well on tuesday the agent came again with another couple. the agent told us they'd be over at 1 and i had a lesson at 12 so i thought ah then this would be a good opportunity for me to come home while they're there and take my sandals off in front of them. you know, to make them feel embarrassed.

but as luck would have it, i came back too late. they just left when i returned.

but as luck would also have it, mindy, who was at home, told me they took off their shoes when they came in.

the potential buyers were an asian couple. the agent followed their example.

what to say? nothing to say. so that's that.

-------------------------------------

while in the shower, this popped into my mind again as it does every once in a wandering while:

when i was in the army as an rp, i had to attend pt sessions in the evenings at a cement track surrounding a field near my camp. physical exercise usually doesn't stoke my fire that much but in camp it was quite a welcome break from guardroom monotony.

so one session after we finished off with a i don't know how many rounds run around the track, my rsm, who is the warrant officer in charge of the rps and thus my boss and who periodically attends these sessions to show (off) how fit he is and cast a disdainful and disapproving eye on us unfit louts (especially me since i happen to answer directly to him and am sort of his personal assistant), suddenly called out to us to come to the starting point as we were panting our way to the training shed for some water.

when we got to him he told us to walk backwards one round around the track. that's right. backwards. and i don't mean go in the opposite direction we ran in. i mean walk backasswards.

of course, all of us were confused and i guess a little bemused at this instruction but him being the rsm, and we being the maggots he loves to dish bile on, we just acquiesced without question. we looked at each other exchanging wide-eyed half smiles and proceeded to walk backwards around the track. just another case of in the army don't think just do.

the rsm, being the excellent example that he is, also walked around the track with us, also backwards. and after rounding the first two bends in the track he proceeded to tell us why we were making like we were participating in some primary school p.e. game.

his logic: your whole life you spend going forwards and doing things in a forward manner etc etc. so it's good to once in a while go backwards and...and...oh fuck this is so fucking stupid i don't even know what to say. i can't even remember the illogic he used as an explanation. go backwards and rewind? go backwards and balance your body? all i remember was thinking he's an even bigger loony than i thought.

i don't think i have really told anyone this before which is quite amazing i think but it's just something that is that bizarre that you're not really sure if it is as senseless as it is. bizarre to the point that you think hey maybe he's right. maybe there is some school of thought out there that does this backwards shit. seriously, i can't be arsed to search the internet for shit like this. this is one of the things i totally believe does not exist anywhere else except for that one moment in the time space continuum where about ten of us were walking like fuckwits around the cement track backfuckingasswards. the one instance in the whole history of time itself where god or elvis or some higher being can rewind history and do a double take and say "hey what the fuck how come these bunch of morons appear to be going in the right direction as i'm rewinding the world?". after that pt session, nothing seemed senseless anymore, nothing was too stupid to comprehend. after that pt session, what emerged was approximately ten individuals who could face the world and not be jaded and fazed by its machinations. we had gone through this one thing. and we had seen it all.

i have no answer to the question of why does man wage war and kill himself and destroy his environment. i can only relate to you the story of this particular pt session as an answer and you will ask no more.

two days ago (three if you're picky) some people came to take measurements and photos of the house for valuation purposes. they didn't take off their shoes.

then our landlord came with the agent. they took their shoes off. thumbs up.

then yesterday (don't be picky) the head agent came with some potential buyers to view the place cos the current landlord want to sell. they never take their shoes off also.

eh why. don't you see me barefoot in my house. my landlord noticed and was sensible enough to take off his shoes then the agent followed. mindy say cos angmohs always wear shoe into the house. but still i'm not wearing any footwear in the house in the first place. the rest must be blind or have no common courtesy. maybe asians no money to buy shoes to wear in house. i was about to take a shit when the potential buyers came but i tahan a bit so that they can have a pleasant experience viewing the bathroom. i think next time i know they coming i'm going to fucking take a funkilicious shit and maybe even not flush. maybe even fry sambal open durian throw feng you on the walls and make the whole house fragrant as hell.

aside: one slice of pizza never cuts it. always makes you feel hungrier only. like eating one or two pieces of fried wanton.

so i got a haircut today. made mindy cut my hair. not as hardcore as i wanted it to be. but there will be more haircuts to come. so chekkit out.



my artist's impression of how i should look like on the left cos mindy had in her mind to cut some layered thing and didn't get what i wanted. and the finished product on the right. pretty close to what i drew huh. but maybe it's cos i wielded quite a lot of artistic control during the process.

i know the picture looks like i've got a passable mohawk, but i've been getting suedehead vibes more from this haircut.

the next time i'll make it even more hardcore.

by the way everyone listen to stars. been listening to them this past week or so. blissful wistful pop music.

the new weezer single is only so-so upon first listen. but it kinda sticks to you and grows on you after a few more listens. so much so that i catch myself singing the chorus out of nowhere. the video is pretty nice too which is expected of a weezer vid. chekkit out at weezer.com.

seen on the singapore students' society forum:

"yeh bIIm are very very talented.. i LOVE archaepialago singing, where they sing without any music...
makes my heart melt!!!!! heheehe"

which was replied with:

"??? i know you know more bout music than me, but isn't that a group of small islands??? i thot it was called a capella?"

and

"uh ... ACAPELLA. I don't knw WHERE U got archipelago from! ..."

and the lame defence from offender:

"ehhehe i musta been thinking of the new cake i was thinking of creating... heheheh
I DUNNO!!!!!"


...boh wei gong.

i don't think i will be visiting this forum anymore after this initial visit.

[X]Weezer's 5th album has been officially titled "Make Believe". Its release date is still pending but should be in May for sure.
We are deep into work on the website, you should see some changes starting around the time of the release of 'Beverly Hills', which is coming up in the next 2 weeks.

man oh man. new weezer single out in two weeks. and the new album out in 2 months. this semester is dedicated to music.

update: "Make Believe" release date: May 10th. "Beverly Hills" release date: March 23rd.

yeah rock-it baby. that stamp on my hand isn't full but you can make out it's supposed to say rock-it. i got the stamp when i entered the licensed area where they sell alcohol and where all the kids weren't

what can i say about rock-it? what i can say is that it was fanfuckentastic. what made it fanfuckentastic? two words boys and girls. green motherfuckin' day.

the event started at 11.30am but me and my bunch of rockiteers only got there around 3pm cos the first few bands didn't seem too interesting. there were two stages and i initially wanted to catch the oz band little birdy at the smaller stage but the tent the stage was in was so packed that i just headed to the main arena and hung out in the licensed area. that place was an alcoholic wasteland with empty crushed cans and bottles of booze all over the place. piles of cans and bottles were everywhere. woe is me for not bringing my digicam along for fear of not being allowed to enter with it. there were digicams everywhere. oh well.

when we got there this hip-hop act scribe was on the main stage and the flairz were on the smaller stage. i didn't see the flairz cos it was packed there and i didn't really pay attention to scribe cos it was mostly huge bass sounds, requisite turntable scratching and one mc giving it up one time. and also cos most of that time i was in the queue at the merchandise tent. how could i not buy anything huh c'mon. my bounty at the end of that were a green day american idiot 2005 tour t-shirt, another green day tee with a picture of a flying guy dropping bombs ala dookie and a green day book bag. they cost a fortune but i just shut my eyes and said get me those things and tried not to think much about it. i only wanted to get a tour tee initially but the other things were nice and the bag was (relatively) cheap.

so we got a beer and hung around watching/listening to shihad formerly known as pacifier, a hard rock band. they weren't bad but again i wasn't paying too much attention to them. prob cos the bass was so resounding that it drowned the guitars out. or maybe it's cos i wasn't standing too close to the stage.

we then went to the boundaries of the arena to sit cos the boundary is sloped up so you can see everything. after a short break simple plan came out to play. they were alright, they had presence. i mean i paid more attention to them than shihad. no dis to shihad though. they started off with shut up and ended with i'd do anything and in between played quite a few songs including worst day ever and something like you are the worst whatever. the lead vocalist proclaimed pretty stock remarks like "we love perth the best" or something like that and "why are the girls here so hot?". the highlight of the set was when they stopped playing cos people were getting flattened at the front of the crowd and the lead guy was like if you see someone fall pick them up everybody just back up a bit and he got a bottle right smack on his chest. the nice guy routine took a break there as he warned whoever to "stop throwing those fucking bottles...or i'll come down there and fuckin' kick your ass". to which i think the guitar player said "he will too. he's tough." confirm highlight of the set. well so much for simple plan.

and then after another break and watching some fights around the place and security guys chasing the troublemakers around which was really very amusing, grinspoon came on. they didn't say much but stopped a song also to tell people to not flatten those in front. grinspoon were good though. they just came out, played their songs, and rocked the shit out of the place. no fuss at all. the australians really dig grinspoon. they were all singing along to most of their songs, and i felt envious of this show of local support. compare it to local scene in singapore, nothing to say man. nothing to say.

finally after many toilet trips and fights and attempted sneak-ins into the arena and high people falling and slipping down the sloped area, it happened. green day were on stage. with a flourish billie joe greeted everyone and they started things off with american idiot. by this time i had moved down closer to the stage so that i could move around better. and i went insane. to actually see them on stage rocking it out after about nine years of wishful thinking. i went fucking nuts. i danced i punched the air i pogoed i screamed the words. i think that's about as close to elation i can get. as expected, after reading so much about their performances, bille joe was hyper as fuck and running all over the goddamn place and being a pretty good showman too. he led the crowd in (too) many call and responses. with his 'i say heyyyyyy oh!". when i first heard him yell that out i had shivers running down my spine cos the only time i ever heard it was on a bootleg cd of a live performance and that was years ago. then after american idiot they did jesus of suburbia and holiday to which bille joe said "this song is for george fuckin' w bush" or something and a few more songs from the latest album. then the fucking highlight for me of the set, which was in itself amazing, was when they ended a song, i can't remember which, and tre cool immediately went into the drum intro to longview. longview gene longview! immediately i thought about sec 1 recess times when i would scream the chorus of longview to gene, who i hardly knew then, and he would think i'm some spaz nutcase but eventually get into green day as well. i was grinning and laughing like a maniac and then mike dirnt finally came in with the bassline. holy fucking shit that was just fucking amazing. then they did brain stew, then basket case then the unexpected, they did knowledge, the operation ivy cover. i thought they stopped doing that song totally but when i heard it i went crazy too. then as usual they got three guys up to form a band and play knowledge and the guitar guy got to keep the guitar he used. then i can't remember what songs came next and they left the stage and then came back (of course) for the encore. they launched straight in boulevard of broken dreams which the crowd went mad about. then they did another one or two songs i can't remember and then finished everything off with a cover of we are the champions.

crazy man crazy. here are some photos my cousin took. she was in the front near the mosh pit so she got pretty decent shots.




hey oh billie joe. here's him being theatrical and pointing to some imaginary object in the air. mike's behind him.




explosions on stage. lots of pyrotechnics went off during the performance. the stage looks cool don't it.




a pretty damn good picture of them doing hitchin' a ride i think. look at that won't you. green fucking day right there on stage.




billie joe giving the finger i think while some guy shows him some love and blocks most of the view.




a blurry pic of billie joe on one of the video screens flanking the stage. that blurry thing could only be billie joe.




a photo of mike on the screen. intense baby intense.

yeah well at the end of the night, i'm splashed with beer and have a piece of chewing gum stuck on my left sleeve. but whatever it was worth it. one or two more photos can be seen on my cuzzin's site. today i'm wearing the american idiot 2005 tour tee. and i can't describe the feeling of wearing the tour tee when the tour is still actually ongoing. well that's it. end of my rock-it ramble. i've seen green day. i've been totally rocked out by them. i'm a happy boy.

nothing hits home the fact that i'm living outside in my own place more than having my fingers smell of garlic all the time. not the fact that i handwash my clothes cos the washing machine for my apartment block is spoilt. not the fact that i feel less secure about my living space. it's the waft of garlic that enters my nose everytime my hands go near my face throughout the day. ahh...domestication.

what removes that smell from my fingers i wonder. i think i'll search for a solution.