Curse the accountants! The economists are pissed cuz we hate the FRS.

Two yrs ago, i took an accountancy module called Financial Accounting. And arrived at the conclusion that accountancy is pretty much the art of stabbing around in the dark, then deperately praying that whatever needs to be balanced actually balances on something called the balanced shit.

Two yrs later, i'm going through yet another accounting ordeal also known as Corporate Reporting and the Analysis of Financial Statements. what a mouthful, but it can be summed up using the following analogy:

Imagine your friend comes up to you one day and say, "Hey! I've received $10 today!"

You look at him and reply, "Bullocks you liar! you capitalized $4 worth of shopping and included the $2 spent on hamburger under extraordinary items, which means in actual fact you only have $4 left!"

It's a time-wasting activity. Accountants take a hell lot of time to prepare these financial statements, and despite that, the end users still need to spend time poking holes at the numbers just because some idiotic ppl out there try to bend around the rules - which makes the accounting principles sound quite stupid overall.

This sem however, we learnt a few jokes to poke fun at the accountants, such as:

Accountants are consistently inconsistent

and

EBITDA stands for Earnings Before I Trick the Dumb Accountant

I want to be a domestic goddess too! (yea rite..) Ok, i'm partially inspired by domestic goddess Nigella (above), aint she a hottie? I mean, how many domestic goddesses actually look this good! she's really quite popular though, has her own TV shows and receipe books.. Was surfing around her website for some receipes and found some pretty weird ones, like.. coca-cola ham, lamb burger and buttermilk roast chicken. in case you're interested, it's nigella.com

Really wanna try out my self-invented receipe one of these days.. havent thought of a name for it.. how abt naming it.. THE SLAUGHTER OF THE SACRED COWS?! haha. but it's like penne pasta with pieces of roast beef, feta cheese, mozarella cheese, and parsley, all drizzled in olive oil and mixed up together.. the last time i tried making something vaguely adventurous was the teriyaki beef burger (receipe from dok sai), and the general complaint was that the patties were too dry. c'mon i dont work at mcdonald's ya know, obviously you cant expect great tasting patties.

speaking of dok sai, she's probably in salzburg now on a little honeymoon with her bf, overlooking the hills that are alive with the sound of music.. must be a damn picturesque sight. feeling kinda half-envious now. heh.

After much thought, and consideration, and discussion, and calculation, and cost-benefit analysis (being the irritating economists we are, just cant resist throwing this term in).. i'm approximately 80% sure that i won't be going on an exchange.

I am quite aware of the possible arguments in support of an exchange:-

- it may be the 'best time of my life' <- that's what everyone says when they come back from exchange
- it looks good on the resume, cuz employers 'supposedly' will be convinced that you are an independent person
- able to maintain GPA while studying less (but this can easily work against you, depending on this sem's results)
- all that travelling and food, the people, and definitely, the shopping of course
- one of the more impt argument for me: to get away from the f*cking shitload of work we do at S*M*U, its totally non-transparent grading system, the classmates who constantly want to outdo each other in terms of class participation, the freezing cold seminar rooms, the bidding of courses at the start of every sem.. the list goes on.

The thought of leaving this shitty sch for just one sem is just so tempting.

Really tempting, really.

But there are numerous downsides to it as well, such as:-
- if exchange were indeed the 'best time of my life', i dun wanna look back several months later feeling sad abt it because everything was over in a flash
- Eating all the good food there and put on some 7kg again! (till now i have not shed the weight i put on during my europe trip)
- The freezing cold weather (as if the seminar rooms & concourse in S*M*U arent bad enough)
- going on exchange in my final sem means starting the job hunt later than the rest because the exchange term ends approximately a month later. To be granted an interview when overseas on exchange, the employer must really see something in you, which therefore means you gotta be outstanding in some ways, and that is probably not gonna be me.

It was the last reason really swayed my decision into the 'No go' region. Exchange is probably a hell lot of fun, but I'd much rather be sending out resumes, getting shortlisted for interviews, attending interviews and getting screwed over by some really nasty corporate executive and getting my ego all crushed in the process, and continue to pray hard that some rich firm out there will take pity and choose to hire me.

In essence, it's really just a trade-off between having fun and a higher probability of getting employed. Employment equals money. Money makes the world go round, and so i love money.

And so, no exchange.

I've got a recommendation to make too! But being the greedy pig i am, it has to be about food of course. (not suitable for vegetarians unfortunately, cuz i'm ANTI-VEGGIE remember?!?!) ALL HAIL THE CARNIVORES!

Recommendation of the day: TUNGLOK Teahouse Restaurant
Dinner Ala Carte Buffet (Min 4 persons)
$28+++ per pax but 4th person dines for free

First and foremost, THE BUDGET.. the most important consideration in any meal. The 4 of us ramped up a total bill of $106, which works out to be approximately $25 per person. Just hold that thought for a moment. No.. $25 per pax is not ex at all after you hear what we had for dinner!

1) Sharkfin's soup (limited to one serving per pax)
2) Herbal Prawns
3) Peking Duck Roll
4) Jellyfish
5) Mini octopus
6) scallop, squid with celery (my fave dish)
7) veal in some sauce i cant rem
8) fried fish
9) more fried fish but with more sauce this time
10)har kau
11)Szechuan hot and sour soup
12)Herbal chicken
13)Roast platter that consisted of char siew and roast duck
14)Braised E-fu noodles
15)desserts - mango pudding, cheng teng, gui lin gao, red bean soup and riceball

It's ala carte buffet which means you can order much more if you can stomach all that food! So you see, $106 for 15 dishes isnt expensive at all.. it works out to be $7 per dish! This is at a TUNG LOK restaurant, mind you, and for that, it's freaking cheap! All the dishes were at least average tasting, a number of them were above average! i dun recall a single dish that we didnt like at all..

Strictly speaking, $28+++ is still considered high cost for poor students like us. But it's definitely worth a try so i suggest getting your parents down to eat (and pay) instead!

Had supper at Land of the Vices last night, otherwise better known as Geylang. Unsurprisingly, the place remains infested (yes, they're just like vermin) with cheap prositutes who seem to have a special thing for wearing NEON PINK dresses.

This kinda brings back memories of the good ole' days, when at the height of my enthusiasm on the very subject, saw the generation of multiple china-prostitutes-bashing blog entries and a forum entry published on the local newspapers no less. Though i have mellowed in my criticism towards this particular form of societal decadence in recent years, my hatred for them remains nevertheless. to hell with the frigging deceptive sob stories, the world isnt buying them, why cant you see? what the world is buying though, is lust, and quite literally so indeed.

That, being said, still fails to explain why my hatred is in particular, directed towards prostitutes who come from a *certain country*. The answer to this dates back to a newspaper article published several years ago. The report documented views of several Chinese females who outrightly despised Singaporean females, with their core argument based on the premise that Singaporean females are less cultured and learned than they are.

Pardon me if i'm wrong, but isnt this such a BASELESS conclusion? Admittedly though, I find it tough to argue against the culture part because societies have varying interpretations on what constitutes culture (think sympolic interactionist perspective) but more importantly, Singapore, being such a young and globalized nation, has no unique culture to speak of. (Despite the existence of multiculturalism, I maintain that diversity cannot be viewed as a culture) And if culture were to be defined in terms of etiquette then i must remind our Chinese counterparts that this friggin country actually bans SPITTING, do theirs?! Moreover, there is NO WAY in HELL that we're possibly less learned because statistics can easily prove otherwise - the level of education attained by the average Singapore citizen far exceeds that of the *certain country*.

I am still buffed at whatever gave them the idea that they're one up on us.

Maybe it's not their fault that some of them are extremely poor. But in view of the rapid urbanization taking place in China (and therefore translates into increasing availability of job opportunities), are there not better ways to earn a decent living besides selling your dignity? Unless of course, dignity means nothing to them, for which it should not matter that they do not command any respect at the end of the day. It seems to me that prostitutes these days are driven by their desires for wealth and luxury instead of the cirucumstances arising out of poverty.

Guess I'll stop here before getting too carried away and risk getting all too inspired to write into the forums again, haha.

*the term 'prostitutes' mentioned above refers to those who entered the trade on their own free will [however compelling their circumstances may be], and excludes child and slavery prostitution.

Labels: Vices

Some hilarious but seriously demeaning shit i got off the website.

The female banker is an odd yet intriguing creature. She works 80-100 hour weeks, perpetually talks likes she’s job interviewing, and is obsessed with fashion magazines and teeny-bopper television shows. But, despite her eye-gouge-inducing personality and conformist tastes, she has many attractive qualities. She is rich, usually quite attractive or at least has an eating disorder, and has very few available hours with which to cling and bitch and nag. Quite ideal, no?

Girls in banking are like wilted flowers. They were once vibrant, intelligent, and full of energy. They once dominated their peers in school and were part of the most elite social circles. Now, they are drones devoid of self-confidence and social nothings. This, while tragic, is a very favorable turn of events for you. Flex your own security while making them feel good about their sorry existences, and the Thomas Pink panties will be all yours.

Sch at some shitty mugger uni starts tmr. =(

Concluded the holidays with a mahjong session at Pet's hse.. We 'swam', 'snacked' and 'movied' at the same time, much to Pet's exasperation! [yours truly happened to be the biggest winner for the afternn, thanks to my pong pong hu and peng hu.. heh!]

13 going on 30 is quite the show to catch.. it's sweet, fashionable and brainless--> all the ingredients of a chick flick right, kwok?

ok, shall let the pics do the talking!


With cranky Kwok! See the movie screen at the back?


With the host.. Thanks for having us over Pet! All the best in Aussie!

The night before was spent at Nic's belated bday-cum-new year party.. Had a great time catching with sistah and her brother. We spent most of the night bitching and gossiping at nic's penthouse balcony, which had a fantastic view! Did i mention that there was this huge lovely rainbow splashed across the sky?