“your book not captivating you?” and this is how it always begins. i took a split second to consider his choice of verb — why captivating and not something else? — but the truth is that i was immediately taken. i could repeat the umpteenth iteration of my affinity theory, but there was no need [...]

i found more!!! sorry, huge philosophy midterm coming up in four hours, and my brain needed some happiness. these are cordial exchanges with everybody’s favourite alien, Martian: 11 May 2008 Subject: (No subject) Dear Mr Ng Could you please buy this for me? Would appreciate quick revert http://www.thedog-clubs.com/pupography/jr1.jpg Warmest regards, Su Ann Lim // Dear Su Ann could you pls enumerate the cost-benefit analysis of [...]

it’s midterms week on this side of the planet, and because i have a huge propensity for distracting myself with frivolous things during times of high stress, i did some brief excavating in my email account today. there are always such cool fossils to stumble upon in my inbox. the below exchange is one of [...]

did any of you have to read The Dead Crow by A Samad Said for the literature component in Form 1? i’ve just found the original Bahasa Melayu version. it’s a wonderfully nuanced poem. see for yourself what the differences are between the BM and English versions. makes you wonder why they told us in our syllabus [...]

actually, small angers don’t deserve long angry posts. i had very clear reasons for the verbiage, all of which were slowly meditated upon and are still relevant, but you know, ultimately, love is the answer. and kindness is still the most important thing in the world. i’m just an angry kid who needs to remember [...]

i stopped at the window on the 18th floor to press my hands against the cold glass and to breathe onto it. outside, the snowflakes were flying and tumbling against the grey skies, whisked along by the wind in a manner that seemed so carefree. from up here, i could see people and their black [...]

so here it is finally– i was sitting in my 9am class the other day, and my mind wandered to a place where people talk about christianity, islam, and the word allah. glibly, i made a mental note to myself to finish writing that piece on the Allah problem that has been sitting on my desktop [...]

i signed up for a creative writing class two weeks ago. it’s not for credit, and it’s just one of those things that students take for fun – but i missed the first class because i was rushing a microeconomics problem set that was taking me longer than i’d expected to complete; and then i missed the [...]

feeling very much like this right now!

i think, most of all, i miss the security and warmth borne of the knowledge that together, we are a team. i’ve been distraught lately because it seems that all of my teams seem to be either falling apart or growing apart as we become more integrated into this aggressive adult world of incentives, competition [...]

it’s been a weekend of tiered festivities, what with chinese new year and valentines’ day falling on the same day this year. Flushing, New York was redder and more boisterous than usual this weekend, with stalls of roses lining the streets and calls of 新年快乐! being jostled back and forth amongst the exuberant crowd. some [...]

saturday- his slender legs cut across the glow of the curtains as he crossed them elegantly. from where i was lying, the sculpture seemed like something unforgettable, and everything we had been talking about faded away as we giggled furiously into each other’s shoulders. trust, and love, were big ballooning gulps that had no place [...]

if you’re reading this, tell me now! where was that sandwich from?

i was looking at pictures from Tali Tenang, which is the latest Random Alphabets project. so many people were wearing the I

2009 was the year that i thought i found myself, but had actually lost my way. i emerged from the old year startled, sleepy, confounded, and most of all, very sad. it’s a little akin to waking up and realizing you’re in a different body and a different life. i made so many decisions the [...]

No, I’m not gonna talk about the allah-tuhan-hantu suci issue that’s going on in Malaysia right now. In fact I think religion is the cause of so much of the world’s problems that the less airtime we give it the better. God is fully capable of defending herself. Instead we should dilute religion’s influence by [...]

everything is moving like whipping winds. i’ve been back in new york for about 24 hours now, but in thirty minutes i have to leave for the airport to catch my flight to Honduras. i’ve been excited about this trip all semester, but now that it’s here, i wish i could have a little bit [...]

so far: i spent some night ago sprawled on the cool floor of a cozy, tepid-aired apartment playing charades. theme: movies. laughs were aplenty, especially when Friendly Persuasion, Gandhi, and The Englishman Who Went Up A Hill But Came Down a Mountain were drawn. when Lolita was drawn, Uma, the zestful charadeer, started mimicking ‘laughing out [...]

life has this strange way of doing things. it wraps around us like silky snakes, distracting us from what we think we know, luring us into its lair, confusing us, confounding trust, and then one day it just leaves. it just leaves, and we’re standing there dazed and nauseated, wondering what in the world just [...]

i am completely numb