2008 was

the year i
- lived in hk for 7 months.
- studied in city university of hong kong.
- experienced hostel living (love it, miss it).
- became good friends with alot of people from all over the world.
- continuously patronised lan kwai fong, mong kok, 又一城.
- travelled to hk, shenzhen (china), macau, zhangjiajie (china), taipei (taiwan), singapore, genting (malaysia), koh samui (thailand), kusu island.
- climbed mountains, went snorkelling, rode an elephant.
- found the cheapest massages and hair services in the world (china).
- lived in the most expensive hotel room in my life (MOP$5500=SGD$1100).
- got 3 tattoos (dragon, evil flowers, dragon, all made in hk).
- watched aaron kwok, kelly chen and sammi cheng in concert live.
- earned good money as an english teacher in primary/secondary schools in hk.
- started eating more red meat (previously i only ate 2 legged animals).
- had my play "death at the theatre" featured at action theatre's theatre idols 09.
- acted in 叮当神坛 , 终极守时, a Singapore Discovery Centre video, 未来不是梦, My Grandma the Agogo Princess, 心花朵朵开2, 一切完美2.
- worked on these theatre shows/installations : Project Mending Sky 之我, Jurong West St 41, Sometimes A Long 5 Miles, Ecelsior Mortis, The Next Frame, 大卫必佳.
- worked with Cherie Lim and Phyllis Quek (!!! my primary school idols).
- cleaned a poor family's house and washed vegetables for a temple as charity.
- sent long letters of complaint to ntu 4 times in 5 months (over tablet fine, subject transfer, finance, fyp).
- came to realise i mostly don't like singapore/singaporeans.
- failed to fulfill my big goals but enjoyed the playing a lot.
the end.

In the land of the very very very rich

we are scum.

see today we got to shoot in one of those magnificent houses that those fairytale people in the tatler books live in.
you know the kind of mansion with its own pool, garden, multiple plasma tvs the size of a pool table, guest room, 2 guest toilets and a dining table costing more than both my grandparents put together ever earned in their entire lives.
and amid all this splendor and luxury, we were given specific instructions by the owner to refrain from sitting on any of the chairs as they are very very expensive.
so we had to sit on the floor but since the marble floors are also very very expensive we had to sit on cardboard sheets to protect the floor from our dirty asses.
and thus in the most expensive domestic environment we ever shot in, we experienced the worst sitting conditions in a domestic environment we ever shot in.
(even in that one room flat with the squat toilet and non-functional flush, we had sofas to sit on, though cheap and old still beats sitting on cardboard)
and our driver got it worse.
first he was asked by the owner to turn off his engine because it was too noisy.
since it was a damn hot day in singapore today he decided to drive out of the house wait for us in aircon rather than die of heatstroke in obedience.
and while he was waiting outside the house a lamborghini passed him and according to him, the guy gave him a "look".
ten minutes later a police car arrives and demands to know why he is loitering here.
dot dot dot.

this is just one of those social issue things i have to have to have to share.
pooi.

My nerd xmas

as a result of the rampant roving we do while shooting 一切完美2, my rare offdays are characterised by my absolute refusal to leave the house which stems from my absolute refusal to partake in movement of any sort.
so this xmas, we were given 3 days off.
and so i stayed home for 3 whole days and with no family or cable tv what would i do?
i played computer games.

those who know me really well are aware that every 3-4 months i do suddenly vanish from the world for 3-4 days at a time and when they finally do get to talk to me in tears and exclamations, my answer is always
"sorry i was playing sims / (insert simulation or strategy or rpg game title here)".

so this xmas, in 3 days, i played crime fighter, civilization, kudos and kudos rock legend.
crime fighter and civilization are vintage dos games that i downloaded and played using the dos emulator dosbox (super nerd speak here).
kudos is a game i bought online and actually paid USD$19.90 for, whereas kudos rock legend i only played the 1 hour demo version.

crime fighter : most people do misunderstand it's title at first sight, you are a criminal who has to commit crimes like kidnapping children (my player's forte), robbing supermarts, pickpocketing, going on missions, smuggling things at the airport, breaking into houses shops etc to earn a reputation so that you can buy weapons and amass a gang to move on to bigger crimes like taking out ambassadors or collecting protection money etc etc. and you have to train to improve intelligence, fierce appearance, etc etc before you can do certain things bigger things etc etc. i'm not the type of person who likes to review things so go google it yourself to read about it or play it. but it was fun.

civilization : the classic game by sid meier, you are a leader of a country that could be any real country in the world and have to lead it from 4000BC to modern day and defend it from other countries or make peace agreements and grow your country by adding cities and inventing things as they appear through the ages like alphabet, bronzemaking etc etc. again google it yourself but it's damn fun i say.

kudos : you start as a lowly waiter at age 20 and you play this character till age 30. basically you live this character's life day by day and you can choose to do things take night classes so you can get a better job or hang out with your friends so you dont lose them and instead make new ones etc etc. its a life sim. google it. ask me if you use a mac and want the full version's app cos i bought it.

kudos rock legend : same style as kudos but this time instead of working your way up life in general, you are working to be a famous rockstar. i liked it but i don't want to buy it because i've played a better game that has a similar premise but with more options and more attractive characters.

that better game is called superstar by indie programmers by the brand of Daisy-Chain and it is a game i used to play eons ago on my pentium 1 windows 95 machine.
problem is, now i use a swanky macbook and can't get it to run on dosbox.
i've tried everything including running it on boxer, adding the cwsdpmi.exe files for the dpmi function (again super nerd speak, i am to a certain degree i admit) and even posting on dosbox discussion forums to ask for help.
do let me know if you're a computer genius (like the kind that knows C++) and can figure out how i can get it to run cos i really wanna play superstar again.
now i can't stop thinking about superstar.
i guess i really like what i don't have best don't i.

merry xmas.

Why kids should study harder

on shoot one day, this plastic surgeon was telling me how unhappy he was about having to sit around for hours to wait for his scene.
as part of his complaint, he included "do you know how much i can earn in this time?"
me : "no..."
he : "for a 3 hour facelift surgery i can earn $20k."
me : spit a spray of rice.

at my current internship pay, it would take me 3.3333333 years to earn $20k.
it actually takes me more years to earn $20k than this guy takes in hours.
i should have bloody hell studied harder when i was younger.
dammit.

I am busy

like wake at 6am to get to work by 730am type of busy.
work from 730am-12am type of busy.
work for weeks with no off-day type of busy.
which is why i have vanished from msn/facebook/blogging/social gatherings.
because i'm currently clearing internship hours doing 一切完美2, amongst other things.
of course i am nobody important there.
i'm just a little pa. your friendly standby maria.
but i've never been so happy being a maria.
because i spend 12 hours a day with people like phyllis quek.
honestly, i am secretly in love with phyllis quek.
but because i'm so cool she'll never guess.
and there's thomas ong and michelle chia and chen zhicai etc etc etc.
i'm a happy maria.
phyllis quek phyllis quek phyllis quek.