WHY do human beings grow wisdom teeth? It doesn't make any sense to me and why hadn't natural selection removed it from human? They serve not much purpose in processing food with eight other molars in front of them. Even their name is oxymoronic. Having them don't make you any wiser. After plucking them out, you will most likely be stupider for 3 days. The pain, numbness, and the inability to enjoy your meals will definitely affect your intelligence, judgement and reasoning skills. Since wisdom usually accumulate with age, theoretically, elderly folks should have wisdom teeth, but the teeth don't last that long. Most would have been extracted in their teens since they have been know to cause splitting headaches and teeth misalignment. Even if they survived past the teen stage, due to their awkward position, they are most likely to decay and have to be extracted in time to come.

The one and only purpose that I see in wisdom teeth now is to support the dentistry industry. I still don't understand why it cost a few hundred bucks just to pluck one out. Multiply the price by 4 and wala, easily a thousand bucks gone to suffer in pain and agony for days or weeks. If some one actually manage to find a prevention for wisdom teeth growth, he should be awarded with a nobel prize.

Quantum of Reds and Blues

Caught Quantum of Solace aka latest 007 offering at the cinema. One of those days where you know being a student is great -- unless you are a senior citizen, you can't get a cheaper rate for movies. Quantum is really not my typical James Bond movie. He is supposed to sleep with the female lead, have lots of cool gadgets, drive a supercar load with weapons in all possible compartments and look cool and witty throughout the movie. Somehow, he behaved more like Jason Borne from the Borne trilogy, especially the Jason in Borne Supremacy. Constantly looking tired and almost always never smile. Fights and actions were leaning towards to more realistic side too, just like the Borne series. Overall, it felt more like a Borne movie than a Bond movie.

Walking back to an MRT station brought us across SMU. It was a mini adventure by itself. We being "mountain tortoise" NUS students, were in awe of all the publicity display/posters that SMU students put up. One word, rich. Either that or they have a really cheap source of printing poster on canvas sheet.

Then we come across a really interesting art display. It is part of the Singapore Biennale 08. Basically it's a pic that consists of two pics. It was late, sun was down, so I couldn't get a decent pic with the blue and red filter. So I took a pic without the filters and prayed that photoshop will work. Well, it did and the results below.

The orignal pic on the facade of Raffles City

What you are suppose to see behind the blue filter

What you are suppose to see behind the red

This was followed by a mini debate on the interpretation of its true meaning. Of course it don't really have an conclusion. It's art and we are suppose to be open to it's underlying meaning and message.

Ave Q

First time in Esplanade made me feel like a sua ku. If not for Ave Q I think this experience would have been postponed another few years.

Suakuness aside, Ave Q rocks. I never knew watching puppet have sex can be so funny. I wonder what's going though the puppeteer mind while acting out that scene. Behind all the humor is a plot that really touched on the relevant issues that people face. Unemployment, singlehood, sexual orientation, commitment... ... i.e. whatever make life suck. It also bring out some facts of life about human nature in a refreshing way; "Everyone is abit racist" and "Internet is for porn" should be included in the syllabus in school.

The complete trio

Now all three haos have the same style of display pic.

I am not sure if KH changed it intentionally but who cares?

Stability fail

Display pics

If someone had told me that from the MSN display pic (dp), one can infer the name of the owner, I would had gave them two slaps and brush them off as being nonsensical. But after a message from Tianhao, 1/3 of the odac Haos, with a dp that bears such a striking resemblance to mine, it is scary. So now, we just need to check with the last 1/3 of the Haos who is in Hongkong now, to prove this hypothesis.

Meaningless rants

The whole of September passed without a single blog post. It has only been school and hall, nothing out the blue. October came and started off with one hell of a devastating incident: Jessie caught us playing mj and confiscated a mj set. Suddenly and really drastically, every thing around me seemed to turn gray. I am not kidding on this. Only 3 days without it, half the regular mj-ers are showing signs of mj withdrawal. Till now, we are still spending every awake hour devising plans to play mj. We thought of playing it at level one so that we will be such a huge noise pollution that she will relent and let us play when and where we want it as long as we free her from the noise treatment. We also thought of using mj cards or even viwawa but there were strong objections due to the lack of "feeling". Next, we thought of organising mj outing just so that we can play mj. Too much of a logistical hassle I would say. The dumbest suggestion is playing it at $1 -$2. Then it is possible to win more than $50 to pay the fine for playing mj.

I just simply don't understand why MJ is banned and so strongly reinforced. I can understand its ban if it disturbs people, causes fights and anything that causes someone life to be worse off than without it. However, it cause any disturbance, since we play it in a sound proof room. Furthermore, from what I know, it keeps brains active and has been scientifically proven to ward of old age diseases (we are just preparing way in advance). It is a good form of socialising and identifying people's characters (wise people have said that a person's character is best judged through gambling). In the long run, mj is a no win no loss game so it is really a lesser evil than betting on soccer or even poker. Singapore is liberalising in a lot of ways, why can't they allow mj? Alternative activities like DOTA can be more time consuming and dangerous for the dynamics of a block. Flaming and quarrels in a DOTA game is so common I gave up keeping track years ago.

My 3 years old ascis shoes has its sole coming off. In came a new pair of Nike which attract a lot of negative reviews from my neighbours. I know nike shoes are not durable from my own experience but since I am using it purely for running, I hope it will last a longer than my previous pair which I wore almost every day in school. It cost a total of 112 bucks. I still feel that I am over paying for it.

F1 came and went. Lots of buzz and inconvenience. Since it is held in sg, I watched my first ever race. Overall, its boring, saving grace was all the pit stop drama and crashes. Can you imagine the whole race went without a single hitch. Every pitstop is perfect, every turn is executed nicely. No overtaking no crashes. Isn't it all the drama that attract fans? Stupid calls from referees has the same effect. Just look at the UFO goal. Although I shout referee kelongs lots of time but when the kelong is to my team or the team I am supporting benefits, I enjoy it. If everything is so perfect, top teams don't need to play with the bottom teams. On paper, and in a perfect world, they would win. We know life isn't perfect, live with it, don't be a sore loser.

SNDC 0809

My 4th and last SNDC, which also happened to be the second one that I actually get to sit down and enjoy the dinner. I must say, this year SNDC is much better than the last, in terms of organisation and execution. It would had been better if they had served us food instead of the buffet style adopted, which had been tried and tested last year. The only benefit it brought seemed to be creating a window for cam whoring and people watching. I am pleasantly surprised that everyone and a stage can be squeezed into the tiny comm hall -- we tried and failed last year. What surprised me more is the number of cultural group members in Blk C-- C can officially be know for cultural. From geyao, shacapella to band, you can find your favourite neighobours performing. But I still think last year's program and decoration is much better (hmm, I think I am being biased here).

The girls and the President

Japheth acting "innocent/cute/incredulous"

Dry swimming khakis

My date and I

Me, Ben and Sab

Venture Era (part 2)

I've found the advert that tricked me into making a wasted trip across the island!

---Starts here---
Local business firm in Singapore is now looking for personnel to work in the company. Your role will be involved in the marketing, customer service and other sector.

People that can apply : - Students
- Ns men
- Working personnel who are looking for an additional income sources.


To apply, you must be : - Singaporeans
- 18 and above

Requirement : - NO EXPERIENCE REQUIRED (duh, experienced people won't be tricked)
- Training provided

Working Hours : - Flexible
- min 2 to 3 days / week

Payout wise : Part timer avg $800 - $1200
Full timer avg $1200 - $1600

If you are keen to learn more about the scope of the role, please sms your FULL name, age this year and contact number to 96716986.

Hurry as positions are filling up fast! (this is obviously a lie)

Our coordinators will give you a call within the next 24 hours if you are being shortlisted for the interview.
---Ends here---

Note:

1. no mentioning of venture era. Try smsing them your contacts, I am positively sure they will refer themselves as VE, Not venture..

2. No mentioning of sales.

Ippt

Took my 4th IPPT since stop donning my uniform on a regular basis. One more to go before I graduate. Just like any other IPPT, I am stuck at silver. The elusive 234cm is still a few cm ahead of me. What is worrying is that my 2.4 timing is on a continuous upward trend. At this rate, I wouldn't even get silver for my next test.

Venture Era wasted my time

Feeling bored, I googled for part time jobs hoping to earn some extra bucks. Then I came across this post in a forum looking for part timers that only has to work during evenings, nights and weekends. The job scope includes helping business manager setting presentation, and some logistic assistance. Sounds good doesn't it? I sent my contact and someone called me the very next day. He mentioned the job scope once again, the name of his company conveniently shortened to VE and described it as a "marketing company" and eventually told me to go for an interview at 3pm the next day. Although part of me felt like slacking at home, playing CS or watching a movie, I still went all the way to Eunos MRT for the interview. Upon reaching, I received more information from a girl/lady with problem pronouncing "o" (I suppose she has a short tongue or something) on how to get to their office. Why couldn't these dumbos just let me know the exact address so I could save some walking distance. It's not that far but enough to make me perspire under the hot and humid weather of Singapore. Finally arrive at MDIS building, where their "offices" are located, the first thing that greeted me was a signboard, Venture Era Pte Ltd. There were chairs and tables, teenagers dressed up in suits and ties, trying to act professional and plenty of "healthcare" products being on display. If you are like me, who had attended one too many MLM presentation, you should know by now, VE is a MLM company. At that point of time, I was cursing and swearing at them, using such underhand methods to attact young and innocent students to attend their interviews. However, I didn't leave, hoping that they were really hiring temps to help them out with logistic and presentation to lure other people to join them. I had already spent 1 hr traveling there, what's 10 min more to hear what they had to say. Then this young girl with an really old fashion specs, wearing dress that is too mature for her age came.

Ugly specs: (feeble attempts to start some small talk) ....... have you heard of netw_rk marketing
Me: yup, been to one MLM presentation before
Ugly specs: oh, Venture Era (note, it's not VE anymore) is different, it's netw_rk marketing... (went on to explain the difference)
Me: so you want me to join as a member of VE to promote your items?
Ugly: yar

TMD, I haven't really use vulgarity on my blog because I am trying not to be vulgar in cyberspace. This CB company actually made me travel all the way there using deceit. I maintained my composure and told her, let's not waste each other's time. She even suggested a way for me to save some traveling time home. Being me, I said thanks. Being a pissed off me, I added with a smile, "Well, if you had told me that it's a network marketing company in the first place, you could have saved me hours".

It made sense now that they didn't told me the exact address, worrying that I may find out about its identity before reaching there. It also make sense that they use VE since Venture Era is quite infamous for being an MLM (being around for 7 years get you some reputation, albeit negative). What doesn't make sense is why students, the future of our nation, products of on of the supposedly world best education system, actually fall victim to MLM. Who in the right frame of mind would think that Magnetic pillows, overpriced air cleaners and vitamin pills with calciums (without any scientific evidents to substantiate its claims) would be a great hit with the mass market? Young and navive students, thinking that MLM is the way to get rich, do.

Home sweet home

I have always wanted to post about my end of sem trip but my lazy bone seem to always get the better of me, until now. It is one hell of 25 days, where I got to see so many things, meet so many people, try so many types of food and experience so many cultures. All thanks to the people who make the trip special.

First off,

Brandon, Joey, Joel, Gina and Brian for traveling and planing the trip with me, albeit not completing them.

In Rome,
Greg and Shawnie for telling about Cinque Terre. Colin and gf for being the first of the many more singaporeans I bumped into.

In Pisa,
Rasendrum for being the second Singaporeans that we randomly met, which gave us an indication on how many more there will be.

In Florence,
7 or 8 Singapore LSE students for being 7 or 8 out of the many Singaporeans. Australian lady at the jacuzzi who make me realise traveling alone isn't that scary.

In Cinque Terre,
Parestoo, muslim from Iran who migrated to Canada, for helping me take photos with the ultra scenic small towns and cliffs by the sea. Furthermore, make me understand that traveling alone is not scary at all.

In Milan,
Johny, Mabel (who is from my jc junior class, yes the world is small), Korean whose name I don't recall, for bringing us to a wonderful dinner that was rather cheap by european standard. The Italian guy who got trapped in the train carriage with us and his famous quote, "we are like in a fucking cartoon".

In Interlaken,
Baolai, Huiyan, Jialiang, Kendrick, Yanli, and his two friends for injecting so much fun and laughters during the trip, making the trip so much more 热闹.

In Amsterdam,
Crew from Shelter Jordan, namely, Jonathan, Melanie, Frank, Maria, Jens, Renie, Christie and Adam for the company during the 3 quarter finals matches and sharing so much about their religion where I really learn a lot.

In Berlin,
My crazy hostelmates, Rose, Allan, Iraqis lady, American lady, 3 French Candanians dudes, crazy kiwi who ran around the fan mile with a New Zealand all black flag during Germany vs Turkey match, 2 bimbotic norwegian girls and the super loving Finnish couple for making my stay at the hostel so memorable and not to mention the soccer match with crazy cheering.
Junkang, Edwin and Huimin for being the last 3 Sgian I met during the trip and kinda break the solemn atmosphere at the concentration camp.

London trip

It was more than a month ago but at least it's here. London is quite a nice city if the air is a little less polluted I think it would have been one of the nicest city I have been to. Note, nicest, not most beautiful.

playing with lomo again

Old Naval Academy

This flagpole reminded me so much about my midshipman days

Photoshopping

It's been four days after my exams ended and still haven't sort out the photos to be printed. Since digital photography came into my life, the numbers of photo I have in my computer sort of exploded. However, the number of times I have actually look at them, compared to printed ones actually reduced. I have decided to print some of the more memorable ones so as to admire them more frequently and as a backup, just in case my computer crash or something. The next amazing thing about digital photography is that you can manipulate the photos any way you want. Although it requires lots of reading up and lots of time, I think it's worth it. Photos are usually the best encapsulation my memories so they should be as beautiful as possible. Some of the photos after I "lomograph-ed" them. For the uninitiated, Lomography is done using a camera that sort of distort the colours and act some random blurness in the photo. Photographs are supposed to be taken spontaneously from the hip. Since I can't afford a lomograph (it is being monopolised) I am just getting some kick of it via photoshopping.

Dog sledging in Kiruna

Cigarettes bin in Olso

Marina in Olso

Statue in Olso

1st paper

Just had my first every exam in Denmark. The first one in a long long time. It's also the first one that I can actually bring my laptop in, switch it on and left it there for the whole duration of the exam. It was there for the sake of being there, being a kiasu Singaporean, I just brought it there to provide me a false sense of security. If I don't, I doubt I will ever get another chance to bring a laptop to an examination. The paper itself was of sec 3 physics standards and open book. In SG, I would have expected it to last 2 hours, but they gave us 4 hours and i managed to read 1 chapter of manga (just so I can boast to others), took a 5 min nap and had 1.5 hours to go before submitting my paper. The Portuguese guy next to me was even faster, he took almost 45 min less than me. I took a quite glance at his answer script and I guess he was just aiming for a pass, skipping the last question almost completely. The grading system here is very straight forward, something like the O and A levels, where a certain grade is given after you hit a certain mark. Much unlike the bell curve system in NUS where you will never know what kind of grade you'll get and you are praying that everyone do as badly as you after the exams. At least I know I won't fail here. 2 more exams to go before my end of sem trip!

Wonders of MSN

MSN does wonders. Why? I can get updates of the latest happenings from Singapore. All the exciting events and recounts from friends of mine who thinks I should be kept in the loop. What a good way to deter homesickness. Thanks to MSN, and the space , I get bits and pieces of what is going on in hall too. Some things just won't change.... I wonder what life during SEP was like? No skype, msn, webcam, and international direct call was the cheapest option to keep in touch with friends and family from SG. I would be a nightmare, won't it?

Kampsax Notice

The management from Kampsax (a hostel that is occupied by mostly Danish students, much like the 6 halls in NUS) must be damn pissed to put up notices on every single container in campus village (a congregation of container-like structures that is meant for international students, analogous to PGP with regard to only the population make up). I wonder who is the person caught stealing a barstool.

Yet another trophy-less season

Arsenal never fail to amaze me with the style of football they play. Yet, they seldom produce the result that the fans, or rather I, hope for. For the third consecutive season, they won absolutely nothing. At one point in time, the team had a 8 point lead and I thought it would be their season. Yet, a few weeks later, they self destruct and lost games they should have won, rued chances a few yards from goal, let it goals that should have never been scored and made defensive errors (please sell Senderos) as if they were school boys. The loss against Man U more or less sealed their fate, and they should really question their policy on the transfer market. If they only they have a little more depth in strenght, they may very well be en route to the the Champion League semi and EPL title. Sigh, another sad season when everything started so well only to disappoint once again.

Mythbuster

I am so addicted to Mythbuster that I am neglecting all forms of work. It must be the engineer in me that prompt me to watch MB. Yesh... I am typing this as another episode is being buffered. Isn't it cool to do things you always want to do? At least for me, I always have the urge to test whether certain things are true but never did I find any time nor will to carry them out. I wouldn't mind getting paid to do such stuff.

Budapest! Easter travel 08

Long due photos of Budapest, an amazing beautiful city with amazing night view, nice people along the street and incredibly rude service staffs at entrance of most sightseeing spots. It has an wonderful transport system that does it job. Prices there are comparable to Singapore and at times cheaper.

Funny commercials

after 3 reports and 1 presentation, I decided to youtube for some stress eliminating clips. Here's what I found

Daylight saving

Other than cross time zones, this is my first ever artificial shift of time. One less hour of sleep isn't that much but still significant enough to cause some rambling here and there.
The ideal of shifting time is still kinda new to me. I always thought that time is absolute and precious enough to piss people off when enough of it is wasted. I guess I was wrong. Time is more manageable, changeable and not absolute. Examples are in abundance. Singapore can alter its timezone to match the major financial hubs in Asia. Time can be push forward so that we can make full use of day light. Small islands in the pacific ocean can be put into "special time zones" to match their home country. It is fair to say time is just another human creation. However, people like me are still manipulated by it more than manipulating it. I guess I just need to try harder at managing my time (such as finding time to blog about my trip in budapest and prague). I shall start by sleeping now!

The day it snowed in Denmark

Being a Singaporean, tropican, equatorian,.... in short, someone who had never really traveled to winter countries implies that I have never seen snow prior to my trip to Kiruna, where I saw more than enough snow to last me a few years. However, the feeling of snow falling infront of your door step, your window next to your study table, the path you take everyday, is just something special. So our trigger happy selves took the better of us and we behaved like how you would expect tourists would, infront the Pyramids. Just that this time, there isn't any major photo-friendly backdrop, just pure snow flakes falling from the sky and a minimal amount of sunlight

Look at my surprised face! I always thought I have a careless attitude towards seeing snow. I was so wrong.

Look how high I jumped.( me, Jialiang and Kendrick)

More jumps to tame our excitment( me, Baolai and Kendrick)

Christiania

The weather here is so cold that I feel more nua than when I was in Sg. Which explain why I seldom update my blog other than the fact that there is nothing much to blog about. I have also reached the stage where I can wear singlet and shorts to stay in my room where the average temperature is 22 degrees and gain the ability to commute short distance in below 5 degree climate with shorts (,thick winter clothings) and havaianas flipflop.

Some photos before we reached our destination of the day, Christiania:

random street in CPH

famous candy shop, with a looonnnggg history

ancient lift beside the shop

Finally we reached Christiania in the early afternoon. In brief, Christiania is a place in Denmark that is not under the jurisdiction of the Denmark government. Their "special"autonomy allow them to sell soft drugs in the street aptly named, pusher street. It is not really a big place like the size of sengkang. Based on my own estimation it is at most the size of VJ. With 1100 residents, and buildings seldom exceeding one storey, I guess it can be quite cramp there.

Graffiti art in abundance

Snail

I suppose this is the real entrance to Christiania which we only found at the end of the tour.
On its reverse side, it states, "You are now entering EU".

After our short brush with drugs, we proceed on to visit the "gay" bars in the city since we have nothing better to do after our dinner and we happen to have a "gay map" with us.

Weekdays seem to zoom past you and weekends never seem to end. This is how I feel right now. Despite the sunny weather now, I don't really feel like going out as there isn't much to do. The few things that are left to be done are too expensive and way out of my budget. Now I find Singapore an interesting place. There are always movies to catch, majong to play, supper places to visit. Here, you can expect parties where everyone drink tonnes of booze at most.

Random pics of the day:

Hostel Fee Increase

How come prices of everything is increasing yet my allowance isn't. With the increase in hostel fees, it will cost about 1.9 K a semester to stay in hall, an increase of 270 bucks. This will definitely make poor students poorer. Is running of that hall really that expensive? In 3 years time, it will cost more than 2.2k per semester.

CNY pics

CNY entry

The weather is getting better as we speak. The sun is shining right into my room and I can wear a tee shirt in my room with the windows wide open. How I wish everyday will be like this. Just attended the indoor climate class. The comfortable temperature people desire is in the range of 15 to 20. I can't imagine the electricity bill if we do it in Singapore.

1st Day of School

Starting of a new term in an entirely new environment is not exact new to any Singaporean but this time round, it's an entirely new country, culture and climate for me. The day started off with a change of classroom which implies that I had to walk in the chilly wind for another 200m. From the 4 hours thereafter, I realised 2 things-- danish students are hardworking and the younger the dane the better their spoken English. The lesson style here is more personal. The prof made an effort to engage everyone in the small class setting which is different from the tutorial class in NUS. Tutors in NUS should buck up. Well, I miss international week now where there will always be someone to talk to.

building a tower to hold beer cans

New rm

This the where I am staying now..... It is exactly what it looks like, a container. Anyway the room itself is about the same size as my room in sheares, just that is less furnishing which makes the room looks kinda spacey.

Start of SEP

I am typing this at my extremely long transit wait at Amsterdam, Schiphol . It's 6.40am here and I have to wait till 10am for my connect flight to take off. Since I don't have any euros with me, I can't do any shopping and therefore, here I am, typing this.

The airline I took, KLM or Royal Dutch airline's flight isn't as bad as GL described. I managed to watched 3 movies (with a small screen in front of the seat not a common TV screen), Shrek the third, F4: Rise of the Silver surfer and Curse of the Golden Flower (lousy show) listened to a few songs and catch up with lots of sleep. The meals served are not exactly wonderful but you can't expect that much a few thousand feet up in the sky right?