瓦罐难离井沿破 大将难免阵前亡

Four or five moments - that's all it takes to become a hero. Everyone thinks it's a full-time job. Wake up a hero, brush your teeth a hero, go to work a hero. Not true. Over a lifetime there are only four or five moments that really matter.

The Wrestler 10th anniversary

10 years ago this month. the film that introduced me to the brilliance of Darren Aronofsky and returned to us Mickey Rourke. watch if you want your heart wrenched.

Carpool Adventures

picked up an (C***) Ah Lian. somehow she was in mid-sentence when she entered, like we had been speaking prior. the topic was the app, or another driver, or me. I do not know. I was broken instantly.

she was angry. like real Lian angry, which explains my C*** prefix. after about 300 words from her mouth in the first minute, I kinda figured out someone booked the ride for her and she's pissed. Ah Lian's remarkable debating skills, without pause, smoothly switched to the victim of her phone call, soon revealed to be the dude who booked the ride. he is not her boyfriend, I think. but he suffered nonetheless.

Ah Lian let rip her fury like she's scorned. her language wasn't as colourful as you might predict, but there were shouts. plural because they came in waves. she would shout at unusual points in her speech, like she needed a Toastmasters class. as I had turned down the radio for her phone call, here I was alone in a car with a shouting Ah Lian. the funny thing was, in between her waves of fury were ebbs of tenderness, in true Ah Lian style, as if the KBKB were a habit, not a mood.

the dude on the other hand, based on Ah Lian's rant, repeatedly provoked her, which made me conclude he's an Ah Beng.

this went on the entire trip from Serangoon to Queenstown.

while still making no sense at all, Ah Lian's topics comprised going to a halfway house, working nights, changing SIM cards, getting exiled from her family, her father marrying a Vietnamese bride, and resisting this Ah Beng going to her house (you get it).

astonishingly, when she hung up near her destination, she again smoothly switched back to me mid-sentence, in a way that I'm privy to her entire life story.

finally, we arrived. she asked how much. I replied Ah Beng already paid on his app.

SHE SAID: 错怪他了 (I wronged him).

Carpool Adventures

dressed down for office. (Ah Beng) Grab driver noticed. he tried to hint how I'm comfortable going to CBD like this. I casually replied that as long as it's acceptable for my office, it's more important to be confident in your own skin. he took that as a cue and exploded into full Ah Beng mode.

first he slammed how Singaporeans feel the need to dress like a big shot in CBD. then he guessed I must work in an angmoh company because angmohs don't value "packaging". then he revealed how he gets dirty looks in CBD. then he segued into his profession over how locals treat him like dirt and angmohs are respectful.

then our GrabShare ride picked up a lady dressed up for CBD. the rest of the journey was silence.

The Hurt Locker 10th anniversary

10 years ago this month. still among my favourite films. in case you forgot, it defeated the $200m Avatar at the Oscars. it's not a war movie, it's a human drama.

将欲取之 必先予之

death is the road to awe.

i like motion pictures

i wanted to like Crazy Rich Asians.

i could not.

the plot was shoddy. the acting was wooden. the English was unintelligible (it's okay to be authentic). none of the couples had chemistry.

if anything, yet possibly the biggest indictment of the film, it would be a lot more interesting if Astrid (Gemma Chan) and Michael (Pierre Png) were the focus.