audiolimp

armed with mccoys..

2007-02-18T20:36:00.001Z

and ready to work!

squeegy's amazing..

2007-02-11T23:34:00.000Z

i played some christmas music and let squeegy listen and guess the singers.

ok, i guess it's easy to guess christina, mariah singing from their voices.

but she managed to guess rihanna, jessica simpson, celine dion, stacie orrico and even gloria estefan that old lady.. just by listening to a few verses here and there.

2007-02-07T22:30:00.000Z

it's 7 feb 2007. i've decided i shall no longer watch any international football matches. unless it's the european championships, world cup finals or any singapore-related games. england's just so crap. what a waste of time watching them play spain. the idea of watching it on tv was enticing, but really regretted it. should have spent more time doing work or watching something girly with suzi.

singapore did win the asean championship though and that was a great game against thailand. had everything in it. controversy. attacking football. passion. hostile crowd. and singapore won it. maybe we really can go to the world cup finals. we just have to beat a few asian teams along the way. that doesn't seem that daunting, does it?

football aside, i think i need to step up a gear in my studies. i've always been drifting in and out of school work, not really putting huge amount of effort at it. in other words, i usually do the bare minimum to do well. looking at my housemate, i really should work harder. she's already began studying for the finals! i'm in my final year, so i should work harder.

other than that, there's nothing much to look forward to. coursework. exams. final year project submission. and then it's back to singapore. ok, let's just keep our thoughts to studies. not gonna think about the future now.

2007

2007-01-01T00:30:00.000Z

let's see for how long i can stick to my resolutions.

happy new year..

coming up..

2006-12-30T12:49:00.000Z

2007 resolutions

2006-10-29T23:03:00.000Z

i feel im too old to blog. or i just dont have much to blog about nowadays. ill just let this page run till it expires. or till i have something interesting to say. till then, just look for me at facebook or something. =)

-23 yr oldie

no wonder imperial's rising in the rankings..

2006-10-20T13:13:00.000+01:00

A British-led team of scientists has made the first big step into the future by creating a device which makes things invisible.

The Star Trek-style "cloaking device" measures less than five inches across and only responds to radar waves.

But within five years there might be devices powerful enough to make whole vehicles "vanish" - including battlefield tanks.

An invisibility cloak blueprint was produced in May by Professor Sir John Pendry, a physicist at Imperial College London. Just five months later, scientists working with him in the US have put the idea into practice.

The concept involves bending visible light, or other forms of electromagnetic radiation such as radar, around the object being hidden.

An observer looking at the cloaked object will see light deflected from behind, making it seem to disappear.

Sir John said: "The previous paper was all theory, explaining how it could be done, but the real challenge was to make the unusual materials needed for a working device.

"It's all been done in a time scale much shorter than I had envisaged. This cloaking device is just a demonstration showing that you can get radiation where you want it to be.

"There's still some development to do, but I would have thought that in five years you'd be seeing some sort of practical realisation of this technology.

"It's probably too heavy for aircraft, and making objects as big as buildings disappear might be difficult. But it would be ideal for hiding a tank."

back to lectures.

2006-10-09T09:40:00.000+01:00

i'm sitting here in the com lab, waiting for my first lecture. first of my last. i've been back for quite some time, but feels weird that i haven't had my first lecture yet. it's been a long time since i had a 2 hour lecture. hope i'll survive that. people who know me well will know that staying up during lectures is the ultimate task for me. i've bought a bar of "boost" chocolate. apparently, according to suzi, it has more calories than something else plus something else. which means, it's a lot.

anyway, that aside, i'm having my first jap lesson. yeahyeah, i should really continue spanish. but don't really wanna take a "level 3" language for credit this year. but i'll try to continue spanish somehow. after all, me gusta espanol mucho.

learning jap would allow me to take my eyes off the screen to reply a text or drink a cup of tea (when i watch naruto or bleach). it's useful huh.

anyway, weekend was good. my fren and felix's fren (who both happen to know each other in notts) came down to london. and we showed them around. good hosts they say we are. but well, we are good, i must say. so come down to london man. my flat's open to tourists. haa.

ok before i go, resolutions for the next academic year (always the same year after year):

1. study hard, learn well
2. gym 3 a week (until i can wear hard gay's uniform)
3. travel travel travel (italy, germany, switzerland, east europe.. doubt i can do all)
4. enjoy london (london's great..)

how to spot a singaporean in imperial?

2006-10-03T12:04:00.000+01:00

first, look out for useful waterproof jackets (comes in assorted colours like bright red, yellow or dull grey, blue).

second, check out the brand of the bags he/she carries. deuter, crumpler, eastpak, converse (or timberland, which i carry).

third, hairstyle speaks a lot. japs, hk-ers, modern prcs wear either brightly dyed/highlighted hair, permed, curvy, scary or elaborately gelled hair. s'poreans go for simplicity. tied, long straight rebonded. or standard nicely gelled hair.

fourth, make up. minimal make up on a s'porean imp. usually. loads of make up on other orientals.

welcome to imperial, freshers!

p.s. eh, don't be mistaken about my entry.. i'm proud to be a s'porean imp/imperial sing. we always do well. i hope.

one last trip to the uk

2006-09-21T17:02:00.000+01:00

i'm leaving again. one last time. after this "one last time", i'll be back for good. this "one last time" in london will be memorable, i hope. london don't always come by. living in earls court is special. uni life comes by once. studying as a student will never come back to us. soon, we will all be old and wrinkly ('cept i'm actually wrinkly already).

talking to adam and jj the other day, i realised we've all grown up. we used to be contented with a ball and a group of friends. we played football during recess, after lessons, on saturdays, on remedial days. now, we will probably be as contented with a ball and a group of friends. but then, we don't have the time to play it during lunch, the legs to play it after school/work and the passion to play it every sunday. now, our passion lies with the heinekens and hoegardens. the proof lies beneath our t-shirts, where our beer-bellies are.

i also spoke to alex not long ago. we talked about our future, talked about our present and talked about our past. there are some friends whom we've still kept in contact with. not as close as the good old days, but better than nothing. there are those whom we've lost touch with totally. and there are some whom we've tried contacting, but weren't responding. when we were young, we were all the same. we all had similar goals. do well in the exams. we all had similar passions. play the game, both live and on the playstation. now we are all very different. and so we drift apart.

putain. i don't even know what i want sometimes. like, what do i want to write in this entry. well, i still dunno. so.. adios.

hope's 15th anniversary

2006-09-16T17:35:00.000+01:00

i never knew i would blog about this, considering i haven't been to hope much recently. but anyway, thanks to timothy, i found out about hope's 15th anniversary. quite good. it was held at expo and i got to see a lot of old faces. familiar faces. a bit nostalgic. after all, i spent quite a bit of my youth in hope. can't believe i've known some of these old faces for about 8 years or so and quite a few of them are still around. so.. it was really great to meet them. i know i don't say it out to them, but ya.. really good to see them still serving God and all that.

have been thinking about this whole God thing and church thing. kinda decided i should at least make an effort to go for the service in london, even if i'm not gonna commit myself to God and all. at least it's a start. well, hopefully, i can keep this resolution.. dunno who's gonna go with me tho. kai says loi can go with me, but loi sleeps till damn late every sunday. well, maybe i can persuade little old suzi to come with me, but she will probably be bored.. anyway, we'll see we'll see.

holidays coming to an end. i'll be leaving in like a week's time. haven't met up with many people, but have this thinking that i'll be back for good next year anyway. sooo, i'll meet them next year. hahaha. one last year of studies. gotta make use of my time in grand old london. study hard. watch few more gigs (killers got sold out so quickly.. sian). watch few more matches (man u vs pool sold out liao.. sian). spend more time with my uk frens. and you know.. spend time travelling around europe. well.. and of course, spend time with suzi laaa.

end of..

2006-09-01T16:25:00.000+01:00

my last vacation attachment. time flies. done 10 weeks. went to comex. and off to manila in a few hours' time. time really flies man. esp when u're doing 2.4km.

spot the odd one..

2006-08-29T16:43:00.000+01:00

SING-a-POOR Idol?

2006-08-24T14:20:00.000+01:00

Yeah, Singapore Idol has been really interesting. Not that many good singers. I think Hady and Jonathan Leong are the best contenders. Superb performer Paul Twohill should form a rock band, so that the music from distorted guitars can cover his lack of quality in singing. Don't know about Jasmine, but Joakim definitely can't sing.

There has been much hoo-haa about who should be in the competition and who should be out. I wanna say that everyone (hosts, judges, "real" music fans..) should just stop pleading "Singapore, please vote for talent.. Singapore, please don't make mistakes.. Singapore, please vote for the right one.." (sounds like some election sia..)

Despite them not being able to sing very well, I still feel that whoever wins deserves to win. I mean, Singapore Idol is a popularity contest. Fans who are mad enough to vote thousands of times for Joakim "I can't sing, but I'm cute" Gomez will still buy his CD if he wins the competition (even if he still can't sing). And even if they don't buy his CD, Singaporeans are the ones who decided with their money to vote for him to be the "Singapore Idol" (not necessarily, the best singer/performer/whatever).

Judges are quite right in their opinions about the contestants, but please stop telling us who to vote for. Can't we even make a choice of our own these days? Are we kids who need to be told who to vote for (even though most of the voters are probably kids who need consent from their parents to vote)? Well, if Joakim does win, I will doubt the maturity of the voters, but yeah.. if they like him for his looks, then so be it. After all, there are loads of talent-less celebs who do well in the show biz just because of their looks.

Well, I guess our society is still not quite first-world yet. We still need adults to tell us what to do. Don't see that in other countries, do we?

un-simple life

2006-08-03T17:12:00.000+01:00

work is becoming complicated. young adults start to confuse me with both their words and actions. "keep it simple man!" as my football coach used to instruct us about balls playing. but playing balls is much easier than living the life.

things get complicated when you wanna be home quick and be cheap. you think taking the taxi is the fastest way, but it'll cost you a bit. but then, taking the bus sucks because there's no seat available. so you think, take the cab. when you've decided to do so, the taxis disappear. you end up waiting for more than 15 minutes and you see your bus going by. you regret not taking the bus, reaching home maybe earlier and definitely cheaper.

sian..

Maybe surrounded by
A million people I
Still feel all alone
I just wanna go home
*by bus/taxi/mrt/car when i get my licence*

i know u miss me

2006-07-31T16:02:00.000+01:00

i'm back man. been busy. too lazy to blog. too many foods to eat. too much to complain about.

i actually wrote to st forum to kao bei about something. as expected, they didn't print the full uncensored version. so it became small and tiny in the corner of the sunday papers. nevertheless, one senior texted/sms-ed me to ask if i was the dude who wrote in. another friend called me and said i sounded like i was boasting about my bbc (british-bred-chinese) girl.

content of my article can fall under the huge category of "singaporeans who lack courtesy/compassion/common sense/everything that singaporeans usually lack".

more complaints i have about our little red dot..

1) too few cabs when we need them (taxi stands are useless. there are no taxis at taxi stands. there are only taxis where taxi stands do not exist.)

2) too few mrt trains when we need them (elaborate: one every 5 min during peak hours is not good enough. hardly had a chance to sit on the new shiny mrt seats since coming back from london because someone wants to make more money by not having more trains and still wanna increase the fares. when did public transport become a normal consumer good? i thought public transport is a public good/nottherebecauseofprofit. correct me if i'm wrong.)

3) too much food

ok too much food is a good thing. not good for health, but probably the one thing that makes me not mind the first two points. damn good la singapore food!

sian.. i realised i don't really type good singlish. i also don't type good english. well. nevermind. at least i'm blogging again.

p.s. marvin's blog seems to be taken over by someone else...

end of another year in london

2006-06-26T01:07:00.000+01:00

time has come for us to leave london and go back to where we belong.

time flies really fast. too fast.

my post-exam period has been quite fulfilling. filled with a lot of activities.. world cup, project, world cup, concerts, world cup, packing and more world cup. finally entered the knockout stage and its starting to look good. argentina and mexico played a fantastic game while portugal and holland provided us with all the talking points we needed. well, england is still the poor england and let's hope they get better.

leaving kenway soon and returning to kenway next year. will be leaving some friends behind. marvin especially. what a year we had. its never a good feeling to part with friends, but well, everything comes to an end huh.

foo fighters n summer ball

2006-06-18T03:05:00.000+01:00

my very own musik festival has ended. missed juliette and the licks (whoever they are), caught angels and airwaves again, queens of the stone age, motorhead and of course foo fighters today.

reached hyde park at 4pm. 85000 people. 5 bands. 6 of us. went with greg and a few of his friends. i didn't enjoy it that much. still its a great experience. dave grohl knows how to work the crowd. but personally, i think the speakers were too soft. the music was too soft to keep us dancing throughout.

enough about rock n roll and gigs.

summer ball! decided to go there in the last minute. or rather, suzi decided for me. after the concert, i rushed down to school to join her. in my shorts and t-shirt! the rest of the peeps were all in suits and dresses man! still it was better than expected. loads of stuff going on. a few dance floors. some amusement rides. chocolate fountain. oriental breakdancers. slutty white dancers. a mock casino. many many non-singaporean friends.

i got to know 2 dudes. yeah. no babes. 2 dudes. 1 of whom chatted to me randomly. sounded like he was trying to hit on me. the other was a friend's bf. won't get to see some friends next year since they'll be graduating. oh, and there weren't many singaporeans. just a few here and there. guess the ball's a tad too expensive and unattractive for most sgs. well, an experience again. won't get to go for any more school/college balls in the future.

busy week ahead!

zuton fever

2006-06-17T00:01:00.000+01:00

going music and footy mad this week.

just watched the zutons in concert. totally british. absolutely fabulous.

the lads and a girl from liverpool were impressive.

not often do you get a full crowd in apollo hammersmith.

and not often do you get fans in the seating area standing up throughout the concert. but the zutons did it.

for once, the seated fans didn't lose out on the atmosphere. the concert seemed too short in fact.

anyway, i'm all psyched up for tomorrow's concert at hyde park!

on another note, i missed two of the best games today. argentina's demolition of serbia. and holland's narrow win over ivory coast. dammit. but nevermind, saw the 24 passes goal by cambiasso.

angels and airwaves

2006-06-14T23:29:00.000+01:00

well well..

i'm finally back. back with angels and airwaves.

it was great watching a live band. more so when it's a rock band. after being disappointed by blink182 the last time round, i was expecting better of tom delonge at astoria. and he did ok. his new band of former distillers, offspring and boxcar racer members did ok. angels and airwaves will be on my gym playlist for some time.

i enjoyed the gig almost as much as sum41. if only we were standing amongst the crowd instead of being on the upper floor.

there will be more gigging. next up are the zutons at hammersmith apollo on friday. and then foo fighters at hyde park on saturday. money well spent i hope. gotta enjoy the brit music scene before going back to singapore. this is one enjoyable thing that london can provide me with... other than football.

1200 minutes and 900 texts..

2006-05-10T15:24:00.000+01:00

well, the thing about telemarketers is u can't really believe them. after all, they're trying to do their jobs and earn some commission. today, i received a call from some uk phone limited company. well, what is uk phone limited? i've never heard of this mobile phone company. anyway, i decided not to hang up on the guy and let him speak.

"sir, do u have a monthly contract?"

"yes. i do."

"what is the plan? how much does it cost?"

"i pay 25 pounds a month, for 500 anytime minutes and 400 texts."
(actually, i pay about 25 pounds for 200 minutes and 200 texts. i just wanted to get rid of him by stating the impossible contract)

"well, we have a very good deal for you. a free nokia video phone with 1200 anytime minutes and 900 texts plus a 5 pound video calls credit for a price of 22.50 pounds a month!"

siao. no one offers such good deals. in fact, there aren't any deals that are half as good as the fake one i quoted to subtlely reject him.

anyway, i said i'm only 6 months into my 18 months contract and can't quit my current deal for his. he continued by asking if there are any other members in my household who wanted a line. before i could say no, he hung up.

yeah right. 1200 minutes and 900 texts. you think we're in singapore ah.

great london weather

2006-05-08T10:01:00.000+01:00

by my usual standards, i should be staying in bed. the weather's gloomy, wet and cool. that's the kind of weather that i thrive and sleep in. i remember the days when it rains in the morning in singapore, before i wake up for 730 school. i hate getting up when the weather's so conducive for sleeping.

but i doubt i can sleep any longer. 3 more papers to go and even though i've kinda given up in spirit, i have to go on. logically. 3 papers is a lot of papers out of 9, as kai mentioned. so, i shall give up my right to sleep in this weather and study as hard as my mind is willing.

buena suerte a todos!

14 Hours to Power

2006-05-04T20:02:00.000+01:00

14 hours to power electronics. over 14 hours to voting power. tomorrow, i get to do a power electronics paper and vote for my favourite party.

there's not much energy left in me. exams make me sick. i just wanna go out and play. go to hyde park. go to ethos. go to the cinema. go wherever. except staying at home.

still, the harder i work, the more sick i will feel about exams. the more sian i am with exams, the more pleasure gained next friday this time. and less guilt about not studying. and less regrets when i get my results. the life of a student. the life of a singaporean.

i just realised..

2006-05-02T14:28:00.000+01:00

that my blog entries about exams are long and boring. goes to show that exams are long and boring, that the exam period is long and boring.

i'm so restless today. no mood to study at all. rather clean the house with marvin than read my notes or do the past year papers. gotta get my act together. only less than two weeks to end of exams. cannot slack anymore.

i need to find a career that suits my laziness.

a full-time ebayer.

two weeks to valencia.

three weeks to stockholm.

eight weeks to singapore.

what an eventful week of exams!

2006-04-28T19:20:00.000+01:00

yeah, eventful. i mean really eventful. exams aren't really eventful. you go into the exam hall, you sit, you write, you finish, you leave. well well, not this year though.

1. no seat allocation
i went to great hall to find no seat allocated for me. i'm part of eee. but i wasn't given a slot. no chua in the list. i registered right? or did i not? ... yeah! i did. bastards. the examiners made some mistake which they did not bother apologising for. they did bring me to a different examination area to have my paper. but imagine the panic i had when i was left wondering whether i studied for nothing.

2. no calculators.
no calculators to calculate the square of (b-a)/3.2. yeah we are imperial students, but we're uni students too. we don't know how to divide by 3.2 anymore, let alone square it. so we waited for close to half an hours for the examiners to bring us the promised calculators.

well, didn't plan on bitching but did anyway. paper was for "project management" and many of us have reiterated that the lecturer possessed no project management skills at all. lack of organisation and preparation for the examination. can't believe she forgot to "ident" calculators.

3. appeal
now, emails are flying everywhere, asking for people to sign a petition to appeal for the exam paper to be "moderated" because of a misunderstood word.

"I know of several people, including myself who were caught out by this and ended up drawing the network the wrong way round, rendering all subsequent answers useless. That's 30 marks lost due to a single word!" -extract from email

i was almost one of the "caught out" ones, but i realised my mistake and corrected it when i checked the paper. it's really a careless mistake. i would be gutted to lose the 30 marks. i sympathise with those who misread, but it's quite clear what the lecturer wanted.

anyway, i can say that since i corrected my answers.

project management bad. asp was alright. moderation should help me get a good grade i hope. econs was bad, considering how much i like the course.

and, i'm too tired and drained to talk in detail about the other exams. and you should be bored by now...

te amo suzi.

just feel like blogging..

2006-04-23T00:59:00.000+01:00

its the weekend again. and it's sunday now, the first day of the week. always thought of it as the last day of the week. exam week is finally here. on thu, i shall have my first paper. and then fri, two more papers. before i know it, almost half of my exams will be over.

i hope i'm prepared. and as we all know, things get tougher year after year. 3rd year papers have to be more difficult than 2nd year's. i'm hoping for some divine intervention as usual, a bit of positive moderation, a bit of luck on questions spotting, a bit of inspiration and motivation in my last weeks of revision.

exams.

the time when the love for our course diminishes.
the time when we decide we never actually liked the course.

but maybe it's the course that doesn't like us. maybe it's because we're so singaporean-trained in thinking that exams are nearly everything and that the only fruit of studying is the results.

exams. i don't really hate them. i'm just afraid of their outcomes. i kinda love exams because they are the few things in life that bring a great sense of freedom and joy when they end. only when you have had an exams, then you'll have a full blown holiday, guilt-free.

suzi's leaving for manila later. she can't decide what clothes to bring. she wants to take some nice stuff, but not too nice in case her mum complains that she spends too much on nice clothes. well, what a dilemma!

oh this is beautiful

2006-04-17T22:24:00.000+01:00

the theme song for my eee notes

oh this is beautiful
i've got to soak it up
i've got to soak it up
oh this is beautiful
i've got to soak it up
i've got to soak it up

- beautiful (athlete)

but seriously.. my notes are not beautiful at all. still, this song is lovely.

am i supposed to be an engineer?

2006-04-15T18:47:00.000+01:00

You scored as Engineering. You should be an Engineering major!

Mathematics

83%

Philosophy

83%

Engineering

83%

Journalism

83%

English

67%

Sociology

67%

Linguistics

67%

Anthropology

67%

Psychology

58%

Theater

50%

Biology

50%

Dance

33%

Chemistry

25%

Art

25%

What is your Perfect Major? (PLEASE RATE ME!!<3)
created with QuizFarm.com

i guess i'm supposed to be an engineer after all. or maybe the quiz is not that accurate.
i'll go with the latter. =)

i'm worried 'cos i'm not worried

2006-04-13T22:19:00.000+01:00

i'm worried 'cos i'm not worried. i'm not very worried about my exams. i'm taking things really easily. one subject at a time. revising not in detail, but in bits and pieces. i hope i won't regret the past two weeks. haven't been working hard enough. time-wise i commit almost every few minutes to revising, but i can't really concentrate and keep getting distracted by things like ebay, a show called arrested development (thanks to raj!) and little things all around.

time to get serious mate! if i don't, i'll not do well!

untitled

2006-04-08T15:28:00.000+01:00

its been about two weeks since i last blogged. been busy. greece. studying. gym. swim. stoning in pretense of studying. birthdays.

first there was alfonso's. then there's my brother's. and yesterday we celebrated kai's birthday. had good food at a malaysian restaurant. food was very malaysian-singaporean. which meant it was really good. haha. had laksa. i would rank laksa amongst my favourite food. anyway, kai has been a really great friend to many. really appreciate her 'cos she's always helping me with school work and other friends friends stuff. happy birthday kai!

to my brother too. if you're reading this, happy birthday and good luck with your uni applications and the many things you're learning and trying out!

so, time flies. it's already april. exams are here soon. dread dread dread. hope i'll be able to pull off a similar miracle to last year's exams. but i'm so distracted by seetickets.com and ticketmaster.co.uk. i keep downloading albums and buying concert tickets. two reasons. one, i love watching gigs. two, if i don't have the time to watch, i can always sell them on ebay, making a decent profit. hence, i've been buying tickets to various artistes.

looking forward to foo fighters and dave matthews (if i decide to go). sold my subways and bon jovi tickets. no time to go for them. OH! and i almost bought some madonna tickets. they're worth a lot on ebay i'm sure. BUT, i won't do that 'cos the tickets range from a HUNDRED quid to 160 quid. siao man. so expensive. i'm sure those who resell these tickets will make a huge profit. but i'm not gonna be so jian. anyway, i love london for this very reason. i get to watch all these bands that will never ever come to singapore. and they're reasonably priced as compared to singapore.

alright. it's time to study. only studied 2 out of 8 modules. i know i say this every year, but i'm so screwed. and hopefully, i'll never be truly screwed by my exams.

busybusy week

2006-03-25T00:12:00.000Z

the last week of spring term has finally come to an end. was so busy throughout the week. had my written spanish exam and my oral today. glad it has come to an end. spanish is really enjoyable to learn, but to master it, got to really put in more effort man.

and yeah, really pleased with myself. i've been swimming almost everyday. back to primary school days indeed. i remember how i used to swim so much when i was in primary school. every sunday i would go to my swimming lessons and swim for at least 2 hours. kinda crazy.

anyway, still up at this time 'cos we're going to greece in a few hours time. gotta catch a bus at 3am then take the plane at 6. not looking forward to the ferry ride to santorini either. 6 hours of sailing. sounds like sorties all over again. talking about that, i miss sailing with the navy. quite a different experience. get to be really operational.

sooo. hope to chill at santorini man. wanna have a break from all the work, the unpredictable weather in london and have fun with these bunch of great friends and suzi. the lineup is as follows: marvin the neh neh/nai ren, yang wen the yang neh neh, kaileng the dua neh neh, suzi the boobs, alfonso the.. haven't thought of a name for him.. maybe we can call him spanish neh. as for me, i can't remember what i'm supposed to be. neh neh pok or something. damn, we're childish.

schools..

2006-03-22T18:35:00.000Z

did a search on wikipedia on argentina for my spanish oral this friday. but instead of reading more about the country, i diversed and started reading about singapore schools somehow. quite interesting. for example...

Dunman High School is known by its alumni for its strict rules and stringent discipline. Previous school rules include:

Only completely white canvas shoes with laces are to be worn
Bags must be dark-coloured
Shirts may only be tucked out to a maximum width of three fingers
Students must not enter romantic relationships
Students must not remain in the classrooms during breaks
Watches must not be greater than 2 cm in diameter and must be dark in colour
Socks cannot be folded, rolled nor pushed down; they must be pulled all the way up and must be above the ankle
Skirts must fall below the knee (ie. no knee caps visible)
No centre parting (hair) allowed for boys

wow. amazing huh. for more info on http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunman_High_School

there's also one on catholic high. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catholic_High_School

and if you're as bored as me, you can look for your respective schools on wikipedia.

NUS Application

2006-03-18T01:24:00.000Z

how do you answer these application questions? i was asked by my bro about them. to me, they just don't make much sense. especially when you're directing them to singaporeans. who quite frankly don't know much about what they wanna study right after a levels. who don't actually pursue their academic interests. if they have any at all. maybe it's just me and my friends, not singaporeans. anyway.. try answering them.

i) How do you think an extra-curricular or personal activity that you have pursued has had a bearing on the course you have chosen at NUS (1200 characters)

such a tough question. extra-curricular activities would include soccer, hockey, listening to music, playing the guitar, playing pro evolution soccer, watching football, visiting the pub, talking cock with friends. ok, but being honestly serious, how do you correlate personal activity to the course you want to pursue?

imagine..

electrical engineering: i spend my free time building little gadgets such as am radio, radio clock, auto vacuum cleaner with intruder alarm system. WOW! i didn't actually do any of those before i came to EEE.

i dunno. how would you answer that question?

ii) NUS welcomes the contributions each student brings to its community. Describe a special talent, contribution or a personal quality that you will bring to NUS. (1200 characters)

making enxin's bottle look like something else during lunch break. spouting non-stop nonsense with marvin and lim. suaning kaileng 24-7. hmm. contribution im bringing to imperial college. i pay for my food and make use of the free swimming pool as much as i can?

iii) Is there anything else you would like us to know about yourself, such as a significant setback or a personal experience that had an impact on your aspiration to read the course you have chosen at NUS? (1200 characters)

ok. i shall answer the question according to their specifics. a setback or personal experience that affected my aspiration to do EEE. when i was young, i thought the TV was an amazing invention. then when i grew older, i thought the computer was even more amazing. when i went to secondary school, the internet was damn amazing. but one day, all of them broke down. i was sad. so i decided to be an electrical engineer. will that do?

oh no. i'm damn crappy today. but really. i think the nus questions suck. damn out of point. esp. the 3rd question. not dissing nus, but think they could come up with more answerable questions. and spare me from thinking so hard to help my brother. well well.

power elections

2006-03-15T19:48:00.000Z

wow. as i type this entry, the elections for the imperial college singapore society committee are still going on.. CRAZY man. it started at around 2pm. i left at 4.45pm to do my power electronics coursework. before i left, the voting for president had not ended. it entered into its 3rd or 4th round. i voted and left.

i did part of my coursework and now i have to type out the 20 page report. such a frustrating assignment. very. as i finish extracting my simulation results, the voting for the last committee member is still in progress.

on a lighter note, i emailed my spanish teacher to tell her that i won't be attending today's lessons. i was just too sian to go. so i said i had a last minute lecture.

"Lo siento. No puedo venir a clase hoy porque tengo que ir a un clase mas importante. "
(Sorry, i can't come to class today 'cos i have to go to a more important lecture)

She replied, "Una clase mas importante que la mia????! (No te preocupes que estoy de broma) "
(A class that's more important than mine??? [Don't worry I'm just joking])

CUTE.

sian to the max..

2006-03-13T00:28:00.000Z

bt screwed up. our line is dead for no apparent reason. now, bt is trying to fix it. i won't have internet for some time. i can access to kai's internet but only for short spurts of time 'cos my wireless is crap too.

anyway, great weekend in the premiership. there was a goals galore. seriously, i have never seen so many great goals in two days. so many class goals by players in mid-table teams.

the week ahead. full of shit to do. power coursework. spanish revision. more and more work. i need to up my tempo man. only six weeks to exams. that sucks totally. six weeks. knnbccb. not enough time to revise 8 subjects.

sian to the max.

that feeling..

2006-03-10T01:55:00.001Z

you know that feeling where you don't quite know what you wanna do. the world wide web has run out of sites for you to visit and you don't quite wanna do your work even though you know you should. yeah. that's what i'm feeling right now. stuck in a rut.

when caught in such a situation, the best way out is.. to sleep. trust me.

good night people.

we'll all feel the same when we grow old

death cab for cutie // lim's birthday

2006-03-09T00:02:00.000Z

firstly, went to watch death cab at astoria last tues. as promised, here are some photos.

the pictures don't really tell much. pictures of concerts don't really convey anything. they can't carry the music, the smoke, the crowd, the passion. but anyway, as you can see, there are many people. haha. death cab turned out to be better than i expected. i guess having low expectations of things is a good thing. i had high expectations for one of my fav bands blink182 last year, and they turned out crap in their wembley gig. damn bad in fact.

so, death cab proved to be better live than on album. a real, good band plays better than its cd. after all, albums can be manufactured, fine-tuned. their album music seemed boring on their albums. you can't really get into it by listening once. they're one of those where you have to keep listening to. it's only after the gig that i started listening to them properly. love soul meets body, crooked teeth and i will follow you into the dark.

love of mine
someday you will die,
but I'll be close behind;
I'll follow you into the dark.
No blinding light or tunnels
to gates of white,
just our hands clasped so tight
waiting for the hint of a spark.

If heaven and hell decide that they both are satisfied,
illuminate the noes on their vacancy signs.
If there's no one beside you when your soul embarks
then I'll follow you into the dark.

glad derrick jio-ed me for the gig. it's weird that only greg and derrick are the only people i know in london who are interested in gigs. anyway, we intend to go for the subways. hopefully, we can get more people to come along. the more the merrier, the funnier.

secondly, we celebrated lim's birthday last evening. happy birthday limo, my lab partner / winningeleven / watchsocceratapub pal! (he's looking like a pap member here)

sense of satisfaction..

2006-02-27T19:53:00.000Z

got off to a good start for the week. completed about 70% of analogue coursework. by tonight, i should be done with it. left with power, asp and project management.

tomorrow, should be going for a swim. do more work. get inducted for college gym. and then watching death cab for cutie at astoria.

on wednesday, suzi will be in london! more soozi boozy hell coming up.

on friday, marvin will be acting 3 roles in an spl production. act zai only lor.

in between, more coursework should be done. haha. never felt such satisfaction from work. probably have, but only the present work brings the instant taste of gratification (what a load of nonsense.)

still, delighted with monday. delighted with united's league cup win. delighted with singapore's win over iraq. delighted with suzi's blog (ha!).

p.s. iraqi football isn't as war torn as the country. they're actually ranked alongside belgium and finished 4th in the olympics.
(clips here: http://www.football-iraq.net/libary/goals/Asia2006/Iraq_Sing_22_2_2006/)

out on friday..

amazed and admiration..

2006-02-26T01:53:00.001Z

suzi stumbled onto someone's blog again. this time around, it's a former hall mate and a coursemate of mine. don't exactly know him, but most of the singapore ee people know him, esp. hamster girl. anyway, i'm damn impressed by his blog. not its layout or interesting content.but he has a timetable of his days ahead on it. more importantly, the timetable is so packed with self-improvement, hardwork and more work.

the 3 main things that encircle his life: gym/swim, coursework and language work. he starts his day at 6am and ends at 11pm. such discipline. as for me, if i remember, i usually state out a list of tasks for the day the night before. not exactly a list, since it usually contains only 2 main items. for example, on a saturday, i will write down two subjects or coursework that i would focus on and attempt to complete. a successful day would be one where i complete 1 out of 2 tasks. i'll feel very statisfied that the day didn't go to waste. a non-successful day usually means that i don't do any of the tasks. well, i've never completed all the tasks that i list out for a day. never complete every task. unless i state only 1.

so that's the life of yours truly. compared to the life of someone more hardworking and more successful. it's almost the end of feb. time to get down to work.. yeah right.

discussions about religion..

2006-02-24T04:00:00.000Z

woah! what a topic to talk about. nah, not gonna dwell on it, but marvin, kai and i had a long discussion about religions last night/this morning. realised that i haven't forgotten a lot of stuff about christianity which used to be/is/was my faith. as most know, i'm a believer, but not really a follower. i believe in God, but i don't exactly follow God. ok, more on that some other time. anyway, had a good discussion with kai about christians, catholics, etc. we just kept talking and talking until we realised suzi (who was on skype) fell asleep and that it was almost 4am!

anyhow, brought back memories of the last summer i spent in singapore before i came to london for the first time. i remember vividly the stories of zimin, fernn and then yanjie. all pretty amazing. all remain good friends of mine, though i've not spoken to them for a long time. our faith was a common thing we shared. obviously, we've all taken quite different routes with regards to that. well.. told suzi that we'll go to htb when she comes to london the next time round. and when she comes to s'pore, i'll bring her to have a look at hopesingapore.

enough about religion, let's talk about something probably more important to many. champions league football. this week's football has been amazing. first you had henry and fabregas demolishing madrid on tues evening. then you had messi and ronaldinho strutting their stuff at chelsea. simply love it when chelsea gets beaten. more so when you see an 18 year old do stuff that you've rarely seen. after learning spanish, i've had a stronger interest in la liga teams in general. at least, i can pronounce their names more correctly than a certain david pleat on itv. but most importantly, i think there'll be great times ahead for football lovers as we can watch lionel messi develop into a player worthy of being called the next maradona. hopefully.

Barca's main men: Ronaldinho, Messi, Eto'o

hasta pronto!

sick

2006-02-20T18:29:00.000Z

tell you what is sick.

long ge is sick. haha. long ge mixed very bad drinks last fri night. malibu with vodka in great amounts. it's sick that i had to drink it. but then again, i did put beer, wine, vodka and a tinge of baileys together. that created a sick biege-brown suspension, which kai and alfonso duly drank.

the drinks probably caused my present sickness. but maybe, it was lim who passed it to kai who then passed it to me that caused it.

analogue electronics is also sick. it is so monotonous and repetitive. es muy duro.

guess whose feet do they belong to..

a time to slack, a time to start working..

2006-02-17T12:07:00.000Z

reading kai's blog always makes me want to blog. must be the effects of the music that's playing on hers. i must add that i usually skim through her blog, cos it's long. hahaha. no la, sometimes i do read it properly. like just.

anyway, had to skip all my spanish lessons, how ironic, to go to valencia for valentine's day. spanish teacher was quite nice about it. it was a fairly unromantic day i must say. haha. but i think we were both happy to be able to spend the day together, watching kang xi and i guess. quite lame. we did have a lot of food. croissants, pasta, noodles, orientalexpress food, minestrone, etc. food. as important and as enjoyable as anything else man.

with pictures of food, this is starting to look more and more like a cha bor's blog. but i insist on maximising my blog space and new camera. soo... on the far right of the picture, you can see an annoyingly pink thing. yeah, that was suzi's gift for valentine's day. she got what she wanted (a pink v3) and i got what i needed (a camera). how lucky. other than valentine's, the weekend was also fairly interesting. i went to hwa chong night because there was no such thing as aj night. the closest sounding thing to that would be ac night which i doubt i would fit in. instead, i chose to go to hc night since it's quite chinky like aj and i have many close friends performing or going for that event. turned out to be good. i have to say the best performances were the fighting by the imperial ee guys, duets by marvin and yang wen and the short play by spl.

oh yeah, it's time to start working. i spend too much time playing football manager. it's time to work. two months to exam. can't believe it's here again.. sian.

new camera = some pictures

2006-02-10T02:19:00.000Z

first of all, i have to thank my lovely girlfriend suzi for buying this diary for me. it'll definitely change my life in 2006. secondly, i have to thank her again for giving me a new camera for valentine's day. so now, i can be a photo whore like xiaxue. but because of i don't know how to photoshop myself, i shall take pictures of random things like my diary, my notes..

and my unsuspecting housemate..
this way, suzi can see the fruits of her purchase. thanks for the present!

steven gerrard being "tua-ed"

2006-02-07T14:52:00.000Z

even if you're not a football fan, you should check this funny clip of steven gerrard being caught out by a chelsea mascot.. hilarious and cute.

click on this: http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/default.stm

and then there should be a picture of gerrard.

click on that then.

no tengo suerte!

2006-02-05T21:59:00.000Z

no tengo suerte - i have no luck.

yeah been unlucky these days. first, suzi's laptop was damaged the night before she returned to valencia. so, i lent her mine and sent hers for repairs. when it got repaired, its cd-rom drive was damaged by the toshiba peeps. sent it back and went to spain to see her and return her the laptop. i got mine back only to find out my ethernet port stopped working. so, i didn't have stable internet. had to spend 15 quid on an ethernet card. on the way to pcworld, i was stopped by an italian in a car who thought i was italian. wtf. he asked if i wanted to purchase his 4 armani suits that he received from some harrods fashion show. as if. he thought i was stupid and easy to con. so, i told him he was crazy and asked him to sod off. and so he did.

still, i got conned eventually. not by the italian. but by an asian guy at the tube station. no, he wasn't hanging about, trying to sell his used travel card. instead, he was a tube worker. a dude at the ticket counter. i was trying to purchase 2 day travel cards for my friends from newcastle. being oyster-fied, i didn't know they stopped selling carnets (a set of 10 single tickets for a reduced price). so, i asked the asian if i could have 2 tickets for my mates. he gave me one. i returned my change to him and said i wanted 2. he took my money and failed to give me the right change.

being a trusting person (or somehow unaware and stupid), i didn't realise he gave me 10 pounds less than my actual change. not until i went past the ticket gantry. shit! i exclaimed before going back to the guy. by then, he was not at his counter, putting away his hardearned 10 quid. i waited for his return.

"excuse me, i think you gave me the wrong change earlier." (not implying he cheated my money)

"i always give the right change. i gave you the right change. i can't be wrong."

"but i'm sure i was short-changed. i gave you 20 pounds and you returned me only 20p for 2 day travel cards."

"i always give the right change! you don't come back and fucking tell me i gave you the wrong change! it was right when i gave it to you!"

"ok, calm down mate. but i think you're trying to cheat me." (pissed off that he was so damn rude, and now i'm quite sure he tried to cheat me, that piece of crap)

"you don't fucking tell me i cheated you. it's too late. if it was wrong, you should have said. i gave you the right change. even if it's wrong, it's too late. don't fucking tell me i cheated you."

i left before i got really pissed. that nbcb is a bastard really. i'm damn sure he took the money. i'm just sure. the look in his eyes. the way he replied me when i first suggested that he gave me the wrong change. so, great, i gave 10 pounds to the bastard.

on a better note, i had a lot of fun with suzi at valencia on chinese new year day, eating loads of chinky food. and yesterday, i had a great time with shangyuan and nicky. kai really helped me in entertaining and hosting those two from newcastle. and thanks to mary and zhewei, we all got to eat yusheng. also, i must say that i'm a lucky omen for man united. on the 3 occasions i watched them live at old trafford, they won. bolton 4-1, liverpool 1-0 and blackburn 2-1 (carling cup semi. and ronaldo, pique, park and solskjaer came within my licking distance on that occasion. they were all in the stands, not playing). in between those games, they drew a couple of times and lost to blackburn once.

yes yes. i must really put up some pictures especially the one of gary neville and his well-groomed moustache. haha. i will. in due time.

19 days into the New Year.

2006-01-19T23:19:00.000Z

u think u've grown up by the time u've blown 22 candles in a row, and then u realise u haven't grown a bit. instead of growing, i've shrunk in my mind and soul. u think u know it all, and then u realise u didn't know that u actually knew nothing. as a boy, i spoke little and did much. now, i speak too much and do too little. then, u finally know what u need to know, but knowledge is nothing until u've applied it. i keep saying that i know, but do i actually know and understand?

sometimes the words just come out wrong.

2006-01-18T22:10:00.000Z

the problem with words is that once they're spoken and heard, they can never be retreived. many times, i have let words out of my mouth before they have even gone through my brain. i'm too eager to speak, too lazy to ponder and that proves to be a big flaw in me. perhaps, it's much wiser if i speak as much as i blog. that way the chances of saying the wrong things will be minimised. less words, less pain, less guilt.

love is in the air..

2006-01-16T23:30:00.000Z

woohoo!!!

airport incident

2005-11-30T11:51:00.000Z

just last friday, i went to valencia to visit suzi. i reached stansted airport early to make sure i didn't miss my flight, like how suzi almost did the last time round. anyway, i checked-in early, went to the customs early. still, i got delayed 'cos..

they detected traces of explosive elements in my bag!!

ok, i was quite surprised and shocked, but it was one of the things that i always imagined to happen to me, not that i carried explosive elements. i like to imagine things with a paranoid touch. "what if someone places a bag of drugs in my bag and i got caught for that?", etc. anyoldhow, the lady was nice-ish. she didn't treat me like a terrorist, but requested for my items in the bag and did swaps on it. ok then. i don't have an dangerous items on my bag. i have a banana, an apple, my phone, exteral harddisk, mp3player, magazines. but no bombs.

she did the scan again and my bag failed again. this time, she called some other dude to come and take down my details. at that point, i was starting to get a bit worried. worried that i'll be late for my flight. anyway, he was nice too. he didn't treat me like a terrorist and asked me some questions. then they came to a conclusion that it was my bag that triggered the alarm. apparantly, the surface of my bag has some explosive powder. or supposed to have. but my bag is just a bag. a bag that hasn't been washed for ages and probably collected all these interesting stuff along its way. they cleared me in the end and i was free to go to valencia.

and no, the plane did not explode. but i did imagine if something happened, i might have been dead accused to terrorism...

that's the problem with bigger countries..

2005-11-23T15:45:00.000Z

Every citizen of Australia feels offended

WITH regard to Singapore's decision to hang an Australian citizen because he was carrying drugs, please consider for a moment the following questions:

Question 1: Who suffers after Dec 2 until the day that they die?

Answer: His mother, other members of his family and his friends, not the young man himself.

Question 2: Who else is seriously offended by Singapore's actions?

Answer: Every citizen of Australia.

Question 3: How do you think Singapore and its culture are regarded by the civilised world?

Answer: I will let you ponder that one yourself.

Peter Lowe
Australia

Response to Q1: Erm, so if the dude who brought drugs in to Singapore and sold it to other dudes who take the drugs, get high and then die of overdose or ruin his life.. won't the mom, family and friends be suffering too? Oh, so only Australian mothers are allowed to suffer when their sons are hanged for drug trafficking, but other mothers do not have the right to suffer from their children's drug abuse? If you know you are betting with your life, then be ready to lose it and also be ready to let your family members suffer. Is it a selfish act on the part of Singapore to hang someone who's selling drugs to our kids? Or is it a selfish act on the part of the dude to cause such trauma to his family and friends..?

Response to Q2: Maybe every citizen in Singapore is offended and insulted by some Australians' disregard for our laws. But then again, it doesn't matter right, since we're a small country.

Response to Q3: How do you think Australia (being so up yourself) is regarded by the civilised world? I will also let you ponder that one yourself. (and by the way, what has one's culture got to do with this issue? Was that what we're supposed to ponder about? Hmm, i'm still thinking about the link between the two)

happy two years suzi!

2005-11-23T00:34:00.000Z

sexpo 2005 singapore

2005-11-19T13:42:00.000Z

http://uk.news.yahoo.com/19112005/80/singapore-keeps-sex-exhibition-tame.html

"No nudity. No whips and handcuffs. No penis rings. No inflatable sex dolls.

Those were just some of the sex toys barred from display as strait-laced Singapore opened its first sex exhibition under the watchful eyes of the police.

Instead the three-day Sexpo 2005 offered pole dancers, condoms, vibrators, sexy lingerie and sexual health seminars to titillate crowds and excite the libido of a country consistently ranked bottom in a global survey of sexually active."

ooh. we're ranked bottom. interesting. but not too surprising, considering the govt has to encourage us to make babies..

who says newcastle is gloomy? haha..think we were lucky that weekend..

2005-11-15T19:54:00.000Z

fish n chips were huge!!

2005-11-15T19:50:00.000Z

the people from the navy!

2005-11-15T19:49:00.000Z

the people from imperial!

2005-11-15T19:45:00.000Z

birthday, halloween and rockers

2005-11-07T22:10:00.000Z

long time no see blogger.

had my 22nd birthday about two weeks back. suzi flew back from valencia to celebrate it with me. it was really sweet, really appreciate it. and also my friends, who tried to surprise me with a party. obviously, being the thickskinned person i am, i presumed they were gonna celebrate it. didn't help when lim actually msn-ed me to ask me when i prefer to have it. not very smart, lim.

anyway, it was great. thanks to the people who came, gave me the cards and presents and for being there. of cos, have to thank raj and yangwen for baking the birthday cake. i think it's the first time that a cake was baked specially for my birthday. quite touched. haha. on to the presents, apparantly, lim chose the sweater for me. the usual gang shared that gift and i really liked it, that's why i kept wearing it for the past week. Xx was there as well, by some chance of invitation, and he gave me some really thoughtful gift. haha. quite cool la. relive my childhood seh. what else.. got a superbly taken photo of a transsexual greg. greg's straight, but i wouldn't be surprised if he goes down that road few years time. haha. kidding mate.

yeah, of cos. suzi was the best. after all, she's my girlfriend right? she didn't get me one gift, but two! a pair of quiksilver shoes and a valencia cf jersey. very good. her gifts are always very thoughtful. haha. i can imagine her head swelling reading this, and the rest of you cringing. anyway, that was that. thanks guys. and i don't feel older still. haha.

halloween was quite fun too. we all dressed up. raj as a monster-beast-rapist. kai as princess lolita of house of porn (cum rape victim). marvin and me as supposed wizards. suzi as some hot devil. eewen, enxin as kai's male escorts. that sounds wrong. haha. we went around, acting some rape scene. was fun, was fun. guess i won't really get to do it next year since most of them will be leaving for other stuff. how sad.

and in that same two weeks, i went to watch athlete and rooster. i think hardly any singaporeans know them. except for cool people like me. and derrick. haha. so, i went to carling apollo hammersmith to catch athlete with derrick. was great. they're like.. very british, very coldplay genre. but they do have their own style. music was great. but we decided we hate seats. we should really get standing tickets next time.

and then, i went on to watch rooster a few days after. this time with greg. it was pretty cool rooster. they do attract their fair share of young nubile female fans. but music was worth listening to. they rocked shepherds bush. anyway, me and greg came to a conclusion that if we were to form a band ever, we would play this sort of music and not go too hardcore. that way, we will still rock, and attract normal hot girls, rather than weird punk-moshpit-mohawk-gothic-guys and girls. we just want normal female fans. and a few dudes. haha. ok, if that's ever gonna happen.

bring me to back to earth. yup, coursework time. wah lan eh!

trouble..

2005-10-23T01:13:00.000+01:00

Oh no, I see,
A spiderweb, it's tangled up with me,
And I lost my head,
The thought of all the stupid things I said,
Oh no what's this?
A spider web, and I'm caught in the middle,
So I turned to run,
The thought of all the stupid things I've done,

I never meant to cause you trouble,
And I never meant to do you wrong,
And I, well if I ever caused you trouble,
O no, I never meant to do you harm.

-- trouble -- coldplay --

i've heard of people saying that displaying lyrics on one's blog is lame and stupid. sometimes i agree. u know, when people place them becos they think it's cool, it's lame to many. but of cos, i'm placing it not just cos it's cool, but becos these lyrics sound so apt. in certain aspects of me life. anyway, lovely lyrics and lovely melody. i heard coldplay performin this song in singapore when i was in jc2. superb..

week3 of school is about to end. haven't done much. but that's what an ee year 3 be doing. slacking and taking it easy after two tough years. then again, i was almost always this relak in the first few weeks of school. difference lie mainly in the fact that i come home at 11am, 12noon, 2pm nowadays rather than 4-6pm timings. i'm home the earliest amongst my housemates. now that i mentioned them, i officially declare that raj and marvin are good people. they're people that one can live with.. if u can take their extremely high levels of energy..

saturday's passed. sunday's coming. wednesday's almost here. suzi will be here soon! hasta pronto, mi amiga!

school's starting!

2005-10-09T23:23:00.000+01:00

i've always felt a tinge of excitement and anticipation when school's about to start. even when i was young at a boys school (no new hot girls to check out..), i looked forward to the start of school. it was only last year when i didn't feel this way. first year in uni, still new, still a fresher. thought uk uni life would be happening la. but no..! all i remembered was lectures and labs. ok, it was still fun in different ways, but i didn't look forward to second year after that. second year, i knew our workload was shit. i knew we had tonnes of lab and reports and stuff.

this year, sin embargo, it's different. we have fewer lectures. more time at home like our pure sciences counterparts. it'll be good i hope. only thing that spoils it, is our early exams in april. nonetheless, i've been waiting for that first lecture. to see if i will stay awake throughout. i'll be proud of myself if i managed to. hence, after blogging, i shall go to sleep. early.

prior to this week, i had been in valencia spending time with suzi. it was fun. it was an eye opener. i knew more non-singaporeans properly than my first two years in imperial. there are hardly any singaporean there when i was there. no singsoc in university of valencia. it was great. great to experience proper overseas studying. i didn't study of cos. all i did was walk around the valencian streets. checked out her uni. hanged out with suzi's new found italian, finnish friends. real good experience to know people from other countries. eating good food. spending time with her.

my spanish has also been rid of its rust. after last year's exams, i stopped using it until valencia. i had to speak a little here and there. i brought my self study spanish book to brush up my espanol. had opportunities to speak to real spaniards. and i even got to talk to a random old spanish man in the plaza.

anyway, it was great that suzi had stuff planned for me. like the once-a-year bullfight that we went, held in a small town called algemeis, south of valencia. all in all, good. haha. seems like i can't get enough of the place huh. actually, it's enough. the small city. but of cos, i'll be back for suzi.

okay. that's my short update for you people... adios y hasta luego!

goodbye singapore

2005-09-25T09:33:00.000+01:00

it's been a fast and long three months. time flew. but so many things happened. i just feel really jaded and weary. need to have a good break before school starts. going to valencia is a double-edged sword. it could do me a lot of good, but it might just kill me before the academic rat race starts. i'm hoping that i have a fun and refreshing time there, not one that will be filled with squabbles and quarrels. there's too little time to reflect on life this time round. ok, have fun everyone.. it's time to start studying again..

pray for him.

2005-09-15T12:52:00.000+01:00

i have a friend who's in hospital now for an unknown heart problem. just keep him in your prayers. thanks.

no longer confused..

2005-09-12T15:56:00.000+01:00

hey people, i'm back. i'm no longer confused and ready to go. go on my leave, go to london, go to valencia, go and study. my confusion was caused by some stupidity. but the rain has stopped and everything should be fine. right, anonymous?

last week was fun. can't remember what i did on the weekdays. but i do remember the weekend. a run at macritchie on the day after body parts of a maid was found near the toilets we always frequent. followed by some really good bak kut teh, some bargaining with queensway shoe sellers, meeting my insurance agent and highlight of saturday was our superb 37.50 meal at the hawker center. alex, nicky and me shared a quarter of a duck, satay, chicken wings, sambal sting ray, char kway teow, hokkien mee, tang yuan, wanton... and some chendol. quite worth it huh, considering 12.50 pounds wouldn't get me a quarter of a duck in stupid london. day ended with a low when man u drew with man city. night got brightened up by four idiots playing winning eleven till late.

sunday started with some really cock conversations about how alex shouldn't go to the army half marathon. i was supposed to go with him, but defected temporary to nicky-jerome's camp to persuade him to continue sleeping and playing winning eleven after. still, he was too disciplined and i got inspired.. so, we went to the ahm. i ran 12km. he ran less. haha. his knees gave way. anyway, it's crazy to run 12km, let alone 24km. if you wanna feel something neverending and torturous, do the marathon. still, the experience was good. crowd was good too. i was so so tired after, but still went for church. or rather, attended church for the first time in a year plus. heart of God, not hope of God. quite similar and it was pretty refreshing. i didn't sleep at any point of the service, which was surprising considering my lack of sleep and need of sleep.

ended the weekend with birthday celebration for hamster girl. we went to some villa bali bangla bala place which didn't want to serve us more than one glass of water each. their reason was so that we would buy some drinks. i didn't, of course. such moronic people. it was cool what kai prepared for eewen. a video with lots of pictures and audio clips of eewen's squeakily cute voice. after dinner, we went to holland v for ice-cream. good stuff. thanks eewen for treating! haha. alright, monday's almost ended. i want my sleep.

p.s. i love you.

confused..

2005-09-04T17:08:00.000+01:00

oooh.. it's "qi yue"

2005-08-15T13:38:00.000+01:00

watched the maid yesterday with fernn and carol. it's not a bad film. don't know if it's worth 9.50, but you know me, i'm patriotic, i always support singaporean products. i rather my money go to some singlish speaking dude than the idiot in america who keeps bombing the middle east who will one day bomb us. anyway, it's not bad la. go watch it if you think you can live with the story through the chinese seventh month. personally, i don't care much about the seventh month. the ghosts can come and go as they like, as long as i don't see them and they don't come to me i'll be glad to share my space with them.

these few weeks have been eventful. i like events. keep me busy and happy. have organised a bbq for some friends. bbq-cum-drinkfest as some called it. most of us got real high. thanks for bringing the drinks dudes. i should post some photos, but i'm too lazy. haha. i've also met up with the ever-so-busy marvin and yangwen. i swear marvin has a girlfriend out there man. he's always so busy. we went to ktv that day. can't sing, but tried. was fun. bought a pair of damn chio nike football boots. dunno how many times i'll actually use it (count at mo: one). bought the musik cds i wanted. what else.. oh, went to sentosa to prepare for the coming sojourn (imperial orientation for singaporeans). looking forward to it. i always enjoy seeing freshers meeting freshers. it reminds me of my orientation. i was quite reluctant to go because i didn't know anyone else. no one from my jc was going imperial. no one from my ocs wing was going. no one i knew was going. i did go in the end and it was fun. i remember getting drunk on the first night, thanks to navy seniors from imperial. they insisted i had to toast to each of them. anyway, the camp was good. allowed me to know some people before i ventured into london.

talking about london, my flight's likely on the 29th sep. not really looking forward to going back. gotta spend in pounds again. no more laksa, no more wanton mee, no more nasi lemak. only bloody small burgers or boring sandwiches at stupid prices. no more whining navy officers. no more macritchie/gombak runs (hyde park might be my friend next year). no more extremely-cock-talking friends. no more drinking (save the pounds). no more family. no more suzi (she's going to spain). ok. life in singapore is good. gotta enjoy it while i can.. gonna roam singapore in the next ten days with sooze. break from work.. hahaha.

oh! what subjects should i take next year??
considering control, dsp, comm networks, power, electrical energy systems, hci, comms sys?
crap, i have to choose six.. sigh. sian diao.

happy birthday singapore!

2005-08-09T07:38:00.000+01:00

a good few days at last..

2005-08-05T07:04:00.000+01:00

morning's meeting capped a good week for me. my boss presented my work to his boss and there were no complains. so that's pretty good. did what i need to and did not receive any bad feedback so far. also, best denki did its best and quelled my anger. despite its poor phone-to-phone service, it did its part by repairing my two year old laptop. i had actually spoilt two of my keys on my keyboard and it had this "refreshing non-stop" problem. they sent my laptop to hp, got my entire keyboard changed, cleaned my screen and perhaps the insides of my laptop, and made me really happy by telling me that the 300 dollars repair bill has been covered by the warranty that i extended two years ago. it was a good thing i paid that extra hundred dollars when i first bought the laptop. it covered the hardware side of the laptop. so i saved 200 dollars technically. and my laptop's back in business!

went to zouk on wednesday with ed and met up with some navy friends, my buddy included. being sons of the seas, we had to prove that we could take a fair share of alcohol without merlion-ing (navy term: vomiting). and so we did. at least i know i did pass the merlion test. backdating, i received my results last saturday and am just so glad and relieved to manage a first. all the hard work has not gone to waste. obviously, i feel a bit left behind by my superior ee coursemates. i did believe they could get the grades they did. but it was a surprise in some sense since they all believed they couldn't do well. hmm. i guess i'm still lacking in diligence and intelligence when compared to them. shan't compare with them at all man. get depressed. anyway, as long as everyone's a first class, everyone's happy. i'm happy. definitely man. whether a 70.00 or 80.whatever.

so.. all in all. freaking good week for me. long time since i have a good run of things coming along for me. two weeks more and suzi will be here for holidays! woohoo..

marina bay, chee bay or kao bay?

2005-07-30T16:26:00.000+01:00

after certain hooha about 600,000 dollars being wasted on a charity ceo, we now have a 400,000 dollars issue on marina bay. did we spend our money on nothing? we paid a company 400k to rename a place after its previous name or rather current name. whatever. marina bay, after few years of "consultancy" and "research" and "thinking" is now called marina bay! so much for the creative thinking that we've been trying to encourage our youths to have. so much for the uniqueness we're trying to create.

anyway, i wrote in to cut waste panel to make my discomfort known. after all, our govt is now more open to rationale criticisms. and i'm hoping that they will be able to get a refund from the very very good company interbrand. is it interbrand? ya.. if we can take this 400k back, maybe we can give all the students in jcs to come up with a more creative name to replace marina bay. top prize shall be 3000 dollars. plus a free entry to smu, the creative uni. and then, the rest of the money can be given to students annually to rename different parts of our country. that's a good way to encourage creativity.

of course, by writing to the cut waste panel, it means that i must be prepared to give some good names to replace marina bay. i've thought of a few possible ones. we could call the "new happening" place Stamford Bay. sounds very ang moh. so we can definitely attract many british people and americans to rent our condos there. good for investment. if not, we can name it as Raffles Bay. sounds prestigious. goes a long way with our favourite school and college, raffles institution and raffles junior college and soon raffles university.

on another level, we could call it Chee Bay, naming it after our favourite opposition politician chee soon juan. we should honour him because despite supposedly being a gangster and all, he dared to ask sm goh "where did the money go?". now he can ask the govt again, where did the 400k go? that would be a pretty fitting name. one last name i can think of is Kao Bay. it is ideally singaporean as we all know we love to kao bei (complain) about everything we can think of. even this entry is kao beh-ing.

note: i did write in to cut waste panel. but i didn't give them my suggested names. i'm quite worried that they might think i'm insulting people here, but hopefully they will get my odd sense of humour.

best denki.. my @$$

2005-07-27T12:59:00.000+01:00

me: hello
bestdenki: hello, best denki. how can i help you?
me: oh, i'm calling to find out about my laptop. i sent it in for repairs about a week ago.
bd: ok, wait ah.. what's ya name?
me: mr chua
bd: hold on ah mr chua.

-3min-

bd: hello mr chua. your laptop is now with hp. it'll take two to four weeks for the repairs to be done.
me: alright then, but can i just find out if they've found out the problem with it and a more precise estimate of when i can get it back?
bd: sure. wait ah..

-2min-

bd: mr chua, can i call you back to let you know? i'll call them now.
me: ok.

-one day later-
me: hello. i'm calling regarding my laptop.
bd: hp laptop is it? mr chua?
me: yesyes. like to find out its status.
bd: can i call you back to let you know?
me: erm..but..ydayyyy..
bd: i'll call you back ah.. 96!^)(^@?
me: yesyes.

-another day later-
same thing repeats

-yet another day later-
me: hello. i'm calling again again again.
bd: laptop? mr chua, i'll call them to find...
me: ya, you guys told me that, the last three times i called you
bd: sorry ah. anyway, they are changing something in your laptop. so i think next thu. or i think sunday. i'm not sure. but thu or sun. they say, it should be done. i'll call you when we've collected it..
me: are you sure you'll call or not? later.. wah lan eh.. i have to call another three times before you can tell me a simple thing like that.. are you guys stupid or something? knn, can't even do something simple. can't even call me back when you said you would. knnbccb. best denki my lan. fcuk, i don't wanna pay for my repairs. better give it back to me free. ccb.

ok, i have not spoken to them in the way i did (italics bit). but i'm intending to do so when i go collect my laptop. i really don't feel like paying those BeeDees.

suzi suzi suzi suzi suzi suzi suzi suzi suzi suzi

2005-07-23T00:00:00.000+01:00

happy 20th!

imp-erial!

2005-07-19T14:50:00.000+01:00

just attended a dinner celebrating the promotions in our organisation. packed with happy people, the promotees and the promotees-beneficiaries (people like me who didn't get promoted but were there for free food and "qia-ing"). being a fledging still in the department, it was inevitable that the more senior people asked me and my junior about our current status.

typical conversation

"so you're in xyz department?"

"yeah, indeed."

"are you permanently there or attachment?"

"i'm on vacation attachment, going back to study in about 2 months' time."

"WAH! so late ah? why ah? overseas ah? which uni?"

"i'm studying in imperial college."

"WAH (LAN EH, if the person's a joker)! IMPerIaaL (note the variation in pronunciation) ah?" [with eye brows twitched in a manner to show him being impressed]

"yup, imperial college"

sometimes, i wonder why they do that. why the big hoohah. i guess it's something i would do if i asked someone where he/she was from and he/she said oxford/cambridge/mit/stanford/manymore.

it's a thing that we all do. most of us do rather. we do it for a few reasons. but i note the two biggest reasons.

number1 reason-cum-myth: being in imperial means you're gonna be a high-flyer in the organisation. after all, most of your colleagues or future colleagues are likely to be from nus/ntu/smu. so, because you're an Ovalsees student, you're a high-flyer.

WRONG!

high-flying-ness is when you're given a high-flying scholarship, not when you're a lowly awardee. so i'm not high-flying. i still take my chartered bus to work and don't intend to buy a car in the next dunno how many years.

number2 reason-cum-myth: being in imperial without a highly scholarship means you're darn rich.

WRONG!

i'm not darn rich. but of course, i won't say my family's poor. but ya, being in imperial doesn't mean my family's loaded and snobbish and annoyingly rich and proud and rich. i was brought up as a peasant. my dad worked his way up to sponsor me for my overseas studies. so it's wrong to say that i'm a rich bastard. or rich kid. or something. obviously, i won't say i'm poor 'cos it would be implying that 600000 is peanuts.

all in all, being in imperial means nothing. it's an experience. it does give you a name. you become a gimp (what other uk students call us). you have a degree with a different heading. i guess it's good that we're different. still, hardwork counts for all. i still need to work hard to get a good degree. after all, a 2nd upper nus degree is better than a 2nd upper imperial degree.

okay, myths debunked.

i miss..

2005-07-17T13:41:00.000+01:00

my laptop

and the saga continues/ends.. my friends rock..

2005-07-14T13:39:00.000+01:00

nkf nkf nkf. people who live outside singapore and are not singaporeans have a fascination over singaporeans having a thing for abbreviations. everything we have, we abbreviate. saf, nkf, cte, pie.. this time round, our very own best-in-sg charity organisation got into some pr trouble. i shan't go into it, since everyone's so into it already and i'll just be repeating everything that everyone said. one thing i can't get over is the statement by mrs gct. something like "600,000 dollars a year is peanuts to a multi-million organisation". just can't get my head round the figure and the word peanut. anyway, it's quite amazing how everyone has raised their voices to voice their opinions about this issue. i guess, when it comes to singaporeans' money, you can't really argue with them..

terrorists, "deceiving" charities.. time to update everyone on my status in singapore. the past few weeks have been quite good. exercising a lot. eating a lot. meeting friends a lot. all very good activities. my parents commented that i come back to singapore to recharge myself before going back to london. i kinda agree. 3 months of non-stop eating, playing and working out then i'll go back to london to hibernate like a squirrel. i don't do much when i'm alone in london. i just go to school and watch stuff on my laptop. with suzi going to spain next year, i can embark on a studymonkhoodship, where my focus solely lies on rescuing my degree.

singapore's good for doing stuff. food is frickin cheap. the kfc's chicken is bigger than the uk's kfc chicken. the laksa is better than the non-existence laksa in london. weather's good for going out. in london, i just feel like stayin in the flat the whole day cos everyday's a sleeping day. singapore clubbing is as good as london, because it's cheaper. i didn't club at all during the entire academic year in london. i went to double o with some of my navy mates last night and it was fun. yes yes, i assured suzi nothing will happen and nothing did. we just chilled and played stupid games. i enjoy watching people getting drunk and spouting nonsense (not puke tho). so i always aim to drink till i'm high but stay sober so that i can catch my friends doing foolish things.

one thing i love about being back is getting to meet up with my friends. it's like making a new friend. absence between friends can actually make it more fun to hang out. i'm glad i have friends at my workplace. it makes work less dull and everything else more fun. three weeks have passed.. i need to prioritise my goals..

1. eat bedok ba chor, kayu prata, beef noodles, mee siam, kaya toast, etc. etc. etc.

2. buy stuff i need to buy. mp3 player, music cds, shoes, clothes..

3. meet the rest of my friends.

and don't worry.. i haven't forgotten about you suzi.. still missing you.

a letter to terrorists

2005-07-07T14:40:00.000+01:00

dear terrorists,

it was a really nice sight, seeing the london double decker bus being blown into pieces. it reminded me of the last 9 months i had in london, taking the bus and always sitting on the top level with suzi on our way to school. we ain't no proper british with white hair and white skin. the dudes sitting behind us happen to be pakistanis. the ones to our right were japanese. the ones in front of us were pious female muslims wearing their fully muslim dress. i wonder who got killed in the well-syncronised blasts conducted by you. hardcore anti-muslims-islam-middle-east british? or people from other corners of the world seeking to better their lives in a multi-racial london?

it could have been me who was blown into pieces. certainly not an appetising sight, since my blood is probably quite oily from years of eating char kway teow. my insides are probably coated with acid burns from drinking coca cola. but it wasn't me. it was some random dude/chick who wanted to go to work. so i'm asking you, what's your purpose of these attacks? you said in the name of allah you're doing this. you say it's to free your people from palestine. you say it was to teach the frickin americans-british-coalition a lesson on how to treat others. so? did you achieve any of this by continuing to cut our heads off and blow our parts into pieces?

AS IF. as if, we or rather, they (americans-british-therestofthesupposedislamhatingworld) would give you a piece of land in israel. what would you name the place? terror-land? would your citizens be called terrorists? how are you gonna live? will people wanna sell your their food? their materials? their sex toys? i'm sure they would wanna give you their blessings after you cut off their heads. think about it.

have your violence brought anything? have violence brought anything? i'm not saying the americans and british are the good people and you're the bad ones. they suck too when they bomb random people from your nations. they're mfs when they kill some of you at your weddings. but think about it. will they stop doing this if you keep killing them randomly? someone has to stop. and you know the supposed superior people will not. gandhi freed a nation using his tummy. did the british give up in the end? yeah, they did. martin luther used his mouth to speak for the blacks. did he use a gun? nope, but the blacks are better off now. i can't think of more examples. but think of the ira. think about the civil wars that never end. in the end, sufferings only end when you end your violence.

anyway, please use your brians la. come on man, if you can make bombs and fly a plane, why not use your intelligence for something useful other than killing people? if you can plan such a intricate bombin plan that occurs right after london wins the olympic bid and just before the G8, maybe you could organise a mass peace walk to demonstrate your goal to free your land? maybe then, people will then realise you're not all about violence, not all about killing, and that you're useful and helpful to the society. alright, i'm not making any more sense, but please la, wake up your idea man.

i know it's not as simple as i say, but one thing is truly simple. these childish fights will never end when you don't stop being a pussy and killing our innocent when they're fucking unaware. if you want, i'll try writing a letter to bush and his poodle to advise them not to kill your people in iraq anymore. in the meantime, if an american or british soldier wants to shoot you, why not drop your weapons and tell them you wanna be friends? smile at them and i'm sure they'll realise you're a good old muslim who truly loves allah. allah loves people right? or does he wanna kill all of us?

yours truly,
officer chua

independence day.. first day of work and many other happenings..

2005-07-04T18:17:00.000+01:00

yipee yay! seems like i haven't blogged for long, but it's only less than a week. i'm back in the sunny island, where the ioc (olympic whatever) is taking centre-stage, amongst the news of murder of a chinese lady and the killer filipino maid. i miss london of course and suzi. a lot a lot. but i've gotta make use of these three months innit? i've met a couple of friends already. too bad i didn't take any photos 'cos my friends all look damn good la! especially ed da man, whose droopy drugged-up eyes and nice out of the bed hair looks damn cool. enough on ed da man. i'm gonna meet him and the rest this coming wednesday. i better bring my camera phone at least.

everyone have said i've lost weight. my parents, my whoever, my colleagues! today was the first day of work. didn't do much work since there wasn't much work. did run a few km and tired out damn easily. it's good to be back working 'cos it gives me opportunity to put on weight by eating the canteen food and also build up my fitness. it was great catching up with my friends and colleagues. so much to say, but still a lot of time.

i'm not really doing this in sequence, but after i came back, i went to msia to visit my grandparents. my grandpa's sick. long story cut short. he was supposed to pass away last week or two weeks ago. he went into a coma and everything. but somehow, he's managed to pull himself out of it and now he's alright. only thing is he's suffering 'cos he's got dripped and also can't move any part of his body except his head and maybe minimal of the arms and legs. any-old-how, i'm glad he's fine. it shows one thing, when you're old, it's really difficult to live like you do when you're young. so i'm gonna remember how my grandpa is so that i'll treasure my youth more. so much to do, so little time.

my grandma's alright tho. she's fighting fit like an saf soldier. maybe more. haha. she's 80plus. and still looking really healthy. bought her some vitamins to improve her health. but i really should take care of my own health man. apparently, i might have some kind of blood disorder which isn't that serious, but bad for offspring if i do have it. ask the biologists or medics what thalassemia is. i think its spelt that way.

basically, many things have happened in these nine months away. more so, maybe in the past two-three months. my aunt (one of my many aunts) gave birth to her 2nd kid, but almost died because of blood loss or something. my other aunt got married. my cousin got married. my dad fell sick for some time. fuck, i was damn worried. and it happened before the exams. i'm glad he's fine. it seems like i'm just talking cock now and being really light hearted about everything, but the only reason i'm doing this is cos everything has turned out fine for the moment and i'm glad i can stop worrying for a bit. though i've not been to church for some time, i think i should thank God for protecting everyone around me.

so, dear friends, do take care of your health man. and don't worry your parents or cause trouble when you get ill. haha. i'm directing this particularly to a friend who should know who she is. haha. cos health is indeed wealth. better take care. ya.. enough nagging.. i'm gonna live my life properly. run everyday, meet up my friends, love the people i'm supposed to love, eat my heart out, keep my heart in and serve the nation..

pictures will be coming soon!!!

goodbye london..

2005-06-29T09:52:00.000+01:00

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..

2005-06-23T09:16:00.000+01:00

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?

2005-06-22T16:49:00.000+01:00

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..

2005-06-20T19:58:00.000+01:00

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?

2005-06-15T08:44:00.000+01:00

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..

2005-06-11T13:32:00.000+01:00

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!

2005-06-10T16:32:00.000+01:00

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

2005-06-08T19:36:00.000+01:00

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..

2005-06-08T15:47:00.000+01:00

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..

2005-06-06T16:33:00.000+01:00

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..

2005-06-05T13:42:00.000+01:00

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..

2005-06-03T11:08:00.000+01:00

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?

2005-06-01T17:45:00.000+01:00

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.

imperial college - a mental institute?

2005-05-29T20:22:00.000+01:00

it's not because i'm gonna be mad.. but imperial college mech eng dept, or rather its "beautiful" exterior is being used by hollywood for a scene in the sequel of basic instinct. you know the one where sharon stone infamously showed some stuff between her legs whilst not wearing any knickers? so, the film people were here in imperial for two days, sat and sun to film whatever there was of imperial. anyway, i didn't see sharon. or see them filming, but apparently, according to suzi, imperial was being used as the backdrop of a mental institute. thinking about it, it does look a bit of a mental institute. not that i've been to one. but ya, the environment can look a bit mental.

yup, but the exams is making me go mad. power is driving me crazy. i thought it was simple. it looks simple in the notes. it looks short and sweet. until you try the problem sheet. and worse, the exam papers. knnbccb. it's like wtf. i'm like i dunno how to do lor. so i'm damn sian. but wah lan eh. if i cant do power, i don't have to do the paper since fields and devices are shit too. so.. i have to go on. i feel crap la. but wah lan. what else is there to say or do? but to study on.. and go on.. my heart will go on.. as if..

so anyway, i'm worried that maths will go down because of the exertion i have by the power, fields, devices paper. hope everything will go well. it's really annoying la. annoying that they put three consecutive papers. mental institute indeed.

its getting hot in here, so take off all your clothes

2005-05-27T17:23:00.000+01:00

yeahyeahyeah. the hottest day of the year in london. a great big total of 28 degree celsius. it's really hot. not sacarsm intended. can't imagine being back in singapore. so anyway, today was my third paper. very nice. very delicious indeed. but before i do my analysis on it, shall talk about other stuff..

did you know there existed a blog by a singaporean that supposedly clocks 8000 hits a day? no? ok, i'll give you the link. www.xiaxue.blogspot.com
apparently, this girl xiaxue won some award for best asian blog or something. didn't know they gave such awards. and no, i didn't surf upon it randomly cos i was sadly surfing through the next blog function on my blog. i was reading straits times online and saw it. so there you go. anyway, this blog is quite entertaining. a lot of vulgarities, a lot of pictures, a lot of comments. so go read it. it's pretty pink too.

another blog that i highly recommend... "ok, i don't highly recommend the first one, but you should read it since it's popular"... is http://www.xanga.com/home.aspx?user=nevillenah
my friend neville nah. not a very close friend. but close enough to read his blog. still, eewen who doesn't know him read his blog religiously. so, goes to show that it's a blog full of intellect and humour. i enjoy reading it. it's funny, humourous (ok same meaning), sacarstic, yet educational and rational. so go read it. neville's blog. not gary or philip. but nah's. now to control..

control paper

comments:
told the rest this would be alright. no stunners. just an allwright paper. standard stuff. very happy that i memorised the whole chunk of compensators. and also, thanks to the indian guy in the library, he made me go through nyquist diagrams a thousand times. anyway, special thanks goes out to lim and kai, who have helped me overcome the fear of nyquisting. i'm glad they taught me. if not, i'll be complaining now.

passability:
i'll still complain though. about not getting full marks. no, not being arrogant. just being truthful. quite alright paper set by allwright. so.. sad i failed to answer a few questions correctly. but anyway, it's over. very very passable. i'll demand for a re-count if i fail this. i'll be surprised if i didn't get an A. so, hope this pulls up my 2 previous papers. score at 30min: 2 - 1

next: power, fields and devices on tuesday. maths 3 on wed. maths 4 on thu. crazy week next week. may the power be with us. i need a lot of power to overcome the field of questions and devise some method to do the maths. weightage next week 25%. let there be life..

Amazing Comeback..!

2005-05-25T22:55:00.000+01:00

44
mins
Liverpool have been completely outplayed in this first-half. Milan's front three have been breathtaking; Crespo and Shevchenko have made some fantastic runs, and Kaka has consistently found them.

45
mins
The Liverpool fans look stunned; they knew it was a tough task to beat this excellent Milan side, but I don't think they expected to get torn apart.

46
mins
HALF-TIME: Surely that's game over. Liverpool have been destroyed in the first 45 minutes, offering nothing going forward and being ripped apart at the back.

91
mins
FULL-TIME: We will have half-hour of extra-time after Liverpool produced a stunning comeback to get themselves in to the match.

120
mins
MILAN 2-3 LIVERPOOL: Shevchenko tries to be cute. He succeeds only in chipping the ball lamely at Dudek and making himself look like a fool. LIVERPOOL WIN THE CHAMPIONS LEAGUE!!!!

i might have shot myself in the foot..

2005-05-24T16:07:00.000+01:00

yeah, delphi exam today. shot myself in the foot. i didn't think enough. not think about the questions, but think about scoring marks. first question was a giver. but i should have shown my methods of getting the answers for first few parts. now, if i've made any careless mistakes, my marks will all go down the drain. it was an okay paper. not easy, not difficult. but it's all about persuading the marker that you deserved the marks innit? don't think i did that enough and it's demoralising me a bit. oh, kai apparantly didn't do that well for 2nd part. but i guess, kai, you shouldn't worry 'cos you'll still do well for it. i hope the same happens for me. two papers and i feel totally drained. this is not a nice feeling. crap...

delphi paper

comments:
fairly ok paper as everyone would agree. nothing much to say about it, since if you've got it, you've got it.

passability:
very passable. A-able? i don't know. i keep thinking if i did alright-ish and the marker is happy, i'll get an A. but i should stop thinking about external circumstances and focus on what i can do. i'm becoming reliant on probabilites and possibilities that moderation is gonna happen. this isn't good. yeah, this paper is not about passing, it's about scoring high enough to cover my ass for the next 8. but looks like, it's gonna contribute very little to that. sigh..

next paper: control on friday. i have to stop sighing and start working again. this is not nice as i say it a second time. the feeling of ending one paper and having to start revising 100% for the next..

the start

2005-05-23T16:31:00.000+01:00

i've decided i'll blog a bit after every exam i take. this way, i can take a break and vent all my frustrations before i continue studying for the next paper. doing ee in imperial isn't easy. this is of course not helped by the new lecturers coming into imperial. one particular one comes from stanford with cap 4.17. nabar the great. i have no issues against him and see him only as a step up for imperial ee. however, for my own personal well-being, his presence has led to a new "challenge" in our signals paper. before today, signals was an alright subject to take and pass. today..

signals paper

comments:
i'll stop a little short of using f-word-ing hard to describe the paper. everyone agrees with me i think. but you never know. some might have been able to overcome the "challenge"

passability:
really don't know. i'm believing in the power of moderation. i have to. i have to hope that everyone else did as badly as or worse than me. sorry other people...

tomorrow: algorithms and data structure or data structure and algorithms (depending on which is the tree and which is the child). in layman terms, computing language.. i'll be back..

a boy named chatura..

2005-05-19T17:40:00.000+01:00

this is a short story written in admiration for a boy named chatura..
chatura is a boy living in the imperial college library.
as of what i know, he's a student in imperial.

a boy named chatura

there is a boy named chatura
it seems like he have lots of chakra*
tanned, broad-shouldered and 7 foot tall
he probably could answer kaileng's call

every day, he's present on the fifth floor
although it is quiet, stuffy and all
but in the midst of the sheer silence
chatura showed his great balance

he danced to the rhythm of funky rock beats
his robotic trances were no easy feats
his moves reminded me a lot of jacko
and he certainly was no ordinary wacko

the students were tired as the time went by
but dancing chatura was still very high
as the final burst of revision came to an end
what chatura was doing, i still can't understand

*chakra = energy of some form (naruto term)

nightmares..

2005-05-16T19:09:00.000+01:00

wah lan eh. i just wanna be like junsheng and spout all the vulgarities here. but nevermind, i shall hold my breath and count to ten. this year's exams is really wah lan eh i tell you. it's the most wah lan eh ever. a levels was alright, studied like shit, but could understand most of the stuff and could do most of the questions. even had the time to go through the syllabus a few times. this time, it's really wah lan eh. go through at most one time. can't register anything can't remember anything and can't do anything. ok la, it's not that bad, but it's the worst exams i've ever prepared for.

no wonder, all of us are starting to have nightmares. i don't know if it's good or bad. i think nightmares can be quite good and useful actually. if i had a nightmare about flunking my exams, when i wake up, i'll probably be motivated to study harder. if i had a nightmate about not knowing how to do certain questions, at least it's only a nightmare and not a reality yet. so i guess nightmares are not too bad. since they're firstly not real. secondly, they can prepare you for the real thing. and of course, they don't usually come true. like dreams.

but what if, it does come true. then wah lan eh. i will wanna shout out like junsheng.

a morning of fun.. an afternoon of work..

2005-05-08T15:20:00.000+01:00

it's 3.20pm now. and i've done everything but study. but i shall not whine about the exams anymore. i woke up fairly early today. then watched some naruto with suzi before cooking bak kut teh. i love bak kut teh. it's one of the best chinese food around. and, i can cook it fairly well. not that it's difficult though. haha. so we went grocery shopping and watched more naruto. i must say it's addictive, but annoying when they do the flashbacks so many times. still, it's a great anime.

so, now i'm here in the bio com lab. it's conducive because it has few people in it. no noisy sh*ts like in the library. a lot of space. and a lot of computers. it's not conducive because it has wonderful internet connection. it's too troublesome to explain why i chose to subject myself to computer temptation. anyway, it's two weeks to the exams. i'm just looking forward to the post-exam period. then, i can start worrying about packing up our stuff, moving house and returning to singapore, where all will be cheap and well. i need this break man. not that it's much of a break in the navy. but at least i can rest my brains for a bit. looking forward to meeting my family and friends. of coure, i'll miss you.. you and you uk people.

there's nothing else to blog about except..

2005-05-05T14:39:00.000+01:00

exams. yeah, there's frankly nothing else worth blogging about. exams take centre stage in all of our lives at the present moment. people have been asking me out. but i have to kindly refuse their tempting offers, because it simply is not right to have fun at this moment. the amount of money we spent on food, fees, accomodation, transportation, fun.. the amount is gonna be justified by the end results of our exams. if we do well, money well spent. if i don't, then it's a waste of money. and time. yup, time is indeed precious when you have less than 3 weeks to your exams. it's disturbing, but exams have become our masters. we've become the slaves of exams. exams no longer serve their purpose of testing our knowledge and judging how much we've learnt in our course. rather, we've succumbed under the pressure of results and worshipped exams. everything we do now are for the exams. if we are gonna do anything other than for the exams, it might just haunt us in late august, early september.

on the brighter side of life, raj, marvin, suzi and me are gonna share a house next year. i expect to have loads of fun, hair-plucking, laughters and certainly, some unavoidable conflicts. after all, conflicts always occur when people live together. nevertheless, i'm sure my future housemates are mature and good people. so kenway's gonna rock!

watching liverpool and psv outplay their opponents in the champs league also proved something. talent is not everything. hardwork combined with some level of skill is the key to success. i certainly need that sort of luck the scousers had. lucky me.

15 years series

2005-04-30T11:30:00.000+01:00

yesterday or two days ago (memory's failing me), our analogue lecturer dr papavasilousolatidore (dr papa) told us to forget about doing past year papers for analogue. his reason was that the past year papers were set by different lecturers, and our paper will be solely set by him and will be totally different from theirs. nevertheless, he had to take a dig at students. first, he mentioned that he knew of societies who possess such past year papers. the greek society have 5 years worth of past year papers. alright, that sounds normal. and then he added that the singaporean society has 15 years worth of papers.

fifteen years??? that means we're supposed to have papers dated back to 1990. in 1990, i just got enrolled to catholic high school. back then, we learnt some simple english words, like car, bus, bicycle. we learnt how to add two apples with five apples. but ya, fifteen years on, so according to dr. papa, i'm to know what a Deliyannis is now. anyway, back to the apparant singaporean archive of past year papers, i'm appalled. haha, nah, it's a known fact that singaporeans are supposed to be kiasu, but for lecturers to know of our behaviour, i'm surprised. i don't have that 15 years of papers. i do know amongst us, we have a rare 1993 paper. amazing huh. the power of the singaporeans. thing is, i wish i was more kiasu. i haven't started on any of such papers. i'm just about to start on my fifth module of the course. so i have 5 more to study. very slow, by singaporean standards. very slow, by any standard. i wanna be more singaporean!

a test to encourage u before the exams..

2005-04-27T12:31:00.000+01:00

picked this up from yanjie's blog.

quite a good iq test. short and sweet too.

http://asiantown.net/blog/fla/are_you_dumb.swf

i managed to do very well in it by the way.

a dream a dream!

2005-04-20T10:43:00.000+01:00

yeh, enxin always blogs her dreams. and just before i forget about this interesting dream, i must blog it down!

alright, it's getting more and more vague as time passes by. but anyway, this is the rough idea of my dream. can't remember where it starts. but, i just remember standing near a lift where one of my heavier size friends was with another heavy dude. so basically, the lift can fit quite a number of people, maybe 4 people. so, they entered the lift, but the lift refused to close its door. somehow, me and my friend closed the door. weird lift, but anyway, then it refused to elevate. because of my friend and the other heavy dude. so anyway, the lift sank back to its original position. then my friend shouted to me, "eh, wei chuen, push the lift up lei". of course, this is impossible in real life la, but it's a dream, so i could push the lift up slightly. i don't know how i got into into the elevator shaft too. whatever, the lift started elevating slightly, then it went wrong. the lift came back down at an angle and smashed into the wall. don't know how to explain. my friend was fine, so was the guy with him. but the whole place started to be shaky.

thing is the place reminds me of a hall or a camp. can't remember. a lot of dudes. a lot of my navy friends. but seems like a hall in london, where the floors and walls are thin and made of cupboard. so the hall starting shaking bit. i was worried that it's gonna be like hotel new world. so i called all my friends in the hall to get out of the place. everyone got out, and then i ended in a bus with two of my navy mates. one's royston, the other's pcc. royston sat beside me. but before that, he was scolded by a malay auntie for having a smelly armpit. then, pcc came over and talked to us. as he talked, he was facing me and got closer to me. pcc being pcc had quite sexy lips for a dude. and it was funny, cos he leaned closer and closer to me and our lips were damn close. then, i was like "eh, pcc, are you gay or what?". he said, "no.." and he retreated. ok, that's all i can remember. dreams are weird man. but interesting to blog. haha.

feels like my brains are gonna ooz out of my head

2005-04-16T19:54:00.000+01:00

i prefer studying to working. i've told this to many friends. but i don't really like studying stuff that i can't understand. at the moment, my brains are (or my brain.. or my left and right brains are.. whichever is correct) very very tired. it feels like they wanna come out of my head.

football provides some sort of relief. i'm happy for my bro that they beat juve and got to the semis of champs league. finally, something to look forward for the underachievers. then again, man united's not doing very well. so pool fans can looks at us and laugh at us in our faces. anyway, the pool vs spurs match was quite good. the goals were damn good. i know some dudes and most girls can't understand the fuss about football. i also can't explain it. it's just like.. trying to explain why guys are generally more horny than girls. or why the sky in london is always fuckin grey. or why the weather in april in london still seems like winter. or why i can't understand what i'm reading. or why i'm writing this...