(John Tlumacki—The Boston Globe/Getty Images)

This morning, over on this side of the world, we woke up to some horrifying news. Two bombs had gone off at the Boston Marathon, killing three people and injuring more than 140 others.

Scores of articles and images flooded our Facebook and Twitter feeds. Bloodied pavements, frenzied crowds, panicked policemen. Men with their legs blown off, a woman lying motionless on the road, an elderly man fallen on the ground.

Then came the reactions. #prayforboston was on everyone’s lips.

Then, as they always do, the alternative views came along.

A news report about the US firing on a wedding in Afghanistan, killing 30, came up.

People questioned: What was 3 deaths in Boston compared to the 30 in Afghanistan?

Some say the news report was a hoax. Some say it’s 11 years old. Some say it’s been taken out of context.

And I couldn’t help but feel incredibly uncomfortable at all this. For reasons I couldn’t figure out until now.

Why is 30 deaths more tragic than 3? Is killing 3 people more acceptable than killing 30?

It doesn’t matter if the news report was a hoax, or taken out of context or whatever. It’s a fact that innocents are dying in Afghanistan. It’s true that the media doesn’t report much on the deaths in Afghan as compared to how much they reported the Boston bombings. But that’s the media’s fault, innit?

Why are people taking it out on those who are praying and mourning those in Boston?

Does it matter that we don’t know anyone in Boston who was injured?

The incident is a reminder to us that life is so darn precious. That you could be out having a good time at a birthday celebration, dinner party, concert, marathon, and then suddenly, your life could be over.

It’s terrifying. That those panicked, injured people could have been us. And maybe we’re making ourselves feel better by hashtagging prayforboston, but is that such a bad thing? Is it so horrible to feel empathy for the victims?

And yes, innocents are dying in Afghanistan and they could do with our prayers as well. But then shouldn’t we call for people to pray for the Afghans instead of getting angry and telling people off for expressing concern for the Boston victims?

I don’t understand why people are getting upset that others are putting out kind words for the victims.

This is not a case of a big celebrity dying and having hipsters suddenly proclaim to be massive fans. This was an act of terror. (Even if Obama doesn’t want to say it outright). People died. People lost their legs. People are reminded of a fateful day when four planes were hijacked and rammed into significant buildings, killing 2996 people.

I think that’s something worth praying for.

Yes, 1462 Afghan civilians died in 2011 alone; I don’t even know how many Afghan civilians have died in total over the past 12 years. So pray for them too.

Pray for the Afghans. And pray for the Americans. Because I’m sure there’re more than enough prayers and empathy to go around.

I’m working on something right now which I am super duper excited about!

It’s actually not as big a deal as the online magazine that I was once super hyped about that didn’t happen, but I’m just ridiculously happy about it right now and I can’t wait to show it to you guys!

I was originally planning to launch it next week, but I think I might be able to launch it tomorrow already. So that’s absolutely brilliant and I just can’t wait!

In other news, I’m meeting my mates for drinks tonight and I’m really excited for that as well. Not so much about the drinks but more about meeting them and hanging out. Heh. Simply joys.

Happy happy good mood hyper shaky hands – wait. I think these are signs of nicotine withdrawal. Which means I’m going to be grumpy soon. Darned mood swings. Oh well! Gonna enjoy my good mood while it lasts! Have a great day y’all!

Last month, I impulsively did something kind of retarded. I bought a domain name, without knowing what to do with it.

Yeah I bought nataliekoh.com without knowing why I would need a website with my own name. LOL

So after like a month of feeling stupid, I decided to actually do something with it. And it’s an idea I’ve sort of played with for a while now, but never got around to doing it.

I decided to put up my published works on the site.

And then I realised, okay having just one page with my portfolio is kind of retarded. I’ve got this amount of space, why not do something with it?

That’s when I decided it’s not just going to be a one page site where I only need to work on it for a day and forget about it. I’m going to be updating the site with my latest articles, and behind-the-scenes stories.

One common problem with writing for a newspaper is that most of the time, your newsmaker gives you a whole lot of information, and you can only squeeze in, say, 30% of it in. Especially when it comes to new businesses or restaurants. A lot of thought has gone into the business, so the owners often have a lot to say – a lot of which can be interesting. But you’ve only got a 40cm column space and you just can’t squeeze all that information in.

So that’s where my site comes in handy. I get to put in some information that I didn’t get to put into the story, and at the same time, update people on the sort of work I’m doing so the site is never stagnant.

There are some stories that don’t make it to the paper either – not many, but they do exist. So I can write about those on the site as well.

It’s pretty much like a “professional blog” if there is such a term. And it’d be a good way for people who are wary (“Freelance writer? Sounds like she’s trying to mooch a free meal from us!”) to see that I really do have ties to The Business Times and maybe for people who want their new lifestyle ventures featured in the paper to reach me too.

The website is still in the works right now, and I don’t have many entries up. So right now it’s in a bit of a soft launch I guess? Hopefully I can launch it properly at the end of this month, which means putting it on my Facebook, Twitter and letting people know that it, y’know, exists.

I think publicising my blogs/sites is something that I really need to get more comfortable with as well because I really hate to seem like I’m boasting or whatever. But I guess I’ll get there eventually. :/

So yeah. Have a look at it and feel free to let me know if you notice any bugs, or if you just think it’s a crap idea, or whatever. Hehe.

Nataliekoh.com

(Huang Wen Yong—Mediacorp Artistes)

Death has never been a concept I ever really grasped.

I have known people who have passed. And I have been to a fair few funerals.

But it has never really impacted me very much, probably because I don’t think I ever really understood it very well.

My grandfathers passed away when I was very young, so I don’t remember them at all.

When I was 12 or 13, my friend’s mother passed away. I knew that it was a horribly sad situation, and I did feel very sad for my friend. But I don’t think I really felt the full impact of it.

And then a few years ago, an ex classmate of mine took her own life. I was in shock for almost the whole night. I didn’t understand how you could be here one minute and not the next. I didn’t understand how a person could just disappear completely within that split second. Like you’re just gone. Suddenly.

But the thing about life is that it is so easy to forget. You forget how fragile life is. You forget how quickly you could lose someone, and well, it hurts too much to think about it.

So you forget, and you go on with your own life.

Then once in a while a big celebrity dies and, once again, you feel that twinge in your heart and sinking feeling in your gut. Michael Jackson’s death got me numb and I couldn’t react, so I just pretended nothing had changed. I mean, nothing had changed. I never met him and he had lived a pretty full life – his death shouldn’t affect me. Right?

The day Amy Winehouse died – yes, I am a huge huge fan of Amy Winehouse – I didn’t want to believe it. I think a part of me still doesn’t.  The secret neurotic side of me believes that there’s a community of big shot celebrities who had faked their deaths to live quiet lives. Stupid? Maybe. But it makes me feel a lot better.

I couldn’t bear going on Facebook and Twitter and seeing these… numbnuts proclaiming to be Amy’s biggest fans when the only song they knew of hers was Rehab and Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow. I pretended they didn’t exist, and I pretended Amy was still alive. In fact, I still accidentally add her into my mental list of live concerts to see before I die.

That’s kind of sad :/ But that’s what I do. I lie to myself things to make myself feel better about life. Which is a little bit ironic. Because life is the problem isn’t it? It’s really all we have. And it mocks us with a time limit that is kept hidden from us. We could live until 80, but we could also die tonight. It’s horribly macabre, I know, but it’s the truth.

When it comes to local celebrities, I have to admit that I don’t give much of a crap for them. But even I am not impervious to the notions of death.

When Emma Yong passed, I felt a little bit sad – but more because the local theatre community had lost an extremely talented actress because I didn’t know here personally or had even known much about her personal life. I honestly didn’t know much about her and who she was. But what I did know, was that I had seen her on stage a good few times and she is easily one of my favourite theatre actresses – possibly one of the best in the business. And I lamented the loss of that talent.

But this evening, when the news broke about Huang Wen Yong’s death, something was different – it affected me a lot more than I thought it would.

I grew up watching this man on TV. With the small pool of actors in Singapore, we pretty much reuse our actors for every other TV show, so suffice it to say, I saw this man a lot on TV. Somehow, I connected a whole lot more with his generation of actors than I did with the current generation of actors. They were the pioneers of TV actors in Singapore. They are highly respected by the public, and for good reason.

He, and the rest of his peers, worked tirelessly to produce show after show, setting high standards for the following generations. Wen Yong has acted in comedies such as Don’t Worry, Be Happy (敢敢做个开心人) as well as more serious works like the local classics, The Awakening (霧鎖南洋) and Samsui Women (红头巾), both of which I have regrettably never really seen save for random episode reruns during the off-peak timeslots of weekday afternoons.

But in the shows that I have seen him in, he has always performed wonderfully, with plenty of heart and conviction. He was clearly a seasoned veteran, and I had always admired that they (his generation of actors) had never seemed eager for fame or fortune (you don’t get that in Singapore as a TV actor). They didn’t do crazy things to get attention, and, as far as I know, they lived pretty quiet lives, without attracting too much attention to their personal lives.

They seemed to genuinely love what they did, and they worked hard at it.

And I never thought much about how these group of actors had actually impacted my life.

Their dramas had kept me company through my dinners at 7pm, their sitcoms and comedies entertained me through 8 to 9pm, and their 9pm action-packed dramas had kept me up from my nine thirty bedtime each night. They had saved my mandarin from disappearing into the depths of hell, and shaped my mind in my formative years.

Even if our local entertainment scene is a far cry from that of Hollywood’s, I never thought our actors, especially Wen Yong’s generation of actors, were any less deserving of admiration than any other country’s.

I’m sure he has his fans but I’m not sure if he’s had enough recognition as one of the pioneers of Singapore television. His life ended way too soon, but I sincerely hope his name does not. One of the problems with Singapore is that we often don’t give enough recognition to anyone whose contributions aren’t political. But he is a well-known name, and I really hope that name lives on.

I hope wherever he is, he knows how much he has contributed to Singapore TV – that even an angmoh pai like me could notice and appreciate.

My heart goes out to his family and fans.

RIP Huang Wen Yong. You will – and I mean this – be missed.

I’m not a fan of long queues. But everyone’s been hyping so much about the Laduree macaroons since the French brand launched in Singapore on Apr 15 that I just had to try them out for myself. Plus I have a rather insatiable sweet tooth, which might be a larger contributing factor heh.

They’ve got two outlets – you can’t miss the first one on the ground level because it’s right at the entrance of Takashimaya Shopping Centre, right between Louis Vuitton and Chanel.

It’s funny, because when I walked through the front doors, I thought the queues were for the LV store. But it turns out that the queue for Laduree was so long they had to split it up so as not to block the walkway.

The other outlet, which was also at Takashimaya Shopping Centre but on the second floor (#02-09), had a much shorter queue, probably because it has a much quieter location. And it’s the one with the quintessential mint-themed Laduree look. The first floor outlet is just a counter really, so if you want a real look at the boutique store, take it from me…

Read more

Over the past two days, I had 550 views on my blog. Which is not a lot compared to other relatively famous bloggers. BUT it was more than I usually get in a week.

So I was like

And then I was like

Okay no I was more like

And then I sort of had no idea what I was going to do about it. HAHA.

It was a really strange two days for me. Because I had no idea how to react to it (classic Abed).

I knew it would be short lived because the views had only shot up because of my piece on Huang Wen Yong, so my first instinct was to make the rest of my posts as visible as possible to those on the page, hence the new “Top Posts” and “Recent Posts” widgets on the right.

And then, I pretty much just spent the rest of the day refreshing my stats page every half hour or so, and watching the numbers climb. LOL

It’s weird, because I never wanted this blog to get super popular though at the back of my mind there was always this thought, like hey, being a famous blogger wouldn’t be so terrible would it? I mean, that’s the whole difference in writing in a journal, or even a private blog, as compared to writing on a public blog right? The chance of being found, and knowing that someone out there might read and relate so you don’t feel so alone in the world anymore.

My very first post was on why I started blogging again, but those reasons could very well apply to a written journal.

I think a small part of all of us small-time bloggers are kind of hoping that we might get something out of this. Maybe we’ll write an amazing post one day that would propel us to stardom and we can just live off money earned from advertorials and reviews. We’re not gunning for it, we might not advertise our blogs on our twitter and facebook pages excessively, but a small part of us is hoping that our blogs will get somewhere someday. You know what I mean?

And I always knew that all it takes is one story to go viral, and then all you need is to jump onto that and keep churning out great content to keep people coming back for more.

But that’s where I got stumped. I don’t have a list of great topics to write about, so if the day comes that I do write something that goes viral, I’ll pretty much be a one hit wonder (assuming the post goes viral for good reasons and not made people go “geez this beetch is dumb”)

So I guess I’ll probably never be a famous blogger. LOL.

I’m not sure if there’s anything to take away from that post getting so many hits. Maybe it’s a hint to tell me what sort of stuff I should be writing about.

If so, it’s telling me I should write about deaths. Which is kind of macabre. And way too dark even for me.

If anything, I would rather be known for my wits and sense of humour, though from personal experience, I think my sense of humour is more unique than commercial. So that’s not going to happen. LOL.

So I guess I’ll always be just a number in the hundreds of millions blogs out there. But that’s actually kind of okay.

(Deviantart — Oceanbased)

Is kind of sort of painful lol.

Okay I know I’m just a freelance writer so I don’t work nearly as much as full-time working professionals (which I am very grateful for), but it’s still work and it does suck up quite a bit of time and brain power from me.

So anyway, two weeks ago, I spent five days in Indonesia, so I didn’t work that week. Then I came back and didn’t get assigned or pitch any stories (because I was lazy shhh), so that was another week gone.

Then this week I had two stories due tonight, of which the interviews were held last night and this morning. So I literally was working from like 5pm last night till 8pm tonight, with only 3 hours of sleep between. Plus I had class at 7pm today so I was like typing furiously between glances up at the teacher to pretend like I was taking notes. But I’m pretty sure she wasn’t fooled HAHA.

But y’know, it’s really instances like this that make me really realise that I could probably never ever get a regular 9-6 job. I tried that for 6 months, and though the job itself wasn’t horrifying, the waking up at 8am every morning was enough to get me downright depressed.

And I’m not sure what options there are out there for people like me who just suck at waking up early, so I’ve thought of a few options that might work. For me, specifically, that is. I’m not sure if these would for anyone else…

1. My first choice would naturally be my old job as a lifestyle journalist. Mainly because I had the coolest boss, who is still sort of my boss now, and she wasn’t too fussy about us being punctual as long as we delivered work that was up to her standard (and I got to meet Katy Perry!) Sure, sometimes you have to work late nights and all, but you get to go in a little later the mornings after so all things considered, that was pretty okay.

2. I hear entrepreneurship is a pretty good deal. Probably because you’re own boss and you make your own rules. But I think that the appeal of being an entrepreneur is that you’ll probably be super passionate about your business such that it wouldn’t be a chore to get up in the mornings to work at it. And I think that’s what appeals to me the most.

The only problem is that, well, I don’t exactly have the funds or the ideas (or at least one that I’m super passionate about) to start something up. So until then…

3. Internet business. Having your own internet business and knowing how to make money of it is seriously the dream job. You just need to stay at home, run the business from your bed if you like, and money pours into your bank account. Or at least, that’s what I think happens for popular bloggers and websites lol.

See that’s a talent that I would really like to have – knowing how to make money online. So if I one day decide to make a living out of this, I’ll probably have to commit a lot of time to doing research on making money through the internet. But as I mentioned in my previous post, I simply don’t have enough ideas to keep pushing out content to maintain a level of popularity and readers.

I think that’s because my blog is so generic though. If I ran, say, a beauty blog or a blog about films, it’d be much easier to think of ways to reach out to readers because you know your target market. Whereas running a generic blog won’t exactly draw in a specific group of people, so it’s next to impossible to appeal to readers whom you can’t profile.

4. Night life. BARTENDER. I’ve ALWAYS wanted to be a bartender. But I’m probably too weak right now (read: pathetic alcohol tolerance). And I’m sure my dad would love me working at a bar. My boyfriend too. LOL.

5. Flight Attendants – I think every little Singaporean girl’s dream at one point or another was to be an SIA Stewardess. You get a good allowance, you get to travel around the world, and you get to look like motherfrikkin goddess at work. Plus it’s definitely not a 9-6 job. Your sleeping patterns would probably not exist because of your hectic schedules but you would probably have the time of your life and, wait, why did I not try out for a position again? Oh right. Moving on..

That’s about all I can think of right now. I’ve still got a year left of school so I’m pretty comfortable with what I’m doing right now. But it’s nice to think about my options after graduation.

Then again, if there’s one thing I’ve learnt over the past year is that sometimes, trying to plan and control everything just doesn’t cut it. Plans backfire, and things can go haywire. Sometimes it’s good enough to just lean back, relax, and go where life takes you.

So let’s see where life takes me.

Recently, I had a fresh acne breakout. Like a really bad one. And acne is a serious problem for me, having fought the war it waged against me since puberty (which perhaps I will one day write about), so I take acne breakouts VERY SERIOUSLY. And I will go all the way to Tampines to cure it. And I will queue as long as it takes to cure it. And I will pay as much as it is within my means to cure it. And so I did. And so. I. Did.

I went back to my old doctor to fix it a few weeks ago, and today was the follow-up consultation.

It was 1.45pm by the time I got there, 15 minutes before the clinic opened for the afternoon, and there was already a crowd of like 10 people waiting outside. But I was like, hey, that’s not too bad, 10 people would mean an hour maybe, which isn’t too bad considering that this dermatologist is pretty well-known.

So the doors opened at 2pm, the nurses ordered us in a line, and we went in to register one by one.

When I reached the door, however, I noticed that the clinic was already half full of people waiting.

How is it possible that there are people waiting when the shutters just opened like 5 seconds ago?

One explanation is, that these people were here for the morning session, but there were too many people so they waited for the afternoon session to see the doctor.

OR, the more likely explanation is: these people came before the morning session concluded just to beat the afternoon queue. May I add that the morning session ends at 12.30pm while the afternoon ones starts at 2pm. Which means they opted to wait 1.5 hours in the closed clinic with the nurses just to beat the afternoon queue. That is fucking ridiculous – but not beyond us clever queue beating Singaporean strategists!

When it was my turn at the counter, I asked the lady behind the counter, “How long is the wait, my good lady?”

“Just an hour and a half,” she replied kindly.

Just an hour and a half – or so she said. Or so. She. Said.

“No way am I going to sit around with my fellow acne-ridden people for an hour and a half,” I thought. “I’m going to be real clever and take the feeder bus to Tampines interchange and have a nice Subway meal. Then I’ll be back just in time for my turn!”

Or so I thought. Or So. I – Okay whatever.

I got back at the clinic at 3.15pm, smirking at the people who’d been sitting there for the past hour while I had my tummy filled with a delicious Subway tuna sandwich.

Then I noticed, the queue board said 56.

Fifty. Six.

I was 81.

So I sat down and whipped out my phone, ready to rape Candy Crush level 86, convinced that 56 was a missed queue.

Two Candy Crush games later, the buzzer went off.

71.

Let me just give you a moment to let that sink in.

That means, while I was right about 56 probably being a missed-queue number, there were still 10 people in front of me in the queue. THAT MEANS that none of the people who had been queuing with me outside the clinic when it opened had seen the doctor. And only now, did the real afternoon queue begin.

And so did the biggest test my patience ever had to endure.

I went back to my game, taking my frustration out on those damned unclearable jellies.

10 minutes later, the buzzer went off.

72.

And I was out of Candy Crush lives.

There was nothing left to do but stare at the wall in front of me. You could say I was meditating, if meditating meant feeling a swelling urge to start screaming and bouncing off the clinic walls.

Naturally, I wasn’t the only one playing iPhone games. Someone else was too.

Someone was playing a Gangnam Style-themed game.

How do I know, you ask?

Because every time that someone accomplished whatever the game meant for her to accomplish, the game would let off a resounding *ding!* “Sanai! Najeneun neo-”

Every. Two. Seconds.

*ding!* ”Sanai! Najeneun neo-”… *ding!* ”Sanai! Najenrun neo-”… *ding!* ”Sanai! Najenrun neo-”… *ding!* ”Sanai! Najenrun neo-”… *ding!* ”Sanai! Najenrun neo-”…

And when you think it’s over.

…

*ding!* ”Sanai! Najenrun neo-”

It’s like watching this over and over and over again.

Not. Annoying. At all.

I flipped my hair and gave the most forceful TSSSKKK as I could and walked out of the clinic. Even the 3pm- no, 4pm heat of Singapore was better than tolerating that.

That’s when I started to go a bit crazy, I think.

I was out of my mind with boredom that I started to sing to myself, without even realising it.

AND I WAS SINGING ADELE.

There were benches outside the clinic where people would park themselves while waiting, which was where I was.

And I was just sitting there, minding my own business, when the guy next to me started giving me real weird glances.

In all honesty, I had no idea why he was looking at me weirdly.

That was when I realised that my mouth was moving, and there were sounds coming out from it.  I was fucking singing Someone Like You.

Not like in a completely insane NEVERMIND I’LL FIND SOMEONE LIKE YOU~~ kind of scenario.

But in a slightly more insane, singing quietly to myself like I was on the verge of snapping at losing a loved one kind of I hoped you’d see my face and that you’d be reminded that for me~ it isn’t over~

And when I realised that, I went “What the fuck?” out loud.

As if the dude didn’t think I was crazy already, I went ahead to say “What the fuck?” out loud TO MYSELF. Like a real crazy person.

And then it dawned on me how fucking retarded and hilarious the whole situation was AND I BURST OUT LAUGHING. Like for real HAHAHAHAHAHAHA LOL-ing.

I don’t know how the guy tolerated this but he didn’t move, he just stayed where he was and stopped looking at me – I think he was a little scared.

But hey, I was obviously a lot more tolerable than *ding!* ”Sanai! Najeneun neo-”..

Thankfully, I had regained a Candy Crush life by then and could go back to being distracted from the insane wait.

The End.

I might be a little late in putting in my two cents worth on the Dove Real Beauty Sketches Campaign, but I usually only have time to blog on weekends, Mondays and Tuesdays so I haven’t gotten round to doing it until now, though I did mean to say something about it last week.

Critics have been quick to jump on the fact that the three star women are all relatively thin, young, white and rank slightly above the average scale in terms of looks, which sort of throws off the whole “you are beautiful” message. It was a very “boo hoo, pretty white girls focusing too much on their moles and wrinkles? Get a life!” kind of reaction, which I sort of understand.

I’m not big on the whole race thing; it doesn’t affect me when mainstream media doesn’t include Asians or whatever. But did anyone else notice that Gil is kind of terrible at sketching that Asian girl’s face?

How do either of these:

Look like this:

If she looks perplexed, it’s probably because she is perplexed! Neither looks like her!

Okay but that’s not important. What’s important is the message: Stop focusing on your imperfections. See the beauty that everyone else sees.

Marketing-wise, it’s a brilliant idea. You reach out to the female demographic, many of whom are sort of insecure and ties in with their image of embracing real beauty.

Many women would be more than happy to hear someone tell them to forget their imperfections and focus on their good features – but that’s what I have a bit of an issue with.

Why is having a mole on your face, or crow’s feet, or being a little plump a bad thing? I mean, have you seen Helen Mirren? She’s totally rocking her crow’s feet!

But seriously, what then of the girls who really are fat, have crooked teeth, have freckles all over their face and so on? Does that mean that they aren’t beautiful?

Would you rather have someone tell you, “You’ve got mismatched eyes, a bit of a wonky nose and really large pores, but you have pretty, plump lips and cute ears so you’re beautiful!” or have someone who loves all your features and calls you beautiful no matter what?

Instead of the tagline “You are more beautiful than you think”, perhaps a more accurate one would be “You have more features that society would deem beautiful than you think”.

I think the issue with this campaign is that it poses as a social experiment with a deep and meaningful message, but its essence is still a pretty superficial one. Because it still tells us that certain facial features are desirable, while others aren’t.

It still places such a strong emphasis on physical beauty and the typical notions that society agrees upon to deem beautiful. Why is being physically beautiful so important? Must it really dictate our self-worth?

What happened to the Dove that had women of all sizes parading across our screens, telling us that body shape and size doesn’t matter?

In the end, the ad is just that – an ad. Just like many other ads, it isn’t just selling products. It’s selling the idea that we ought to be looking a certain way to be considered beautiful. You only need to look at each photo on the right to realise they have the typical, conventional looks of beauty that every other ad in the world is selling to us girls.

If this video really managed to inspire and improve viewers’ perceptions of themselves, then that’s really great.

But for me, it just felt contrived. It definitely didn’t make me feel better about my looks simply because the ad wasn’t at all convincing. If a forensic artist asked me to describe my looks, I’d probably be humble about it. Can you imagine if you were blowing your own horn and the sketch came out to be this beautiful Gwyneth Paltrow character? Awkward!

What I’m saying is that it’s not an accurate way to show what we really think of our looks. When you describe your own face, which you’ve seen for your whole life, you naturally describe the details – the size of your eyes, the width of your jaw, the sharpness of your nose etc. When a stranger sees your face for the first time, they can only describe their vague impression of your overall looks, so naturally they won’t bring out your imperfections; they hadn’t had the time to notice.

I wonder why they only featured those three women out of the 20 that Gil sketched though. Could it be possible that they were the only ones who created the result that Dove required for the ad? Okay seven, if you consider those who weren’t shown speaking. Even so, that means only a third of women Gil drew resulted in the contrast needed to demonstrate Dove’s point. So it could be that these women just happened to have more insecurities than most.

But then again you can’t deny that the campaign struck a chord with so many women. That’s why it went viral isn’t it.

There are just so many issues with this ad that affects the accuracy of this “social experiment”. But then again, is it really a social experiment?

This ad is still just that – an ad.

So this week has been really stressful for me because I’m right in the thick of a semester and stepping up the amount of articles I’m doing at the same time. And every topic I could think of to blog about was just really negative or whiny and complainy which I really hate to be.

So instead, I decided to think about what makes me happy. And more specifically, what on the internet makes me happy so that you can enjoy it too.

Here we go.

1. The Best. Gif. Ever.

Needs no explanation.

Courtesy of Gifbin

2. 19 People Who Are Having A Worse Day Than You

I have gone through this list, maybe 5 times in my life over the past year. And every time I go through it, I laugh like fuck.

These are some of my favourites.

Why people need to switch off the treadmill when it’s not in use.
Especially when you’re going to be crumpin’ around it.

The funniest boat accident ever.

By the way did anyone see the Harlem Shake version for this? LOL

Moving on…

The perfect ad for the importance of anger management.

The best attempt at the cinnamon challenge. Ever.

You can check out the entire list on Buzzfeed!

3. The Oatmeal

It’s no secret that I am a big fan of The Oatmeal.

It’s one thing to be adept at programming, web design and the works, but it’s another to be so darn witty in every one of your comics. But that’s precisely what The Oatmeal is. Plus! He’s really honest in what he does.

He doesn’t just try to be funny for the sake of it. He writes about things that really mean something to him, like the ones about his dog and how you should brush your teeth when your house is burning down. And he knows he has some power on the web, which he uses for good, like in the Tesla and Dinosaur comics.

And yeah, he makes me laugh like fuck.

These are some of my favourites (Click on the images to view the entire comics):

My Dog: the paradox

What Would Don Draper Do

Why I believe printers were sent from hell to make us miserable

4. Jenna Marbles

How many of us have spent hours on youtube without even realising it? Pretty much everyone between the age of 12 to 25, I’m guessing.

I’m no different. But the thing is, not many “youtube stars” can get me hooked because most of the time I don’t relate, I don’t find them funny or I think they’re just trying too hard.

But Jenna Marbles is one that I’ve really really fallen in love with and look up to. And she actually really does brighten my day.

She’s just another person among the near 7 billion people on this planet. But at the same time, there’s something just so endearing about her.

I think maybe I just appreciate that she doesn’t try too hard and she doesn’t give much of a fuck. Which is a nice trait to have in this world I think.

She posts videos every Wednesday, which she dubs as Sexual Wednesdays and they always consist of her making funny lists like What a girl’s makeup means, her dogs, or her being drunk as fuck.

But if you really want to see why I love her so much. This is the video you should watch:

5. Looking up my “friendship” with Tim on Facebook.

So yeah, Tim is my boyfriend, and we got together like a year and… 8 months or so ago. But we had been friends for like years before that.

We had a pretty weird relationship before dating actually. Like we were more than just your regular hi-bye friends. Y’know, we’d spend some quality time together and would be perfectly comfortable hanging out together just the two of us. But at the same time you wouldn’t say we were close friends, telling each other our secrets or whatever. You know what I mean? But then again we’re pretty weird people so I guess that kind of fits.

So anyway, we used to write on each other’s Facebook walls a lot, back when they were still called walls and not the pretentiously named “timeline” and.. yeah. We had some pretty fucking weird and funny things to say to each other that now, on hindsight, really makes me laugh.

This was in 2009:

Yeah he changed his name to Timothy Strawberrymoonshine on Facebook at one point and I changed mine to Rage Koh or something like that which was pretty fucking funny.

By the way, for those who have been living under a rock and have never use Facebook before, you’re meant to read these from bottom up.

These are from 2010:

And then this was the last FB interaction we had, 5 months before we had our first date.

From 2011:

Funny how things change – for the better, that is. heh.

Well I hope you enjoyed that! Have a good weekend everyone!

(Jason M Tucker — Born Freelance)

1. No work = No money

Obviously, the whole premise of freelancing is that you get paid for the work you do. So the more you do, the more you earn. The less you do, the less you earn.

So, logically you would think that as long as you’re hardworking, you’ll earn a comfortable amount right?

WRONG. Sometimes there just isn’t anything to do. Sometimes none of your contacts are in need of freelancers at that time or you were too caught up in a project the previous week to search for work this week. You know what I mean?

And have you considered what happens when you go on holiday or if you fall ill? You don’t work those days, which means you don’t earn any money. Zilch. There’s no such thing as paid leave for freelancers.

What if you fall ill when there’s a project due that day? Nope, the client isn’t going to wait for you to get well, because she’s got her own deadline to meet. You gotta suck all that mucus back up your nose, and just do the damn work. Panadol is a freelancer’s best friend.

Speaking of clients, it’s pretty known that freelancing isn’t just about skills. It’s not just about writing well, or designing well, or even being particularly hardworking.

It’s also about marketing yourself and being good at maintaining contacts – which I notice most of the people who are good at what they do, suck at.

I’m not sure why that is. It seems like the people who are actually not that good at the services they offer are a lot better at schmoozing. Probably because they know they need it. OR it’s an easier way through life. Why craft your skills when you can just schmooze aye? Maybe that’s something I need to learn. Le sigh. If only I didn’t hate people so much…

2. Doing work could still mean no money

Shit happens. Clients sometimes don’t pay up on time, some may even decide not to pay you at all for whatever reasons (YES, It really does happen). Which really really sucks. But there’s nothing you can do about it. What would you do? Launch a complaint with the Ministry of Manpower? In the time you take to deal with all the paperwork and blah blah blah, you could’ve spent the time on another project. Time is money when you’re a freelancer, and you’re not going to waste it filling up reports. Because after all that, what are the chances that you’ll really get the money? And in time to pay the bills?

Some people might think that freelancers charge exorbitant prices so, hey, what are we complaining about? We earn loads for one project alone, right?

WRONG. You’re not just paying for our time, hun. You’re paying for the electricity we’re using, our computers, our medical, our dental, our rent, our food, our transport. Without all the above, we would not be around to offer you the services that you require. I’m not saying that we are amazing human beings without whom you will die; I’m just saying, please understand. This is our livelihood. We need to make a living.

Then comes people who charge ridiculously low prices for the same kind of work you do. I was once offered $35 to do a 400-word story, which required me to interview someone. Whut. Who would accept such prices? But people do accept! If not, how would these clients get away with quoting such low prices.

I’ve heard of web designers who charge $100 for an entire website. I don’t even.

It’s frustrating because these people are spoiling the market for the rest of us who depend on freelance jobs to survive. And the thing is clients don’t always recognise good work from bad work. A client’s opinion of good copy, is almost never the same as a professional editor’s opinion of good copy. So it’s easy for them to think some kid who accepts $35 for a story is just as good as someone with 30 years of experience.

And if you think, “Well, that’s not the kind of client you’d want to work with anyway.” Once again, WRONG.

Money is money is money.

Creative work is really easy to underestimate. Because those who aren’t in the industry often don’t recognise good work when they see it. Worse, they think that anyone can do what we do. And they always always underestimate the time we take to do it.

Peggy surmises it beautifully:

3. Working at home isn’t all that it’s cut out to be

Well, you do get to save on transport costs. But yeah. It’s not that great. Your home, your sanctuary IS RUINED. The line is so blurred between work and relaxation that your mind just feels all messed up. I feel like working when I’m chilling but I’m always temped to chill when I work.

It takes a lot of self-discipline, which I think I may not have.

I’ve never missed a deadline. But still. You never feel quite in the zone. When you’re working, it feels like you’re not 100% at it. BUT when you’re relaxing, you’ll still be at 50% work mode, like checking your emails all the time anyway because you’re just so used to that.

You’re never 100% in working mode. And you’re never 100% at chill mode. And that sucks

When deadlines are tight, it’s pretty normal for me to work on my bed til wee hours of the morning, put my laptop aside to sleep, then wake up in the morning and reach over to the side to grab my laptop. And that’s how my work day begins. It just goes on and on and on.

The whole working in bed kind of thing is really what I mean by blurring the lines between work and leisure. Sure, it can be pretty cool working in bed, but then somehow, soon after, you start thinking about work even when you’re in bed. And it just feels like you can never get to sleep anymore.

4. No one takes you seriously

Because it’s not a “real job”. You spend your time at home so people think you’re having the time of your life. But you’re not. You’re actually pulling out your own hair trying to meet deadlines and get clients so you can pay your credit card bills at the end of the mouth. AND YOU HAVE TO SWEEP UP YOUR OWN HAIR AFTER THAT.

But yeah. People are always like “Hey, let’s meet up, you’ve got nothing to do anyway right?” Or like “Hey could you help me with this this this because you’re so free. The rest of us are stuck at work all day. But you’re not!”

No. I am not free. I am freaking out trying to pay my bills, satisfy my clients, gain new clients, maintain current clients, make sure I have enough food in the house for my lunches because I don’t have time to go out for lunch – do you really want me to go on?

Another sucky thing is the way people raise their eyebrow whenever you say “I’m a freelance writer.” People think that the word “freelance” is just an excuse to make it look like you’re doing work when you’re actually just lying in bed all day. If I am, it’s because I haven’t even had time to get up and shower, you judgemental freak! *ahem* Moving on..

5. It really isn’t a real job

Not in the technical sense. We do earn money, it’s hard work just like any job is. But you get no medical benefits, no bonuses, no paid leave, no sick days, no CPF and no fun colleagues to hang out with.

It’s just you, your laptop, and your unpaid bills

I really wasn’t kidding when I said my freelance writing has really picked up its pace.

Last week, my colleague gave me a cover story to write, on top of a preview story I already had planned; three days later I had a 2000-word essay due for school, and then this week I wrote about three and a half stories (shared byline).

I’ve written so much that the idea of gathering my thoughts yet again to churn out another few hundred words for this blog is kind of nauseating. Let’s add that to the list of Freelancer Woes.

But in the spirit of keeping this blog updated so it doesn’t become sad and stagnant, here’s a recording of me playing the piano rather lazily. LOL

A new study has found that social media might be causing people’s minds to regress into the state of an infant’s.

Scientists have expressed concern over prolonged usage of social media sites stunting children’s cognitive growth and actually causing adults’ intelligence to dwindle.

“I think a lot of us have noticed this phenomenon over the years. We just have a study now to prove it,” says Dr Tao Yan Ren, who had spearheaded the three-year research programme.

The results of the study, which were published earlier this month, highlight the indirect relationship between a child’s learning development and the direction that social media progresses toward.

For instance, it states that a child begins learning by associating words and images before going on to read bodies of text that increase in length and complexity.

Social media, on the other hand, moves in the opposite direction. In the beginning, people would blog massively long posts on webhosts like Blogspot (now Blogger), Livejournal and Diaryland.

Such posts were mainly text-based, with little photos to accompany – though much thought and creativity were put into intricate layouts. This was followed by the fun, music-oriented and a little complicated Myspace, then Friendster, with its CV-like layout that prompted 200-word testimonials from friends, followed by Facebook and Twitter. Then came Tumblr, which introduced an increased usage of photographs, Pinterest, which is pretty image-based but still offers some room for creativity and text, and finally, the coup-de-grace, Instagram, a 100% photo-based app.

But it isn’t just the ratio of images to text that displayed the dwindling intellect of the masses – the content of posts uploaded was extremely informative as well.

“Facebook was particularly indicative on how people’s intelligence were becoming increasingly affected by the use of social media,” Dr Tao shares. “During the study, we discovered that the messages exchanged between social media users were becoming increasingly stupid through the years.”

The study tracked 300 users of social media and studied the development of their status updates and shared posts from their past, up until June 2012, on a wide range of social media sites such as Facebook, Tumblr, Twitter and Instagram.

Some examples of “posts indicative on the intellectual regression of participants” include:

“My HIV results came back positive! I’m clean!”

“THE BEETLES COPIED JUSTINE BIEBER.”

“Mannoiase is disgusting as f*** but my god it does wonders to my hair.”

“Twitter is my alter eagle.”

But perhaps the most pressing issue is how people have seemingly given up on expressing themselves through words and have resorted to simply posting up images to show what they had been up to for the day.

This includes mundane items such as their three meals, their feet, the sky or ‘selfies’.

“This is a concern because we don’t know just how far this phenomenon will go,” Dr Tao says. “Does this mean that humans will soon resort to grunts and nods to communicate? Or maybe we’ll just cry like babies to communicate to each other what we want, while posting self-shots of our teary faces.”

A comparison between two brains – one of an avid social media site user and another of someone who doesn’t not engage in social media – has also shed some light on this unsettling issue.

“I hope this study will help people become more aware of the dangers of social media, and exercise caution when using such sites,” Dr Tao shares.

Dr Tao himself doesn’t own a Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr or Instagram account on the grounds that if he did, he would’ve wound up too stupid to complete the research.

However, he adds, “I have developed a liking to Friendster. I like to have it as a reminder that some things go downhill and never find a way up again. It propels me to keep working harder. I believe that people can regain their intellect again. It is not yet too late.”

(Knowyourmeme.com) Things have been really hectic for me lately. As I had mentioned before, things are really picking up pace at school, and I was doing a lot of freelance work. But since assignment deadlines are rolling around, I’m going to let work take a backseat for a while so I can concentrate on school.

Some random things happened here and there that I almost wanted to write about and actually wrote about, but I didn’t click publish because it was kind of bitchy, and I feel like I don’t want to be bitchy on the internet… Or at least, not on my blog lol.

But yeah. Some of the more prominent events over the past few weeks have a lot to do with my pets for some reason… And I’m very very attached to my pets, so whatever happens to them really affects me.

For one, over the Vesak Day holiday, my parents invited some of their old friends over who are really close to us, like they watched my sisters and me grow up so we’ve literally known them all our lives.

But one of them is, shall we say, overly fond of my dog. And he really enjoys feeding her everything off the dining table – including durian. Which is fine, because it’s not particularly toxic to dogs.

This time, though, he kind of took it a bit too far and gave her a delicious ball of Ferrero Rocher, and I got really really mad (though I didn’t show it) because, well, dogs are kind of sensitive to chocolates and may, erm, DIE from eating it.

So that kind of sucked, but I couldn’t freak out because all the guests were there and they were my elders and all so we just had to let it slide. I think my face got all red like it usually does when I get emotional but, like I said, there was nothing I could do about it so..

Yeah, Molly is fine though. Which I’m super relieved about. I think it helps that Ferreros are made of milk chocolate, which has low amounts of theobromine – the chemical in cocoa that is toxic to dogs. Plus my dog is relatively large, and is a tough little bitch. So yay!

Then a few days earlier, I sent my bunny, Rudolph to a groomer because he’s a twitchy little fella’ who SHUNS me everytime I groom him so I usually just leave him be.

But his nails were getting ridiculously long and he was going through a moult, so I decided it was time to send him to a groomer.

I found one living in Tampines, which is incredibly near to my home, and I happened to have a lot of errands to run in Tampines so it was really perfect.

(The groomer’s name is Clarris; here’s her facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/MyHappyTales?fref=ts)

Then I found out that Rudolph has mites and a slight head tilt. WHICH COMPLETELY THREW ME OFF.

Because 1. He basically lives indoors 24/7 so it’s impossible for mites to have gotten to him from like the grass or whatever (Apparently they can get mites from the hay we feed them. WTH IS NOTHING SAFE ANYMORE?)

And 2. Head tilts are FUCKED UP. My old polymates and I had a dwarf bunny during our immersion trip in Wuhan, China who DIED of a head tilt. So I was severely bummed about that.

It’s honestly really really slight. Like you wouldn’t notice it until someone pointed it out. But knowing that my current bunny has a problem that my previous bunny died of is seriously not cool.

I was so sad I actually cried last night thinking about it. Which is kind of lame because I don’t really think his life is in danger yet.

And I actually feel really guilty because I’ve been neglecting my bunny a lot lately. Long story short, my parents realised that they’re allergic to his fur – and he moults a lot. So we moved him to our third floor which is not very well frequented. And even though I try as hard as possible to go upstairs purposely to spend a few hours with him each day, sometimes, it’s just not possible because of how busy I am. So yeah I just feel really bad about that

But anyway, the groomer de-mited him, and I decided to move him down to my room to save myself the trouble of like sanitising the entire third floor, and so I could keep a better eye on him.

And as usual, he shunned me for a day because he hates getting groomed. But today he’s so much better, like running around, chomping on hay like no tomorrow and following me a bit here and there.

His living space has halved though, because my room doesn’t have that much space. But he does seem pretty content so that’s good.

I just hope his head tilt goes away, else I’ll have to send him to a vet which he’ll hate (since he hates being handled) and I’ll hate (because it’ll cost me a bomb).

But he seems happy for now, so we’ll see how it goes.

On a bright note though, Tim and I brought his pet shih tzu out for a picnic about two weeks ago, which was really fun.

We went down to Cluny Park, which holds some really awesome memories for us ^^ So yeah it was just an amazing afternoon

Tim spent most of it fussing over the dog though. LOL. But oh well! It was fun nonetheless hehe.

Yeah, Bella gets more photos because she’s a rare occurrence on this blog. And she’s admittedly more photogenic than my adorable mutt.

Wow, I just realised how pet-oriented this post turned out LOL. But hey, I love my pets! And Tim’s!

I’m also actually very broke this month as well. I’m really dreading my credit card bill – but who wants to hear about that! Pft.

Have a great weekend, y’all! Heh.

I’m a 22-year-old with an average expenditure of $800 a month. I don’t have a regular income, I go out quite a bit for school, work and dates, and I have little to no self-discipline. So yeah, you could say I know a thing or two about being broke.

So I’ve come up with a list of stupid shit I’ve done when broke. Though I think a large part of it happened back when I was in school and was spending ridiculous amounts of my student allowance on booze and cigarettes.

But I’m pretty sure I’m not the only one who’ve done these things because I sure had a lot of people doing stupid shit like this with me HAHA.

So yeah. These are absolute definite signs that you are broke. Let’s play some Macklemore Thrift Shop to get in the mood.

20 Signs You’re Broke

1. Marketing terms like “BUY TWO GET ONE FREE” absolutely thrill you. Your catchphrase is “GUYS, FREE STUFF, GUYS!” as you barrel through crowds to get to the sale while your friends trail silently behind you, heads in paper bags.

2. Your reaction to “Wanna club?” is always “Is entry free?” If the answer is yes, you’re good to go. If it isn’t, then suddenly you’ve got everything from a family dinner to a family death going on that night.

3. You keep a coin purse for “emergencies” which is essentially every last week of the month. Isn’t it funny how you can blow $500 in three weeks, and stretch $20 worth of coins in one?

4. You’ve asked friends to transfer $4 to your bank account so you can draw the minimum $20 at the ATM.

5. You curse the day DBS decided to put a $50 minimum at what seems to be 90% of ATMs around the country.

6. You regift gifts. “Happy Birthday, Gillian! Oh you gave me this book for my birthday? That must be a coincidence, I must’ve forgotten! Oh it says Happy Birthday Natalie, Love Gillian inside? I must’ve wrapped the wrong one! Teehee!” Cue awkward silence.

7. You hang around ATMs at the hour your pay is about to come in.

8. You and your mates have borrowed money from each other so often that you’ve all lost count of who owes whom how much. But it’s okay, because you’re all so broke it couldn’t have been much anyway!

9. You hang around the smoking area hoping to buy single cigarettes from acquaintances because you can’t afford a full pack.

10. You look at a discarded cigarette pack on the floor of the smoking area and consider looking inside to see if there are any cigs left.

11. You actually do pick up the discarded cigarette pack to check if there’re any cigarettes left.

12. You think Mcdonald’s $2 double cheeseburgers are a god send.

13. You wonder if the alcohol in hand sanitizer can get you high so you don’t have to spend money on booze.

14. When insurance agents approach you on the streets and try to sell you a savings plan you just laugh. and laugh. and laugh.

15. You cut up old clothes and “redesign” them because you can’t afford new ones. You try to tell yourself that it makes you look artsy, but you know deep down that it just makes you look poor.

16. You suddenly find a whole lot of things that you need for school. “Mum, could I have some money for new pens, textbooks, files, notebooks, socks, erasers, rulers, pencils, pen refills and extra reading materials please?” You’re not stealing from your parents – you’ll buy those things! Eventually… just not now.

17. You try to convince your friends to invite you over for dinner so you don’t have to spend anything, and your own parents don’t know how broke you are.

18. You know all the timings for taxi surcharges by heart. Scrape that. You know the timings for the last buses to your house by heart. Cabs – pft! Overpriced buses with extra legroom, I say.

19. It feels like christmas when you find a dollar in your bag by surprise.

“A DOLLAR?! WOOHOO!”

20. You play make believe that you’re pimping it up at home, when you’re honestly just too fucking broke to go out.

Bunny is better today!

This was him at his worst

And this is him today!

Fingers crossed he actually recovers 100%! He binkied last night too which really really lifted my spirits. So maybe he’ll be okay after all!

Rather rude of past contestant Natalie Holt for pelting eggs at Simon right at the climax of duo Richard and Adam’s performance at Britain’s Got Talent finale.

Throw eggs at whomever, girl. Just don’t do it on a fellow performer’s time.

Poor lads. But they got 3rd place, though so that’s good I guess :/ I’m just really amazed at how professional they were. They just kept singing like nothing was happening right in front of them LOL.

Fast forward to 1:50 to see the egging!

(Facebook — Straits Times)

Yesterday, the PSI (Pollutant Standards Index) in Singapore hit 155, which is well into the unhealthy range (101-200) set by the National Environment Agency. For anyone who isn’t from Singapore, we get this insane haze like once a year because our neighbouring country, Indonesia, likes to organise nationwide barbecues to unify their people.

Just kidding, they like to burn down forests for plantations.

But anyway, naturally, Singaporeans’ immediate reactions were to make jokes about it. We are, after all, a funny people. So if you’re feeling left out and don’t know how to jump in with your own joke, here’s a guide to help you out!

1. Talk about how you don’t need a filter for Instagram anymore!

Like in most other tech-savvy countries, Singaporeans loovvvveeee Instagram – we’ve even come up with an acronym for it: IG. Thanks to the haze, we no longer need filters to beautify our IG photos! Simply point and snap with your phone camera! The SG Haze provides an automatic, unique smokey effect to all IG photos and saves you that one pesky step of painstakingly choosing your filters. Best of all, it’s free! Smoke screen your images on IG today! Available for a limited time only.

2. Make a reference to tobacco smoke.

“Beijing residents joke that to get a free smoke all they have to do is open their windows!” – PM Lee Hsien Loong

“Karma, bro. Karma.” – Me.

That was made some time ago during a US speech that stunned the world – who knew the Prime Minister of death penalty-wielding, chewing gum-banning Singapore had a sense of humour!

But some of us peasants do have a sense of humour too okay?

” The haze is so bad that one of my friends decided to quit smoking.”

“Since Singaporeans are constantly complaining that cigarettes are way too expensive. Mother Nature is letting you guys smoke for free now.”

Haw. haw. haw. We are so funny.

BUT if you’re REALLY hardcore, take the joke to a higher level! Make a reference to smoking pot! Don’t worry, it won’t set off any alarm bells for the CNB… Or will it?

I quite liked this one by Esquire Singapore.

Here’s one from me, free of charge:

“This haze is dope.”

HAHAHAHA. Geddit? No? Okay…

3. Engage in bad photoshop work

Okay lah, bad photoshop work aside, they are pretty funny. Heh. The fan was so well placed that I didn’t realise it was on top of the Singapore Flyer (the world’s biggest ferris wheel) so they actually meant to say like we should turn the speed up on the Flyer to blow the haze back to Indonesia. Smart right? It took me a day to get it. HAHAHAHA.

4. Silent Hill References

Photoshop – pass.

If you’re not familiar with the film, you may also make references to Genting. Anything along the lines of “SG is like genting now, but hotter” or “Am in the highlands? Cos it sure feels like Genting” will do just fine

5. ???

After all the jokes were done, night came and went away, and we woke up to a lower PSI of 115 at 9am.

And we learnt that we needn’t have come up with all those jokes yesterday, because the best had yet to come.

To which I can only respond with gifs:

(Photo — Reuters)

The PSI has hit 190 as of 19 June, 8pm. 290 as of 19 June, 9pm.

So I got a teensy bit worried and for some reason thought that googling “haze” might make me feel better.

And I stumbled onto its wikipedia page, and found this

Since 1991, haze has been a particularly acute problem in Southeast Asia, Indonesian forest fires burnt to clear land being the reason. In response to the 1997 Southeast Asian haze, the ASEAN countries agreed on a Regional Haze Action Plan (1997). In 2002, all ASEAN countries except Indonesia signed the Agreement on Transboundary Haze Pollution, but the pollution is still a problem today.

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IF INDONESIA DOESN’T SIGN THAT AGREEMENT THEN WHAT THE FUCK GOOD DOES IT DO?

I have a pet dog at home that lives outdoors and lately the whole haze issue has gotten me worried because I know how sensitive dog noses are.

So I did a little bit of research and found this chim piece of work here.

Turns out, that during an air pollution incident in Pennsylvania in the 40s, research found that dogs are most susceptible to illness as a result of air pollution!

Fifteen per cent of 229 dogs fell ill and 10 dogs died as a result of the smog. But almost all the fatalities were puppies less than a year old, and the ill dogs mostly got better three to four days after the smog died down (phew!).

So that puts me at ease a little bit I guess. I just really hope the haze goes away soon. The PSI hit an all time high of 321 yesterday, and I’ve totally lost track of what it is right now. Even though I had a good laugh writing my previous two posts, I’m starting to think it isn’t very funny anymore. And I’m a bit scared to think about what’s going to happen when everyone else (read: irrational, brutal, social media-savvy singaporeans) starts to think so too.

Anyway! Here are some symptoms to look out for in your canines:

1) Respiratory issues: Coughing, sneezing, conjunctival congestion, dyspnoea (shortness of breath) and nasal discharge

2) Digestive issues: Emesis (vomiting), retching, diarrhoea

3) Anorexia, with or without lassitude (lack of energy). Source

Try to keep dogs with chronic bronchitis and cats with airways inflammatory disease indoors as well – and make sure your pets don’t exert themselves too much outdoors even if they’re healthy! Source

Here’s some additional reading for info on other pets. Don’t worry, it’s not wordy and chim like the other two LOL.

Let’s hope the haze goes away soon!

“Please go away haze! I don’t want another trip to the vet!”