Where I let it out

When big organisations just don't get it

2011-12-20T10:32:00.004+08:00

I used to pride Singapore Transport systems as one of the best. As far as I can remember, there were no major disruptions prior to the three last week. Like all news worthy saga, one news lead to another - 3 major disruptions, one death at NEL, one critically injury while on a bus. Just like the Bedok Reservoir floating bodies and the series of NTU death last year, when it starts to rain, it starts to pour. Unlike the previous two series of unfortunate events, a public transport disruption incurred much much more wrath from the general public. It should.

For the majority of the Singaporeans who do not drive, public transportation has a really strong influence on a scarce and deeply treasured resource call "time". Although not everyone use it wisely, some choose to upgrade themselves on a weekday night, some choose to spend quality time with their family after a long day at work and some may choose to rush home to play a game of DOTA. But any attempt to take it away will definitely bring out the best Singaporean spirit - Complaint in Unison. Who can blame us? We grew up in a environment that pride itself on efficiency where time is the very resource that defines it. Losing time on a stalled transportation is something that should not have happened if you are in Singapore.

Commuters has articulated this desire of not losing precious time on public transport in their numerous complaints about not being able to board buses and trains at peak hours. If losing one or two buses/trains (*5 to 10 min) is concern, missing out one entire evening out with friends and family is national problem. If SMRT had a proper contingency plan, Singaporeans would and should had been more forgiving. We all know, things are getting more and more complicated, and they will fail. Does Google place all its data centers in one city? However, contingency plans were slow to be activated and safety procedures for rescue were glaring absent. Yet, SMRT choose not to admit its flaws.

From the SMRT responses, track records and public comments surfacing on the new media recently, it is obvious that SMRT had focused on doing one thing and doing it good. That is generating profits - from its retails rentals and efficient nets of trains and buses. No one is blaming them for doing their job. However, did SMRT consider itself an essential public service provider that should endeavour to ensure Singaporeans precious time is not lost on waiting and sitting idly on non moving, non ventilating trains?

* arbitrary figures based totally on my own estimates

Coming of age

2011-05-22T03:17:00.002+08:00

I attended my first p sch classmate wedding today only to realise that many more are already married. Some even have two kids. It is really heart warming to know that we have all grown so much since those days of carefree marble, catching, humtumbolla days.

In the name of Democracy

2011-05-08T14:04:00.003+08:00

Singapore has just witnessed one of the most epic failure of the GRC system. Widely recognised as one of the best in the current minister rank, ex-Foreign Minister George Yeo is now officially unemployed. At least he won't be serving the Singapore for the next 5 years as a minister. This happened while the most incompetent candidate, judging from the level of backlash from her comments, actions, (bimbotic) media replies and (act cute) picture, was elected as a MP all in the name of Democracy.

Hours after the election results, petitions were set up to replace Ms TPL with Mr GY. This was the public consensus and desire. However, it is unlikely this would be achieve as this is definitely unconstitutional.

As it has been proven that opposition can win GRC (Aljunied) and Minority candidates can win SMC (Punggol East). Maybe it's high time that the election board think harder about the GRC system. It may have been absolutely necessary in the past but the results today showed that the society has progressed beyond the fears of the 1980s.

Singapore shall make do with a TPL for the next 5 years. Maybe I am overly critical, but odds are against her to appease the public displeasure. If she doesn't, I hope that there is a stronger WP next election.

How Will I Vote?

2011-04-28T23:44:00.002+08:00

All my life I yearned for the chance to exercise my rights as a Singapore Citizen to cast my vote. It feels great to know that I am playing a part in deciding the country's future. 5 years ago, I was rather crestfallen to find out I am staying in a constituency that is not contested. Now, I got my chance but never had i imagine that it is not such a straightforward process.

Am I voting to choose someone to represent me or am I choosing the government?

What makes a good government? People centered, empathising, or bureaucratic, efficiency, growth oriented....

What makes a good opposition? Critical of the government, innovative, voices of the people?

People and People

2011-03-16T21:17:00.002+08:00

There are so many types of personalities at work. When I studied diversity in HR I truly believed that diversity is good. The more (greater) the merrier. I feel like an idiot now.

What I love about December

2010-12-09T21:47:00.003+08:00

December is my favourite month of the year. It has always been so since my memories beings. When I was young, it was the long holidays that I was always yearning for. Now, it is the lack of school kids and the substantial time saving from commuting to work that I adore. Thoughts of crowded buses, the need of squeezing through the bus aisle to alight, non stop giggling and chatters scares me now. I will definitely miss my peaceful bus journey where I could really sleep soundly throughout.

I dread January.....

Changes is the only constance

2010-08-15T17:19:00.003+08:00

Lying in the midst of changing to a new appointment, there are so many people asking me which appointment do I prefer more. I really can't give them a definite answer because I haven't really warm my new office chair. I did ponder deeper with the minuscule knowledge about the new job that I have gathered so far. As with all things, changes occur at different stages of pondering. More changes when I think about it on different days. Even more changes when I think about it when there are major events in my life. Well..... I rolled down a bus. That's a rather major event in my life :) Thus, my only conclusion is, there are cycles where I hate my old jobs, love the tasks, loathe the work, ..... that feeling isn't constant. It exist sort of in a cycle, with ups and downs.

Moving on to other aspects of life. The notion of studying hard never exist during my entire primary school life, (my mentality then was, just make sure my teachers don't want to meet my parents). Playing mahjong 3 days a week in uni seemed like an impossibility when I was in JC. On the other hand, teachers seemed to suffered the most with the terror kids of this generation. Kids seem to be more tech savvy than most "senior engineers" I know. Snail mail and convention television is facing a slow death from the development of internet. If there is one constant, it is changes. Why not embrace it?

Soccer and Video technology

2010-07-03T21:54:00.003+08:00

We are living in the age where you can view yourself using your computer through the lens of a satellite hovering above you. Yet, simple video replay and goal line technology just scare the shit out of the soccer community. In a 90 plus minutes game, offering a few seconds for the referee to get a confirmation from another trained official sitting infront of a screen with replay capability isn't too much to ask for, is it? With that, no one can argue about stupid decision because there won't be. Won't the quality of game play improve because the players don't need to waste effort trying to argue with referee? Secretly, I believe a few second delay for each important decision will actually allow the more game time in the 90 min because players will spend less time debating with the referee.

So what's stopping video technology from being adopted? IMHO, the are:

1) bad refereeing is absolutely necessary for bookies to win money

2) they are afraid of changes

3) they secretly wish referees suffer unnecessary distress from making bad decision and fan abusing them.

Actually after typing them out, I only believe in no. 1.

quotable quotes

2010-05-23T23:45:00.001+08:00

'm not really super athletic...about as competitive as a slug...on a rainy day...

Best Come Back Line

2010-05-09T19:28:00.002+08:00

Scenario: On a crowded bust, packed with elderly. Teens in a certain JC uniform sitting on a ledge where the old ticket dispenser used to be located. Adult standing 1 m away. I was standing about 5 m away from them.

Adult: (normal conversational tone and volume) hey, I think you should give up the seats for the old people.

(me: siao kia, you are asking really old people to take the risk of climbing up there and expecting them to be comfortable in that weird position?)

Teens: Huh? (genuinely incredulous look) I think it is too dangerous for them to get up.

Adult: (irritated tones) what do schools teach nowadays? Students don't even want to give up seats to elderly.

(me: those are definitely not seats. Nahh, maybe he is making a scene to shame all those young and fit people hogging a seat from those who need it more on the bus)

Teens: (turn around and ask the closest elderly. Do you want to seat? (he replied no). (turn around and face adult) see they won't want to seat.

(me: duh, the elderly run a much greater risk of injuring themselves)

adult: (raising his voice) what exactly do you study in school (alighting the bus at the same time. Such simple manner also don't know. (in chinese: 你是读设么书的，这么没教养）

here comes the best come back line

Teens: (totally bo chup face with a tiny whiny bit of grin). Like you, we don't study. (跟你一样没有读书）while waving goodbye at him.

Adult ranted some random lines but still alighted in the end; continue to stared at the teens. It took me quite a while to comprehend the situation. but my conclusion: teens 1 -adult 0

if adult was just trying to vent his anger/frustration at random stranger and he thought that the best target would be young teens, he did definitely made the wrong decision.

Being a Gen Y

2010-04-09T21:57:00.005+08:00

These are some of quotes on Gen Y that I got from the net.

Generation Y is not like the baby boomers who live to work or Generation Xers who work to live. Instead, this generation—born between the late 1970s and the mid-1990s—“values work, but they also really value life beyond work,”

Here are some quirky behaviours that will define Generation Y. They are wired, connected to virtual social sites, salivate for information, empowered, able to multi task, independent and the lists goes on and on. These are functional behaviours that will excite any HR recruiter. They too, carry a “dark side”. They can be easily bored, and demand instant gratification.

st701 has a wonderful article which explain 90% of my take on Gen Y.

asiaone has an article on why gen Y is difficult to work with.

Being a Gen Y, I can really relate to these articles. With that being said, I can't comprehend how Singapore's push to increase productivity will be successful. In the fantasy job I conjured up in my head, I have already given up hope of my workplace being tech savvy, well connected nor cutting edge. However, I didn't the ultimate barrier to increase productivity is human. Sometime, a minor change in mindset can increase productivity by many many folds but most rather stick with the old, tried and tested ways. Why take the risk? Although they claimed that they they are not sticking to old ways and actually re-rationalised the plans but these are just self engineered reasons to satisfy their own need to proclaim they are progressive. I am not against rationalising through everything. The thinking process helps me to think through things better. What I am against is when the outcome is clearly indicating a change is needed, they refuse to listen anymore.

Beside self deceiving, some even resort to "wayangness". I don't know what better word to use other than this colloquial term. Out come the bombastic new appointment names, nice sounding titles, exciting plans to revamp the system. What remain behind is everything else. I know a paradigm change takes time but in today's context, time is exactly what you don't have. One fine day, every shit that had piled up till now will eventually collapse onto you.

Somethings i really hate: hierarchy of stupidity. It is both stupid and unproductive. When a technical presentation on a not so simple topic has to be presented on a not so motivated nor educated audience, they demand that they comprehend somewhat abstract concepts in a rather short time frame. Furthermore, they add to the misery by dwelling on the really unimportant details. End result: stupid questions and impossible to answer questions. If I am going to conduct all these lessons, I might as well be a lecturer at least I know am speaking to a bunch of motivated audience. And they are not all trying to be smart alecs. Is it so hard to ask intelligent questions? Somehow, the higher they climb the more absurd the stupidity manifest. It is as if the higher you climb, you are allowed to ask stupider questions. Well, luckily there are always exceptions. Without those, life will suck really big time.

Classic Lines

2010-03-14T12:23:00.003+08:00

There are sentences which no matter how many times I read tickle me in to a laughter and I ought to have a entry on classic lines. This is the first of the many to come.

"There are annual events in football and reports of Real Madrid's interest in Arsene Wenger tend to be among them." Soccernet

Barney: Seriously. Jesus started the whole "wait three days" thing. He waited THREE days to come back to life. It was perfect! If he had only waited ONE day, a lot of people wouldn't have even heard that he died. They'd be all, "Hey Jesus, what up?" and Jesus would probably be like, "What up? I DIED yesterday!" and then they'd be all, "Uhh, you look pretty alive to me, dude..." and then Jesus would have to explain how he was resurrected, and how it was a miracle, and then the dude would be like "Uh okayy, whatever you say, bro..." And he's not gonna come back on a SATURDAY. Everybody's busy, doing chores, workin' the loom, trimmin' the beard, NO. He waited the exact right number of days, THREE. Plus it's SUNDAY, so everyone's in church already, they're all in there "Oh no, Jesus is DEAD", then BAM! He bursts through the back door, runs up the aisle, everyone's totally psyched, and FYI, that's when he invented the high five. Three days. We wait three days to call a woman, because that's how long Jesus wants us to wait.... True story. "How I met your mother"

FlashFoward?

2010-02-01T22:32:00.003+08:00

US drama and Manga are getting really complicated nowadays. It is no longer good vs evil but always something deeper, more thought provoking. Flashforward is so thought provoking that it triggered my lazy self to write a post: "if I want a flashforward?"

As insignificant as 2min 17 sec our our future compared to the millions of seconds in our lives may seem, it changes just everything. Knowing that I will be alive 6 months later will make me a daredevil to try everything humanly possible or not. Who wouldn't?

Then, I succumb to greed. Plans of making big bucks started popping up in my heads. I just have to simply copy down the 4d/toto/big sweep number and take them out during my flashforward, which would make me a tidy sum enough for me to live in luxury for the rest of my life. That was when I realised that flashforward is an impossible phenomenon. I am not a genius, just an average guy you see out in the street. If I can think of this in about 5 min, so can 99.99% of the world. If that's the case, wouldn't the flashforward just be the whole world reading and memorising numbers?

Time progresses in a linear path but it is definitely not a linear function. In fact, I see time as a human construct to simplify, quantify and track a value I don't know how to otherwise to describe other than time. Just as the past affects the present, the future influences the present too. A cycle will be more appropriate to describe the relationship between past, present and future instead of a linear one. Sadly, the world we live don't allow us to change the past nor see the future; present is the only thing we hold. Instead of dwelling on the unsurmountable feat of going back or forward in time, we should treasure the now we live in.

Powerpoint presentation

2010-01-24T11:08:00.001+08:00

Life After Death PowerPoint from EMT Media on Vimeo.

Myopic

2009-12-31T20:44:00.002+08:00

On the last day of 2009, I made a sudden discovery. It's not really sudden per se; it is just that the realisation happened really suddenly. In an instance, I suddenly realised that the as the world grows richer, the people tend to look at the shorter term gains. Failing to consider or even choose to ignore the longer term vested interest. It is happening on all level and it's scary. One fine day, "The Age of Stupid" may be a real life event instead of a film. Financial crisis will occur again and again. And looking at history, you will know that history always repeats itself. If human race can't stop looking only at the short term goals, benefits, profits.... Fast pace of life, quick results (look at the number of EPL managers sacked) and the ever competitive world just make things worse. With that being said, I can offer no solutions at all. Maybe someone out there has one and has the will, power and motivation to materialise it. I hope it will be soon.

Gaps

2009-10-31T18:38:00.003+08:00

Diversity manifests itself in so many ways that it always hit you before you realised it. Big distinct differences are obvious -- hobbies, interests, preferences, the explicit stuffs. Smaller ones result in strangely small yet powerful differences. Some people see minor tasks like life threatening jobs that should be avoided at all cost, since they stand to lose so much like the unthinkable 15 min of their time. Some people choose to think that they are older, wiser, more mature, pick up a stray responsibility and shove it to someone who they "think" should be responsible instead. Topping it up with different working styles, the "simply bo chap", the "everything I da with shitty results", the "why am I here so i am going to piss everyone off", the "lets have some fun while working".... you'll get a really weird bunch of people.

The non confrontational nature of Singaporeans doesn't really help. While supposedly mature young adults try to diffuse the invisible tension building up in the air via painfully subtle ways, I painfully watch by the side. Too many times I have tried to surface the problems and talk about it like adults and too many times they have tried to avoid and laugh obviously serious matters off as jokes to be brushed aside. Since I can't beat them, join them. Standing at the sideline watching the differences grow, laughing at matters I find disgustingly serious, are tiring habits I can't keep up with.

Aunty syndrome

2009-10-14T22:31:00.002+08:00

I made 2 new discoveries today:

Discovery one: all cleaning aunties love to chat. They will start going on and on the moment they find a willing soul to exchange a few words. They will immediately go back to work when someone else approaches.

Discovery two: the best way to insinuate someone is looking much more mature than they do. First, say "you look really young!". Second, say "let me guess, you are (real age + 5)". Scenario to apply: act cute girls (acg) age 25 acting cute again, so you can go, "woah, you look really young. Any secrets to share? You sure look like you only 30!" Disclaimer: Don't attempt it on females. They are known to react violently to such taunts.

Sengkang New Park

2009-09-26T21:36:00.003+08:00

It has been almost 10 years since I shift to this corner of SG. From the ulu town which no taxi drivers know and only 2 bus services, it has grow to a bustling new town 20 min away from town via MRT and numerous bus connection. Now, more amenities are built, hockey stadium, swimming pools, and a new riverside park. Hope it will continue become more vibrant.

The Day I Almost Cried

2009-09-20T01:08:00.004+08:00

People cry for many reasons. Although guys are not supposed to cry while females have all the rights in the world to do so, this social norm seem to get more blurred as the society progresses. Guys who cry nowadays are sensitive, understanding and everything nice while those who did in the the past are emotional, weak and everything bad. Today, the tears in my tear glands almost overflowed but that was the furthest it went. Don't get me wrong, I wasn't especially sad, angry or happy; I went to see a sensei regarding my nagging ankle problems. Disclaimer first, I didn't not cry because my auspicious 49 days excuse from running ended; I almost cried because of the pain, something I thought I could handle. I dare say it was one of my most painful experience ever. The thought of carrying out an Adebayor celebration did come across my mind but i simply can't run nor even walk half the pitch. No pain no gain. I do feel better after the earthshaking pain inflicting session. Hopefully, I will get to jog pain free soon.

Careless bet

2009-09-13T22:06:00.000+08:00

Made a wrong bet and I only realised after the match! Damn. It's double whammy when my predicted results actually come true. Damn damn.....

Finally got my dslr. Next is to buy a proper lens and shoot.

Weekend soccer frenzy

2009-08-23T22:42:00.000+08:00

Since I was bored at home I decided to dig into the weekend soccer matches, with every intend to bet on them. Betting increase the spectator adrenaline rush if you watch the game. Anyway, I decided to start off searching the net, the place that has it all. To my surprise, tips actually cost money. There are actually punters charging people for tips. If they are so good they might as well be a full time soccer gambler. After a little more intense searching, I found free tips -- from an arsenal fan website (who else). The tips actually do serve it's purpose. After reading them, I either agree with them or disagree with them, which gave me a direction to bet on. With 3 of my 5 matches down, I have already break even, hopefully my luck will serve me till the end of the last match. I know I am leaning here, more than just luck is required for Aston Villa to beat Liverpool.

Poker and MJ

2009-08-09T18:16:00.000+08:00

Long weekends are great. Everyone loves them and it always seems that so much can be accomplished in a three days weekend. Of course other than typing a disgustingly boring report, I had some fun pokering and MJing. Life would suck real bad without them. Life would less bad if I hadn't lose $30 in 14 hours of gambling....

Diversity at work

2009-08-05T22:44:00.000+08:00

I know everyone comes from very diverse background, culturally, economically and academically. My HR project was on diversity and the benefits of embracing it in wide open arms. Maybe I was too engrossed in promoting diversity at workplace, I myself totally believed in it. The joy of working in an environment where diversity thrives is something that I once looked forward to. With different inputs, ideas and perspectives, complimenting each other, great things are just waiting to be achieved. One small flaw in this hypothetical situation is the assumption that everyone one will contribute constructively. There just seem to be a special breed of people who just know how to make non constructive protests to stop work from being done, including endless excuses to not work, creating unnecessarily delays and making life difficult for everyone, in short kpkb. Sometimes I really wish these people will just shut up instead of opening their mouth. If I have the chance, I would make some minor amendments on my HR project and emphasize more on the word "constructive". This led me to another question, how did kpkb-ers get recruited in the first place.

Murphy's Law

2009-08-02T20:18:00.000+08:00

Even when works of many dedicated, hardworking and really smart statisticians say that there's a really minute chance of an event happening, that event almost always happen. Or so it seems. Well, the famous murphy's law has been busted by Mythbusters, haven't it? So what makes murphy's law so endearing to most people? I see it this way:

When everything goes according to stats, you/me/everyone will most likely treat it as a normal occurrence and pay a normal amount of attention on it. After a few days, weeks, months... that occurrence will simply be eased from our memories to clear up spaces for more normal occurrences. What people usually remember, for a really long time are the anomalies. i.e. events when murphy's law strike. These are usually traumatic events like going all in with ACE pair only to be beaten by someone with 8 3 offsuit without even seeing the flop. These get ingrained in the memories and being really interesting stories, are retold, reiterated and refined many times over. After a few cycles, they become long lasting memories together with other ML events. If you live long enough, engaged in a little socialising, you should have gathered enough ML stories to share and when such stories are traded, everyone gets the illusion that ML events are occurring everywhere. When in actual fact, life is still very well predicted by simple and boring statistics.

The most superstitious people are gamblers. The very gist of gambling is the excitement of beating the odds. Luck is an over-rated factor here. If anyone can quantify luck, please contact me, I would love to meet you. So when weird events happen at a gambling table, superstitious ideas and really weird suggestions appear to be the most obvious thing to do. Some times, high stakes are even more powerful than intoxicants like alcohol. Don't you just love gambling.

Commencement

2009-07-11T22:57:00.002+08:00

Finally a graduate! Although I don't mind a few more years of lectures and tutorials, they have to be put on hold for a while, at least. Who am I kidding right? Like I really love to attend lessons. What I actually miss is the freedom that allowed endless mahjong sessions, spontaneous suppers, drinking and talking cock sessions.

Rantings

2009-04-01T20:00:00.004+08:00

This few weeks easily qualify as the busiest period of my entire 4 years in NUS -- which isn't what I envision my year 4 life to be. I don't know why but I am actually typing this despite the need to hand up my second draft in 6 days time, Materials homework in 5 days, and term paper in 2. Something, maybe my inner devil, is always telling me official works can wait.

Imbal photoshopping

2009-03-19T00:17:00.001+08:00

Sheares Hall Dinner & Dance 2009 - Photoshop Timelapse Video 1 from Ervine Lin on Vimeo.

Sheares Hall Dinner & Dance 2009 - Photoshop Timelapse Video 2 from Ervine Lin on Vimeo.

Floorball

2009-02-10T00:42:00.003+08:00

Being the last year that I get to play IHG, naturally I wanted it to be a good one. Well, it was almost good. Last year I flew off after the third match. In the first three matches, I was literally flying everywhere in the court. I picked up floorball thinking that it is a technically inclined sport that don't not have much body contact, I was so totally wrong. The rude realisation happened during IHG last year. This year I went in mentally prepared. However, being IHG, where hall pride is at stake, people tend to get carried off more easily. Obvious fouls and tackles were still committed despite repeated warnings, manhandling seemed to be the norm. So I managed to stayed on the ground for the first 4 matches and started flying only on the fifth when it seemed like I was in a match with one team trying to play floorball, the other trying to play wrestling.

With that being said, I think the most difficult role on the court in the fifth match (against raffles hall) was definitely being the referees. Numerous times, they must had been wondering if they need to go on their knees, slap the floor and count to ten. They better be paid quite a lot to go through such a traumatic experience. I admire the RH players for putting their heart and soul into the game, squeezed a win against KR with the wrestling tactics. Played really hard against all KE, EH and TH which they gathered so many fouls and send off that would have qualify them for the "smelliest" team ever in modern history. To name an example, the RH keeper hug the opponent players to prevent him for scoring (maybe the opponent was too cute for him to control his inner desire). Maybe it's not players fault, most of them seem really convinced that they did nothing wrong and even tried arguing with the referee; someone must had taught them this and it's that someone's fault. I really don't understand how can a team be happy when they know they don't deserve the result, getting a 4th placing is really unfair to the other two halls which played much better and fairer.

Being IHG and being SH, there will be supporters during games. That's something Sh do best and the convening comm should seriously give an award hall with the best supporters. Then we can definitely win something every year. Then comes the egoistic part of players. The need to impress suddenly set in when we are up against a technically less gifted team, everyone wanted to play and maybe show off too. Repeated failed solo dribbles and refusal to substitute yourself when you know you are useless on court aside, complacency creep in. From one goal up to a draw. Something seemingly impossible happened and everyone panicked. People get frustrated, dejected, demoralised, and things never really pick up from then on. That was quite a sad ending to an otherwise wonderful IHG outing.

Race of Life

2009-01-27T02:57:00.001+08:00

When we were young

2009-01-16T13:30:00.003+08:00

Age must be catching up with me. Suddenly, I feel really old, even though I am not even a quarter of century old. It must be the younger ones, filling the atmosphere with so much energy. Either that or it's all the reminiscences during all the drinking sessions, meetups or even random spontaneous talk cock sessions. Maybe it is the year of Bull again. 2 cycles. Many years ago, 1 cycle seem eternity. Now it just comes and goes. Or maybe, my friends are getting married; it just shows we are moving on to the next stage in life.

Then, the stupid thoughts I held when I was young came flowing back to me. There was this project in primary school where we had to research on Singapore history and make a scrape book (yes, that was in primary school). I went to the library, found a nicely illustrated book for just that, describing Singapore history. Thinking that I can't do a better job than the author (I was 10 years old then), I zapped part of the book, binded them and hand up to the teacher, thinking that I am so gonna do well since after looking glancing through my classmates' works. Then the mother of all horror struck me, my teacher told me that my work was not up the standard.... slip short.... badly done..... I went like, how an it be, mine definitely has more "stuff" than all the others. The concept of plagiarism wasn't really made clear to me. How dumb I was. Maybe I was just plain lazy. All I need to do then was rewrite everything in my ugly handwriting, editing is totally unnecessary, rearrange some of the pictures, add a cover page... then I would have done a magnificent job (by my teacher's standard). The power of packaging.

Rise of the machines

2009-01-11T15:53:00.003+08:00

Interesting find.

2008-12-08T13:13:00.000+08:00

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

2008-11-10T00:13:00.003+08:00

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

2008-11-02T21:13:00.002+08:00

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

2008-11-02T21:08:00.002+08:00

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

2008-10-20T22:13:00.002+08:00

Display pics

2008-10-04T20:31:00.005+08:00

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

2008-10-03T20:13:00.004+08:00

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

2008-08-30T18:15:00.006+08:00

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)

2008-08-25T19:38:00.003+08:00

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

2008-07-30T00:03:00.002+08:00

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

2008-07-17T17:11:00.003+08:00

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

2008-07-01T23:52:00.002+08:00

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

2008-06-05T03:15:00.006+08:00

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

2008-06-04T23:31:00.004+08:00

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

2008-05-23T18:04:00.003+08:00

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

2008-04-19T02:35:00.004+08:00

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

2008-04-16T23:16:00.004+08:00

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

2008-04-14T00:57:00.006+08:00

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

2008-04-13T07:31:00.003+08:00

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

2008-04-04T00:18:00.004+08:00

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

2008-04-02T23:47:00.002+08:00

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

Daylight saving

2008-03-30T06:37:00.003+08:00

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

2008-03-08T05:54:00.005+08:00

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

2008-02-15T19:36:00.005+08:00

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

2008-02-12T20:46:00.000+08:00

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

2008-02-09T04:12:00.001+08:00

CNY entry

2008-02-06T22:39:00.000+08:00

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

2008-02-05T05:02:00.000+08:00

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

2008-01-30T14:12:00.001+08:00

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

2008-01-29T14:06:00.000+08:00

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?

Pre Road trip

2007-12-15T00:47:00.000+08:00

After hearing almost as many horror stories from as many Malaysians in Blk C, I feel kinda worried about the trip. The flooding and demonstration just make things worse. Furthermore, my body is aching all over from 3 consecutive days of floorball-ing. Subtly, I've lowered my expectations for an exciting, exhilarating, fun-filled road trip to just a safe and sound one. But my 6th sense just tell me this trip will be a funfilled one.

Thundary Night

2007-11-04T01:36:00.000+08:00

Lightnings! Haven't seen them at such close proximity for a long time. I wonder what the lightning struck. Everything seem to be in place. Maybe it's the ultra efficient lightning rods on top of every building doing their jobs. Adults pacify children by telling them that lightnings only strike those who commit evil deeds. What will the children think when they know there such a thing call lightning rod? Will children that grow up in this internet era think that it is okay to commit crimes since there is lightning rods to be struck in their place?

Mistaken identity

2007-10-18T09:11:00.000+08:00

Received this message on facebook:

WOW! Was juz browsing thru and saw U sia! Peixin PRIMARY sch, Pri 1-1 and 2-1?!!! WOWW! HAHHAHAHhA! Haf A sMashing gOOd day! ENjOyz!

The problem is I am not from Peixin Primary School. Now I know there is someone who looks like me with the same name as me out there.

A Semester Cycle

2007-10-15T11:25:00.001+08:00

Interesting mail I received.

Hope this is not what you are encountering now. hahha

New school semester:

At the first week:

At the second week:

Before the mid-term test:

During the mid-term test:

After the mid-term test:

Before the final exam:

Once know the final exam schedule:

7 days before final exam:

6 days before final exam:

5 days before final exam:

4 days before final exam:

3 days before final exam:

2 days before final exam:

1 day before final exam:

A night before final exam:

1 hour before final exam:

During the final exam:

Once walk out from the exam hall:

After the final exam, during the holiday:

ippt

2007-09-28T22:39:00.003+08:00

Furthest sbj ever and slowest 2.4 in 9 years. But no more ippt for a year.

Break!

2007-09-23T15:05:00.001+08:00

Hall life is sure hectic. IBG, SNDCC, Buaya week and DnD is really too much for 6 six weeks. Shouldn't had played buaya week. Although I tried my best and had considerable amount of lameness and fun, I think I kinda disappointed my buaya and buayee. Now, I have to find a nice present to compensate.

Organising DnD (and SNDCC) is surely an unique experience. Although it was quite xiong at times, the comm never failed to have fun.

Finally it's midterm break when I can try to finish my projects and catch up with sleep.

Divided into two

2007-08-31T02:40:00.001+08:00

I think better when I jog alone, but I still can't comprehend how a "family" community has to end up like this. Those who just can't accept things, just had to make things unacceptable when such decisions won't affect them. Those (more like that) who don't know things, just had to make things more complicated by jumping on the bandwagon.

Childish thoughts keep running through my mind that will make the current not-so-nice situation worse than before. How come this shit has to happen within the blk that I m in? I must not be childish.

7 deadly sins of meeting

2007-08-27T00:57:00.000+08:00

Sin #1: People don't take meetings seriously. They arrive late, leave early, and spend most of their time doodling.

Sin #2: Meetings are too long. They should accomplish twice as much in half the time.

Sin #3: People wander off the topic. Participants spend more time digressing than discussing.

Sin #4: Nothing happens once the meeting ends. People don't convert decisions into action.

Sin #5: People don't tell the truth. There's plenty of conversation, but not much candor.

Sin #6: Meetings are always missing important information, so they postpone critical decisions.

Sin #7: Meetings never get better. People make the same mistakes.

Ripped it off from some website. Sad to say, all meetings I ever attended are guilty of at least 5 of the 7 listed sins. Maybe NUS (and ah gong's army) should start a module on meeting management or even make it a university requirement module.

Death of face to face talk

2007-08-08T21:00:00.000+08:00

Received 5 emails from a certain group seemingly quarreling about some ambiguous issues. Somehow, with emails, people can no long talk face to face and differences have to be settled with emails (and broadcast to innocent parties who most likely don't know what is going on). I can imagine 5 years later, I would be sitting in front of my boring officer computer, receiving heated arguments between parties who just can't bear the sight of each other to hold a normal face to face conversation (or hold a conversation with each other using an ancient technology call telephone). Most likely, I won't know what happened but I would still be receiving the mails, thanks to the power of "carbon copying". How exciting my future office life will be?

Vietnam 07

2007-07-27T23:13:00.001+08:00

Took me quite a while to write something about the trip. Finally gathered enough motivation after my first paper in 3 months is over.

Flew to Ho Chi Ming City with Jetstar. We kinda paid more than we should. The very next day after we paid for the tickets, Jetstarasia decided to come up with a $2 promotion. What a good omen!

Day 1:

Checked in to a wonderful guesthouse "Blue River Hotel". The staffs there are simply fantastic. The facilities there are new and clean. With aircon, attached bathroom, cable television and free internet usage, it cost 6 USD per pax per night. How I wish they have this everywhere in the world.

Dumping our bags, we embarked on a "7 hours City Tour" recommended by our little blue book.
With a little Holland all thanks to ____ (I shan't mention name) and a few short cuts, we managed to keep the tour to within 7 hours with plenty of rest in between. Some (mis)adventures also took place: chased by dogs, vendors, disrupting traffic flow.

First meal in Vietnam, at Pho 24, just before walking round district 1.

Different sizes of noodles.

Kanghao with a street vendor prior to being harassed by a coconut drink vendor for 2 whole streets

Overcoming the language barrier to buy a cup of "mix ice" desert. It took two NUS students to do the job with a wtf hand sign (look carefully and you shall see) from Alex.

Final Destination "Jade Emperor Pagoda". I was sincerely hoping to see something grand. Maybe not as grand as the grand palace of Thailand but at least a little taller (my understanding of pagodas is that they are supposed to be tall), bigger and filled with a few more statues of deities. This is seriously not a site worth visiting for Singaporeans who have see many many more variety of temples in their lives. This is not withstanding the fact that this is the most out of the way tourist attraction in the city tour.

Concluded day one with ~20 fake pirated adiddas polo tees.

Day 2:

Dragged ourselves out of bed and had our first breakfast in Vietnam. We asked for coffee but they served us both coffee and tea. That is where we learn that vietnamese usually starts the day with a cup of tea.

Took a long bus ride to Cao Dai Temples. It's a temple built like a Christian church decorated with Buddhist lotus, emphasis place on direction like in Islam and Taoist influences in its rites. There are another 3 religions involved but I can't really remember. It was really an eye opener.

Front view of the temple

Different colours symbolise different "religion"

With so many tourist staring at them, taking pictures with flashes on, they still carried on with the mess.

Visited Chu Chi tunnels, indigenous product of Vietnam war and a very popular tourist destination now. Watch a super low quality video that was produced like 20 years ago? The irony is that it is shown on a huge plasma screen that will cost me more than a year worth of allowance. There's more than tunnels in that place. It's is more like a open concept museum that show case how the people lived in the extreme conditions during VW. The highlight is the tunnel where I gave up on the first exit and some ang mos didn't even bother to try since they know they will be stuck somewhere along the tunnel.

After crawling through 30 m of the infamous tunnels

Concluded the day with more than 100 hours worth of DVDs

Day 3:

Mekong delta day. Took boats everywhere in the region. Visited honey farm. Took pictures with python. Witnessed coconut sweet production line.

Kanghao tasting the wind.

Snakes like this are available everywhere for people to take picture.

Straw hats with a plastic cover.

Concluded the day with more DVDs and polo tees.

Day 4:

The designated shopping day. I bought a cheapo backpack that look sturdy enough for 12 USD. Walking in the crowded Ben Thiam Market for the next 2 hours was quite physically and more importantly, mentally demanding.

Ate Pho at Pho 2000 a shop patronized by Bill Clinton when he visited Vietnam. More shopping followed.

Girls went for their long awaited pedi and mani cures, Kanghao went to for his hair styling. Gary and I made our way back to our room. My last meal there was from the fast food chain a shrimp burger, supplemented by a baguette with some fillings from a road side store right next to it.

Concluded the day with a flight back to SG!

TV and Smoke

2007-06-28T00:16:00.000+08:00

When I was younger, my parents used to tell me that I might just blow up the TV one day by watching the TV for too long. It was their desperate attempt at preventing me from becoming a TV addict. I didn't really bother with their threat then and no TV blew up. However, it never happened until today when the TV was barely switched on for an hour. Too bad I was too kanjong in preventing a fire from starting, I forgot to take a picture of the once in a life time scene.

2007-06-25T21:20:00.000+08:00

I am officially sick but not bed ridden. I have gave up on my deceiving myself that I am healthy to go out, jog, swim, night cycle.... but luckily I have a stockpile of movies to kill time. Watched, Hitch, Hostel: Part2, Shooters and Letters from Iwo Jima in the past 48 hours

Special sem is more enjoyable than I had expected when I signed up. The lecturer is humorous yet the questions he asked, the comments and jokes he made are all quite "enlightening". How I wish that all engine modules can be as interesting as this. I know I am sick but I am still sane enough to know that I am daydreaming. There are also interesting people in that class. Overenthusiastic smart alecs seem to be in abundance in lecture, while overenthusiastic freshies are in abundance in my tutorial group (7 out of 13 people).

Nightcycling was kinda refreshing; most of the participants were sick. In addition, a total of more than 3 hours were spent on fixing the bikes and one eventually gave way. Went to a grand total of ONE eating place (mac at ecp is not counted). The saving grace is the bah chor mee that I have haven't tasted for months.

Saw damn a lot of people skating at ecp. I didn't know it is still the "in" thing now. Maybe I should really try inline skating soon.

9 days and counting....

2007-06-04T21:46:00.000+08:00

In another 9 working days:
1. I will not need to wake up at 5.30am every morning.
2. Take extra care when eating soupy food
3. Squint my eyes at the monitor all day long
4. Use an antique nokia phone

Although this attachment is one of the most enjoyable so far(maybe because that it is one of the shortest), I hope this is my last one.

As of tomorrow, I still have another 2 months before school starts. Hope my procastinations do not put the two months to waste. Actually there isn't much I can do other than play, rest and a little tiny bit of studying for my special term. The past one month hasn't been so bad. Even thought I did not really do something very fulfilling, at least I feel fitter than a month ago which give me higher confidence in getting a silver for IPPT. It's worth a hundred dollars! Which can be use to offset my 124-dollars-more-expensive-than-if-I-book-now-budget-airline Vietnam trip and maybe the "so-going-to-happen" bintan trip.

From my experience in the past one month, I come to realise that Singapore is indeed a small island. First day of work, I bumped into Zhichao, my mids batch mate, who is studying in NTU, in NUS library. Second week of work, bumped into Nick, another one my mids batch mate who also happened to be my secondary school CCA mate and JC school mate, working as a waiter for a catering company. All thanks to the coincidence, we got to do a lot of catching up. Third blk outing, bumped into Waihan, friend from the JC days, sitting just one seat in front of my during the screening of pirates 3 (rather disappointing movie though). Plus a few hi and bye friends that I met on the MRT and bus rides home. I guess I managed to spot them because I can't just simply drop my head and doze off the moment my butt hit the seat anymore. Nevermind. In another 9 working days i can sleep on the bus/MRT all I want.

Random Post

2007-05-14T22:15:00.000+08:00

There is something wrong with blogger. The input system isn't functioning properly. Nevertheless i managed to upload a pic(below).

This was how my corridor looked like on my last day in Sheares. What an amazing sight. That's how much junk people collect in their rooms over the year. I guess this pile of rubbish would had given the cleaner a surprise the very next morning.

Been back to NUS once since I shifted out. Just to help a friend access the library. Nothing much changed except the demographics during lunch time. Everything seemed the same except that the place was generally less lively and you feel like you are hearing a foreign language all the way.

Well, I am really enjoying my stay at home. At least, I got much more time to sleep and do my own stuff. This makes me wonder if I should contiune staying next sem. Traveling is bad but bearable my from experience these few days. I can always sleep on the bus. Money I save can be better spent elsewhere. But then, I will most likely miss the wonderful people there. Nevermind, I still have a long time to consider.

Personality test

2007-04-23T21:15:00.000+08:00

Accurate to a certain extend...

Get to know yourself better

Your view on yourself:
You are down-to-earth and people like you because you are so straightforward. You are an efficient problem solver because you will listen to both sides of an argument before making a decision that usually appeals to both parties. (i know i am not a bias person, but I never knew that I was suppose to be diplomatic)

The type of girlfriend/boyfriend you are looking for:
You like serious, smart and determined people. You don't judge a book by its cover, so good-looking people aren't necessarily your style. This makes you an attractive person in many people's eyes. (quite true leh)

Your readiness to commit to a relationship:
You are ready to commit as soon as you meet the right person. And you believe you will pretty much know as soon as you might that person. (erhmmm not really true)

The seriousness of your love:
You are very serious about relationships and aren't interested in wasting time with people you don't really like. If you meet the right person, you will fall deeply and beautifully in love.

Your views on education
You may not like to study but you have many practical ideas. You listen to your own instincts and tend to follow your heart, so you will probably end up with an unusual job. (i am suppose to convince myself that I like to study..... my job is indeed unusual, about 2 people per year will take up the job.....)

The right job for you:
You have plenty of dream jobs but have little chance of doing any of them if you don't focus on something in particular. You need to choose something and go for it to be happy and achieve success. (no comments)

How do you view success:
You are confident that you will be successful in your chosen career and nothing will stop you from trying. (typical try-to-make-you-happy statement)

What are you most afraid of:
You are concerned about your image and the way others see you. This means that you try very hard to be accepted by other people. It's time for you to believe in who you are, not what you wear. (so i shall offend everyone around me starting from tomorrow, no one shall receive any form of help from me at all and don't try to make me buy lunch for you all)

Who is your true self:
You are mature, reasonable, honest and give good advice. People ask for your comments on all sorts of different issues. Sometimes you might find yourself in a dilemma when trapped with a problem, which your heart rather than your head needs to solve. (oh my god, if i give good advice george bush is the best president in the entire USA history)

Mugging days

2007-04-19T23:12:00.000+08:00

I am really amaze with myself that I managed to mug for hours at a stretch. Hmmmm, but I am more amazed with people that can mug for 14 hours straight. Does mugging such long hours really helps? Even if it does, I will convince myself it won't. Somehow, I will be tempted to deceive myself that watching 14 hours of anime in one shot helps mugging.

I am blogging now because some "yandao" is using the gym to watch something and I can't use it (i am trying hard to fit into my uniform). I wonder what's so important that he needs the privacy of the gym to watch it?

Girl is a truly amazing species. They expect guys not to get angry when they repeatedly whack them on the back. Yet, they get angry when guys laugh at them. They expect their actions to be reciprocated yet, when guys help them with things, they take it for granted. They whine and throw insults and expect guys to pay more attention to them and yet when guys rebut them with simple logic they start crying.

I am typing all these because I am really pissed off with someone. Seems like I get pissed off more easily during exam period. Really need to manage my temper. Come to think of it, if I don't vent it out, won't I end up like the south Korean guy that killed so many people?

I give up, not waiting for the gym anymore, bed is more comfortable than gym.

ME

2007-04-05T13:53:00.000+08:00

Read my VisualDNA™ Get your own VisualDNA™

they never say i am a boring person leh.

Pre exam period.

2007-03-29T21:23:00.000+08:00

Signs of exams nearing: more people go to the study room/library, people get moodier, people do more silly stuffs, less people turn up for hall/block events, emptier comm hall.

Signs of exam stress: people quarel over the cyberspace, more posters being defaced, practicing "heavenly kicks" on doors, babble non stop without thinking.

Hmm, I just realised how popular blogging is. Almost everyone I know has a BLOG. I wonder why? Maybe it's just a trend, like how everyone used to own a personal website in the past. But definitely, it is a trend that is here to stay. With every new addition in life, different problems will also arise. Now quarels can start just from blogs and carried on to real life. In sec school days, quarels started form IRC too but we were childish back then. Being in Uni now, I thought people around me will be more mature. How wrong am I.... I guess childishness will always be a common feature when people congregates.

SO says I am fat. I am just heavy lah not fat. Anyway, SO u are LIGHT!

The "real" Night of 77 Stars

2007-03-20T23:34:00.000+08:00

Night of 77 stars 07 continued the tradition of all previous block C concert proud tradition of being totally incoherent to absolutely anything but remained remarkably entertaining. The dancers were should part time as stand up comedians, those you see in Gags or Just for Laugh on sbs buses TV mobile. Using Janice contagious laughter, KY's kickass expression, JS's good looks, Tat's MR singapore's muscles, fx's dance moves and wendy's (how?) pinch, I think they can easily be the funniest group of standup comedians ever gathered. Vulgarity also gotten a whole new meaning under the creativity of the girls. Hokkien songs sounds kinda scary now after watching an Ah Beng hold an umbrella going after a ... girl. The level 8 performance really epitomise the incoherent theme. Kenneth also unnecessarily displayed his song writing talent. But I guess he is really sad, if not he wouldn't have even composed that song and performed it infront of the very eyes of his armh armh. It just shows that armh armh-ness is not the way to go. Other than that, I also found out that he is damn good at creating decoys and I have to be the unfortunate one. If his room is burn down or something, it is really not me.

Nus open house

2007-03-10T19:04:00.000+08:00

Helped out at Sheares for the NUS open house. It was really quite boring. Not many people would want to visit the halls because not many people intend to stay in hall. If NUS would lower the hall fees, I think a lot more people would want to stay. But I guess it will never happen in the near future.

Teenagers nowadays, at least those coming to NUS really give thorough thoughts about their future. Of course, it is a good thing. I didn't even bother to go for university open houses or faculty talks. Now the first few questions incoming students asked are, "is Life sciences the way to go for the future?", "Is the job prospect for electrical engineering good..."......

Another thing is that JC student really don't know much about hall. With so many seniors and friends in hall, is it really that hard to know more about the various halls in NUS? Ask so many bo liao questions about the different halls. Some even think that all RH are meant for rafflesians. While many others think that all science student should go to KE7 since it is the nearest hall. Since I am from Sheares (and they know it), what kind of answers can they expect? Of course I will put down the other halls to promote sheares lah. Maybe I was once like that...

Year of the Golden Pig

2007-03-04T18:01:00.000+08:00

Chinese new year comes with hongbaos and new year goodies. Hongbao wise, it seems to be lesser and lesser each year despite the economy doing better and better. I suppose it just the people getting stingier and stingier.

Being an undergrads also implies that CNY is really short. With midterms one week after CNY who could possibly really enjoy chinese new year. In addition to midterms, there were tutorials and assignments to add on to the misery. Although I cut short my CNY and went back to hall, I played majong almost everyday. It is really an addictive game, very addictive.

Organising CNY dinner during the "week of midterms" isn't a wonderful job too. Late nights were unavoidable but thanks to the kind and understanding Deco IC and chairperson, the week didn't become worse. At the very least, I still had the night before the tests to study and it is not as if I would have studied way before that. Luckily the dinner turn out quite well despite the expected low attendance and unexpected lack of food.

Hieu is really enjoying himself being the Vietnamese Chai Sheng Ye

C-towners left in hall.

Hope everyone has a prosperous Golden Pig year ahead!

Posters 2

2007-02-09T20:44:00.000+08:00

Posters can not only show how unpopular you are but also show how popular you are. After an event certain posters with a certain guy disappear before you can even walk back to you room. Luckily for me, steal one and fence off some attacks for the poster.

New month resolution

2007-02-05T17:19:00.000+08:00

New month resolutions:
1) I shall be on bz mode only when i am really busy and away mode when I am really away. In case someone say that I am HJ again.
2) I shall not lag behind in tutorials since i know i can never do catching up.
3) I shall take picture of people drooling in lectures and send to the professor to inform them on how "wonderful" their lectures are.

Posters

2007-01-21T20:27:00.000+08:00

Somehow or rather, posters are getting more and more popular in hall. Some serves very general purposes like appealing to people to support IHG games. Some serves to tell people of specific events. There are also posters that just serve to raise the profile of people in committees or sports. Well, when you have pictures of people everywhere in hall, there will also be some vandalism. I guess some people just like to show their displeasure by tearing down posters of people they don't like. I guess no harm is really done but I sure hope those who tear down the posters feel better. If not the money spent on printing the posters will be totally wasted. I think a better way of showing their displeasure on a certain someone would be pasting post-it notes beside, around or on the posters. Firstly, they can really substantiate why they hate that person (on the poster). Secondly, it save money. A piece of post-it is definitely cheaper than reprinting a poster. Thirdly, post-it notes are small and the process of pasting it shouldn't take more than 3 sec. Therefore, the chances of you being caught is quite slim. For those whose posters are torn down, maybe it's time to reflect on what you have done wrong.

Its 2007!

2007-01-12T15:12:00.000+08:00

I think it will be a great year ahead. Why? I didn't flunk my sem 1. I played more majong then all of sem 1 combined. I did a 13odds for the first time in my life and in fact first time seeing someone win with it. My bank account didn't go into serious deficit.

Exam period.

2006-11-16T23:18:00.000+08:00

Exams coming soon --> stressed up people --> weird antics --> more ponding--> everyone get wet and dirty --> try to make more pple wet --> everyone get ponded --> pple wanna take revenge --> girls can't pond guys --> adopt april's fool style pranks --> powder on the fans --> get dirtier --> mops, brooms, rags --> clean up --> back to study.

Neighbour

2006-11-14T19:11:00.000+08:00

I never complained.

YIH

2006-10-27T19:08:00.000+08:00

After spending 1 hr at YIH wellness centre, 30 min of waiting for consultation, 30 min for the blood test results, the doctor declared that he don't know what's wrong. At least the results shows that the swelling and pain in my foot is not caused by wart, virus infection and fracture. I supposed it just implies that i can continue to play sports.

Confused fellow

2006-10-13T02:21:00.000+08:00

If you order mee pok mai mee, you know the store owner will talk about it no matter how trivial you think the matter is. Why? Which idiot will order mee pok mia mee? However, when you overheard that storeowner describing your beyond this world antic while you are enjoying your mee pok without the mee, you think it's very unethical and complain to those around you. You go on and on and on about can enjoy mee pok with mee too so that you can prove the storeowner wrong (it confusing because I am trying to apply "da vinci code" here). So much so, you went to take picture about you eating mee pok with the mee and post it on your blog and yell how wrong the the store owner was (not in the literal sense). So you have now proved that you can eat mee pok with mee, and salivate at the mee, what else are you going to prove? So are you really enjoying the mee now? Or maybe, you always wanted the mee but want to generate publicity? Or are you just simply confused?

2006-10-09T21:53:00.000+08:00

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The haze is back !!!

2006-10-07T10:13:00.000+08:00

After its absent for the past few years, the haze is back and back in full force. From the NEA website,

3-hr PSI Readings ( 7 Oct 2006 )

Time

7am

8am

9am

10am

11am

12 noon

1pm

2pm

3pm

4pm

5pm

6pm

7pm

3-hr PSI

101

119

130

I am now witnessing psi of 130. I wonder will school ever be suspended because of the haze.

How you know you are a phantom

2006-10-05T02:23:00.000+08:00

When your level guys are executing a prank outside your door to scare the girls and you don't know it. Furthermore, thinking that it's someone from else where very convincingly.

Why you shouldn't drink when you can't drink.

2006-09-23T13:52:00.000+08:00

1. You may puke.
2. You may puke in a public area.
3. You may puke in a public area and someone else will have to clean up.
4. Combine 1 to 3, you will waste alcohol.
4. You may sprout nonsense (and sometimes, you may live to regret that. Think Mel Gilbson.)
5. You may disturb other people, spoiling their fun and distrupting their activities.
6. You may dirty other people's bed.
7. You may piss off your girl friend.

Seniors treat Juniors

2006-09-12T22:17:00.000+08:00

We have to be the batch that treat the seniors in year one and then treat the juniors in year 2. But anyway, it's a fun filled experience cooking swedish meat balls (mini version), which turned out quite delicious. For future suppers, Tat will supply meat balls (bigger ones).

3 kg of pork

More meat balls

Pepper spiked meat ball (I still don't know who is the lucky soul who gotten it)

With the gravvy which is supposed to be white.

How to get yourself ostracized in hall?

2006-09-11T23:05:00.001+08:00

1. Blast music day and night without any sense of time.
2. Join comms, skip all activities and boast about how many point you will be getting.
3. Talk as if you own the hall/make senseless complaints/give impressive proposals for comm and do nothing ----------in short talk big.
4. Try all means and ways to get what you want, using unscrupulous methods, resorting to backstabbing etc etc.
5. Enter someone's room uninvited (similar to barging into someone's room) in extreme cases, never even bother to knock (what have their mothers been doing????) Furthermore, sit down and complaint about personal problems, making senseless complaints about hall and go on and on with empty talks. Never fail to ignore blatant hints that they are not welcomed and will never leave the room till a sentence is mention right in their face (and despite that, he may just choose to ignore it).

However, the above will not apply (to a large extent) if you are damn shuai or damn pretty. Life is unfair isn't it?

From my lecture notes

2006-09-11T08:42:00.000+08:00

When I was a kid I prayed to God for a bike. My mother overheard me and she said, "That's not how God works." So I though about it, stole a bike, and prayed for forgiveness.

Post from a SEP student

2006-09-07T07:59:00.000+08:00

There is 2 amazing thing about this post I received in my yahoo group. Firstly, I always thought that SEP will be fun but somehow his experience contradict my belief. Hmmm... maybe the rest of the Singaporeans found out about his CAP and got jealous. Secondly, power of love is really amazing -- to the extent of changing someone's language ability in a short span of time.

extract from the post after his
Posted by: "YuCheng Lin"

Tue Sep 5, 2006 6:39 pm (PST)
Dear Danny,

I refuse to believe that your English has improved
from Primary School
level to University Level in the past 3 months. I
prefer to think that you
got someone to draft this email for you since it is
addressed to someone
really important :P
.........

Posted by: "Danny Choi"

Tue Sep 5, 2006 1:01 pm (PST)

(To my "dear", there is another one I wrote specially for you but I tot this one is interesting too -__-)

Lonely Fascinated Inspired

It is a mixture of feelings. It is like a love-hate relationship.

My journey to Munich so far has not been a smooth sailing one. To begin with, I fall sick on the day of my departure.

It is so ironic. I caught the flu at the clinic where I went to get a Flu jab.

Things, I believe will be so much better if I am with the right company. As a happy-go-lucky person as I always am, I thought that SEP students will naturally be friendly with one another. Well, it seems that I am quite wrong this time. The people who come to Munich is simply hmm is quite into their own world la.

Sick and alienated, I am in this part of the world 107300km from my home, where English is not to be understood.

At first, I feel really sad and down, and dont really like Munich despite its beautiful architecture until 2 minutes ago.

As I am writing and trying to record down all the shity thing I went through, I realized that I really have to think hard to recall all the unhappy things that happened!

And I realized they happened, and I forget about it unless I make an intentionally effort to recall them. That sounds real stupid right, to make an effort to dig out something unpleasant.

And that is not all, so far in Munich, the experience that leaves the deepest impression in me is not all this unpleasant experiences. That impression is so clear that my brain has been telling me to pen it down since I begin to write this email.

I was walking down the streets in Marina Platz and there I saw a crowd of people. Curious, I approach the crowd and suddenly, I saw a football pumped high up into the air. I squeeze through the taller European, expecting to see a handsome Brazilian performer doing amazing football stance. But what I see is a short figure wearing a Brazilian football shirt. He had short curly hair and dark skin. He was doing the football stance like any good football player. Just that, instead of standing on his feet, he was standing on artificial legs, and he was using his two walking sticks, his head, his neck to do his football magic.

I think he does more than football magic. I leave him a 5 EURO note for what he had taught me.

Life is not always bad. It depends on how you live it. There is no limit nor barrier if you have a passion to do something.

I am not sure if he likes football, but he never gives up and sits down on the cold street floor waiting for a coin to be toss at him

I am not sure if he does it for a living, but when he does his tricks, his eyes are focus, his mind fix on what he is doing, he smiles.

Now that I am writing, I feel how weak I am. I have legs. I have arms. I am just sick. I have so much more.

I begin to remember myself sometimes saying to my friends, Why are you always looking at the ½ glass of water that is missing, cant you feel the weight of the water you already have?

I think it is time that I said that to myself.

This trip is wonderful. So is Munich. The ugly thing is my mindset that I began with. No difficulty is difficult unless you think it is.

I think what the street performer has said was echoed by so many great people, All is in the mind.

If it rains, smile. The rain will stop. But when it does, only those keep their heads up will see the rainbow
Danny =)

PS: My internet is still down (unstable) so blog is not up yet

Cheesy Pick up line

2006-09-06T17:21:00.000+08:00

Guy: Miss do you have a rasin
Girl: No...... I don't
Guy: In that case, do you want a date?

People are different

2006-08-15T01:06:00.000+08:00

When I was younger, I always believe that everyone thinks the same way since everyone go through the same shit in school. In fact most people i know are damn on, ableit in a different way. Since everyone is unique, this is no surprise. Maybe everyone just have to learn to respect differences if they are not strongly against your religion, principles and belief. I seriously hate ponding turn ugly which can happen quite often if certain personalities are around. Although I am against ponding, and trying very hard not to get involved in one, I still won't spoil the fun by showing everyone the face when i am ponded and stuff. Like i really really hate people dwelling on the stupid name HJH, even so at times i feel like skinning those bastards alive (in fact there is only one guy lah). Maybe one fine day in the not so long future, I may just explode and set fire and burn him alive and laugh at his ordeal. Even I don't set fire on him, there is a high possibility of me making sure he experience 10 times as much torment when i get the chance. I didn't know I am so evil.