Michael In My Head

I thought I would leave this blog for dead, but instead, it’s getting resurrected because of the dead – the late great Michael Jackson.  He is so great, that just by mentioning his first name, most people will instantly know who you are referring to – much like Elvis, but Elvis isn’t as common a name as Michael.

I must confess to be a hypocrite for Michael – like millions of you out there, he was just someone at the back of my mind.  How many of us actually thought about him before his sudden death?  Would we have waxed lyrical about him if he was still alive today?  I was not excited when he announced his concerts in UK – as we here in Asia seem always to get slighted whenever concerts are concerned.  I did, however, hope that they will mark a comeback of sorts – a new album perhaps, a new sound?

But alas, all was not to be…

I sat through hours of Michael’s MTV Top 40 Videos, hosted by his good friend David Gest.  And now it seems that Michael is stuck in my mind.  I walk with Black or White ringing in my head.  I go to sleep lulled by You Are Not Alone.  I hear Give In To Me as the day wears on.

I’m writing this to get Michael out of my head.

These are three of my favourite Michael songs:

1.  Rock With You

I don’t care that Michael looked like a disco ball, but that was the disco era, wasn’t it?  This song is timeless and makes me feel all good, each time I listen to it.  And I love the way he looked – full cheeks, wonderful, truly happy smile, and those smiling eyes – Michael, pure and simple.

2.  You Are Not Alone

 

I couldn’t bear to watch the original video that came with this single.  Michael had already changed form – maybe I’ve watched too many alien cartoons with Little Guy, where aliens can change from one form to another.  But yes, Michael had changed so much physically, to something I found difficult to accept.  This ‘live’ recording did not have those scary close-ups.

I like this song as it makes me want to just hold someone close and do a slow dance.  I also liked his crystal clear voice when I listen to it off his CD.

3.  Give In To Me

I like this for its rock vibes, and of course for Slash’s guitar work.

Just these three songs alone show us the wide range of Michael’s work.  The way his music progressed was just amazing – no one else has matched that yet.  I think the only thing that we have not heard him do is Country and Western – and there was a report I read yesterday, that said he was planning a classical album?  That would have been a blast!

It’s so sad how progressive he was in his work and yet, physically and mentally, he was regressing, killing himself and becoming a form (I find this word most appropriate) that few can understand and appreciate.  Something happened after Thriller, and only he knew what.

Are hypocrite fans like me to blame?  Did he know that we didn’t care if he’s Black or White?  Would he have heard and appreciated us, if we had told him how much we love him (all the time)?  Were we guilty of standing back and doubting when he was accused of child molestation?  Did he know that millions of us were awaiting his comeback?  Were we somehow the cause of his eccentricities?

I’m sure Michael is in a better place now, in his original Thriller form.

Good bye, Michael. 

You’ve left an indelible mark on History.  You have touched more lives (in so many ways) than any mathematician can ever fathom.  How does one calculate the impact of your music, your dance moves and your charitable causes?

And how can I ever get you out of my head? 

You’ll be treasured forever in millions of hearts (and iPods). 

Sob!  Don’t get out of my head!

 

Foreign talents at my service

I’ve read many reports about the increasing number of foreigners working as service staff these days.  My encounters with them were so far limited to those in call-centres employed by banks and several Filipino ones working in restaurants.

The most memorable encounter was at a Thai restaurant in Marina Square – it was staffed, I think, by an all Filipino crew.  I felt weird eating Thai food, being served by Filipinos.  I can’t understand why, because it should feel the same eating Thai food served by Singaporeans, right?  Wrong for me!

I had several foreign talent encounters all in a row today.  I went to the post office to get some packages weighed and posted.  And who should serve me but a young Chinese guy with the surname Yang.  I was thinking, ok, so now they are also working at such places. 

Next, I went to Bossini and picked up some clothes for Little Guy, and I was served by a Filipina (I think) whose accent made me go, huh? when she asked if I had a DBS credit card.

That done, I went to GNC to get some supplements.  I was served by a trainee from China, also surnamed Yang.  The strange thing was that her tag had her name and (China) right beside it.  Why did they need to do that?  I wonder…

So it was a day of foreign encounters.  When I boarded the bus home, I half-suspected that the driver’s a foreign talent too.

Looks like we have been surrounded, left, right and centre.

 

Review…

It has been one-and-a-half month since I started this blog.  Well, so far, so good.  I got more hits than I had expected.  I had told only two friends about this blog (not sure if they even bothered) and nobody else.  Not even my very large family and Big Guy (not yet, anyway). 

The post with the most hits was Naked Ambition.  I did not think it was a great post.  But I was glad that I posted it, not because it got the most hits, but because it let on that people are a perverted lot (more than we want to admit).

You see, they got to my post because they searched for terms like:

• nude
• nudity
• nude blogs
• naked men
• naked women
• naked in public
• *** update 26/05/08  – half nude aunties (!!)

Well, you get the picture… if you want more hits, just have these key words in your post or tags.

The post with the second highest number of hits was about Hillary Clinton.  I guess it’s because she is the ‘hottest’ woman in the US now (I just think that she is delusional and wasting money).

I’m not sure who visits my blog as most are silent readers.  Wish more people would leave comments though.  Besides looking out for hits, bloggers do like comments from readers, you know?

Ah, well, perhaps that’s not important as I started this blog to hone my writing skills and also to put the thoughts in my head into words.  I do think I have done quite well to achieve these two goals.

Don’t you?  

Comment leh…

 

Wanted: Super Heroes

In the wake of the devastating earthquake in China and the cyclone in Myanmar, I truly wish that those super heroes I watch with Little Guy on TV were real.

Seeing the flattened villages and crumbled buildings and the mounting death toll, we can only feel an immense sense of helplessness and hopelessness.  All those in the thick of the action must be emotionally drained and physically exhausted by now.  What can we do?  Nothing but sigh and lament.

If only Superman was real – he with the super strength, speed and X-Ray vision.  Oh!  How different things would be.  If only his colleagues in Justice League were real too.  If only we had some alien friends from different planets to come to our rescue…

If only we can turn back time…

Yes, perhaps I’ve been watching a tad too much TV with Little Guy…

***  Update 25/05/08 – hey!  Did this writer use my idea for his article I read on MSN?

 

Hillary Clinton – can’t swallow…

Recently, I’ve taken an interest in Hillary Clinton.  I have ‘passed’ much of the news about the long, drawn-out campaign between this woman and Barack Obama, as really, I, an ordinary auntie, cannot see how the outcome would affect me here in tiny Singapore (a place which many Americans still think is part of China).

But this lady is a fighter!  And as a fellow auntie (a junior one compared to her), I started to take notice of her speeches, interviews, campaign trails and her campaign funds.  Her funds are fast running out and she has sunk – get this, more than US$11 million (S$15 million) of her and her husband’s money into her campaign!!  If you think that is a lot of money, well, her campaign fund (from donors and well-wishers) as of March 2008 is more than US$190 million!  And she is struggling with a deficit!

And this is only for the nomination to be the Presidential candidate.  Go add up all the money she had used for her 2000 and 2006 campaigns for the New York Senate seat.  *** Faint! ***

Of course, like her, all the other candidates had their campaign funds too.  And Obama’s fund probably will set a new record given the endorsements that he’s getting now.

Go add up all the money they used for this campaign (my calculator would probably show me a string of ‘E’s).  Isn’t it grossly obscene?  I mean, if they spent the same amount of money helping the poor or whatever other worthy causes in the world (instead of trying to outdo each other from the same party), all the world will be better off?

Oh, dear, I have digressed.  I was supposed to be writing about Hillary, not about $$$.  But I couldn’t help it – the staggering $$$ figures made me breathless!

Although analysts have said that the race is over for her, she is still not giving up.  I can understand why.

I imagine her, as a little girl:

Hillary’s mum:  What do you want to be when you grow up?

Little Hillary:   The President of America.

And she must have planned her whole life for it – marriage (to a man of presidential calibre), and the obligatory child to complete the family image.  And not ‘derailing’, no matter what happens – supporting Bill all the way even through the Gennifer Flowers and Monica Lewinsky episodes.  Her appropriately timed election into the New York senate in 2000 to lay the groundwork – note that she did not contest in 2004.  All these for the big one in 2008.  She is one patient and determined lady.  But alas, it does seem now that all is not to be.

But of course she has to plod on.  It’s hard for her to swallow – something that she had lived and planned all her life for is at stake.  Her dream is in shambles.

Should she just swallow the bitter pill and accept the ’consolation prize’ and be Obama’s running mate?  Maybe… probably…

I just shudder at the thought of those millions of dollars they are going to spend against McCain.

Considering that both Bill and Hillary Clinton are in this ‘business’, can you imagine the total amount of campaign funds they have spent?  Ditto for papa Bush and Bush junior?  Must be enough to feed an impoverished Third World country for several centuries?  *** Shudder! ***

I think I’d better tune out of this altogether (else I might just suffer from chronic shuddering)!

 

Stood up again!

*** Warning – ranting auntie post! ***  Just too pissed off!

Little Guy have outgrown many of his baby stuff and I have been selling off some of them via a motherhood forum on the internet.  Most of the sales had gone smoothly except for this latest one – his stroller which we had bought for close to 400 bucks.  I listed it for sale at less than half its price.  I had several interested buyers but practised the first-come-first-served principle.

This interested buyer exchanged many SMSes with me, asking many questions, before finally deciding to buy it.  But she had a problem with the collection and I assumed that she does not own a car.  I offered to deliver it right to her doorstep even though she lived in the east, in Tampines, and me, in the west.  This was to take place a week later when Big Guy could make time.  She thanked  me profusely. 

THEN 1 day before delivery, she SMSed, saying that she was not going thru’ with the sale as her mum had bought her a brand new one that day.  At first I believed her, then after thinking about it, I would think that given a big ticket item like a stroller, surely her mum would have discussed it with her or they might have even gone shopping for it together?

And she only told me 1 day before delivery, causing me to lose several potential buyers who had expressed interest in the same stroller.

Well, I swallowed that and listed the stroller for sale again.

This time, a guy who seemed genuinely interested – he e-mailed me twice, the first time asking me to SMS him, and 2 hours later, e-mailed me asking me to call him.  Only a serious buyer would be so ‘kan-cheong’ (anxious), right?

Well, I SMSed him the next day, and several SMSes later, he asked to view the stroller between 2 – 3 p.m.  I agreed readily, since Big Guy was around too, and he would be able to give a good demo of how to use the stroller.

Big Guy and I went out for lunch and decided not to do anything after that (even though we had things to do around the house), as the blistering hot weather meant getting all sweaty even when we just so much as to move our fingers or toes.  We don’t want to be all sweaty and smelly when meeting a potential buyer, do we?

And so we waited and waited and waited.  When I decided that enough was enough, I SMSed the no-show at 3.05 p.m. 

My SMS:  Are u coming?

His SMS:  Sorry.  Can’t make it.  Held up at wk.

What flashed across my mind that instant was ‘Bloody hell!  Another one!’.  I was furious!  If I were a man, I would have SMSed back ‘F*** U!’.  The last time I had the urge to swear like this was when my ex-boss had driven me up the wall time and again.

Instead, I SMSed him, chiding him for wasting 1 hour of my time.  What was he trying to do?  Why do I have to bear with such people?!

May the fleas of a thousand camels infest the hair in your armpits, Jason…