Counting down to:

Mandarin: Gong Xi Fa Cai!!; Hokkien: Keong hee huat chye!!; Cantonese: Kung Hei Fat Choi!!; Pinoy: WALANG PASOK!! yehey!!

After the Christmas and New Year festivities, Singapore is again buzzing with activities (shopping, shopping and err.. more shopping) for the coming Chinese New Year. Judging how the malls get filled-up faster than you can say "no discount ah?", and ATM machines get dried up like a week old bak-wa (dried pohk), they seemingly can't wait for the coming festivities. Well, .... SO AM I !! :)

Sigh. Indeed. It's time.

I wasn't really planning on writing anything today. There was simply nothing to tell. It's just plain same old same old kind of day. Wake-up, Go to Work, Work, Go home, Eat, Read the news. Even the news aren't even "news". Just the usual, global warming, US economy on brink of recession, and major banks losing billions due to subprime mortgage, the elections, divorce of some star which only lasted 2 weeks, and splitsville of some celebrity couple named Peter Parker and Mary Jane Watson and some... WHAT?!






Now, that something.

Spidey has been one of my favorite super hero characters. It's not because of his wall-crawling abilities, or having super-human strength and agility, nor having the kick-ass spider-sense which saved his and others butts more times than the number of Doc Ocs arms. It's because he is more human than most super-heroes. He gets humiliated, beaten, wounded,bled. He needs a job like most of us to get on with life. He feels frustrated, guilty, envy, sometimes erred in judgement, needed salvation, needs to be loved. Luckily for him, Mary Jane Watson was there to fill that need. I also liked Mary Jane Watson. Unlike your typical super-hero love interest, she had humble beginnings, came from a troubled family, she also had to work like everyone else, she stuck with Peter even though stark and logan made some moves on her during SpiderMan: The Other crossover. She wasn't even Peter Parker's first choice, (it was Gwen Stacy) and wasn't even his wife on the House of M crossover (was also Gwen Stacy), but somehow fate made them together. Sure, they had some troubles with Mary Jane actually dumping Peter and Peter going out with Shadowcat of the Xmen but still they managed to iron things out.

But now, Marvel decided to shake Peter's life a bit, (as the daily dosage of Jonah's trash talking while saving the world and his tail on the side from pyscho villains, wasn't enough) and decided that Peter's 20 year marriage with MJ is kaput. I don't really know what to expect. I always believed that Peter and MJ is one of those immortal couples in the world of fiction. (I'm starting to feel like a showbiz writer) Maybe because Marvel needed another boost after the events of House of M storyline, maybe Captain America's death last year didn't generate the expected buzz, or maybe they just want to humanize SpiderMan a bit more. I'll just put my trust to Joe Q, and his team at marvel and hope that they weave some interesting twists and possibilities. I know they always come up with something good.

Now, I'm so way past my bedtime.

Damn, I'm such a comics geek.

The New Year

2007 had been a rollercoaster ride for me. There were ups and downs. The downs took the lion's share of the 2007 cake, but the few ups definitely what mattered most. I don't regret having experienced these downs since it brought with it revelations and realizations about me and the kind of world I live in. Some are good but some doesn't paint a pretty picture. But hey, it's fact of life that needs facing, so be it. There were lessons learned, and most of it, thru the hard way. But still, I'm grateful for having shown these truths. And then there were ups, only few, subtle, silent moments BUT wonderful, beautiful, heaven-sent even. It may seem insignificant now, but I'm sure the future, my future, will be shaped by these ups and boy, can't I wait.

At the end, 2007 may have been pretty chaotic in general ,but it was still a year to thank God for. Good Health,Great Family, Friends which mattered most, I felt greedy to have asked for more.





I may have been depressed,neurotic,confused,lost in 2007 but now:




Much better.