend's name) surefire way to make it big on singapore idol checklist!

* go into the contest with *no* knowledge of how to smile. =) (opps.. not supposed to smile) =]

* when the judges (especially ken lim) states that you've got the same problem as him, make a weak attempt to twitch your lips and wink at the audience (*look ma! i *know* how to smile! =D )

* try to rock and screech your way through the song. it doesn't matter if you messed it up since your smile =) will ensure the votes rolling in for you.

* mess up your diction. like, "kiss" for "keeesh" and "everybody" for "every money". your cult would totally adore it. (come to think of it, so would the rest of the world. quaint huh?)

*appear in the competition with hair dyed in the colours of the rainbows. it would be best if you appear like a cute shiz-tsu puppy one night and a black labrador the next. you're cute, you're lovable, you're VOTABLE.

and don't forget to smile. =)

there you go. all the wannabes, just follow my checklist religiously and you're on your road to stardom!

I'm not boycotting the show next year, in case you think I was going to. No, it's way too much entertainment and amusement for me to pass off like this. I can't make do without all the constipated expressions, screechy voices, and inane comments from judges for too long - once the show starts, it becomes the constant dose of humour and amusement I await in anticipation for every week. Of course, if you're asking me if I'm crazy enough to vote like 100 times for some (mostly) talentless wannabe, then you're sorely mistaken.

To end it off, I leave you with a letter Marilyn wrote last year in sheer frustration -- it never fails to crack me up!

dear members of the sylvester cult:

please go hang yourself/ jump off a building/ take an overdose of sleeping pills/ ________ (insert other modes of commiting suicide)*. a termination of the most obvious sign(s) of your brainlessness/ deafness/ blindness/ bad taste* is most appreciated and beneficial to the survival of the human race.

* circle where applicable

your sincerely,
marilyn
president of the anti-moronic-over-talentless-singers club
(membership open to whoever wants to join)


brainless morons who squeal and faint over their idol (aka those who only look good and can't sing aka F4, energy, the list of tuneless boybands goes on...) should just go and brainwash themselves or something.. rid themselves of these trash and get started on something more purposeful, such as learning to keep quiet.

i realise i've been ranting alot about entertainment unlike those inspiring blogs which actually comment on political issues with a touch of class. well.. i may or may not venture into that really vast area called politics but that shall have to wait till my exams are over. till then, ta~

p/s: if any boyband fans want to shoot me for dissing their sacred idol(s) please feel free to flood my e-mail inbox (the email is real just in case you are skeptical. go ahead and try. i just don't want to give my main e-mail address out just in case i have to block an influx of moronic e-mails..) i'm interested in seeing whether you guys have a brain. don't bother trying to trash me if all you can say is "omg you suck cos you hate my wonderful idol sylvester/boyband/whoever", cos you're just proving my point. (amen to the genius who created the delete button.) once sent, your letter will become my property which i would have no qualms using to show the entire world your stupidity or your rare spark of intelligence. have a nice day.

Goodbye, La Idler. After following your blog for about a year now, you've parted from our lives in the most abrupt of ways.

And yet, because of your blog, you'll be forever immortalized in ways.

I don't really mourn the passing of people in general; life goes on whether a baby dies in the rubbish dump or not a hundred thousand people die in a hurricane or tsunami. But you have made a subtle impact in my life - your zest for life as seen from your posts, and charming wit, has rubbed off on me a little.

Even from your 'about me' section, I was already a little drawn to your blog. I guess from your posts, you certainly did show yourself to have lots of character -though it would be pretentious to claim to know you just from your blog- especially during that little tussle with the other Tomorrow editors which resulted in a short-lived departure from tomorrow.sg.

It's ironic how only in your passing did we get to see that face behind that online persona. And I say it suits your bubbly, feisty personality just fine.

We'll miss you.















it's not gonna be easy to go back to mediocrity now...