It's past twelve.

Which makes today the 15th day of the 8th lunar month, also known as the mid-autumn festival or the mooncake festival or the lantern festival. They're all one and the same.

What is it really?

Seriously, I don't have a clue.

I remember as a child, I used to look forward to playing with lanterns - fish-shaped ones, butterfly-shaped ones, rabbit-shaped ones - coloured glass paper held together with wires, a lone candle burning in the middle, the flickering flame casting its light on the glass paper. It was the total highlight of the moment. Then came those on rollers where you could push around like a little pram. I remember wanting those real bad. Hahaha. Hey, it was a big deal at that time.

Times have changed. It's a rare moment when you can actually find those lanterns I used to have as a kid. Most of the stuff on sale now are plastic and come with a battery operated bulb. Also, there's the influence of popular culture - Pokemon lanterns, Ultraman lanterns, Hello Kitty lanterns etc. It's the invasion of Japanese cartoon lanterns!

The mid-autumn festival is also about mooncakes - round biscuits stuffed with sweet filling, the more traditional ones containing white lotus, red bean, salted egg yolk or sweet nuts. Now, there's all sorts of weird and 'innovative' flavours - tiramisu, green tea, durian, chocolate (which, in essence, is a block of chocolate), ice-cream (which, yes, is a block of ice-cream), etc. Then there are the 'ping pei' (cold skin) mooncakes, which are my favourites even though I'm not a big fan of mooncakes. Come to think of it, I haven't had any 'ping pei' mooncakes this year...and I've only eaten less than one mooncake this time around. Not that I'm missing it much.

So, anyway, it's the mid-autumn festival and we're 'technically' moving into the new apartment later tonight. 'Technically' meaning we're going to have our dinner there to symbolise the 'moving in'. Even though three-quarters of the furniture aren't in yet and we won't be sleeping there til Sunday (I assume it's Sunday 'cos that's when the furniture is going in), we are 'moving in'. Don't ask. I don't get it either. Something about picking the right day, right time and all that.

Apart from the having to pack and unpack bit of the equation, I think I'm getting used to the new place now. I suppose there isn't really much I can do about it. I'll just have to wait it out until I can afford to get a place of my own.

Watched a rather interesting movie yesterday.

The Butterfly Effect.

It has been said that something as small as the flutter of a butterfly's wing can ultimately cause a typhoon halfway around the world.

That's the chaos theory, also known as the butterfly effect.

What does it have to do with the movie?

In essence, it's a time travel story. Nothing new, nothing original. Back To The Future's done it before. Change history and the whole future as you know it changes as well. The consequences of your actions weigh more than you actually think they do on the lives of others. How you live your life and the things you do or say could ultimately effect and change the life of the people around you.

[Warning: if you haven't watched the movie and don't like spoilers, don't read any further.]

The protagonist as a child suffers from occasional blackouts and it is only in his adulthood that he finds out that those blackouts are a result of him returning to that particular time in the past. He comes to realise that by travelling back to the past, he can change history and thus help the lives of those around him. And that's what he does.

But things are never that rosy when you try to play God.

Each time he tries to help someone, something's got to give. Lives get changed, lives get ruined. The more he tries to change it, the worst it seems to get. Until the end when he figures out a way to correct it all.

I liked the ending (which apparently was the director's cut. The theatrical version has a different ending). I found it pretty powerful and rather unexpected. I guess it was probably the protagonist's only way of 'redeeming' himself, and it tied in quite well with what the fortune teller had told him earlier - something to the effect of "You have no soul. You do not exist. You do not belong here."

But what does the movie have to do with chaos theory?

I guess what it's saying is that you can go back in time and think that by changing something for the better during that time, the future will turn out to be better too. However, chaos theory is such that you can never predict what will happen. By changing one thing in the past, you create a different timeline for the future. Those who've watched Back To The Future should be able to remember the bit where the professor explains to Marty about alternate futures. Time branches off and creates another reality.

TVB recently had a drama series which played along these lines as well: To Get Unstuck In Time. Again, the protagonist changes the past in the hope that the one he loves will get a better future. However, thanks to chaos theory, things never work out the way one intends. By changing the past, he inadvertently creates an alternate timeline, one in which his girlfriend ends up not knowing who he is because they had never met.

Time travel is always a rather confusing topic. Some people think it's just one timeline and that it changes when history changes. I tend to think that there are alternate timelines and realities. If a certain thing happened in the past, it could mean that the future is along timeline A. However if something different happened at that particular time, the future would be along timeline B. And so on and so forth. Different histories result in different futures along different timelines. Some rosy, some bleak, we may never know and maybe we shouldn't. After all, time travel is a dangerous thing - think chaos theory.

Having said that, I still wish I could travel back in time and stop/kill/dissuade the person who 'invented' the idea of us having to work for a living.

Have I said I hate my new apartment?

I hate my new apartment.

As far as I'm concern, at this point in time, I really hate my new apartment.

Nothing about it is right.

We paid a whole shit load of money for it and nothing about it is right.

First, there's my room. An architect's after-thought. No wait, maybe it was meant to be the servant's bedroom. How nice. I get to sleep in the servant's bedroom. Even my room in the office is bigger than this new shithole I have to call a bedroom.

I hate my lights. The lights in my bedroom, the lights in my bathroom. I hate them all. Even the utility room has better lights than my room.

I hate the cheap looking timber flooring in my bedroom. Cheap is the best and only way to describe it.

I hate the colour of my bathroom. It looks as though it was designed for a 70-year old man. And why the F*** do I need such a big bathroom for?! Give me the F****** space for my bedroom!

I hate the lifts. I'm sorry but Balinese wood-carving decorative shit is passe.

Oh and another thing about the lifts. We need access cards to use them? Great. Just another excuse for my friends not to come visit because it's so troublesome. Fine, I can understand the need to use them to go up but to come down too? Stupid.

I hate the driveway. One of these days, I'm going to slip and fall and break something.

I hate the carpark. I hate that my parking lot is so F****** high up, I get dizzy just driving up to it. I hate it that the stupid carpark is not connected to the apartment block. No covered walkway. Which means that when it rains, we either get drenched top to toe or we camp out in the carpark.

I hate it that everything is so far away from the apartment block and that nothing is connected. To get to the swimming pool, I have to walk out in the open across the driveway. Isn't that nice? Parading in my swimsuit while cars drive in and out. Wonderful.

Everybody thinks it's such a lovely place.

I think it's a F****** shithole and a con job and I'm being made to move against my will.

I hate my new apartment. I really, really hate it.

Everytime I see my new bedroom, I get so damn depressed.

It's so bloody small.

Everybody else has more than enough space (no wait, make that bigger than big aka the master bedroom) or just enough space (aka my brother's room) but me. My room seems to be some architect's after-thought.

And now that the wardrobe's in, guess what, it looks even smaller!

By the time my other furniture is in, I'll have like, oh I don't know, maybe 1 feet left of floor space? And no, I do not have a lot of furniture. A wardrobe, bed, desk, chair and a sideboard does not constitute a lot of furniture.

I am soooooooooooo looking forward to moving in.

Geesh.

Do you work in advertising or are you a prostitute?
Twenty three pointers to clue you in on whether you're an advertising creative or simply a prostitute.

1. You work very odd hours.

2. You are paid a lot of money to keep your client happy.

3. You are paid well but your pimp gets most of the money.

4. You charge by the hour but your time can be extended for the right price.

5. You are not proud of what you do.

6. Creating fantasies for your clients is rewarded.

7. It's difficult to have a family.

8. You have no job satisfaction.

9. If a client beats you up, the pimp just sends you to another client.

10. You are embarrassed to tell people what you do for a living.

11. People ask you, "What do you do?" and you can't explain it.

12. Your family hardly recognizes you at reunions (at least the reunions you attend.)

13. Your friends have distanced themselves from you and you're left hanging with only other "professionals."

14. Your client always wants to know how much you charge and what they get for the money.

15. Your pimp drives nice cars like Mercedes or BMWs.

16. Your pimp encourages drinking and you become addicted to drugs to ease the pain of it all.

17. You know the pimp is charging more than you are worth but if the client is foolish enough to pay it's not your problem.

18. When you leave to go see a client, you look great, but return looking like hell (compare your appearance on Monday AM to Friday PM).

19. You are rated on your "performance" in an excruciating ordeal.

20. Even though you get paid the big bucks, it's the client who walks away smiling.

21. The client always thinks your "cut" of your billing rate is higher than it actually is, and in turn, expects miracles from you.

22. When you deduct your "take" from your billing rate, you constantly wonder if you could get a better deal with another pimp.

23. Everyday you wake up and tell yourself, "I'm not going to be doing this stuff the rest of my life.

(taken from adland)

useless/adj. 1 not doing or achieving what is needed or wanted: It's useless presenting the clients good stuff because they don't appreciate and are too ball-less to accept them anyway. 2 not very good at something; not able to do things well: The account management/servicing team seem pretty useless when it comes to trying to convince and control the client.

hopeless/adj. 1 no hope that it will get better or succeed: It's a hopeless account. 2 extremely bad: It's a really hopeless account. 3~(at sth) very bad; with no ability or skill: They are totally hopeless clients. 4 feeling or showing no hope: It's a totally hopeless account.

stupid/adj.,noun
adj. 1 showing a lack of thought or good judgment: They're stupid clients. 2 slow to learn or understand things; not clever or intelligent: They're really stupid clients. 3 used to emphasize that you are annoyed with sb/sth: They're all stupid!

Aunty is here.

Bills are here (yes, I know they have no correlation whatsoever with aunty but well, they both are here at the same time).

Things to buy.

More things to buy.

More bills to pay.

Salary only in end of the month.

Another 3 weeks to go.

How to tahan?

(Hey, that rhymed. Hahahahhahaa! Okay, maybe not.)

TGIF.

This has been a really long, long week.

Don't know what's wrong with me. Been feeling really lethargic and lazy - don't want to do anything, not really interested in anything. Every little thing frustrates me, irritates me. My mood has swung up, down, 360 degrees and back again.

Sigh.

Maybe it is that time of the month.

Maybe 'aunty' is coming.

Malaysian Court Overturns Anwar Conviction

Malaysia's Anwar freed from jail after shock appeal victory

Pretty amazing.

Never thought I'd see that happen.

Abdullah just pulls one surprise after the next.