iclimb, iclean

Do you know what are climbers best at during spring cleaning? Cleaning windows.

We are expected to be able to twist at impossible angle, reach unreachable height, balance at ridiculous posture, and best of all, don't mind falling.(or just used to it)

No rope nor belayer though, neither is there crash pad.

hey mama.

happy chinese new year

Hiya people!! Happy Chinese New Year!!
恭喜发财!!

Should be busy for the next few days, will be writing up more soon.
For the moment, let's just try to drown ourselves in the sea of happiness.

school day before new year

Do you remember when we were in primary/secondary school, the last school day before Chinese New Year we could wear our home clothes to school? And now... we are like going to school everyday in home clothes.... -_-"

Actually what is the rationale behind letting pupils/students come to school in home clothes before the festivals? An opportunity for them to relax? Or a chance to show off their clothes? Come to think of it, do they wear their new clothes to school? If that is the case, then the clothes won't be new anymore when new year comes! I for one didn't wear new clothes to school...

Oh I still remember it was quite silly, 'cos the school made us tuck in our shirt... well if you impose those rules, then we might as well don't wear home clothes to school, and switch back to school uniform (which could have been boring anyway)

Do any of you miss your school uniform?

when coffee dates hot choc

What will happen when coffee asks hot choc out for a date? Coffee will take advantage of hot choc. =S

Funny place to meet Stephanie at Raffles Place after lesson...
Funny thing to meet her after I have met her for lunch at Arts canteen...
Funny phenomenon to feel hungry when I have eaten lunch (quite normal actually)

So we went to Spinelli Coffee at Far East Square. Call me mountain pig (again) but this was my first time patronising Spinelli. I ordered a cup of daily roast while Stephanie had hot chocolate. To be honest the hot choc was nice! Did quite a bit of taxation, that's why I said it got taken advantage of =P

The daily roast... hmm... I would say I was paying for the brand and the atmosphere and the environment, which includes the nice rattan chairs we were sitting on, but the coffee was as nice as the 40 cents one at NUS canteen. (what a way to put it)

It's the people you are drinking with. How much fun can drinking coffee alone be? (that's another thing, I drink alone cos I need the coffee!)

bittersweet memories

Actually wanted to post Will you still love me tomorrow, quite like that song, but I've posted it here before, so...
Anyway Stephanie bought me a box of DARS bitter chocolate (so funny, I bought her DARS milk chocolate, she bought me DARS bitter chocolate), and after our little chat that night, it reminds me of the words "bittersweet memories" in the song I will always love you.

Does it remind me of the bitterness?
Or is it telling me that after the bitterness there is sweetness inside?

But it just gave me the energy to go on when the lecture got boring, or when I just needed the extra boost during Electical Engineering lab session... (so proud of myself to finish the experiment early)

Anyway this is the original I will always love you by Dolly Parton. Usually we hear the one is by Whitney Houston.

If I should stay,
I would only be in your way.
So I'll go, but I know
I'll think of you ev'ry step of the way.

And I will always love you.
I will always love you.
You, my darling you. Hmmm.

Bittersweet memories
that is all I'm taking with me.
So, goodbye. Please, don't cry.
We both know I'm not what you, you need.

And I will always love you.
I will always love you.

I hope life treats you kind
And I hope you have all you've dreamed of.
And I wish to you, joy and happiness.
But above all this, I wish you love.

And I will always love you.
I will always love you.
I will always love you.
I will always love you.
I will always love you.
I, I will always love you.

You, darling, I love you.
Ooh, I'll always, I'll always love you.

Thanks for the chocolate, Stephanie!! We WILL share the bitterness... together! (we did, didn't we?)

Four Dimensional Music

Went to Esplanade last night to catch Four Dimensional Music by Yong Siew Toh Conservatory of Music, NUS. The Recital Studio was packed, luckily Stephanie and I weren't late.

Hmm... the music was simply abstract, think they were composed by the 4 gentlemen in the photo. Lame people like me won't understand. Anyway it is funny to see the composers stand up to clap when THEIR pieces were being played, as if trying to tell people "heh I wrote that".. =P

Oh there was this naughty boy seated 2 rows in front of us, making hell lot of noise, telling his mother he wanted to go home. It was quite a disturbance to the concert, and his mother seemed to be unable to keep him under control. She herself talked on the phone.. so what do u expect? One lady seated behind the boy was putting her finger to her lips, trying to tell the boy to keep quiet, while another lady was telling the boy's mother something... in the end the mother was enlightened and dragged her kids out.

Wonder how some people can pretend to appreciate music when their kids are contributing another form of music.

don't set it ablaze

(was drafting this on the bus this morning. interesting)

Why must we be answerable to people for who/what/when/where/how/why we like?? Can't we just like each other the way we want it? Why must people be the burden that weighs us down?

Was care and concern or pure kaypohness your intention when you asked her whether she is attached? Can you give her a break? It just doesn't help her at all when you bug her... I'm not blaming you all, in fact I'm the root of the problem, but it is like I put the flammable material while you throw in the lighted matchstick. A piece of paper won't light up if noone lights it up.

She loves you all, so don't hurt her, ok? To answer all of you, I'm not attached.

who misfed the photocopy machine?

Printing has pissed me off again. Last Monday it was printer at Computer Centre, now it's photocopy machine at Yusof Ishak House.

Just now I was at Yusof Ishak House's printing shop to print the lecture notes that Wei Chuan has lent me. It was quite crowded there, and one girl was using 2 machines at one go, while the printing shop lady was hogging onto a free machine with some documents. (I got a morning greeting of "hello" from her. Please lor, the cashcard wasn't inside, means it is available for use what) So anyway, this girl offered to let me use one of the machine she was using, quite nice of her.

I tried to use the autofeeder since the lecture notes are double-sided. Dunno why that darn machine just keep on having misfed. So I gave up and decided to print them one-sided.

How many cents did I waste? Rage is priceless.

when small things blew big

(actually I was deciding whether I should write about it since I'm feeling fine now, but for record purpose, I shall write it down)

Yesterday morning my brother and I were busy doing tutorials and schoolwork. I have this bad habit of hopping around when doing homework, so after each question I would bounce out to the kitchen to take a sip.

So there was this time I walked to the kitchen and my mother told me, "Don't play already, go and clean the furniture (for part 2 of spring cleaning. Part 1 was last week) Whole day stay in the room for what?" So I told her I wasn't playing, in fact I was doing homework. So my brother couldn't take it too and came out saying "Both of us studying then you say we playing..." etc etc. Could smell a bit of gunpowder so I quickly tried to quiet both of them, grabbed a pail and started to do the cleaning.

Then during lunch we were talking about something, then out of no where dragged to my climbing, and my mother insisted that I made a particular comment, which I am sure I didn't say. I really hate it when people malign me and put words into my mouth, and I could feel the heat radiating from my body. It is rare that I blow, but when I blow it is dunno how many times of Hiroshima + Nagasaki combined. I was clearing up the table when one plate slipped a little cos it was oily, and my mother said I not happy. Wow that really got me! I was like thinking why doesn't my mother speak reasons at all? My brother was sitting there with a smile on his lips. I don't blame him, he just couldn't help either side.

Anyway I blow up big, I recover quick. I'm a happy boy now.

hotplate at nicholl's place

This evening the climbers had a dinner of hotplate at Nicholl's place. So in between sips of wine and mouthful of food we crapped about all kinds of things... A few of us were tempting to cook Nicholl's chiwawa Tiger (just kidding, we would have to wash it and skin it, too troublesome)

Meder: so where's the food?

Alex: (rolls up newspaper) you ate all of it right?

Alex demonstrating how to use chopsticks with left hand while Meder listens to Nicholl's stories

Meder: in Russian it's called "red wine"

poor Alex got bullied

Nicholl: come Alex don't cry, Ying Hui kor kor take photo for you

who's that guy in orange bra-top? (it's singlet lah)

Alex got KOed

Meder: (with Alex lying in background) piece of cake to finish off this guy

Ying Hui: (unbelieving) are you serious you knocked out Alex flat?? I mean really flat leh!

perspective

perspective... to me the picture looks like a nice cup of coffee; to you it maybe something else... (it IS a cup of coffee)

Let me show you some examples: (not all are on today)

1) less than 1 minute after I've switched on the computer, the phone rang. It was my father. He asked what was I doing. "Just switched on computer." "Play games again?"

Again?

2) my brother had been playing computer games for the whole afternoon. I asked him to leave it on so that I could check email. Less than 5 minutes after I took over the computer my mother came home. "Whole day sit in front of the computer..."

Whole day?

3) in the morning my brother was busy playing computer games while I bury myself in tutorials in my mother's room. By chance I walked out to the kitchen to take a sip, then my mother told me to prepare lunch.

Suay. (shouldn't say this though)

4) was shopping in supermarket for New Year goodies. I was squatting down examining some titbits, then a lady pushed my trolley away. In my eyes she was hijacking my trolley; in her eyes my trolley was blocking her way.

She was right.

5) In the Chinese literature 【吕氏春秋】, there is one chapter that goes like this:

人有亡鈇者，意其邻之子，视其行步，窃鈇也；颜色，窃鈇也；言语，窃鈇也。动作态度，无为而不窃鈇也。
抇其谷而得其鈇。他日复见其邻之子，动作态度，无似窃鈇者。
其邻之子非变也，己则变矣。变也者，无他，有所尤也。

What it means is, once upon a time there is this person who lost his axe, the first moment he suspected it was his neighbour's son who stole his axe, so everyday he went and observe the kid. Every single move that the kid made led him to think that he must be the one who stole his axe. Then one day he found his axe at the back of his own house, and from then on he just couldn't associate the kid as someone who steals.

6) Sigh, so troublesome...

lecture recording

For my Singapore's Military History lecture today, I attempted to record the lecturer's voice using my Creative MuVo MP3 player's recording function. Turn out the effect wasn't that fantastic, have to really turn the volume knob to maximum during playback to make out the words slightly clearer.

Why do I even want to record it? I thought for Arts, it is not about munching books and practising questions, but more like absorbing and osmosis through the skin (not literally), so I thought I can playback the lecture once in a while so that the ideas would come naturally whenever I think of the topic. Wow lucky me I didn't totally slack during the lecture hoping to get whatever I want through the sound recordings, at least I did take down notes, but having the sound clip would be wonderful.

So what I did was to download this toy called foobar2000, a playback tool with Replaygain function which lets you adjust the gain, ie the volume. Managed to increase the volume, but then not only does the lecturer's voice become louder, so is background noise such as latecomers banging door, or students laughing to the lecturer's jokes... (did I hear my pen tip writing away on the notepad?)

There ain't best of both worlds, but at least I got the world that I wanted.

gelato with little gal

Was walking with little gal at Ngee Ann City's Chinese New Year fair at basement 2, then bump into this Venezia Gelato stall. I tell you any kids will go mad when they see the colourful ice cream in the fridge, so don't bring any kids near! (no, little girl was quite normal) Both of us have never tried Gelato before, and it seems to be quite popular recently, so we decided to give it a try.

The girl maning the stall was very sweet!! She has that super sweet voice that is worth every penny you are paying for the gelato. So we were asking her what each flavour tastes like, and she enthusiastically introduced to us... like nutella, ferrero... etc. Little gal is having pimple outbreak, so chocolate and its cousin is a no no, so we narrowed to something fruity... got to try one flavour, then decided to have raspberry since it seems to be the most popular choice.

Hmm... they were saying gelato is a healthier alternative to ice cream cos it has lower sugar content and it doesn't use dairy product. It tastes like ice, it tastes like.... SLURPEE!!

$2.80 for a cup... okay not too often.

yam juice

Went to Isetan Supermarket at Orchard yesterday, hoping to see some cute interesting Japanese foodstuff. They are having this "Hokkaido & Michinoku Fair" till 22nd Jan, with lots of sampling!! =) Actually I just wanted to check out the chocolate, and they are selling Dars at $1.90. Oh the coffee was super tempting too~! (no sampling for usual items -_-") Anyway so they were selling lots of speciality food from Hokkaido and Michinoku, I tried some red bean cake (which I did eye on before), some raisin rum cheese, rice cracker... oh I didn't try the Japanese wine, since I didn't intend to buy, so why should I try? See? I'm a good shopper.

Just when I was about to leave, a nice female promoter handed me a cup of white juice -_-". Taste nice! So I asked her for more details. It was hokkaido nagaimo yam juice, blended with milk. Tasted like papaya milk, but not as strong. According to her it is a healthy drink (quite common phrase nowadays huh?)

It is always fun to visit Japanese supermarket.

Visit Isetan for more details.

lack coffee, need coffee

Have been feeling quite tired easily, it is like I can sleep quite sweetly during bus journey. This is so unlike me. Last Tuesday I just collapsed on my bed at 8pm.

Must be coffee. Haven't touched coffee for quite a while, too busy to even think of it.

I thought Milo could help, but on the very day which I dropped dead, I drank Milo in the afternoon. Wrong medicine. By the way when is the Milo truck coming to town?? It's the only reason for me to drag my lazy body across Kent Ridge Crescent.

piece of my mind

Stephanie was telling me how her friends think of me from reading my blog. Something like I don't know what I want and everything I must ask my parents. I know they were just voicing out their views and opinions and now I'm trying to stay sensible. (the picture is there to help me keep myself calm and sensible)

What is wrong with asking parents' opinion? You guys don't talk to your parents? Obviously they are older than me, so they have relatively richer social experience than me. Then you will say I have no belief of my own. Of course I do have, but is your belief always right? When you ogle at people of the opposite gender you would elbow your friends and ask for their opinion too, don't you? Then you will say I'm 22 and this is the 21st century. So what? If you are so capable might as well move out and live by yourself, earn money yourself, feed yourself, change your surname, be happy. 21st century means you can disregard your parents, go to court against them, ignore them? Some even said my family torture me. Please lor! You guys torture your parents right?

I was brought up in a traditional Chinese family. Since young we were taught Confucius ideology, respect for elders is a major part. I'm a son in this family, obviously there are duties and obligations to fulfil. No matter how much I may dislike some of the chores, it is still my duty. Oh so if you don't like National Service then run away from it lah!

When a cub knows when to find food itself, it will. If you guys are so concerned about how my family is run, please look at your own home and think is it just a hotel room? Do you ever take ownership of it? I mop the floor and water the plants, what's wrong with it? It's my home for goodness' sake.

It's like coffee, you can't separate the creamer from the coffee. So is family.
(sorry this entry is ill-organised, cos I'm quite fed-up)

noise pressure

That was the funniest way to hunt for seat in lecture theatre.

Yesterday for Physics lecture I went to the usual spot where our clique sits. Actually we all know there is no marked or fixed sitting arrangement, but somehow we all have our "favourite spot". So at this row, Hong Jun was seated at the 3rd seat from the steps, whereas the aisle seat and the 4th seat were occupied, leaving only the 2nd seat empty. Wei Chuan and I were at a lost of what to do, I suggested all 3 of us shift to another place, then this guy at the aisle seat couldn't take it and he moved to another place far away...

I could have suggested doing scissors paper stone with Wei Chuan to decide who should get the one seat... now saved our trouble.

quote of the day

... Imagine it is erected...
-- Dr Victor Tan, explaining spherical coordinates with the help of an extended measuring tape

books vs notes

Finally got my MA1506 Mathematics II notes today. I don't have the privilege to own the textbook (Topics in Engineering Mathematics) as well, but people were saying the notes from faculty printing room is exactly the same as the textbook, word to word.

Paying $20.80 for a book with nice cover and quality paper, or paying $8 for a stack of Double A paper from the ever-slack faculty printing room, which will you choose? (yes I have something against the printing room, opening hours can be so wonderful I don't mind working there) I'm a poor student, so I'll go for the notes. I don't quite get it, the lecturer said that he doesn't receive any royalty from the sale of this book which he wrote, then why bother sending it to the publisher? Do charity and let the publisher earn money? Or tell the world how many books he has written? He even has an agreement with the publisher not to upload the lecture slides onto IVLE. So what is more important, learning or earning?

On the other hand, for CS1101 Programming Methodology in C, it is better to buy the textbook instead of the notes, since I heard one lecture is like hundreds over slides. As for PC1432 Physics IIE, the notes is available at the printing service at Yusoff Ishak House, but after a little calculation I realize that if I print on my own 6 slides to a page, I can save a little money and some trees.

Last semester Dr Rajesh was saying publishers have new edition every year so that students will "have" to buy new books (well, with the collaboration from lecturers who "recommend" latest editions of textbooks) I do agree that some informations are time-sensitive, such as statistics, but we as learning students can always look up the essential info from the internet/elsewhere, can't we?

At least not as bad as primary and secondary school, having syllabus changes every now and then. How many of us used second-hand textbooks back then?

finger-pointing

How many of us actually realize that when we use 1 finger to point at others, 3 fingers are pointing back at ourselves?

I just find that I've become the very type of person that I don't like. Lazy, sloppy, can't be bothered, knowing something is not right and yet not acting on it, etcetera etcetera. It is like I have the cheek to tell others to study hard, and yet I'm slacking; or I don't like the way someone is handling something, yet I'm handling it the same way.

Human beings are self-serving. It is always easier to point finger at others, but how many of us can actually put ourselves in people's shoes (stinko) and think the same way?

Maybe we should point at ourselves first, then 3 fingers will be pointing at others.

qr code

If you are wondering what is this funny looking black and white square hanging on the right side of my blog, it is QR code, or Quick Response code.

Traditional barcode can only give you numbers, whereas a QR code can give you info like name, email, URL, message, etc... in fact it is a very common thing in Japan. Visit any Japanese site and you will see this thingie. On top of that, most of the handphones in Japan have readers to decode QR code, so in fact it has more usages than barcode.

Actually there is one Japanese freak who writes his/her blog in QR code. Happening huh?

nicholl's birthday

It was Nicholl's birthday yesterday! At first when Kai Sing told me I couldn't quite believe it, and I told KS that Nicholl has birthday 365 days of the year. Later I comfirmed it with Nicholl herself. She was quite shocked that I knew it was her birthday.

So we went to Ajisen Ramen at Junction 8. Hoho my first time eating at Ajisen, so mountain pig right? Even Meder the Kyrgyz has Ajisen membership card! -_-" It was Meder's treat cos he promised to treat me lunch if I made it to the top of red inclined, and he refused my share of treating Nicholl for birthday. Thanks Meder~!

Hmm I ordered toro toro ramen cos the name sounds cute, and baby octopus, which we had quite an interesting discussion on whether it is cruel/inhumane to eat baby octopus. Err it's a food web, what can I do? I believe that there is no class difference as long as we are all animals.

So over mouthfuls of ramen the 3 of us continued talking about the climb, and we all sweated buckets! I thought it was only me who have sweaty palms the moment I think of climbing, but turned out we all have sweaty palms. Nicholl even said she has sweaty feet. Haha!

We were planning to have a hotplate dinner at Nicholl's place next Sunday, and were finalising the number when the 2 of them wanted to ask Stephanie along. Ermm their reason was to just bring friends along, but I think there is more to it. Try something funny and I will repay it on the belay end.

climb with the sun

It was a super duper sunny Saturday~! What a waste if we didn't go out and climb. Just felt like a hibernatus waking up from his sleep (ok it's just a few weeks I guess)

I was early and the wall was empty, cos most of the climbers went for Rockmaster competition. Anyway it was Meder, Nicholl (surprisingly she came), Kai Sing, Wendy, Angie and her buddy. Alex was preparing for his trip so I didn't ask him down. It just felt like the whole wall was ours!! Dunno what striked me, but I was like "what the hell" and took off my shirt and climbed bare-top... my first time though. (think it won't happen again =P)

The word insane was ringing in my head when Meder and Nicholl psychoed me to try leading inclined red!! INCLNED!! LEAD-CLIMB!! Oh anyway it proved to be very enjoyable. =) It turned out to be a team effort by us, with Meder leading up 2/3 of the route, then he reached "vertical limit" (just kidding) and so Nicholl continued from then on, but to no avail, and finally the 4 eyes were looking at me.... -_-" ok 6 eyes including Wendy's.

So I went up, lead-climbed the remaining 1/3 of the red inclined route. Couldn't quite believe it too. It was very entertaining, with the occasional constipating sound and the one "shit!" remark when one of the runner's orientation was wrong. (hey Meder used the F word as well) Meder commented that I made one nice move near the top when I raised my left foot up, jam it horizontally on a hold and locked myself to the wall while my left hand went about the business of clipping in the runner. Oh now I feel very man thinking of when I shouted down "slack" to Meder who was belaying me. ^-^

We tried lane 3 blue as well, this time round I still couldn't complete the route, but I did improve~ thanks to my sling, now I'm left with 2-3 more panels. Oh I'm really glad I have the sling, at least when I rest on the wall the belayer can off belay and rest too, compared to he/she having to constantly keep the tension. More humane huh?

The 3 of us were sitting in the shadow of the inclined wall and Nicholl said one thing to me, "You just need to have more faith in yourself." That applies to life too right?

choc·o·lat·ey

Dear chocolate:

Can you be less tempting?
Can you be less seductive?
Can you be less sinful?
Can you make me happy?
Can you keep me awake in lecture?
Can you help me apologize to Stephanie?

*P.S. DARS by Morinaga is nice!! And it isn't that expensive... comes in milk chocolate, bitter chocolate and white chocolate, tried the milk chocolate today and later realized Stepmother prefers white chocolate (now I want to try bitter chocolate)
Oh NTUC is selling it cheaper than NUS Co-op.... =P

wall-------computer

haha this is like playing "win, lose, or draw"~
Nikki was asking me about sparks from the power plug...

weird thursday

Do you agree that bus drivers seem to like to drive freezers on wheels when it rains? This morning I was on 852 and I almost hibernated. So when I alighted at Bukit Timah my glasses were all fogged up, naturally I took them off so as to look less weird... and I almost missed 151, luckily I wasn't the only one taking the bus.

I went to use the ATM machine at Yusof Ishak House, and saw this man taking quite a long time in front of the machine. Guess what, when he finished drawing out the money, he moved to the cash deposit machine (which is beside the ATM) and deposited that stack of $50 notes. What the... what was he trying to do?? System test? Transfer money from himself to himself? Or too eager to change to a new passbook? (well, he could have deposited $10 by $10 if he wanted) Oh... maybe he wanted to draw out $50, then finger was telling him he wanted $500, so just pressed one more zer0, then decided to put back $450.

Hmm, today I had my first lecture of Singapore's Military History, also my first lecture at Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences. At first felt kinda insecure cos I know no one there, actually turned out Yihao is taking that module as well. (but he arrived late) Felt kinda comfy to have my closest primary school friend around. The lecturer is an interesting fella from Canada, well... the lecture can be fun, but the exam could be killer. (feels like 笑里藏刀..eeks!) I think next week I will have to bring my mp3 recorder to tape down the whole lecture, cos I just dunno what to jot down and the slides are not available for download (anyway they say nothing)

Time to get serious about things (I think) I like.

time = love

Rizwan brought up something interesting on MSN just now...

One~Dinkum says:u know when i was much younger, i went to see my family doctor
siu hang -> says:uh huh
One~Dinkum says:he was examining me when he just asked me
One~Dinkum says:"Do you believe time is love?"
siu hang -> says:time is love??
One~Dinkum says:i was like "huh?"
siu hang -> says:no link
One~Dinkum says:he went on to explain how the more time u spend with someone the more you tend to be in love with them. since time is the only commodity that cannot be bought or sell, its precious
siu hang -> says:but waning also is directly proportional to time
One~Dinkum says:he then said in todays world... u see people having extramarital affairs and mostly with colleagues coz its with their collegues they spend most of their time with
siu hang -> says:wow
siu hang -> says:true
One~Dinkum says:so he advised me to spend as much time as possible with my family and give them the gift of my time
One~Dinkum says:people have so little time today, and most of us waste it away
One~Dinkum says:like me right now talking cock with you
One~Dinkum says:well.. just something to think about : "time = love"

But what about people getting sick and tired of seeing each other everyday? Time is definitely not directly proportional to love in that case.

It doesn't have to be a long period of time, it can be just a few minutes each day, and it is the thoughts that count. Of course if you have no thoughts, chances are you won't even spend quality time with people.

It still starts with the heart.

the controversial waffle

It's not the blueberry waffle's fault. It's me.

Met up with Stephanie after my lesson and did hell lot of bad things:
I rejected her present, kidnapped her wallet, bought her blueberry waffle, freaked her out on bus...

I don't know, maybe I should have accepted her present with an open heart. Maybe I should have accepted that $1.10 that she insisted on paying me back for the waffle. When the intention of goodwill ends up making people feel guilty, it is not good. This is not as simple as feeling guilty after eating a piece of chocolate. This is more like denying people's chance to show their sign of goodwill/appreciation.

Respect. Repecting others = respecting ourselves. I failed to do so. I freaked her out, I freaked myself out.

Once is a mistake, twice is stupidity. I'm already quite stupid, don't need twice.

wednesday red

It is one of those mornings with lecture at the ungodly hour of 8am. Actually last semester both my Thursday and Friday maths lectures started at 8am, with dumb me refusing to stay home to watch the webcast. This semester should I catch the webcast instead? (smart people stayed home also could score, dumb people having 100% attendance also couldn't do well, what to do...)

Went to school with Zi Hao on 151. Both of us were wearing bright red T shirt today, and I was commenting it was so early, Wednesday also has blue, then Zi Hao said it's Wednesday red cos we were wearing red... ok at least he admitted it was lame.

At Ngee Ann Polytechnic's bus stop, there seemed to have a traffic accident involving 3 cars, and these smart drivers pulled aside to right at the exit of the bus bay. Wow. So our kind 151 bus driver conveniently rested his hand on the honk while the 3 drivers went about their early morning chit chat. It was a few minutes before the 3 drivers realized there was some additional music on top of the usual sound of traffic and decided to move away. Come to think of it, could the bus driver have judged the blockade when he drove the bus into the bus bay?

Zi Hao and I alighted and were walking towards Block EA when a middle age gentleman approached me and asked for the direction to Engineering Drive 1. Beats me! I really don't know where on earth is Engineering Drive 1, it is like one of those roads you see in army camps (I remember where is Ladang Avenue, then still have Bionix Drive) So I just pointed to him the general direction to the FoE cluster. Later he told me he was going to Data Storage Institute. Orh!!! Up the hill. It was quite funny after that cos Zi Hao and I took the short cut through Raffles Hall, so we bumped into the man again.

I thought I was good at direction. North, South, East, West. Huh what North East?

old book, new book

I realize my attitude has changed for a start this semester. I used to be quite perfectionistic when it comes to materials, and that includes books.

I remember last semester this time (ie start of the semester) we were busy hunting for textbook. I would never settle for anything less than a brand new book. Now I look at it, how many pages of those books did I really read? How many pages did I even flip through?

It is like those lame people who boost about their books collection at home, but they have not even finished reading one book from the shelf. So what if I had nice looking books? I still did badly for my exam.

Dunno what struck me this semester, I'm hunting for second hand books. Well, not all of cos, some books I still need new books. So today I went to Buyback Asia's sale and bought my Singapore Studies text, saved 40%!! Oh I also sold my Sociology text today to a girl... well... I must say she is lucky cos I maintained my book in perfect condition. The point is I don't want to waste that book, and she is fated. Congrats to her.

I read that in some countries people leave their books on the park benches after they have finished reading them. Isn't that sweet? Of course I won't do that in NUS... =P but the idea is to share! Information not shared is not called knowledge, so why hold on to it and don't share? I do give away some of my books after reading them... but some say it means a lot when you give a book to someone... I don't know...

By the way, I got a bit of surprises at Clementi Bookstore, so do check it out~ (no no no not the nice girls there, but the textbooks!)

jam

First day of semester 2 and first lecture was at 9am.

I was waiting for bus at the bus stop along Ang Mo Kio Ave 6 at around 7:30am, noticed this girl in red boarded a taxi after a boy alighted.

So the road was all super duper jammed up from Ave 6 to Marymount Road, then Lornie Road.. (am I listing the whole route to NUS?) So this bus 74 driver was damn smart, at the flyover before Japanese Association the bus is supposed to go straight towards Adam Road, but the whole stretch was very jammed up, so what did this driver do was he sped at the left-most lane (which is leading to PIE Jurong) then he tried to squeeze the double decker into the next lane, and he succeeded, gaining at least 5 cars' length. Clap clap clap. Wait till you see bus drivers in Hong Kong and Taiwan... Hong Kong bus drivers are like racing Initial D, whereas Taiwanese bus drivers are like organized wolf packs.

Ok back to Singapore. So I alighted at Bukit Timah Road to change to bus 151. Guess what, at the bus stop I saw that girl in red again, who boarded the taxi earlier on at Ang Mo Kio Ave 6, waiting for 151.

So what is the lesson in this story? There is more than one path to the same destination, but as long as you are happy, it doesn't matter.

didn't climb

no I didn't climb yesterday. Actually Edwin asked again on Friday whether I would be climbing yesterday, cos he was bringing his friends to climb. I told him I didn't feel like it. Think he was quite unhappy about it (and complained to Alex.. who was also not climbing.. haha!)

Like I've said for umpteenth times, climbing is like life, if you aren't in the mood, you are just forcing yourself.

Maybe I could forecast the weather, cos it was raining also. So in the end Edwin & Co didn't climb also.

At another spot on this island, our dear rock warrior Meder was at Rockmaster bouldering competition. Haha he actually asked me along, but... not in the mood. I feel happy for him cos, now he has got a taste of what competition is like, and he got himself a climbing t shirt!! (now he won't keep complaining say I always wear climbing shirt.. haha)
Talking about climbing shirt, I was eyeing this carabiners T-Shirt from Royal Robbins at Sports Connection... very tempted to buy, then when I told my mother about it, she said something like no collar still so expensive, and sounded like she prefers me to buy collared shirt if I'm going to buy one. Oh my brother was trying to tell my mother that I wanted to wear to school or something cos I don't have that many clothes...

Well.. maybe I should have 先斩後奏 ("execute first then notify the emperor")

these few daze

If you are observant, I didn't post as many entries these few days.
If you are observant, you might have noticed my template kept having changes.

I'm having this super duper headache these few days, and I have been intensively occupied with coding my blog template, trying to include a calendar to the archive. Failed. Have been trying for a few days, but seeing that semester is starting, might as well leave the idea aside for a while.

Dunno why, keep feeling bored with my blog templates... maybe cos it is from my hands, and I just can't get satisfied with what I do. Maybe it would be better if I use templates off the shelves.

Hope you guys don't mind. Oh you guys won't mind, cos it is MY blog...

lame uniform, lame school

Just now I was on bus 135 on the way to Parkway Parade, then I saw some interesting things.

At MacPherson area, there was this bus stop where a lot of secondary school kids boarded. At first I didn't know some of them were actually wearing school uniform, cos their shirt looked quite funky... (here's an illustration)

At first I thought it was some sort of fashion statement, words at the tail of the shirt. Then when I looked closely (or when I saw someone had his shirt fully tucked out), it says "MxxPxxxxxx Secondary School Telephone: 6xxxxxxx", front and back.

Wow! So what, it is like telling the general public if you can read the words, it means the kids didnot tuck in their shirts, and they are from MxxPxxxxxx Secondary School, and that's the number to call to complain. (maybe you can come up with more possible ideas)

Lame school, lame uniform, lame students.

quote of the day

Knowing is not enough,
we must apply.
Willing is not enough;
we must do.

- Goethe

calendar cube

Yesterday I was with Stephanie at Junction 8, then we went to Action City and saw this table top calendar thingy. The funny thing about us is that when we go out we always look at things around us and start to examine them closely..(we even discussed about some window display design...reminds me of my father) so we were thinking how they manage to present 31 days with 2 cubes, or more precisely how to squeeze 10 integers (0-9) onto 6 surfaces. Stephanie was saying they use the same integer for 6 and 9. (at first I thought it is not scientific, but now I realise it is the way. 3 cheers for Faculty of Arts and Social SCIENCE)

Actually I thought about it a few weeks ago when Stephanie and I visited her friend Pearlin's pushcart at Century Square. The following is my finding:

Cos there are 01 to 09, 10 to 19, 20 to 29, so we need both cubes to have 0,1 and 2. As for 3 to 9, they must be shared among the remaining 6 surfaces. 7 integers within 6 surfaces, so no choice 6 and 9 have to share.

Eh if you are wondering why I didn't pick up the display set to find the answer, cos the display set had the cubes missing -_-"

fate

Do you guys believe in fate? Do you believe in your destiny?
Do you believe you can change your fate?
Do you challenge your fate?
Do you accept future or do you choose one?

I do believe in fate. There are things that are within your control and things that are not. I'm just a little confused as to how we should accept fate. Should we accept fate by avoiding the bad omens? Or should we accept fate by accepting the bad outcome?

Stephanie can't be with someone born in the year of pig. The fortune teller said so. (is there something called misfortune teller?)

I think she didn't want to make me unhappy. On many occasions she said a bit didn't say a bit...
Alex once said to me, "I still prefer to have the truth. Give it to me"
Stephanie is like guiding me out from a maze, but I opted to take the fast but painful method of ramming through the wall.
I respect her belief. I can't change my Chinese zodiac sign, at least not within this life. If by being together would bring misfortune to people around her, I rather save her all the worries.

I really wish I can take destiny head-on, and accept whatever the outcome may be. (that's super high level taoistic)

i want to hold your hand

I want to hold your hand by The Beatles. Was on bus 88 when TV Mobile played the song...

Oh, yeah, I'll tell you somethin' I think you'll understand
When I say that somethin' I want to hold your hand
I want to hold your hand
I want to hold your hand

Oh, please say to me you'll let me be your man
And please say to me you'll let me hold your hand
Now let me hold your hand
I want to hold your hand

And when I touch you I feel happy inside
It's such a feelin' that my love I can't hide
I can't hide
I can't hide

Yeah, you've got that somethin' I think you'll understand
When I say that somethin' I want to hold your hand
I want to hold your hand
I want to hold your hand

And when I touch you I feel happy inside
It's such a feelin' that my love I can't hide
I can't hide
I can't hide

Yeah, you've got that somethin' I think you'll understand
When I feel that somethin' I want to hold your hand
I want to hold your hand
I want to hold your hand
I want to hold your hand

fairy air force

Just finished watching the 5-episode anime Fairy Air Force (Sentou Yousei Yukikaze 战斗妖精雪风). It is a super duper abstract sci fi based on the 1984 fiction 『戦闘妖精・雪風』by 神林長平. If you like Macross, you may like FAF. For me, I only like the air combat scenes. Enough of a reason for me to watch it.

So the story is about an air war between Fairy Air Force and JAM (don't ask me why not peanut butter) JAM is some organism from outer space while Fairy Air Force is made up of earthlings. So there is this fighter jet called Yukikaze in FAF, whose AI is able to communicate with the pilot Lt. Yukai. blah blah blah... Like all Japanese anime, the war ended.

The aerial combat scenes are simply fantastic! I read that the production team actually received assistance from the Japan Air Self Defence Force! Some of the jet designs are quite cool too~ Oh they were trying to portrait some right wing thinking too, as you will see Japan has an aircraft carrier in the anime -_-"

Minus the abstract storyline, I may like it more.

two thousand and five

I realise I haven't talked about 2005. (or should I say I haven't explicitly talked about 2005, since all my entries before 1/1/2006 were about 2005) This is one of those obligatory die die must write kind of entry.

So on 21st March 2005 I completed my full-time National Service. CPT Teo was right, ORDed will feel lost. Call me sadistic, but I miss my bed and the cookhouse, in a way majority of my army life has given me more freedom. Don't tell me to sign on, cos not as if I don't want to.

After NS I worked at Hewlett Packard for one month as customer care specialist, entertaining HP customers from an interesting place called Hong Kong. Working life is different, no matter how short/temporary it is. Everyday was economical rice in styrofoam box for me. Oh I miss the Nescafe machine in the pantry.

August, start of my university life. Got to know some nice/not nice people. Birthday, bought home a Ritz apple struddel and happily ate with parents. Gave myself a very special present: deleted everything related to Nikki. August, first time feeling so hurt over ridiculous boy-girl-relationship (there wasn't a relationship anyway)First time feeling so resolute.

Hmm... can't remember when I bought my climbing gear, but at least it was some sort of a pledge to be serious about the sports. Got to know more climbers. My climbing still sucks =P

Err.. so what am I supposed to say? To sum it up, 2005 is over (duh!)
I'm not going to make any plan for 2006. If you have no plan in the first place, how to fail your plan??

book for sale

Sociology: A Global Perspective
Ferrante, Joan
6th Edition

Textbook for NUS module SC1101E Making Sense of Society.
Book is in perfect condition complete with original wrapping by Clementi Bookstore. (perfect condition... that explains why I only got B- for SC1101E)

I'm selling it for $20. (IVLE price) Main objective is really don't want to waste such a nice book. Please email me/leave a comment for enquiry.

--SOLD--

bidding

More bidding fun today.

Even Stepmother asked me to help her bid cos she is working. Actually it did cross my mind whether to take the same module as her, then I convinced myself that study is quite different. Of course when you flirt, some people go all out, but think I ain't those people. That reminds me of Pauline changing JC just because of her boyfriend. *shrug* Somehow I think parting makes you realize how dear someone is to you. Oh I didn't say I'm flirting with anyone anyway.

So now I am chatting with Hong Jun about bidding. Now I realize I could have checked up more informations of the modules from IVLE. Can't believe it takes me one semester to know how CORS works and the strategy to employ. Wow I realise a lot of the Singapore Studies modules need to write essay... and fieldtrips! Oh yeah I've decided to take SS this semester, since it is recommended by the faculty to take GEM/SS in first year, so in a way I went against the suggestion last semester when I took Making Sense of Society. Anyway all the year one engin students are so high that they pumped bid points for Principles of Econs, so I might as well avoid their qi and wait for next year. Haha sounds like aikido.

Oh by the way I'm bidding for Singapore's Military History. Good bargain.

gundam seed destiny episode 51

It caught me by surprise... I was casually looking at the Chinese forum that I frequent, then I saw that Gundam Seed Destiny actually has episode 51!! What the...
The title is Final Plus, so obviously it was added in as an afterthought. I went to Sunrise's official GSD site and realise that even Japanese TV didn't screen this "bonus" episode. It is around 45 minutes long, kind of expands on what the original final episode says. Actually 51 is much better than 50, cos it has more fighting scene, some of the scenes are new/redrawn, for example Athrun dumps Cagalli and goes for Meilin, Dearka got shot, so is the Dom Trooper commander Hilda Harken (that cool female with one-eye jack), some more corny conversations from Yzak/Dearka and the Dom Trooper trio... This episode also shows a less evil side of the PLANT Chancellor,
...and most importantly a happy ending~!

You will be missing out a lot if you miss episode 51.
(come to think of it, Gundam Seed Destiny is not tha suitable for kids. Just look at the opening, full of nude bodies, naked Kira hugging naked Lacus, Cagalli wearing unbuttoned uniform over undergarment, telling the whole world she just bedded Athrun.. bleh!)