This is just so weird. Someone stole my dad's car number plate. My family only discovered yesterday morning. My mum waited for me at the apartment's side gate. And here me running towards the gate because I was extremely late and also because I didn't want my mum to scream at me for being late. When I was walking towards the car, I noticed something amissed at the car plate. There was no number plate. I thought it came off because it was chipped. So I went behind the car and looked. Astonishingly, some idiots did steal the number plate. Someone unscrewed the screws. So we did a police report yesterday and the problem solved for the moment.

And someone gave me a rude awakening at 5.30 am today. There was this loud banging on the grill door like someone was forcing to pry open the grill door but could not. It went on for like 20 minutes. I was frightened; there have been theft cases in my apartment before and I thought someone was trying to break into someone's house. I woke up and checked my unit door and my neighbours. It wasn't on my floor. So I crawled back to bed hoping to be able to sleep again. Lying on my bed, I could hear a girl's voice crying 'I could not open the door' in Chinese. And yet she kept forcing the door to open. And later the noise ceased but I could faintly hear her speaking on the phone. I wondered if she has got into the wrong unit or her family members don't let her come home or the key just doesn't work. I wonder if other neighbours have heard the banging this morning and what was their reaction. I certainly got a scare of my life.

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I only managed to read 4 books in 2009. I'm determined to beat last year's record. Ideally, I would like to read more than 12 books for 2010. I have finished reading 3 books as to date, which is so far so good.

The latest book I have just completed is called editing mdae easy by Bruce Kaplan. Since I wanted to be a copy editor/ proofreader, I have been hunting for books relating to this topic. This book only has around 130 pages and it's just as big as my hand, which is easy to carry around. In fact, it is very easy to read and comprehend. Common queries about the right format for grammar and most importantly how to write effectively have been answered in this book. Though it doesn't discuss much on grammar, it helps me in a way of understanding and knowing the basic correction of certain grammar and ways of writing numbers. The overall lesson that I picked up from the book is to write in active voice; also with a mixture of passive voice. This will lead to making the sentences much lively and interesting to read. Another lesson is to write short and sweet sentences vs long and wordy sentences. This is something I don't understand because many researchers don't write in simple sentences in journal articles. They write long sentences, which makes me confused instead of understanding what the writers want the readers to read!

editing mdae easy proves to be a useful guide for any beginner or experienced proofread/ copy editor who wants to achieve a high standard of quality of articles in the form of punctuation and grammar. Not the content. Remember that.

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Chinese New Year is coming and I still don't know what I'm going to do for this festival. My family never really celebrates it other than visiting some relatives in another state which we hated it so much. And we are finally so glad to death that our relative is no longer alive and so we don't have to go back there just to listen to stupid people's rant. And somehow looking back, I wonder why we are always so weak. Don't people get tired of always giving in? Rosa Parks said that herself that she is tired of giving in. Always. My family has a happy CNY whenever my father doesn't come back. I'm already past 24. And I seriously don't know what I want to do for CNY. I don't feel the atmosphere. I'm such a failure in collecting ang pau (red packet with money inside). I have relatives who are not even worth visiting. My friends will go back to their hometown.

Chinese New Year to me is just another day that resembles my off working day.

I feel so sad.

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No. Definitely no Medusa in my head except for the minions on her head. I have been dreaming of snakes recently. I think I have been dreaming of snakes like 3 times over the year. Last night I dreamed of a snake curling over my finger trying to bit me. It was baring its fang like it's going to sink its fang into my fingers but I was with someone. This lady quickly used a stick and get it off my finger. And then I don't know what's next. Something happened before that but I just can't remember. And then shortly after ... I just don't know what happened afterwards.

There's not much of info on dreams and snakes. Snakes symbolise fear, temptation, wisdom or healing. I was surprised to read "people who are dying or have lost love ones often dream of snakes, or near the time of death." Oops. But still the article I read doesn't help me in interpreting my dreams. Another article I have read states that there might be a problem that I may overlook consciously. But thinking it back now... I don't recall anything that worries me other than the same old worries of money.

The article said if the dreamer keeps on dreaming of snakes and could not find out why. Then I should try asking the snake. Ooh... if I know to open my mouth that is.

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I was walking home from the car with my mum towards our apartment unit. It was not raining yet but somehow I felt something above me dripping with water right in the middle of the road. I thought I was walking near to some balconies so I looked up. No. I was walking in a road that is far away from any units. So I looked at the ground and discovered that particular spot only was raining. Curious. I put out my hand within that spot and felt raining!! And then pull back my hand - no rain. And then again in that spot. And then pull back. No rain! So weird! Looked up again and saw that spot was clouded with some real dark clouds and other areas were not.

I found a wonderful discovery. =)

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Marriage is not about sex, or is it?

I thought the curiosity to my gender has died down since no one has been telling me to get a boyfriend since my vocal teacher gave me a lectern a few weeks ago. Unfortunately I could not escape from a friend's scrutiny.

Again, I was asked about this boyfriend thing.

This time my friend asked from a different angle. He questioned would I be satisfied without having sex. Huh?! I hated this question but he has asked for my consent to discuss on adults topic. But still it's better to kill his curiosity before he keeps on probing me on our future midnight coffee break.

Well, I cannot lie that I never thought of that question but all the time it never strike me as a NEED, it is more of a WANT. And my friend said he salutes me for thinking that way or being able to flush out the sex thing out of my mind and being able to be an urban nun. Well, I just told him the truth because if a person never fantasies about sex, that person is abnormal indeed. And I'm not abnormal to that extent. And hey I like to watch Queer as Folk, ok?? The main male character in that series is HOT. Have not heard of this series??? Ooh.. if you dislike the topic of gay alone, don't bother to watch because it has explicit sex scenes between males. HAHA.

My friend was very curious to know why I don't have the desire to have my own children. Because to him, he feels it's a gift to be able to produce a living thing from a woman's womb. He would want to experience it if he's a woman. But why not me? I don't know. I can't answer this question myself. It might stem out from an incident 12 years ago and then not long after that incident I realised this world is overpopulated and this is straining the Earth. Thus leading me to deciding not to have own children, I decided to adopt. I remember debating over this stupid topic with the narrow minded classmates of mine. I wonder do they remember this! Again, to me pregnant or not is a WANT not a NEED. But I seriously don't mind donating my eggs. It would be interesting to see a child having my DNA and another person's. I wonder will the kid be as beautiful as me. HAHA.

A lecturer colleague reminded me that if I don't have a life partner, to be exact, sex I would end up like those grumpy old virgins in my surroundings like my auntie. HAHA. The scientific reason for this is ... sexual intercourse releases some kind of hormones in a person and this hormone makes the person happy. So no sex, less happiness in short. So my colleague reminded me I would be grumpy if I become an old spinster. Ugh...

So what if you have sex when you are not in a happy marriage? Sex might just one the contributors to happiness. I'm not trying to go against other people's beliefs but it's just this is my belief. And is my sexual life that interesting?

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