Personal Corner: Myself

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	Dedicated to all the people I : my late dad, my mom , my wife Jane , my dai-gor James (with Sharon, Linus, Johannes), and my saisai Ambrose (with Carmen, Ben Ben).	I am only one, but still I am one. I cannot do everything, but still I can do something. -- Helen Keller
			Blk 20 Upper Boon Keng Rd #16-1178 S(380020)		Alter-ego

ne of the favourite hobbies of this shy, boring, anti-social introvert is pEnNiNg DoWn his thoughts and feelings (this guy sure would like to indulge in many other things, if only time permits).

An utterly hopeless speaker he is, once he thought he might do a little better in writing. It didn't take too long for him to realise how wrong he was. But he still loves to write. In his younger days, he even composed and wrote his own songs, which are mostly in Chinese. I am sure he would love to share them with you, but let him figure out how to do that first. Meanwhile, just don't hold your breath.

Below is an 'appetizer' Aaron would like to entertain you with. (Aaron has seen the same article in some public BBS some time ago, under an 'anonymous' author. Apparently somebody must have chanced upon his article here, culled it and circulated it elsewhere without Aaron's knowledge.)

They say there are 3 stages in life: Hatched, Matched, Dispatched.

Alma maters Zhen-Li Kindergarten and Guang-Hua Kindergarten Geylang English School (defunct) Raffles Institution Raffles Junior College National University of Singapore

"You from Raffles?" such is the response Aaron still gets from unconvinced folks from time to time. Aaron has always been wondering if there is certain birth mark on one's face that destines one's alma mater. In any case, Aaron would declare, in true-blue Rafflesian style, "Once a Rafflesian, always a Rafflesian. Auspicium Melioris Aevi!" And then he would go on: "When Stamford Raffles held the torch, that cast Promethean flame, ..."

Aaron was hatched and matched on 8th August.

Hello Kitty, Goodbye Sanity
In the morning of 15 January 2000, Aaron woke up and headed for work early, a little too early for his daily newspaper delivery to arrive before he left the house. So there he was, sitting in the bus without anything to occupy himself with, he started to wonder for something to crack on, and ended up scribbling this rap song... Just in case you think that the anecdotes depicted in the song are fictitious, wise up. The song was based on real incidents and accidents that happened in those preceding few weeks of Hello Kitty craze, which even managed to attract coverage in overseas news. Who else but fellow Singaporeans to whom Aaron wishes to dedicate this song, with the earnest hope that we all take a moment to reflect on ourselves and to return to our good sense.
Queue up early in the morning 6am The lines are getting longer, causing traffic jams How they all can tahan that? You've got to ask them For 4 hours even pregnant woman can stand.
	Chorus: (sing to the tune of "Baa baa black sheep" -- whose ban in Birmingham was recently lifted) MacDonalds auntie, have you any cats? Yes sir, yes sir, how many sets? One for my honey, and one for her mum, And one for my little niece that's riding on the fun.
We a multiracial society, you can see Got young and old, boys and girls, got pretty and ugly And also got metropolitans and heartlanders Just make sure that these guys don't meet: the doctor and driver. (note 1)
	Repeat chorus
We are supposed to be gracious, it's never good to fight But sometimes people think the fist can turn wrong into right So the two of them got down to 'da3 cheng2 yi1 pian4' But the Ah Beng behind me says, 'mgai luan luan sian' [don't anyhow bullshit]
	Repeat chorus
One cat goes for 4.50, please give me 20 I'll keep the cute cute kitties, throw away the roti Those burgers are just too heavy, so how to carry? Use your brain, use the rubbish bin, it's so easy.
	Repeat chorus
I go inside to buy them, then come outside to sell (note 2) One for 20 bucks leh, does it ring a bell? Oh yeah that's entrepreneurship, you all can also tell Our government like it what, and want us to do that well
	Repeat chorus
But beware of the matah, dun just play play [matah: police] Sekali you kenna liak, damn suay suay [sekali: in the event; liak: caught; suay suay: bad luck] But my mind is full of ideas, I've got another way I queue for you for 2 dollars, tokay, what you say?
	Repeat chorus
You can see how gracious is our society The crowd just squeezed and squeezed and squeezed, like millennium party The door gave away, some guys got cut, oh what a great pity "It's all my wife's fault, she made me come lah, she sabo me!" (note 3)
	Repeat chorus
The chase is on, everybody's looking so busy Some people even take taxi, from Bedok to Clementi And when the sign says 'all sold out!', oh what a cruel reality Mum and daughter hugged and broke down, that's insanity. (note 4)
	Repeat chorus
So we will get to see these scenes on every Thursday While MacDonalds can go home laughing all the way But kiasu is our identity, it's all set to stay We might be number one on this, you know, so dun play play!
	Repeat chorus
Notes: A doctor and a driver fought while they were queueing up for the Hello Kitty toys. Reported in the news. Reporters spotted opportunists queueing up for the toys and later they were seen selling them outside McDonald's. The more IT savvy ones auction the toys on the web. The glass door at a McDonald's outlet gave way to the big crowd and shattered, hurting a number of people who were queueing up there. One guy told the reporter grudgingly that his wife made him queue up for the toys. Reporter caught a mother and daughter broke down in tears when they could not get hold of the Hello Kitty toys.

If the above is too lame, here might be a better entertainment for you.
(Warning: Big file. It will take a long time if your line is slow.)