silence of the rant

Rules: Once you’ve been tagged, you are supposed to write a note with 25 random things, facts, habits, or goals about you. At the end, choose 25 people to be tagged. You have to tag the person who tagged you. If I tagged you, it’s because I want to know more about you.

1. At the point of writing, 4 people have tagged me, Eddie, Shiyao, Van and Ryan. I briefly pondered the possibility of 25 individuals having tagged me prior to me completing this exercise, and so by the rules of the thingamajig I merely have to tag them back, thus conserving brain juice. But anyway, boredom got to me before the counter hit 25.

2. When I was a freshmen of 21 years, I gave people the impression that I was an honours student of 25 years.

3. When I advanced to my sophomore year, I thought that I would have caught up one year in terms of my age-looks disparity. Instead I started giving people the impression that I was a post-graduate student. Damn.

3. You, yes you, stop sniggering. I will have you know that despite the circumstantial evidence, I am still not 25 as of yet.

4. In fact, I am only 24 this year. Though my back and knees act like they’re 48. I figure I’m being acquainted with Mr Rheumatism a little too early in my life.

5. Being 24, it’s the year of my Chinese Zodiac, the Ox.

6. My mother used to joke that considering oxens are known to rise at 4am to start ploughing the fields, having been born at 11am, that’s possibly why I’m  a lazy person.

7. I figure that it’s more to do with the fact that 11am is in fact 4am somewhere in Europe. So I’m actually as hardworking as any oxen could be, just that I’m really on European time. To aid in this illustration, I arbitraily pick the city of Athens, which is +1 GMT, compared to +8 GMT in Singapore.

8. The whole European thing could also possibly explain why I’m such a potato… Nah!

9. Keeping on the topic of timezones, I once considered the possibility of working in UAE in the future. This coming from the fact that people are always saying how it’s unhealthy to have a regular sleep cycle of sleeping at 3am and waking at 10am. If you do the math, it’s really 11pm and 6am in the Middle East respectively, which is kinda of the social norm as far as healthy sleep hygiene is concerned. Aside from the fact that they are known to pay a hefty paycheck.

10. I was actually a rather plump kid, having discovered the joy of buffets at the tender age of 9.

11. While this may not seem as shocking with my current thick around the waist situation, I will admit that it would have been a more interesting bite of information when I was so much thinner just a few years back. Or as Yan2 would have phrased it then, “Yan1 you’re disappearing!”.

12. The highlight of thin-me, would probably be this couple of months back in ‘05, when I was bored and subsequently crazy enough to run 8 klicks around the estate every single day. I think my knees are giving me payback for that now. At least they can tell when it’s going to rain.

13. That being said, ‘05/06 would probably be the highlight of my life thus far. I was feeling my healthiest,what with the bountless energy and discipline to stick to a exercise and low-carb plan; started doing half-marathons and biathlons; started diving; started dancing salsa. I was really having a blast of a time.

14. Eventually priorities shifted after my varsity life started. So I stopped exercising, the half-marathons and biathlons, the diving, and the salsa. Kinda wish that I still have the energy, time and bandwidth to keep at them.

15. Speaking of which, I also happen to be one of those no-childhood people, who only learnt how to ride a bicycle when I was 20.

16. When you have had only one proper biking session in your entire life, do not believe your good friends when they say you’re ready to conquer Pulau Ubin’s gravel slopes.

17. As a result of that, I had the most interesting Christmas Eve ever. Just don’t ask me how crashing into two trees, on two separate occassions, in one day, on the second time I have ever been on a bike, on Christmas Eve, qualifies as interesting.

18. I have owned a few websites in my lifetime, the oldest being turtlecar.com years ago, which of course is now defunct. Though I find it sad that majority of my social circle nowadays seem not to know the significance of turtle cars.

19. Nor do most of them understand the significance of the Order of the Prism. At least that means facing less competition, when it comes down to preparing for world domination.

20. My full name is actually 26 characters long, including spaces. And yes, as a result, I’m always the last person in class to finish shading those damn optical registration forms.

21. Part of what I’m studying at the moment, entails optimising operations and processes. In an essence, how to make things work and flow better. Being a task-oriented person, it’s an interesting philosphy to subscribe to.

22. When I was a kid, I always wanted to be an astronaut, star-struck that I was. I vaguely remember bawling out in tears after my mother told me that it was an impossible dream, since Singapore didn’t have a space programme then.

23. After that incident, I changed my dream job to be a pilot instead, since I figured that if I can’t get into space, being a pilot would be the next closest anyone could do to get to the stars. (Space tourism simply didn’t fit into the thought process of a 7 year old.)

24. That being said, what I would really want to achieve in the next 10 to 20 years, is to get hold of a little shophouse unit. I will open a cafe downstairs, a cosy little corner by the streets where one can people-watch over a cup of coffee, and where friends are ever more than welcome to drop by for tea and to-die-for pastries. Upstairs will be my workspace for my freelance jobs, and even possibly a studio for indoor shoots. Somehow I just don’t really see myself holding a regular 9-to-5 job.

25. On the topic of food, I actually find cooking mildly meditative. There’s just something about the process of preparing a meal and keeping the worries away, that I can’t quite put my finger on. Perhaps because the fingers always end up picking on the food!

ramble