Of Flying Mantis-es and Rubik's Cube

Been pretty busy lately.
haven't had the time to check my personal emails, much less blog.

i don't even really know what i've been busy with.
work has been ok, not very inspiring, and the countdown to the end of the bond is agonizing.

"A bond is not bad, if you work for a gd company," a friend told me.
"i think the only pple who need to hide behind the security of a bond are pple who don't perform. If you do a gd job, you don't have to be afraid of getting fired or not getting hired," i countered.

Regardless of whether i actually intend to leave, just the feeling of not being able to leave sucks.
it's a violation of basic freedom.

Sometimes i wonder if i would have changed my mind on going to Alabama with the benefit of hindsight.
I don't think i would have changed my mind.
Sweet home alabama.
where the skies are so blue.

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i did some juggling gigs.
some were ok, some not so ok.

Juggling for adult events are tricky.
unlike the close up magician who gets a chance to talk and mingle with pple,
it's hard for a juggler to really mingle.
For one i have big bulky flying props that are in danger of knocking off wine glasses,
so i can't squeeze into the crowd.

and i can't do audience stuff that i can do with kids.
don't think it's appropriate asking a middle age man in a sleek suit to "come, throw me the ball at the count of 3".

In the end i told myself i'm "background" entertainment.
just as the band sings with no one really listening to them,
i'm a visual "background" band, just moving with no one really paying attention.

it's agonizing though,
to juggle for 1 full hour.
was doing the super heavy knives too.
i'm bored and tired,
and the only time i get attention is when i drop the knives with embarrsingly loud clink clung clunks.

i did poi for the 2nd hour.
i'm not a poi person, so i was even more bored doing the basic moves for the whole hour.

somemore the light sticks i was using weren't working well that night,
and had a penchant for flying off.

most of the times that it flew off, i could find it.
there was one time i thought i really lost it.
it wasn't anywhere near me nor floating in the pool.
for a moment i prayed it didn't land on someone or into their food,
i guessed i would have heard someone screaming if it did.

Just as i gave up hunting for it,
i saw the light stick hanging on the branches of the poolside plant.

it's actually very embarassing i think,
if someone actually did watch me the entire night.

Mingling in adult parties always make me depressed,
although it's easy to go "who cares as long as i get paid",
i feel like i've cheated the organizers of their money since i did not really entertain.

trying to "reinvent" my juggling act.
I have a costume concept.
now i need to find someone who can make it.

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My company's D&D is gonna have a talent segment.
i performed last year so the committee already knows of my existence.
they asked me to audition for it and so i did.

In true last minute fashion, i came up with the entire routine the night before the audition
(and slept at 4am).
the next morning, carrying bags everywhere like i'm moving to malaysia, i headed to the office.

they didn't even ask that i finished my whole routine,
("it's ok, we know your standard already")
which is just as well since i'm not quite prepared.

anyway later on, the committee asked that i perform as a guest artiste instead of joining the contest.
it didn't really matter for me, it's all in the name of fun.

it was fun watching colleagues auditioning though.
who would have thought so and so auntie is "KTV queen in her neighbourhood CC" and we even have a dancer.

I was thinking of calling myself "the flying mantis" because use my act is machiam a praying mantis doing a courtship dance and then i end up killing the male mantis.

i know, i have issues.
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Have been trying to get my finances in order.
back to reading books and talking to "financial advisors".

My colleagues want to start a "partnership" with me and invest in whatever i'm investing in.
"Hey, don't trust me man. i haven't started investing. now only theory."
"Ya but you keep reading stuff. so when you invest, you've already done your homework."
"ya but still can be wrong ma"

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my latest obsession is with the Rubik's cube.
My bluetooth earphones weren't working well during the last juggling session so i did not juggle much.
ended up chatting with di-hong most of the time ("how do you fish..er prawn, for prawns?") and while chatting he reluctantly taught me the rubik's cube.

it is a very addictive puzzle.
so addictive that i sms-ed him the next day:

"I'm going all the way from parkway to suntec just to hunt for a rubik's cube. look what you've done to me!!??"

(for the record, parkway sells a Rubik "sphere" but not the cube)

i think i spent most of sat working on the cube.
di-hong, who can solve the cube in seconds without actively thinking, looked positively bored most of the time while coaching me.

"yes miss engineer, see, instead of doing this , you can actually do this ".

and then he looks at me matter of factly while i look at him like "i have no idea what the hell you just showed me".

i just stumbled upon a site that lists the "4 most convenient ways to work the brain".
One is juggling (yay!), and another is solving the rubik's cube!
the other 2 are using the non-QWERTY keyboard and solving sudoku.

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alrightee, i'll try to blog a little more frequently.
i found a site to watch soccer for free (i have no cable at home) but the website seems to always crash when the good games are showing.
oh well.

there's always the rubik's cube.

(xiwen msn-ed me with "you'd rather spent time with the rubik than hear me whine!" just as i was really playing with the rubik. Gave me a momentary shock, thought i left the webcam on.)

Happy Deepavali

wombedel wombedel wombedel

i'm currently hooked on Michael Buble's "Everything" and Snow Patrol's "Chasing Cars".
both very touching heartfelt love songs.

i remember getting hooked onto James Blunt's "you're beautiful" a few years back.
and when i told jialu to download it,
she was like "the vulgar version or the safe version"?

"there's no vulgar version! it's a love song!"
"that's what it says on the website. there're two versions."

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i just had a gd juggling session on tues.
i just felt like juggling.
i think i'll increase my practice freq to twice a week.
it's getting increasingly difficult to juggle on fridays as there's lots of catching up to do.
i feel bad isolating myself and being anti social.

so i'll prob pick another weekday.
where it's just me and my clubs.
and i'll leave fridays to social juggling.
which is nice too.

Tues was one such day.
where i was in my own world with lovely music and lovely clubs.
my 5 clubs is getting stronger.
i'm starting to feel some control already.
i think i got my longest run that night.

i can't believe how long it has been since i started on the 5 club journey.
3.5 years i think.
not hard practice everyday. but it's been 3.5 years since i decided to learn it.

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i just saw some michael moschen videos.
wa cool.
that's what juggling art is all about.
also saw some sweet moves from toby walker and jap jugglers.
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featured books of the week from the juggleress:

Chaotic thoughts from the old millenium by Sim Wong Hoo
and
the Warren Buffet Way.

Sim was writing about how he kept winging and hatam-ing random answers during exams when he didn't know the answers.
it reminded me of the time i sat for my abnormal psychology exam at NUS.
it was one of those cross fac modules which is not graded.

so i spotted questions.
i studied 2 topics (one of which was on treating the psychological effects of erectile dysfunction) and hoped that both exam questions would be spot on on these two 2 topics.

i was wrong.
i ended up describing how to treat obsessive compulsive behavior from what i've learnt from erectile dysfunction.

i guess they're not that different. :P

the exam isn't graded for me so i never knew how it went. i did pass it.

ah, those were the days.

WEIRD GIGS

haven't blogged for a long time.

and i shouldn't really start now, since it's 1.30am.
no wonder i get monday blues.

a quick update on the weeks that went by.

had a few interesting gigs the last few weeks.

one was when we were summoned at short notice (in 6 hrs) to gather at a shophouse on the 2nd storey.
so Alan and i were searching high and low for the shop house, wondering what the hell kind of gig it was.

"don't look like there's a carnival here."
"2nd floor, must be some kind of shop opening ceremony?"
"but they hired 4 jugglers. must be a big event."

In the end the "shophouse" turned out to be some renowned high class advertising firm, and we were led to the meeting room to wait for the other jugglers.

"are we here to film an advert?", i whispered to alan.
"maybe....4 jugglers? in 6 hours? what kind of last min advert is it?"
"i know burger king USA had an advertisment full of jugglers...maybe it's the singapore version!"

Soon other jugglers came by and we all gathered in the meeting room of the posh office.
it all looked very weird.

"welcome to the jugglers' meeting!", we greeted the colorful (personality and costume-wise) pple who walked in.

There's no big climax to the story.
in the end it was just that the advertising firm was doing a big pitch to a big client, and they wanted some jugglers to greet the client because we symbolised something.

We waited for almost 2 hours and juggled a grand total of 2 minutes, the time it took the clients to walk from the front door to the meeting room.

it was one of the strangest gigs i've gotten.

in that 2 hours, the 4 of us jugglers managed to destroy 20 apples from the office pantry by trying to juggle them, and eman made a whole lot of noise cluttering his devil stick on the parquet floor, making everyone in suits jump everytime he makes a sudden din.

"eman, do a piroutte!" i urged him.
(of which he wisely did not take up the challenge as he would probably break the glass wall of the meeting room or something)

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After that gig, it was a quick pop by to clarke quay to do a parade for OctoberFest.
This time there were 6 jugglers, 2 groups of percussionists and a whole lot of kids wearing funny costumes.

This one became a tad tiring, but it was still interestingly unusual.
wished they gave us some beer.
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Had another gig today for the heartlanders.
i like performing for heartlanders.
they have a certain inherent "southern" charm.

The aunties and uncles always have warm smiles for you.
sometimes the kids have fun and so do the parents.

i taught some pple how to juggle,
and made friends with one of the aunties,
whom while chatting with me,
had itchy fingers that peeled off the glue on my self made SingaBolas and basically destroyed them and gave me spilled sand all over my bag.

but it was still cool.
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i'm thinking of a new routine for my D&D.
wanted to do a sad love story,
but it may not work out as well as i want it too,
and it's a bit too intense for a D&D.

i'm thinking of doing another one of my cultish routines,
and this time i really "kill" the volunteer.
heh.
i think i'll get my boss to volunteer.

maybe.

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Just recevied my rola bola today.
it's not that hard to learn, surprisingly.

oh well, pumpkin time.