goodbye london..

and as my bags are packed and i'm ready to depart, it feels a bit sad to be leaving london after about 9-10 months here. feels a bit different from last year, as i was more eager to leave then than now. i'm still looking forward to singapore and meeting my friends. but i'll also be leaving friends here in london. leaving my cool hammersmith flat behind. and most importantly, leaving my dear suzi. cheesy indeed, but i won't be seeing her for three months at least. what's more she'll be leaving for spain before i even get back to london. so.. will miss her lots.

it's been an eventful year. more so than first year maybe. the workload. the exams. the fun. the expensive, but not-great-tasting food. the bitching. the crapping. it's all been good. experience and exposure. that's what you do get when you study abroad. looking forward to next academic year. not looking forward looking forward, but you know, having a chance to start everything fresh and anew. making resolutions that i will keep for ten days, but not the whole ten months. alright, i'll be back london. don't be too gloomy about me leaving..

it's just so amusing..

i'm sure most of you have heard about and seen sarongpartygirl.blogspot.com and all the hype, criticism and erections it has generated over the past few weeks. it's quite a first for singapore, to have some young girl posting a picture of her naked body on her blog. after all, there is not a single nude photograph in singapore, except a few by an mp or ex-mp who took some sexy pictures of his maid.

so, many questions about her morals and intentions were raised. did she do it for publicity since blogs are now the quickest way to get someone unknown famous/infamous? is posting her nude photo illegal and immoral? as always, i refer to straits times to provide me with some answers and entertainment.

june 18 2005

Said student Cassandra Chew, 22: 'What if my kid brother stumbles on her site and he starts having a porn addiction? That's not good, is it?'

Internet forums like flowerpod.com.sg, also saw comments frowning upon her actions.

Some said that what she was doing was 'degrading', others called her a bad example to other young girls out there.

On weblog www.tomorrow.sg, one reader even went so far as to say: 'What if others from other countries or Singaporeans saw it? They (will) think that we are dirty-minded.'

so, the chances of cassandra's kid brother stumbling upon sarongpartygirl's weblog is higher than him accessing some porn site. or maybe not. as we all know, porn sites take a very large space in the world of internet. and like it or not, things like popups and deceiving links do exist. so chances of cassandra's kid brother stumbling upon pictures of a thousand naked chicks should be higher than him developing a porn addiction because of spg.

even more likely, her bro's curiousity might be aroused by the numerous news reports (including the one where his sister commented) about spg so much so that he'll search for spg's website. anyway, i'm sure cass's bro would have seen a naked picture by the time he is 18 and would not just develop a porn addiction because of one picture. i'm not all for porn and all against anti-porn, but it's just silly to blame your brother's possible porn addiction on a single blog.

the following comment that how foreigners/singaporeans might think we're dirty-minded because they saw a picture of spg is hilarious. really really really hilarious. it's so funny that the thought was even thought of, let alone posted on the web and printed on newspaper. singapore has been laughed at by foreigners about our no-chewing gum rules, caning of vandals, etc. etc. many of these laws have helped us be a clean and green country. a very safe and comfortable city to live in. i like those laws. it meant not having to step on someone's chewing gum. or, having your buildings covered in graffiti. but, it's just funny that someone would believe that people's impression of us would be that singaporeans are dirty-minded. more like simple-minded.

i mean, we all know sex is sex. the westerners love sex. and nudity. the easterners are afraid of sex. and nudity. but why would we think we're dirty-minded 'cos one of 3 million of us posted a nude pic of herself? it's like.. do we all think americans are dirty-minded because their films have loads of sex and nude scenes? does it mean that if you've watched the movie closer you're dirty-minded? anyway, what's dirty-minded?? i thought that was a term we used when we were in primary school or lower sec? and i'm very sure that not many foreigners are gonna think we're dirty-minded. they probably think we're less conservative and more liberal.

ok, enough ranting. i don't condone spg's acts. actually, i don't really care because she is who she is and she can do what she wants. but it's time we singaporeans grow up and face the real world and not post funny comments on straitstimes or any forum.

christians not supposed to eat pork?

we all know muslims aren't supposed to eat pork. i went to find out why and discovered it's because pigs are unclean and they're not supposed to eat them 'cos the koran says so. then, i found out in the same article that christians aren't supposed to eat pork as well 'cos the bible says so. hmm. very interesting. does anyone know more about this? i'm really curious..

read this

the aftermath..

things were supposed to be going well. going smoothly. but not. things have been happening at home. things have also been happening at work (even though i've not even started work!). so maybe the exam period was better than after. yeah, wtf am i thinking. after all, i've been whining about exams and all, but now, i'm complaining of post-exams. the reason i guess is during the exams, you get to isolate yourself from everything else. exams is number one. everything else can f off. it's a bit like ns. when you're in ns, everything centers around that. everything else can f off.

so maybe, that is why adults love the time when they were in school or when they were in the army. maybe not all, but i know many friends who, like me, would prefer school or training than the real world. of course, i'm glad that things have happened at a time after my exams. imagine finding out all that has happened during my exams. sometimes, i'm a bit of an escapist. i rather avoid confrontations, conflicts than go face to face with it. it's bit like the way i play killzone or counterstrike, i prefer to hide round the wall than chiong. of course, after knowing that you can restart a mission or campaign, you kinda heck care and just chiong after getting bored waiting for your kill. but life ain't like that. there's no restarting. once you've made the decision, that's it. it's almost certain to be irreversible. i've made some silly decisions in my time. but i keep makin the same mistakes. i've learnt to live with my own decisions. or rather, i know i have to live with them.

so anyway, i was so looking forward to going back to singapore. now, i'm feeling a bit reluctant to go back. after all, what lies ahead is not gonna be pretty. but i guess you can't always have the greener pastures. better to have some grass than no grass at all...

free from exams.. and are singaporeans so bo liao?

i'm finally free from exams. didn't have that great elation when pens were asked to be put down, but anyway, everything's over. me and the eee people went to cambridge to breathe in some good old english fresh air. going to cambridge also meant we could breathe in the elite's air. the air that is taken in by thousands and thousands of really smart and intelligent people. the colleges were quite beautiful, except that because we were commoners, we couldn't get into the premises anyoldhow unless we paid a few pounds per entry. so we screwed it. we managed to find a free way in and it wasn't all that. buildings were still quite nice la. the grass was also very green. too green for the cows to eat in fact.

we went to punting after much deliberation. it was fun. i wasn't too eager to try, but got the hang of it after learning from kaileng and chooser's experiences. haha. they were funny. and good thing they didn't fall into the river yesterday. it would have been funnier though. anyway, cambridge was not as fun as our trip there and back. as usual, we kept talking cock like good old singaporeans.

speaking of good old singaporeans, i've been told by my ee friends that the st forum is now a place for very very interesting debates. i've also read friends' blogs mentioning the sad state of the forum. so i took a look at it earlier and this is what i saw:

Free gift? Aren't all gifts free?

I have often noticed that many retailers invariably use the phrase 'free gift' in their advertisements to attract customers.

But the word 'free' is redundant because all gifts are free.

However, retailers prefer to stick to the phrase for the simple reason that it gives their advertisements more impact.

The same applies to the oft-seen sign in department stores, 'Buy one, get one free', when better English usage would be 'Buy two at the price of one'.

Most, if not all, shop owners would choose the former, which is short and sharp and, above all, more impactful.

To them, as long as their cash registers ring continuously, it is all right to indulge in wrong English usage.

by Jeffrey Law Lee Beng

so i'm thinking. wtf was my response, the same as most of my mates. i asked suzi, who's been a british longer than i've known to use good english, "do british people use 'buy one get one free' or the 'buy two at the price of one because we have a very long sign board and because we prefer to spend more money printing more characters'?"

her answer was, "i guess, buy one get one free?"

yeah, i think so too. is 'buy one get one free' technically wrong? i don't know. but i think it gets the message across quite clearly. so though i'm quite free and bo liao as well to be commenting about this, at least i don't disgrace myself on the national newspaper, commenting on frankly, pointless issues such as this.

and then there is the 5 cents issue...

Buying in bulk? You may end up paying more

I frequently buy small items priced at $1.99 at Watsons. When I buy one item, the bill is rounded down to $1.95.

However, when I buy four such items, the bill comes up to $7.95, which is rounded down from $7.96.

But if I paid for the items separately, it would cost me 15 cents less ($1.95 x 4 = $7.80).

Chia Wee Ping Kann (Ms)

Of course, she should be concerned that she lost 15 cents. after all, it cost more than 15 cents to send a letter in singapore. or is it more? maybe, she's using the email so she could actually save 15 cents if she had gotten the items separately. anyway, we see the true colours of singaporeans in this forum. i wonder if foreigners reading these articles think highly of singaporeans as people who are concerned with their use of language or do they think we're a bunch of very very funny people. honestly, i do enjoy reading the st forum, as you can see people trying to act smart look very stupid.

time to change our mindsets..

a long overdue break. went to catch mr and mrs smith with suzi last night at fulham broadway. it was a goood movie. angelina's hot and sexy with those pouty lips. the movie was kinda funny. worth the money and the time i think. even brad pitt's hot. no wonder those two got together.

anyway, before entering the theatre, we were outside waiting to get pass the ticket man. ticket man was handling some chinese people who were having problems with their tickets. some student discount issue probably. anyhow, we were behind them and then these four-five big white people came by and cut our queue, demanding to enter first. so anyway, they got past us, the chinks and the ticket man. in my dazed mind (from digital), i was too slow to react. as suzi pointed out, they were plainly rude. i totally agreed. it's rude to cut anyone's queue, even if they were chinese or black. and just because you're in your country doens't give you the right to barge your way through.

i was pondering over this race-related issue and doing some changing of variables from my own experience at fulham broadway, picture this..

a scene taken from cineleisure.

brit: can't my kid go in? he's under **.

s'porean ticket man: solli solli. but the rules are dat if your kid is over the age of **, he have to buy his own ticket. cannot go in for free.

brit: that's ridiculous. he's not even **. he looks big, tall and fat because we feed him good milk and cows.

s'porean ticket man: ahh.. erm.. let me see what i can do. i ask my manager to come out to settle, can?

brit: ...

ah beng from behind the brit: eh, why so long ah? can we go in oreadi? the movie starting soon lei. basket ball, make me miss my tiger beer advertisment.

ah beng cuts the queue..

brit: hey! hey mate! what do you think you're doing? there's a queue here mate. isn't that rude? now i'm XcrossedX..

ah beng doesn't care..

brit says to wife: this chinese people are always so rude.. HMPH.

so as you can see, the particular brit in this case was pissed by the rude ah beng. but then, when it comes to a similar situation in his own country, he wouldn't have cared less about the chinese. anyoldhow, my point is, sometimes, some (to avoid generalisation) brits or whites do think they're superior. and a lot of times, the s'poreans in s'pore, some (to avoid generalisation again) are quite chong yang (idolise the westerners). so when white people come to our country, they're treated like kings. they're treated nicely and politely. or maybe it's just part of our tourism-cum-courtesy campaign. but when china chinese come to our country, our forefathers forefathers' sons and daughters are treated a bit like shit 'cos they speak like mainland chinese. you don't see them being treated as nicely and as politely as compared to the people from the west.

on the contrary, when we go to uk or eu or states or any western sounding countries, we don't get any special old good treatment as tourists. we are looked down by them and treated like crap. just like how this chinese couple got da look (Foff! You from the mainland) from a brit woman when they politely asked her if the seat beside her was free. and it's like for suzi's case, she's a citizen of the uk so she should get proper treatment from her comrades (the ones from uk not china). so, when will all these prejudice and unequal treatments end?

there's no superior race. and no one should feel superior to the other. it's like the british did conquer and colonise many countries, including our own sin-ga-pore. but they also failed us by losing us to the japanese. so they can't say that they're superior to oriental looking people since they did surrender to the inamotos and nakatas. also, people of the east should take more pride in themselves and stop treating the west as the superior ones. after all, there are more chinese in the world than the western people add up together (maybe). and again, back to the basic point that no one is meant to be more superior than the other. same applies to races of all nations. so moral of the story is don't look down on us and we won't look down on you. if i continue to get shit treatment from ang mohs in uk, i'll start looking at them with different eyes when i see them in my sunny island.

p.s. i do have good white, yellow, brown, black friends in the uk. in fact, there's this great french guy who goes all out to reach out to the chinese. hmm, he does like a chinese girl though. but, he's a good guy.

just one more.. hang in there!

so, just one more paper. i hope it's finally true that things can't get worse. after all, arms was the worst paper ever. but now, digital is also the worst paper ever. answering our prayers "give us questions that we can answer" doesn't mean smooth sailing at all. in fact, they did give us questions we could answer. but not questions that we could complete within 2 hours. so, i did 2 and one tenth of a question. my marking starts from -30+. how brilliant.

one hand, they gave us a paper of extreme difficulty. the other hand, they give us a very long paper (which requires, in my own time, at least 3 hours) in a 2 hour exam slot. so, suggestion to the markers (which again includes clarke) is add 30 marks to our gross marks (since i started with -30) and then divide the marks by 2 and multiply by 3 (thus giving the humanely possible time of 3 hours instead of 2 hours). isn't that fair? i think so..

anyway, it's just three days away from freedom. freedom from the books. freedom from the library. freedom from the imperial regime. and into the free world for 3 weeks...

throbbing pain

the exams have taken a toll on me. throbbing pain in the head, eyes feeling weary, soul feeling dreary. and nothing's going into my mind as i study. blame the clarke. anyone care to join the acs (anti-clarke society)? since british people like to demonstrate (ie anti-war, pro-hunting, anti-poverty, etc.), the acs will concentrate solely on cruelty against arms students (caas). that way, we might stamp out unfair testing of students and prevent them from suffering under the arms of a human-sized bear. anyone, no?

what a paper..

i really don't wanna talk about the exams anymore. but just one word. or one sentence. arms was really screwed up. two sentences maybe. i can't do it even though i've studied for it and it's the only paper that i've not been able to do properly when i've actually tried studying. finito.

so just 5 more days and this will be over. looking forward to blogging without exams.

communications failure..

comms

comments:
it's an okay paper. if only i had studied harder. the distraction of post-exams has led me to nothing but distraction. if only, if only. anyway, my downfall is caused by me-self. so can't whine too much innit. most of the questions can be answered easily if notes were memorised, past papers were done properly. so.. at most a B i think. difficult difficult to get an A for this relatively easy paper. i'm down and almost out. but ok la, 3 more papers. just have to drag my body across the finishing line.

hmm.. i was thinking.. if we just did past year papers the whole year (only problem: papers by new lecturers), does that mean we'll achieve good results? i mean, i don't really listen or understand the lecturers here. half of the time, i'm sleeping. the other half i'm zoning in and out. i would say i've learnt 30% of what i've learnt this year through lab and coursework maybe. but the other 70% i've learnt in the past two months. so, maybe i should home school myself. skip everything and study at home. haha. that's if i have the discipline. but i'm seriously thinking about my time in uni. i don't learn much until the exams come. and after the exams, i can't remember anything. seriously.

on a low end note, i have 3 more papers. one is open book, but even if they give me the papers now, i don't think i can get the right answers. one is for the intelligent and smart people and hard work can only bring you that far. and the last one is.. no past year papers to practise, no notes to refer to (notes have unknown no. of errors), no systematic way of answering his questions.. ok la. time to shut up. adios¬

check your luggage before you leave mates..

yeah, if you've been reading the news, you'll surely be aware of the corby thingy going on in indonesia. this australian girl was convicted of drug trafficking in indonesia. so she's got a sentence of 20 years in jail i think. anyway, the australians are kao beh-ing and then the indos are kao beh-ing back, so it's a big kao beh-ing session. i don't know if corby's guilty or innocent. but sometimes, this kind of thing is lan lan. and i mean, the australians can make as much noise as they want. but read this! this is about a similar-ish case in australia, where the accused were some japanese and same thing happened, they got convicted and kao beh-ing were involved.

anyway, if you remember flor contemplacion, you'll realise that people will always be kao beh-ing when another nation sentence a citizen of another nation because of some crime. remember michael fay as well? so.. who's right and who's wrong? frankly, we'll never know. i mean, different countries have different standards, but i guess if you're in that country, you'll just have to respect their laws. even if the country's a tiny red dot or a huge country that uses half of the world's resources.

so moral of the story is.. please check your luggage before you leave heathrow.

***

oh apparently, seeing poo, pee and toilet paper in a toilet bowl is not the worst you can experience. according to lim, some horny dude left his "residue" in lim's shared toilet. nice one.. appetising indeed..

just a few more days..

so..

maths 4

comments:
fcuked up. end of story.

anyway, won't dwell on it. had my fair share of profanities yesterday as the rest of ee can testify. so screw it. will work on next 4 papers and then it'll be proper summer holidays.

no one really want to say which kind of waste they prefer to see. so i shall just state that my ultimate preference is the combination of wet toilet paper, poo with bits submerged in thick yellow mulky pee. i did see that a few times. and it really appetised me.

yeah.. so summer's coming! and i'm gonna enjoy it. i haven't heard from the navy. so i'm not sure about my attachment this summer. nevertheless, should i not get any work, i shall do other work. maybe tuition or something. i need to earn some money after a poor financial year. of course, this will help me to buy the stuff on my shopping list. not that i have one. but i'm gonna write one now.

shopping list

i feel like an auntie now..

1. creative zen neeon
- need a mp3 player as it's so much more convenient than bringing a stack of cds or to burn cds. so anyway, having one will solve my problem of having to listen to same old tracks during my revision. also, i won't have to bring my laptop to school just to listen to music.

2. laptop
- ok, i'm not gonna get one now. or maybe ever. but if someone rich and bored and very rich and very bored wants to buy me one, they can contact me. my laptop's screwed. dunno why. it keeps refreshing itself. when i surf the net, it just keeps refreshing. when i go to explorer, it refreshes itself. maybe it's feeling a bit tired, so it keeps refreshing. good thing is, ares' working fine. and i can watch naruto and other materials that i can't mention here.

3. music cds
- yeah, i'm not an anti-piracy dude, but i'm not a pirate. i just like buying cds. it's like a hobby. a pastime. a collection. a waste of money, but nvm. i'm gonna get oasis, weezer, foo fighters, jem, mayday, coldplay, gorillaz, whatever that appeals to me. i'm waiting to get to gramaphone. where all the cheap deals are.

4. a new pair of running shoes.
- i need to start running. and my shoes are old and breaking. so asics. here i come.

5. hmm... i'll add onto this when i.. you know..

so there's my short shopping list. anyone rich, bored, very rich and very bored who wants to contribute money to my cause.. you can email me or something. OR, if you have kids you want me to tutor maths or if you need me to serve the navy, please call me. or email me. yup, any government people reading this, can you please pass this message to the personnel department about my waiting for their reply about my attachment. thanks. i won't get into trouble right?

so.. which do you prefer? poo, pee or paper?

due to the complains suzi was giving me, i'm gonna write something more interesting.. no sole dedication to the exams, which to me and the ee people, seem very interesting. so since i've been living a life in the library, i will talk about an aspect of the library that fascinates me alot.

the toilets.

ok, i frequent the fifth floor toilets. been to fourth and probably third floor ones as well. but fifth floor, that's where my wastes go. too much detail? i'm sure it's fine. i've been there close to 100 times, considering i spent at least 3 weeks here, which makes up 21 days (from 9 am to 9pm). and in 21 days, because of my high water intake to combat my exam pimples, i go to the toilet 5 times a day. estimation, estimation...

so in this 100 times i've been there, i've seen a lot. more than i should. and i wonder. i wonder

WHY DO PEOPLE NOT FLUSH THE TOILET AFTER USE?

i admit. once in a blue moon, i forget to flush the toilet. sometimes, the flush doesn't work 'cos someone else been there just before me. but, i can say every 3 times i go to the toilet, there will be one time when i get to see someone's pee, toilet paper or poo in the bowl. so that's really nice indeed. i don't understand why they don't flush. is it 'cos the flush seems far away from where they're standing. or maybe it's cos they're worried that the water will gush onto their clothes. or maybe they like showing their by-products to the next person using it, ie me. i don't know.

so anyway, since i can't do anything about people who don't flush the toilet. let us have a nice quick survey.

WHAT DO YOU PREFER SEEING IN THE BOWL?

PEE? POO? WET TOILET PAPER?

it'll be fun to know what's your preference. i have my own. i'll tell you tomorrow.

for now, it's back to the exams.

power, fields devices

comments:

it's alright. cos my expectations were so low. i did 3 power, 1 fields, 1 devices. or rather, i attempted 1/2 fields, 1/2 devices. so i'm expecting a high C for it. it's passable i guess. though, enxin did say something like "did u find the paper ^!*£$!&( hard?" yup. enxin did. i heard. maybe she didn't. but i think she did. anyway, !$*^!*(!£ doesn't mean the f-word. but maybe it is.

maths 3

comments:

i didn't have any mood to study for this. but i did my best. and the paper turned out fine. i'll kill myself if i didn't get at least an A. haha. nah, if i don't get an A, i'll call imperial up.

so anyway, exams are halfway done. but seems like we've been doing it for years. there's 5 more papers to go. yeah, we're not the only ones having exams. we're not the only ones having tough papers. but i think we're the only ones having 10 papers at one go. so let us moan, groan and kao bei. because be glad you're not in it. however, if you're in it, embrace it, cos you'll have the right to complain till you drop. or till you laugh while you're studying. like kai.