Do doggies dream of electric birds? *

Molly was barking in her sleep last night. It was weird. We were watching CSI when it happened and we thought that she'd seen something that inspired her to bark. Oddly enough, she was lying on her side and I noticed that her eyes were closed. She was twitching as well and she gave little yelps. She then shifted a little, her eyes half opened and went back to sleep.

Downright bizzare but cute.

Brought a question to the surface: Do dogs dream?

*Birds seem to be the only thing that Molly's enthusiastic about chasing.

Drifting

You've been gone so long all that you know
has been shuffled aside as you bask in the glow
of the beautiful strangers who whisper your name
do they fill up the emptiness?

You walk in a room and the world stops to stare
Mesmerize all who are caught in the glare
Of the spotlight that follows wherever you go
Does it light up the emptiness?

Larger than life is your fiction
In a universe made up of one
You have been drifting for so long
I know you don't want to come down
Somewhere below you, there's people who love you
And they're ready for you to come home
Please come home

Potential song to use for theme shoot for the Objectifs course exhibition. Theme will be beautiful people in isolation. Let's see if there are others...Just keep browsing. Anything to keep from marking.

"Don't play with your food...

...until you've eaten your toys."

Words of wisdom from DSoh.

In the meantime, I've borrowed the school's Canon 10D for my photo project. Unfortunately, the kids have taken the standard lenses to play with so that leaves me with the 55-200mm zoom lens...meaning I can't take pictures of anything closer than 3m to me. *Shrug*

Real men go for Ballets...

To celebrate Ondine's birthday yesterday, we caught a ballet performance. It was the Royal Ballet Company and they did Swan Lake. Anyone who didn't get the significance of that, Swan Lake is the pinnacle of ballet performances, a superbowl of ballet performances if you will.

It was breathtaking.

After the last couple of years watching substandard

nice ballet performances (*coughsdtcough*) we finally get to see a company with more passion and grace than I have ever seen (through some fault of their own but not entirely so).

The dancers were passionate. The sets fantastic and the Principals were awe inspiring. Roberta Marquez was capable in her role as Odette but she really shone in her performance as Odile. With nary but a little slip up, she was poetry in motion through the 3 hour performance. The spotlight however had to be on Ivan Putrov, whose Siegfried was playfully wrought with so much joy in his dancing that his jumps looked like the man was floating in defiance to gravity. The corps de ballet were awesome as well and the 4 cygnets were so well choreographed that they sounded like one set of feet moving across stage instead of 4. The male dancers in the corps were jaw droppingly good and stood in contrast to the gawky principals of the SDT.

It was the first time that I ever had goosebumps watching a ballet.

Bravo! And bravo again!

All that said, I'm not really disparaging our local performers as I understand that with financial constraints and a culture that does not actually lend a credibility to the art of movement, (or any art for that matter) it is difficult to actually have a career in the arts of any sorts here, much less shine in said art. That said, it's also been said that some of our local dancers just lack the passion and commitment to really shine in ballet. More's the pity really.

Now, all that articulated, I feel like I need to rebalance the yin and yang in me and go out and shoot some virtual bullets into something.

Day of strange sightings.

...Actually not. But there were 3.

1) Firstly, caught on camera: Attack of the Killer Durian Puffs.



Yes, that is a full sized fork. And a glass of water beside it to add to the perspective.

2) Also caught on camera, a man (owner of the store that we had dinner at tonight (Chilli crab courtesy of Tym who got us all drooling over her description of cracking shells etc...) talking to a couple who's showing said man some pages of women inclusive of photos and write ups. We thought that they were talking about buying brides but then the woman asked him about his wife. The plot thickens...



Each page comes with a mug shot as well as a full figure shot of each girl.

3) (No picture because by the time we got back, they'd already kept their laptops...) Two ladies at the back of a station wagon surfing the net on some unsuspecting person's unsecured wireless network. Thought it would make the perfect picture because they were lit with a blue glow against the darkness of the street but missed the shot.

This last shot was taken sometime in May.

Who would've thought?

Observations from today.

1) Girls really need to find jeans that their butts fit in. I mean actually fit in. And by fitting in, I mean not the cup runneth over fit. (Unless I am sadly mistaken and the plumber crack look is in nowadays)

2) A female student's been playing A3 online. She was trying to describe the latest weapon that she had acquired.
~Student "It's a bow for my archer but you fire it like a gun..."
~Male student "A crossbow?"
~Student "Uhm..."
~Me "You do realise that crossbows fire at a slower rate because of the reload time right?"
~Student "But it was more expensive, so it had to be better."

Meanwhile, I'm wondering why the heck our education system didn't give students a basic breakdown of medieval weapons...an integral set of information that will allow you to exist in today's society...

3) Photoshop's a lot more complicated than it looks. Will be finishing up the Objectifs basic course tomorrow by learning how to work the basics. (Hopefully)

4) If you take a look at the ads for Mr and Mrs Smith at the Orchard underpass leading up to Tangs, you'll realise that Angelina Jolie is shot in softer focus than Brad Pitt.

5) Durian paste in a martini glass looks awesome.

Apologies for the lack of consistent updates. Ironically, I seem to be updating less than I do during term time. *igh.

Must...try...harder...

Batman Begins.

Well...What to say?

Rawk!

It was a great show. Almost Miller-esque Batman wise and that's saying a lot. But that's not what this post is about. I'm going to channel Terz for a bit and I'm going to say this now. Jean Danker is a f***ing moron! Aside from spoilering the movie for just about every bloody person who was unfortunately listening to the radio at the time, she's also got absolutely nothing in the movie review department up in the old noggin!

This weekend, she's managed to leave Gary Oldman out of Batman's all star cast, of which he deserves a spot (considering the fact that he's already signed up for the sequel). He's Gary Frickin' Oldman. You do not leave Gary Oldman out of an acknowledgement in a movie review.

She has also managed to rename Amanda Peet. (Somehow or another, she's now Amanda Preet.)

Arrgh! How much longer must we tolerate movie idiots doing movie reviews? Jean Danker, do not quit your day job.

Kit Chan ate my fish...

Or rather, she ate a fish that I barbequed. (Rather badly)

Well...this would be celebrity sighting number two. It was a dinner organised by Threez to talk about WMD issues. Kit Chan was on the guest list and I guess that I'm about as big a fan as...OK...I lie. I know that she's famous and all and I know that she sings well but as far as her body of work goes, all I can think about is that she sang one of the National Day songs. (Home, I think) But it was rather intrigueing a celebrity sighting enough to get my curiousity piqued. What does a celebrity wear to a barbeque? Well, she was certainly glamourous enough with full makeup and a weird transluscent top...Which was what you'd expect celebrity-wise but not quite barbeque wear. That got me thinking. Are celebrities responsible for keeping up their image all the time? Or was Kit Chan just the kind of woman who puts on her full game face everywhere she goes?

Anyways, as far as meetings went, she cast a glance in my direction while we were introduced but I think dismissed me (considering the fact that I was dressed to barbeque) almost immediately. She went on to talk business with Threez and last I saw her, was listening with a quizzical look on her face to Threez's brother as he went on about some Australian anecdote.

But she ate the fish that I mangled on the barbeque. (Skin stuck to the grill and the fish was eviscerated as I flipped it)

Interesting night.

Courage, the Cowardly Dog.

We officially are fostering the biggest chicken of a canine. Molly, the Jack Russell Terrier is scared of just about everything. She flinches. At everything. We thought it was just plastic bags but apparently it's everything. Loud noises. Big rubber balls. Newspapers. Sudden movement. Everything.

She's also terrified of being alone so leaving her alone in her den (read: toilet) is an exercise in guile and dexterity. Leaving the house pretty much is the same thing. Presently it involves carrying her in the crook of one's arm and then tossing her into the house as we close the door.

Presently considering the option of changing her name to chicken noises but when we try it, she only responds to Ondine. (We suspect that it's because she's got a higher pitched voice)

O well...at least she's been good so far. Hope she stays that way...

Updates: The Cliff Notes.

As most have probably heard about our rather interesting and gut wrenching (literally) fishing trip, plus the interesting week we've had travelling to and from Indonesia, I will not reiterate the samesaid points except that I'm really sorry that I decompressed the fish. It was sad and it was disgusting and I wish that I had been a little more clued into the fact that I did indeed have a fish on my line. I felt like a barbarian. *igh. Poor batfish. (Batman Begins soon BTW)

Bintan was interesting because I was KO'ed with gastric flu (a condition that I've never experienced before and never wish to again because of the discomfort and the throwing up) followed by an athsma attack that lasted two days and culminated in a 4am doctor's housecall. Ugh. I've forgotten what a bane athsma is.

Aside from that, it's been ok for a while. Sorry for the long absence and I will be back to posting glory in a bit. Today, I'm dogproofing the house. Molly's coming in today. (We're fostering her for the moment.)

Later...