more tales from the engin com lab

I sit here close to 40% through with my histo paper and i'm quite happy with how things have progressed in this second half of today.

This time round, however, while there are no annoying couples to distract me, there instead is someone who is listening to Selena's "Dreaming of You" on the com but who has decided to share the song with the rest of the people here (it just finished playing for the second time). And in between the haunting refrains of a now-dead lady, there is also a less musically gifted individual seated in front of me who's listening to some inaudible music on her headphones which she feels obliged to share with me via the gift of bizarre humming.

Anyways, i like totally wasted this morning watching weird stuff on youtube in my room, which is why i moved to school to do my work. By and large it's been successful, save for this...

Okies back to work...

ella ella ella eh eh eh

I was reading i forget where some time before i left that there's this song which has catapulted a certain Barbadian called Rihanna to superstardom. I thought to myself, how successful can a song called 'umbrella' really be?

So i made a point during my flight over here to tune in to the inflight radio and wait specifically for that song to play since it was listed in the infllight entertainment guide...

Big mistake - ever since that first time i ever listened to that song i've been ambushed by it at least three more times and now i can't get the annoying thing out of my head so my already sapped brain productivity is down some more, so doing stuff like planning trip and everything else is severely hampered.

So Rihanna, please just take your umbrella and go away and leave me in the rain, cos i'd much rather get drenched than hang with you under your umbrella... ella ella eh eh eh... aargh!!!

(Um ok let me try and change the earworm - caught Carrie Underwood's "Before He Cheats" just now - and honestly can you even imagine her sweet little self scratching out her cheating boyfriend's "souped-up 4WD's" side panels with a key and carving her name on its leather seats? We're talking about the same girl whom had only recently asked for Jesus to take the wheel here, aren't we? These weird country music folk...)

recovery process

Exams are over after a very disjointed period of two weeks. Well, had like 60% of them in the past 36 hours so that about says how disjointed things are... Hmm anyways end of exams = mood for randomness so here goes:

Took this on the way to school one day

- one of those "the heavens are opening" cloud formations...

After my two papers yesterday, i decided to take a breather from studying in school cos i couldn't focus anymore in the snug smc behind area anymore (and that was a matter of 'when' much more so than 'if'). In any case, i was already very much in holiday mood, if you can call it that cos after two papers in a row, that's basically how anyone would feel methinks...

So i randomly (never have i been as much a fan of randomness than this sem) decided to head over to ecp to read my Cold War book in prep for today's paper. Needed a different setting and the fresh (albeit occasionally sea-stinky) air there is a great improvement from the stuffy recycled air of smc (and had just finished Global Environmental Issues paper, of which one thing i learnt was that indoor air is actually less healthy than outside air). And the sound of the lapping waves beats that of the photocopier hands down...

Walked up ecp from Fort Road - never have i seen this stretch completely empty before...

The first two souls i encountered there...

My view...

Yeah so things worked out well - at least while the rain clouds held up. Didn't manage to get in more than one chapter before the drops became more steady and the clouds became darker, after which i retreated to Parkway Coffee Bean where i managed to finish the book (or at least the relevant chapters of it). But anyways, my point is that the beach is a nice place to read a book (not studying per se cos the constant sea breeze would pose a problem to notes). Too bad i realize it all the more only when i'm about to move...

So by the time today arrived i'd already practically become physically impossible of squeezing in even one moment more of productive studying, so i basically just hung until the paper itself. That was good, and the paper at the end of the day didn't turn out too bad... (only thing interesting to note is that this was the third time out of my five exam seasons at nus that i ended my papers in mpsh5 - hate that place, though at least now it's renovated)

Ah so fast they came, and so fast they're over...

Am listening to Norah Jones' latest album on my com now (obtained via free legal downloading, thank you very much) and have arrived at the conclusion that virtually all her songs have the same effect on me, which is to lull me to sleep... Which means there's no need to buy this album since the other two that i have would do just fine...

Up next, Daughtry =)

Frayed

Well, so far the latest exam season has gone on pretty smoothly for me actually. Think the many free days available for studying this sem have made things much more flexible for me than any other exam period in nus as far as i can remember. This has been especially timely for me cos this sem, more than any other, i've felt the need to take (very) frequent (but relatively brief) breaks from studying to spend time away from everything but God (um, and also to pee, but that's another story altogether). And better many frequent breaks than one whole prolonged period retreating from civilization like last year methinks... Yup, which explains why i'm just as likely to be found out of my seat than in it if you're looking for me...

And in terms of the exams themselves, well, while initially i was somewhat apprehensive (first exams in this disgustingly rigid exam environment after a year) about getting used to how exam conditions here would be like (at UNC it was a breeze), at the end of the day things have worked out alright thankfully... Um, i do know that my name won't be appearing on any Dean's Lists anytime soon, but i also do know that the rest of the exams will go alright too =)

One regret i've had though, not having much time (or motivation) to exercise, given the fact that for the past two weeks, i've tended to eat two full dinners in a day, one at sixish in school, and the other at tenish at home...

In totally unrelated news, the latest chapter in the ongoing torture that i'm subjected to on an almost daily basis at the hands of tv mobile features reruns of pck, which i had previously mistakenly believed to have wisely been put out of its (and my) misery by mediacrap once and for all. To make matters worse, the reruns are not of the initial seasons (i.e. before the titular character had to go and take BEST English classes at the suggestion of none less than the now sm, this plot development basically killing whatever salvageable bits of the show there ever were), but of the latest season when the show was already at the tail end of its slow death.

Just to prove my point, the middle shelf of this trolley
features all the volumes that the bizzare xerox-crazy girl zapped in just ONE DAY...

The latest wildlife specimen i encountered at engin bridge,
a really big Atlas Moth, though it was dead by the time i took this pic...
The giant spider's still there, btw, if you'd want a look for yourself...

This song has been regularly playing in my mind for the past month or so methinks, and today during one of my contemplative walks it hit me - sometimes i feel like i'm living it first-hand. Ok, not all of it, maybe specifically the second verse more than the rest, yup but anyways it hit me all the same. Hope things won't come to the stuff in the chorus though...

processing

Hmm after having been rather overwhelmed by work for much of the sem that has gone by, i now find myself in the enviable and strange position of having nothing really to do apart from prepare for the exams. It reached the stage whereby on Thursday morning it took me around fifteen minutes methinks to find appropriate study stuff to bring to school so that i wouldn't waste the day.

But that being said, i'm really glad for the break, cos it's long overdue, and i really really could use one now - as has been the norm for this sem, i've had a lot of things on my mind, and now procides a perfect opportunity to finally devote more time to clearing all the backlog.

So to that extent just now after dinner since i've no work to do i decided to go for a walk at ecp. Even though it was like super humid and it felt really sticky, i figured that a walk would help me to process a lot of stuff and talk to God more clearly as well.

That turned out rather well. I didn't like get immediate answers/solutions to the stuff i was bringing before God and actively considering, but it certainly helped me to organize my thoughts and get some new insights onto some stuff. Rather bizarrely as well, ideas for a song (both music n lyrics) somewhat spontaneously came to mind, which has never happened before (Love Compels was a so-called commissioned work which took a lot of deliberate attempts at conceptualizing, and i never had ideas for the music). Will try and piece the ideas together and complete the thought cos it's a useful outlet i feel...

Oh, and when i say walk, i really mean walk - as in walk from my house all the way to that place past Bedok Jetty where there used to be a coconut grove which would be perfect for filming Indian movies but which now has some fancy white garden structures, and then crossed the road to the Bayshore area where i took a bus back home - the total walk lasted around 100 min.

Oh anyways today's Good Friday service was interesting - certainly the longest service i've ever attended - it was supposed to be 3 hours long (to signify the recognition of the darkness following Jesus' death from the 6th to the 9th hour, and anyways i've sat through at least one of those before), but the seventh and last meditation extended quite a bit, such that it lasted a total of more than three and a half hours. The length meant that while initially i took in a lot of what was said in the earlier meditations, by the time number five came (ironically that was my father's one =p) and on from there my mind semi-switched off so i couldn't process a lot of it... But it was a good experience and i did manage to take back some of the stuff that was preached...

volatility

Was typing my essay in my secret place earlier today when i happened to notice (cos the desks there are angled in such a way that when you sit you'll be semi-facing the neighboring screen) that the guy next to me was playing some kind of Chinese war computer game (Romance of the Three Kingdoms?). Ok fair enough, i thought, anyways the place still had some empty coms around at that time so if he wanted to go ahead with that then so be it.

Happened to catch a glimpse of his screen some time later. I was truly sickened to realize that the guy had switched to viewing a whole host of pictures of a quasi-erotic nature (i shall not elaborate further). Eek! I'd have liked to, to put it lightly, strongly advise him to stop that at once, but i didn't know how to go about doing that so i settled on trying to shift my monitor screen in such a way that his own screen wasn't in my line of vision and strategically holding up my notes right in front of my face whenever i could to block those disturbing images from my sight once and for all...

Well, that aside, the remainder of the process of typing my essay was rather uneventful. I'm really not one for conciseness so i ended up writing too much. During the editing process, i always feel so sayang to let words/sentences go so i try and keep that to a minimum. In fact in the editing process i often end up adding more fluff rather than getting rid of it. Yup so it did get a bit long, but still within reasonable limits i hope...

I do find it weird that i seemingly have little work to do (not many deadlines left really) but i've been feeling more tired than i've ever been this sem. Today it all started to get to me so i was back in my tactical, retreatist, loner mode and tried to avoid people as far as i could. Just as well i had an essay to finish. And that doesn't seem to be going away as of yet. Maybe God is telling me that i need to spend more time alone, as in time with Him (Ok so i know that for a fact). A lot of stuff continues to bother me, and whatever talking to God about all of these has been piecemeal at best. And the slightest thing seems to trigger more "me against the world" sentiment (and going along these lines in the unlikely event that the Tar Heels lose their Sweet 16 match to the Trojans tom that would so do it for me methinks) Yeah so the point of the story: need to spend time with God. Productive time, that won't reach a premature anti-climax with me falling asleep or having my thoughts drift to totally unrelated and far less important matters.

My current earworm over the past few days when i get up in the (very early) morning: And I Am Telling You I'm Not Going. Random thought but maybe that's what i've been subconsciously telling God as of late. "Going" as in going to genuinely want to do things His way. Hmm...

How bizarre, no bazaar?

Come and see,
Come look around,
There are now no more sights and sounds.
'Twas here to stay for endless days,
Now it has finally gone away!

Bizarre bazaar,
Wondrously unfleeting,
What studying and meetings will you be disrupting?
Bizarre bazaar,
Full of noise - off-key singing,
You bring to us the pain of cringing.

Ok this is coming pretty late i must admit, but hopefully the point is made nonetheless. The amended lyrics to this little ditty came to mind when i arrived at the forum come Monday morning, wondered what was strangely peaceful about the place, looked around, then realized that it was the lack of furniture - the @#$%-ing bazaars had finally gone.

Actually the bazaars themselves have not been the problem, but rather the frighteningly high noise level that they contribute to the forum - in my opinion the only feasible place left in the vicinity for people to study without feeling obliged to speak in anything within the volume of a whisper with the temporary lack of an arts canteen. Why they have to invite bad bands (with singers who sing so flat that engineers should probably take reference from their voices if they're checking if a plane surface is really 180 degrees) down and amplify them with an already overbearing yet misguided sound system that does nothing but make their mediocrity even more audible, or replay the same substandard techno or whatever-nonsense-have-you cd over and over again is really beyond me.

Since i'm in a ranting mood, can someone please do something about the smokers who never fail to light up at the dungeon level (or as one prof calls it, "cancer row") of as1, no matter what hour of day it is? I had classes there the other day, and the psi in that particular corridor area must have at the least been at the unhealthy, if not hazardous level. I do however understand that they need a place to smoke - if i were a smoker, i would hardly want to find my way till i'm safely out of sight from the "NUS is a smoke-free campus" before lighting up. So just get them a room for goodness' sake... Like they do in airports - think that they deserve a room, if not for themselves to smoke themselves to death with, then at least for the health for the rest of us who still have to inhale nicotine, tar, carbon monoxide and i dunno what else on a regular basis thanks to this...

mixed bag

My mind is in what recently has come to be its default mode which is basically chockful of scrambled thoughts so the following is just whatever is off the top of my head...

My house is almost empty for the week, with my parents being in KK (Sabah, not the hospital) for a provincial Anglican pastors' retreat thingy and my brother being away on reservist (which makes me shudder as to when my turn may come). Only ones left are my grandmother and Bingo. Nice to have things somewhat more quiet around here for a change - haven't been having enough quiet moments like this since i've been back...

Well bummer, the Tar Heels lost again, just when i thought we were on the upswing - it's complacency i tell you. Consolation however lies in the news that Duke lost too haha. But in any case, i'm quite amazed at how a couple of months over there can leave me now doing what last time i'd consider to be the unimaginable act of checking out the latest NCAA and NBA scores online on a very regular basis. Scary eh. And since i've become a basketball fan (and boy is it weird even just typing that), it stinks having won tickets to games but not being able to use them. At least i've friends there who can use my tics, but as selfless as i could be, i still would love to be able to catch the game...

Checked my frequent flyer miles - it turns out that i've suffered enough on United over the past few years to be eligible for a free round trip on SQ to as far as places like Istanbul, Cape Town, Cairo or Auckland. Probably will not have time to use them before some of them expire in July though, at least not to places that are so far away, so may settle for Manila or somewhere else nice in the region itself, and use the rest of the miles that still are not to expire for a while another time. Who wants to go somewhere before July? Need to find people to travel with...

I was quietly laughing to myself and grinning widely when i read the article in the papers about businesses not being able to play CNY cds without having first to pay loyalties. Apparently depending on the size of the business fees can reach four-figure sums! Hopefully this means that i'll be hearing far less tacky noise this time round...

Saturday saw me fall asleep from 7 till 11:30pm and again from around 1 till 8:30am, methinks due to accumulated lack of sleep over the week and a general tiredness on many levels. There's just been so much going on that i haven't really had time to sit back and take a breather i guess. Thank God for people He's brought round for me to talk about all this stuff with - things are slowly getting better for me partly as a result of this... However let me again emphasize the word "slowly", though i suppose it's on all counts better than not at all... The need for a better grasp of the concept of God's timing comes across so strongly in times like this...

Wish that self-recharging would come as easily as it does for my cellphone...

말씀하시면

주님 말씀하시면 내가 나아가리다

주님 뜻이 아니면 내가 멈춰서리다

나의 가고 서는 것 주님 뜻에 있으니

오 주님 나를 이끄소서

주님 뜻하신 그곳에 나 있기 원합니다

이끄시는대로 순종하며 살리니

연약한 내 영혼 통하여 일하소서

주님 나라와 그 뜻을 위하여

오 주님 나를 이끄소서

ok, apart from the cheap thrill of posting in a foreign language with a foreign script, the lyrics of this song are really meaningful and relevant to me at this point in time - quick summary in English: "Lord, may i follow You in whatever i do"

Lost in translation

I'm starting to question the wisdom in having an extremely top-heavy schedule that sees me on odd weeks having tons of classes on both Mon and Tue, a free day on Wed and only two hours of classes on both Thu and Fri and on even weeks finishing all classes save for my Fri 2-4 by Tue... Already the past two weeks without tutorial slots have already been so tiring for me so am a little skeptical as to whether i'd be able to keep it up once the full load comes in next week. But i guess this is also in part due to the unsettled sleep patterns that i've had since arriving back so hopefully once my sleep schedule settles down things won't be so out of whack for me...

Was glad for some sun today - this is to the best of my recollection the first sunny day that i've experienced here since arriving back. Decided to go for a swim and take advantage of the lack of rain while it lasts. That went well, save for the fact that my hair is so long now that whenever my head comes out of the water my fringe is covering a good portion of my goggles such that i've trouble seeing properly. Good thing that there were not many people in the pool just now or i might have banged into someone else owing to poor visibility...

And btw since everyone's asking and while we're on the topic, YES i intend to cut my hair soon, but i'll probably keep it a little longer than it usually is; and NO, i have not cut it yet owing to me finding not enough time to do so...

Studying in the forum is turning out pretty ok, i must say, the only problem being the occasionally bizarre bazaar noise that annoys me from time to time. Like today i was trying to read my orang utan book when i was continually unsettled by loud "YAAAAAA!!!" shouts coming from the martial arts display below. It was such that for the first time ever i used my earplugs in a venue other than an sbs bus (to escape the vile tv mobile) so as to block out some of that noise. Apart from that minor hiccup, however, think i could get used to hanging over there...

Just got via email the sheet music of both a Japanese and a Korean worship song that i learnt at Urbana - the lyrics (when translated into English) are very meaningful, and the tunes of both are really nice too. Too bad the sheet music does not come with the English translation attached, which makes things difficult cos if i want to introduce the songs anywhere i'd hardly want no one to actually know what they're singing about - that would defeat the whole purpose of singing these in the first place (though i'd say that if one didn't know the words the songs would sound very J/K-pop-ish)...

Back am i

Wow it's been quite a while hasn't it... Well since the last post i've truly been too busy to type much with Urbana and all - as i heard someone say, the Urbana schedule was truly one meant for college students - days that officially started with Breakfast served from 6:45am and ending as late as 12:30am. So think i got an average of five hours or less sleep a night for the duration of my time there, and of course i also didn't have time to update this...

Anyways, i'm very thankful that things worked out such that i was able to go for Urbana, for at the end of the day, it truly was a very enriching experience for me, and i took away a lot from it (in all senses of the word - not only spiritually, but physically as well in terms of the stuff that i bought which i now have to create a miracle in order to fit them into my bag...) There's way too much to put into this one post, and to recall as well, so i'll just provide a couple of snippets here.

It was truly amazing to see 22000 people gathered in one place for Urbana - have never been at such a big thingy of this kind before. It struck me especially during the worship sessions, which were very powerful times. Liked especially when we sang songs in other languages, both at the general sessions and the international students' track. (MZ be warned!) Couldn't help but be reminded of Revelations 7 when that happened... Well, in short the worship sessions were very effective at ministering to me, and i'm pretty sure this went beyond the mere emotional rush that came with it...

Met many great people there too. It's a comforting thought that since this was a Christian convention, everyone is at least sorta nice by default. Yup but even with that the Lord provided opportunities to meet with many other like-minded brothers and sisters in Christ from all over, which was a real swell experience to say the least...

Some of the Singaporeans at the international students' track at Urbana

The many speakers at Urbana were also a very anointed bunch. They gave me a lot to ponder upon in several areas, including my walk with God in general as well as specific areas of ministry too. At the same time, the Lord also provided me with some idea of what He may call me to in the future, yup but still am praying about that, and probably will be for some time to come...

In the midst of Urbana there also were some opportunities to relax a bit. One such opportunity that afforded itself was the visit that some of the S'poreans made to the White Castle just beyond our hotel for lunch. I'd actually already been there before, but since the others wanted to go, and i didn;t mind eating there again, i went along... Somehow after things transpired i decided to share a box of thirty burgers with another S'porean guy (of course, these burgers are small, around half the size of my fist). Just a little heads up, White Castle has just about the greasiest, most gas-inducing food around... So you can imagine how i felt after downing a total of 16 burgers... Needless to say, will probably never eat at White Castle again, and i also wonder why Harold and Kumar decided to go there in the first place...

The crave case (box of thirty small cheeseburgers) that i shared with Kai

Well, after Urbana, took a 14-hour bus ride all the way back to Durham - it actually seemed far shorter than it was - i guess American countryside is far more enjoyable to watch zip by than oil palm and rubber plantations. But anyways, at the end of it, i write this now finally back on the Hill (well, Carrboro, just next door, actually, but close enough). Think it's also pretty neat that my time at NC has both started and ended at this house...

Anyways, these two days here have been/will be spent going around UNC for the last time/meeting up with whoever i know who's around/packing (i'm so gonna be overweight man). Feeling pretty ambivalent about going back, especially with the latest bombshell that my mother just dropped on me when i called back this morning - more on that another time. But in any case, will be trying to have as great a time here with whatever's left...

Dan, thanks for the great recommendation =p mmm...

Pa ra pa pum pum no more...

While all you folk back home are anxiously waiting to check your results i've already gotten them - a couple of days ago in fact - yup guess there's far less red tape to get through before results are made public here than back home - but anyways for once, and since they don't count for anything except for a pretty transcript guess there's no problem with putting them here for once, just for the record...

Course Id	Course Description	Credit Hrs	Grade
HIST475 001	GR BRITAIN 20TH C	3.0	A-
HIST501 001	GENDER OF WELFARE	3.0	A-
HIST584 001	AM CITY 19TH/20TH C	3.0	B
LING202 001	LANGUAGE CHANGE	3.0	A
MUSC211 004	CORE ENSEMBLES	1.0	A
POLI100 006	INTRO TO GOVT IN US	3.0	B

Semester Statistics			Cumulative Statistics
Semester Hours-Earned	16.0		Career Transfer Earned-Hours
Semester Quality-Hours	16.0		Cumulative Earned-Hours	16.0
Semester GPA	3.513		Cumulative Quality-Hours	16.0
			Cumulative Quality-Points	56.20
			Cumulative G.P.A.	3.513

Yuppers, while admittedly i was again hoping for better grades than this, especially after hearing stories of how nus people have come here and gotten their best grades ever, i guess that taking all things into context (grad classes, relative lack of background knowledge, holiday mentality, scary workload etc) there's really a lot to be thankful for innit... Think that somewhere nearing the exams themselves God was telling me to stop worrying about grades per se but just work for the best, and yup by His grace that's what happened, so by the time the exams did approach i was relatively unstressed about them, and in the end things went ok...

What i find ironic about them is that my linguistics grade is the highest of them all, even better than all my hist classes; when the chief reason for taking it was to escape another low-scoring grade for linguistics back home that would pull everything down... The two Bs - well one was in a tough albeit interesting grad class while the other was for a subject where i was at a comparative disadvantage since i'm not American and it was a class on American government after all, so guess i'm fine with them...

What i'm more concerned about now is annoying cors bidding, something i'm a little out of touch with, not having done it for a year now - managed to get three classes pre-allocated, but i dunno if i want to do all of them though (and it felt quite surreal to access ivle after such a long time btw)... Of most concern to me are the annoying breadth classes that i've to take - can't think of anything i'd be remotely interested in, so i guess i'll have to look for the least boring classes yet still potentially at least one where an S/U won't be necessary since i've two S/U options left but three breadths to take - and to do all this while i'm thirteen hours behind and so not in the mood to do so... Ah but think i'm overstating the issue yet again and when this is all said and done all will be fine so...

Now for non-academic issues - for starters i've resolved never to as far as possible never take United Airlines again (save for when i fly home, of course). This is after another long flight delay has been added to my list of bones to pick with them, which already include two other (overnight) flight delays and two instances of lost baggage. This time it only was two hours, but still having to wake up at 5:30am for an 8:45 flight only to have take-off pushed to close to 11am is not pretty at all...

Am glad to be able to spend some time just relaxing here in my cousin's place here south of D.C. After all the busyness of travelling over the past ten days, this is a good change. Granted i could be up north now in Toronto enjoying cooler weather and the higher possiblity of snow, but think that this is a good time to prepare for Urbana ahead too (where again the forecast calls for no snow, but then again being spoken and ministered to by God ranks far more highly than seeing snow rite...) It was a little strange though yesterday when i was at a family Christmas party when my 16-year-old nephew was introducing me as his uncle...

And speaking of Christmas - i've realized that it's not only pesky CNY songs that irritate me to no end - spending hours in the car driving to and from Boston over the two days when the three of us (SJ, Clement n me) were exploring four states in New England and being subject to dozens of radio stations, all of which intersperse their regular programming with Christmas songs, if not dedicate their playlist to such songs and nothing else; has taught me two things - there's only so much of "Feliz Navidad" i can take, and i cannot bear to hear a note more of any of the nine hundred and forty-six or whatever number of versions of "Little Drummer Boy" there are in existence in this world...

Ah, but on that note, annoying Christmas songs aside - have a great Christ-centered Christmas y'all! (There's twelve days rite, so am not being late in wishing this to those back in S'pore...)

Sweet Sunday

A dark and gloomy Sunday afternoon now - forecast calls for perfectly dreary 40-degree showers anytime now. I've actually a term paper to more or less start and finish by this Friday, but already from a few days ago i've felt this peace in my heart (am quite sure it's just peace and not complacency) to just sit back and relax this Sunday, as per what i've always had the conviction to do but have never realized. The speaker at the last IV large group was talking about it somewhat, still working through whatever i remember of her talk through my head, but anyways that served as the final nail in the coffin of my repose today, and hopefully for Sundays to come, as far as possible; since i was thinking about making better use of the Sabbath for a very long time now, instead of losing it in mindless nothingness and work that could be done on other days...

So instead i've decided to use today to do various other thingies like type this, post pics, download music (we've legal song downloading here *whee*) and write farewell notes (hmm sounds a tad morbid). Was actually going to go for a swim today, that has proved to just be the latest of my aborted attempts to do so - i've already pencilled it in to at go at least once before i leave this place - but not sure if anything will come out of that. Maybe i'll go when it's freezing outside, the 85-degree heated pool would be a nice contrast to that...

Yesterday's game was a good experience overall, and an enjoyable one; even if the game itself was rather scrappy and not very electrifying, and i got stuck in the last row of the upper deck (i.e. the nosebleed seats), which afforded a microscopic view of the whole game. 75-63 to us, our lowest-scoring game by far this season. Apparently in the big game on Wednesday (v. the then #1 team, Ohio State - which has been the only home game so far i've not gotten tics to), the Tar Heels put on an electrifying performance to win 98-89, although they were without the #1 freshman in the nation due to a wrist injury (see what a week of bball immersion during Thanksgiving can do to me). And as a result of playing their hearts out in that one, the game i went to was far more subdued - our coach even stood up and tried to rouse the indifferent crowd, he said was only the second time in history he had to do that. Ah well, at least i've at least one more game to go to, and possibly another one just before i leave against my brother's school, so hopefully they'll be far more rested for that one. Add that to hopefully better-located seats (or alternatively, a telescope), and even though our opponent is quite unknown (ever heard of High Point?), maybe that game will be somewhat more thrilling than this one.

It's a looooong way down from here to the action...

This morning i went for another run, my first in around a month. Needless to say, the weather's gotten a lot colder since then - so today for the first time in my life had to wear sweats to run. Felt needed to run in order to clear my head from a lot of stuff as much as to get some exercise (now my mother also said that i've lost weight btw)... Well basically the month off has done its damage, i was struggling through the second lap, but at least managed to get through it - though after that my knees were aching really badly - guess that's a combination of poor technique, cold weather and getting old heh... Well in any case when i'm back in S'pore wringing out buckets from my shirt into the longkang i know i'll miss running in such pleasant, non-sweat-inducing weather...

I just realized [cos (my recently-downloaded) James Taylor's Carolina In My Mind is playing on my laptop now], almost two years after i chose it, that the color of this font is Carolina Blue - sweet =)

And the 1943 song cannot get out of my mind! Though admittedly that's in part cos i downloaded it too =p...

Proffywoodland

You know the feeling of how when that singer/actor that you've admired for as long as you can remember one day whizzes into town, and wow - somehow you get an invite to an intimate meet-the-fans session - imagine the excitement that you must feel...

Well, i've no idea what that must feel like, but over the weekend i had the next best thing (like real) - attending a day-and-a-half-long academic workshop on Family, Work and Welfare (riveting stuff, that) and coming face-to-face with a lot of the people whose academic writings i've been trudging through over the course of this semester for my most terok of classes - it was kinda like a geek's version of a pre-Oscar party perhaps...

Was thinking back to the other occasions when similar occasions have happened - vaguely remember from acjc when the apparently much-esteemed John Sloman of economics textbook fame (btw i never bought, nor in fact even ever laid hands on his book, as far as i can remember, and i still managed to struggle to a B...) came and gave a talk - not that i went though - at that point in time i was already up to my ears in guns and butter and had no appetite for more... Then last year at nus i even shook hands (ah somebody pinch me!) with the author of one of my primary A level history texts...

But this time was certainly the longest such experience ever. Not that i was interested to get these peoples' autographs or anything like that - i can imagine such a moment now: "hi Dr so-and-so, i've been reading many of your articles, but i cannot make any sense of any of them - they do a good job of overriding the effects of caffeine though!" Yes that would win me much approval wouldn't it...

So somehow i made it through the whole workshop - now, it was still a good experience, cos at least now i'm more familiar with the subject matter (although a great portion of what was discussed flew well over the top of my head - bear in mind that i was one of a handful of undergrads in a sea of grad students and academics), and got some idea as to what exactly these people do. There definitely were some characters around - lots of bohemian, earth mother types with flowing robes and heavy chains. Also, one presenter who talks so fast she almost makes Adrian seem to talk like Snuffleupagus in comparison...

Heh well in other news, i took a quick look at the courses available for next sem and their corresponding timetables and almost wanted to cry - Tues 6-8pm and Fri 4-6pm for example are not exactly my choice times for classes (and they shouldn't be anyone's for that matter), and the courses that do feature far better hours also tend to be courses that i've already done - how neat is that... I know i'll really come to miss the spread out but still very reasonable organization of classes here...

Hey so Bushie 43's going to S'pore again eh? After being put through indescribable (not because it's hard to describe, but cos might get into trouble with the higher-ups if i do) hassle the last time he came cos was still in ns then boy am i glad to be here while he's there...

Thankfully my friend David from IV was kind enough to loan me his beloved guit on a semi-permanent basis so i can now get back to growing those left fingertip calluses again - fun.

I did have something more serious to put here but by the time i had time to write this i forgot what it is - so next time maybe...

Later!

Come on babe, we're gonna paint the town...

After two and a half days of intense school stuff once i came back from D.C. i'm off again, this time to the Windy City for fall break...

And once again, accompanying me on my journey is more school stuff, which i can never seem to shale off, for next week...

That being said, i'm really glad for the break whatever the case - even though i'm not quite free from the shackles of school...

One freaky thing is that on the flight back from D.C. on Sunday, i realized that i get a cheap thrill from studying on a plane (hey that's S.O.A.P. - just like Snakes on a Plane!), so i'll probably be doing a bit of that on this trip too...

Yuppers, so that's all from me for now - promise to post the rest of my D.C. pics at the next opportune moment, and to update regarding fall break too, provided i can get online while i'm there...

(And by the way, i've not gotten all looney on ya - the above is the first line of "All That Jazz" from the eponymous musical...)

Wish i could be here for another 525600 minutes...

...cos then i'd still be around to watch this:


it's showing here (yes, on campus - the venue, Memorial Hall, is all of three minutes' walk from my room) for two days, and only 25 days (which is in fact only 36000 minutes) after i fly off. Student tickets (which already have been sold out, by the way) cost all of 10 USD, which, if i remember correctly, is probably about less than 20% of what i paid for my ticket when i watched it at the Kallang Theatre (and the venue here on campus is far better, imho)

I'm not gonna pay,
I'm not gonna pay,
I'm not gonna pay,
for next year's Rent...

It suddenly hit me today that relaxation will have to wait when i'm in the D.C. area to visit relatives over this weekend since i've three midterms on three successive days once i get back - kinda like a final fling before fall break... So looks like the books will have to accompany me after all... *bleah*

'sup

Random guy on my floor: "Yo man, whassup?"

Moi: *soft mumbles of acknowledgement*

The preceeding is basically an exchange that occurs repeatedly, day after day on my floor whenever i bump into one of the guys. Up till now, i have no idea what i'm supposed to say, or even if i'm supposed to say anything at all anytime one of the guys say hi. Is it a rhetorical question, a matter of mere courtesy when they ask me what's up, or do they really want me to respond by saying what's really up with me? Well, until i find out the answer to that question, they're just gonna have to settle with more soft mumbles of acknowledgement (with a smile on my face, of course) from me...

Gosh, there have been several things happening over the past few days, and as usual i shall try and recap the more noteworthy ones.

Just now at one of my recitations (a poli sci class) they were talking in passing about the coup in Thailand, then my neighbor (who in his defence added the disclaimer that he didn't mean to be ignorant) turned and asked me "hey, that's not where you're from, is it?" Well i guess better one speculating whether Singapore's in Thailand than one placing us as the capital of Malaysia, or that all-time favourite, somewhere in China

When i called home a few days back, one of the pieces of news that i received was that my father has in the end decided to abandon his initial plan of extending the COE of his twenty-year-old 1 litre Suzuki Supercarry by another ten years and instead get around to new car shopping, something that he hasn't really done in, well, twenty years... And i can't for the life of me figure out why, but apparently my occasional semi-joking comments that i'd not get a driving license if he did not decide to buy a new car instead played a part in the decision to get a new car after all. This is by far the closest my parents have come to pushing me to get a license, which in part explains why i have not bothered to get one up till now, which does irk me so, especially when i am in a land where i'd be hard-pressed to find any college student, even those half a decade younger than me, who does not drive. So anyways, yes i promise to finally get down to at least taking basic theory once i get back home.

My left fingertips are very sore now after being roped in to play for some IV thingy just now - just a small thingy, nothing big. I think i in part agreed cos i wanted to have an excuse to borrow a guitar and practice something before i forget everything, but the overall experience was a good one for me - am starting to get a better feel of how IV works - it's definitely very different from VCF, that's for sure. It was an acoustic guitar, hence my fingertips, which even now complain as i type this...

And while we're on the topic of IV, i'm most probably going for Urbana now - starting to get quite excited about the whole thing actually - but i guess i've to keep praying about it cos right now think i'm only set on going cos it's Urbana after all, and everyone's telling me that i should go, and it's in a part of the US i've never been to before.

Which brings me to travelling - am getting a bit of a headache planning when to go where and whether to go where else, cos the time's really tight and i do want to go to as many places as possible. Have to take into account so-and-so and this-and-that, it gets rather troublesome, and furthermore i shouldn't be thinking about travelling so much, at least not at the expense of work, after all i'm primarily here for school, and not to gallavant around the country.

Have more or less settled on a church i want to regularly attend for the rest of the time i'm here. As of and including this upcoming Sunday, i would have spent every Sunday in the US so far (and for the record, the magic number is eight) in a different church. Of course, half of those were because i was in different cities, but the rest consisted of all the churches in the Chapel Hill/Durham area that i was considering going to, as well as to which i could hitch a ride to as well. I won't name names of churches cos don't think that would be very nice, but suffice to say over the past two months or so i've seen a broad range of service styles including worship and messages. Some had worship that i greatly enjoyed and was blessed by, but then would have a message that to me was basically a string of anecdotes with a Bible verse thrown in here or there for good measure, while others had a solid, Biblically-centred message, but had worship that resembled a rock concert of some sort more than a time of focus upon God. At the last church i went to however, there was a balance that to me was good - so what's left now i guess is to find a permanent ride there week by week.

But this weekend i'll be out of town, cos am going for another IV event - the new student retreat at this place in the Outer Banks (part of the North Carolina coastline) called Emerald Isle (and it's not Ireland just in case you were wondering that). Should be a good time methinks - well it is on the beach yet again, though with some of the weather that we've been having here recently (today it hit a low of 47 degrees - that's around 8 degrees celcius) i wonder how enjoyable the beach might be, though i'm sure it'll be warmer there than here...

And talking about weekends, and coming back to the idea of travelling, i must say that i've never been more tempted in my university career so far to skip classes than i've been while i'm here (for the record, i've not skipped a single class in NUS so far), not because the classes are boring (which they definitely aren't) but because i want to travel over the weekend, which only begins to make sense in a country of this size if you take a long weekend or else by the time you reach your destination, you may have all of a day to spend there before you have to make the long and arduous journey back to Chapel Hill. This here isn't exactly the best of transportation hubs so getting to and from places is far more confusing and troublesome than it would be in S'pore - it takes like millions of hours (ok, more like six) to go to Charleston, SC; and even further to get to Atlanta, two places that i'd really like to go to especially in the light of my class on American urbanization (think my latest craze is American architecture, so i want to see all the nice old buildings - particularly in Charleston).

So anyway, basically there's a lot going on here now, and i can't keep up with it all... What's rest assured is that i'm having a great time, in spite of all the work and the hiccups that come my way here and there - i wouldn't go as far as to say i've got a beautiful feeling, everything's going my way, oh what a beautiful day (Oklahoma), that wouldn't be the case by a mile, but i'll take what i've been given ya...

Before and After

Before internet access:

I type this once again on ms word, because i’ve just moved in to my room and neither wireless nor LAN connection has been enabled yet…

So far i’ve gotten quite a good impression of the whole place – in the morning my host drove me to the dorm to move my stuff in – i’m sharing a double room with my roommate who also happens to be from NUS, though we didn’t plan for this arrangement one bit… Thankfully by the end of the day we were able to figure out how to configure the placement of the beds to best suit the layout of the room – though i must admit that it looks rather unconventional – it’ll do for now…

After checking in went about the usual settling-in stuff like walking around the place and setting up a bank account – so far things have been pretty hassle free by God’s grace – having my mother around definitely does help because she checks stuff that i always forget…

In the evening some of the UNC people who’ve been to S'pore brought us to Walmart to do some shopping , and then to Applebee’s for dinner (was reminded of Talladega Nights because Applebee’s is pretty prominently mentioned there) –quite good stuff actually- and the portions were quite satisfactory too…

After internet access:

Well thankfully today the internet connection for my laptop, both for LAN as well as wireless came after i brought it to the computer centre for configuration - which took all of five minutes - and methinks that's a big step towards settling down here so yay =)

One thing that's bugging me now is course registration - basically i got all the courses that i had wanted, but unfortunately these are the courses that i put down as my choices for the dummy round ( i.e. not the final list of modules that i mapped with the people at nus). While my 2 UE choices remain the same and hence i don't need to do anything about them - the three slots for my hist modules are allocated to things that i don't really want - of course all's not lost lah- thre's still time and sufficient chance to rectify the situation - and i don't want to agonize over it as well...

One thing that i'm rather pleased with is the campus itself - and on a more specific level, my hall as well... The campus itself is a very nice place - i can't describe how welcome a change it is from the unfriendly dull rectangular-tiled façades of nus - and the weather, while at this time of year still occasionally as hot as in S'pore, with as fierce a sun, is less humid, and hence more condusive to walking from place to place - which is basically what i've been doing so far.

A good alternative would be to obtain a bike by some means or other, as the facilities here for biking - including bike lanes on roads, trails and places to chain them - are tons better than what i am subject to back in S'pore, but the cost of it as well as the security issue (a policeman at a briefing today said that he gets five reports of stolen bikes a day) sort of discourage me from doing so.

What i am very encouraged to do, however, is to go running - brought the necessary stuff, and furthermore there are far more people here who go running as compared to back in nus - and many of these look to be people of my (lack of) calibre, since it's much more of a lifestyle than a fitness thing per se here - which means that even cannot-make-it people go running - which at the end of the day means that i won't feel so self-conscious about running during the day and being seen by anyone and everyone (cos for me at least for now my habit of running at night won't be continued here).

My hall itself - Spencer - is very conveniently located. It's along Franklin Street, which in means understandable to nus peeps, is like fong seng times ten =) In other words, the most happening stuff here, especially at night (i dunno if you want to include the funeral home located along the road in that category =p), is right at my doorstep. It's also next to Coker Arboretum (which is really just a very fancy word for what basically is a park with lots of different kind of plants in it - not to mention Squirrels and many birds like Robins and Cardinals too), as well as the Morehead Planetarium, which i also hear is pretty good... And of course, it's only a short walk to stuff like the dining hall (where you basically get an all-you-can-eat buffet at every sitting - which partially explains my enthusiasm for running), the main libraries, the student store and other stuff =)

One thing though is that many people have not moved in yet, so things will get much more noisy and crowded as each day goes by, both around campus as well as in the hall itself - but generally the people here are really nice so am not too bothered about that...

I must admit that socially speaking it'll take some more time to adjust to life here. Never thought that i'd be missing the company back in S'pore this much (though i'm sure a lot of that has to do with the fact that i've not met too many people here yet - though i definitely don't want to think of it in terms of a friendship vacuum) and at the same time think that it can't be good at all if in the long run while i'm here i am in more contact with the people back in S'pore than with the peoeple here. And this morning as i was doing my qt the Lord was reminding me that for all my feelings of loneliness, what i haven't been doing is taking time to bring this before Him in a time of extended prayer, rather than the usual chop chop affairs that still predominate my prayer life now - and find it hard to change to a more consistent and substantial time of just really seeking Him.

A semi-side note: back at home i was really pampered by having a guitar with me in my room - it made spending time to meditate upon God's word and in prayer that much easier to transition into from everyday affairs - and of course it's also a great way to alleviate boredom - but at least for the former i realise that i can't rely on externalities to absolutely determine the quality of my time spent with God and for the latter - well, there's so much to do here - why should i spend so much time cooped up in my room anyway? Though in any case hope that i can get my hands on one eventually at least from time to time (heard some of my floormates playing one...) to practice or else might forget it all...

Oh, and if any of you want my address and/or local phone number, just in case any of you are headed here before i leave on Jan 4, just drop me a mail and i'll pass it to you - thanks =)

Nope, can't think of a title again...

Today saw a little less slacking on my part, since it was Sunday, so we went to church - the church some of the extended family (who stay almost next door, in typical Asian fashion) of our host go to. It's called People's Church, and though the name of the church may sound a little left-leaning, rest assured there were no tyrannical goofy-looking Pastors that hold absolute control over the church nor a congregation that were goose-stepping while waving flags and pictures of their dear leader around. In fact, there was a very convivial atmosphere there, and i would have felt right at home, if not for the fact that i didn't really think about a dress code save for wearing long pants, only to arrive there and find almost every single member of the male gender there (except for a token child or adolescent, oh and me too) wearing a collared shirt of some kind, even if they were wearing berms. So i spent a good portion of the service scanning around the sanctuary looking for other dress code offenders - hmmm...

The service itself was contemporary but definitely not even bordering the more charismatic jumpy style. The worship itself was done on a very big scale - the team consisted of ten to fifteen people standing in a row across the whole stage à la the "Seasons of Love" scene in Rent, supported by a full choir, all the usual musicians, plus a full orchestra, all except the ten to fifteen people being visible somewhat in the picture below (the ten to fifteen people are not there cos i took this photo after worship - in fact this photo is so badly taken cos i quickly sneaked my camera out, took a snap, and immediately stuffed my camera back in my bag again - the last thing i wanted to do was to draw further attention to the collarless shirt guy...)

In any case, i had a blessed time at the service - though the duration (which like last week's church, was all of one hour and ten minutes) was something that i'm still not used to. The worship and the message were both very evangelical - none of that superficial fluff which sadly does come up now and then in other places... Yup more pictures and details of the church can be found there =======> cos they take forever to upload here, and i also don't want to say the same things twice...

After the service, we went to the mall for the afternoon - i spent much of my time there walking up and down, browsing through the various stores, wondering whether to buy this or that but in the end only buying a couple of small items. Walking along the boys' department at the various department stores, i observed that by implication my size in the US is still that of a boy - since a good portion of the clothes there can fit me (and in fact i have bought such clothes recently, but i refrained this time)

Walking through the mall has all but confirmed in me the fact that i'm starting to sound more and more American. For example when i hold the door for someone and they say "thank you" i no longer respond with "you're welcome" but now with "yerrr wellcum" or something to that effect. And when i accidentally brush against someone it's no longer "sorry" that i utter but rather "sahrry"... And i no longer "queue up" or take the "lift" - now i "join the line" and take the "elevator". Basically, i consciously can take note of whenever i subconsciously speak American. I suppose that it's inevitable in a sense because if i do not converge with the predominant accent, i may not be understood - you can talk about asserting your S'porean identity all you want, but if the folks around you don't understand you, how will you get by? So i have a feeling that by the end of these few months i may sound more and more American and hence become one of those fake-os whom i always frowned upon last time because of their atrociously affected accents...

I had forgotten to mention that the day before yesterday, we got lost driving around downtown Fresno trying to locate the Greyhound station to buy tickets to San Francisco. And it was at night too. I tell you during the more than half an hour driving around, i saw so many 'colourful' sights it disturbed me. (FYI, according to the ever-dependable wikipedia Fresno is the city with the most concentrated level of poverty in the US - so you get the idea of what i saw) That has further got me thinking on these issues and how to react to them as a Christian, specifically in the near future while i am still here (and i hear that some of the neighbourhoods relatively near UNC are of the same pattern as what we have in Fresno)

My host's daughter, who's also my friend from my previous church, is now in Mexico for exchange too - and guess what - her baggage got lost by United Airlines as well - and it hasn't been recovered yet - so that's in total the fourth story i've heard of UA doing so already... Hmm so in the future, should i still fly the friendly skies?

Since much of my time here has been spent slacking and eating, i've been putting on weight - and i haven't even started school yet! This i suppose is part of the reason behind weird thing about me #6... But anyways, looks like i'll really have to find some form of exercise once i get to school...

Tomorrow i take the Greyhound again - this time a much more manageable close-to-five-hour ride to San Francisco, where the flight to school *typing of post interrupted by farny skype call from Daniel n Mei Si plagued by background noise and a poor connection* will be from. Now with those new anti-terror guidelines i can't bring any liquids on board the passenger cabin, which is of little significance to me except that i'll be pestering the flight attendant for water very often. I wonder if people will now look back at that old Clairol Herbal Essences ad with the lady making "Yes, yes!" noises while shampooing her hair in the plane lavatory with nostalgia...

Heard the Matt Redman song again on the radio today - think it's on it's way to becoming one of my favourites - hooray for biblical lyrics =)

You never let go

Hmm first things first i'll be posting all of my photos on the site labelled "US PICS" in the links column over there =======> so do take a look if you want to see more pictorial representations of some of the nonsense i mention here...

I came to the realization today that using facebook was the best way to put my pics online in a way that all can see, since i had already been using it as prompted by some of the UNC peeps. I know that you know that my usual rule is none of this online friendship stuff (which is why i neither have msn nor have friendster), but figured no harm in at least getting an account, though i probably won't be doing anything much with it. And further more it's a really convenient way for me to upload my photos for people to see since you don't need to be a facebook user to view the albums, and there's unlimited space for the pics too...

I was able to come to this realization because today basically i did nothing more than slack at home - nope i didn't even leave te house, which is just as well since here it can get pretty hot (over 100 degrees F), though thankfully without the energy-sapping humidity back in S'pore. This meant more than ample time to just laze around at home (since the lack of a car and driver made going out not a possibility). I even had time in the evening to catch some tennis on espn - the last point of Roger Federer's semifinal victory over Fernando Gonzalez in the Toronto Masters and the whole semifinal match between Jelena Jankovic and Serena Williams in the LA JPMorgan Chase Open which the former won (both outcomes being to my delight). As much as i follow tennis, my lack of cable back home means that this match was probably only the third or fourth full tennis match that i've ever watched in my life - and it was quite fun to do so...

Hmm yup Fresno so far has been pretty boring (btw there's a suburb of Portland called Boring, and it's right next to another suburb called Happy Valley - go figure...) but i guess i expected that lah- i was here just last year anyway so i've seen pretty much most of the little that there is to see... Anyway, it's good to slack a little now and then...

Here we're staying with some former church friends, who happen to also be Filipinos - and needless to say from being plunged into the deep end with Cantonese now Tagalog is the language that i have to tackle - i can roughly understand what is going on in a conversation, and be able to respond to questions asked me in Tagalog, but every single reply i give is in English, and more often than not i'm still left fairly clueless... I tell you, there's not a day that does not go by here when i do not wish that my parents had just heck care about Mandarin and gone ahead and taught me Tagalog last time - either way i'd still do badly for my so-called 'mother tongue' anyway...

Well, i'll finally be flying to school on Tuesday, after almost two weeks of pure slacking - am both excited yet apprehensive at the same time over what to expect. I'm thankful for these two weeks as a good means of transition so to speak between the busyness of the supposed holiday period in S'pore and the different pace of studying life at UNC. The words of this song (which i've probably at some point in time heard in S'pore but have since heard twice, and remembered over here) speak to me and are very apt at this point in time. To read them however you'll have to go here since the site itself says that the lyrics are not to be reproduced without permission, and you know what a guai kia i am =p Well, enjoy and reflect...