iHEART

If we humans left everything to Mother Nature's trusted and wise devices, we will begin to slowly understand that the universe has its own way of working things out, or 'there is a season for every reason', so to speak. 'Go with the flow', 'let the chips fall where they may', some enlightened souls do embrace as their mantra for blissful daily living.

But enough of delusions and escapisms for now, instead, please allow me to share with you Oranges a serendipitous scene that transpired at work just now, at 10.30pm, 1st floor of Orange building, by the laser copier -

An "origami" heart that had naturally taken shape by itself on the carpet by the laser copier, which were probably the straggling remnants of someone's love letter that had been shredded to oblivion by the unappreciative recipient of it ... Nah, surely its origins had more lighthearted and jovial leanings, rather than something so gloomy as tragic love.

Such a phenomenon of simplistic yet profound proportions. Why profound you say? How often is it that you see a heart on the carpet like that? I've seen many an Orange wear their heart on their sleeve, but that's a different story.

I mean, you could stare at the clouds all day, for example, and just let your imagination run wild with conjuring up a whole phantasmagoria of shapes, objects, people, and fantasies. But this ...this heart on the carpet, this iconic and world renowned symbol of affection and desire, formed and fused by the very hands of chance and fate, is a sign from the Gods that we should always follow our heart. For want of a better word, transfixed sums up the emotion perfectly in this instance.

Make no mistakes, there were no Hollywood special effects or high tech CGI photoshopping involved here. What you see is what we (Captain Haddock and I) saw. We couldn't believe it at first, but then it dawned on us that life is constantly filled with these sentiently surrealistic snippets. The onus is always on us to, like the tag line for that movie "American Beauty" says,
'Look closer'.

To pulp or not to pulp, that is the question.
Nevertheless, we Oranges can take comfort in the fact that even though nothing lasts forever and all good things must come to an end, we will always have memories to get on by.

...until we become senile.

The animal instinct

What better way to end the month of May, than by taking a trip to the zoo?

Have a beary nice day

Tripping the sunlight fantastic

Filled with amazement and WONder

The real Bambi

Splendour amongst the greens

Two's company

The awesome foursome - BB is the one scratching his d**k

Big bird with resplendent plumage, GK that is

Beautiful Bengal white tigers, an endangered species - just like the GFPT
(requires loving conservation and care)

The Maharani of Mandai - Y, takes a casual stroll through her kingdom

An episode from LOST?

Life is a butterfly, fluttering away

My trunk runneth over

Follow the yellow brick road

- This post is dedicated to the hardworking, self sacrificing and
honourable Captain Haddock -

Friday late night

Yet another late night in the Orange for the Pri Sci editors...for the Captain, it's a case of deja vu, only this time with different faces and a different subject. Previously the Captain had to stay late in the office for the sake of our great nation's Physics students. And previously, late night dinners in the office were with such esteemed men and women like the flying Dutchman RB and KN...now the Captain is accompanied by the motorbiker's better half WM, and the great Markorat himself.

Unfortunately Markorat is about to depart the fluorescent-lit passageways of the great Orange building (great being an oxymoron here for most of us). So with every action taken, every word that escapes his throat, it is with the thought that "This will be one of my last meals/last words/last breaths/last cigarettes, etc, as an Orange Editor....". What emotion, what sentiment...Markorat IS Markorat!

Markorat in one of his last meals as an Orange Editor...heh.

Err...3 of the Pri Sci team, staying back in the office to eat fast food and squint almost futilely at a ton of papers with illegible scribbling because well...they didn't hire enough editors to do the work, and secondly, the managing editor can read his own handwriting so he assumes everyone else can. Whose fault is it anyway?

Relak one corner

"Wei Ji" - the Mandarin word that means 'crisis'. The first character on the left means 'danger', and the second one on the right means 'opportunity'. From this aspect, it is interesting to note that the Chinese saw a crisis as pregnant with potential for positive change.

Okay, English Premier League football season is finally over, and Manchester United are champions! Come on ES, come on ES' hubby, come on GK, let's all chant together,

"Glory! Glory Man United!"

Yes, celebrations and salutations all in tow, but still, the Orange men were facing a ball crisis. The suits were not happy that we were playing football at lunchtime on Fridays, and returned to work after 1.30pm, bathing till 2pm and eating our lunch while the rest of the Oranges had already hunkered back down in their cubicles to slave over proofs and manuscripts. In other words, the air in our regular football Fridays was being deflated. What were we to do?

See, depriving us guys of playing football is akin to torture in a Nazi concentration camp. We can't live without women, but we'll also die without football.

This ball crisis had opportunity written all over it, and RB Shevchenko saw the light at the end of this dark tunnel in a flash (trust a crafty striker like him to seize even a half goal haha!). To counter the suits' repressive regime of totalitarian barbaric overtures, designed to crush all forms of humanity and virile revolutionary tactics, RB suggested playing in the evening, after work instead. Hey, what a concept! So simple, yet so effective.

So yesterday we had a kick around after 6.03pm. Boy, it was fantastic! No hot scorching midday sun to make us feel like we were roasting in an outdoor sauna, a cool and refreshing evening breeze that languidly enveloped our sweating bodies time and again, cute office ladies going home for eye candy (what sights for sore eyes), a golden setting sun and cerulean blue skies that provided a relaxing atmosphere for us to let our hair down and hang loose, and finally... teh tarik and cold refreshments at the newly opened Indian cafe just down the road after the game.

This is what life's all about... C'est La Vie!

We are going to do this every week, When Wednesday Comes.


Relaking after the game...

'The surprise is in the food' - should we be afraid?

Two men and an ashtray

Getting texty with it: II sms momma that he'll be back late

Ham-some boy modelling school: SW flashes his pearly whites

RB wants some hot text action too

It's the last (sip from the) straw

MARK your JobSCOPE

Most editors that come into the Orange have the following jobscope.

Inevitably, there are the mini ad-hoc projects along the way. For example,

(i) if they are even remotely in tune with the world of Science, they'd probably get asked to do a couple of articles in a Science magazine (mini project A)

(ii) sometimes we go visit the warehouse for stocktaking or go to some hotel for a launch (mini project B)

(iii) Then of course we have the recreational activities, such as Fun Day, D & D and FF, where every morsel of enthusiasm will be duly identified and put to good use (mini project C)

But the thing that keeps each editor on his toes, the thing that causes him to plod to work each day, the only reason he doesn't fall asleep (or dead) in his cubicle........has to be.........his MAIN TA project........

Gals n balls

With the ball at their feet

Kick it up, kick it down, let's mix it up all around

Vintage vs youth... the jerseys, that is

"Watch out RC, woman on! woman on!"

MV
- Woman of the match -

"She shoots! She scores!"

D & D

The Times annual D & D took place recently. Well it can't really be called "annual" since this is the first time in six years that an event like this took place. A night of fun and games and plenty of good food was promised...attendees were strongly encouraged to dress up as their favourite celebrity or mascot. Prizes would be given out to those with the best outfit. Heck, prizes were given out to almost everyone since there was a lucky draw. Those that won nothing during the lucky draw would then stand a chance to win the top 10 prizes, which included a grand prize of a 32 inch LCD TV...

Somehow though, the forces that govern this universe contrived to ensure that the Captain ended up winning nothing...although it didn't really affect the Captain because the only prize that matters to him is the one you get if you win in May.

Alright, crappy jokes aside, it's photo time! =D

Some of us took the "dress up as your favourite celebrity or mascot" a little too far; just look at our dear Uncle BB who turned up in a thick trenchcoat complete with dark sunglasses. I didn't know that BB's favourite mascot was a serial flasher/molestor. And look, GK has his hand lovingly wrapped around the pirate captain NT's....sword, which is rather strategically positioned.


I suppose RB Shevchenko's outfit is meant for him to resemble his Malaysian compatriot Christopher Lee, who was recently sentenced to jail and fined for drink driving?


There's something wrong with this photo...wait, let me look closely...OH. Yes, that's right...it shouldn't be GK sitting beside WM, it should be her bf KO instead. Now where the heck was he, one wonders?

The theme of this D & D was "Asian Media Night"

Sixpack, now reduced to Fab Four all over again...will we never manage to find suitable replacements for the departed Sixpackers?


CK rudely points her finger at the cameraman...or was she trying to act cool?


Oooh, look who turned up in an "Uma Thurman in Kill Bill" outfit...RB Shevchenko looks positively (or negatively, if you will) petrified at having her razor-sharp plastic sword millimetres from his throat.


Mr Popular, also sometimes known as Big Boss BB or Uncle BB, is surrounded by 3 rather delicious-looking ladies...did I say delicious? Maybe I was reminded of the 8-course meal served during dinner


MS aka Uma Thurman aka Salma Hayek looks too happy as she prepares to kill both GK and ML in cold blood. GK and ML look too happy to be killed by MS. This is all just so wrong.


You don't need the 3 guys in this photo; all you need is JSL in THAT outfit. Can I just say that when I first saw her that day, she shot up my Top 5 list instantly?


Another publicity shot for the Fab Four aka Sixpack. NT and BB shamelessly pose for the camera...(cam) whores!

Random group shot of the girls...

Another random group shirt...it is obvious that NT is already wasted. JSL loves to show her tongue when taking photos I realise...hmm does that mean anything?


An after-dinner group shot...oops I think poor Princess Y was being squeezed by GK and CK so she had to make herself smaller


How many of these people will still be here by the time the next D & D rolls around?