Writing a business plan is pretty much the ultimate test of writing the same idea differently. Synonyms, euphemisms, double negatives, you name it, our business plan probably has it. Thesaurus was our saviour. The whole experience was fun and excruciating at the same time, but definitely more fun. Here's an excerpt from the entrepreneurs' profile:

"Leading the team is Nikolay, whose outstanding leadership capabilities, proven track records and strong passion for the unconventional make him the unanimous leader for this venture.

Stephy is a wonderfully creative artist, always brimming with new ideas and innovative solutions to problems.

Kah Wai, the resident sports aficionado, lends his energy and spirit into driving the progress of this venture.

Li Wei specializes in industry analysis and her timely identification of market trends is invaluable for strategic planning.

Sherry’s excellent organizational skills enable the team to remain on task and accomplish organizational goals.

Yajing, the accounting whiz, plays a crucial role in ensuring that the team’s financial goals are achieved."

A Big Thankew to fellow team members listed above. You've made my last days in SBS very enjoyable and full of laughter. Thank you very much :)

Will be in Sri Lanka from 18th to 23rd. It's rainy there too so I guess I won't be missing much heh. Hopefully I'll have some photos to upload when I return. My blog is painfully devoid of them (because yours truly is terribly cam-shy and lazy). Happy holidays everybody!

For my friends who are deep in business planning for BS402 Entrepreneurship:

http://businessandstrategicplanning.blogspot.com/

I'm not the first person to do this. Oh yes, it's yet another "I've finally ended my undergraduate education and it's time to begin on a brand new phase in life that does not involve studying. Hooray." blog post.


Ha ha ha. Well I am entitled to do this because I have finished my undergraduate education. Well, save for Entrepreneurship and knowing my final grades (please please please let me pass everything).


So.


It's nice to feel un-obligated to study and if I ever need to work my brain academically, I'm gonna make sure I'm getting paid for it. Money is a good motivation for me. I wanna develop some skills other than spotting exam questions and printing Powerpoint slides 4-to-a-page, double-sided. Now I have the time (I think) to do all those things I wanted to but didn't so yeah, un-obligation suits me and I'm lovin' it.

(Every 4 hours and 59 minutes of it.)

Looking forward to meeting friends, the vacation, the cleaning (no, I actually dread that but it needs to be done), the movies, the games. I shall uphold my nickname to its fullest (save for the cleaning part) and I encourage everyone to do so too!

Oops. You all still got FYP hor.

*smirk*

Things to do after my exams end on 30 Nov...

... after BS402 ends on 17 Dec...

... and after I come back from Sri Lanka on 23 Dec...

1. Clean room.
a) Put away notes. For good. Muahahaha.
b) Throw away Primary and Secondary notes. See how long I've been procrastinating.
c) Repack cupboards. One for comics should be enough I think.
d) Repack wardrobe. Need more space for new clothes.

2. Sort photos.
a) The old ones. When my hair was naturally straight.
b) The Cornell ones. Should print some of them.
c) The recent ones. Should also print some of them.

3. Learn Yoga. To prove that I have a better sense of balance than Mom.

4. Learn Piano. To finally get that Grade 5 Cert to be on par with Mom.

5. Wash the car. Or maybe arrow Kor to wash the car.

6. Exercise. Aiming to be Jo's weight or lighter.

7. Learn Rollerblading. Seeking kind, patient instructor who will provide first aid kit.

8. Gloat. Heh.

To s******v*****@yahoo.com,

You are a coward for sending a nasty, unjustified email anonymously. If I find out who you are, I WILL slap you with a fish for wasting one hour of my time. And I WILL kick you real hard in the groin for having the audacity to assume that your personal sentiments reflect the entire cohort's feelings.

I hope you fail your exams.

This comes a bit late but...

Well done, Jay Chou. That was a nice movie. I'm quite inspired to pick up piano again.

DVD rental shop lady says Transformers and Die Hard 4 DVD will reach the store at the end of the month. Whee.

Thank you Pavaani, Qiao Hui and Ming Jie. I think our presentation was great and I'm really glad to have worked with you all :)

It's a month to the exams. Good luck ppl!

If anyone is in need of a very good laugh (this is in view of the numerous white hair-inducing, academically-obligatory activities), do watch the British comedy "Death at a Funeral". It's hilarious. And there's yummy eye candy too, if you're inclined to the masculine species.

nevermindsaideyecandyactsreallycuckoothroughouttheentireshow

It's over!

*throws confetti in the air*

*runs round in circles*

*grins madly at everything and everyone*

*whee*

"This phenomenon remains unexplained."---FYP thesis 2007.

This afternoon I heard the neighbours' kids playing. My immediate thought was: Kor, I miss you.

Then I told my mom and she claims that as children, we were never that noisy.

*Ego-boost*

Somehow the conversation retreated from my childhood to my babyhood. Then she said that I was a particularly quiet baby. All I wanted to do was to drink milk and sleep.

Then I realised, nothing much has changed. These days, all I want to do is to sleep with a happy stomach.

Have I not evolved at all?

*Ego-flattened*

Hello dear reader of my sorely neglected blog,

This message is to reassure you of my existence in the living world. I am still breathing. Today I survived the first of many CAs. I am really very glad, rather pleased also although I did make one huge blunder. HUGE. To fellow BS413 pple, thank you for all the feedback and support. Your words have spurred my decision to continue taking the subject and I hope we'll have a fruitful time studying it together. And please please remember this: IEDB has an ontology. It has. It has. It has. Got it? It has.

Dear reader, good luck. I hope you wish me the same.

Sincerely,
the bummer

Lactobacilli are lazy.

Klebsiella pneumoniae have "mini-me"s.

Enterococcus faecalis misled me.

Escherichia coli are greedy.

It's a love-hate relationship.

The theme of this year's FOC is Ancient Egypt. While they were having fun and games out in the sun, I was building my very own pyramid in lab. Ta-da!!
I wonder if any pharoahs are hiring now.

After that exhausting day of agar plates, I've had pretty slack days. The calm after the storm. Something along those lines. Well until today that is. Just had a big load of work dumped on me. I've figured out two-thirds of it so far and I'm gonna abuse my brain a little further with the remaining one-third, just so that I can sleep peacefully tonight. The calm between the storms has just passed.

So I'm really really glad that I went ahead to watch Oceans Thirteen today. Sorry Angie, never wait for you. Paiseh paiseh.

Before the show started, there was an ad about Sentosa. I wonder if anyone in the audience ever noticed that the lady in the ad accidentally flashed her undies. I do know one person who noticed. The producer of the ad. That microglimpse of underwear was blurred. Probably detected post-production, otherwise the scene should have been NG-ed.

Anyway, I really enjoyed the show. It's my kind of humour. I totally agree with and believe in revenge. And they do it with so much style! Although I think it is highly unlikely that an Oceans Fourteen will pop up, one can still hope. I definitely hope to see more of this gang of charming con-men/thieves/whatever-else-in-between. Heh.

Spreading 420 agar plates wasn't that bad.

The 3 cryptic messages of the day:

1. Today, our lab made 713 plates of agar.

2. Autoclaving had never been so exciting.

3. Many glass bottles had a jolly time rolling on ice.

Ok, the first one is a give-away. As for the rest, I'm too tired to explain myself. Today's ordeal is only the first of two parts. Stay tuned for my update next wk.

There's something about meeting people from the not-so-recent past that sets me into a contemplative mood. Just yesterday, Jyang and I met 1SG XY at La Senza. Hee. It's been awhile since I last saw her and of all places, we had to bump into one another at a lingerie boutique. I'm very glad to see her in good health and cheer. And she gave me some good advice too. 2 weeks ago, I met a primary school classmate in NTU. Like wow. I totally lost contact with that bunch of classmates, esp the guys cos I entered a girls' school after PSLE.

There are acquaintances, old friends that I don't see, old friends that I regularly see and present friends. Some friendships I had lapsed into "stranger-hood", perhaps some part due to neglect. Such is life I guess. Life changes, I change, people around me change too. I walk the path that I've set upon. Inadvertently, it brings me closer to some and further away from others. The distance adds a certain fondness and curiosity when I bump into these friends or hear news about them. That doesn't mean I'm not fond of my present friends. In fact I cherish them very much because they are currently part of my life, actively adding to my life experiences.

Just my two-cent's worth on the topic of friendship. I blame this piece on The Alchemist, a partly fictional and partly inspirational book I'm reading now. I'm usually not so introspective.

Lannie tagged me.

*glare*

This is what you are supposed to do. Cut and paste if you decide to participate in the tagging game. Each player of this game starts off by giving 6 weird things about themselves. People who get tagged need to write in a blog of their own 6 weird things as well as state the rules clearly. In the end, you need to choose 6 people to be tagged and list their names. After you do that, leave them each a comment letting them know you tagged them and to read your blog.

Weird thingy no. 1:
I've been educated in Singapore all my life but I speak Mandarin with a Malaysian accent.

Weird thingy no. 2:
I am the younger sibling but my neighbours think I'm the older.

Weird thingy no. 3:
Technically, I can play 4 kinds of musical instruments. I just don't play them well.

Weird thingy no. 4:
I was a goody two-shoes in my childhood but now I'm a menace to other people's sanity.

Weird thingy no. 5:
I've had formal training in dance but I don't enjoy clubbing.

Weird thingy no. 6:
I'm addicted to pirates.

I'll stop this here. Too lazy to tag pple.

PS: No Lannie, I'm not angry. Don't fret :)

Back from Hong Kong with a sunburnt nose. Got cheated by the weather forecast, which predicted thunderstorms the week I was there. Turns out the thunderstorms only started after I left. Oh well.

The flight from Singapore arrived at Macau, where I got to see beautiful churches and enjoy delicious Portugese food like those yummy egg tarts.

After a day and a half in Macau, we (Jo, De & I) took a ferry over to Hong Kong. We went to Ocean Park...

... Madame Tussaud's Wax Museum up at Victoria Peak...
Aaron Kwok's not all that tall btw... I'm just too damn short!

I tried to help, really! But her skirt won't stop flying...

... Avenue of Stars and...

Disneyland!!

Captain Jack Sparrow! Must be the happiest day of my life *grin*

No I'm kidding. The happiest day of my life will be when I strike lottery and win $10 million. And before that happens, I shall keep this picture very close to my heart haha :)

Annual KTV with Buccaneers last night had a rocky start. Four of the six who went for KTV yesterday spent the day in NTU doing various lab-related tasks (e.g. refilling pipette tips and spreading agar plates). Thus it was logical to have a localised mode of transport to the KTV venue a.k.a. I drove the car to school. As we were leaving NTU, the tyre punctured.

My lovely models weren't the only ones pouting. I was pouting and of course suitably embarrassed as well bcos I didn't know how to change the tyre. (Which brings up the side discussion of how I'm glad to be a female. Our ignorance in such matters is perfectly acceptable and understandable. On the other hand, a male driver who doesn't know how to change a punctured tyre will be laughed at. I think la.) Anyway, the story ended with AAA coming to fix my problem. Thankew QQ for staying back with me and thankew Angie and Shunsheng for going ahead first. Thankew thankew.

Finally, at 7.45pm, I stepped into KTV for the first time in 9 months.*le gasp*. How did I survive so long without karaoke?! I had great fun guys and gals, thankew very much for the applause and let's do this (not tyre-puncturing) again another time yar?

Going to HK for a week, will be back on 16 May. Take care ppl :)

Just two things...

1. The good thing about an all-female lab is the gloves are all XS. Oh joy!

2. Today was so hot that birds fell out of trees due to heatstroke. Well okay, just one bird at least. This little yellow bird was lying on the walkway. After 5 minutes in an aircon building and several ml of water-cooler water, it revitalised and happily flew off.

Once upon a time, 2 classmates by the names of Lannie and Edward came across a publicity poster in the School of Biological Sciences, NTU. Upon close scrutiny, they discovered something that left Lannie very surprised and Edward very amused.

And that something was this little image that featured a bunch of their friends. No la, it was the fact that Edmund (bottom row, far right) made it onto a publicity poster!
Angie and QQ, you gals are in there too! Haha :) (but dun have me... *mutter grumble*)

Anyway.

JC class gathering on Fri night. I haven't seen some of them forever man. I'm glad I still remember their names unlike some people who kept stealing my calamari rings... shameless moocher. Unfortunately, the pic taken from the other end of the table where I was sitting didn't turn out too well. Anyway this is the bunch of classmates that I hardly see. Heh.

Then platoonmates gathering on Sat. And we land up in Sushi Tei again. But we took the annual picture at Ben and Jerry's this time to avoid repetition of backdrop. I just realised I look a bit dwarfed in the pic. Hmm.

Thus ends normalcy. Hello hell.

Can't seem to feel happy after the exams ended.

Reasons?

1. BS303 slaughtered me. Should have taken BS313. They got an easy paper!!
2. Insomnia. Yes, even last night when I didn't need to worry about studying.

Pfft.

It's gonna be a while before I blog again, simply because:

1. I doubt anyone is interested in how I spend Tue to Fri in school, and Sat to Mon at home trying to stardee.

2. Life now is bittersweet. Bitter because of the upcoming exams, but really sweet because it excuses me from all kinds of menial chores (coughsweepingthefloorcough).

I hope this celebration isn't premature but I am SOOOOO glad to be rid of my moronic partner. Now I just need to siam him during the finals and he'll be out of my life forever. Ka-pui.

A big THANK YOU to all my friends. Thank you for your well wishes, thank you for celebrating my birthday with me, thank you for everything!

Love,

me.

And here's the booty I collected for the day:

Now I have a new motivation for exercising, no prices for guessing what it is :)

What Is Your Battle Cry?

Lo! Who is that, striding across the mini-mall parking lot! It is The Bummer, hands clutching a reflective halberd! She grunts vengefully: "I'm going to clobber you beyond capacity, and then some!!"

Find out! Enter username: Are you a girl, or a guy ?

created by beatings : powered by monkeys

Just a random thingy heh. Funny how it reflects my personality to some extent. So beware to those who offend me! Muahahahahah...

To Zing: I met BLin in school today!! It's amazing how small this world is :)

CNY visiting on Saturday, photo taken at Cherlyn's. Last year, we decided to make a round of our 4 houses on the same day. We did it too this year, I hope we can make it a tradition heh. Thankew gals, you kept me very well-fed throughout the day and night haha.

On Sunday, my parents' friends came over for CNY gathering and they kept my pocket very well-fed. Hee. I think I deserved it well cos I worked real hard for it. Really. I washed the dishes for the whole afternoon cos food was buffet style and ma didn't use disposable plates. I think I've earned a PhD in dishwashing.

Call me Maria.

Now all Maria wants is to get her waistline back. And more angbaos. And finish all her homework. And more angbaos. Oh and forty bullseyes on Wed.

That isn't asking for too much is it? :)

Got home from msia and discovered penicillin on my dining table:Happy Lunar New Year everybody!

I didn't think I'd feel this sad when Kor left but *sigh*, I'm feeling quite sad. Missing his presence already cos he's like kinda big. Sigh. House feels empty without him. Can't quite figure out why I'm feeling like that this time round. Afterall when he went for NS, I just thought: whee! the whole comp to myself! When he first left for Perth, I thought: good that he's back to studying, looking forward to his convocation so I get a free vacation!

And now I feel sad. Gosh I must be emotionally-retarded.

Anyway today was probably the worst day of the week (including the days to come, though I shouldn't speak too soon). So many things happened at the same time.

1. CV4202 tutorial vs Lan Pei's bday celebration. Well ok I sort of didn't know that my dear partner's celebration was during that time but I should have guessed. So erm yar missed the celebration. Sigh.

2. Lab vs Lunchtime concert. I feel really bad about this one. Missed QQ's performance!!! Argh! QQ, I promise I'll be standing right in front for your March performance cheering you on. Promise!

3. Training vs sending Kor to airport. Logically I should have trained cos sending Kor to Changi is just literally sending him there, waving goodbye and going home. Nothing special about that. Training, on the other hand, is quite impt. Esp when competition is right around the corner and I haven't handled my pistol for 3 months. Of course I chose the illogical option.

It's on days like these when the cliche phrases really make sense. Phrase of the day: It never rains but it pours.

Looks like a flower (does it sting like a bee? hehe sorry lame joke) but it isn't a flower. Who's up for a guess?

I've got a busy week ahead...
Tue: Send Kor to airport. Supposed to have training at night but dun think I can make it. Hmm.
Wed: Training. Finally. I miss the bullseye (pun unintended).
Thu: Group meeting. Haven't researched on anything.
Fri: Loooonnnggg day + STEAMBOAT!
Sat: Fetch Dad from airport.
Sun: In Msia collecting hongbao in ringgit. Dun you dare rub it in. Hmph.
Mon: Still in Msia stuffing my face with pineapple tarts.
Tue: Return to Sg 3 kg heavier. Hello chubby.

Sigh. The gluttony is inevitable. Therefore, I shall embrace it wholeheartedly. Afterall, when you can't fight'em, join'em :)

My sore throat is making me cranky and I just felt a twinge in my head. Guess the headache is making its appearance now. Gosh I just have to catch the flu bug when everyone else's flu is long gone.

Bleargh.

Kor is leaving next week. Still the same size. Sigh. I'm a bad little sis. All those plans for jogging and swimming with him never took place. I blame it partly on the weather, but mostly on my useless self for not having the energy after school to exercise with him. I dread to think of the consequences of his size.

I'm paranoid and skeptical. Somewhat cynical regarding certain issues. Used to be really sarcastic but that remained in teenagehood (or so I think...). But anyway I am really paranoid about certain stuff. So I repeat, I dread to think of the consequences of his size. I dread to think of what might happen. I can only hope, wish, pray that nothing will happen.

Kor, you're on your own from now. Please, please take care of your body.

The car scratched me.

Yep you read that right. Specifically, it was the car seat which scratched me.

Ah I can see you scratching your head now heh. Okay so here's the whole story:

On Monday morning, I took the car out for a spin. On my way home, I saw my bro taking a jog around the neighbourhood so I decided to give him a lift.

(And let's just ignore the ethical implications of my actions for the moment. He was supposed to be exercising and me giving him a lift was in no ways helpful so... what can I say? I'm a good little sister *grin*)

So anyway, I reached over to grab my stuff from the passenger seat so that he can get in and something scratched me.

*insert sinister music*

... there was something sticking out of the side of the car seat. A rather thick metal piece in fact, somewhat like a nail minus the pointy bit. That thingy scratched me. Or if you consider the physics of it carefully, I scratched my arm against that thingy (afterall my arm is mobile while that thingy is stationary).

So that's how the car scratched me. Or how I scratched myself in the car. Whatever.

Before I forget (well actually I did, otherwise this would have been included in the previous post containing silly pictures...), if you have enough moolah for only one show this week, Blood Diamond is the show to watch. It's an excellent show that set me thinking about some of my beliefs. Violence scenes are violently violent, so the squeamish should go watch the show with someone not so squeamish.

So go watch the show ok? Good :)

Now that I have a new toy (Nokia 7373, damn chio phone for an un-chio me), I go around taking useless photos of...

Gigantic toilet rolls and...

Mysterious person doing an equally dubious action. Heh.

Conclusion: Hurray. I'm devolving.

I'd like to think it takes alot to piss me off but evidently, it takes very little. Guess I'm not such a nice person afterall. So what was that little thing? My class was canceled. My 4.30pm to 6.30pm tutorial on a Friday afternoon was canceled without notification. If there was an oral announcement was made during the lecture, I did not hear it because the inconsiderate souls sitting at the back of the LT insist on conducting loud conversations not pertaining to the subject matter.

The admin problems I have faced this semester seem abnormally numerous. There is something sinister going on and I don't like it. My parents are paying my school fees, which makes me a money-paying customer of the school. This also makes me a very dissatisfied customer of the school. I do hope things improve because I hate to leave a bad impression on the people surrounding me everytime I launch into vulgar expletives condemning the efficiency of certain systems.

I need chocolate.

To pltmates + associate members (formerly mahjong and bridge-kakis but now collectively known as the part-time bummers),

I am very honoured to bring joy, laughter, merriment and entertainment into your lives without lifting a single finger. I am sincerely pleased at the fact that my presence alone is able relieve you momentarily of stress, worries, anxieties and other problems of a more delicate nature. I will continue to provide this service with the manner of excellence that you are familiar with and with no cost or expense on my part that you must be extremely familiar with. And it is all unconditional, as a proof of my love for you.

Forever your faithful slave,
Jyin

New Year's Resolutions:

1. Spend less time surfing Internet, spend more time studying--pretty obvious la hor.

2. Reduce carbohydrate intake, exercise more--seriously, this is a problem. My body is 30% fat and I have 4 people to vouch for me. Interestingly, if our body is 70% water, then I may very well be a freak of nature heh.

3. Reduce expenditure, save $$--for trips. Whee :)

4. Stop scratching my pimples--well I can't control my hormones, so the next best thing is to control my actions. The scars from my pimple outbreak during the exam period are distressing, to say the least.

5. Do more housework--cos my momma is not getting younger and I'm an unfilial, lazy pig who sits around at home and do nothing. Lightning, just strike me.

6. Listen more, speak less--cos I have a sharp tongue that gets me into trouble often and I have a bunch of great friends who listen patiently to me so I should return the favour.

7. Think and do something about my future--I know my tarot card reading told me not to think and to act impulsively so that the truth will be revealed to me (?!!!) but since my soul card didn't appear, perhaps this reading isn't too important. I won't think too hard la.

7 resolutions for 2007 (direct quote from Jyang btw). Now I wonder how resolute I am.