Lolz- Drabble Generator

An Ethereal Day To Float
by Grac, courtesy of the Drabble-matic

Kieran stepped easily out into the classy sunshine, and admired Anna's shoulder. "Ah," he sighed, "That's a mysterious sight."

Anna climbed off the billboard and walked quickly across the grass to greet her lover. Kieran patted Anna on the feet and then tried to float her nonsensically, but without success.

"That's all right," Anna said. "We can try again later."

"I'm just not fabulous," Kieran. "Not as fabulous as the time we floated behind the moon."

Anna nodded carelessly. "We were redeeming back in those days."

"Our necks were younger, and we had a lot more fun with them," Kieran said. "Everything seems shiny and asinine when you're young."

"Of course," Anna said. "But now we're provocative, we can still have fun. If we go about it progressively."

"Progressively?" Kieran said . "But how?"

"With this," Anna said and held out a contrary foil. "Just take that with some water and in half an hour, you'll be ready to float."

Kieran swallowed the foil at once and sure enough, in half an hour, they were able to float progressively. They floated like a beautiful membrane made of a thousand points of light. Three times.

And then the neighbour told them to get off his lawn.

----
It's scary how it looks like something I'd write on crack. Lots of work and thinking up of adjectives, but FUN!

growing up is hard work

growing up (not old, mind you) sucks.

i never thought i could be made any more cynical than i already was, pre-current-job, but there you go.

here is a list of the things I know nothing about: house loans, overdrafts, debts, EPF beneficiaries, wills, burying people (twice), legal stuff, bills, MRTA, estates, auctions, developer prices etc. you would think that after two years, i would know- but i've managed to ignore it, in hopes that it will go away. it hasn't, but it's getting easier. to ignore, that is.

however, i don't think burying people made me cynical and jaded, contrary to popular belief. i suspect its my job.

my job is wonderful. i love the people i work with (four of them, at least). i love how when i had my writer's block going on for a year, they took over all the writing altogether and let me do my own thing.

boss: {in her cubicle} grac, bla bla buzz buzz deadline bla bla
grac: ... {typing an email}

TEN MINUTES LATER

grac: ... {deleting furiously after three whole sentences}
boss: bla bla artist bla
grac: {types in 'aesthetic in the mystical' and pauses} um... can i have your eyes for a minute?
boss: {moving around} bla bla invoices, grac
grac: ... {deletes furiously and reparses the sentence. types 'mysticism and astrology' instead}

FIVE MINUTES LATER

boss: {at grac's cubicle} okay, what?
grac: i'm doing this thing for the blurb thing
boss: ... {reads over shoulder}
grac: ... {still typing and reparsing sentences}
boss: you know what? i'll write this- you scoot over and i'll finish in two minutes
grac: {angry, scoots}
boss: {types}

TWO MINUTES LATER

grac: {sends that email off}

my writing muscles have atrophied and i take an hour to write a short blurb that wouldn't have taken me 5 minutes before. it was so easy to palm off all the writing work for so long, it's starting to be very bad for me.

anyway, i love how working for a big company allows me the experience of a big budget but yet working for a small operating unit means i get to learn to be accountable on what and who i spend it on. particularly the who. i've never been so pro-who in my life, its unbelievable.

i bought a train (4 trains, actually). and this fulfils one of my list of 'things to-buy'. happy day. however, we had nothing to put on/in it. that was a painful experience of futility and hopelessness. nevertheless, it looks beautiful now. happy day.

Okay. We.

we bought four trains. not me.

it is wonderful to be able to strategize and create campaigns. to come up with catchy taglines and copy and clever wordplay and visuals before figuring out what we have to buy to put this award-winning ad out there. this is kinda like my mother getting excited over a new product in our dinnerware series- eyes wide, happily holding a bowl aloft: "what do you think we can eat in *these*??"

i am glad i am not my boss.

boss: howc'm you get confused everytime? you know there's a difference between a PO and a PR.
grac: ...
boss: {waits expectantly}
grac: due process is a big v*gina

if i'm feeling down, walking through the gallery cheers me up and calms me down everytime. i love brisk walking down the corridors to check up on my favorite pieces. the event launches are fun. you get to be out of the office and in the gallery all day long. i love meeting journalists and art lovers.

primadonna artists, however, can be such big v*ginas. worse still, their *entourage* and plus-ones. eurgh.

still- i love my job. i'm glad i'm here and nobody can tell me otherwise.

growing old is nice. i just don't like growing up.

Two years later

...and I'm back in Singapore. For a visit, of course.


I've been bitten by the writing bug again, lately and needed to move past my block.



There.

On Vacation

"Ergonomical Ku-Cheh Grac with Scooped Head Rest"

Am now in Singapore visiting my brother, sister-in-law and their spanking new addition to the family. I'm biased, but she is quite cute. Big plus, she doesn't actually cry- but if she does, its this soft faint whimper. Besides, crying can be solved by one of two things plugging her mouth with milk or singing to her. No, she rarely cries when her diaper's soiled... bit of a pig about hygiene- truly her father's daughter.

I've gone through the 'Tour of Duty', we term it- feeding, changing, putting to sleep, etc. I'm sharing the joy on YouTube. Don't complain- at least I'm not putting up videos of her birth. Ick.

"Entertain me, mortal!"

One Month Later

"Fresh outta th' oven... okay, ew."

I'm an aunt! Well, I'm an aunt to a niece actually related to me by blood! Nice to know I can always get that kidney or bone marrow should I need it.

My bro, sis-in-law and baby Rachelle

Might be going down to SG this week or so to visit them, so will bring more pics to show. Blogger beta rocks. Not feeling exceptionally prolific today (or the past year or so), therefore I'll just leave you with pictures and reassurances that I am well.

And because Blogger beta rocks and uploading pictures have never been easier... the happy couple, my friends.

Now if my brother ever scolds me for teaching my niece naughty words... I'll just threaten to show her this.

Snippets from the Cutting Room Floor

A short excerpt from the cutting room floor of my latest, desperate grab at straws to produce a proper story. Bear with me.

As far back as I can remember, my best friend has always been- intense, shall we say? She has the tenacity of the pit bull, , the unconditional love of the Jack Russell terrier and personifies unwavering loyalty like a border collie. Yes, she is a bitch and I don’t care who knows it.
“How was I to know I wasn’t allowed to drink that?”
“You knew!” Cypher yells back, adding a totally overdone sniffle whilst cradling the half-full (well, less than half-full now) bottle of soda that had once touched the sanctified lips of Rex Wong. Ew, ick. Have to rinse out my mouth now.
She trails petulantly behind me into the bathroom, glaring daggers at my back all the while as I rinse my mouth out exaggeratedly. “What?!” I snapped, “Is this mouthwash his too? Or did you filter this stuff out of his sink’s U-bend-“ I freeze suddenly, the thought making me nauseated. God, there’s not enough mouthwash in the world to deal with that. I made a face at her and try not to think of all the backwash I’d consumed earlier.
“You knew I was going to keep it as a, a… well-“ she struggled for the term.
I didn’t know what to call it either, so I settled for giving her a look that clearly communicated how insane I thought her to be. “Woman, these things go into the glass display where you put you other Rex Wong-“ I struggled for a polite term, before finishing weakly while waving my hand in the general direction of the shelf “-stuff. That bottle of soda was in the fridge- where the other things you can drink live.”
Long silence. I glance at her and realize that I was being given the silent treatment. This is even worse than the time I’d recorded over her Oprah Winfrey interview of John Travolta. VHS sucks. Shrugging, I regarded her display shelf with as dispassionate an expression as I could muster. Movie ticket stubs, glossy photos, magazine cut-outs, and a sock which I pray had just ended up there by mistake.
We call having someone’s pictures and posters keeping memorabilia, having lit candles make it a shrine and keeping the guy’s underwear makes it just creepy. Cypher stops shy of lighting candles. If it were not so socially unacceptable and off-putting, she would already be lighting candles to little homemade stuffed plushies in the likeness of her heroes.
She’s actually surprisingly well adjusted despite her obsessive-compulsiveness and anal retention. But then again, in the immortal words of my other best friend, ‘I’m not into that sort of thing’. Cue eyeroll.

Sanguine stretched lazily in her chair, waiting for the post to upload. She drummed her fingers impatiently, inwardly cursing the slow transfer rate. Maybe the next post would be an investigative report on her housemates' Internet download activity and the dangers of pornography, she thought.
“What’s th’ what, ladies?” Nick saunters into the room, full of unwelcome pep and vigor.
“You downloading porn, Nicholas?”
He dodges a rolled-up sock thrown at him by Sanguine. “No.” Nick musters up a properly affronted air. Darting his eyes from one girl to another, he surreptitiously fiddles with his download manager.
“Oo- comments already,” Sang pronounces happily, clicking at her blog. Cypher’s computer makes a rude sound on cue. She ignores the raspberry and reads out loud, “Lessee- hm. You. Suck. Very mature, Cyph.” A clatter of keys and a suitable response about Cypher’s dubious parentage was sent.
A louder rude raspberry and Cypher turns to Nick, “You know about that bottle of soda you got for me at the party last night, right? Rex’s?”
“Um, yeah?”
“See? Everyone knows about it!”
“Uh- what?”
“Sanguine drank from my bottle of Rex Wong soda.”
“For the last time, woman! It was in the frakking fridge!”
Nick’s face takes on a rather alarmed look for a split second, “Hmm…” He nods with a carefully schooled expression of neutrality.
The other balled-up sock hurtles at his forehead with unerring aim and bounces off lightly. He turns to narrow his eyes at Sanguine, who merely raised her eyebrow at him. Cypher glares from one person to another. “Oh my god, you *both* suck!” She storms out of her bedroom in a huff.
Sanguine grins after her and called out- “No, we both *swallow*!” Nick graces her with a disgusted look. “What d’you look so squicked about, babyman? We both consumed soda pop with essence of Rex Wong.”
“Oh. Ick. Where’s the mouthwash?”

--------

Quotes from the as-of-yet-unnamed Story A of a play which will, sadly, never be published or performed.

Cypher : What the heck happened to you?
Nick : (mumbling around a coldpack) My face had a meaningful encounter with someone's fist. It was beautiful.

Nick : So I met this chick, right? At this party last night?
Sang : *You* get invited to parties?
Cyph : A *LAN* party.
Sang : Must be some real hot chick, then.
Cyph : Oo- did you get her e-mail?
Sang : Good Lord, you people are such losers.

Alex : This really is two candles short of a shrine.

And, because you are all really special for still being my friends despite my lack of update... a REAL quote, from real life : "OMG, you're like, really anal retentive, aren't you?" "Er- I'm not into that sort of thing-la." Yes, cue eyeroll and headslap... preferably his.

Goodnight, Kuala Lumpur! You've been a great crowd. I love you all! (note: please comment on the K-Hell mention *only* when PeeJay becomes a city, you ulu-sticks-in-mud)

Frankie : The Early Years

"What th' heck is a Frankie?" I asked one day after being called that for the Nth time by one Mr Francis Lee. Apparently, I have a standard photographic pose much like Lyd's 'The Angle'. Thus, the Frankie Files were created to document this peculiar phenomenon.

Nobody really knows where or when the Frankie came into being, but because I'm feeling generous and nostalgic, you get to see (for a limited time only) the Frankie Evolution. Behold.



Next up- Frankie : The Next Generation.