guy: Eh you want to eat cake? W just passed this to me. He got it for me while he was on holiday with a friend.
Me: Oh that's so sweet that he thought of you while he was overseas!
guy: Sweet? Wah lao, that's what you girls would say lah. We men don't need that kind of thing.
Me: So what did you meet up with him just now for?
guy: oh he wanted to pass it to me and just chit chat.
Me: Aw. That's nice of him. He wants to be your friend!
guy: Ah talktalktalk that's all you girls are interested in. Everything also wanna talk. We men just meet up, don't need to talk, just do things. Like that friend friend enough what. W must be gay lah. always want to Talk talktalk.eh how come you girls can be total strangers but meet up then can talk talk already?
Me: dunno. wired like dat lor. we like the company. anyway you guys will play basketball with strangers also what.
Guy: That's different. No talking involved. Just game.
Me: Then after game, if the stranger guy tries to start conversation or asks you to go out with the rest of them to eat dinner, will you go?
Guy: That depends. If I won the game, then yeah I will go. If I lost, no way.
Me: Hah?! This is why you men die earlier, right? You drive yourselves crazy. You guys are crazy.
(Note: No guys were harmed in the making of this blog. Also this conversation was totally tongue in cheek.)
Friday, December 16, 2005
Thursday, December 15, 2005
mambo revisited
Last week I had agreed to accompany these 2 kids to Zouk's infamous Mambo Night. They thought it would be good to get 'exposed to the happening things'. Ha. So standing in the uber long queue to get in, surrounded by gaggles of teenyboppers, I wondered if I had made a mistake. I was obviously in a whole other age bracket from the rest of the crowd. :)
People-watching at Mambo Night as an Old Fogey yields great fruit. Unlike a regular club with people my age, you can go really invisible here. Nobody wants to check out or chat up the Lao Aunty after all right?
Things to note:
#1: Many Mambogirls like to wear that hip-bone shearing, low-cut denim skirt as popularised by Mischa Barton of the O.C.
Team it with long straight hair and lashings of plastic beaded jewellery. A popular runner up look - the evergreen lowcut cami and low-slung jeans combo. Sure-fire combo to get people staring at you especially when one has drunk too much, passed out on Jiak Kim Street itself and Zao-geng for the whole world. Nice.
And SCENE - "SAndra! Do NOT Slide down on me! Get up. Come on STAND up!" Girl trying to hoist up friend who had slithered off a bench and onto the road, said-low slung jeans sliding dangerously half-down her bum. Her valiant friends
had to struggle with simultaneously hoisting her as well as her jeans back up the bench. She thanked them by throwing up. Friends loyally held her hair back and rubbed her back. Ah....undergraduate friendship! Those were the days.
#2: Mamboguys are a lot better dressed and dance way better than mamboguys from my era. Gelled up Japanese street hair is de rigeur, teamed with polo tee with collar turned up (preppie look), or t-shirt with some nutty graphic (street look). Adventurous ones added on a funky jacket.
#3: Mass Dance is in. Gone is the one-finger in the air, shake your booty like you just don't care male undergrad dance.
Apparently everybody has studied the same library of dance moves and do it together like some kind of Dance Dance Revolution or Para Para thing. And they do it with frightening intensity! You ain't seen nothing yet till you have seen the moves to Sqaure Rooms. The action for the chorus is reminiscent of the moves I used to make with my fingers for Itsy Bitsy Spider. Brrrr.
#4: Zouk is like the new Church for the kids. When Michael Jackson's Heal the World came on, this wierd hush came over the crowd, everyone sang in unison as if it was some great hymnal. They did it for Black Eyed Peas "Where Is The Love as well". It was kind of bizarre. I still hate the MJ song I realise - "There are people dying! If you care enough for the living, make a better world for you and for me!" Come on....Gah the sugariness! the empty goody-goody lyrics!
#5: They play some one-kind of bizarre songs - techno Dancing Queen anyone? GhostBusters?
Oh and they played Timmy Thomas 'Dying Inside to Hold You". Ten years has not been enough to kill my hate for that song. Gah!
All in all, had a pretty good time actually. But like the Old Fogey that I am, the nicest part was the post Mambo, go Geylang for cold soya bean drink bit.
"So would you go back again? Did you have fun?"
"Ya maybe. Did not recognise many of the songs. I don't get out much. Swakoo."
"It's ok, lah. Not important to fit in to the culture. You got a lot going for you already. It's fun, just go with a bunch of good friends you can trust but don't need to keep going back. Enjoy the fun parts but don't go looking for the darker side of it."
"Got darker side meh?"
"Ya....its stuff you only notice when you get older lah. It was all happening right in front of you but you were too busy looking at the ParaPara platform dancers."
"Ya you know like that horrijible Pussycats Dolls song? Dontcha wish ya girlfriend was HOT like me? Dontcha wish your girlfriend was WRONG like me? DONTCHA! All those girls trying too hard to be sexy to get the attention of the guys."
"Gross. Mmmm soya bean."
:)
People-watching at Mambo Night as an Old Fogey yields great fruit. Unlike a regular club with people my age, you can go really invisible here. Nobody wants to check out or chat up the Lao Aunty after all right?
Things to note:
#1: Many Mambogirls like to wear that hip-bone shearing, low-cut denim skirt as popularised by Mischa Barton of the O.C.
Team it with long straight hair and lashings of plastic beaded jewellery. A popular runner up look - the evergreen lowcut cami and low-slung jeans combo. Sure-fire combo to get people staring at you especially when one has drunk too much, passed out on Jiak Kim Street itself and Zao-geng for the whole world. Nice.
And SCENE - "SAndra! Do NOT Slide down on me! Get up. Come on STAND up!" Girl trying to hoist up friend who had slithered off a bench and onto the road, said-low slung jeans sliding dangerously half-down her bum. Her valiant friends
had to struggle with simultaneously hoisting her as well as her jeans back up the bench. She thanked them by throwing up. Friends loyally held her hair back and rubbed her back. Ah....undergraduate friendship! Those were the days.
#2: Mamboguys are a lot better dressed and dance way better than mamboguys from my era. Gelled up Japanese street hair is de rigeur, teamed with polo tee with collar turned up (preppie look), or t-shirt with some nutty graphic (street look). Adventurous ones added on a funky jacket.
#3: Mass Dance is in. Gone is the one-finger in the air, shake your booty like you just don't care male undergrad dance.
Apparently everybody has studied the same library of dance moves and do it together like some kind of Dance Dance Revolution or Para Para thing. And they do it with frightening intensity! You ain't seen nothing yet till you have seen the moves to Sqaure Rooms. The action for the chorus is reminiscent of the moves I used to make with my fingers for Itsy Bitsy Spider. Brrrr.
#4: Zouk is like the new Church for the kids. When Michael Jackson's Heal the World came on, this wierd hush came over the crowd, everyone sang in unison as if it was some great hymnal. They did it for Black Eyed Peas "Where Is The Love as well". It was kind of bizarre. I still hate the MJ song I realise - "There are people dying! If you care enough for the living, make a better world for you and for me!" Come on....Gah the sugariness! the empty goody-goody lyrics!
#5: They play some one-kind of bizarre songs - techno Dancing Queen anyone? GhostBusters?
Oh and they played Timmy Thomas 'Dying Inside to Hold You". Ten years has not been enough to kill my hate for that song. Gah!
All in all, had a pretty good time actually. But like the Old Fogey that I am, the nicest part was the post Mambo, go Geylang for cold soya bean drink bit.
"So would you go back again? Did you have fun?"
"Ya maybe. Did not recognise many of the songs. I don't get out much. Swakoo."
"It's ok, lah. Not important to fit in to the culture. You got a lot going for you already. It's fun, just go with a bunch of good friends you can trust but don't need to keep going back. Enjoy the fun parts but don't go looking for the darker side of it."
"Got darker side meh?"
"Ya....its stuff you only notice when you get older lah. It was all happening right in front of you but you were too busy looking at the ParaPara platform dancers."
"Ya you know like that horrijible Pussycats Dolls song? Dontcha wish ya girlfriend was HOT like me? Dontcha wish your girlfriend was WRONG like me? DONTCHA! All those girls trying too hard to be sexy to get the attention of the guys."
"Gross. Mmmm soya bean."
:)
Sunday, December 11, 2005
The Game of Life
Warning: meandering post
In between working on school proposals for 2006 and doing much copious gaming as a mind-reliever. Right now, am playing a Gestalt version Dungeons and Dragons (D&D) campaign with two of my ex-students. It's movie-worthy stuff: 3 clerics, each from a different faith, take on a dangerous fact-gathering mission in a Dark Tower to stop a war between the Living and the Dead. I built a (very cool) elven 6th level monk/6th level cleric, a Whirling Dervish from the Order of the Phoenix.
I often get polite smiles when I mention I am a gamer to people over the age of 20. The polite would good-heartedly show some interest. Less polite audiences would a) proclaim gaming was something they 'outgrew' (insert pompous look before shifting conversation to more 'adult' topics) b) laugh off with embarrassment for me c) ignore what I said. Hence, I pick my audiences for revealing my pet hobby.
Among some people, it seems more kosher for a girl approaching the big 30 to announce she is into shopping and fine dining than it is to announce you like occasionally roughing up a bunch of no-good orcs. Is it so unbelievable that a girl can get as much kick out of finding a cute cropped cardi as much as finding a non-existent +5 Cloak of Improved Invisibility?
Traditional table-top D&D gaming is more fun than its flashier computerised versions. Of course if you are a simple Hack & Slash type of Power Gamer, who only plays to rack up bajillions of points or for an ego rush of kicking some one else's ass, you would definitely disagree. If you love spontaneity , social aspect and creative story-telling, nothing beats good ol' table-top gaming.
The smartest game software written cannot replace the unpredictability from playing with real-life people, making choices for their characters based on existing values and ideas.
While I loved Neverwinter Nights and Tomb Raider, in computer gaming....
1) your character's ethical choices are not a real make or break factor.
2) victory is a pre-programmed, sure-thing thanks to the button "SAVE GAME" and the plethora of cheat codes
3) you don't get face-to-face, humour-to-humour, idea-to-idea interaction
4) you get less of a chance at building up real-time relationships from gaming relationships
vs. table-top D&D roleplaying where....
1) your character's ethical choices would really have a discernable consequence on the rest of your gaming team.
e.g. If you created a lawful good righteous paladin but thought there was nothing hypocritical about using him to torture enemies into confession or cheating on taxes, your little misdeeds would cause you to lose your faith and powers.
2) victory is a lot more open-ended and unsure where a lot depends on the rationality and wisdom of choices made by your team-mates. There is no "SAVE GAME" - death is death especially if your game master decides to rule out the availability of character resurrection. There are no cheat codes that you can download. You wanna cheat, it's up for debate among your team and your game master to approve and allow.
3) you get to know the inner quirks, beliefs and ideals of people thanks to their being put in outrageously, unreal situations.
Designed well, table-top gaming can be a smart, social game with in-built capabilities for challenging people about their pre-conceived notions and beliefs about Cause and Effect. An example of in-game conversations:
"Oy, Why your stupid barbarian go and chop off the man's head for? He already begged for mercy!"
"He got money what. KIll him then can take lor. His +5 longsword very nice."
"You supposed to play a GOOD character man! Some more your barbarian wisdom supposed to be high. Eh must think through your next decision ok..."
Occasionally I get bouts of wondering what is a Christian way to game. Or whether Christians should game in the first place.
I thought this article put it quite well.."What Game is the Devil's Game?"
http://www.geocities.com/christian_gamers_guild/chaplain/faga015.html
"Faith and Gaming: Devil's Game: The question is often asked as to whether there are any games Christians should not play. Series author M. Joseph Young names one that would surprise most people, and in so doing sheds some light on the question itself..."
Of course I don't believe D&D, Harry Potter, Buffy, golf, tennis, photography, pop music etc are without their pitfalls of course. Take gaming - I get exceedingly tempted to turn down invites to socials and talks because of the allure of a D&D game. When I start to prioritise chopping up virtual monster spiders and collecting virtual gold over talking to flesh and blood people, I know I need to stop. When I start wasting too much time, money and brain-space on gaming, I know I am in trouble.
Fpr myself, I actually think I am in far more danger when I watch a trashy Hollywood romance or read some rubbishy "chick-lit" than when I read Harry Potter or play D&D. I realised that when I was channel-surfing the other day and found myself watching the whole of America's Sweethearts. It was a total candy-floss of a movie where Julia Roberts ends up canoodling with John Cusack after losing 65 pounds and conditioning her hair. Catherine Zeta Jones also whines, pouts and purrs her way out of adultery and general brattish behaviour. My thoughts after the movie were a mix of "yeah yeah life is easy if you are as gorgeous as those two women", "I want that room" and "I wish I could find a guy like John Cusack".
They were frivolous passing thoughts but I was struck by how they registered so clearly in my head. I can objectively recognise the silliness of the thoughts but nevertheless they surface unasked for. And the thoughts speak to my personal doubts, chinks in my Christian armour. I am sure enough of Christ's work in me to not be stumbled totally but nevertheless, I would not want to tempt myself with a marathon trashy romance movie marathon if I can help it. Conversely, another person might be able to turn his brain off in the face of a romance movie, but finds himself thinking "I wish I really had magic powers. Life would be easy" when he plays D&D.
So should a Christian play D&D, go Zouk, play mahjong, watch RA movies? My layman understanding - We all face the same problem of Sin. But Different people have different strongholds or weak spot, different ways to go astray. We cannot ban everything for the sake of not stumbling another because it is near impossible. There is always something in this fallen world to stumble someone. Instead we really have to just tailor our responses and choices to every unique relationship, every unique context and always always go back to seeking God's Will.
If we think the most evil game in the world is Pokemon, Golf, Gin rummy, Monopoly, Harry Potter or D&D...we have failed to remember what the Game of Life is really about. There is a more real and terribly insiduous form of Evil out there. To simplistically equate the work of the devil with games and Harry Potter movies would show we don't really understand how terrible Real Evil is. If we make Evil into a straw man, we reduce the Christian fight into a simple list of "Do" and "Don't Do", "Do Read" and "Don't Read".
Evil looks a lot easier to understand and conquer when we reduce it to a bits and pieces of pop culture to avoid.
God and The Devil seem a lot less real and less intimidating when we cariacature them.
In between working on school proposals for 2006 and doing much copious gaming as a mind-reliever. Right now, am playing a Gestalt version Dungeons and Dragons (D&D) campaign with two of my ex-students. It's movie-worthy stuff: 3 clerics, each from a different faith, take on a dangerous fact-gathering mission in a Dark Tower to stop a war between the Living and the Dead. I built a (very cool) elven 6th level monk/6th level cleric, a Whirling Dervish from the Order of the Phoenix.
I often get polite smiles when I mention I am a gamer to people over the age of 20. The polite would good-heartedly show some interest. Less polite audiences would a) proclaim gaming was something they 'outgrew' (insert pompous look before shifting conversation to more 'adult' topics) b) laugh off with embarrassment for me c) ignore what I said. Hence, I pick my audiences for revealing my pet hobby.
Among some people, it seems more kosher for a girl approaching the big 30 to announce she is into shopping and fine dining than it is to announce you like occasionally roughing up a bunch of no-good orcs. Is it so unbelievable that a girl can get as much kick out of finding a cute cropped cardi as much as finding a non-existent +5 Cloak of Improved Invisibility?
Traditional table-top D&D gaming is more fun than its flashier computerised versions. Of course if you are a simple Hack & Slash type of Power Gamer, who only plays to rack up bajillions of points or for an ego rush of kicking some one else's ass, you would definitely disagree. If you love spontaneity , social aspect and creative story-telling, nothing beats good ol' table-top gaming.
The smartest game software written cannot replace the unpredictability from playing with real-life people, making choices for their characters based on existing values and ideas.
While I loved Neverwinter Nights and Tomb Raider, in computer gaming....
1) your character's ethical choices are not a real make or break factor.
2) victory is a pre-programmed, sure-thing thanks to the button "SAVE GAME" and the plethora of cheat codes
3) you don't get face-to-face, humour-to-humour, idea-to-idea interaction
4) you get less of a chance at building up real-time relationships from gaming relationships
vs. table-top D&D roleplaying where....
1) your character's ethical choices would really have a discernable consequence on the rest of your gaming team.
e.g. If you created a lawful good righteous paladin but thought there was nothing hypocritical about using him to torture enemies into confession or cheating on taxes, your little misdeeds would cause you to lose your faith and powers.
2) victory is a lot more open-ended and unsure where a lot depends on the rationality and wisdom of choices made by your team-mates. There is no "SAVE GAME" - death is death especially if your game master decides to rule out the availability of character resurrection. There are no cheat codes that you can download. You wanna cheat, it's up for debate among your team and your game master to approve and allow.
3) you get to know the inner quirks, beliefs and ideals of people thanks to their being put in outrageously, unreal situations.
Designed well, table-top gaming can be a smart, social game with in-built capabilities for challenging people about their pre-conceived notions and beliefs about Cause and Effect. An example of in-game conversations:
"Oy, Why your stupid barbarian go and chop off the man's head for? He already begged for mercy!"
"He got money what. KIll him then can take lor. His +5 longsword very nice."
"You supposed to play a GOOD character man! Some more your barbarian wisdom supposed to be high. Eh must think through your next decision ok..."
Occasionally I get bouts of wondering what is a Christian way to game. Or whether Christians should game in the first place.
I thought this article put it quite well.."What Game is the Devil's Game?"
http://www.geocities.com/christian_gamers_guild/chaplain/faga015.html
"Faith and Gaming: Devil's Game: The question is often asked as to whether there are any games Christians should not play. Series author M. Joseph Young names one that would surprise most people, and in so doing sheds some light on the question itself..."
Of course I don't believe D&D, Harry Potter, Buffy, golf, tennis, photography, pop music etc are without their pitfalls of course. Take gaming - I get exceedingly tempted to turn down invites to socials and talks because of the allure of a D&D game. When I start to prioritise chopping up virtual monster spiders and collecting virtual gold over talking to flesh and blood people, I know I need to stop. When I start wasting too much time, money and brain-space on gaming, I know I am in trouble.
Fpr myself, I actually think I am in far more danger when I watch a trashy Hollywood romance or read some rubbishy "chick-lit" than when I read Harry Potter or play D&D. I realised that when I was channel-surfing the other day and found myself watching the whole of America's Sweethearts. It was a total candy-floss of a movie where Julia Roberts ends up canoodling with John Cusack after losing 65 pounds and conditioning her hair. Catherine Zeta Jones also whines, pouts and purrs her way out of adultery and general brattish behaviour. My thoughts after the movie were a mix of "yeah yeah life is easy if you are as gorgeous as those two women", "I want that room" and "I wish I could find a guy like John Cusack".
They were frivolous passing thoughts but I was struck by how they registered so clearly in my head. I can objectively recognise the silliness of the thoughts but nevertheless they surface unasked for. And the thoughts speak to my personal doubts, chinks in my Christian armour. I am sure enough of Christ's work in me to not be stumbled totally but nevertheless, I would not want to tempt myself with a marathon trashy romance movie marathon if I can help it. Conversely, another person might be able to turn his brain off in the face of a romance movie, but finds himself thinking "I wish I really had magic powers. Life would be easy" when he plays D&D.
So should a Christian play D&D, go Zouk, play mahjong, watch RA movies? My layman understanding - We all face the same problem of Sin. But Different people have different strongholds or weak spot, different ways to go astray. We cannot ban everything for the sake of not stumbling another because it is near impossible. There is always something in this fallen world to stumble someone. Instead we really have to just tailor our responses and choices to every unique relationship, every unique context and always always go back to seeking God's Will.
If we think the most evil game in the world is Pokemon, Golf, Gin rummy, Monopoly, Harry Potter or D&D...we have failed to remember what the Game of Life is really about. There is a more real and terribly insiduous form of Evil out there. To simplistically equate the work of the devil with games and Harry Potter movies would show we don't really understand how terrible Real Evil is. If we make Evil into a straw man, we reduce the Christian fight into a simple list of "Do" and "Don't Do", "Do Read" and "Don't Read".
Evil looks a lot easier to understand and conquer when we reduce it to a bits and pieces of pop culture to avoid.
God and The Devil seem a lot less real and less intimidating when we cariacature them.
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