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My inner soul is beginning to awaken again

2009-12-14T15:17:00.000+08:00

Went to a Chalet at Sentosa Siloso Beach last Sat in tandem with Zouk out and had a ball of a time. A room cost a whopping $420 per night.The resort itself was quite a tropical getaway and the landscaping was totally gorgeous. That's what I call a paradise. Courtesy of my neighbour Noel. (who bought a spanking cool auto rex on the same day.) On a side note, entry to Sentosa was raised to $7 and carpark charges were $5 + $3.21 for overnight and after 6am per entry charges.

The people were cool and I got to know quite a handful of new friends from the US, Japan, London, Phillipines and of course Singapore. Always love meeting new people from different cultures. Conversations really burst to live with lively exchange of cultures.

Had quite a fair bit of knit shots that totally KO me throughout the night. It was pure an alcoholic celebratory affair coz we down almost every brand of beer sold in Singapore. When the beer excitement wore off, we hit the hard liqour only to find out that we ran out of mixers. So it was concentrated knit all the way. Fanatically high atmosphere.

Woke up in a mild state of euphoria ard 7 and realised I didnt puke and sleep by the corridor (thank goodness!) Haha. Had to stride over to ensure that I didnt step over people who were dead drunk on the floor.

Went for a morning walk with Geraldine (a new friend whom had FHM potential in her) to source for breakfast. I swear its tough to buy food in Sentosa in the early morning hours. In the end, we had to walk from Siloso beach to Palawan beach to source for food at 7-11. Ended up buying Nasi Lemak for myself, Geraldine bought Claypot chicken rice and bought a sandwich for Vin (Geraldine's friend). And oh... Tram service were non operational. So the total morning trip to get breakfast took almostg an hour to and bro. Good company for a morning walk. Love the sunrays as they kiss the sandy beaches and the soothing breeze that awakens as it blows into your face.

Noel and gang had gone for breakfast by time we got back. The room was in a mess after a night's of partying. A typhoon had definitely hit it for the night! Did basic clean up and segregated the empty bottles of liquor from the (almost empty) ones. Housekeeping is definitely gonna curse and swear. LoL. Checked out at 12 and headed home with Noel as we tore the expressway tarmac half awake. Hit home, slept a little, and went down to East Coast Park for a Roller Blading session. It's madness, considering I was semi drunk when I bladed. Partially dislocated my shoulder in the process, darn old injury. Nonetheless, a good weekend with tons of fun.

Food poisoning

2009-12-10T12:52:00.000+08:00

I've been down with bad food poisoning since 2 days back and my tummy makes weird noises at odd hours every now and then. It must be the cursed Satay Bee Hoon with half cooked cockles. Cant think of any other culprits. Toilet trips are like once every hour. That's bad, it makes it damn inconvenient to go out. Went thru my CMFAS M6 paper yesterday with a freaking head spinning feeling and a uneasy stomach. Losing hell of a lot of fluid during my sessions with the royal throne. I think there's some kinda of gas churning bateria in my stomach/ intestines. Makes me feel damn bloated without any appetite to eat at all. Went to Marina Square Kenny Rogers for dinner yesterday and barely touched 20% the quarter chicken and ribs set which was shared with Jer. Kept getting that damn nauseuos and on/off wanna puke feeling. Feels like Im pregnant or something.

To add to my misery, I have a throbbing headache which doesnt seem to go away. Panadol Acti-fast seems ineffective.... Woke up this morning feeling crappier than b4. Food poisoning has reduced me to a wimpy state of mankind. Sian. :(

Bummer

2009-12-08T08:48:00.003+08:00

Received an email from OCBC yesterday. I've not been shortlisted for my application for a trainee dealer. Bummer. :(

I feel like I'm in the "We need people with limited experience, but nobody is giving me any" parody. It suxs not being able to get into the field that I'm really into. Its a junior trainee position anyway. I still hope I get shortlisted when more vacancies are opened.

I am back

2009-12-07T16:40:00.005+08:00

It's amazing how time flies. It's been 3 years + since I last blogged. Looking back, I can't help wondering how working life has changed me inside out. I've quit my job at Sony since end October this year and it feels good that I have a chance to take the steps to follow my passion in life.

3 years flew by, I worked hard at Sony. Bought a gorgeous Subaru hawkeye impreza for daily commute within 6 months at the job. Went around for business trips, travelled to Miyagi Japan, loved that place, loved the culture, love everything there. Worked in Batam and hated the working environment, and the weekly trips that only allowed me to return to Singapore on weekends. Learned to appreciate Singapore even more ever since. Learnt to see the corporate world, business strategy and dealings, saw how to solve real problems with both people and machines. Had a tough but ever willing to teach boss who shared the same passion for Subaru cars. Worked endless hours, days and nights. Weekends and public holidays. I saw batches of people from various batches, come and go. Became the last sole standing survivor at Sony when all my peers had left to pursue their dreams. Lost of large chuck of my social life due to the mental and physical overload on myself. These 3 years were fulfilling in a dark way, very rich in dark black and grey hues but somehow lacked the colour that made life beautiful. Finally had the courage and decided to quit and regain my sanity. Currently trying to lay the bricks to find a new start within the financial sector as a trainee dealer.

Found a new obsession inSubaru Rally cars and fell deeply in love with it ever since. Joined the Subaru Club and got to know a new clique of friends. Massive car convoys, Mega photo shoots, amazing road trips to Malaysia tearing the highways and adventuring new places. Late night supper at Kulai for Tim Sum. Saw my ex-gf get married. Saw my brothers getting conscripted into the army. Joined facebook and regained all my lost contacts. Signed up a gym membership with California Fitness only to see the money thrown into the gutter due to the lack of energy to workout. Went back for reservist at Airport Police and realised a decade has passed since we completed our national service. Saw my uni friends getting married and having their first baby. Got to know a buddy in my neighbourhood for weekly car washes. Finally picked up roller blading and made it a weekly effort to scuttle along East Coast Park. Decided it is time to settle down and find a soulmate.

Much has changed since 2006. Oh yes. I'm glad to be back.

No life

2006-07-09T20:30:00.000+08:00

3 weeks into the job, and I'm already taken ill. I have been down with an inflamed throat, high fever (40 degrees), a terrible headache which refuses to go away. Even after going to the doctor, the medication doesn't seem to help. Working 10- 14 hours a day is damn raxing. Working on weekends ain't surprising anymore. I don't even have the time to blog on a frequent basis anymore. So much work, so little time. I don't have a life anymore. Is working really so bad?

Slogging @ Sony

2006-06-21T22:43:00.000+08:00

I'm employed at Sony. Sony precision to be exact. Located at Tuas ave 9, it takes me 2.5 hours from home to office. Theorectically speaking, I spend almost a quarter of a day travelling. It's tiring for me and I'm still getting used to it. My body takes the toil from the long hours of travelling.

Monday (19 jun 06) was my first day at work. Basically, I'm attached to the Production Engineering Dept where I get to work on the design of Robokids. Robokids is just a fanciful name for industrial robots. Nothing has been eventful at work and I spent the first 3 days practicing Solidworks CAD software by myself. I didn't even get a chance for an orientation tour. No introduction to the colleagues, hence i had to go around chatting up with the people around me. One thing which i realised about Sony is that the environment is dead quiet. Nobody really speaks in office. As far as I can recall, I heard less than 20 sentences from the engineers around me during office hours. I guess the company culture is as such, everyone stares into the 21 inch LCD Sony monitors doing the Computer Aided Drawings for the robokid parts. As expected, the entire department consists mainly of guys. The only ladies I see around are the 40/50 year old aunties. Just "great".

My boss is extremely enthusiastic in his work, a tad too much for the engineers under him it seems. Although he tries to motivate the engineers to go the extra mile in doing things, it seems that everyone seems so sad at work. Everything looks zombified at work. Although the situation seems quite negative, the people and environment, I guess I can work this to my advantage. Since almosteveryone has the dreaded "I don't want to die at work" aura, it's easier for me to excel. Less competition. So much the better. I think the boss treats me well and teaches me whenver he is free. Let's see how the situation progresses. He has promised to put me under a new division that requires frequent oversesas travelling. I want to make somehting out of this Sony experience.

Although the welfare is terrible (horrendous) as compared to Motorola and the Japanese work culture is "Working overtime 7 days a week is oh so very normal" , I think I should still give in more effort despite the surplus of negative feedback. Attitude is what makes a person stand out. Thing's are not boring, it just haven't got exciting yet. Turbocharging should fix the situation. For things around me to change, I must be the first to change. Things will turn out for the better. Working OT 7 days a week isn't that bad at all.

Right?

Orange Ole!

2006-06-12T14:50:00.000+08:00

The Orange army is back with a shout! First blood has been drawn by Arjen Robben over Serbia and Montenegro for yesterday's match. Resistance is futile against the Orange Army of Holland. Forget about messing around with the Orange revolution. Vibrance on the outside, lethal on the inside. Don't bother messing around.

Fun tip: Do you S&M is the only team without a country in the world cup? The country disbanded into 2 countries; Serbia; Montenegro respectively.

World of Friends at Monty's Bar

2006-06-11T15:56:00.000+08:00

The World Cup is here at last! After watching Germany and Costa Rica fighting it out with a record opening score of 4-2 to Germany's favour. Many had expected the preceding matches to explode with excitement.

Getting in sync with the world cup, I was down at Monty's bar with a group of friends to catch England vs Paraguay which many expected to be one hell of a match. England, being favourites in this tie were expected to lash out the fury as potential world champions at Paraguay's expense. Prior to the match, Zhijian, Ka Weng, Caveman and myself were down at Cafe Cartel located at Plaza Singpaura for a sumptous dinner. It is always great to meet up with friends, especially after graduation. Most of us discussed with vigour on our "expert analysis" on the match preview. It was not surprising as many of us had "invested" in the match hoping to have some financial returns.

Approximately at 8pm, we headed down to Raffles MRT to meet up with Kok Teong who was already there waiting for us. Boat Quay was a stone's throw away and we headed to my favourite hangout pub aka Monty's Bar. Although there is no happy hour and such, I love that place. This pub has quite a number of native British expats who hang out there to show their support to their home country. Surprisingly, underdog fans can be found there too. There was this time during the Liverpool vs West Ham FA Cup final that KW and myself found ourselves outnumbered by WEST HAM supporters singing GOD SAVE THE QUEEN. Haha. What a surprise. Of course, another reason why Monty's Bar has become my favourite hangout place are the cute waitresses. Special mention has to be given to this attractive gal, Yvonne. Always cheery, sweet and very service orientated. She took orders with an extra smile and specially with politeness. It's rare to find hot chicks with a nice attitude nowdays. Had a short chat with her despite her hectic workload. Realised that she has been working there for quite some time and she's here on a part time basis. I guess the pay must be cool to work in a pub. Fun and always exciting. Just 30 minutes before the match kick off, Kelvyn joined us at the pub where we hung out happily catching up and soaking in the atmosphere.

When the match kicked off, I got to chat up with some British and Indian expats who were there watching the match too. Ain't it great to chat up with people who came from half the world away. Soccer matches isn't just about the andreline rush, it's always about meeting new friends and chilling out with current ones. Interesting events occur once in the while. A beer glass got shatterd while cheering the bottles and glasses. KW suffered minor cuts as a result of the accident from the collision of my Stella Artios beer bottle in the midst of the excitement which drew quite a few surprised faces in the pub. Heh. Sorry bro, never expected the glass to shatter so easily from a slight knock from the bottle. Despite high expectations, the England vs Paraguay match was a drab with the result in England's favour courtesy of an early Paraguay's own goal. Although the match ended 1-0 with all the fellow "investors" losing some financial assests, I will say it's part and parcel of having fun. Sometimes we win, sometimes we lose. What matters most is still treasuring friends company and sharing bonding sessions. No wonder Carlsberg has this quote on "World of friends" during boozing sessions.

Here are the standings as of 11 June 4:44 PM (GMT +8).

Bring in the goals !!!! Check out the highlights of the Germany vs Costa Rica thriller below. Ole... Ole Ole Ole...

FIFA World Cup 06

2006-06-09T14:40:00.000+08:00

Thoroughout the course of human history, spanning over multiple centuries, there have been prediction of doomsday or the end of the world whenever a major event occurs. Academics worldwide have observed that scenarios of people filled the "Passioned with obsession syndrome" (PWOS). Weary males (read: Boyfriends) and neglected females (read: Girlfriends) over the widely loved FIFA World Cup has sparked an increase in the number of reported cases of people "infected" with the PWOS.

June 2006, Planet Earth. There have been reports of sightings that certain genres of humans have started to show the above mentioned symptons. Global experts have gathered at an emergency meeting at an undisclosed boardroom to tackle this upcoming pandemonium. Despite there disagreements on many issues, reliable sources have indicated that world leaders have decided that Singapore will be used as a case study to further analyse any discerning trends.

The FIFA World Cup.The Beautiful Game competition that comes once every 4 years. This time round, the mega scale world event will be held in Germany with the footballing elites nations will congregate for the sacred trophy and honour of being the next world champion. Passionate fan groups worldwide have already begun their preparation to worship their footballing gods. There is no doubt the world cup is not just a soccer tournament. It is the competition that binds people from all nations regardless of nationality and race. Political and national differences have been put aside to celebrate the union of the human race. Pride and passion converge, giving people not just pure sportertainment but also a time to bond people with a common dream. Afterall, it's a world of friends to be made during the month of June. Soccer fanatics will indulge in a celebration of world class soccer matches. Not surprisingly, the guys have devoted all their tender loving care (TLC) to their new love in their lives (aka the spanking brand new 42" plasma high definition television set). Never mind the girls, this is what the true breed testorone filled guys really yearn for. Check out the pics before the launch of the world cup with will commence on 10 June 2006 midnight (Singapore time) with Germany playing host to Coasta Rica. The world is waiting for the super sporting spectacle.

This is the game where legends are born.

Ladies need not feel left out. As you can see, some ladies are embracing it as well as the guys. Heidi Klum certainly has no trouble with playing her ball. (Even though it's hand ball)

Still NO? Why you so fussy? For the ladies who cannot seem to fall in love with the World Cup, here are some tips which MAY capture occasional glimpes from the guys while the soccer matches are in progress.

Tip 1: Look fantabulous while bringing the booze

Tip 2: Gather your hot gal friends to watch soccer with the guys

Tip 3: Dress in your guy's favourite team colours

Tip 4: Shock him (temporarily) with your

new hair colour during half time.

If all else fails, the ladies can always fall back on the....

Guys may/ may not notice your absence, so make good use of the time to do your shopping. One item which may catch your fancy during the shopping trip is this sexy little black shoe....

The shoes are not nice meh? No no... they are actually sassy sexy strappy shoes from the latest Charles and Keith collection. Your lady eyes must be playing tricks on you. Heh heh.

What the heck. Let the games begin!

Flickr

2006-06-09T10:35:00.000+08:00

This is a test post from , a fancy photo sharing thing.

I'm playing around with flickr, trying to host my pics in high resolution using their service. Let's see if it works out well. You may see an exodus of photos if this fun trial turns out successful. (",)

Graduation

2006-06-07T23:44:00.000+08:00

I've graduated from university!! Results were out on 5 July with lots of my friends sending in sms that the examination results were Hurray! At least i managed to salvage a honours degree, which I consider quite an acheivement for someone who only managed to get a hold of tertiary education only during my third year. The convocation ceremony is on 27 July 2006 (Thurs). Do let me know in advance if you are free to attend (or if you are taking leave from work)! We can take photos together! Almost 2 decades of education and this is what I have been waiting for. It feeeeels gooooooooooooooooooood. Heh Heh.

I had a good 3 weeks vacation break and I'm still looking for my dream job. I'm now officially in the Manpower Board statistic of being unemployed! Time to rock on. This is where life really begins. :)

My daughter's wedding

2006-05-11T00:58:00.000+08:00

Alas! The day has arrived. My little girl will be finally getting married later this afternoon at 2.30pm. It has been one year since she got attached and the relationship has blossomed into an adventure filled with a mixture of fun, love, distress and sorrow. Last night, we had the rehearsal till 10pm to make sure everything was in order. The room was filled with people laughing, chatting, exchanging experiences. Everybody is elated. The long awaited ceremony will be what we have been waiting for all these time...

I'm not sure what to feel after the ceremony. The joy and sorrow of seeing your daughter leaving you. One side of my soul tells me that this is the moment of blissful union. Yet, the other side of my souls tells that I'm finally going to put her into the good hands of another man. Oh... What irony! Human emotions are indeed a concoction of feelings.

To my dearest daughter, my little FYP (Surface planarization of microstructures for biomedical applications), I'm happy for you. No words will be able to express my happiness after today's presentation at TR6 at 1430 hrs. Prof Yeo Swee Hock will be there to ensure you have been under my good guidance. I have high hopes for you and I know you will not let me down.

You have grown independent for the past 12 months. You have been the best daughter a father could ever have despite your occasional tantrums which led me to late nights down at the laboratory's cleanroom. It's time for you to build a new future with another student. I'm off to sleep now. I want to be at my best for my little girl's wedding. Now, that will be one load off my mind. :)

Another story for another time

2006-05-08T03:12:00.001+08:00

This will be my last entry that I'll blog in hostel ending my 4 year stint as a hostelite of NTU. I'll be checking out at 12:00pm and surrendering the keys to the hall office. I'm still packing some of my remaining stuff. Zhijian's stuff is all cleared. Nothing left except for a water bottle which I think he forgot to bring home.

The general elections were out yesterday. Low Thia Kiang of the Worker's Party (WP) retained Hougang and Chiam See Tong of the Singapore Demoratic Alliance (SDA) retained Potong Pasir despite the People's Action Party (PAP) dangling multi million carrots to upgrade the estates in these 2 constituencies. It seems money cannot buy people's loyalty. The opposition fortresses stands out strong and I'm proud of them.

Nothing's changed in this elections despite very credible contests by the opposition. The PAP won 82 out of 84 seats in parliment. Once again, another sweep by one political party which seems to be almost invincible. Yet, it's worth nothing that the PAP's support dropped to 66% of the valid votes down from 71% (if i recall correctly from the 2001 general elections). The opposition support seems to be growing within the ranks of the younger generation of Singaporeans who are more inclined to vote of the opposition to have an alternative voice in parliment. The statistical votes seem to show a projected growth of support of the opposition in future elections.

It's the same old story. The PAP takes control of the parliment in Singapore, the opposition seems to be unable to upstage any upsets. So seriously, the political scene looks set to remain stagnant (yet again) for Singapore. What's new? Still the same old story hor? Another era for the PAP dynasty? How can we be a first world country under a one party stronghold? No doubt, the PAP has done a good job so far, but I still think an alternative voice will prove to be more beneficial for the country's economic and social growth. Just look at Japan and Korea, both these asian countries have higher GDP growth as compared to Singapore despite having opposition parties in parliment. But that's another story for another time. Let's see what will happen 5 years down the road.

Since I did not get a chance to vote, I spent by weekend in good fashion. Chilling out with friends at cafes, dining yummy food, watching blockbuster movies (at Cathay Cineplex which I rate very highly for the super duper uber fantabulous service quality), & coincidentally meeting up with avid freelance photographers and their hot models. More on that in later entries. Heh Heh. :)

Side note-
Exams are over, but I'm still stuck with work. My Final Year Project presentation is round the corner and I have to do my powerpoint slides! Time check- 3:33am, yet another sleepless night bogged with work. Bummer.....

Polling day for general elections

2006-05-06T12:53:00.000+08:00

6th May 2006. It's polling day for the general elections where singaporeans choose and vote for their preferred party to be the parliment for the next 5 years. For the past 9 days, political parties have debated actively on many issues. From major issues to matters concerning on how James Gomez from the workers party didn't submit this minority certificate to the electorate office.

People have listened, people have seen the candidates making rallying speeches on plans to make Singapore a better place. Who will win this time round in the "hot spots" GRC/ SMC? Will the PAP prevail or will the opposition put up a strong fight? Today's the day where people will decide.

Having a chance to vote is cool and sacred, only if you get a chance to vote. As of 10 am today, Channelnewsasia have reported that almost 22% of the people have voted.

I'll still be keeping a very close watch on the election results. This is afterall, my home, my Singapore. I'm excited despite not getting a chance to vote since my home falls under the walkover GRC. Hopefully, I'll get a chance to vote the next time round. Till then, I very much remain a virgin voter. :)

First world university my ass!

2006-05-05T03:14:00.000+08:00

My dear fellow readers,

By the time you read this entry, a few hundred students would have already been claimed as casualties by the fluid mechanics paper disaster on 3rd May 06: 1200 hours @ Nanyang Technological University examination hall B.

It's ironic how contradicting the opinions are from students from universities worldwide. I recall that slightly less than 4 years ago, people once told me university life was super relaxed and relatively stress free as compared to the 'A' levels. To the super elite uber intelligent people with brains of super computers process capability, they probably say,

"I never touched textbooks/ lecture notes/ tutorials/ research papers all my life and yet I scored all straight distinctions for the exams. So easy!"

Yeah rite..... in my 4 years of university life so far.... I can only think of two words that best describes this.

BULL SHIT !!!

No such thing! As a fellow student, I sympathise with your situation. The administration has always made everything sound so easy. Despite being the incumbent, the university's top heads have failed to comprehend the situation on the ground. Where are the creme la creme when the students need them. I can safely assure you that 8 out of 10 professors suck in teaching despite their "amazing academic track record". So what if they have the best qualifications, it doesn't mean a thing to the students if they cannot relate, speak or teach properly. Go ahead and ask the students down the lecture theatres. Oh... then again, does the top administration go on the ground the relate to you the fellow student? I've never ever seen a top head walking around checking on the state of the student population. Not convinced? Go ahead and sue me for defamatory remarks. I challenge you to do so.

Forget about all that "hoo ha" imagery that the media has painted on television. No where in Singapore do you see students sitting on a big green field staring at the clouds after a hectic day of lessons. Forget about the idea of enjoying a good cup of ice blended mocha every now and then grooving to the background music while chilling out in between lectures. Going out to play and shop whenever you feel like it? If you do lead such a lifestyle, there can only be 3 possibilites.

You are not a student from NTU/NUS/SMU.
You forget that you are even a student.
You skip lessons 5X daily, 5 days a week.

If you wanna know the extent of madness that goes on in university, think of it this way.

If you thought PSLE was hard,
'O' levels is 5X more difficult,
'A' levels is 10X more difficult than the 'O' levels.
University education is magnified 15x more than the 'A' levels.
Question: How much more difficult is university as compared to PSLE? (15 marks)

University education is ...
5*10*15 = 750x more difficult than your PSLE standard.

Simple right?

But wait... academics in universities never like making things simple. This is how they will pose the simplified hypothetical question to you.

The degree of difficulty can be modelled as the rise in water level in a tank. The water level rises under a steady state for 5 seconds before overflowing from the tank. Assume only frictional pipe loss f , DERIVE an expression of the rise degree of difficulty of university h(x) with respect to time using the following equations. (15 Marks)

Function of PSLE : f(w) = 6wy + 3t
Function of 'O' levels g(u) = tan (4u+7w)/ dt
Function of 'A' levels h(t) = (dy/dt * dt/dz ) 4xu * cos (5wt) + du/dt

Hint: You may find the following formula useful...
[P1/pg + V1^2/pg + z1] = {P2/pg + V2^2/pg + z2+ (fLV^2/2gD)] + K(V^2)/2g + (l/g)dv/dt}
The displacement of overspill is z(t)= (z2 - z1).

Or something like that. WHAT "USEFUL" hints. Which doesnt really make sense to the common man on the street. WTF?! Why must derive? 3/4 of the paper is based on DERIVATION. "Siao leh!" Cannot ask application type of questions found in the tutorials is it? After the professors drill the students with lots of graphs, complex formulae and application questions throughout the entire semester for the module, they examine the unexpecting student on DERIVATION? Curses to you and your freaking overdeveloped brain. Thanks to you my dear professors, many final year students with hopes of graduating in 4 years are now living in morbid fear that graduation may never be a possibility.

Assuming that some student will send an email to the administration complaining about the many matters which are considered "trivial" to the top heads, they will probably detract the student that he/she did not have his papers (lecture notes) in place, and say the student is a liar and a person who lack of integrity. How dare they accuse the top heads of the administration of such atrocities. The administration is FIRST WORLD ok? Our professors are also FIRST WORLD ok?

To to first world, we must have first world professors who will produce first world students. Nothing but NATO (No Action, Talk Only). Even all those evaluation forms are darn useless. The same old dogs still come biting you semester after semester. Who says life in university is wonderful? A pot of gold at the end of the rainbow? I don't think so. Stop dangling the carrot with advertisements like.... "I can clinch a deal anywhere, I can address the world and what not...". Nothing but hot air and bullshit. Academic theories rarely apply in real life. First class university education? I don't think so!

Exams are ending soon

2006-04-29T02:46:00.000+08:00

My last university paper will be on 3rd May 2006, where I will contest and conquer the final boss code named "M463: Fluid Mechanics". Hopefully, I will graduate and convocate this semester. Till then, no new blog entries until the end of my papers.

With the GE round the corner, let's see what events will unfold. Till then, stay tuned. I'll blog again after 3rd May 06.

Political Apathy in Singapore??

2006-04-20T16:37:00.000+08:00

With the General Elections coming up, many Singaporeans are eager for a chance to vote. In order to create a greater awareness of political issues amongst the younger generation in Singapore, Channelnewsasia broadcasted a talkshow called "Why my vote matters- a dialogue with Minister Mentor Lee Kuan Yew". I had to watch it online via google video as I rarely watch television (about 10 hours of TV a year). You can watch it and recap the major issues that were brought up below.

(FAST Broadband connection recommended to watch the streaming video)

After the show was broadcasted last week, there is now a major stir that the younger generation of Singaporeans do not show adequate respect to the Minister Mentor (MM Lee). The dialogue session was harsh and direct with normally shunned questions being brought up directly to MM Lee. The "panel" of 10 Singaporeans, below the age of 30 brought up almost every single issue that was brought up by the opposition parties with regards to the upcoming elections and Group Representative Constituency (GRC). Questions like the People's Action Party (PAP) were depriving the opposition of a level playing ground. Controversial topics like the PAP being arrogant and power crazy were brought face up to MM Lee himself. Of course, the big question of whether the PM Lee Hsien Loong was backed by MM Lee in parliament. Questions like the PAP being seemed as intimidating were also hung up. Unfazed by the barrage of direct and blunt questions, MM Lee remained sharp and gave back authoritative and candid replies. No stone was left uncovered and statements with the lack of evidence were shot back firmly.

After the broadcast, public opinion was hugely divided. One school of thought consisting predominatly of the elder generation (1st and 2nd generation) of Singaporeans claimed that the younger generation showed a lack of respect for the man behind Singapore's remarkable progress in nation building. The other school of thought, consisting of the 3rd generation of younger Singaporeans rebutted back claiming that the questions were not provocative but was meant to voice out the opinion of people and to bring up issues which were normally considered taboo.

I agree that it took courage to bring up senstive issues face on with a man of MM Lee's stature. Afterall, MM Lee has tasted more salt than what most younger singaporeans have encoutered. Thumbs up to those who brought up taboo topics, this is how society operates. The truth is never sweet tasting, and most of the time, it's sensitive to mention anything openly. I believe that this is a sign that people believe strongly in democracy. People should always have the right to say and bring up constructive criticism. This is the only way for us to strive forward. If Singapore is to maintain her worldclass standards in many aspects, locals should be more broadminded and critical on national issues. Kudos to those who braved the mental fear to voice the public's opinion.

It's ironic that despite the objective of the dialogue session was to provoke a sense of political awareness, people are complaining that the younger generation who is "politically ignorant" are being too hard on in criticising the government. I see these behavoirs as a sign of different cultural upbringing. The english educated generation is more direct and open, while the chinese educated generation believe more on moral and social values. Either way, both parties win despite their differences on opinions and thoughts. Singaporeans are now talking about politics in their daily lives. The public apathy on national issues and politics have suddenly been given an upheaval. People are now better aware on the issues like the importance of elections, government and the political systems of Singapore.

For more information, read up on news articles on this recent issue. Here's the side of the story from the people who were involved in this dialogue. Channelnewsasia will be broadcasting another episode on the aftermath of the dialogue session.

Here's what to expect from channelnewsasia

That Dialogue
Was I Rude Or...?
A discussion on "Why My Vote Matters - A Dialogue with the Minister Mentor" created a stir after the programme went on air. One camp applauds the young Singaporeans for daring to brave MM Lee. The other found their manners wanting. Hear their takes on the issue. Thu, Apr 20 @ 2030 SST.

I'll catch the upcoming episode (online) if possible [even though I'm in the midst of my exams]. A good debate stimulates my inner burning desire all the time. Let the sandstorm begin and stir up some dust! Who says there is political apathy amongst the younger generation of Singaporeans?

********
(Updated 8:45 pm)

On a lighter note... Check out what Mr Brown has for his latest podcast. Simply hilarious!!! Here's a spoof , tastefully done via Star Wars style.

Better Man(R) : So you wanna contest me in the
upcoming jedi election eh? Feel my lightsaber!!!

Browncast: Jedi elections special (Click to listen)

Editor's note-
*In yoda speak*
Mr Brown and Mr Miyagi - Funny... you people are. 2 thumbs up! Like podcasts... I do. Heh Heh.

Exam grades spoof

2006-04-19T19:18:00.000+08:00

Report card day spoof. "What?! You got a B+ ?!"

*Sobs* Don't scold me.... *Sobs* I promise to score all 'A's the next time round...

Nervy jitters

2006-04-16T20:15:00.000+08:00

Just came back from Eugene's hall for revision. It's ironic that the more we revise, the more worried we become. Starting to have the tingling nervy jitters for my first paper (M481) tomorrow. I hope the paper will be managable. This prescribed elective seems a little too taxing for my liking. No chances for any mistakes this semester. Everything must be cleared at all cost.

13 hours & 15 mins to go. The clock is ticking.

Muggerisation

2006-04-15T03:16:00.000+08:00

For the past 2 weeks, I realise that mugging for the exams has turned my life upside down. I'm officially infected with "muggerisation". Here's why.

10.30 am: Wake
10.45 am: In a state of daze
11.00 am: Read notes
11.30 am: Brunch
12.30 pm: Study
6.30 pm : Dinner
7.30 pm : Study
11.45 pm: Night snack
12.00 am: Study
3.35 am : Zzz

2 days and counting. Honeydew day approaches. Ain't you envious of my "nerdificious" life? *zzz* Let's over and done with the papers. I wanna graudate!!!

When +ve becomes -ve

2006-04-13T03:05:00.000+08:00

I was speaking to my ex over the phone a few days back and there were somethings which left me pondering. During the midst of the conversation, she told me that during our recent 3.5 years of courtship, I tended to think highly of myself and probed her whenever she was troubled. She told me those were 2 weaknesses which I really should attempt to change.

Hmm.. which brings me to question the very fundamentals on how I was brought up. My parents always taught me to set standards for myself and to be confident in my actions. I was also encouraged to open up and ask whether in doubt. These traits seem to be positive at a young age but they seem to become negative as people grow up. Strange isn't it?

Confidence breeds success doesn't it? If I don't think highly of myself, I will not have what it takes to drive myself forward. I know that over confidence is dangerous, but cockiness only comes with great self belief doesn't it? If I don't elude any form of confidence, then I'm definitely not meant for greater things in life. Achieving greater things in life also means building for a better future. No? Hmm.... So what's wrong with me?

"Ask whenever you're in doubt", my teachers used to tell me during primary school. If you are unsure of how someone is feeling, then ask him/her. No point guessing right? Surely I cannot be expected to guess someone's thoughts all the time? Asking seems to be the logical way for me. Guessing games ain't my cup of tea. I prefer to get the facts and opinions and lay them out to discuss. I really cannot comprehend secretive people. (There is nothing wrong in being secretive though). But if there is nothing bad, then what's there to hide? Just let it out and let people close to you share your woes. Why keep worries to just to yourself? Whenever people ask, it's a sign of love, care and concern. If you didn't mean anything to me, why would I even ask what's troubling you? Hmm... So what's wrong with me?

So exactly, what's right and what's wrong? That will probably be a question which I may not have an answer to. Then again, maybe I'm just not able to see things outside my perspective.

Do guys and gals really think at different frequencies? Maybe that's why some people say that "Men are from mars & Women are from Venus."

Side note- It's a warm and humid night as I blog this entry. My 1st paper is 4 days away... Exams sux. :/

Stressed out?

2006-04-12T00:02:00.000+08:00

People get stressed out over many reasons. Work, school, personal life, family and financial problems. Feeling upset and falling into depression? Destress the Super Mario way!

Click on the picture to watch.
Jumping helps you destress!

*Groan* 5 days to my first paper (affectionately known as the Honeydew day) *I ~~can~~ will be ready to kill the exam papers!*

Day Break

2006-04-11T13:43:00.000+08:00

Dawn signals the end of night and the beginning of day. The break-in sunshine brings in hope, tranquility and warmth to our daily lives. Sometimes, one really has to learn appreciate the simplicity that nature has to offer.

It's politically correct to say that tranquil moments never last. We live in a world of chaos. Enjoy your inner peace while you can. Soon, it'll be time to yield your weaponry and fight for your worldly possessions and gains; both tangible or intangible.

The examinations are nearing coming in 6 days. Battle royale is about to commence...

The Da Burger Code

2006-04-10T23:07:00.000+08:00

If you have read "The Da Vinci Code" by Dan Brown, you'll probably find this following text extract and this infamous drawing familiar.

"The Vitruvian Man," Langdon gasped. Saunière had created a life-sized replica of Leonardo da Vinci's most famous sketch.

Considered the most anatomically correct drawing of its day, Da Vinci's The Vitruvian Man had become a modern-day icon of culture, appearing on posters, mouse pads, and T-shirts around the world. The celebrated sketch consisted of a perfect circle in which was inscribed a nude male... his arms and legs outstretched in a naked spread eagle.

Da Vinci. Langdon felt a shiver of amazement. The clarity of Saunière's intentions could not be denied. In his final moments of life, the curator had stripped off his clothing and arranged his body in a clear image of Leonardo da Vinci's Vitruvian Man.

Leonardo da Vinci had a well documented history of including hidden cryptographic codes in his drawings. "de Cryptographie" often spend countless time in solving the cryptic puzzles. I saw this drawing when I was down at Orchard Road. Introducing, "The Da Burger Code".

Messieur da Vinci seemed to have a love for burgers during his time. Do you have what it takes to decrytify the meaning of this drawing?

Small bear biscuits

2006-04-09T18:26:00.000+08:00

This is something which i MUST bring to the attention of all "Meiji" fans! I'm sure many of you have seen this familiar packaging in assorted flavours that looks like this?

How about this? Check out these "Hello Panda" biscuits (affectionally known as small bear biscuits) which were packaged in CUPS. I found them at Prime supermarket. Heh. "La pi xiao xing" will be crazy over these "xiao xiong bing gan".

Heh Heh. I like small bear biscuits. They are the coolest biscuits in town. :)

The beginning of the end

2006-04-07T04:24:00.000+08:00

The time is 0423 a.m as I blog this. My roomie, Zhijian is asleep and there are pesky light-loving insects hovering above my table lamp.

It's official! I've attended my last lecture in university. The lecturer, Prof "Spot" was mumbling about turbomachinery and something about the radial flow turbine which I believe is not examinable for the paper. 4 years of lectures and tutorials in the university is more than sufficient for me. 8 gruelling semesters, countless tutors and lecturers. But I must say I have utmost respect for 2 special professors who had the most impact on me. They were there to help and pull me up whenever there were pitfalls. Prof Yeo Song Huat and Prof David Lee Butler. They are the best 2 teachers I ever had for my entire course of formal education. Despite having some torrid times in school (failing certain killer modules which I had to repeat), I will have to say that university life has got to be the most formative period for me. I feel that it has been most enriching, fun, shaping me towards independence. 4 years of staying in NTU's halls of residence have brought me wonderful memories. Looking back, I've been studying for the past 18 years. That's almost 2 decades of education to get me ready to contribute to society.

Counting down, it's 10 days to my first paper of my FINAL examination. I can't wait to get over it even though I have not been revising as hard as I should. To be truthful, I'm quite sick of studying. 18 years of formal education is indeed a long time. Jer replied to one of my emails and in it, she wrote "Study hard and you will do well". I'm happy and I really feel very much more motivated to press on for my final lap. Simple words of encouragement that pushes me on. It's a nice to know that she still cares. Sometimes, words have a different impact when said by people close (or used to be close) to you.

Not forgetting those who love me (or used to love me), to those who encourage me, to those who who bother to make cards to cheer me up, to those who provided great company, to those who were in my external event committee/sub committe, to those who slogged with me as a business manager to secure sponsorships, to those who provided endless fun during freshmen orientation camps, to those who nudged me awake during boring lessons, to those who studied together in the tutorial rooms/study benches/ study rooms/ canteens, to those who gave me wake up calls for my morning lessons and morning papers, my tertiary life would have been monotonous if not for all of you.

Zhijian and I discuss about life after university now and then. The future ain't gonna be a bed of roses, but I still do look forward to it. Career, Girlfriends, Flings, Family, Friends & Finances.... whatever... What does the future hold for a 24 year old undergraduate? It's going to be a new path in life where I finally get a chance to decide on what I really want to do. The first thing I'll do after graduation is to personally thank all those who have encouraged me to bravely move on. I am what I am today because of all of you.

Alright. Time check. 0520 am on a Friday morning as I close this entry. I'm suppose to help Linda with CMP polishing at the clean room @ 12pm, meet Prof David Butler @ 3pm to submit my FYP report and study for my upcoming papers later today. Meantime, I'll open MS Word and start finalising my report. It's time for me to hit the books. I don't think I'll sleep today. :)

Side note-
Fatality count of light loving insects since I started this entry: 6

Cat-Lee

2006-04-03T03:54:00.000+08:00

Post entry update! (6th April 06)

I was reading Kenny Sia's blog yesterday when I saw him posting these pictures. I can't help myself but to update this entry. What a coincidence. Those vandals are funny. Horse Lee! Haha.

-----------------------

(Original Entry)
Meet my new friend, Cat-Lee. Proudly named after my superstar idol Kelly. She pops into my hostel room once in a while. :)

This is one cool cat. I think she's my lucky charm.

Mac rules. Windows suxs.

2006-04-02T00:52:00.000+08:00

Click here to zoom in

A total fresh new look! I simply love the gorgeous iMac interface!

Johnny says- This is an enhancement. NOT cosmestic makeover!

Next up. I'll revamp my life. I deserve better. Really.

The promise

2006-04-01T23:23:00.000+08:00

I thought we had an agreement.
I thought we promised to notify each other.
I trusted you enough to inform me.
Yet I had to ask before you told me so.
No excuses are needed.
The promise has been broken.

Is there still a mutual trust between friends?
Friends respect each other.
Friends abide to promises.
Friends share their joys and sorrows.
Don't they?

The prime evils of my life

2006-03-23T23:48:00.000+08:00

Does this make sense to you?

Yeah... you'll probably be saying, "HUH" ? (Else... stay away from me).
This is one of the prime evils which has been giving me endless headaches.

Introducing the prime evils in order of atrocity.

FYP Project
M463 Test
M464 Project
M460 Project
M481 Assignment
M458 Test
CS814- Assignment and Presentation

Yucks. I really wished I had time to edit and upload the tons of photos which I've taken over the past few weeks. I'll be back once I clear everything. The final exams are due in 3.5 weeks! Will my sanity still be intact by then?

As I quote from Blinkymummy - "I am is sian" =_= Heh Heh.

**I saw her face... in a crowded place....and I don't know what to do....** - James Blunt

Ballet soccer

2006-03-03T02:42:00.000+08:00

With less than 100 days to the World Cup 2006 and counting down, let's get a feel of some fever. Referees can also have fun in the beautiful game. Samba soccer rocks but how about something for a change? Ballet soccer anyone?

This is one referee that should really feature in the upcoming World Cup in Germany.

Stranded in Nerdy Noob Paradise

2006-03-02T14:46:00.000+08:00

I know I have not been blogging for quite some time & here's the reason why.

I'm stranded on a hypothetical island affectionally known as the "Nerdy Noob Paradise" I'm stuck with tons of workload for this month. Waves of tutorials, assignments, projects and tests hit me hard and fast. Multiple deadlines are due soon! Been too busy to even get some decent sleep, but then again... most final year students are stressed out and show signs of weirdness due to the intense workload. My life revolves around nothing but books, journals and articles. Darn... I seriously need to get a life.

I'll promise that I will come up with short entries over the next day or so. Stay tuned.

Pissing in public

2006-02-26T20:37:00.000+08:00

I saw a kid pissing in the middle of a crowded coffee shop during dinner (at the NTU extension). This kid stood on a chair and sprayed his yellow piss into the plastic bag which his mum was holding. And yes... the boy was half naked and his shorts were at his ankles revealing his willy in full glory. (-.-")

So much for Singapore being a civic minded society. Where is the decency and respect for the surrounding customers? Surely the parents knew that this was inappropriate? Besides, the toilet was only less than 20 steps away. Ugly Singaporeans. I am totally grossed out.

NYP Tammy scandal

2006-02-24T00:01:00.000+08:00

I'm certain the name "Tammy" needs no introduction to the country of "Sillypore". Her name is on almost everyone's lips nowdays. After that scandalous NYP affair, even the Straits Times newspaper got excited and wrote an article on it. Poor Tammy, a victim of technology. I'm sure everyone knows the entire scandal by now but in a nutshell, there is this girl called Tammy from Nanyang Polytechnic who had her hand phone stolen by some jealous fellow cheerleader. Whatever the reason, she was unlucky enough to have her sexual exploits exposed via her state of the art video camera phone. The person who stole the phone even went to the extent of publishing her personal details and mass mailed it to the entire staff and student population of NYP. As if this is not enough, the video is now generously available on the net. To further hype the attention, rumour has it that the videos were released part by part.

The hype is not so much on the closer to life "Made in Sillypore" ponography video that is available. People will always be curious for sleazy and unorthodox news. Afterall, it is not everyday that sex scandals are revealed in our own sunny island "Sillypore". Some people in "Sillypore" do silly stuff, really silly stuff. There is no doubt that the person who released the video was all out to make Tammy a household name. In fact, Tammy may just be the next star after the infamous Anabelle Chong. Technorati even reported that the topic "Tammy NYP" was the top search topic for the week in "Sillypore". I heard many people talking and laughing that Tammy's home made video puts Paris Hilton's sex video to shame. Sure... this may be interesting to talk about and for a good laugh but has anyone thought of the consequences?

Tammy is already a victim for a vicious attack. Her time is in a total mess and she has to live a life of a refugee. I will say that her plight is worse that the victims of the 911 attack, 2004 tsunami, Bali bombings and the latest phillipine landslide. Has anyone spared a thought for this poor girl? Many of you can argue that she shouldn't had let her boyfriend film their sexual escapades. Some of you can also argue that a 17 year old polytechnic student should not even be having sex in the first place. The rest can even argue that she should be punished and expelled!? Let us get the facts straight, why is all the attention on poor tammy and not her boyfriend? We can only guess. People all around the world have sex, so what's the big deal? Why should a victim get further abused? It's like sentencing a victim of a robbery to jail because he/she was robbed. Does this even make sense?

I openly condemmed the person who released the videos. This is too extreme a revenge for anyone. This is living hell. What is the cause for this act of revenge? Fear? Anger? Hate? Tammy ain't no celebrity or a prominent figure in the media and yet, all the spotlight is suddenly on her in a notorious manner. Let's be clear about one thing.

Fear leads to Anger,
Anger leads to Hate &
Hate leads to SUFFERING.

A beautiful life, a bright future has been shattered. I have NO IDEA how tammy is going to pick up her life again. She can avoid her friends, breakup with the boyfriend and other stuff to get away, but can she face her parents and relatives? Is it ever possible for her not to be scorned by her elders in a conservative asian society? Nobody deserves to be a "tammified" and be on the receiving end for such a matter. Revenge only begets revenge. Somethings in life simply cannot be repaired. Shattered souls remain shattered like broken glass, never to be beautiful again.

Just give the poor girl some privacy.

The art of Star Wars (Sneak Peak)

2006-02-23T01:02:00.000+08:00

Feel my lightsaber you will !!!

Stay tuned...

Love me, Kelly (2)

2006-02-22T22:30:00.000+08:00

Kelly Mania!

As promised earlier, here are some pictures of kelly's album which I bought last week. After days of continuous listening, I'm still can't get enough! I LIKE! Here are the tracks in her debut album labelled Love Me, Kelly. (Change your font encoding to unicode if you can't see the chinese words.)

Love Me Again

爱, 无力
答案
计时炸弹
有些爱
非爱不可
那一秒说的话
魔力
美丽笨女人
关于爱情 (Feat. 洪俊扬)

爱, 无力 has definitely got to be my all time favourite. The lyrics are just so true, so real.

In case some of you readers have yet to see her latest MV, click here to directly watch a preview. The MV is a preview version, so there are some lip sync issues but hey, it's as close as you can get. Please stop telling me that her blue "raincoat" looks ugly. It's a funky nice dress for goodness sake. Love Singapore's very own superstar & want to know more? Check out Kelly fan club by clicking on the kelly fan club website image below.

Speaking of which, did I mention that I got a poster of Kelly upon purchase of the CD? I'm elated that I've got the mega sized poster of her. Haha. Now I have a hot chick looking down at me every morning when I wake up.

Looks like I will not have problems waking up early.

In order for me to stay motivated and awake, I even placed the CD casing on my desk space! Did you know that Kelly is my friend's (Michelle) friend? So cool right? What a small world!

Grooving in the beat as Kelly sings.

Oh! Did you buy this week's issue of I-weekly? Kelly's the cover girl. I specially bought the issue with the plastic wrapping. Haha.

100% Kelly and no less

Meantime, please stop asking me to rip the tracks into mp3 so that I can send them to you. Go get her album (either the normal or limited edition versions) if you have yet to do so. Go get an exclusive copy of i-weekly too! Your eyes and ears will thank you for it. :) GO KELLY!

Side tracking, in case, you are wondering about all that Star Wars stuff which I have all over my desk space, that's because I visited "The Art of Star Wars" exhibition at the science centre a few days back. More on that in another entry.

Love me, Kelly (1)

2006-02-17T01:35:00.000+08:00

I bought Kelly's debut album, "Love me, Kelly" the day before (wednesday) and I've got an exclusive mega sized poster!!! I've put the poster up on my hostel room. Woo Hoo! I've been listening to it over and over again and loving every tune to it. SHE ROCKS! Even the newspapers gave her debut album a 4 out of 5 stars rating. Really great stuff. To those who have not bought her album yet, get her album asap! You will not regret it, fantastic tracks. Go Kelly! Always my superstar.

More on this later. I'll upload some pictures soon. :) Meantime, Ed has informed me via msn that Kelly is the cover girl for this week's issue of "I-weekly". I'll definitely rush to get my copy the first thing in the morning. Her music video is also available for preview here. (Wait for kelly's picture to appear in the flash and click on it). The full MV will be out on channel U on 19 Feb 06 at 8.45 pm. Do remember to catch it!

There she goes

2006-02-16T23:50:00.000+08:00

Jer told me that she'll be off to Hong Kong tomorrow on a holiday with her friend (that police kid/ guy who is giving/gave her the supplementary credit card as mentioned in my previous entry.) Hmm... a holiday for two? I'm surprised on how fast things progressing. She told me that she bought tickets there two weeks ago. Oh well, she explained to me the whole rationale that she wants to get used to travelling abroad and other personal reasons on how she ended up flying off with just this guy. I get this melanchonic feeling, but on the other hand, I'm also worried about her safety. Remember the song "Leaving on a jet plane" by Chantel Kreviazuk? I have the exact sentiments. I'll give her the benefit of doubt in any case. Either way, I'm in no position to interfere. She lives her life and I'll happily live mine. She'll be flying out of Singapore again after this Hong Kong trip. Apparently, her company will be sending her for a business trip in March. Ah... I hope she enjoys herself there. Afterall, she really wanted to go yo HK for a long long time. Have an enjoyable trip Jer. Remember the promise you gave to me. Bon voyage and take care!!!

Speaking of which, I want to go to Japan in the near future. I've always dreamed about experiencing and visiting the land of the rising sun. Someday, I'm spread my wings out and fly around high above the clouds... ...

Sniff sniff Need a MC?

2006-02-15T17:55:00.000+08:00

It's drizzling as I write up this entry. There have been showers that go and off for the past 2 weeks or so. What's it with the weather? Someone should write a complain to the Ministry of Rain to complain about the inconsistent spells of mini showers. Not surprisingly, many people have/had been suffering from the *sniff-sniff-ha-chew* syndrome (including myself).

As I pop in another miracle pill that helps to alleviate my cold like symptons (aka the vitamic C pill), I thought back on how my fellow national service friends used to fake illness just to avoid the 5km morning in the wee hours of the morning. Afterwhich, they will run over to the medical centre after practicing their *I'm too weak to do anything* facial expressions in front of the mirror.

Here are some of the common practices which were successfully implemented. Introducing....

" How to get Chao Keng in front of the MO"
for dummies "

Buy one tube of toothpaste (super fresh and minty type), squeeze out all the contents and eat them up. Sure to get stomach upset and fever overnight.

Effectiveness- 2 days MC, 1 week light duty

Steal a jumbo sized box of Kong Guan buscuits from the mess. Crush them, and mix them container with drain water. Finish them quickly before you get caught by your sergeant. CONFIRM get  "lau sai" (diahorrea).
Effectiveness- 1 day MC, 3 days light duty.

Go to the medical office, when it is almost your turn to see the doctor, hurry run to the toilet and take some water+ soap and rub it into your beloved eye. Rub your eye until it become swollen, then cry in front of the doctor saying got bee sting your eye.
Effectiveness- 1 week MC plus a chance to chat up with
the nurses at Tan Tock Seng Hospital.

PS- The last time I heard, none of the following tricks work anymore ever since the cleaner complained about constantly refilling the hand soap in the toilets and having to clean up metal Kong Guan biscuit containers found near the drains.

Collective events!

2006-02-14T16:36:00.000+08:00

Finally! I am able to squeeze out some time to blog again.

As my hectic schedule eases its way through, I am beginning to gain back some of my sanity. All the late night reports and research has taken some toil on my body. I've been down with a slight runny nose since yesterday. Being a little paranoid from what I see from the news I was beginning to suspect the possibility of contacting bird flu. :/ After all, I did had chicken rice for lunch a few days back and the chicken looked kind of bloody. Despite that good old glorious bloody mess, I ignorantly wolved the plate of chicken rice in a record time.

Hmm... A little too late to regret? Edwina commented that it was probably due to the lack of sleep. I guess she's right, I do feel a little better after some intensive sleep and some cold medicine.

I was down at parklane with KW last Saturday evening when I bumped into something quite unexpected! As I was walking towards peace centre, I saw an entire army of black people! They were cheering, screaming, shouting and punching their fists in the air. Taken aback, I turned my head 90 degrees and saw police cars with the blinkers flashing on. I looked back and I saw roads being cordened off. Before I could blink my eyes, more Indians flooded the vicinity and were walking all over the main roads causing slight traffic congestion. I was stunned! A revolt? A mutiny? Mass protest and demostration from the Indian community? Isn't Singapore suppose to be a harmonious place right where people from all walks of life fuse together as one? Hmm.... But wait! There are burly looking Indian men who were carrying Kavadi(s) pierced onto themselves.

"It's Thaipusam!!!" KW shouted at over the surrounding noise. Cool... A festival celebrated by Indians all over the world. There were hundreds of devotees carrying offerings to their Hindu gods and there were some who pushed their devotion to the test by piecing themselves with Kavadi's into their flesh as a large offering to the Hindu god, Lord Subramaniam. I must say that their pain threshold is very high! That Kavadi looks heavy and it's pierced into this flesh without any visible wounds. Amazing! I'm just bewilded on why there is no blood flowing out the piercings. Wanting to test out whether it was painful to have all those piercings, I told KW to offer his arm as I pierced my fingernail into his flesh. *Ouch!* Not surprisingly, he brushed me off saying I was crazy. Ha.I seriously wanted to stand beside one of the Kavadi carriers and take a photo but decided not to. Afterall, this is something very sacred to the Hindus. There were many people whom I believed to be family and friends of the Kavadi carriers who were shouting and cheering to give the Kavadi people encouragement and support. Some even had drums as they hit a rhythm to motivate the people around.

Of course, not every Hindu devotee celebrated with extremities, some of them carried offerings on their heads decorated with flowers and religious ornaments. Many of them were walking barefoot as a test of their resilience. If i recall correctly, the devotees started off from a major Indian temple at tank road (near little India) and walked 3km to the next major temple.

I also noticed female Kavadi carriers. The ladies were carrying smaller version(s) of Kavadis but they still looked heavy. One middle aged woman was on the verge of tears as she hobbled in pain. Such is the power of faith and devotion. I can't help but to have a deep sense of respect for the devotees.

It was definitely an eye opening experience. I'm glad to be in Singapore. The fusion of different races and religions does really spice up the life and exposes different people to the cultures of other races.

Before I forget, today is V-day! Yep. It also coincidentally happens to be Kai Shun's (my younger bro) 16th birthday. Incidentally, Siew Lan's birthday also falls on the same day too! We're gonna have a belated celebration for her tomorrow. It must be fun to have your birthday falling on valentine's day. Some much love around. The entire campus is flooded with V-day booths, performances and love food. Flowers are going all around!! Wispie even distributed chocolates wrapped in pink papers to her friends. Way cool!

To everyone out there reading this. Happy V-day to you irregardless whether you are single or attached. Have you told someone you loved them yet? Look around you and you'll realise that actually, love is all around.

Special dota guide

2006-02-14T16:30:00.000+08:00

JUST IN!

This entry is meant for all DOTA gamers out there. I was chatting with my friend "Dao Ming Shi" when he sent me a special guide on how to use lina inverse. This is some funny guide! Useful to a certain extent for those who are trying to master the skills involving this heroine. He has just brought Warcraft 3 to a new level. Click here to read up on this exlcusive guide.

Blog entry eating ghost lurking in blogspot.com

2006-02-08T18:43:00.000+08:00

I'm fumed !!!

If you have been reading the past entry on 4 Feb 2006 titled "Better man found in ancient china", you will have realised that I blogged about the the kung fu movie flick on "Huo Yuan Jia" aka "Fearless" featuring Jet Li. Just 2 days back, I realised that the entry disappeared into thin air even though I did not do anything to my past entry.

In fact, if were to scroll down, you will see an entry that reads "Coming up- Better man found in ancient china" That post was DELETED by me after I posted my entry on the movie "fearless". Somehow, my "fearless" entry was deleted and the "coming up" entry kinda of ressurected from the dead. In short, the post which I deleted, came back by itself and the post which I posted, got deleted mysteriously. What the hell is wrong with blogspot??

I hence deduce 3 conclusions.

There is something wrong with the blogspot server.
Someone hacked into my account and did something funny without me knowing.
There is a phantom ghost in blogspot.com that pulverises blog entries at its own sadistic will.

Somehow, I choose to believe the 3rd conclusion. I am disillusioned that an entry which took some real effort on my part just disappered into thin air. I'm still hoping that it will magically reappear. This totally suxs.

In the meantime, I'm screwed and drained from my projects. Living in the lab makes my ass hurt.

Projects in crisis

2006-02-06T21:38:00.000+08:00

I have been boogled with serious issues for my final year project recently. It seems that I spend more time in the laboratory than attending lessons. A typical school day will comprise of around 4 hours of lesson and 7 hours in laboratory and 1 hour for breakfast/lunch/dinner.

Prof Butler has been really helpful, but it seems that the problems are mounting. I hope I will not break his limit. I have been doing everything except doing my FYP which is basically the planarization of silicon wafers via Chemical Mechanical Polishing. I have to coat the wafers with photoresist, pattern the film and develop the wafer. This may sound really simple, but on average, it takes about 3 hours to prepare 2 wafers and I have 20 wafers to prepare in total. I also have to spend time making slurry solutions which keep agglomerating and refuse to liquify. It seems that I have to spend time mixing ammonium to my gelated fumed silica to liquify it. Whats more, there seems to be insufficient slurry powder to go around. If you thought that was worse, I have to spend time with machines that break down on a frequent basis or machines that shatter my wafers while processing.

Argh! As I quote from my prof, I am indeed an over glorified technician. Problems + Trouble + Frustration = Crisis. All I want to do is to polish my wafers and get my results nicely plotted out. Surely that is not too much to ask for? I don't wish to get stressed over trivial issues, but surely this cumulative problems are beckoning me to send a "SOS" signal???

Apart from my FYP, I still have to deal with my M460 design optimization project. Edwina was kind enough not to kill me when my zen micro could not be detected on the computers. We had spent hours (at night) trying to work our optimization design in the CAD/CAM lab. I appreciate her tolerance and kindness not to tick me off. Fortunately, we managed to get some more designs up and going (even though we had problems trying to get ANSYS working.)

Wait! There's more. M464 is another project to tackle. It seems that my current tutor is more demanding as compared to M364 tutor. My team is now required to show research papers and do indepth analysis week after week. I am however glad that my team mates, Mel and Ming yao are very nice people and are pretty great to get along with. It seems that people with the same frequency seem to get things done more effectively.

Meantime, with my 3 projects to handle, I still have to study for my prescribed elective M480 Surface Mount Technology module which is due NEXT WEEK, still have to do up on my M428 Quality Assurance CA assignment and slog for my M463 Fluid Mechanics CA which is due by the end of Feburary.

May I survive a turbulent month of Feburary and come out in one piece.

Impossible is nothing - ADIDAS

PS- There may be a lack of postings over the next few days. I'll probably be cracking my heads out over my crazy schedule.

Coming up (This is a phantom entry)

2006-02-03T21:22:00.000+08:00

Better man found in Ancient China!

(This blog notice was deleted but it somehow resurrected)
(This space used to have a movie critic entry on "Fearless" featuring Jet Li)
(I have no idea how my entry vapourised into thin air)

Meet Mr Hitler Chaplin

2006-02-02T23:19:00.000+08:00

A new year! New lecturers teaching new chapters. New faces, new inspiration to doodle during lessons. There is a new lecturer for my M481 prescribed elective with a distinct tinge of uniqueness. In what sense you may ask? Read on....

The time was 1530 @ LT 14 , Prof XXX (Name changed to protect his identity) stepped in and started to introduce himself to the class. He started off with introducing some upcoming semi conductor industry talk. Not surprisingly, most students started dreaming away in the freezing lecture theatre. As he started talking about the industry trying to share some industrial knowledge with us, I couldn't help but to look at Prof XXX in wonder due to his unique style of grooming. Both Winston and myself were self entertaining ourselves with this drawing. The head was drawn by me (in blue ink) and the body was drawn by Winston (in black ink).

Quoting some of my lecturers who seem obsessed with equations.....

I shall now derive this
linear relation mathematically.

+

=

A starking resemblence aint it? I hence deduce that the law of superposition applies not only in mathematics but also in real life. Let's just say he looked a bit like Charlin Chaplin and Adolf Hitler combined. Haha. I'll post a photo of the man himself once I get a chance to take a snap shot!

Revamp of blog layout

2006-01-30T21:40:00.000+08:00

I'm sure you readers will have realised distinctly that there has been a major revamp on my blog's layout. In view of the chinese new year spring cleaning, I decided to sweep the previous template off (even though it's only more than one month old) and start the new year with a fresh look! The super long weekend has indeed given me lots of free time to tweak around with my bloggy. This revamp is a result of 2 continuous nights of tweaking.

~~Sayonara oldie blog
Gambatte new blog~~

CNY questions you love to hate

2006-01-28T18:25:00.000+08:00

Today is the eve of Chinese New Year (CNY) or better know as "chu xi". Families gather together to celebrate the tradition of having a sumptous dinner to welcome the new year. When the clock strikes 12, Chinese around the world usher in the year of the dog.

House visiting is a tradition which many families practice during the CNY period. Although it is good to meet up with you relatives which you seldom see, one will surely be barraged by repitative questions by the elders. Ever wondered what you will hear whenever you go house visiting during chinese new year? More often than not, your elders will start asking you questions which they have asked for as long as you can remember. Here is a compilation of questions which you can expect.

For students....

Can cope in school? You got how many 'A's for last year's exams?

Ah Boy/ Ah girl! You are still studying? When you graduate?

Where do you study ah?

You waiting for 'A' levels/ 'O' levels/ 'N' levels results? You sure do verrrrry well one la.

For kids...

You have grown so much!! Do you still remember how small you were last year?

Have you been a good boy/girl? Got listen to daddy and mummy?

For singles...

Eh? Your girlfriend/boyfriend never come? Oh?? You all break up already har? Sorry ah...

Got girlfriend/ boyfriend? How come never bring her/him along?

What? You're 30 this year already?? How come still no partner? I match-make you lah!

For couples...

Both of you have been together for quite some time, when are you getting married?

How come still no kids leh?

For those who need to work during CNY

Poor thing leh.... Holiday also need to work.

Holiday pay good or not? How much money??

I'm sure there are many more questions which one can expect. Fret not, once you get past the barrage of questions, it will be time for the "Hong Baos"! YAY!

Editor's note- Model answers are not provided to the above questions.

Chinese Zodiacs

2006-01-25T23:40:00.000+08:00

Do you believe that the animals in the chinese zodiacs can reflect your fortunes? The chinese zodiac comprises of the twelve animal signs. This is how they place in order, the rat, ox, tiger, rabbit, dragon, snake, horse, goat, monkey, rooster, dog, and pig.

With Chinese New Year approaching, I got curious and decided to check up on my zodiac sign for the year of the dog. This is what my chinese zodiac says about me.

METAL ROOSTER
Feb 5, 1981 to Jan 24, 1982

The rooster is often seen as the original strong silent type, not unlike the Humphrey Bogart and Greto Garbo prototypes. Most people consider them quite eccentric. Sad to say, relationships with other people are often strained. They are quite moody and can be too outspoken. They are often self-centered, but can be quite brave when the situation calls for it. On the other hand, Rooster People are quite talented and capable. They are always devoted to their work and have a reputation for being the hardest of workers. Rooster People are deep thinkers and are pioneers in spirit. They can experience the greatest of joy in complete solitude. Even though often alone, they rarely experience loneliness. Instead, they enjoy their own company and feel solitude helps them in their quest after knowledge.

Sometimes this one walks around with its head in the cumulus clouds, higher than the stars. You see, this rooster struts around with peacock feathers and they never ever ruffle. So much arrogance can make it hard to get along with others, especially when the Rooster is also intolerant of those who are less talented and a bit slower than normal. On the other hand, the Metal Rooster is extraordinarily talented. Of all twelve Zodiac signs, this one is probably the most high-minded of them all, with a very clean line of thought. The Metal Roosters can distinguish right from wrong very clearly and it doesn't matter which direction they pursue, they always wind up going the right way. If they confront a maze, or big problem, they will immediately see a solution because of their analytical, logical way of thinking. Through their perseverance, any hurricane becomes an orderly thing of beauty, just like that! When it's time for romance, the male Metal Rooster has no trouble at all, love just abounds; the female has a tendency to keep to herself, making connections less freely, but lastingly when they happen.

This year, the Rooster will see plenty of helping hands assisting you this Dog year 2006! Colleagues, friends and superiors will be very supportive towards you and will be firmly behind you in all endeavors. Roosters should also start retaining funds this year and keep them safely in the bank, as the Dog year 2006 may indicate financial losses! On the work front, the Rooster may experience some setbacks, but they will be mild and not too stressful for you.

...........................................................................

How will your fortune be like for the new year? Wishing all my readers a prosperous

CHINESE NEW YEAR!

$$ GONG XI FA CAI !!! $$

Flamed !

2006-01-22T15:04:00.000+08:00

Less than 24 hours after I posted the previous entry, I got flamed (on msn) by HER.

Nobody likes to hear bad things about his/herself and I whole heartedly agree. But there is no smoke without fire. If she thinks what I said is totally untrue, maybe she should think about it. Is it a fact? Or am I just making up stories. I rest my case. I have no intention of a personal attack, it's just my opinion.

Update (Edited):
She's definitely ~~offended~~ not too happy. I rather let her know the truth before it gets out of hand. She can choose to hate and snub me but I hope she stays true to herself. She spoke to me about this and it seems that she now knows that there is an issue. Maybe she can be "cured" afterall. There seems to be hope for h0^pE afterall.

Material girl

2006-01-21T22:31:00.000+08:00

Human relations are the most important thing in this world. All of us engage in it all the time, irregardless of where you are. The essence of interaction and communication between people is vital in our everyday lives. Do relations get irradicated by materialistic wealth? Let's see.

Is it possible for relationships to change just a the snap of the fingers? Some people may digress that it is impossible while others will say that feelings just disappear. Even though break up was done in a good and peaceful manner, how does one feel after some underlying bastard who has been lurking down there waiting finally pounced? Do females change their attitude once some wimp(s) starts to treat her like a goddess? Do females choose to forget those who used to be close to them? I believe so. A very wise person once told me, all girls are fickle minded and undecisive. As much as I chose not to believe in this saying, I cannot deny the fact there is some truth in it. I have experienced it myself. I have seen it with my very own eyes. Some girl out there has made me feel disappointed everytime I meet up with her. Too often at times, she either turns up very late, make empty promises, or people around her have to adapt and change just to go along with her needs. Compromise doesn't seem to be in her vocabulary. She seems to enjoy to see my reaction when she gleefully tells me about how this this wimp who has agreed to apply for her a credit sub-card. I knew it. She can hang out with that silly wimpy bastard for all I care. I hope she spends all his money and make him regret. I despise wimps who suck up to girls and loose their dignity in the process. They are a disgrace to the male population.

So here's the verdict. Most girls are materialistic. Those who aren't will turn materialistic and vain in the near future. Don't come and flame and complain that this is bullshit. YOU KNOW ITS TRUE.

Words won't bring me down. I believe in myself. I will NOT regret breaking up with her.

Post entry note- Why has she become so materialistic? She's no longer the girl I used to know....

Encounters of the Clementi kind

2006-01-20T23:44:00.000+08:00

Clementi is one of the few decent hang out areas left in the western part of singapore. It may just be another heartland, but the variety of FOOD is unrivalled. I was down at clementi for dinner with my roomie after a long and gruelling day in campus. Just wanting to tuck into the huge variety of food available, it was no wonder that my hunger pangs tingled for something sumptous. But even before I got to my destination, a "freak incident" occured on me.

Yeah yeah... My flip-flops came apart.... *crappy slippers*

Left with no choice, I was forced drag "rightie" with me for the entire journey until I managed to find a shoe shop. After an intensive search, I found this guys.

Yeah.... The orange guy was right in saying that. Those brown dudes were trashed together with some cardboard boxes in a dump.

Meantime, dinner was settled, but not without any disturbances. Some eldery couple shared a table with us and they started talking. It all began with....

They went on and on and on and on....
I could only stare at them in shock as they started telling us a fair bit of their situation.

After hearing their tales of how youngsters should take good care of the eldery, there was no doubt that this old couple had been neglected by their kids. I could sense that they were lonely folks that wished someone will be there to listen to their thoughts and opinion when it really matters. After they finished their meal, we bade them farewell as the old couple trodded off slowly with some new year festive goodies in their hands. With Singapore having an ageing population, will this be a serious social problem in the near future? Maybe this chinese new year will be a good time to show care and concern to our elder folks.

After that surprising encounter with the old couple, Zhijian and me decided to pit our skills at the pool table. We ended up at snookerium , which was actually a pool/ arcade centre occupying the space of an old cinema theatre. The pool table was located at the highest point of the premises (probably the back row area of the old theatre) and we had to climb a flight of stairs before reaching the table. There was this old looking sign which caught my attention....

Is it just me or is the message ironic? The words "Locked" and "open" seem to contradict each other. I guess the intention is to keep the door open at all times? But....hmm.... but the door was closed and locked when I took this snap shot. So which is which? *Puzzled*

As we ended the game and made our way back to the hostel, I couldn't help but to take this snapshot. The chinese new year decorations were up in a near by wet market. Ooo... even though it's in a dingy corner of the wet market, and the decor is simple, the decor certainly livens up the mood in the vicinity.

Looks like chinese new year is around the corner! Bring on the "Ang Pows". :P

Man Utd vs Man City show down at Oyster Bar

2006-01-18T14:34:00.000+08:00

Been too busy to do a proper write up, so here are some pictures for you! The highlight was the derby match between Manchester Utd and Manchester City! Many fans were rooting for a strong confident victory for Man Utd against their less fanciful and pathetic rivals. GO RED DEVILS!! It's time for the boys in blue (Man City) to pack their bags home!! The location of the show down was at Caesar's Pub, Wine and Oyster Bar at Liang Seah Street (Opposite Bugis Junction). On a side note, Zhijian and Ka Weng got to meet each other for the first time.

Kick Off!!

It's TIGER TIME!
Cheers!

ABSTRACT ART
I have no idea what this picture is.
Maybe I was too drunk when the photo was taken. :P

Yeah... I know this photo is a repeat picture.
Anyway, the final score was Man City 3 - 1 Man Utd.
Shucks.... Disappointed with the crap result.

A Funky Police Car parked outside Bugis Junction
(Note its parked on the DOUBLE YELLOW LINES!!!)
I have never seen such a police car during my national service stint.

Next saturday will be time for another Big Match! The Red Devils will meet up with Liverpool. Let's see the English Premiership Titans fight it out!

Seiyu Charity Bazaar at NTU

2006-01-17T20:45:00.000+08:00

S-A-L-E

How many Singaporeans can resist this word? The shopping bug had struck again! This time, students and staff from NTU had the shopping centre brought to their door step. Shopping after lectures amidst the hustle and bustle of NTU's campus life to add rejuvenated excitement to the new semester.

In conjuction with union week, the Student Union had brought Seiyu departmental store to the university. The Japanese departmental store brought in a huge variety of items ranging from swim wear to fashion apparels. The 3 days event was located at the heart of the campus, the Nanyang Auditorium. Waves of people went to the Seiyu Charity Bazaar to check out the latest bargains. True to its word, the sale was definitely catered to students as many items were going below the normal prices found in external Seiyu stores.

Branded apparels for sale

Ladies galore

Look what I bought at the sale. A Kappa Sling bag at a bargian price! Guess the price?

Classy right?

Check out the Kappa metal tag

Cheap right?

HoHo! Kappa rocks.

Many students left the bazaar with huge shopping bags after a crazy spree. Both male and female students agreed that the sale was definitely an event which allowed them to do their Chinese New Year shopping. Not surprisingly, the female students splurged the most cash on their new clothes and apparel after their latest session of "retail therapy". In fact, the NTU tribune reported that Lingerie was the biggest item sales during the bazaar. It does seem that sexy lingerie does bring it big dollars afterall.

Everyday should be this colourful at university. Looks like the new wave of vibrant culture in breeding within campus!

Motorola Black Carnival Invites !!!

2006-01-12T17:47:00.000+08:00

Hey people! I've got exclusive passes to the ...

Motorola Black Carnival

Here's an extract of what is printed on the pass,

You are cordially invited to an evening when individualism is King.
Experience a mystical night of Singapore fashion at its best.
Explore the metamorphosis of a girl to a woman through
Hansel, Nicholas, Mizu and Baylene.

Date: 21 Jan 2006 (Sat)
Venue: DXO (Esplanade- Colours by the Bay).
Doors open at 8pm and the show commences at 8.30 pm.
This carnival is by invite only.

Let me know ASAP if you're interested. I've got 4 passes in total. I'll try to get additional passes for you if you are interested (No guarantee to get more passes though.)

Note to NTU friends, the passes are available at the Motorola booth beside canteen A (Podium area outside OCBC Bank). Let me know if you have got tickets too. Then we can all party together!

For more information, you can get to the Motorola Black Carnival website by clicking here.

Pet Adoption

2006-01-10T20:15:00.000+08:00

In case you have not noticed, I've adopted a new friendly pet. I hereby name her ...

"The Special One"

She's hanging on the side bar. Scroll down and check her out. It's feeding time!

More rainy day woes

2006-01-10T13:57:00.000+08:00

My hostel premises has been drenched down due to the continuous rain and I'm stranded indoors on a public holiday. Everywhere is liquidfied. *Sheeh* More rainy woes.

There's only one word to describe the surrondings.

W E T

Come to think of it, it is not so bad afterall. I have an excellent window view of the softball pitch from my room and I have a grand stand view of every softball tournament that takes place during the inter hall games. People are still playing softball even though its pouring outside. Lots of cheering and screaming are going on. The only thing missing are the cheer leaders shaking their pom poms. Seems like not even the wet weather is enough to dampen the spirit of the games!

Day 4 of rain and counting. I hate being cooped indoors.... Maybe I should join in the wet games too.

Rainy Day Woes

2006-01-09T21:35:00.000+08:00

Rain rain go away, come again another day.

It all started with a Split Splat Splosh ...... and before I knew it..... *BOOM* thunder....*FLASH* Lightning streaks and then..... Torrential rain!!! The day after tomorrow had arrived....

For the past 3 days, the skies have been pouring, pouring, pouring and pouring. Thunderstorms have ravaged our island and "typhoons" were a common sight. Not surprisingly, many people were cooped indoors over the weekend. Ask anyone in Singapore and they will tell you the weather was wet and gusty winds brought our tropical typical 33 degrees celcius temperature to around 22 degrees celcius. What a drastic drop. Gusts hit against the glass panels causing them to shake violently and water levels flooded the drains causing water to slush out from the roads.. That is definitely NOT an exaggeration. I think the last time man experienced such a ridiculously heavy downfall was from story where GOD called Noah to build the titanic but the ship hitted an ice berg.... oh darn... i think i mixed the stories up! ... Anyway, I think the ship(ark) was suppose to hold lots of animals or something. Blah!

With many activities limited, window watching is one of the favourite activity for many. If you to looked outside, you may have seen the following "disasters" occuring.

Event #1 - Wheel drops loose from a car

How unlucky can any driver get? Apparently, this dude was driving out of the carpark when his car wheel just came off!!! Amazing right? The chances of that happening is smaller than striking 1st prize for Toto. I think this guy waited for the rain to simmer down before leaving. See the photos below, this incident happened at carpark at my home. If you see really carefully, the car is jacked up at the left back where the wheel was missing.

Time: 1.30 am ,
8 Jan 06 (Sunday)

They were lucky when it was only drizzling

when the tow truck came along
.
.
.

The wheel is clearly missing
.
.
.

45 minutes later....
2:15 am

The mechanic managed to fix
the wheel eventhough the drizzle
started to get a heavier soon after

Can anyone see the car plate number? Take note of it and buy 4-D!! Don't forget me if the number strikes first prize! Haha.

Event #2- The guai lan* hawker at the 179 bus stop kopitiam
guai lan* - Dialect for attitude problem

If you happen to stay near the 179 kopitiam, you may have seen 2 guys waiting at a table for almost 40 minutes without any food. Yup! That's me and my room mate (Zhijian), we braved the down pour to eat there, hoping that a change in food variety will do us good. Actually we ate our food already, but feeling hungry, I decided to order fishball soup to suppliment my main meal. The conversation hence took place while I was ordering my food;

................................................................................................................................
Me: "Uncle, "yi wan yu yuan tang"
Hawker: *No reply*

Thinking that he probably did not hear me from the surrounding noise and hustle, I repeated my order.

Me:"Uncle, wo yao yi wan yu yuan tang"
Hawker: "Huh? Le ai simi??"

Wanting to make sure he did not give me the fishball NOODLES instead of just the fishballs....
Me: "Yu yuan tang" *saying slowly this time round*
Hawker: *continues to cook without replying or acknowledging my order*
Me: "Yu yuan tang... Bu yao mian.... "

*He gave me an attitude face and snaps back rudely*
Hawker: "Yu yuan jiu si yu yuan tang lor....na li you mian de!"
Me: (-.-") ... "Wo zuo zai na li"
Hawker: *Giving me the pissed look* OK LAH!!
.................................................................................................................................

WHAT THE ....?
I PLACED A SIMPLE ORDER, AND APPARENTLY HE DID NOT HEAR MY ORDER PROPERLY. INSTEAD, HE SNAPPED BACK AT ME WITH A RUDE TONE. WHAT KIND OF SERVICE IS THIS?

After 10 minutes, nothing came...
After 20 minutes, still nothing.... we were getting impatient
After 30 minutes, we noticed that the customers who came later had their orders served
After 40 minutes, we signalled stall assistant and she ask me whether I had placed an order.

WHAT THE....?
The stall holder refused to take my order without telling me?

In a huff, we left the kopitiam bemoaning the poor service. In order for me to "honour" this stall owner, I took the signboard from his stall. I wanted to take his face down, but as the crowd was increasing, I did not have a chance to do so.

NOTE TO ALL (Especially NTU students staying in hall)
Boycott this stall from the 179 bus stop kopitiam (See photo below). This stall also sells "Ba chor mee" or mince pork noodles. The service sucks big time.
*Picture is small due to the zoom from my camera phone*

Event #3 - Freezing laboratory environment

Even though the school term has started, I still have to go down to the laboratory to do my Final Year Project. Since the project involved Silicon wafers, I had to work within the clean room to do my metrology and processing. The clean room is a place where there is almost no microscopic dust in the environment. This is to ensure that all wafers are not contaminated. In order to enter the room, all personnel are required to don on the "bunny suit" prior entering the clean room and have an air bath. The following photos show how the bunny suit is worn. Note that my hair stands up due to the difference in air pressure in the laboratory.

Step 1- Wear the anti static smock

Step 2- Wear the surgical mask

Step 3 and 4 - Wear the shower cap and put on the gloves
Step 6- Safety googles in check and ready to go!

On a irrelevant note, I think I look better in the white bunny suit. So here are more photos taken from another laboratory clean room.

Air bath in progress. See those nozzles behind?
They blow out forced air to remove dirt and contamination

It's freakin' cold in the clean room
Temp: 10.5 degrees celcius
Relative Humidity: 39 percent

It's raining cats and dogs outside when I enter the laboratory. Not surprisingly, I enter the clean room semi- drenched. Freezingly cold!!!!!! Wafer handling gets increasingly tough when you can barely feel your fingers! Brrrr.....

6 inch wafers with a reflection of my phone

Photo resist spin coat machine

Photo lithography mask used for patterning

In a dreamy state
due to the cold temperature

Patterned wafer under
white light interferometer microscope

Micro structure patterns on the wafer
shown on the computer screen.
A box of wafers can be seen on the lower left.

NOTE TO SELF-
AVOID ENTERING THE CLEAN ROOM ON RAINY DAYS. THE WAFERS ARE ICY COLD.

Event #4- Exercise Northstar V
As many of you have watched from the news, Singapore recently held it's largest scale anti terror drill over the weekend (when it was still pouring heavily outside). Despite the heavy rain, the surprise drill proceeded. Look at this screen shot where the fire engine was driving through the torrential rain around 6.30 am on Sunday morning.

Anyway, here is an except from the channelnewsasia website regarding the anti terror drill.

**Singapore held a large-scale surprise civil emergency exercise codenamed Exercise NorthStar V. The exercise lasted from 6.30 am to 9.30 am. The exercise was conducted at the Dhoby Ghaut, Toa Payoh, Raffles Place, Marina Bay train stations and the Toa Payoh Bus Interchange. There were however a total of 13 stations closed throughout the exercise. The affected stations were Toa Payon, Novena and Orchard stations, among others. **

You can watch the news video on this exercise from channelnewsasia by clicking here.

VERDICT-

Rain or shine, Anti terror measures will still be implemented to keep a high standard of vigilance.

Fine dining with FYP friends

2006-01-05T19:20:00.001+08:00

Meet my Final Year Project (FYP) friends. This photo was taken at the 2005 year end gathering at...

Streeters Restaurant and Wine Bar, a Spanish restaurant in 35 Keong Saik Road, Chinatown

This bistro is very fine place with an elegant ambience to put you into a fine dining mood. The food was definitely a culinary treat and it serves dishes that are normally unheard of. It has wine tasting events on certain days. the restaurant has an extensive menu consisting of more than 60 items, it also pride itself of serving one of the best Paella's in town.

Feel free to try the baby squid in ink sphagetti. Alicia (See the photo below) highly recommended it to the rest, but most of us squinched at the sight of it. The taste was too bad afterall. It had a very strong squidy taste that stayed in your mouth after swallowing. Do be careful not to stain your lips with the squid ink, it's a pain to remove it once it stains. We also tried all kinds of food, like spanish potato pastry with egg, calamari, 3 different types of tapas, an expensive sounding bottle of spanish alcohol with mixed fruits, spanish brownie, special spanish ice cream and many other kinds of food with exotic names which I cannot recall. If I recall correctly, there were more than 10 dishes ordered. The dinner bill which amassed to $440++ was settled, courtesy of the BIG BOSS, our supervisor Ast/P David Lee Butler. Thank you very much sir for the generous treat!

Check out the happy faces after the exquisite dining experience.

Back row chicks (L to R): Claris, Linda, Mariko(bending down), Min Hui (behind mariko), Eulyadra (in red), Alicia (behind Eulyandra), Jessica, Sha Kee, Wendy (with blue hair), American girl (I forgot her name)

Front row hunks (L to R): Michael, myself, Prof David.

Missing from photo: The wife (Prof David's wife) who was the photographer.

Meet your Ah Kong

2006-01-03T19:21:00.000+08:00

Have you ever read about Darwin's evolution theory? Essentially, it states that we, humans are the evolutionary descendants of apes. Theorectically speaking, let me present to you a picture of our common great great great great .....(to infinity) grand ancestor. Say hello to your great great great grand Ah-kong!

Apparently, he thought that frowning
makes him look macho.

Given his very good looks, he was scouted by Peter Jackson to star in the latest blockbuster, King Kong. It seems that he does have some acting blood in him afterall! Haha. Jokes aside, this film deinitely lives up to the hype! The 3 hour epic is filled with action, humour, a tinge of romance, and raw beastly emotions. Go watch it if you haven't caught it yet. It should still be showing in the big screen. I am not going to mention anything about the movie plot for that matter. In honour of my favourite titan gorilla, I've decided to give you readers a bonus! The video section at the side bar has been updated. Scroll down and enjoy the spoof to the movie.

King Kong is everything a machoistic testorone filled male should be. He is physically strong, mighty, worshipped by people, egoistic, powerful and filled with pure machoistic andreneline. Yet, he is gentle on the inside, aggressively protective towards the female gender, and fights for what he strongly believes in even if it means placing his life in danger. Have you ever seen King Kong sob for mummy or crying over his battle wounds? He is what I rate as a super duper ultra Alpha Male. 101% pure grade testorone in action! Gals who have watched King Kong think he is funny and cute.

In order to support my stand that girls go "Ga Ga" over King Kong, you have to check this out. It seems that the Japanese never run out of funny ideas. I stumbled upon this Japanese, bubblegum genre music video titled "King Kong". It's silly in a funny kind of way. Irritatingly addictive to listen to. Click here to view the music video.

Happy 2006!

2006-01-02T17:36:00.000+08:00

Wishing everyone a fantastic 2006!
Bring on the happy moments.
HAPPY NEW YEAR

Photo Story for 2005

2005-12-31T23:59:00.000+08:00

Photo story
for 2005 year end
celebration on 29 Dec 05

Post dated entry for 2005

Dinner fun @ Pepper Lunch

Red Indians @ Orchard Road

E-Max @ Cineleisure L9

Alley Way Pub

Good Bye 2005
Welcome 2006!

Timetable for my final semester

2005-12-29T23:47:00.000+08:00

Hi friends,
For your convenience, there is a copy of my registered timetable for my final year, final semester in NTU. Click to enlarge the thumbnail.

Let's rock on and clear the very last hurdle! Cheers!

Hoots about hooters

2005-12-29T16:25:00.000+08:00

Christmas time is the season for giving, the period to foster better friendship and to have good time. This X'mas was indeed something different from past years. My bro, Ka Weng introduced me to this magnificent bistro on my birthday (on christmas) where my senses were tingled. No... I'm not referring to my smell and taste buds. I am mentioning the sense of sight. This American themed restaurant is located along Clarke Quay and has a strong superficial appeal to both genders. Hooters Restaurant is one place you will not forget once you dine in there.

Ka Weng and myself chilling at Hooters

For a change, Hooters gives the consumer a new perspective of dining. The food was definitely not the only thing that was sizzling. What made it different from the rest were the waitresses, better known as the “Hooters girls”. Hooters uses the old adage that SEX SELLS. It always does. Desires of the flesh are something that not many can turn away from. The waitresses were sizzling sexy and they were dressed in tight tops and cute little short orange shorts. It seems that only ladies with sizable assets qualified to become hooters girls as all the waitresses had very nice curves and with substantial cleavages. There was little denying that placing a dinner order was quite distracting and challenging (in a positive way) as I had difficulty concentrating on the menu. ( The service attitude was also fantastic. The staff greeted customers with mega watt smiles which gave people a sense of welcoming. The majority of the hooters girls were foreigners and it gave the place an exotic ambience. The subtle touches of good service mixed in a fusion of desires of the flesh made the dine-in experience an uplifting one. (Pun intended.) The overall presentation was such that there was never any sleaziness in that place. It seemed more like a lively and fun place to hang out. One side observation about the place was that there was an equal ratio of male to female customers. Hence, it definitely appeals to everyone. I even noticed some families with kids dining in there! I’m not providing any of the girl’s photos here. Go down and have a look yourself if you are interested to see. Haha.

The main highlight was definitely not the food, although the food was pretty tasty. It will definitely be a cool place to bring your next date there. The décor was definitely unique where there are high stools for you to sit on (just like those in the pub- See the background of the picture above). Even the toilets were funky. Scroll down and check the pixs.

Ka Weng trying hard not to get distracted

Check out the menu- Did I see it correctly?

The price is $888.88 for their oysters?

Don't ask me why I'm looking at the
set lunches when we were having dinner

Our food in full splendour

These are some pictures of the toilet. Seems like a FHM galore to me.

The toilet with an 'artistic' touch to it

If you are interested to get down there, pop me a call. I'll bring you there personally if you promise to treat me. LOL. It'll definitely be an eye opener for a dine-in experience.

Side note-
Ka Weng, Thanks for the birthday treat.

Asian tsunami- Reflections

2005-12-28T10:50:00.000+08:00

It's been a year since the destructive Tsunami wrecked havoc throughout Asia. Many newspapers have reported that rebuilding of the coastal struck areas are well under way and tourism is slowly getting back on track. However, there are some things in life which can never be reconstructed. Families have been wrecked, friends have been lost and bodies of victims were never recovered. Too often in life, we take many things for granted. Disasters are only sad stories read off the news if they do not happen to you. However, when they fall upon us at the most unfortunate moment, it becomes a horrific tragedy.

Can you imagine your life today if you were affected by the Tsunami? This time last year, I was down in Thailand for a holiday trip. Initially, I planned to go to Phuket (one of the worst struck disaster areas). Fortunately, some persuasion made me change my mind. Furthermore, the plane tickets were fully booked by then. Hence I ended up in Bangkok and manged to return to Singapore in one piece. Lady luck must have been on my side! If I had gone to Phuket, I would have been dead and my name could have been inscribed as one of the death toll list during the tsunami memorial. I saw the memorial service on television, it was indeed a sad and sombre event where people paid their respects to the victims. Here are some pictures of the memorial service taken off the internet.

Sometimes, when things don't go your way, look on the bright side. It may be a blessing in disguise. There is always a silver lining in every cloud. The massive tsunami was indeed a wrath of nature and many people were killed. But it serves as a wake up call that disaster warnings can be signalled early to reduce the casualties. Humans will always be at the mercy of nature. We cannot predict the future and we cannot change the past. The only thing you can change is today. I was watching the movie "Vertical Limit" on channel 5 over the weekend when I came upon this phrase.

All men eventually die,
But it is what he does before death
that really matters.

Have you lived your life to the fullest?

*All pictures are copyright of their respective owners*

It's Christmas Eve!

2005-12-24T02:47:00.000+08:00

Merry Christmas Eve everyone!
May you enjoy your festive season and have a jolly christmas day with your family and loved ones.

*Jingle bells Jingle bells.... Jingle all the way...*

Hope you people have fun at the countdown parties!

1 more day to my birthday (Christmas Day!) =D Hurray!

Adventure @ JB

2005-12-23T23:36:00.002+08:00

Pre-entry note-
Unfortunately, there are no photos are available for this entry. I did not have my digi-cam or my camera phone with me at the point of the trip.

Just a few days back, Zhijian and I headed down to Johor Bahru (Malaysia) for a short trip making good use of the very short term break. This is my first trip to JB is a decade. I have not been there since I was a kid. The last destination I went to was in Bangkok, Thailand. I was kind of excited and in the mood for some good bargain hunting once I got to Malaysia. We headed from Kranji MRT and took bus CW1 (It's a malaysian service) to the causeway. We paid like SGD$0.80 each for the bus fare which will bring us all the way into Malaysia. Woo ... Cheap. When the bus arrived, it was in bright funky yellow. Nice... I like! At least it looks better than the TIBS yellow buses. The ticket to us was in paper form. A PAPER BUS TICKET! SO COOL! (You have to keep your ticket or else you have to repay the bus fare once u reboard the service from the customs.)

I thought to myself,

"When was the last time I ever held a paper bus ticket? Ever since that magnetic bus card to the current ez-link tap card, many singaporeans have done away with paper tickets. Fares are all deducted electronically nowdays."

I think the last time I touched a paper ticket was like a decade ago. Kind of brought back a sense of nostalgia. Sheesh.

Anyway, I shall not digress. The bus stopped at the Singapore custom check point and we waited for our turn. The queue was like freaking long despite it being a weekday. Hence, we waited for approximately 15 minutes before it was our turn. I found the Singapore check point really nice, since it was air conditioned and the queue seemed to be clearing pretty quick. Once we cleared the singapore checkpoint, we had to go down to take the same bus service (CW1) to the Malaysian checkpoint. The bus service was pretty prompt and had to show the conductor out tickets to board the service again. As the bright funky yellow bus moved along the causeway, I noticed the notorious traffic jam. Disgustingly packed. I made a comment to Zhijian that the delivery drivers who shuttle to and fro everyday on the causeway must be incredibly patient to be trapped in the jam day in day out. I swear I never want a job like that.

Zhijian replied,

"Bo bian, they all have no choice. What else can they do besides waiting? It's part of their job. They have a family to feed back home. At least they can listen to the radio. Still not so bad being stuck in the jam."

Words of wisdom. No wonder I call him "Master Tien". lol.

Fortunately, the bus lane was pretty fast moving as we zoomed past the stranded cars and lorries which were miserably stuck in the mid day jam. Soon after we alighted at the Malaysian checkpoint, we had slight difficulty looking for the immigration card which all visitors must fill up. The customs was in a slight mess with throngs of people walking around. So CROWDED. After a slight search, we finally found that the immigration card was stashed in some corner of a counter with no indication that visitors are suppose to collect the cards from there.

NOTE TO MALAYSIAN CUSTOMS-
Please put a clear sign to infom all visitors to collect the immigration card at a particular spot. I'm sure many first time visitors (like me) will appreciate it.

Luckily Zhijian told me I must get the card, if not I will queue up in vain. This time round, the wait to get the passport cleared was much longer than the previous one. We had to wait for almost 45 minutes to get our travel documents cleared. In the process of waiting, I made some interesting observations.

The customs officers looked extremely bored as they stamped the passports. Can't really blame them though, as their job seem relatively monotonous and repititious.
The place had no air con, there were huge dirty fans circulating the air. Do not take deep breaths of air.
The traffic outside was congested. Surprisingly, I never heard any horns blaring.
Heavy traffic outside = poluted air inside.
I saw a category of people whom I define as queue hoppers. They pounce regulary onto other queues that looks shorter only to realise that the queue only looks shorter as the clearance counter is further deeper in.
Always bring a pen with you to fill the card. I didn't notice any free pens around.
Fill the card while queuing and not before you queue. This saves lots of time.
Bring a MP3 player / PSP/ handphone (with games) along. It will keep u occupied.
Be alert. Keep a lookout of "queue hoppers" who will suddenly cut your queue.
Bring a bottle of water. I did not see any water coolers around in case u get thirsty.
Visit the toilet before you enter the causeway checkpoint. You wouldn't want to leave the queue once you are in it.
Don't touch the windows. There is a thick layer of dust on it. (I accidentally touched it)

After the long wait, it was approximately mid-day. We got out of the immigration building and I saw a entirely different world. Johor is slightly run down and the roads and pavement seemed to be quite a challenge to walk on. Buildings were quite grey and looked like it was constructed during the 1980s era. Despite the condition of the place, I enjoyed the experience. It seemed such a long time ago since I walked on a super spacious pavement. I think 5 people could have walked together in a horizontal row and there will still be space left. I kid you not. The pavements in Singapore are pretty narrow. I simply loved the S P A C E !

A short walk led us to our 1st desination. City Square shopping mall. We had to cross an overhead bridge to get into the shopping complex. Unfortunately, there was NO ESCALATOR. *Sigh* It was the traditional bridge where we had to climb the staircase that will lead us up. Once we got up the overhead bridge, the first thing that caught my attention was a .....

PIRATED CD SHOP! The variety of software was incredibly huge The CDs ranged from the latest movie DVD, VCD to various computer software and games. I saw "King Kong" and the "Narnia" on sale too! Only 3 Ringgit! SO CHEAP! Although I was tempted to buy, I remembered that I was suppose to be a better man. Hence, no purchase took place. Besides, piracy hurts the industry and it is illegal.

My Karma : +500

Haha. We entered City Square shopping mall soon after. The place was huge and the place looked like a cool shopping complex. It was SPACIOUS and had many retail outlets with international brands. There was not much of a christmas mood though. Only a few shops had decorations and had christmas tunes playing. I guess people from JB don't celebrate christmas. We walked on and feeling really hungry, we decided to settle our lunch at "Secret Recipe". The decision was made to eat there because,

The restaurant had posters all over showing it was the most promising brand, best food outlet, best whatever whatever.....
The place was quite cheap. (by singapore standards)
There was ample seating available.

Once we settled down, Zhijian settled for black pepper chicken and Ice cream while I settled for Mushroom sauce chicken and their highly recommend "Marble Cheese Cake" (which was very highly rated by them).

I noticed that we had to pay for PLAIN WATER. Surprising isn't it? If i recalled correctly, it cost RM50 cents for a glass. I always thought plain water was free. The food came soon after and there was a slight twist to what I had expected. It was served as chicken chop with some salad and some purple colour rice. The rice had some black pepper on it and it tasted.... Eugh... The chicken was nice though. When we signalled for our desert, the most unexpected thing happened!

BLACK OUT !!!

Great! There was a lot of commotion. It wasn't entirely dark as there were still a few lights on the ceiling but the place was difinitely dim. The entire basement was shut off from power supply. It was later discovered that other retail outlets on the other levels were also cut off. There was some excitement in it. The waiters and waitresses gathered at the counter and started chatting among themselves. For 10 minutes, I enjoyed the commotion, until I waited and waited and waited for 30 minutes plus for my desert to arrive. After multiple request from the waiter/waitresses, I was told that they have yet to place my marble cheese cake order as the computer system was down. WHAT? Surely they can serve me my cheese cake while they fix the computer right? *Sigh* The irony of technology. People have becomed so dependent on it such that when a power cut off occurs, EVERYTHING comes to a stand still. Zhijian was fortunate, his ice cream was served promptly after some beckoning. Another 15 minutes passed and I saw many new customers leaving as they could not dine in due to the black out. After a whopping 45 minutes wait, I beckoned the waiter and told him I wanted to cancel my order. Guess what? VOILA! The Cheese Cake came immediately, even though the power was still down. Funny right? Surely I can expect a more decent standard of service from a outlet which is so highly acclaimed? Power came back within an hour after the blackout and we promptly left the place upon payment which set us back about RM $20 each. Really cheap for a dine in at a bistro.

So here is the final verdict for secret recipie- 2.5 out of 5 stars.
The food and the service should have been better.

After lunch, a little shopping was done. Things are generally cheap but when it came to international brands like Nike and Adidas, the price was similar to Singapore. There was barely any price difference. For good bargains in the shopping centre, head down to the smaller retail shops. They can offer you some discount. One shop which caught my eye was this budget retail outlet called,

THE REJECT SHOP

So weird. I mean, the name is unique and it is cool to have a budget boutique around, but the name does sound quite negative overall?

Another observation was that the Bridal boutiques and Spas there are so nice! The shops were like palaces only fit for royalty to enter. It was definitely fantastically well decorated.

Another thing which caught my eye was the pricing and the menu at MacDonalds. The meals there are so cheap! It costs around RM$6.75 for a fillet of fish meal. That works out to be around SGD$3.06. There was also some offer from 3-6 pm where certain food/drink combination will cost you only RM$3. Apart from the pricing, I noticed that they actually sell RIBENA there. How come we don't have RIBENA in singapore too? It's the blackcurrent drink you used to drink from young, remember?

NOTE TO MACDONALDS SINGAPORE-
We want RIBENA too! :)

PS- It's pronouced as RIE - BEE - NAH and not REE - BEE - NAH.

There was also something which I loved. It was some kind of promotional sundae served with jelly and fruits. It was called Triple Jelly Trio or something like that. The bottom 1/3 of the cup is filled with blue jelly, the middle part is filled with your normal sundae ice cream and the top 1/3 is served with tropical Jelly and fruits. So unique!

Zhijian ordered ice lemon tea and he commented that it was too sweet. I also thought my sundae was too sweet to my liking. Maybe Malaysians like their food sweeter to give it a stronger flavour.

Given that the food was too sweet, we decided to go to the restroom to rinse out the sweetness. To my surprise, we had to PAY for the toilet. RM$0.50 cents per entry! That's expensive for toilet usage. I never had to pay for public toilets in singapore. :(

The next destination after city square was Holiday Inn Plaza. Apparently, the only way we knew to get there was by taxi. Since there are no meters inside the taxi, we had to bargain the fare before getting on. The trip there was RM$7 which was quite a good bargain for a 15 minute trip.

Upon arrival, the place was slightly run down and it looked a little like queensways shopping centre except that it was more spacious. The place was INFESTED with PIRATED CD SHOPS. I tell you, piracy is really rampant. Every level had at least 10 shops selling pirated CDs. I had a hard time trying to prevent myself from buying any illegal CDs given all the soliciting. Again, I didn't buy any CD/DVD from those shops.

Karma: + another 500

The variety of boutiques and hair dressing saloons were vast. The clothes were much nicer and classier. However, the pricing of the clothes were not far off from the prices from City Square shopping complex. The service at the boutiques were fantastic as the sales people smiled and helped you with your shopping. They never stalked you and gave you ample space to look around , but were always there to offer assistance when needed. Special tribute to this retail shop by the corner which sells only guys clothes. The decor of this shop was really well done and they were playing to the tunes of Lin Junjie. The lighting was warm and the ambience was very soothing. This was totally unexpected from a shop in this area. There were 3 pretty sales girls who were really polite and nice. I vouch that one of the sales girls look a little like a combination of fann wong and fiona xie. VERY PRETTY! Haha, but let's not digress. The range of clothes were huge, nothing which one can find in other shops. The designs were unique and classy. Unfortunately, the clothes were quite pricey and was out of my budget (The average price was RM$89.90). The service level was good but since I do not know the shop name, I shall call it the $89.90 shop. I think they deserve an award for excellent customer service.

Well done to the girls from the $89.90 shop :D

By the time we were done, it was evening time and tummies were starving. The initial plan was to go down to Perling and eat at this famous seafood restaurant called Orang Asli (as recommended by Jessica) but there was a change of plans. The taxi driver told us the cab fare was going to be expensive as he had to drive to mud paths and pass by jungles to get us there. Our reaction to this was like...

Mud Paths? Jungle? (-_-")

Okay. So Perling was definitely out. It was too far and I didn't quite trust that the driver will not dump us at some remote area in Malaysia. Hence, we went to this place called Sri Taman Tebrau. Apparently, Zhijian went there to eat before and he told me the food there was also quite delicious. We took the cab there and did some exploring by foot. The place seem to be a high end residential estate as we saw big cars and big houses around the vicinity. There were also hair saloons there, but the prices were almost triple of the prices we saw at Holiday Inn Plaza. The shops there seem to be catered to the rich as they were mainly posh retail shops. After 30 minutes of walking, we went back to the hawker centre to see the variety of food. GOSH! The food variety was huge! Seafood was caught fresh from the tanks displayed outside the food stalls. After some scouting, we sat down and order roasted pigeon, sting ray and beggar chicken. The sting ray was good, but nothing special. However, the roasted pigeon was definitely something to mention. The wings were kind of tiny, which made it difficult to bite into the meat without sinking your teeth into the bones. The meat was lean and there were no fats found. The meat was definitely 100% lean muscle, very elastic. The beggar chicken was another highlight. It was baked in aluminium foil which was covered with clay. The chicken had herbs in it and the meat was cooked to perfection. The taste was definitely premium, You have to try it the next time you go to JB. It seems that the roasted pigeon and the beggar chicken are local delicacies. After gorging to a sumptious dinner which made us very full, the price was a pleasant number too. It only cost RM$50, which brings to about SGD$11.36 (per person) for that meal. Fantastically cheap!

Verdict- 4.5 out of 5 stars (Excellent food at an excellent price)

We decided to take another walk after that heavy meal and do a little more exploration. After a few enquries about road directions, we decided to walk back as some dude told us it will only be a "short" walk back. Apparently, the "short" walk took us 40 minutes to get back to city square shopping mall. We had to brave walking on busy roads without pavements and walk on uneven cement walkways. On certain occasions, we had to dash across the wide roads as there were no pedestrain crossings and traffic lights. We came across a map which proved to be entirely useless and the only signs we could look out for were the "fertility clinic" which we passed during the taxi ride and road signs which said "SINGAPURA". Fortunately, we were never really lost throughout our journey. (Guys have excellent sense of directions)

Things were smooth sailing once we arrived at city square. Zhijian bought a bag from the pregnant sales girl shop at a bargain and we discovered that the cinema theatre prices were very cheap. Every Tuesday will be movie day and all tickets will sell for RM$6. Every Wednesday will be ladies night and the ladies will be entitled to enter at super low prices. We were surprised that the theatre was showing movies like "King Kong" at timings like 1.30am on a weekday. We departed off to Singapore soon after as we were totally burnt from that long and danger striken walk back. It was no surprise again when we reached the customs check point. The queues were long, the waiting time was terrible. This time round, the buses back to Singapore took ridiculously long to arrive. We waited almost 20 minutes for SBS service 160 to arrive but in the end decided to take SBS service 170 as it seemed like the only bus service to continuously arrive every 5 minutes.

Once we were back in Singapore, I couldn't wait to get back home. The trip was eventful and fun filled. I was drained by then from the entire day's events. Johor is indeed a bargain hunting paradise, but I really learnt to appreciate things like the clean roads, nice bus stops and the ever- reliable MRT train service. Too often in life, we take things around us for granted. That night, the train ride back home seemed to feel special as I started to appreciate the everyday things I have here, in Singapore.

Release of NTU examination results

2005-12-21T17:10:00.000+08:00

After a greuling semester and a very long exam period. I finally got a chance for a refresher during the post exam recess. I kid you not when I say that many final year students were almost burnt out by the end of the examination. Time really flies and before I realised it, the examination results were out. I never looked forward to checking my results (even when the exams were smooth sailing) as it often signalled that the end of the term break.

The dreaded feeling came when I received a sms from Edwina on one fine day which said;

RESULTS R OUT.
DO CHECK IT OUT.

Uh-oh. D-day had finally arrived. Hence, I logged into the NTU student link to view my results. The first thing I noticed was that the results gives a better standing on how well a student has faired. Past grades ranged from A,B,C,D,E,F but this time round, the grades reflected were in the form of A+,A,A-,B+,B,B- and etc...

Special thanks to Jer who helped me study smart
by making brief and concise notes for me.

And yes. I was pleasantly surprised when I saw my grades. This was the best set of grades I've obtained since my tertiary education. Lucky me! I survived every single module and they were pretty well done. :D It seems that all that late night DOTA gaming action during the examination period did not pull my grades down. *phew*

With the grades out, it is time to plan my timetable. I'm only left with 17 Academic Units (inclusive of FYP) to clear for my core modules. Finally! I can see the light at the end of the tunnel. Maybe I'll graduate within 4 years after all. Gambate!

Exploration of the New National Library

2005-12-20T19:07:00.000+08:00

What is your first impression to a library? Dark, dingy, boring, deathly pale zombie liked librarians walking silently around. Dusty books kept of the shelves with cobwebs. Nothing but thick collections of gothic books cramped up in every single shelve space. They may be the valid for libraries during the 1970- 1990 but let history live in the past. Behold the new generation libraries of today.

Although the latest National Library has been opened for almost half a year, I never really found time to enter and explore. So, after months of procrastination, Jer and mavis got me down to explore and experience the hype about the newest state of the art building at Victoria street on ~~18 Dec 05~~ 17 Dec 05. This library was constructed to replace the old red brick wall library at stamford road.The library building itself was really tall and it stretched way above 17 stories high. Impressive, considering that 17 (or more) stories were nothing but library exhibitions, galleries, books, drama centres, historical references and etc...

My first impression upon entering the library was like... "Woah... Almost 70% of the external architecture was made up of glass and metal. Totally futuristic. There were almost no sign of bricks and the ugly grey concrete. Just white, black, silver and transparent materials. Simplistically classy.

Futuristic Architecture (1)

Futuristic Architecture (2)

Upon entering, one will be overwhelmed by its massiveness. Warm lights made the place comfy and art pieces displayed gave the place an aura of tranquility.

Library entrance view from top level

Drama Centre

There were interactive exhibitions, level after level showing the stuff ranging from history to modern day facilities and services provided by the library. To be honest, I was never a fan of libraries until today. There are so many unique things to explore at every corner. You just have to see these exhibits!

One of the hanging banners at the exhibits

Funky banner hung above another exhibit

Traditional library cards used almost 2 decades back

A historical exhibit

Any idea what this device is?

Ancient tap relic?

It's a antique book press!! Initially, I thought it was some ancient tap from some sewage system. Haha. Anyway, this device was used by librarians to repair old and tattered books in the past. Kudos to all those librarians who must have spent lots of time repairing books which shared a wealth of information!

As I went up the building, there was something which I totally did not expect. Huge plasma televisions were on every level greeting visitors coming up form the escalators. They were showing various information on upcoming events and workshops. There was even a SKY GARDEN! Awesome. Sometimes, people even forget that they are stepped inside a library. There were even couples taking wedding photo shots at the sky garden. How cool can that be?

Sky garden at the library

Apparently, I must give special mention about this person. (I think he is a very rich business man). I've seen his name on the National library plaque, seen the main lecture theatre at Nanyang Technological University (NTU) named after him, and also seen the business school at Singapore Management University (SMU) named under him. There could be more buildings/ facilities named under him but I've yet to discover them.

A plaque in his honour from the old national library.
(Now displayed as an exhibit)

He must be a really well respected man. Thank you Mr Lee for contributing to our education facilities for the general public. (He may be reading my blog)

Did I mention the toilets? They're really quite well designed. Apparently, it seems that the toilet designs vary from level to level. So here's a photo of one of the male toilets. It looks really nice right? Sorry dudes, no pic of the female toilet. :P

Arty designs in the male toilet

Contrary to what I expected, I only saw 2-3 levels filled with books. I think they were the top few levels. Check out the American style decor on this level. The ceiling was exceptionally high and it gave a modernly granduer feeling.

This level spans up to 2.5 storeys high.

The colour of the background

changes every few minutes

Books nicely stacked on the shelves.

Latest book additions on display

The books look really new and they were nicely spaced out on the shelves. I didn't see any ancient relic books though. The rest of the levels were all digitised and computerised. All the information from the library is now a click away. Even the OPAC search computers look really cool.

OPAC computer terminals with a artistic tinge

After exploring around, Jer and Mavis finally decided to check out the books. Here's a snap shot of them looking really "engrossed" reading the books. Haha. Jer is the one in blue. Mavis is the one in white.

Candid shot of the gals browsing.

Mavis was browsing thorough some arty fashion book when she showed me this drawing! OOoo.

Kinky fashion drawing

Feeling kind of bored. We decided to take a shot to immortalise our visit!

Jer (left), Mavis (centre) and the better man(right)

The gals sit back and relax on the sofa

Creepy shot of 2 "souls" looking at an ancient painting

Considering the fact that the sky was getting really dark and droplets of rain started to fall against the glass panels, we decided to leave the place and go all the way down using the elevators.

Even the elevators look hip

Lift control panel

Mission Accomplised!
The 3 adventurers after their
landmark exploration trip

Now who ever said libraries were boring? Certainly not me. :D

Killer from the deep?

2005-12-15T04:30:00.000+08:00

A ferocious predator of the deep has survived for 400 million years and has resisted evolution. The ultimate killing machine which enters a mindless frenzy at the slightly drip of BLOOD. The undisputed monster of the sea. It kills anything that moves with a bone crunching attack. No logic, No passion, No mercy. Pure carnage.

If you see a large unmistakable fin above the water with a huge dark shadow swimming towards you while you're swimming out at sea.... the jaws of death may just be the last sight you will ever have... Or will you live to tell your terrifying tale?

If you are lucky or unlucky enough to live through the fatal attack (depending on whatever that is left of you) , you'll most likely end up with horrific injuries with parts of your body brutally bitten off. The following link displays gruesome graphical details. You have been warned. Photos of shark attack victims can be found by clicking here.

Despite these cases (which have been recorded as statistically rare), do you know that the sharks main predator is none other than man? Sharks have been vastly huntered for the value of their fins to the extent that certain species are already nearing extinction? Many known shark species find their populations rapidly dwindling due to the extent of over-hunting. Environmentalist are calling for governments to protect the sharks and clip the shark fin trade which is booming in Asia. The fact that illegal sharking finning is rampant makes it more difficult to save this "prehistoric killing machine".

Real Time Facts

The illegal fishing for shark fins in the Galapagos has increased dramatically in the past few years...

According to WildAid, about 100 million sharks are killed every year in a trade which it likens to the scandal of the slaughter of elephants for their ivory...

The fins themselves are dried and often end up in soup in Chinese restaurants all over the world, commanding prices of up to $80 per pound.

Source: BBC News

Hong Kong is the centre of the world's shark's fin trade -- some 80 percent of all fins sold on the world market come through here...

Environmentalists say shark's fins are harvested inhumanely in a process called "finning" in which fishermen hack off the limbs of live sharks and dump their bodies back to sea to die...

Although tasteless and scientifically low in nutritional value, the gelatinous dish's high price makes it a status symbol and its consumption is considered a mark of wealth...

source: Channelnewsasia

Ever wanted to live a life as a shark? Ever wondered how it is to avoid all that senseless hunting for experimental reasons and to prevent being the next bowl of shark fin soup served in a chinese restaurant? Click on the picture below to play this cool flash game.

*Chomp Chomp* :D

Post entry- 15 Dec @ 2100 hrs (Singapore time)
Think you're good at it?
Beat my SCORE of 6500!

(Click on image to enlarge)

Google search bar

2005-12-14T10:15:00.000+08:00

*Google search bar under construction*
Stay tuned

Post comment ( 15 Dec 05) - I've tweaked around and finally managed to get the google search bar working. Hope it is useful for you to search the net if needed.

Funky Underwear

2005-12-13T01:15:00.000+08:00

I was keeping my laundry from the clothes line outside my hostel room when I made an interetsing discovery. Apparently, someone living one/two level(s) above me had accidentally dropped his/her underwear which landed on my clothesline. It was not so much about seeing an underwear drop from the sky but to see a pair of the boxers with cartoons(not too sure whether it was a guy or gal's boxers) It showed a picture of Homer Simpson which screamed;

Take me off !!

(The cartoon is not the same, but I happened to find a similar pose of homer off the net)

Groovy. Haha.

Let's all admit it. Underwears have become a fashion statement. Gone were the days where guys would have nothing but white/ off white underwear and girls will have plain beige boring under garments. People are no longer embarressed to show off their underwear. The tag that labelled people who own lots of flashy undies as perverts were a thing of a past. Nobody gives a hoot about laughing off at people's under garments. Remember an era not so long ago where young teenage guys loved to show off their underwear band which had famous brand names like "Calvin Klein" or "Armani". Girls of today show off their fashionable bra straps without a second thought.

I was reading a back dated issue of FHM where I saw advertisements on guy/gal underwear being marketed as hip and cool. The lingerie business is huge , and the male underwear sector is rapidly grabbing a fair share. People of today embrace fashion, branding and more importantly, comfort. Luxury undergarments cost a bomb. Somehow, I have yet to comprehend the logic of less fabric = more expensive. Is there a rational for it?

Eitherway, it's time to throw your cheap 3 for $10 grandpa/grandma undies away yeah? It's all about you. Do you know that your type of underwear reflects your personality?

This is what some dumb quiz said about me. Surprisingly true.

What Your Underwear Says About You

It's important that your underwear doesn't offend anyone - in case you get in a car accident.

You're the type of guy who lets his girlfriend pick out his underwear.

The Underwear Oracle

How about you? Haha

PS- If you decide to purchase a pair/ pairs of funky undies, please keep an eye on them while drying your laundry (esp if you live in hostel). Underwear thieves are unfortunately always on the prowl. You wouldn't want to lose that funky pair do ya?

Blog must also upgrade

2005-12-12T18:07:00.000+08:00

Woo Hoo! My Blog is less than a week old and I'm already getting compliments from people on the content and stuff. Feel so proud of myself. Haha. Alright, it may not be as fantastic as the incredibly popular blogs like the Xiaxue or Mr Brown but give me some credit yeah? I'm working on it. Go me!

I read Mr Brown's blog, he said something like government nowdays upgrade a lot flats. So much so that his kid even has a swing in his place. Wah! I want an Osim I-squeeze in my hall. Any sponsors? Hee.

Speaking of upgrading, here are the latest features I've added to my blog. Blog must also be upgraded, if not will look like some traditional text based website. Singaporeans are a kiasu bunch. Must always try to be number 1.

Background Music (Special thanks to wispie and indirectly heisuke). I stole the code from her blog. Haha. Yeah...I'll post my own music when I find the time. I may consider removing the background music as it interferes with the video? Meantime, you readers will just have to settle for this. If you wanna stop the background music. Click on the "STOP" icon on your browser toolbar. I know it doesn't play on other browsers apart from IE. (I'm using firefox and no music plays in the background. Anyone knows any way to fix to browser issue?)

Added a Blog hit counter. For me to know how my blog is faring. Still waiting for you readers to recommend my blog to your other friends.

Added a MV section. You can now enjoy and watch Music Videos on my blog. Now showing- "Ai Mei by Yang Chen Ling". I like the soothing vibes to this song. You are supposed to see a windows media player window at the side bar below the song title. Not too sure if it'll give problems to those who are not on broadband. Do give me comments and I'll try to tweak on it accordingly.

Nothing too fanciful in the meantime. Waiting for feedback from you people. Email me or leave a comment. Cheers :)

Living in an unfair world

2005-12-11T03:59:00.000+08:00

Uphill battles are fought everyday by millions of people world wide. For every battle won, lies on how the war was waged. More often than not, this is what separates performers from the high achievers. I chanced upon this phrase while reading a magazine some time back.

All human beings are created equal

Such simplicity in a sentence with deep meaning?? Not convinced, I looked from different scopes at people from all walks of life to look for examples.

This example has to be the best classic one can find today's world. Forget about Microsoft and Apple. Those were stories of the past. Google is real deal for today.

According to the 5 Dec 05 issue of BusinessWeek, the cover story wrote,

With a market cap in orbit and more cash than a small nation, Google is altering the tech industry's behavior.

More cash than a small nation? Seems remarkable for a tech startup founded in 1998. Some basic math will show that within a span of 8 years, Google has a market cap of $120 billion. In case you are wondering. $1 billion= $1000, 000000. (One thousand million). Now, multiply this number with 120. Alrite, I'll give you 5 seconds to gawk at this number. Now.... that's a whole load of money. How much can one earn in 8 years?

HANDSOME HUNK VS COMPUTER NERDS

Let's do a simple comparison, "David Beckham" vs "The founders of Google- Page & Brin"

David Beckham is the highest earning soccer player in the world. His wealth accumulated for the past years was last rated at 75 million pounds (as of 2005). No where close to Google's $120 billion.

Verdict- Nerds rule the world?

Were Brin & Page (Co-founders of Google) just plain lucky? They used to termed as geeks and nerds, but suddenly, they seemed to have lost that tag overnight. Sure! They had the luck and a fair share of opportunities, but without the hardwork, strategic planning and acute sense of technopreneurship placed into building a cyber empire, Google would probably ended up like just another search engine offering some internet services among the millions of websites out there.

But wait a minute, if they can do it? Why can't we do it too? If the world was fair, wouldn't everyone be millionaires by the time we reach 25? I can also say I look better than Beckham (haha... subjective mah...I have a big ego), but how come I don't get famous? I can also play soccer what. My JC friends called me Jaap Stam (after the famous ex- Man Utd defender). I also have played around with programming what... how come I do have opprtunity to set up my own search portal? I doubt it if one were to say that the rest of us lack the ability and drive to succeed. Do we lack dreams and ambitions? I doubt it. Why is it they are so successful while many of us who aspire to be the best remain fighting it out within the masses? I believe the answer lies in luck and opportunity. Everyone can put in the same amount of effort, but some will make it big, while others remain hidden in the gallows.

Still not convinced? I'm not going to make extremist comparisons so, let me make another comparison between 2 local personalities. Both are good at their own fields and have talents to their own right. I'm also sure both have also strived very hard towards their goals. I'll let you decide again if all human beings are created equal. Here's Patricia Mok and the ever fanntabulous Fann Wong.

You really want me to compare the both of them? Enough said. Period.
Crap to the saying that all human beings are created equal.

Oh yeah... In case you have not realised. Yes... I am a Man Utd supporter and I simply adore Fann Wong. Haha. U either love them or hate them. :)

Questionable controller design

2005-12-09T15:58:00.000+08:00

After the World Cyber Games held in

Singapore

not too long ago, there has been a sudden explosive interest surge in the world of computer games. PC games enthusiasts and game console enthusiasts alike have found common grounds and are discussing the new controller designs for the next generation for gaming.

*Note to girls*
Ok girls, I know some of you gals may be thinking... "This entry is boring.... maybe I should just go shopping." Don't lose interest yet. Trust me... this entry is especially dedicated to you girls out there. There's a surprise at the end just for you.

With the Microsoft X-box and the Sony's Playstation 2 consoles being tremendous hits with gamers world wide. Gamers worldwide have high expectations on their new controller designs. Although both the X-box 360 and the Playstation 3 have yet to ship in, and developers have claim theses are just prototype designs, sneak previews on the new designs have sprung up over the net. (Note: All designs are copyright of their respective producers).

Here's the design of the X-box 360 controller. (below)

Here's the design of the Playstation 3 controller. (below)

Cool rite? Simply amazing. All the wireless technology and microchip power in your hands.

Now for the surprise as promised earlier... I found this comic strip by the guys who host Squarebrain.net . Personally I think they are really good with their comics. Check out their comic presented below. Introducing.....

"A questionable design choice"

Scroll down and enjoy.

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Click on the image to enlarge

Credit to these guys who have done a really good job. They have kindly agreed to allow the reproduction of this material. Do check out their comics on their websites. Something really refreshing. :)

Now guys... who ever said girls were never actively interested with the new generation game consoles?? *Wink*

Food Galore!

2005-12-09T14:04:00.000+08:00

It seems that you'll never run out of tasting something new in Singapore. Just a few months back, a few food outlets have sprung up in town and the sub urban areas. Being an avid food adventurer, I decided to explore the new tantalising tastes to pamper my tastebuds. :P

For today's episode, allow me to introduce Carl's Jr.

Carl's Junior
Burgers that are too hot to handle. For those of you who are still wondering, does this brand name sound familiar? No? How about the name below?

PARIS HILTON

Still no? Oh well... how about this? Just for your viewing pleasure....

Haha. Now that I've got your attention, allow me to give my critic on Carl's Jr. I went to take a look at the branch outlet at Marina Square and was quite happy with the standard of the decor, service and food. For those who have yet to try it out, do not be deceived by the name. This junior serves huge monster sized burgers. This american fast food chain established itself in Singapore in mid 2005 and has been a hit with people. It is not surprising that you will have to queue sometime for your food before being served.

Food serving
If you thought MacDonald's Big Mac was huge, think again. Expect burgers with servings 1.5 - 2 times larger than your typical burgers. The meat patties were larger than life topped with a generous proportion of ingredients like tomatos, onions, cheese, lettuce and etc... depending on your choice of burger. In short, everything is monster sized. Forget about your happy meal sized meals. They're for kids.

Pricing
Expect to pay S$4.20 for the cheapest fish burger, Carl's Catch, to as much as S$8.50 for the Double Guacamole Bacon Cheeseburger. Each combo set costs an average of S$10 and comes with a burger, fries (onion rings or chicken strips) & a huge empty cup. The price is generally more expensive than your other regular fast food outlets and depending on your choice of combo meals and side orders, an order for two people will set you back by S$20.

Food quality and menu
Yup! In case you were wondering about the above part reagarding the empty cup, you've read it right. The empty cup allows you to have a choice a drinks available and it's free flow too. It's no wonder why crowds of people can be seen queuing up to top up their drinks. By the way, I must comment on the onion rings. Contrary to what I expected, the onion rings were also monster sized, with the average diameter of each ring the length of your thumb. Each ring was actually made up of REAL ONIONS and you can actually pull the onion out of its breaded crust. I also noticed that there was a condiment bar and 14 types of sauces for you to choose from. The menu was extensive and it was definitely a refreshing change from the normal, the menu had chicken/beef burgers, sandwiches, chicken strips, fries, onion rings and potato waffles. Check out the pictures below.

You may wish to click here to see what they have to offer. I did not managed to find a Singapore based website for CJ but this US based website will suffice. The burger patties were generally tasty and succelent. From what I understand, each meal to cooked to order, so you have to take a number tag (just like MOS burger) while they cook your food. I will personally recommend the Charbroiled portobello mushroom burger. They are having a $2 off promotion off the combo meal if you have the voucher. The taste was fantastic and I subconciously wolfed the entire burger in less than 3 minutes. I can't say the same for the Crispy chicken with bacon burger. (Not too sure of the full name). The chicken patty was quite hard and the taste was quite bland. The bacon also lacked the aroma and taste one would expect from an established food outlet. Do let me know your comments if you've tried the other burgers and side orders.

As I quote from an article from the sunday times by Mak Mun San, 28 August 2005,

There will always be new players coming into the market and that is welcome news for consumers as well as industry players.

Looks like this may just be the time for MacDonald's , Burger king, MOS burger, KFC and Long John's Silver to relook their corporate strategy. This new kid to the block is one to look out for.

Overall Rating
4 out of 5 stars.

P.S- I don't get any royalty fees from writing this entry.

Clubbing, Sex and Regret.

2005-12-07T16:51:00.001+08:00

This entry is dedicated to all my guy friends who constantly ask me questions concerning the female population. Ok... Don't ask me why people always come to me for advice whenever it comes to matter regarding the female population. I have no idea. I have neither the professional expertise nor experience in such matters. I guess that hanging around predominantly with platonic female friends have given me a better insight on their complex behaviour and mindset. I feel I have a moral duty to educate the male population. With enough said and done, let's begin with this lesson.

**Disclaimer**
I'm no love guru, neither am I some professional skirt chaser. I have my own code of ethics and I believe that in no way that girls should be treated with disrespect. If you are expecting tips on how to be a swinger/ how to cheat on your partner/ how to flirt without getting caught, *shame on you*. THIS ENTRY IS NOT FOR YOU. I do not believe in all that nonsense. Tips given here are based on my own personal judgement and may/ may not be socially/ethically acceptable to some. The better man (me) also disclaims all responsibility and liability which may/may not lead to your personal uprise/downfall while employing such tactics. Tips given below have/have not been tried and tested. Readers are advised to employ them on their own personal risk. All characters mentioned below are ficticious and do not represent anyone dead or otherwise. If you agree to these terms and conditions, read on. Otherwise, click here and entertain yourself with something more “wholesome” instead of flaming me and complaining/whining/bitching about how your life would have been better if not this entry.

Clubbing night's out

At the pub
It was another typical Wednesday night. Peeter Parker met up with his buddies after work and they were hanging at their usual pub for a drink.

Peteer Parker- Yo bros, I sick of all these crap, can't we go somewhere else. Need some spice in my life. You know, some place more "exciting", here got no chio bu. Haiz.. *Shakes his head in disappointment.*

Tom Kruise- Yeah man... this place suxs. I'm tired of hanging here all the time. This place is cool, but....*rests his head on the bar counter*.... sibeh sian* And we all do not even have girl friends...

Blatt Pitt- Why not we go down to dbl-O tonight? Ladies nite right? Sure got a lot of chio bu then we can also go down to the dance floor to rock our sexy manly bodies. Steady? I'm sure the chicks will be impressed by us.

Peteer Parker & Tom Kluise- Steady! Let's go clubbing tonite. woo hoo.. Fiona xie... Fann Wong look a likes, here we come!! Haha. *Runs off excitedly*

Upon arrival and dbl-O

*Dum da da dum da* Sounds of groovy beats can be heard in the background.

Tom Kruise- Eh? How come the queue is so long.

Blatt Pitt- Yeah man.. Looks like we have to queue up. Hey... Check out that cute chick on the right. Groovvvy.

Tom Kruise- Yeah man.. she's hot. Wow.. *starts to drool*

Blatt Pitt- *Hits Tom's head* Hey! stop drooling, your saliva is dripping all over the floor. By the way, where is that Peeter Parker. He always disappears mysteriously. Wonder what he is up to this time.

Tom Kruise- *Looks around* I don't see that bugger... OH! There he is...hmm.. wait a minute. I smell a rat. Shucks! Do u believe it? He's chatting with that hot chick we saw moments ago...

*Blatt and Tom wave frantically to get Peeter's attention. Peeter sees them and reluctantly returns to his buddies.*

Peteer Parker- Hi guys. Wadzup? *Acts innocent*

Blatt Pitt- What were you doing with that hot chick? She looks like Kelly, you know… that one from Project Superstar.

Tom Kruise- You’re faster than I thought! We have yet to enter the club and you are already picking gals up. *Gives a brotherly punch to Peeter* I’m proud of you! Haha.

Blatt Pitt- Yeah. No surprise. Haha. Congrats bro. So have you gotten her number? What’s her name?

Peteer Parker- *Shrugs his shoulders* I have no idea. I just know that she’s called Ice. A cool chick with a hot body. I’ll give her 8/10 stars. I think she likes me.

*Blatt Pitt & Tom Kruise Laughs off as they all enter the club. *

All 3 dudes decide to get a few drinks to get started and they drink up chatting up about the day’s events.30 minutes later, they decide to go down to the dance floor. All 3 guys decide to go on their separate ways to look for their individual targets and agree to gather back 2 hours later. Blatt and Tom had little luck in attracting any girls. Peeter on the other hand had a different experience..

Peeter spotted Ice who was dressed in a tube top and a mini skirt. She dancing on the podium stands and was performing a very sensual dance. Peeter decided approached her directly, grooving his body through the crowd. Ice was totally already mildly drunk by then and she was crazily shaking her bonbons and was attracting a lot of attention from the male population who was swarming over her. Peeter decided that he would not stand any chance if he joined the rest of the other guys who were like packs of wolves cornering their prey. Hence he decided to do something different.

Peteer Parker- *Approaches Ice and passes her his hand phone* Hey! Your friend is one the line. He says that he just got something urgent to tell you.

Ice- Huh? *Taken by surprise*. This isn’t my phone. Hello… hey!

Peeter walks away in a cool manner, intentionally ignoring Ice’s claims. He takes his time and make sure he doesn’t turn back.

Ice- Hey! You… come back. *Steps down from the podium and chases after Peeter* There isn’t anyone on the line. You’ve made a mistake!

Peeter- *Turns around and pretends to look surprised. He smiles at Ice coyly and grabs her hand*. I know there isn’t anyone on the line. As a matter of fact, this is my phone. How else was I going to get your attention from the pack of wolves out there?

Ice- *Taken aback* Oh!

Lesson Learnt- Girls like her a constantly surrounded by desperate guys. Get her attention in your own personal unique way.

Peeter- By the way, take out your phone. Let me show you something.

Ice takes out her mobile phone, giving Peeter a surprised look. What was he up to? Peeter tell her to key in the number.

Peeter- Store this number in your phone. 98765432. You’ll need it later. By the way, you look ravishing in this outfit. But be careful out there will yeah?

Ice- Uh…Ok. *Confused but flattered at the same time*

Peeter- Nice meeting you. You can join me later when you’re done. I’ll be sitting at that corner. *Places his mouth near her ear and whispers* By the way, that’s my number. Call me.

<<>>

Ice smiles at him and returns to the dance floor. He’s quite an interesting guy, she thought to herself. Moments later, Ice decides to look for Peeter, she goes over to where he’s sitting and starts chatting. Both of them have a certain chemistry and as they are both under the influence of alcohol, they let loose their minds and let their instincts take over. Soon, they engage in a certain level of physical contact.

Peeter Parker- You’re cute. Have I met you before?

Ice- Yeah.. We chatted outside the club earlier. Remember?

Peeter Parker- *Acts deep in thought* Oh really…. Let me think….

Peeter Parker- Oh yeah… you’re that gal I met at the entrance. So what is a hot chick like you hanging out here? Don’t you have a life? You should be out with your boyfriend.

Ice- I like this place for the music, ambience and the drinks. I come here once in a while to chill out to get rid of all that stress at work. Haha. I don’t have time for a boyfriend. So this is the next best place to be.

Lesson Learnt- Peeter tried to engage in a mutual conversation to get information out of Ice in a subtle manner to know more about her status and lifestyle. He does not show that he is desperate to get Ice. Attractive ladies have guys skirt chasing them all the time. Say something different which will get her interested in you

Peeter Parker- That’s cool. But enough said. You look drunk to me.

Ice- I’m not. I’m just … … *Ice leans herself on Peeter and closes her eyes. The influence of alcohol has taken a toll on her.*

Peeter Parker- *Feels a big sense of ego boost* Hey Ice... are you alright? Hello? Let me send you back. Where do you stay?

Ice- … … … (*dead drunk*)

Peeter decides to bring Ice out. Despite his repeated talking to her, Ice is in a very drowsy state. Not knowing where to bring her, Peeter decides to bring her over to the nearest hotel and leave her there. Upon reaching the nearest hotel, Peeter places Ice on the bed and decides to wash up. He is still under some influence of alcohol and is semi conscious. When he was done washing up, he looked at Ice, stared at her body and before he knew it, his instincts look over…. Ice was slightly conscious by then, she knew Peeter was all over her but she couldn’t find the strength to push him away. Just then, she felt better groping her body and she knew what was going to happen next. She was not interested in selling her body. She did not want to engage in any sexual activity with a guy she met a few hours back.

Ice- Hey… stop… What are you doing? Get off me you jerk !!! *pushes him away but to no avail*

Peeter continues to let his instincts take control. Ice was furious by then. She felt she had to stop it before anything happened. Obviously she could not overpower him physically. Flashbacks of her self defence class started to come to her and she decided to do the only think she could remember.

*OUCH… OUCH…ouch…ouc…ou…o….*

Peeter laid on the bed with his hands at this groin in tremendous. Ice had given his a deadly kick between his legs. All peeter saw was Ice quickly getting her clothes in proper order and quickly leaving the room. He blacked out soon after.

When Peter woke up, he found him self lying on a cold and hard cement surface. The room was dark and dingy. He looked around… His hands were restrained by handcuffs. He saw that he was confined in the police lock up cell. Ice had called the police in bid to protect herself. Peeter knew this was the end, his moment of folly had led him to his downfall. He sat down on the floor with his knees bent and head bowed down… He was in trouble…

Blatt Pitt and Tom Kluise- Hey friend, how did you end up here? What the hell were you thinking?? We could not find you and you just went missing? We rushed to the police station the moment we heard you were arrested. Don’t worry bro, we’ll try to bail you out… Eh.. Policeman.. how to get my friend out of jail? *Voices fade away as his friends walk out of the lockup area*

Lesson Learnt- Respect the lady and treat her with dignity. Just because she engages in some form of physical contact with you, it doesn't mean she wants sex. Clarify her intentions before doing any thing stupid. Be in control all the time. Do not take advantage of her under any situation. Read the women’s charter and educate yourself. I can only advice you how to get the ladies attention but only you are responsible for your personal actions after that. I do not condone any bastardly actions against the female population. Learn to be a better man.

Why Do I Blog?

2005-12-06T17:39:00.000+08:00

Why do people blog? I wonder to myself at times. It seems that based on my judgement that people blog to open up a new world, both for themselves and to others. Some do it for personal reasons, others do it as a business. I've been reading blogs for many many months. Some were crap, but others were delightful to read. People like Xiaxue, Rockson and Mr Brown have made a difference to others. Their blogs don't go unnoticed. They are (in my opinion) one of the better blogs I've seen so far. They dare to blog things which many people don't dare to speak about. Of course, some of these bloggers occured the wrath of some readers and needless to say, there were quite a few problems. Considering the fact that most Singaporean dare not make their dissent voiced out in public. It's just part of our culture not to complain and criticise about the government like the westerners. I salute to people like Xiaxue and rockson for daring to be different.

Then what is the reason for me to blog? I feel that to a certain extent, I use it as an outlet to let out my thoughts. When I was much younger, I was pretty introverted. Although I'm much better today, having a wide social network of friends from all walks of life, I can't help but to feel that little tinge of introvertness in me.

"It's not very good to keep everything to yourself you know?"

Keeping too much inside lead to depression. I'm sure nobody wants to end up with a nut loose in their heads. Ironic as it sounds, it is difficult to say things to people whom you know. Blogging is by my definition, talking to someone out there who is a complete stranger to you. No man is an island. We used to be confined by physical barriers. With the internet, the world is at your finger tips. We always need someone out there to lend a listening ear. Right?

To be a better man (Part 3)

2005-12-06T16:35:00.000+08:00

This is the final posting on this issue. Read part 1 and 2 if you have not done so.

Early 2005

After the holiday stint to Bangkok, our relationship became rosier and sweeter. We made it a point to have meals together on a frequent basis despite our hectic schedules. I was on industrial attachment at Motorola and was generally quite free after work. This was definitely a good change from the hectic work load during school term.

January is a month for the Chinese New Year celebrations. For the very first time, we went down to Chinatown to experience the buzz and excitement. Last year's Chinese New Year was not a happy one, we quarreled over a minor issue and despite having an enjoyable night after the dinner and dance event, we ended the night with a sour note and I recklessly sped on the road which left her frightened and traumatised. This time round, I was determined not to let history repeat itself. I specially waited and bought "Bak Kua" for her so that her family could enjoy the traditional tasty delights for the festive season. Jer and myself visited Chinatown a few times (3 times, i think), just for the fun of it and it was a different experience altogether when you walk down the bustling street with a special someone. It was unlike any festive season I've spent with her. I felt like a lucky man and cherished every single moment with her. For the first time in many years, I went down to her relatives place to wish them a happy festive period. She in turn, also went house visiting with me. I felt very proud to let others know that I had a cool gal as my gf. I could not help but sense a warm feeling which engulfed me.

Is this how happiness really felt like? If so, will it last forever?

2nd - 3rd Quarter of 2005

Jer bought me a lightsaber. It is the one from Master Replicas Force FX Lightsaber; The Darth Vadar saber from episode IV. I've always wanted one as I'm a star wars fanatic. All that light saber slashing action is now a reality. Words cannot describe my excitement. Jer paid the collectible in full. A whopping S$250 dollars. Honestly speaking, that is very EXPENSIVE for an over rated piece of fluoroscent tube light blub attached to a piece a plastic. Never once did she back out from her promise to get me my new toy. Check out the lightsaber. It's the totally cool red colour lightsaber.

After that we went down to catch glimpes of the National Day Parade. I recalled we had Pizza Hut & KFC for dinner @ Funan centre. It was quite an experience as the pizza was placed in a really really small package. We were fortunate enough to catch more glimpes of the national day parade and we even got the best view of the fireworks (from an air con bus) along sheares bridge. Very LUCKY!! Jer was so excited that she messaged her best friend about watching the spectacular fireworks right after. Sometimes, it really makes me happy to see her smile.

4th Quarter 2005
Jer called me and told me she was seeking a change in work environment. After spending a considerable time at modus, she felt that it was good for her to switch careers. Her new workplace is located at Suntec City, right in the middle of town. She asked me whether I could accompany her to scout for the new office before she started work. Normally, I will have brought her there. Somehow, I was bogged down with tons of school work and ended up on the selfish side. I told her I was too busy to accompany her to locate the place and constantly procrastinated. In the end, she went to search for the place together with her friends. I don't know why I didn't accompany her even though it would only take a small amount of time. I promised to be with her and help her in times of need, but I guess my selfish behavoir surfaced out again.

She never said anything after that, but I knew I had disappointed her once again...

As per usual, the end of the year marks the time for the dreaded examinations. Jer and I occasionally went down to the Jurong regional library to study for the exams. She was taking 2 modules, Economics and some other business management module. She seemed jaded and exhausted, mainly because she just changed a job and was still adapting. Her modules had lots of readings and I constantly saw her mug for the exams. Even though she claimed she did not study very hard for the exam, I knew she will be able to score well.

She has proven before that she juggle both work and school easily. That is one aspect on why I respect her greatly, her sense of discipline is greater than most other people.

Too many of times, I've seen people giving up because they cannot handle the stress and workload of work and education. She is indeed special. No denying to it.

Jer asked me about how I felt about the relationship and whether I felt we could continue. Both of us felt drained from everything and we felt something was missing. I smiled and told her I will give her a reply after my examinations (which was directly after her papers).

I reflected every single day after she asked me that question. Was I doing her justice. There was no denying that she loved me more than I do. There was no denying that I did not treat her as well as I do. As each day past, I constantly asked myself how I felt for her. I love her, I still do, but will it be fair for her? She gave me multiple chances, forgave me multiple times and still continued to care for me. I have this instill fear in me that someday, when things go sour, things will turn out very bad. I don't want her to be hurt. I don't want her to be tied to a person like me who cannot give her long term happiness. I dare not give her commitment in fear that I will hurt her again in the future. She is truely a unique gal with a big heart. Surely she deserves someone better than me. The decision is a hard one to make.

Sometimes, the most painful decision in life is one which will give that someone special a better tomorrow....

To be a better man (Part 2)

2005-12-05T17:00:00.000+08:00

This entry is linked to the previous post. Read part 1 before reading on...

Late 2002- Late 2004
This was the whirl wind part of the entire relationship. Just like a tornado. We just started out for not too long and then the issues started to pour in. I really liked Jer and tried to put a lot of effort in to make things work out. I still recalled I made grand plans to celebrate our one month anniversary and told her to keep the day free. It was going to be a surprise, I told her. She smiled and agreed.

During this period, she seems to be very busy not only at work, but also busy doing her MLM with e-excel. I was not a great fan of MLM and didn't like to see her doing it, but I knew it was something which she believed in and the benefits of the health products she was promoting. Initially, it was skeptical about how this whole MLM thing will turn out, as I was worried that she will be cheated. However, she convinced me that she was handling it well and she was happy with it. Hence, I relented my stance on this issue. When the one month anniversary day approached, I was excited about it and got things prepared to ensure nothing screwed up. Nothing must go wrong, i told myself. Sure enough, things went according to plan until she called me in the afternoon telling me she can't make it because she had to meet her cousin and attend some e-excel talk. I was stunned for a moment. Surely our anniversary is more important than some last minute MLM talk? She shrugged it off and said anniversaries meant nothing to her. At that moment, I felt silly for even planning for an anniversary. No doubt I was upset and told her about it, she gave me the impression that she was a bit "Bo chup" or in other words, " I cannot be bothered with you".

Valentine's day.
Feb 14, a day for lovers to celebrate their love. V-day approached and it was another disapointment. Not from her, but from me. I told her I will pick her up at city hall and told her to wait outside mango at 6:30 pm. She arrived early, sometime around 6:10pm and I guessed she was to a certain extent looking forward to the night. I was on my way driving down from Ang Mo Kio, down the CTE when I realised i made a serious error. *Shucks* , I was stuck in the rush hour traffic jam and to make things worst, I didn't realise the ERP was in operation and I can't find my cash card. What to do.... no choice. I made a detour, weaving out painfully from the jam to avoid passing through the ERP gantry. As such, I got lost on the road. I was a newbie driver then, and totally unfamiliar with the roads and I wandered and wandered until... I ended up at Keppel where all the container trucks were. ANOTHER TRAFFIC JAM!! By then, I was already 15 minutes late and no where near the destination. I gave her a call and told her I will be there soon. She sounded bored but she said it was okay and she'll wait for me. By the time I reached there, it was 7:15 pm. 45 minutes late. There she was, dressed up prettily like a blooming flower. She smiled even though I made her wait for almost an hour. I gave her 2 roses, and a teddy bear. I packaged the 2 roses for her personally and bought her a teddy bear (which she still keeps today) Although I knew she felt it was quite cheapskate, but I was really broke at that time and $40++ for the flowers and bear was taxing on me. (I'm only a student with no allowance...). Nonetheless, she still thanked me we made our way to down. By the time we got down to town area, it was 8 plus. (Kena caught in another traffic jam...) We settled for some light drinks and food at taka's coffee club express, watched some busker performing, spent a little quiet moments together. By then, she was really tired as she had to work the next day and so, we went back. (She must have really been disappointed.) But that was not all, the "best" part came.

I got lost again and couldn't drive her back home! Great....

Felt darn embaressed but had no choice but to ask for directions at some petrol station. Some uncle who was pumping fuel kindly agreed to lead us to the proper road so that I can get back on track. Off we went, until..... we had a shock. The guy led us to a road along bukit timah with a road sign that pointed to....

JOHOR (Malaysia)

What a shock!! Both of us were like... huh? Were we being tricked or something? I steadied my nerves and assured that I will get her home safe. I drove along bukit timah and with a stroke of luck, I magically managed to get back on course to the road that led to her place at hill view. I knew I had messed things up. She laughed at me over the incident and I blushed sheepishly. At least I got her home safely.

There were many times I went out with her during festive occasions. What could have turned out as happy events were screwed by me. Back then, I was bad tempered and flared at her for the slightess reasons. I embaressed her in public by shouting at her. Made her cry for no reason and constantly made mean remarks about her. Although she was patient and always kept things calm and tried to pacify me, I treated her badly. Naturally, she was not happy about how things turned out and her attitude towards me became cold and unfriendly. Things turned out quite bad between the both of us, we had cold wars, quarrelled over minor issues and not surprisingly, we broke up. At that period of time, my feelings for her were not as deep and I merely shrugged the entire incident off. However, she called me persistently and asked to patch back.

Community Service with kids
There was this occasion where Jer asked me to get involve in some community service project for the less fortunate kids @ the science centre. We were not very close, and had already broken up. We met up with the other volunteers and for the very first time, I saw a different side of her. She was in charge of taking care of a young malay girl who seemed quiet and demure. Totally different from the other kids who were rowdy and noisy. I saw Jer showing care and concern and for once, I saw the motherly side of her. She took the young girl around, constantly making sure the kid felt secure. Suddenly, a feeling struck me like a bolt of lightning. All these while, I have never given Jer a sense of protection and security... What have I been doing?

Despite my feelings for Jer, I never asked to patch back. She continued to call me despite me ignoring her for multiple times. After much consideration, and given my big ego, I agreed to patch back only on the condition that things will only work out my way. I knew she felt small and vulnerable at that point of time, but I didn't really bother. I was still very much immature, I continued to treat her well only when I felt like it. She constantly put up with all my anger, my tantrums, my attitude and my nonsense without complaining. I always blamed her for everything that went wrong, complained and grumbled about how she was and other stuff. My attitude didn't change as before...I told her that our personalities didn't match as she was the homely type of person while I was the direct opposite. As such, I called her a boring person to be with and called her names. Never once did I ever spare a thought for her. Many other major events occured. Some too personal to be written. But Jer was constantly by my side, all the time.

Not surprisingly, I soon noticed that there were many other guys beginning to chase Jer. From people like Weizhong, David, and how can I ever forget..... ANDVIN (or however u spell that name... i don't care). I knew deep down that Jer had many suitors and I also knew that they treated her very well. They showered her with gifts, cards, drove her around, picked her up from places, and cared for her. I don't know what came over me, but I accused her of being flirtatious and being unfaithful. Jer explained to me that she couldn't stop those guys from chasing her even though she rejected them and she reminded me that I should really treat her better. I was hot headed, bossy and unreasonable ; I told her off straight in the face...

If you think other guys are so good, then go to them.

I threatened to breakup again. She protested that we never really had a chance to work things out as agreed but I felt that I was never in the wrong. No doubt that she was very upset. After I railed and blasted at her, she quietly sent me an email telling about her personal thoughts. I felt the sorrow in her email as she tried to explain her situation. The email was dated January 2004. Jer doesn't come from a rich family, neither does she get a huge pay check, but she showered me constantly with expensive gifts without a second thought.

Things went crazy after that. We broke again and patched back once again. I knew Jer loved me all this while but I didn't reciprocate. She was facing a lot of personal family problems, but she never showed her sorrow openly. I felt sad for her, as I've been through the same experience as her. Jer was at the point of break down during many times and although I tried to be there for her, I knew she didn't feel secure with me.

Happy moments togehter
The situation became better as time got by, I treated her better and I could sense that she was a little happier. Quarrels became almost non existent and we worked things out together as a couple. We went to places all over singapore, and she often said I behaved more like a tourist than a local. haha. We went to places like Escape theme park, the zoo, bukit timah hill for trekkings, Sentosa and many more.... There was this instance when we were at escape themepark and she was very frightened of driving on the go-kart. In fact, she got into a mini accident on the track. At that moment, when I saw her go-kart go out of control, my heart stopped and I prayed nothing has happened to her. I rushed over to check on her but fortunately, she was generally alright. I'm sure she was frightened and was in shock but I was very glad she was not hurt in that incident.

Speaking of accidents, I was involved in an accident too. Although I was traumatised, Jer was there for me and also offered me unselfishly a huge sum of cash to fix the vehicle. I remembered she almost fell out with her mother on that sunday afternoon because she left her house quickly after she went back home, so that she could accompany me to search for the repair workshop. Although she claims that it was a small issue for her, it really touched my heart and I knew she was willing to stay with me in times of trouble.

Later in Dec 2004, we decided to go for our very first overseas trip. We were very excited over that trip and we made the trip down to Thailand. Initially, I suggested going down to Phuket, but luckily.. Jer insisted on going down to Bangkok. It was during our trip that Thailand, especially Phuket was struck by the killer tsunami that killed thousands of people. I feel that Jer was indeed my lucky star. If not for her, I wouldn't be alive today.

We had an enjoyable time at Bangkok, and Jer really liked to shop at the weekend market (It's called Chuptuchap or something like that, don't how to spell). I recalled her going on a shopping frenzy and she was so happy going from shop to shop. Many events happened there and we throughly enjoyed ourselves. It was definitely the happiest time spent with her. Pictures speaks a thousand words, so here are a few pictures to share.

The iterary was nicely planned out by her and I have to admit that all that effort put in led to an excellent holiday.