there's a correlation

(thanks to hanbin who made the observation.)

.:hanbin:. says:
this will be the third time
that u missed the finale of amazing race
cos u r overseas

Ms. Moo says:
TMD
WTH
hahahaha
seriously??!?!?!
OH YAR
SHIT MAN
TMD
WHY WHY WHY
GAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH
when is it?
14th?
i'm comin home.......
OH WAIT NO
NEXT WEEK!
NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

it's time! XD

word.

from the los angeles times:

A little late in making those Thanksgiving flight plans? Wondering how you could possibly afford your ticket -- that is, without putting a kidney up for sale on Craigslist? Good news! You can get a free flight home on Southwest plus a $300 travel voucher. Just do what I plan to -- get on a Southwest flight in the next few days, and when it's taking off, shout over and over, "Go, plane, go!" and "I want Daddy! I want Daddy!"

Pamela Root got the free flight and the voucher, plus an apology from Southwest, after her 2-year-old kept screaming those things at the top of his little lungs as their San Jose-bound flight was about to take off. In fact, little Adam reportedly screamed so loudly that the safety announcements couldn't be heard and the pilot turned the plane back to the gate in Amarillo, Texas, where the two were booted off.

Root was appalled when a flight attendant told her something to the effect of "We just can't tolerate that [screaming] for two hours," reported the San Jose Mercury News. Root insisted Adam would be "fine once we take off" -- which, in my book, means either "He'll be fine" or "It would be a serious pain in the butt to be stuck in Amarillo another day."

Unbelievably, Root demanded the apology she eventually got from the airline (shame, shame, Southwest) and hit it up for the cost of diapers and the portable crib she says she had to buy for the overnight stay. Even more unbelievably, there's still no word of any apology from Root to the other passengers.

There is a notion, reflected in numerous blog comments about the incident, that other passengers should "just deal" and "give a kid a break." This notion is wrong. Parents like Root and others who selfishly force the rest of us to pay the cost of their choices in life aren't just bothering us; they're stealing from us. Most people don't see it this way, because what they're stealing isn't a thing we can grab on to, like a wallet. They're stealing our attention, our time and our peace of mind.

More and more, we're all victims of these many small muggings every day. Our perp doesn't wear a ski mask or carry a gun; he wears Dockers and shouts into his iPhone in the line behind us at Starbucks, streaming his dull life into our brains, never considering for a moment whether our attention belongs to him. These little acts of social thuggery are inconsequential in and of themselves, but they add up -- wearing away at our patience and good nature and making our daily lives feel like one big wrestling smackdown.

Southwest sent the right message in yanking Root and her screaming boy off the plane. Unfortunately, it lacked the corporate courage to stand its ground, probably fearing a public relations nightmare from the Mommy Mafia. Yet, almost every day, I encounter parents who need to get the same message Root initially did. Trust me -- should I long to hear screaming children, I'll zip right past my favorite coffeehouse and go read my morning paper at Chuck E. Cheese.

I know, I know -- because I am not a parent I cannot possibly understand how hard it is to keep a child from acting out. Actually, that probably has more to do with the way I was raised -- by parents I describe as loving fascists. As a child, I was convinced that I could flap my arms and fly, but the idea that I could ever be loud in a public place that wasn't a playground simply did not exist for me.

I hear claims that some children are prone to tantrums no matter how exquisitely they are parented. If this describes your child, there's a solution, and it isn't plopping him in a crowded metal tube with hundreds of people who can't escape his screams except by throwing themselves to their deaths at 30,000 feet.

Granted, there sometimes are extenuating circumstances, reasons parents and their little hell-raiser simply must take a plane. Well, actually, there are two: dire family emergency (Granny's actually dying, not just dying to see the little tyke) and the need for a lifesaving operation for the wee screamer. In all other cases, if there's any chance a child is still in the feral stage, pop Granny on a flight or gas up the old minivan. It really does come down to this: Your right to bring your screaming child on a plane ends where the rest of our ears begin.

---

my issue with misbehaving children was recently on the MRT bound for Chinatown. for once, everyone at the door actually stood around allowing the passengers to alight... until 2 unruly children pushed their way right into the stomach of an alighting passenger and elbowed their way through to get seats.

i tried to figure out where their parents were but later i found out they were sitting just out of my line of sight, a little further away from the two little terrors they bred and allowed to run free.

the kids ran to two unoccupied seats and screamed with delight, as if they'd found gold. yes, i could still hear them through my earphones. no matter, they descended into chatter that my earphones could obstruct, so i just watched them.

soon enough, i was right, they started to monkey around. i have no idea what the HECK got them so bloody excited in a train travelling underground but they got to their feet. in their shoes. on the train seat.

I WAITED FOR THE PARENTS TO DO SOMETHING BUT NOTHING WAS DONE. ok let me give them some credit... after the two children had stamped their feet all over the seat, their attention was called to by their mom and they froze for a while, with foolish grins plastered on their faces. then they squatted down, shoes still on the seat. oh my flippin' ... $%@&#$

i blame the parents. why did you not stand up, get out of your precious mrt seat walk over and scold them? why, you too embarrassed to admit these monsters are yours? when i tried to leave the train at chinatown they pushed past me again. but i knew if i struck them i'll get hauled off to jail.

please, if you can't control your children THEN DON'T HAVE ANY!!

IMMD

spotted #2.

isn't this beautiful??!?!

spotted.

on msn with alvin -

Ms. Moo (@) says:
hewoo bebbie angel just tweeted u
she wants to give u awesomes pwesent.
also
should i just throw 2/3 of the culture and replace then?
w/o counting
since we already counted yesterday

diremeow *last minute king* says:
this morning, 8am+ at melville park bus stop,
girl wearing black jeans with sennheiser earphones...
its squarish so I'm guessing ie8? and i think its connected directly to a cowon d2.
LOL
SOMEONE SPOTTED YOU
HAHAHAHAHA

Ms. Moo (@) says:
?!
wts
WHAT
WHAT

(then it hit me - those lines are probably from one of those audio forums alvin frequents.)

HAHAHAHAHA
WTS
WHO?!
i noticed someone was staring
i was like
wts
i thought some *XXX* boy
never see girl before

diremeow *last minute king* says:
HAHAHAHAHA

Ms. Moo (@) says:
HAHAHAHAHAHAHA

diremeow *last minute king* says:
ok

Ms. Moo (@) says:
OMG!!!!!!!

diremeow *last minute king* says:
i don't think i'll post that
HAHAHA

Ms. Moo (@) says:
this is super fun,
WHY
oh.
HAHAHAHA
SO FUN

diremeow *last minute king* says:
hehehe

Ms. Moo (@) says:
I R CELEBRITEE

diremeow *last minute king* says:
"woah.. a girl audiophile."
haha

Ms. Moo (@) says:
HE SAID THAT
HAHAHAHAHAHA
THAT'
S
AWESUMMMMMMMMMMM
XD

diremeow *last minute king* says:
haha
someone else did
haha
quite lol

Ms. Moo (@) says:
i am how super happy now, that someone ACTUALLY SAW MY EARPHONES
MY $350 EARPHONES
yay.

diremeow *last minute king* says:
http://jaben.net/forums/index.php?topic=7348.1125
scroll at the end

Ms. Moo (@) says:
u should just make a stand

diremeow *last minute king* says:
haha
noo lah
$310

Ms. Moo (@) says:
'eh that's mine.'
PLUS SHIPPING.

---

haha! fun times! :D

hard disk spoil.

i've just realized that after all these years, since the hard disk incident, i can no longer type 'hard disk' without a little smirk tugging at my lips.

wedding plans

when i get married, i want this in my hair.

270USD

and a big looping bow on my lower back that's almost fashioned like a kimono's bow.

*sigh* i love daydreaming. =)

almost ready to brace the cold

(above: mango sweater in navy, grey aldo cap, uniqlo preppy cardigan, zara black beanie, zara taupe gloves, green uniqlo leggings, mango sweater in peach)

my top's completely settled; i've also got a red pea coat and a beige coat (i just realized both are from zara... and cost me less than $40 each) to wrap up in.

so now... i just need to make sure my butt doesn't freeze over and fall off. well, time to go shopping for bottoms!

(of course, i'm really just using this 'buying clothes for a trip' as a cover-up. i'm really just nursing my deep seated desire for autumn/winter clothing. look at those gloves! they're so very precious. *happy sigh*)

yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah

i got a rude shock on Wednesday morning when alvin smsed me about going for the yeah yeah yeahs' concert.

'what? i thought you weren't interested!'

'huh? well i thought YOU weren't interested!'

great, ticket sales had already started since 9am and by 1045am all the good seats were gone. cat 1 and cat 2 were pink (which meant only single seats left) while cat 3 was the next best option.

i sat next to alvin as we slowly tried to find some other good spot in the concert hall.

a: cat 3? circle 2. how about that? level 3.
v: hmm we watched rockapella from there... should be ok. i guess at that height i can see the drummer...
a: ok...
v: wait wait!! wanna look at the other seatings?
a: sigh. ok we only have 10 minutes before the seat booking expires.

as alvin browsed through the pages., he suddenly exclaimed, 'hey cat 2 turned brown (more than one seat available) for a split second just now!'

we kept refreshing and refreshing until i got tired and let alvin handle the frenzy. somehow, we managed to get 2 seats in cat 2, level 2, circle 1. hurray! but it's still not cat 1...

we confirmed the tickets and bought them. 5 minutes later, i asked alvin where we were sitting again so i could see how far away the stage was from us (yes, i was wallowing). i opened the sistic page... and guess what?

cat 1 was brown in colour. i stuttered out, 'al...vin... cat 1 is brown.'

'hey get la!! why're you not getting that!!!'

haha obviously my panic response is pretty lacking; alvin leapt from his chair and checked the tickets available... the position was slightly off centre and row O, which is right behind the row greg and kevin had gotten. it's pretty darn good., so we bought that too.

aaaaand... now we have 4 tickets. hmm. what to do with those cat 2 tickets? i really hope someone will wanna buy them off us.

and up for auction they went, this morning! amazingly, within 1 hour alvin got calls from so many people who offered beyond our selling price... which means we made some money back!

in the end we sold the ticket at $285 even though the offer shot up to $300 because well, we wanted to make someone's day. so the tickets will be going to that very fortunate first guy who called alvin. :)

it's all turned out so well...

AND THE KILLERS ARE COMING!!!!!!!!!! YARRRRRRRRR!!!! :D!

---

concerts i've been to:

anberlin
switchfoot
coldplay
jason mraz
no doubt
oasis
rockapella

concerts coming:

green day (bought)
yeah yeah yeahs (bought)
the killers
muse

concerts i'm still waiting for:

franz ferdinand
kings of convenience
third eye blind