que pasa - my_people

My own "24"

noreply@blogspirit.com (mashie) — Wed, 03 Oct 2007 14:25:00 +0800

I’ve been sitting on this material for a long time (since July) but never got around to tidying it up. I also wasn’t sure how to present it. Now that I’ve putzed around enough, finally did something about it and here you go.

Anyway, the background is that I really enjoy the TV show “24” and one night in July I actually dreamt up something rather “24”-ish starring my friend Yongfatt. So I got onto gtalk the next day to chat with him and to try and get some continuation.

To preserve the integrity of a truly original brainstorm session, what…

I named a baby!

noreply@blogspirit.com (mashie) — Mon, 10 Sep 2007 14:25:00 +0800

A Chinese friend who is now based in Shanghai asked me to think up an English name for his baby girl a couple of months ago. Now, I’ve heard my fair share of funny sounding English names that young Chinese people like to give themselves in a bid to sound cool or meaningful. (What they don’t’ realize is that meanings in Chinese names don’t always carry over well to English names.) So I tried to find something as phonetically close to her Chinese name as possible.

Today, I saw that my friend had changed his nickname on MSN to his daughter’s…

White elephants

noreply@blogspirit.com (mashie) — Wed, 27 Dec 2006 00:59:46 +0800

So I’m home for Christmas and I convinced my small group to have a white elephant gift exchange at our Christmas lunch party. The idea came from my bro - kudos to him. Basically everyone has to bring a gift, but the gift has to be something that you already own but do not want. Of course you can’t bring used stuff or totally worthless things, and it has to look presentable. You have to wrap it up so that nobody knows what it is.

All the gifts are put in a pile and you draw cards to decide the order…

Not barbarians

noreply@blogspirit.com (mashie) — Fri, 02 Dec 2005 21:26:50 +0800

You have probably heard about it - Singapore hung 25-year-old Australian Vietnamese Van Ngyuen for smuggling 14 ounces of heroin into the country this morning. According to reports, Australians are torn on the issue as to whether they support the sentence or not. Some call the Singapore government “barbaric”, “inhumane” and “merciless” for sentencing such a young and apparently repentant man to death. Some say, “Look, if you are going to kill the guy, at least do it humanely.”

For the record, Singaporeans are also torn on the matter. My friend forwarded an email to me to sign an online petition…

All that my mom ever wanted me to be

noreply@blogspirit.com (mashie) — Wed, 17 Aug 2005 00:50:00 +0800

The hotel has engaged this piano player to perform in the main hall from 6 to 7pm everyday. It is nice to be greeted by his music when I come down from my room - just in case you are wondering, I moved out of the luxury suite on 1 August - and go out for dinner.

One day we stopped to listen to him because my boss requested a particular song. As I watched the piano players fingers flow over the keys while he observed the hotel guests around him, I wondered if I might ever have reached that level…

Green fingers

noreply@blogspirit.com (mashie) — Wed, 20 Jul 2005 23:55:00 +0800

My house has a lawn. When we first got the house, we had the lawn landscaped and there were these nice flowers and plants. The sun was too much for the flowers to take so those died. What we have left are the hardier shrubs and mini-pines/firs.

Then my dad decided to carve up part of the lawn to create a pond for our fish to swim in. What used to be a majestic waterfall has now evolved into a tame creek where water flows through the thick roots of the plants firmly embedded in the rock structure. While they may…

Tuesday with Morrie

noreply@blogspirit.com (mashie) — Tue, 19 Jul 2005 19:55:00 +0800

The book ("Tuesdays with Morrie") is great: everybody should read it. I wept like Niagara Falls. But this post is not about the book. It is about my Morrie, and my experience with her today (which happens to be a Tuesday).

Morrie is my friend's mom. I mentioned her before in Momma. I went to visit her today because I got her something on my previous trip. I wanted to pass it to her before I flew again on this week. I had heard that she was much better now, but I wanted to see for myself.

Just as I walked…

Credit card points

noreply@blogspirit.com (mashie) — Thu, 02 Jun 2005 21:30:00 +0800

You know how credit card companies give loyalty points for purchases made using their cards, and how airlines give frequent flyer miles for using their airline? Then they just conveniently expire without reminders? While most of us may not care, or some of us feel wronged and helpless, how many of you actually call them up to fight for your points back? My dad does.

My dad discovered today that he somehow lost 6,000 points on one of his credit cards the last month. He got out all his old statements and found that there was no reminder leading up to…

Momma

noreply@blogspirit.com (mashie) — Tue, 31 May 2005 00:55:00 +0800

Met up with my friend's mom today. Just found out today that she has not been well for a while now. Well, I guess I kinda knew, but I thought things were going alright.

We had a nice chat. Well, I am not quite sure if we were really chatting, or was it more a case of her speaking at length, then I would say a little, then she would share more, and I would add my two cents and so on. We talked about various subjects, but it broke my heart when she spoke about her relationship with her son…

It's been a while... or has it?

noreply@blogspirit.com (mashie) — Sun, 06 Mar 2005 00:00:00 +0800

Davy and I met up for dinner the other day. It has been almost half a year since we last caught up with each other. When he came by to pick me up, I tapped on the seemingly plastic spoiler on his car, got in, and said, "Yeeks, it's so cheap!" He was on the phone, so he could not retort. But he smiled, punched me in the shoulder and we drove off. Needless to say, we had a great time catching up and all, and I think I was wrong about that spoiler.

It was only the next day when…