and now it's time for a short segment on the baking escapades in my kitchen. ...well technically not MY kitchen, but the kitchen in the house that i happen to live in. but you get the drift. or you probably wouldn't if you had an IQ of below 50. on the other hand you wouldn't be using the internet and reading blogs if that were the case.

ah well.

i tried baking cinnamon stars, following a recipe in a little book i bought. to cut to the chase, they turned out rather...terrible. well not really terrible in the sense of inedible, but they didn't know whether they wanted to be soft and chewy, or crisp and crunchy. that seems to be a dilemma most confectionary are doomed to experience. oh the choices!

and the smell of cinnamon was overpowering and gave me a headache. plus it made me feel like puking several times. eew.

point is, i now have a jar of monstrous cookies in my kitchen. well not my kitchen really. it's the kitchen in the house i live in. but anyways, i think i'm gonna stay away from anything cinnamon-containing in future. or at least anything with more than 1/2 a tsp of the vile substance.

but on to happier records, i was, or i imagine i was, successful at some plain cookies dipped in melted chocolate. the cookies had a crumbly texture, and melted in the mouth cos of the corn flour in it. and the butter, a shameless amount the recipe called for, made the cookies sooooper dooooper fragrant. on the other hand, i probably should have made the cookies flatter, taste better and nicer to bite into that way.

and i probably should have dipped them into nicer chocolate, i ran out of my Hershey's semi-sweet one and scavenged the fridge, discovering boxes of unwanted chocolates that i happily threw into the melting pot. yucks. lesson learnt. i'm not melting anything that isn't meant for coating or baking anymore.

on to future voyages, i shall try a spicy oatmeal cookie which is supposed to be beeeg and soft. sounds darned good. except for the 1 tsp of cinnamon i need to add. think i'm substituting that for nutmeg and ginger. maybe just a pinch for a subtle flavour.

and one last, i think i prefer cooking to baking. the only drawback i can think of right now of cooking is that the ingredients are usually perishable, and the ingredients are hard to find in singapore. like how hard it is to find a leg of lamb in supermarkets and wet markets.

you don't need to be so bloody precise in baking as you do in cooking. can you imagine jamie oliver baking!??! he'd be throwing in handfuls of this, a pinch of that, a good glug of this, and just a bit of something else. the pastry will probably turn out looking a sad mess. plus cooking yields savoury stuff, much easier to eat than sweet ones cos you don't get sick of eating them, as you do get sick of eating a handful of cookies.

cooking looks so much cooler anyhoo, with the steaming and sizzling and fervent chopping and tossing. baking looks so wussy and nancy. no fire, no flame, no intensity. just mix and chuck into the oven, see what comes out in a while.

oh well, but for now, since time and ingredients are scarce, i'm choosing baking.

Show to watch of the Week: Top Gear








HILARIOUS

and in true blogger style, albeit synonymous with BOOORING and LAAAME, i shall tell the whole blogging world of..... my day!

WOOHOO, CHEERS AND WONDERMENT BEFALL THE ONLINE COMMUNITY.

today i woke up.

amazing, isn't it? how did god create humans and program them so intricately to do such things in the mornings!

what's more astonishing is that i woke up at 10.30am.

the perfect timing! the breathtaking precision! 10.30 on the dot, not one minute more or less! exactly! oh the wonders i wake up to every morning, inspiring me to such an extent.

then i went out for lunch. for FISH BEE HOON, can you imagine that!? FISH! with NOODLES! in a SOUP! pure brilliance is it not?!

then i went to borders! such miracles i encounter one after the other, it must be symbolic of a stupefying day!

and discovered borders has a storewide, i repeat in capital letters, STOREWIDE discount of a grand total of 20%!! sensational! fabulous!

and so... i BOUGHT books! from borders! at a discount! can you not comprehend the stunning miracles i am experiencing!?

but then i came home. and it rained. well not really, it drizzled. but it sure as hell is gonna rain up a storm later. judging by the sounds of thunder coming over the hill. well there isn't a hill nearby really, just a figure of speech. 'coming over the neighbour's roof' or 'coming over the garden fence' don't quite have that special ring to them.

and then i started blogging. and listening to music. to be specific, as my GP teacher dutifully imprinted on my mind to do so when writing, Smoke On The Water by Deep Purple, and a touch of Jay Chou.

and i ate a few slices of watermelon. and several almonds, walnuts and pecans. possibly a handful of pistachios too. which i bought from Queen Victoria Market in Melbourne. several days before coming home, as a gift to my relatives as well as for the joint.

did i mention that i had such a bleedingly horrible experience trying to pack my room up into several cardboard boxes before coming home? i spent eons working on it, developed a backache, went into occasional fits of panic and berated innocent civilians who stood in my way. and did i mention that in the Melb airport i had an encounter (YES, a first-hand encounter) with a jackass? hoho, as sure as the steam on a fresh hot pile of crap rises to the high heavens did i meet a great big jackass. this jackass, dressed in a suit and with make-up on, informed me that my baggage was overweight, and no, i'll need to prove my ticket was a student ticket and that i had to take my student card out from my luggage. sorry it's the only way, i'll need to repackage my luggages as well, would i like a plastic bag to remove some items. yes i'll have to throw stuff away if i have to.

what an encounter. with a real jackass, true breed if i may speculate, possibly descended from a long line of jackasses, a real pedigree. not like one of the many mutts, jillasses or jackmules as they are commonly termed.

but anyway, it's dinner time and i've got to scoot.

we are the race that is doomed to failure, doomed to extinction and doomed to chaos, calamity, disrepair and any other noun that describes such melancholy, despondency and anguish.

we were created to uncreate ourselves. our every mode of living pushes us closer to our eventual and impending death. were we not meant to suffer and toil towards the imminent roll of expiration and clap of oblivion? the knell tolls for our passing, and the wind excites the dust of our remains. the curtains are drawing to a close, the finale is nigh.

now is probably the right time for me to explain this sudden unexplained bout of gloom and laughable attempt at going goth.

why? because the clouds are thick, dark and heavy, and i can hear thunder growling deeply outside. WHICH signifies the oncoming torrential downpour. WHICH resulted in the onset of my current sepulchral mood. and WHICH prompted me to listen to creepy bleak songs like jay chou's Wei Lian Gu Bao. (ok, it's isn't exactly the most funereal song choices i could make)

but what the hell. time spent moping is time wasted. indeed i shall abandon all curae on this acheronian matter and go back to whistling merry tunes whilst i skipalong to the HappyHouse.

Requiescat in Pace.

HAHA RICKY GERVAIS.

i'm watching the Animals show he did, haven't gone far, just part 1 which is about 9 minutes long. but he's an absolute HOOT so far.

time for some random pics while i take a (much-deserved) break from studies. well actually i haven't accomplished much today, and BY GOLLY i should be back at work, trying to make a dent in my revision plans for tonight, so without further ado and even less procrastination, here are some pictures!


Day 2 of the Singapore GP with the family.


Me and Brendan


Cyril Niccolai and his band performing at the Esplanade outdoor theatre, REALLY fantastic singer with a bit of a Bon Jovi tinge to his style.



The night view at the Stamford grandstand



and the day view

BLOB of EVIL

this post is entitled BLOB OF EVIL because of various reasons mentioned in the text below.

BLOB of EVIL: a shapeless lump of pure malice and depravity

Conclusion: People have a blob of evil in all of them, although at varying depths beneath their outer appearance and also of differing sizes, it is an undisputable fact that all sentient beings contain one of these little whackers.

Why, you ask? Answer, I shall. (haha i'm so full of crap)

have you ever had that feeling of intense hatred for someone? or maybe even towards an inanimate object like the brick in the middle of the path that stubbed your toe whilst you were minding your own beeswax on the way to school at 7am in the morning?

have you ever wished someone a violent death, preferably involving fire, immense pressure, boiling oil, grizzly bears, or BLOOD (lots of it), or maybe even a delightful combination of several or all of the above?

have you ever pondered upon why wars are still being initiated and fought despite the obvious losses and pointlessness for any side in any battle?

do you really want to know why all these happen? are you really prepared for the hideous truth?

WE are indeed the carriers of a certain malicious entity that some term the "Blob of Evil". its origins are highly debated amongst respectable experts of this field, with several possible theories that are most likely. one of which is that when Adam and Eve consumed the Fruit of All Evil, they accidentally swallowed seeds which harboured the essence of pernicious malevolence. the seeds, altered by enzymes and minerals found in the human body, were altered chemically and morphed into these known BLOBS that scientists have being studying about. another theory, postulated by Professor Brownchickabrowncow from Sopchoppy, Florida, is that this pimple of profligate obscenity is an adaptation arising from evolution of the human race. Professor Brownchickabrowncow, in this controversial theory, maintains that humans with this loathsome blister have greater fitness over others of their species, and that this trait was heritable in offspring and hence, over squamillions and smooshillions of years, it came about that all humans were birthed with this blight.

so how exactly does this diabolic scum affect the human host?

the answers, my friend, are blowin' in the wind, the answers, are blowin' in the wind...

no, seriously.

it is still unclear how this monstrous tumour confounds and corrupts the mind of its host, blackens and erodes the heart, taints and chokes the mind, tempts and corrodes the body. many mechanisms have been proposed, yet none have managed to survive laboratory testings and scientific proving. possibly, what we are dealing with is a higher form of life that noone is able to comprehend. perhaps the blobs in ourselves are working to maintain their blanket of secrecy and hence blind us, disallowing us to see the surreptitious workings of their kind in others.

what IS known is that efforts in uncovering the truth about these "tiny little buggers", as Dr. Koombawah from Monkey's Eyebrow, Arizona, so fittingly puts it, have been stepped up, with governments all over the world investing booshillions of taxpayers' money into worthy research projects and testing. this field of study has also seen an influx of post-graduates from renowned universities worldwide, all in the hopes of shedding light on the splotch of doom.

till then, perhaps we should embrace this grain of fiendish atrocity, let loose and wreak havoc. perhaps we should sit in moody anticipation for researchers to strike upon the answers to our many questions. perhaps we should combat the blobbular lunacy with scours and purgatories, good ol' detergent and water with a nice soapy lather, a cup of Happy Milkshake with Purity pearls, Chastity powder and Virtue spicules, or even, as some who believe in the old "fighting fire with fire" idea, infuse the mind with an insurmountable volume of heinous thoughts and ideas to swell the blotch and eventually burst the damned diabolical thing. whatever your method, just be aware. be aware, dear readers, of the thing, the thing they call the "Blob of Evil".