Elephant in the room

Such a beautiful song!

Tweets aren't spoiling me, music is!!
Blogging has almost been entirely ousted.
Online reading replaced by my favourite paperbacks.
I read way too much from the screen at work =D

PROGRESS REPORT

Reese: So did those filthy bloodsuckers refund the 5% cash deposit?

Altar Boy: Not after some table banging, fist fighting, appraisal of the nether regions, and finally some plain bawling and incessant pleading, they finally mailed me a cheque :)

Reese: They gave you FULL refund???

Altar Boy: Of course. You didn't get that?

Reese: Idiots refunded a miserly 2k! No amount of bawling and pleading worked in my case apparently.

Altar Boy: You didn't wear your cleavage maximizer and ultra minis that day?

Reese: Ahahahaha. Naw. The S&P woman didn't look an inch like a lesbo to me.

Altar Boy: Lucky I wore my armpit airing singlet and hot pants. Nailed that fatso gayboy.

Reese: -_-"

BLESS YOU JETSTAR

For ending six god-forsaken years of shuttling from one little island to another.

I am thoroughly and pleasantly surprised with Jetstar's all-inclusive, return air tickets to Penang for only $50. Nett.

That's half the price of a 10-hour-journey coach ticket!! Shame on you Grassland, Konsortium, Gunung Raya and whatever shitty, freezing cold and roach-infested coaches!

COMPLAINT LETTER

HAHAHAHA. This is hilarious.

And you think S'poreans are a bunch of complaint kings and queens. Over in the UK they have a freaking competition for the best complaint letter ok!

Below is a copy of the letter that won a competition in UK as complaint letter of the year.



Dear Cretins,

I have been an NTL customer since 9th July 2001, when I signed up for your 3-in-one deal for cable TV, cable modem, and telephone. During this three-month period I have encountered inadequacy of service which I had not previously considered possible, as well as ignorance and stupidity of monolithic proportions. Please allow me to provide specific details, so that you can either pursue your professional perogative, and seek to rectify these difficulties - or more likely (I suspect) so that you can have some entertaining reading material as you while away the working day smoking B&H and drinking vendor-coffee on the bog in your office:

My initial installation was cancelled without warning, resulting in my spending an entire Saturday sitting on my fat arse waiting for your technician to arrive. When he did not arrive, I spent a further 57 minutes listening to your infuriating hold music, and the even more annoying Scottish robot woman telling me to look at your helpful website....HOW?

I alleviated the boredom by playing with my t..ticles for a few minutes - an activity at which you are no-doubt both familiar and highly adept. The rescheduled installation then took place some two weeks later, although the technician did forget to bring a number of vital tools - such as a drill-bit, and his cerebrum. Two weeks later, my cable modem had still not arrived. After 15 telephone calls over 4 weeks my modem arrived... six weeks after I had requested it, and begun to pay for it. I estimate your internet server's downtime is roughly 35%... hours between about 6pm -midnight, Mon-Fri, and most of the weekend. I am still waiting for my telephone connection. I have made 9 calls on my mobile to your no-help line, and have been unhelpfully transferred to a variety of disinterested individuals, who are it seems also highly skilled bollock jugglers.

I have been informed that a telephone line is available (and someone will call me back); that no telephone line is available (and someone will call me back); that I will be transferred to someone who knows whether or not a telephone line is available (and then been cut off); that I will be transferred to someone (and then been redirected to an answer machine informing me that your office is closed); that I will be transferred to someone and then been redirected to the irritating Scottish robot woman...and several other variations on this theme. Doubtless you are no longer reading this letter, as you have at least a thousand other dissatisfied customers to ignore, and also another one of those crucially important t..ticle-moments to attend to.

Frankly I don't care, it's far more satisfying as a customer to voice my frustration's in print than to shout them at your unending hold music. Forgive me, therefore, if I continue.

I thought BT were s.it, that they had attained the holy piss-pot of godawful customer relations, that no-one, anywhere, ever, could be more disinterested, less helpful or more obstructive to delivering service to their customers. That's why I chose NTL, and because, well, there isn't anyone else is there? How surprised I therefore was, when I discovered to my considerable dissatisfaction and disappointment what a useless shower of bastards you truly are. You are sputum-filled pieces of distended rectum incompetents of the highest order. British Telecom - w..nkers though they are - shine like brilliant beacons of success, in the filthy puss-filled mire of your seemingly limitless inadequacy. Suffice to say that I have now given up on my futile and foolhardy quest to receive any kind of service from you. I suggest that you cease any potential future attempts to extort payment from me for the services which you have so pointedly and catastrophically failed to deliver - any such activity will be greeted initially with hilarity and disbelief quickly be replaced by derision, and even perhaps bemused rage. I enclose two small deposits, selected with great care from my cats litter tray, as an expression of my utter and complete contempt for both you and your pointless company.

I sincerely hope that they have not become desiccated during transit - they were satisfyingly moist at the time of posting, and I would feel considerable disappointment if you did not experience both their rich aroma and delicate texture. Consider them the very embodiment of my feelings towards NTL, and its worthless employees.

Have a nice day - may it be the last in you miserable short life, you irritatingly incompetent and infuriatingly unhelpful bunch of *****.


John

OF CHRISTIANITY AND TOLERANCE

I have never been "closed" to monotheistic religions and ideas. Not subscribing to the faith, belief, and values that a religion offer does not have to mean condemnation. Because tolerance is the key here - something we should always try to hold on to.

For the record,

1) My parents put me in Baptist Kindergarten when I was 5. Then it was Convent all the way until I completed secondary school. 12 glorious years.

2) I used to attend church at regular intervals. I tried reaching out and kept my heart open.

3) For the past 2 years or so I have been staying with 2 staunch Christians. A pastor and the supremely kind-hearted landlady.


4) And I intend to spend the rest of my life with a devout Christian. Hugs.



Yet things have turned out to be SO different for me. It is not Christianity that has touched or spoken to me. (I can imagine guerrilla Christians out there shaking their heads in disapproval already)

Point is, if an honest and true conversion is in any way possible, merely going to any church and listening to sermons is not the answer. If only things were as simple as that! When you talk about a spiritual connection, it is something very personal. So there isn’t a tried-and-tested formula that you could prescribe to a "non-believer" in order to coerce him/her.

Picked up some quotes from the web - about the generally intolerant stance that monotheistic religions hold towards others, and why it is not exactly the best thing.

“ Polytheism, paganism, pluralism, new age spiritualism and secular governance have all stood for religious freedom and equality, whilst the horrific spectre of oppression and violent coercion have resulted mostly from Abrahamic monotheistic religions such as Judaism, Christianity and Islam. ”

Religion in the Modern World: From Cathedrals to Cults by Steve Bruce(1996)

“ Christianity started out tolerant and peaceful: the first Christians, the gnostics and ebionites, accepted respectively that their religion was one interpretation of the truth amongst many, or that it was a personal path and not something that could be enforced on to others. Centuries later, though, the Nicene Christians arose and murdered their more peaceful predecessors, preparing Christianity to embrace the Dark Ages like no other religion could, or would, have. ”

The European Union: Democratic Values, The Euro, Crises and Migration by Vexen Crabtree (2007)

“ In some ways, this matter of being "right" and spreading the “right”was a concern unique to Christianity. The Roman Empire was populated with religions of all kinds: family religions, local religions, city religions, state religions. Virtually everyone in this mind-boggling complexity, except the Jews, worshipped numerous gods in numerous ways. So far as we can tell, this was almost never recognized as a problem. No one, that is, thought it was contradictory, or even problematic, to worship Jupiter and Venus and Mars and others of the "great" gods, along with local gods of your city and the lesser divine beings who looked over your crops, your daily affairs, your wife in childbirth, your daughter in sickness, and your son in his love life. Multiplicity bred respect and, for the most part, plurality bred tolerance. No one had the sense that if they were right to worship their gods by the means appropriate to them, you were therefore wrong to worship your gods. [...] But then came Christianity. ”

Lost Christianities by Bart Ehrman (2003)

CHAINS

Man is born free, but everywhere he is in chains.
Jean Jacques Rousseau, The Social Contract
French political philosopher (1712 - 1778)

The chains are there for good reasons.

Apart from the obvious maintenance of social order, it helps keep reality close to hearts and minds, especially when overly imaginative thoughts threaten to lull you into illusionary lands where one seems to be completely free.

THE PEAK

Ballot number of 1686 out of the 1203 units available.

What are the odds right?

BUT.

We got it! We got it!!

The infamous altar boy is going to be a same-block-neighbour. Roachie's best buddy stays at tpy and his flat is like a freaking stone throw away. Plus Jeff and Amanda at Balestier, which is insanely nearby too. Best =)

A NOTE

I need my RC fix!!

Trading ingredients and getting the satisfaction with each level upped. And seeing your restaurant flourish under great business acumen and discerning eye for decor. Coughs.

The Kevin in my resto looks like he has almost curly hair. Almost.



The hired slaves..awwww