Pleasantly Annoying

Entries from February 2009

25 Blah Blah about myself

February 18, 2009 · 1 Comment

This thing has been going around Facebook for some time and I got tagged by a friend the other day. So here it is, 25 things about me that you may or may not already know…

1. I’m an only child. So an only child has to entertain herself. I ‘published’ books and tabloids and read it myself for enjoyment. That was before those desktop publishing softwares were in, so everything was printed out MS Word, cut out, laid out, and photocopied. I pretended my articles were world class and intelligent, and my corny jokes funny as hell. Apparently I was full of confidence. One of the earliest books I wrote was about the rabbit who’s afraid of carrots. I think I should’ve went on with it and maybe I’d be rich by now.

2. I love making things with my hands! Anything, really. Be it drawing, origami, writing, photoshopping, assembling IKEA furnitures, you name it.

3. Thing is, I hate cleaning/organising. Everytime I want to start making something, I can only imagine how big a mess I’m going to make and how I will hate cleaning it up. I know where my things are, but I leave them in random piles. Organised mess yes yes. Although I must admit sometimes it’s just a mess, a mess.

4. I’ve loved listening to music even since I can’t remember it. As proof, I have photo evidence of myself on a green potty with headphones on. My earliest memories of popular music was the 80’s stuff my aunt listened to.

5. To be honest, I’m not a big fan of travelling. I don’t REALLY REALLY REALLY want to go on a long trip to somewhere exotic or anything. It’s in my list, but not one of the top items. If I get the chance, I don’t mind. If the world were to end in a year, I can do without travelling far and wide before I die.

6. I think I have relatively good taste. Although this is yet to be confirmed. I hate ugly and tasteless things and wish more people have better taste. Maybe I should stop complaining and start providing solutions.

7. I don’t like money. Yes, that’s right. I like to have enough money to live comfortably, but not luxuriously. Nothing should be done for the money other than to feed myself. Come to think of it, I may be a little allergic to money. But not that bad that I’m gonna start giving out what little cash I have to other people. Haha!

8. I’m basically an introvert. Yes, I like talking and may even be loud and obnoxious around people, but that’s me on overdrive. More of a survival skill. And even then usually I need other people to initiate the talking. I get tired after some time and need time to brood. I get excited when other people are excited. But when I can’t really connect with them, I just stay in the background and let the hype happen.

9. I’m bad at parties. I wish I were better in starting conversations. And sustaining them. Saying hello and talking about the weather is easy enough. It’s hard to keep on after the first few minutes. And I hate awkward silence.

10. On that note, I guess I find many things boring. Maybe that’s why I don’t have many things to talk about usually. Sometimes I’m amazed at how people can be interested in (my opinion) the most mundane things in the world. But maybe that’s what keeps them happy and me uptight.

11. My ideal job would be getting paid for churning out ideas. Be they good, stupid, beautiful, random, impressive, world-saving, or destructive. I will charge by the hour. I will listen to what the client have in mind for the first 15 minutes, and let my brain on the loose for the next few. My second one may be an ugly-detector. Much like expert sommelliers or tobacco sniffers or perfume testers. People bring me things and I tell them if they’re ugly. The things, I mean.

12. I never knew I’d have a degree in Engineering one day. I thought I wanted to be a doctor. Before that I thought I wanted to be a microbiologist. Before that I thought I wanted to be a vet. Somewhere in between I thought I wanted to be an astronaut, a palaeontologist, a designer, and a magician. I still don’t know what’s next.

13. I don’t really like playing favorites. When I determine that something is my favorite anything, I feel the need to be consistent and sometimes to the extent of betraying myself. My favorite things are things that I think are nice.

14. I shower quick, make-up quick (I rarely put anything on my face anyway), but spend most of my time getting ready picking the clothes I’ll wear. I’ll try on different combinations and pick the one that looks best for the day. I don’t have that many clothes, nor am I stylish, but I like to make sure I don’t spend the rest of the day being uncomfortable.

15. After graduating from Uni, I felt lost. I still do.

16. Watching people slurping soft-boiled eggs mixed with pepper and sauce makes my stomach churn. I hate soft boiled eggs. And anything that has a soft, slimy texture. Like okra, or salmon skin. I think they’re gross. If I really have to eat them I’ll just swallow them as fast as I can.

17. I don’t open up too easily. I may make good conversations, but usually they don’t revolve around me. But I find it easier to share with total strangers, compared to people more familiar to me. I like to keep a distance, although close, but still some distance. Some people say this has got to do with being an only child, but I’m not sure.

18. My favorite subject in primary school was science and maths and crafts, in high school it was biology and drawing, in university it was engineering graphics and life science. I kinda liked language/literature, too – when we get to write stories and such. I like things that I can see or imagine, and disliked anything electronics. I couldn’t fathom programming either.

19. I have short attention span and get very tempted by the prospect of new things and projects. In the end I’ll have dozens of things I do at the same time. Luckily I’m not too bad at multitasking. At least not until it reaches some critical point where everything just become one big mess.

20. I abhor organised, repetitive things, even more those that goes on and on and on and on. Examples would be cross-stitching, or repeating the same experiment dozens of times everyday.

21. I hate moving crowds. Like those in shopping malls on weekends. They give me a headache and I’ll feel a little claustrophobic. But I’m alright with them just sitting around, like in a crowded bar or restaurant.

22. I like performing in front of people. That’s one of the reasons why I was in the choir, and now a guide at the museum. Maybe I just like being the centre of attention. And I like spontaneous feedback. Hmm.. maybe I should try streaking next time.

23. If I won a million dollars, I would buy a house. In Singapore, I would be left with nothing much after that.

24. I don’t know if it’s just a nightmare or if it was real. When I was about three I saw a woman’s head coming out of the floor under my grandma’s bed and started following me with her eyes. Or maybe I had too much imagination, or I was hallucinating, but it freaked me out real good. I’m still freaked out.

25. It takes forever to make up my mind.

Categories: Random
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Newfound Respect

February 12, 2009 · 1 Comment

I have newfound respect. For accountants. And auditors. And everyone else whose job is to look through thousands of financial documents and numbers day in day out.

I’ve never been particularly good at details and numbers, especially if they don’t contain concepts behind them. Just like excel files for money records. To add on, they all have to be organised in a particular way, with many many rules. This must go here, this must go there. What if I do it another way? It won’t work, it has to be this way. Oh God, that sounds like hell to me. How repetitive, how boring, how mundane that sounds!

What if I colour the excel files and use a type that pleases my eyes more, or arrange it in this or that way so it looks friendlier and not so much rigid and masochist? Can I make a graph out of it? Maybe I’m nuts. I’m the person who spends more time making sure the powerpoint slides look pretty than writing the contents anyway.

I’ve always been attracted to things concrete, something I can see, I can touch, feel, or at least imagine. I think I’m a little more visual than other people. Maybe that’s why I take so long to read novels. Whenever I start reading one, I have a movie going in my head.

Numbers are just that to me. Numbers. 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9. Nothing else. In physics (which, I must admit, I’m not bad in) the number represent concepts. When a question mentions a 50kg weight and a 5kg weight, I have this visualisation of a balance in my mind, with the two weights on it, obeying the laws of gravity. When I lift up my hypothetical weights, I can compare them and then know which one is heavier.  When a problem mentions $1,378.22 I don’t have anything visualised in my mind. Maybe the number 137822 but that’s about it. It doesn’t make me feel any emotion either, like when I’m reading or writing.Neither do I have any affection for money. So, blah.

So if you’re an accountant, or an auditor, or a bookkeeper, I salute you.

Categories: Random · bitching · musings
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What’s in my bag

February 1, 2009 · 1 Comment

bag contents

  1. Mobile phone
  2. Internet banking thingy
  3. Thumbdrive
  4. Lip balm
  5. Magazines, pamphlets, books
  6. Doodlebook
  7. Tissue and wet wipes
  8. Pens
  9. Keys
  10. Wallet
  11. MP3 player
  12. Blotter
  13. Scribblebook
  14. Mints
  15. Antacids
  16. Sweets

Categories: Random · me
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