thoughts

2009-05-19T17:08:00.001+08:00

Death Valley, 8 March 2009

This trip was delayed a whole month due to bad weather. We rented a 4WD SUV for driving on unpaved roads and it was well worth the money. It's challenging, but really really fun! Until your tyre punctures that is... In general, Death Valley is full of different natural phenomenon, which makes exploring the entire National Park so fascinating.

Badwater Basin, lowest point in North America.

It doesn't show up too well, but the ground is actually salt deposits...

... which looks like this close-up. Quite amazing.

Natural Bridge

Charades: Guess the name of this place!

Ok, a bit pathetic, but I was trying to act out Devil's Golf Course.

Artist's Palette. See if you can spot the different colours.

View from Dante's View

Scotty's Castle

View from Zabriskie's Point

Sand Dunes

Titus Canyon. I will remember this drive forever. It still ranks at the top of my list of most challenging roads taken. VERY WINDY and furthermore it was unpaved. But it was great, great fun!

Ubehebe Crater in the day and at sunset

Racetrack Playa. Enroute to this place, one of the tires punctured. Sian-half. Aside from that, this place is huge and empty. 空。The photos can't quite capture it, really gotta see it for yourself.

2009-05-10T22:52:00.000+08:00

Julian, 1 March 2009

This trip was really all about this:

Introducing piping-hot Julian Apple Pie, with a generous serving of cinnamon and vanilla ice cream. Oh it's good. It's so good that back-blogging about this trip has me drooling already. Shall take that one hour drive again soon to satisfy my taste buds heh.

2009-05-10T08:34:00.000+08:00

Long overdue but I'm getting there...

Mt San Jacinto and Joshua Tree National Park, 22 Feb 2009

This trip was an interesting contrast of two extreme climates. I experienced knee-deep snow on one day, and the very next day I got sunburnt in the desert. I told people I was going to Palm Springs but that really wasn't the main point because sadly, Palm Springs downtown was really kinda quiet. Mt San Jacinto is the nearby mountain, 10 to 15 min cable car ride up to 8500 ft above sea level. Was surprised to see so much snow! These were remnants from a huge storm two weeks ago.

Palm Springs Downtown

This is a Joshua Tree. Very odd looking, not very tall but hoo yeah the weather was so good, the sky so blue that all my pictures turned out looking very nice indeed! (Ok should stop rambling...)

Old ranch at the National Park. Was inhabited until 1970s I think.

The reason why Joshua Tree National Park has its name as such is simply because there are so many Joshua trees.

And Skull Rock. Pretty obvious huh. :)

2009-03-16T20:23:00.002+08:00

Skiing at Big Bear, 18 Jan 2009

My first attempt at skiing went quite well, a.k.a. no major injuries, just bruises + took the chair lift + ski-ed down the beginner's slope 3 times. The amount of snow was misleading; the day was so hot that I wore only 2 thin cotton layers while skiing. Big Bear Lake itself was in the midst of awakening from winter slumber. Half of the lake was frozen and the other half was fluid water. In fact I witnessed a pair of ducks make a U-turn while swimming in the lake because they came to the ice-water border. Rather amusing.

And I'll never forget the day of President Obama's inaugration, albeit for a different reason.

That poor squirrel.

2009-02-24T20:05:00.001+08:00

Disneyland Anaheim, New Year's Day 2009

Everyone else was a Disneyland virgin except me. In fact it was my second visit to the Disneyland at Anaheim and my third visit to Disneyland since 2005. (2005 was Florida's Disney World, 2007 was Hong Kong Disneyland.) There are two ways I can go from here:

1. Really, how many Disneylands does a person have to go to? It's time to stop.

or...

2. Well since I've been to so many, I should just visit the rest too and complete my grand tour of Disneylands.

We shall see eh? :)

Sneaky me. But somehow this is a very endearing shot...

We had to settle for Toy Story characters because there were such long queues for the main Disney characters.

Ocean Boys!!

Meng Choo and the pirate-wannabe. Cap actually belongs to Uma standing in the background. Thank you for lending it to me!

And that's us, all graduated from Disneyland :)

2009-02-12T20:47:00.003+08:00

Las Vegas 25 Dec 2008 - 28 Dec 2008

Sarina and Meng Choo, our two lovely ladies from Vacaville, joined us for this trip. It was a back-breaking 9 hour drive due to slow traffic. Encountered some snow at higher elevations. Well it took us 15 min to confirm that it was snow heh. Probably the funniest thing that happened to me was that I got married thrice, twice to the same person.

???!!!

Hahaha! Don't worry la, didn't walk into the chapel.

Anyway you've probably realised by now that I'm getting really lazy with this whole updating thing so just enjoy the pictures. Afterall, they do say a thousand words :)

2009-01-20T21:49:00.000+08:00

Hello, it's been awhile, thanks for checking in here. The past weeks have been busy and eventful. I went traveling, then moved house, then had to wait for internet to be set up so that's why I've been out of contact.

When I left off at my previous post, I had just completed my job orientation and was to start shift on 17 Dec. So before that happened, John and I took a trip to San Diego City on 16 Dec to enjoy our last day of freedom (Uma, Albert and Daniel had started work by then). We took the Trolley Tour which took us round the major attractions and sights in San Diego. At designated stops, passengers could hop off if they wanted more time to check out the sights, and hop back on another trolley later.

Old Town

Seaport Village

Horton Plaza

Balboa Park

And here's the trolley:

Then I started working. Yes for real now, finally. Everyone's really nice and patient, and take very good care of me so I'm really happy and enjoying what I'm doing. So far. (hahaha!) Amidst all that, was also busy looking for house but don't bore you with the itty-bitty details.

The events that followed were Las Vegas, moving house, Disneyland and Big Bear City. Will update again :) (Just don't hold your breath waiting haha! You know how I am heh.)

2008-12-15T10:42:00.000+08:00

Had a busy, busy week. Hmm... where to start?

Let me start by elaborating on my last post. I think I shocked a few people, sorry for worrying you. A senior took us out for dinner that night and on the way back to the hotel, the car was stopped by the highway patrol because there were 4 ppl seated at the back without seatbelts. Really sian-half. Now I'm just waiting for my ticket to come in the mail so that I can go pay my fine.

Monday to Thursday morning was mostly spent learning this software that I'll be using for work in the future. Then also squeezed in 2 house-viewings in the evenings. And attended my first Ho-Ho on Wed evening. Ho-Ho is the weekly company party. Free food, drinks and many little kids running around with face paint and goody bags because the theme this time was Children's Holiday Party. Being young-at-heart, I took a picture with Santa:

Thursday afternoon and Friday were the most "exciting" days (read: mentally-draining, exhausting, busy!!!). In summary, I got my car on Thurs afternoon and took 4 exams on Friday.

2001 Mitsubishi Mirage ES, nice and small (unlike that huge monstrosity called the rental car that has gotten us into parking troubles TWICE at Ranch 99, the Asian supermarket). The entire process of getting a car was based on communication, trust and blind faith but I'm not feeling too eloquent now so I'll leave that for another post.

Currently still having some housing issues, sigh. Really hope things will turn out for the better soon. Not left with much time at the hotel. Many thanks to Kor, Yu-san, Gills for your encouraging comments and also all of you out there for your concern (I know you all care, just shy to say right? Heh).

2008-12-05T23:04:00.000+08:00

Three weeks into my stay here, I spend a chilly half-hour with the highway patrol.

I think I've experienced it all now. The whole American experience.

2008-12-03T20:30:00.001+08:00

Am I having fun here? Yeah well sort of I guess. It's not full-blown, all-out fun though. Maybe the novelty is wearing off. (That was fast...)

Take a moment and think about the situation I'm in.

1. New job. First job (sort of).

2. Foreign country, foreign culture, foreign environment, foreign people.

3. Away from family and friends.

4. Away from homely comforts.

I know I'm lucky to be here. I feel lucky to be here. But it doesn't mean all is sunny and clear blue skies. My problem is that over-worry, over-think, over-analyze. Or more succintly put, I'm a kancheong spider. So although there's only car, house, work, moolah and travelling to think about, I'm already feeling a little overwhelmed.

(And still got time and energy to blog. Mary, Mary, so contrary.)

Sigh. I suppose everything will work out somehow.

2008-11-29T08:23:00.000+08:00

Some introductions first, since I figure these people will feature very often from now on.

From left: Albert, Daniel, John, Uma and yours truly :) We are the Oceanside peeps!

That photo was taken on Thanksgiving morning, when we woke up bright and early to take part in the Turkey Trot down by the beach. It was 5km long, I managed to finish it a little faster than the Great Eastern Run, probably cos of the cool weather and Uma who has fantastic stamina. Albert and Daniel finished among the first 250 and they got medals!

Guy in a turkey costume and kid with a turkey hat:

Was supposed to go to the San Diego Zoo with some seniors after the run but the plan was canceled so we went to catch Madagascar 2 and managed to squeeze in a second movie, Australia. Then it was back to the hotel for dinner and a short nap before we headed off for shopping at 1.30am. The day after Thanksgiving is commonly known as Black Friday and stores nationwide will have huge sales that typically start at midnight or really early in the morning so we drove to Carlsbad Premium Outlet to check it out.

Oh yar. We have a rental car now. It's rather large, like the size of Dad's Camry. Still trying to get the hang of it.

Anyway, the outlet was bustling with people when we got there. Some shops had long queues outside and Starbucks had even longer queues haha. I bet people wanted to pump some caffeine into their bloodstream to shop throughout the night. The shopping was ok I guess, but it's unfortunate that I just arrived in the States and I can't afford to spend too much, not until I've settled my permanent accomodation and bought a car. But I still dragged 3 guys behind me for a good 4 hours haha :)

Just slightly before the sun rose, we left the outlet for Best Buy, which is a major electronic store here and this is the place where Black Friday took on a whole new meaning for us. To cut a long story short, Daniel lost his wallet, got it back with the cash missing but the cards in place and now, he'll never ever step into Best Buy again. We went back to the hotel for another short nap, then headed out for the Apple store in the afternoon for Albert to get his MacBook and ended with shopping at Walmart. And that's about how I spent Thanksgiving 2008 in the US.

2008-11-25T07:59:00.000+08:00

First day of work.

Jamey, my manager, described it very aptly. "It's like drinking from a fire hose." Totally.

But it's only information-overload, Oceanside (OCN) is a great place, people there are so nice, it's just awesome.

The highlights of my day were the grey area tour and the shift change meeting where I got a chance to enter the manufacturing plant. Especially the latter, where I had to gown up before entering (remember those days Bippies?).

It's too bad pltmates can't see my excitement, since they were complaining how I don't seem very excited for my USA trip prior to my departure. Well rest assured that I'm absolutely brimming with excitement right now, before the novelty wears off.

Some pics to make you all jealous:

2008-11-22T23:10:00.000+08:00

Do these look familiar?

Heh. I'm now at Oceanside, and will be staying here for the rest of my one year in USA. Arrived at San Diego Airport at 8.30pm on Fri and was picked up by my managers and seniors. They brought us to Residence Inn Oceanside and later dinner at an Italian restaurant across the road from our accomodation. It's heart-warming really, especially since I've just left from a great bunch of people in San Francisco:

Hope we get to meet up again :)

2008-11-17T20:17:00.000+08:00

16 Nov 2008 San Francisco City Tour

Awesome day, awesome weather. A little hazy at the beginning but it cleared up soon. I simply fell in love with the azure, blue sky.

It was mostly a stay-in-the-bus-and-look-at-the-sights tour, but we did hop off at the Golden Gate Bridge, Twin Peaks and the beach for quick snaps.

At the Golden Gate Bridge, there was a lonely sailor:

We decided to cheer him up a bit:

Had a great view of the entire San Francisco City up at the Twin Peaks but really caught my interest was this curvy road:

Stopped by the beach as well...

And the famous Victorian houses known as the Painted Ladies (but suaku-me only first heard of it on the tour). It's apparently featured in the TV series "Full House" (which suaku-me thought was a Korean TV drama.)

Government building with gold-plated roof:

Fisherman's Wharf, Pier 39. Famous for the lively (albeit noisy) sea-lions...

...and I think that is Alcatraz (former prison) at a distance:

17 Nov 2008 New Hire Orientation

Basically my first day of work which started off with the completion and submission of various official documents and getting my photo ID taken. The facilitators next brought us through what Genentech was all about. The tagline, mission, values, goals, culture, benefits (which I'm not entitled to but doesn't bother me cos hey I'm just glad to be here) etc. Might sound boring the way I list it out here but by the end of today's session, I'm pretty convinced that I'll try my very best to remain in this company heh. The entire session was well-paced and addressed many concerns that new hires will have in mind so two thumbs up Genentech!

I've got 3.5 more days of orientation here in South San Francisco before leaving for my working location at Oceanside. It's in Southern California, 1.5 hrs away from San Francisco by plane or 8 hrs away by car. Sigh. I definitely want to go to San Francisco again to see more sights and attractions but I'll see how it goes. Oceanside's not affected by the forest fires at Southern California so that's great news. Had my mom worried for awhile there. *Don't worry Mommy!*

2008-11-16T05:41:00.000+08:00

I have arrived safely at San Francisco, checked in to my luxurious single suite, took a nap surrounded by fluffy pillow goodness and I'm now officially jet-lagged.

So at Changi Airport some hours ago, I was taking pictures with my mom...

...fellow bummers and...
...and Bippies.

The flights were pretty uneventful. The first flight was to Hong Kong for a one hour transit. However, we still had to alight from the plane to immediately join the security check queue to allow us to re-board the plane so that was pretty silly but good exercise for the legs. Managed to get some sleep on the flight to San Francisco, which might explain why I'm jet-lagged but whatever. Generally, the seats were uncomfortable but the food was good (Magnum Classic and Haagen Daz dessert!).

Finally arrived at...

...San Francisco International Airport, boarded the shuttle to Residence Inn and checked into this:

All this for me and me only. Woo hoo! I hereby order you to be jealous of me hahahah! They dun call it "Residence Inn" for nothing I guess.

Gonna have a tour of San Francisco in a few hours time so I'm going to head back to bed to see if I can get a little bit more sleep. Meanwhile, don't worry about me, I'm enjoying myself here :)

2008-11-15T00:17:00.001+08:00

In a few hours, I'll be departing for USA for a one year training programme in bioprocess manufacturing. The good news is, this blog will be revived with my American adventures. There isn't any bad news yet. Hope it remains that way.

Thank you everybody for your well-wishes and farewell gatherings. I'm gonna be out of your lives for a year but do drop by here so that I can entertain you with the happenings in my life and likewise, I hope you can keep me in the loop with what's going on in your lives (MSN, Skype, Facebook or email me!) cos you are all precious to me :)

Bye!

2008-10-06T21:30:00.000+08:00

OMG.

I used to write letters.

And I had TWO pen-pals.

I really am rediscovering myself.

2008-10-05T22:56:00.000+08:00

Was doing some archaelogical excavation recently. At home. In my room. Believe it. I was cleaning out notes that date back to even primary school era so that's like more than a decade of procrastination, laziness and dust.

*cough cough*

Anyway, so in the midst of all that, I have come to realised something. It's like one of those revelations that come a bit late. (Way too late.) In my case it was probably very much suppressed and repressed, thrown into the deep dark recesses of my sub-conscious. And when I told my mom about my revelation, she was like, "Of course. Didn't you know that?" Damn. Even mom knows better than I do. What kind of person have I been, neglecting myself like that?

So now that I know I've been back-pedalling for a while, I shall make a conscious effort to rediscover the greatness in me and bring back my lost ego. (By playing lots and lots of lego, eating lots and lots of eggo, with pasta and sauce from prego!--Gills and I, in our MSN conversation just minutes ago haha)

2008-09-22T23:02:00.000+08:00

I was pretty pissed off last week. At anything and everything. My poor Mom, she bore the brunt of it and patiently listen to my numerous tirades. I think its probably a result of being emotionally neutral for too long. And some parts of disatisfaction, insecurity and general low self-esteem. Well the steam has run dry now. I dare say that I'm a much nicer person to talk to this week and I hope it remains this way.

Attended the free workshop offered by Sony when I purchased a new Cybershot and it was a great learning experience. Now I'm itching to try out some of the tips and tricks that the instructor shared with us. Will I ever go into serious photography i.e. expensive SLRs etc.? Heh I dunno. It is interesting but maybe it's just a phase for me now.

2008-09-15T19:59:00.000+08:00

There's simply nothing to blog about.

Well not until certain developments take place.

For now, I can only imagine and wonder at the numerous possibilities.

And leave cryptic messages here to keep you guessing.

What on earth is she talking about?!

Muahaha.

2008-08-11T22:51:00.000+08:00

Introducing......

*drumrolls*

MOO-SAN!

Moo-san is the latest addition to my family. It (gender indeterminable due to lack of distinguishable anatomical parts) was given to me by these awesome people:

And everybody (I do mean EVERYBODY) loves Moo-san!

We heart Moo-san!

2008-06-05T23:27:00.000+08:00

Er. Hi.

To you who still checks this blog, thank you. Thank you for the confidence you have in me updating this blog.

You should have noticed by now that...
1. I'm really not too good at maintaining this blog.
2. I don't deliver what I promise. (hint: photos)

So....

Okay current update of my life (the easiest thing to do cos uploading photos just takes too long!):
1. Will be jobless in less than a month.
2. Very busy trying to meet deadlines.
3. Not looking forward to the end of the month. Besides the change in employment status, I'm gonna miss fellow Bippies alot. ALOT.
4. Besides meeting deadlines, I spend my time in office playing with soft toys.
5. And now everyone thinks I sleep with soft toys. Which I don't. Honestly.
6. Just got back from Taipei a week ago. My 2nd grad trip haha. Enjoyed it tremendously :)
7. Love is once again in the air. Just not the air I inhale.

Yup. Er. Perhaps I'll post some photos when I'm jobless? I'd have plenty of time to do that :)

2008-04-04T23:51:00.000+08:00

Sorry to have disappeared for more than a month. Work just overtook me, shoved me facedown into the muddy ground and jumped on my back a couple of times for good measure.

No la, it wasn't that bad. (Shouldn't scare the population of readers who are still in school hahaha.) Several highlights of my social life in the months that passed were:

Settlers' (or Settler's?) with colleagues sometime late-Feb. I haven't laughed that hard in a very long time. I also accumulated more nicknames. Sigh. I dunno what I do honestly, but they just keep coming! Why?!

Mind's Cafe (or Minds'? heh I can never remember) with dear Priya, Engel, Angeline and Qiaohui. Another very enjoyable session and some very happy news too :) hee.

My birthday!!! I was very very immensely touched by the surprise bday cake and presents from my colleagues. Domo arigato gozaimasuta minna-san! Now we have adorable moo-san and meh-san to comfort us in times of contamination, broken tubings, overfed batches and unsolvable problem sets :)

Met up with Pavaani and the rest of the nuts which was great and thankew so much for the lovely purple cardigan.

Dinner and movie with pltmates. Thankew very much for the handy pouch and concealer to cover my leopard spots. I'm making good use of them.

Dinner with some Stongers. Wow. Yeah wow. It was two years ago when I went up Stong and haven't really kept in contact with them besides Ke Rui whom I see in school and Yali cos we've known each other for so long. So it's really great to see them both and Keshia again. Ah those fond memories... brushing teeth at the top of a waterfall is truly a novel experience y'know... heh.

I have plenty of photos but none taken by me haha. Shall upload some soon.

2008-02-21T23:37:00.000+08:00

I shouldn't make promises so hastily next time. When I thought I had a nice long CNY break, I kinda did have a nice long break but also a nice long worksheet to complete. And then everything just kinda snowballed into tons and tons of paperwork. Plus the party my parents are throwing tomorrow means they need the services of Maria.

*runs into telephone booth and changes into super-hero costume*

Well anyway, what I'm trying to say is that Part 2 of Sri Lankan Travels will come soon. Akan datang. Meanwhile, let me entertain you with some wacky pictures and you can try guessing which one is me.

This process is also known as gowning. Its purpose is to simulate astronauts gearing up for outer space exploration. And yesh, I get to do this at work. Cool huh?

I just got notified by snail mail that I've won $400 worth of makeup in a lucky draw contest so I'm in the state of "pleasantly surprised". I think it's my first time winning something in a lucky draw. Or winning something substantial in a lucky draw. Happy :)

(And yesh I'm openly gloating. Muhahaha.)

Now, weekend please come quickly. I really need a nice long break.

2008-02-03T17:31:00.000+08:00

Hello, Happy CNY everybody! Er hehe what can I say? I was bitten by the procrastination bug haha. And this isn't even a complete log of my travels in Sri Lanka but I think it's better to get it published first.

JY's Sri Lankan Travels (Part One)

Why Sri Lanka? Seems like an uncommon holiday destination for Singaporeans. Well indeed it is. In fact, it's probably more popular among the Caucasians because I definitely saw more of them then fellow yellow-skinned people. Regardless, if you are one who enjoys the rich cultural heritage of ancient empires and breathtaking scenery, do visit Sri Lanka.

18 December 2007 - Bandaranaike International Airport

We arrived slightly after 4pm. After clearing immigration and baggage collection, we made our way out of the airport to the pick-up area. It was chaotic, but we got onto our van safely. It took about 2 hours to get to Dad's apartment in Colombo city because of slow traffic but that gave me an opportunity to observe their traffic police in action. At most major junctions and roundabouts, there were traffic police stationed to direct traffic. I even saw them stopping the incoming traffic to lead pedestrians across zebra-crossings so that really impressed me. By the time we arrived at the apartment, it was close to 8pm. Mom and I whipped up a quick dinner and we sat down to eat as a family for the first time since... oh wow I can't even remember... possibly one year!

19 December 2007 - Galle
We set off for Galle, 4 hours down south of Colombo, at 7.30am. Galle lies along the west coast of Sri Lanka and is famous for its beautiful bays and beaches, handmade lace and Dutch forts. Enroute to Galle, we stopped at two Buddhist temples. Unfortunately, I cannot remember their names and well, don't blame me, you wouldn't either. Heh.
The outstanding feature of this temple the dome-shaped ceiling which causes even the slightest whisper to be echoed and heard.
This is a very holy tree, said to have grown from a branch of another holy tree that was grown from the branch of the tree that Buddha sat under when he attained Nirvana.The second temple is famous for its gigantic seated Buddha statue. It also has a pet elephant. Dumbo below is 10 years old and lives on a steady diet of fresh fruits provided to him by the temple-goers.We also stopped by one of the many sea turtle conservation efforts along the way. The one we stopped at was manned by a young Caucasian woman and had two kinds of ticket fares. Tourists' tickets were 200 rupees each; locals' were 20 rupees each. And it's actually nothing more than a few long concrete tanks hall-filled with sea water, containing a few turtles each. But it is sorta for a noble cause so...

That's a hatching ground. The sticks indicate which type of eggs lie beneath the sand.

We then stopped at the beach to take a boat-ride in a glass-bottomed boat specially designed for coral-viewing. Here's the beach (and my mom):

And the coral with fish happily swimming in between:Moving on, we finally reached Galle where we had lunch at a hotel and everyone else around us were Caucasians, most likely English. Turns out that Galle has a famous cricket stadium and the match between the Sri Lankan and English cricket teams was on the same day so many of them were watching the live telecast on TV. Anyway we weren't interested in cricket so after lunch, we took a short stroll among the fort walls and also went to the lighthouse.

Then it was back to Colombo. But not before stopping to take a picture of this boat:

It probably isn't meant to carry a lot of people and I do wonder whether it will be a comfortable experience for the buttocks.

Alright more to come soon. For the first time in my life, I will not be spending CNY in Malaysia but will be right here in Singapore so I should be able to finish blogging about Sri Lanka during the long break. Gong Xi Fa Cai everybody!

2008-01-05T20:04:00.000+08:00

I haven't updated for a while now because the photos of my Sri Lankan travels aren't complete and various family members who are holding on to them are kinda out-of-reach for the moment. I have so much to show my dear faithful readers so I hope you'll be patient. JY's Sri Lankan Travels are coming soon!

Those who have me on MSN probably noticed that I'm no longer using "the bummer" because it's a misnomer actually. In fact, it has been since the start of FYP? Or maybe even earlier. And now that I've (sort of) entered the working world, I don't really qualify as a bummer anymore. Maybe in another 30 or 40 years time, I can truly bum again. So it's goodbye to "the bummer".

Having said that, some qualities inherent of a bummer are deeply ingrained in me so this blog address will remain. (The previous statement can also be translated into: I'm too lazy to change my blog address.)

I spent the last few days of 2007 happily in the company of the people I love most so I started 2008 in good spirits and enthusiasm. With my newfound financial ability, I hope to acquire some stuff, rectify some other stuff, experience new stuff and save stuff. That about sums up my goals for the new year haha.

Happy New Year everybody!

2007-12-17T09:17:00.000+08:00

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!

2007-12-09T23:19:00.000+08:00

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

http://businessandstrategicplanning.blogspot.com/

2007-11-30T21:59:00.000+08:00

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*

2007-11-16T15:40:00.000+08:00

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.

2007-11-06T15:49:00.000+08:00

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.

2007-10-19T23:14:00.000+08:00

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!

2007-10-10T22:22:00.000+08:00

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

2007-09-21T21:02:00.000+08:00

It's over!

*throws confetti in the air*

*runs round in circles*

*grins madly at everything and everyone*

*whee*

2007-09-08T16:47:00.000+08:00

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

2007-08-24T23:28:00.000+08:00

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*

2007-08-16T22:03:00.000+08:00

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

2007-08-01T22:39:00.000+08:00

Lactobacilli are lazy.

Klebsiella pneumoniae have "mini-me"s.

Enterococcus faecalis misled me.

Escherichia coli are greedy.

It's a love-hate relationship.

2007-07-17T21:49:00.000+08:00

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.

2007-07-10T22:15:00.000+08:00

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.

2007-06-27T21:47:00.000+08:00

Spreading 420 agar plates wasn't that bad.

2007-06-22T20:10:00.000+08:00

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.

2007-06-03T12:38:00.000+08:00

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.

2007-05-23T19:28:00.000+08:00

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 :)

2007-05-19T18:31:00.000+08:00

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 :)

2007-05-09T20:41:00.000+08:00

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 :)

2007-05-07T20:23:00.001+08:00

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.

2007-05-06T14:51:00.000+08:00

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.

2007-05-04T12:13:00.000+08:00

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.

2007-04-03T11:28:00.000+08:00

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.

2007-03-25T04:56:00.000+08:00

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 :)

2007-03-09T12:07:00.000+08:00

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 :)

2007-02-26T23:02:00.000+08:00

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? :)

2007-02-21T07:06:00.000+08:00

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

2007-02-14T13:50:00.000+08:00

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.

2007-02-12T16:26:00.000+08:00

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 :)

2007-02-07T13:39:00.000+08:00

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.

2007-01-31T15:50:00.000+08:00

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.

2007-01-28T11:49:00.000+08:00

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 :)

2007-01-28T04:03:00.000+08:00

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.

2007-01-20T10:29:00.000+08:00

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.

2007-01-13T03:32:00.000+08:00

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

2007-01-07T06:09:00.000+08:00

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.

2006-12-29T20:05:00.000+08:00

I abused my stomach over the course of the week. Pizza on Tue, Crystal Jade on Wed, Sushi Tei on Thurs and Moovellous set lunch + bday cake on Fri.

Oh I abused my wallet also. How could I forget?

Wednesday's lunch was with the Cornies haha. No lah, I mean my Cornell friends :)

Thursday's lunch was with pltmates. Dear dear Jyang returned from USA and Anna's accessory made a rare appearance too.

Friday's lunch was with my colleagues cos it was the last day of work for a fellow intern. Bday celebration for one of my supervisors followed in the afternoon .

2006-12-26T02:35:00.000+08:00

Merry christmas everybody and happy birthday to jyang, who's stuck in JFK right now. Well if this is the suckiest way to spend a birthday, you can be sure that the rest of ur birthdays will be absolutely terrific in relative terms :)

On the eve of Christmas Eve, this was what I did:

2006-12-19T01:03:00.000+08:00

The scrawny cat which bullied me lived in a hawker centre where tables were beige and seats were green. It really was a scrawny thing, probably in its teens, covered by a dull white coat of fur and random black spots. What I remembered most was the pair of pale blue eyes that conveyed its nonchalant attitude and that attitude was directed towards me.

While I was valiantly guarding the four plates of nasi briyani (the other family members went to get more food), that little squirt came out of nowhere and leapt onto the seat next to me. I did what any other young woman would do. I waved my hands menacingly at it and said "Shoo."

IT DIDN'T EVEN LOOK AT ME!

"Shoo!" with more frantic hand-waving. This time, it granted me a slight inclination of its head.

"SHOO!" with prolonged hand-waving. Right, I finally got its attention. That was when I noticed its pale blue eyes. I stared back at it and stood up, hoping that the extra height will intimidate it. Its sole reaction was to blink at me. Just one slow blink, as if asking "You think I'm scared? Pfft."

Internally, I was frothing at the mouth. While I underwent such mental anguish, the cat decided it had enough fun at my expense so it removed itself from the seat and strolled away, disappearing as fast as it appeared.

I lost. Call me loser.

2006-12-15T05:14:00.000+08:00

Thyme's Law:
Everything goes wrong at once.

Malek's Law:

Any simple idea will be worded in the most complicated way.

Think there's a book that contains such variations of Murphy's Law. Anyone knows the title? More importantly, does anyone have the book? I'd love to read it :)

Went to Shu's house yesterday to make alot of noise. Memorable moments include the ill-fated 20% discount on pizza, QH's controversial shirt and the subsequent debate between herself and El, everyone ganging up to bully me during mahjong, and Shu playing an outstanding game of bridge. To echo Jo's sentiments, yesh, let's try and meet up more often.

2006-12-13T13:04:00.000+08:00

Quote of the day:

"Veni, Vidi, Velcro"
(I came; I saw; I stuck around.)

2006-12-09T09:18:00.000+08:00

Story: The Ter Kwa and I.

I ordered a bowl of Minced Meat and Mushroom Noodles (Xiang Gu Bak Chor Mee Pok) for lunch yesterday. Silly me. I should've known that there was pig's liver in it. I dun like to eat pig's liver. Almost to the point of 'hate' actually. I know it's nutritious etc., believe me, I get more than enough reminders from my mother. So anyway, it was a bit too late to tell the vendor that I dun want the ter kwa, and I was also quite hesitant to tell her "Auntie, mee pok without ter kwa" because it reminded me of that Mr. Brown podcast. I might burst out into uncontrollable laughter on the spot if I hear myself say that.

So staring at those 1 small, 3 medium and 1 large pieces of ter kwa, I started to devise ways of getting them into my stomach without too much protest from my taste buds. The first strategy I adopted was to dunk the whole piece of liver into the soy sauce of the chopped chilli. Unfortunately, the soy sauce wasn't quite spicy enough. The next piece of liver was dunked into soy sauce and eaten with a tiny piece of chopped chilli (I have low tolerance for spicy food...) but it still didn't work. Think the chilli itself just wasn't spicy at all. On my third try, I finally found the perfect solution. I ate the liver together with a big mouthful of mee pok, taking only a few bites to help me swallow the food.

Okay fine, I pretty much swallowed the ter kwa. And the remaining pieces. So much for strategising.

Moral of the story: When all else fails, revert to your roots. Forget civilisation. Embrace barbarian-ism and uncouth-ness.

PS: Seriously, dun take my words seriously.

2006-12-06T07:19:00.000+08:00

Exams are over, hols have started. To kick it off, a blog revamp.

Ta-da.

Okay I seem to sound less enthusiastic than I ought to be. I blame this on having to wake up at 5.45am this morning and the impending rain. When I'm trying to study, I love the rain. It calms me. When I'm trying to sleep, I love the rain too. It cools me. When I'm trying play... well you get the idea. A tan is so out of the question now.

What have I been up to lately? Well right after the last paper, went out with the girls (Qiaohui, Engel, Priya and Angie) for dinner at HV. On Friday, I pigged out at the library. My mom lent me her library card and my dad's (I can't remember the last time he borrowed a book...) so I made full use of them. Saturday was devoted to driving, vivocity and a free threading. Sunday was devoted to cooking, reading manga and LOTR. Monday was devoted to subject registration and more LOTR.

Lemme just rave a little about the books I found in the library. My habit is to walk down the shelves in alphabetical order, so the first author I checked out was Boris Akunin. Was looking forward to reading another book in his Erast Fandorin series but there weren't any new ones. I'm quite fond of Fandorin. Sigh. Akunin did have a new book though, featuring a nun this time. Haven't read the book yet but I dun think Akunin will let me down. I walked down further to Lindsey Davis for my all-time favourite informer with dark curly hair. Lo and behold! A Falco book I haven't read! I thought I must have cleaned out the entire series back in 2004. Anyway, that made me deliriously happy. I just finished the book last night (well early this morning to be exact...) and yesh, I think I'm in love. I might just re-read the whole series now.

Happy hols everyone!

2006-11-16T01:18:00.000+08:00

Taken from the Oxford University Press blog:

Elbow bump--a greeting in which two people touch elbows, recommended by the World Health Organization as an alternative to the handshake in order to reduce the spread of germs.

You've gotta be kidding me.

2006-11-14T05:35:00.000+08:00

(A little blogging to distract me from unwelcomed but necessary intellectual pursuits. I love euphemisms!)

Was compiling a list of to-do things after the dreaded exams. Realised that I'm in for alot of present-shopping cos of the overwhelming number of friends whose birthdays are in December. Some have wishlists *cough Jyang cough* so that makes things a little easier. (Btw dearie if you want something else, must say hor...) Then most others dun have wishlists so I can forsee weekends spent perusing shops in a crowded shopping mall. Hurrah.

I'm not complaining, I love my friends. The jostling and elbowing is a small price to pay for the friendship we share. Yesh, I am sometimes capable of such sentimental emotions so dun look so shocked. Close that jaw.

But I do want to declare that most of the shopping done this year was for other people and so in the last month of Year 2006, I am determined to pamper myself. In other words, retail therapy for me, myself and I. I want twinkly, dangling thingys for my ear piercings, dammit! Rooaaarr!

Okay. End of rant. Thank you for reading. *bows*

2006-11-03T15:42:00.000+08:00

Once upon a time, a little girl who learnt how to talk earlier than how to walk was, well, learning how to walk. Her difficulty was that, well, her head was a bit over-sized for her little body. (Which affects her centre of gravity, if anyone out there is asking...) Eventually, she learnt to walk tiny steps and not trip over her own two feet. Well, not too many times that is. Once, she did trip. When she picked herself up, her mother, who witnessed the embarassing episode, asked her why she fell down. The little girl replied with a little pout, "Because you never hold my hand."

Lesson 1: It's okay to be slow, just as long as you get there eventually.
Lesson 2: It's okay to fall down, just remember to pick yourself up.
Lesson 3: Don't blame others when you fall down cos your head is big and that's really a personal issue.
Lesson 4: But I guess it's okay to grumble a little, just bear in mind Lesson 2.

Hope this quirky (Zing: qwrky? heh) little thingy cheers you up a little. Exams are around the corner, everyone's feeling the stress. Good luck mugging and may Starbucks never run out of coffee :)

2006-10-25T13:09:00.000+08:00

I think it was something that Prof KH said. Has been nagging at the back of my mind since then. When a scientist tells you to "increase your oxygen intake so that your synapses do not overwork", he really means for you to "take a deep breath and calm down". If a scientist declares that there is "a specimen of Drosophila exploring fluid dynamics in a solution comprising 5M chicken and 2g of salt", he really means to say "Waiter, there's a fly in my soup".

My sorry attempt at being witty. If I failed, just tell me.

Thank you Denise for inviting me to your party and happy hatchday to you :)

I removed the tagboard and have yet to find a replacement so meanwhile, just leave comments.

2006-10-05T12:27:00.000+08:00

I lied.

Ok I didn't tell the whole truth.

I scratched the car AND cracked the bumper.

The aftermath of the incident wasn't too bad. Spent an hour polishing off the paint marks. Can't do anything about the crack though.

Kor confirm will suan me. I can just feel it coming.

*bleah*

2006-10-02T08:26:00.000+08:00

Die. I scratched the car. Summore it happened when I was driving the car into the porch.

Sheesh. What a great way to end the hols.

2006-09-26T15:27:00.000+08:00

Dear blog *pat pat*, I have sorely neglected you. For that I sincerely apologise. Aww dun pout, that's so unbecoming. Behave yourself.

Right now that's done, all I have to say is:

Aaaaaahhhhhhh.

The hols are here. It's been going alright so far, all 3 days that have just passed. El's should-have-been-a-surprise party was on Saturday and Sentosa. I must say she has a really funky family. Father offered everyone beer, mother dyed her (El I mean) hair red, brothers goaded El and JS to french, woo hoo. Then on Sunday I had a competition and won myself a $30 Takashimaya voucher so that will probably go towards a nice pair of shoes. Earlier tonight I had dinner with Jo, El and Zing. We spent most of the time thinking back of NCC days and *gasp* I realised I couldn't remember a thing about UDI camp. Safe for sewing press studs onto 5 sets of uniforms, I can't even remember which platoon I was in. I keep saying that those 4 years were the best years of my life, but on retrospect, heh, I can't remember much of it now.

Hello senility.

A bit sleepless now from all the laughing just now but I'll make up for it. It's the hols!

2006-09-08T09:29:00.000+08:00

First things first: erm kor, I know I promised u the pictures. They'll come, but not so soon okie? Thanks for understanding :)

Right. On to the main topic. Which is essentially just some ramblings. Like my hair is straight now (yipee). I hope Mom knows by now that no matter what she says about liking my curly hair and natural curls being totally "in", I will rebond my hair when it's curly. Period. Twice a year I endure a one-sided conversation about the condition of my hair. Simply uplifting.

Then there's school. I dunno if it's getting more bearable or unbearable. It's sad that I have to use words like "tolerable" to describe what I feel about school. IMO, to excel in university isn't a matter of which JC or Poly one came from but more about the passion one has in his or her studies. I lack that passion. I really really admire my peers who keep up with their readings, do their tutorials seriously and source for supplementary material to study. For a person who lives a mere 20 min away from school, I think I'm awfully privileged. The scary thing is, I'm not taking advantage of it.

But that's depressing so let's not go there. There's always bliss in denial.

Had a few interesting lab sessions lately. Like the BS306 Developmental Biology lab where we observed worms copulating. That's the closest you get to pornography in lab. We had a field trip to Bukit Timah Nature Reserve. No report to submit, just plain walking and enjoying the scenery. Just like primary school, those sweet, lovely childhood days. Just yesterday was the BS309 Genetics lab and I learnt that rebonded hair cannot be PCRed. And dyed hair too. Since most girls and guys nowadays have chemically treated hair, I wonder how that will affect the data collection and determination of the genotypic and alleleic frequency. Hmmm.

My account balance is finally looking a little better. Soon, I'll be able to splurge a little on clothing, shoes and accessories yay. So that's something to look forward to :)

2006-09-03T14:46:00.000+08:00

"Did you get love enough?" she asked.

"What's enough?" he replied wistfully.

--Divine Secrets of the Ya Ya Sisterhood

2006-08-24T13:34:00.000+08:00

Mood: Glad.

Glad that my mom and dad are healthy and happy. Well ok dad caught the flu bug from me and mom is quite busy with tuition and singing but they are in good health and cheer so I'm glad.

Glad that kor has good frens to celebrate his bday with him and for him. 2 celebrations + hand-made bday cake leh... this little sis is very very jealous haha :)

Glad that jyang is having a great time in USA. I hope your days are fun-filled and worry-free. And if you dun think of us (or me), it's ok. I certainly didn't when I was in Cornell. *grin*

Glad to know I've got great frens. Although I dun have many frens (yours truly ain't much of a social creature), I have a special bond with every one of them. More or less la.

Yup so I'm glad. But I'm not content. My list of "wants" will go on forever so let me just say the number 1 thing on my list:

I want to be rich. Disgustingly rich. So rich that I can make sure every kink of my curly hair is ironed out before it even gets to peek at sunlight.

Don't laugh. I'm dead serious.

2006-08-15T13:54:00.000+08:00

My dear sista left for USA yesterday. Almost one year ago, I did the same. To quote Cherlyn, "I wish it was 14 Aug 2005 now."

School sucks. What's new. From now on, blog updates will be sporadic. Full-time students have the full-time responsibility of studying full-time. So I'm a part-time bummer now i.e. slack whenever I can haha.

I wish.

2006-08-05T05:55:00.000+08:00

Singapore Open Shooting Championships 2006, my third year participating. Coach told me last week that the 1st time is to gain experience, 2nd time to test water, 3rd time must "go there and whack!" I didn't whack anyone (pls, shooting is a non-violent sport ok) but I'm damn proud of myself.

yay :)

There were only 30 participants in my category. In the 40-shot competition, the moment I fired my last shot and lowered the gun, the timekeeper signaled the end of the competition. So I literally fired to the last second, "wasting no time at all" as what Mr Eddie Lim (ex-coach) said jokingly. The spectators applauded. I could only smile, still dazed by that fact. I thought I had a minute left. I came in 8th thus qualifying for the finals. Then I think I climbed up one placing after the finals. No prizes for being 7th but I think the knowledge that I improved and shot well is the best prize for me.

2006-08-03T13:02:00.000+08:00

At training this evening, I shot:

94+94+93+93=374 or 93.5%

WWWWWHHHHHHHEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!

*grin*

2006-08-03T00:25:00.000+08:00

Got woken up at 8am by Jyang. No I'm not angry or anything, it's just hearing juicy gossip early in the morning does tend to put one in a rather weird frame of mind. I just have one thing to say to Zing: Honestly girl, don't you know me well enough (or us for that matter) to NOT tell me wat you don't want the rest to know? Don't blame us for poking into it, you asked for it the moment you told me, Jyang and El. Hee.

Oh and thanks to you, I shall never be able to look at Lord of the Rings without bursting into giggles.

2006-07-24T12:16:00.000+08:00

My social life has been rather active recently. FOC 2006 just concluded. Had alot alot of fun and got to know many people, especially my fellow programmers. It's also amazing how the Buccaneers actually have the most pple involved in this year's FOC. Why I say amazing is because we were such an un-happening group during our FOC. Xaviers and Zionites were way way noisier than us. Also got to know many juniors, those one year younger than me so it was a fun experience overall. I realised in the camp that I'm terribly bossy also... another character defect to add to the ever-growing list...

Then just this afternoon I met up with the Cornellians. There was this exhibition of USA universities by the Singaporean students studying there so besides meeting Cornellians, I met many of my ex-classmates like Si Hui, Zhimin, Adela and Wei Ying. Also met Jinyue, one of my 'kids'. Think her mom thinks that Jyang and I are both nuts. Think that both Jyang and I dun really care haha. Oh and I finally finally saw Anna. Dear dear Anna who ignored all my SMSes. Dear dear Anna who bought the Cornell T-shirt for me. Dear dear Anna who is thus forgiven. So now everyone is looking forward to the great big gathering at Jo's house this Saturday yay! :)

2006-07-17T11:09:00.000+08:00

A quick update before I disappear for the week. I've been busy with FOC prep, work and some errands. Work is tiring, I'm having second thoughts about continuing but I want money too so sort of caught in a dilemma there. I missed FOC pre-camp yesterday, bet it was fun. I went Sentosa with El, Jyang and Qi. As usual, all 3 sent me "sorry jyin I'll be late" messages. We finally got to the beach at 12pm, walked about 20 min trying to find a good location. Found a good location and proceeded to nua for more than an hour, playing bridge and eating custard apples. Then we made El strip, played frisbee, acted silly, the usual nonsense. Went to cycle and ended up at Ben & Jerry's. Made our way to El's, washed up and had dinner with Zing. We taught her mahjong too and I think she has natural talent for it, just need to practice more i.e. play more mahjong with us. De arrived, we played more mahjong, then sent Zing to the MRT station at 11pm and headed out for a midnight movie at 12am. We watched Pirates of the Carribbean, returned to El's and chit-chat for a while more before we all fell asleep. Then this morning, I finally showed them my USA photos heh. I headed home first cos need to pack for FOC tmr so yup here I am now.

Ok I'll be back on Friday 21 July :)

2006-07-06T08:29:00.000+08:00

Photos of Stong. Mostly people photos so I feature widely in them. Blot out my image if you get sick of seeing me.

That's us in a cave. The rock behind us resembles a kris, a traditional Malay dagger.

Us again with waterfall to the right (of the picture). We slid down the slippery rockface very fast.

I can cook, no matter where the kitchen is haha. From left, clockwise direction: Fish, Elton, Ridzwan, Yali and yours truly.

The beautiful sunrise. It makes the hike up all worthwhile.

My dearest tutorial groupmates. From left: Parhana, Kerui and Esther. This was the homebound train.

2006-06-30T08:51:00.000+08:00

2 highlights of the week so far:

1. Dinner on Monday with Jo, De, Jyang and Shu. Received Part 2 and 3 of my bday present. Yesh it's extremely belated but it doesn't matter cos I LOVE THEM! Thankew thankew all of you :)

2. Senior's Camp from Tue to Thu i.e. it just ended, I still need to catch up on my sleep but thankfully got a nice tan heh. I guess the camp was pretty slack, except for "Campfire" night. As a first-time costume mistress, I left some costumes behind *slaps forehead*. Good thing Edmund saved the day haha. I'm actually pretty proficient with the sewing machine now. So I can cook, I can sew, I'll have to work on my "keeping-the-house-tidy" skills but I'm on my way to housewivery and auntie-hood.

Someone save me. Please.

Looking forward to Sat (meeting platoonmates) and Sun (meeting Cornellians hopefully). Calmly accepts the rapidly-diminishing account balance. I love money, but I think I love my frens more.

2006-06-26T00:10:00.000+08:00

I had a weird dream last night. I dreamt that platoonmates and I were gathered in a small dusty room at one of the upper levels of AMQ. It was late afternoon cos the sun's rays cast a yellowy sheen on everyone in the room. So the whole platoon of us were just sitting up straight minding our own business (a.k.a stoning) in our No. 3 uniform. Then out of nowhere, I decided I was bored and started kiwi-ing my combat boots because apparently NCC Day was around the corner and I was part of the marching contingent. Anyway, setting aside that odd discrepancy, a Mdm came up and wanted to have a few words with me so I told her to "hang on there for a moment, I want to get this side of the boot done". So when I was finally done, she was obviously rather vexed at me. Of course I had no idea where I got the guts to tell her to "hang on for a moment" but it happened and I braced myself for a scolding. She scolded me for dropping my beret on the floor and went on to harp about how I was a specialist already and still displaying this sort of atrocious behaviour. At that point, something snapped in my mind and I started shooting back at her. I admitted I was wrong but mistakes do happen and everyone will drop their beret sometime or other in their life as a cadet. I then rambled on something about my passion for NCC which was exemplified by my neat and smart uniform and lastly, I told her how I wished officer-cadet relationships could improve by the officers not nit-picking at minor mistakes. I excused myself and walked out of the door with my platoonmates, leaving that Mdm slack-jawed at my audacity. But of course, she had no grounds for rebuttal. Hee I even remember Zing, El and Jyang giving me a good pat on the back.

So back to real life. I can only describe the feeling as weird. Puzzling. Queer. That sort of thing. It also reminded me of all the times that I crapped my way (and my platoon's) out of certain uncomfortable situations. That's right, jyin the crapper. In fact, this whole dream was an ego-booster for glorious little me ha. I guess I'm likedat sometimes.

I have plenty of other stories likedat, real-life stories (Jyang and Shu simply love to reminiscise about me PMSing during Pt A camp). But I'll leave that for another time. Meanwhile, I shall savour this little dose of ego on a cold and rainy Sunday :)

2006-06-21T14:26:00.000+08:00

Still waiting for Yali to post her photos on yahoogroups cos I think she has some nice pictures of me. Well as nice as they can get with me as the model.

I've resumed air pistol training after a 2 week break. Coach commented on how he felt a little apprehensive about me when he started coaching the NTU team.

Why? Because I am so small.

Well more accurately, compared to my teammates, I am really quite small-built. But he's glad that I'm reasonably strong. Well at least strong enough to hold the gun steady for 40 competition shots. And my stance is quite stable too, so that's good. In fact, it's also good that my toes and feet start to feel numb after standing still for about half an hour or so. Queer isn't it? Apparently, badminton is a no-no for shooters (sorry shu!) and playing piano is good for triggering. Then he also recommends swimming with one's arms only to build up arm muscles. I wonder if I can swim 10 metres likedat...

Guess I'll find out soon heh.

Meanwhile, it's nice to have met up with jyang, adila and shu recently. I think those 4 years of s**t really bonded us well. I really glad for those 4 years of my life. They were the best. But don't worry, I dun dwell on the past that much. I think "now" is pretty cool too. At least no ugly school uniforms yar :)

2006-06-14T02:09:00.000+08:00

Over the weekend, I went on a hiking trip to Gunung Stong in Kelantan, Malaysia. Dear Yali, who was the trip IC, invited me sometime in March but I turned her down at first cos I didn't know anyone else on the trip. Later, some of my tutorial group mates expressed interest in the trip too so I signed up for it. I'm glad I did. I rediscovered the fun of trekking up a mountain, pitching tents and field-cooking heh. Besides having marvellous trip ICs, I was lucky to have a very energetic guide and tons of fun people on the trip too.

We took an overnight train on Friday to reach Dabong in Kelantan on Saturday morning. After breakfast, we explored 2 caves. We then started to hike up the mountain, eating a mobile lunch along the way. The climb up was torturous but the waterfalls made the climb worthwhile. Waterfalls are so fun! I remember sliding down 2 waterfalls and going underneath 1 of them. Although the water was cold, it was incredibly refreshing. We spent the night out in tents. Before we went to sleep, the guide predicted rain in the morning so we were furiously water-proofing all our belongings and were prepared to dash for the shelter if the rain was heavy. Luckily, the rain fell lightly so we had a peaceful night.

In the morning, we had pancakes for breakfast haha. Yali's idea actually but well now I know that it is possible to have a tasty breakfast out in the wild. The original plan for Sunday morning was to hike up to the summit but that plan was canceled because it takes 5 hours to reach the top and another 5 hours to descend back to the base camp and we didn't have the time to do that. So we had a leisurely breakfast before setting off on a short hike to another part of the waterfall and playing with more water heh. At 3pm, we striked down our tents, compressed the garbage and by 4pm, we were making our way down Gunung Stong. We had dinner at the small kopitiam beside the train station and after that, we just sat around and chatted or watch World Cup on TV. The train arrived at 10.45pm and once again, we spent the night on the train.

Yup so it was a short trip but full of memorable and hilarious stuff. I'll post some pictures as soon as I kop them from someone :)

2006-06-02T08:49:00.000+08:00

I finally shot a new personal best at competition. My previous record of 356 had remained unbeaten for 3 years until today at NUSIS, I shot 360.

3 years man... call me retarded...

88 + 93 + 95 + 84 = 360.

It's the last series that wasn't up to standard *sheepish grin*. Lesson learnt: Thou shalt not panic when thou has 12 min to shoot 10 shots because it isn't the first time I had so little time!! If my memory serves me well, NUSIS should be my 4th time standing at the range till the very last 2 min.

So? The next time I do something foolish like panicking, it will be inexcusable. So there.

2006-06-01T09:26:00.000+08:00

Latest happenings in my life:

1. Everyone in Marketing class today commented about how fast the month went by. And I commented that in 2 weeks time, we shall be free of one another's company. Wondered who perceived that as good news, who perceived it as bad.

2. I am W-O-L-S. I finally realised what a great site youtube.com is.

3. I've finished watching Da Chang Jin. (wahaha)

4. I'm hooked on Boris Akunin's books again. I ready The Winter Queen and Leviathan more than a year ago. Was ecstatic to see 2 more books on the library shelves recently. The Death of Achilles is definitely better than The Turkish Gambit and I found a new love: Erast Fandorin.

5. Now raise your hand if you haven't the slightest clue what I'm talking about.

Good.

6. Bacteria life cycle is surprisingly similar to product life cycle. Lag, growth, maturity and death. Seriously. Go compare Microbiology and Marketing textbooks and you'll know I'm not lying.

7. Me will never get around to watching MI3.

8. NTU has me confused about when the results are released. "First week of June" meaning this week or next? Infinitely irritating.

9. Me want straight hair.

10. Now raise your hand again if you saw that (No. 9) coming.

So smart, of course in any list, my hair will be featured. Goes to show how well you know me =)

2006-05-26T00:01:00.000+08:00

Shufang, my NCC junior, passed away last night after a long, hard battle with cancer.

My deepest condolences to her family and also to the Part Cs, who were always by her side.

immortality

there is a vision and a fire in me

i keep the memory of you and me inside

and we don't say goodbye

we don't say goodbye

with all my love for you

and what else we may do

we don't say goodbye

--"Imortality" by Celine Dion and the Bee Gees

We don't say goodbye Shufang.

2006-05-23T07:19:00.000+08:00

Finally played mahjong at El's. And got to know the accessories more. Like how Eugene (Yali's accessory) is very very good at mahjong. Not just the different "patterns", there are certain formalities that ought to be followed also. I would like to see a showdown between Jyang and Eugene one day heh. Jiashen (El's accessory) is a fidgety drunk, but one who can play mahjong while drunk is quite amazing. He also proved that durians and alcohol do mix as he was seemingly fine after having both. Before ending up at El's house, we (El, Yali and I) were at the New Paper Big Walk with Jyang, accessory and fren. Jyang's accessory, Howie, is still as thin as ever. Jyang fren, Jasper, also as thin as the accessory if not thinner.

So where's my accessory?

Ha :)

2006-05-19T14:54:00.000+08:00

Just a quick update on my life for the sake of frens that I seldom see...

Wait scratch that. I haven't met up with anyone recently.

Ok well you get the idea. So wat's the dastardly jyin up to now? *evil grin*
1. Studying. Principles of Marketing, 3 AUs, 5 lessons and many many projects.
2. Watching Da Chang Jin. I'm halfway through.
3. Er hmm... wow guess that's it yar. I dun even maple alot now...

Well I wanna watch MI3 cos Tom Cruise cut his hair, but can't find any company. I wanna watch X-Men III cos Hugh Jackman is sooo drool-worthy. I definitely will watch Pirates of Carribean 2 with Shu (aiyar qihui why u not coming back for winter?). I'm more captivated by Captain Jack Sparrow then Johnny Depp himself though. Of course, Johnny Depp's cool too.

I haven't karaoke yet! That is definitely unusual behaviour on my part. Normally the first activity after exams will be hitting K-box but that hasn't happened yet. (again attributed to qi... heh) Haven't had mahjong session yet! OMG this is so so so disastrous, a catastrophe, an abomination of all things holy... the vices that define my self, I'm losing them all! Argh.

Having said that, I feel a lot better now. I would feel much much better if I had the money to do all the above. Money is scarce this time round, so meanwhile, I'll practise my ninja skills and be patient. Money will find its way to me. Or I can go out and find it, whichever is faster.

And so as an ending note, did anyone get the joke in the previous paragraph?

2006-05-13T02:37:00.000+08:00

Like many other people in Singapore, I am hooked on Da Chang Jin.

There, I've said it. So having said that, I shall go on to talk a little about Da Chang Jin. The plot is full of twists and turns, I love watching how they cook the food and Chang Jin's foster parents are absolutely hilarious. My parents and I stayed up till 2am watching Da Chang Jin last night, and I think it was about 1 am when I had an epiphany about Chang Jin.

You know what I think? I think Chang Jin is very much like a cockroach. I don't mean this comment to be derogatory though cos I was reminded of something I came across in a book when I was young. Apparently, cockroaches have existed since prehistoric times and somehow survived the Ice Age too. So like cockroaches, Chang Jin really knows how to survive through tough times. And everytime I see Lady Cui's face when her scheme is thwarted, I bet she's thinking, "Ooh that Chang Jin's as hard to kill as cockroaches..."

According to my mom, Chang Jin has a paragraph of 25 words long in history books. In a patriarchal society such as Korea in the old times (and many other Asian societies of the past), that is probably a great feat. So whether the drama is historically accurate or not, it is a great source of entertainment and I will continue to watch it and keep myself nicely amused for the next 3 months :)

2006-05-05T10:13:00.000+08:00

My exams ended yesterday. It took far too long in my opinion. 20 days from the start of the first paper to the end of the last paper. That's as good as 3 weeks of exams. Which also translates to about 1 month of being cooped up at home studying. Well all that is over so... WHHEEEEEE!! The bummer is out to play!!

Right after my exams, I met up with Shuyi at IKEA. I wanted to buy bath towels but after 45 mins of browsing IKEA, let's just say that there are better places to shop for towels. Hopped over to Queensway to check out sports shoes after that before heading home for a nap and a jog. So yesterday wasn't that eventful la.

Shu and I went to MacRitchie today. Supposed to meet at 8am so I left the house at 7am. I can only say that it has been way too long since I travelled early in the morning so there was heavy traffic everywhere and I was very late. Which is quite unusual cos among my bunch of best frens, I'm the only one who is either early or punctual. It's really comical sometimes because if the whole bunch of us is going out for lunch or something, approx 5 min before the arranged meeting time, I'll either get calls or sms saying "sorry jyin i'll be late". Almost always, without fail.

We had no idea that we were about to face a whooping 10km hike. It's 5km to the HSBC Tree Top Trail (TTT) and 5 km back. Which we did not know before hand. So it was a kind of "wow" feeling but of course it didn't deter us. Know this: when a woman is determined to burn calories, nothing short of a meteorite crashing will stop her. We hiked at a leisurely pace, chatting and catching up with each other's lives. We reached the TTT at 10am, so that's 1.5 hrs to trek 5km. The TTT is a 250m long suspension bridge and it really really is a long way up from the forest ground. They weren't kidding when they said it was tree-top. You can only walk one-way when you're at the TTT so we took our time there to read the various info signs and identify the trees or plants featured in the signs.

So after that, we decided not to take the same 5km route back to the main entrance cos it was just too long. We took another trail and walked for about 45 min before reaching a bus stop (a.k.a. civilisation haha), took a bus down to Thompson Plaza area and had lunch.

I just hope I didn't eat more than what I burnt in calories. Then the whole hike would have been pointless :) Happy hols ppl!

2006-04-29T10:04:00.000+08:00

Blog revamp. (stating the obvious...)

I'm still in the midst of tweaking the code to my liking. Will also add a tagboard soon. One of the drawbacks of this template is that it doesn't really scroll down when I use my mouse scroller. So you might wanna try clicking on the arrow heads on the right to scroll up and down. They're kind of small and hard to see cos they blend in with the black. Other than that, I quite like the design.

It's GREEN.

Some pictures to liven up this place and also in commemoration of the end of a very very tough paper :)

Malaysia, Batu Pahat. My hometown. That's my parents and my uncle on the far right. We're posing in front of a jambu tree. My mom loves jambu and devours them at an amazing speed. Sadly, I have not inherited her fondness for the fruit.

Mom, Kor and my cousins. We always bunk over at their house when we go to Malaysia. Picture taken at a temple overlooking the confluence of two rivers.

Kor and I at some CC event. Note: straight hair. Note again: how nice straight hair looks.

Roar.

But actually, I'm a little hesitant to rebond my hair now. There have been recent studies relating the occurence of cancer to the frequency of hair-dyeing. Maybe I'll invest in one of those flat-iron thingys. *ponder*

2006-04-23T23:43:00.000+08:00

If you're reading this, please take some time to read "The story of Joan" in the Sunday Times, Life section.

Thank you, sincerely from the bottom of my heart.