They were airing "The Queen" on central just now - it so happened that it was also the last movie i watched in an actual movie theater - that was in Jan last year. So i figure that i'm not much of a movie person eh...
ah well, anyways, there won't be much over here in the near future, at least not until by God's grace a sufficient amount of thesis stuff is churned out for the first draft (due 3 Mar)...
So until then, wish me well...
Monday, February 25, 2008
Thursday, February 07, 2008
clash
Yup it's time for my oh-so-favorite holiday of the year again. Perhaps to subconsciously commemorate the occasion, i started playing the few chinese songs that exist on my home pc (and btw doesn't Stefanie Sun look so auntie in those canned food ads at bus stops?), something that i've not done since 18 Aug 2007 (it says so on the itunes thingy) and only after starting to type this post did i realize the link.
Well, i'm glad at least that this year's cny is probably as minimally disruptive as they get - we had dinner last night, then there's lunch today, and that pretty much marks the end of any family observances of the holiday. There's also another dinner tonight, but at least i'm spared from having to do any visiting this year, something that i perhaps was nonchalant about when i was younger, but ever since i got older, and $ got less and less, the sole redeeming quality of it all has gotten less and less effective, and in the past five or more years or so have gotten real sian of visiting. May even head back to school to do work tomorrow, in part to avoid having to be dragged down to visit more random people, but also cos after i left my room yesterday and was on the bus back, i realized that i had both left behind perishable food in my room and left the windows wide open.
Unfortunately though, attempts to avoid cny music by staying away from supermarkets and the like unless absolutely necessary have not met with much success, and to make matters worse, my dear presidential neighbor has some cny activities planned and hence now i hear more cny music blasted from a chinese orchestra (so just as well i'm playing more acceptable chinese music to drown that out...). Hmm, yet another reason to go back to school tomorrow - and in any case i've lots of work to do...
This is the first year that i can remember where i've tried to actively do something in the light of Lent season. Food wise, however, i've found it hard to find something to abstain from - at first i was thinking along the lines of cny delicacies like pineapple tarts/love letters etc, but then i realized i don't really like to eat those in any case, so it would be no kick. I already don't eat seafood so no go there, and i was already cutting down on fish both cos it's often too fishy and cos of my concerns over overfishing and the difficulty here (compared to say, in the States) to find out what varieties have in fact been overfished (and hence, might as well avoid all fish). Then, i was thinking along the lines of beef as well, but then again my choice to avoid it would have more to do with the inefficiency of cows as a food source since the calories they consume in their grain feed is far less than the calories their meat produces (i.e. people go hungry at the expense of wasted calories), and less so for religious reasons. And of course cows fart/belch methane too. But in any case i just remembered that i did in fact eat beef at yesterday's dinner so it can't count either heh... So i dunno, chocs? But i don't exactly crave those. Ice cream? But i don't get to eat it often anyways. Alcohol? But i drink like once a year if not less...
So while i still dunno about the food bit, i've decided to avoid youtube for this period, since i do lose at least four productive hours every month or so to browsing random nonsense thingies. Interesting though, how the RC Church here wrote to the Vatican for permission to find an alternative date for Ash Wednesday fasting observation in the light of it coinciding with typical reunion dinner night - raises questions on if and when it is right to compromise Christian practices (or even to label it a compromise) for the sake of culture...
Ah crap there's the Dook game on now and i can't catch it - they're not even airing it on espn here - what a travesty...
Well, i'm glad at least that this year's cny is probably as minimally disruptive as they get - we had dinner last night, then there's lunch today, and that pretty much marks the end of any family observances of the holiday. There's also another dinner tonight, but at least i'm spared from having to do any visiting this year, something that i perhaps was nonchalant about when i was younger, but ever since i got older, and $ got less and less, the sole redeeming quality of it all has gotten less and less effective, and in the past five or more years or so have gotten real sian of visiting. May even head back to school to do work tomorrow, in part to avoid having to be dragged down to visit more random people, but also cos after i left my room yesterday and was on the bus back, i realized that i had both left behind perishable food in my room and left the windows wide open.
Unfortunately though, attempts to avoid cny music by staying away from supermarkets and the like unless absolutely necessary have not met with much success, and to make matters worse, my dear presidential neighbor has some cny activities planned and hence now i hear more cny music blasted from a chinese orchestra (so just as well i'm playing more acceptable chinese music to drown that out...). Hmm, yet another reason to go back to school tomorrow - and in any case i've lots of work to do...
This is the first year that i can remember where i've tried to actively do something in the light of Lent season. Food wise, however, i've found it hard to find something to abstain from - at first i was thinking along the lines of cny delicacies like pineapple tarts/love letters etc, but then i realized i don't really like to eat those in any case, so it would be no kick. I already don't eat seafood so no go there, and i was already cutting down on fish both cos it's often too fishy and cos of my concerns over overfishing and the difficulty here (compared to say, in the States) to find out what varieties have in fact been overfished (and hence, might as well avoid all fish). Then, i was thinking along the lines of beef as well, but then again my choice to avoid it would have more to do with the inefficiency of cows as a food source since the calories they consume in their grain feed is far less than the calories their meat produces (i.e. people go hungry at the expense of wasted calories), and less so for religious reasons. And of course cows fart/belch methane too. But in any case i just remembered that i did in fact eat beef at yesterday's dinner so it can't count either heh... So i dunno, chocs? But i don't exactly crave those. Ice cream? But i don't get to eat it often anyways. Alcohol? But i drink like once a year if not less...
So while i still dunno about the food bit, i've decided to avoid youtube for this period, since i do lose at least four productive hours every month or so to browsing random nonsense thingies. Interesting though, how the RC Church here wrote to the Vatican for permission to find an alternative date for Ash Wednesday fasting observation in the light of it coinciding with typical reunion dinner night - raises questions on if and when it is right to compromise Christian practices (or even to label it a compromise) for the sake of culture...
Ah crap there's the Dook game on now and i can't catch it - they're not even airing it on espn here - what a travesty...
Friday, February 01, 2008
work = mad
Graduation requirements are such that i've had to take class after class of so-called breadth modules - i can envision the official rationale behind it is that nus can then go on to produce well-rounded young men and women who will be well-equipped to face the unique challenges of today's society or something along these lines, only cheesier.
Well at class the other day the lecturer noted that F = ma - fair enough, i remember that from O level physics. Then came the next equation: work = Fd. And of course, being the diligent well-rounded young man that i am, i substituted formula one into formula two - voilà: the only thing i still remember from that day's class: work = mad. Go figure.
Wonder why each semester seems to pass by faster and faster - that three weeks of school are already over is just insane - and it's now just under two months till ht is due [and so far the (lack of) progress report sees me having written no more than a tentative, pre-edited and horribly overly-long lit review (but i've probably read more books than the whole rest of last year already)] and exactly a month after that when i take my first and last papers of the sem and of my entire undergrad career. That's quite hard to fathom now, but judging from the pace that things have been coming this way in no time it should be easier to grasp - just hope that my writing can keep pace with it! But seriously (yes, seriously =p) i'm quite happy with the amount of stuff that somehow has been done so far - it's a real reminder that the Lord is carrying me through it...
So cny is coming up, and as per usual i'm looking forward to it as much as i am to the latest update on Britney Spears' struggles with sobriety, child custody and the like. Guess the big silver lining i can draw out of it is the extra few days free to get some work done (i wanna say "but who am i kidding?" but in faith, i'm sure i'll get quite a bit done =)
And hooray for trips post-exams (dunno what they might be yet, but i shall celebrate in advance too)!!!
Finally managed to catch me some tennis the other day since channel 5 decided to air the Aussie Open Finals - only managed to catch the men's one, but anyways i guess my eardrums needed a rest and subjecting myself to Maria Sharapova's shrieks wouldn't help. As normally happens when i end up following a match, the one i didn't want to win won, and by my analysis it was more of Tsonga losing the match than Djokovic winning it (not that he wasn't good though), but ah heck, at least it was real quality tennis. My father, of course, theorized that Tsonga would have played better sans the ear stud - i'm not too sure about that one =p
And speaking of tennis, who's game for this wed 10-12pm at SRC?
Was reading the ST when they talked about the monetary awards presentation to the SEA Games gold medal winners - i couldn't help noticing the many foreign-born people among them - then they were also talking about how player A from the table tennis team just overtook player B in the world rankings, and how she's the highest non-Chinese player in the rankings. Then i thought to myself, but wait a minute, she is Chinese, as is player B, and i reckon just about close to every single player in the world's top ten.
Kudos to the Chinese (no matter what country they represent) for being so talented at ping pong. Heck, if i remember correctly, all but one member from our male and female national team's players are actually from China. And honestly speaking, i don't think that under these circumstances, Singapore deserves any more credit than being the best recruiter of Chinese talent that would otherwise be barely able to represent China on the highest world stages cos there are too many better players already in China. So to that end, i don't really care for any of the foreign sporting talent's achievements for S'pore, as in i welcome these foreign-born S'poreans, and they definitely deserve their accolades and all, but the SSC shouldn't go around trumping their achievements as S'porean achievements, assigning the S'porean label to them just like that. To me, it just cheapens the S'poreanness of the whole thing.
Was also reading about the upcoming Uni Town thingy nus is putting up, and how it was put in some special 'green' category which meant that it would be given priority access to limited building resources. Same goes, if i'm not wrong, to the casino (let's call a spade a spade please) developments. Fair enough - what i think stinks is that they never did the same thing for the new KTP Hospital, something that is arguably more important. After all, the Uni Town is only being pushed to be completed so fast because S'pore is bidding for the Youth Olympic Games, yet another marquee event that would put S'pore up there with the Londons and New Yorks as a (and i'm so sick of this term) "World Class City". Healthcare for a rapidly ageing (and expanding - though lky took the target down by a whole 1 million people) population takes a back seat, even when there's been a space crunch at the govt hospitals, especially in the C class wards. Just as well that something is being done to regulate the demand side by introducing means testing, but how about the supply side by speeding up the construction of the hospital (and original plans in fact had in mind a general hospital in Jurong by 2004 or so - what happened to that?). Once again the everyday S'porean whose voice gets lost amidst the progress-minded and pragmatic in our political landscape has gotten played out...
Well at class the other day the lecturer noted that F = ma - fair enough, i remember that from O level physics. Then came the next equation: work = Fd. And of course, being the diligent well-rounded young man that i am, i substituted formula one into formula two - voilà: the only thing i still remember from that day's class: work = mad. Go figure.
Wonder why each semester seems to pass by faster and faster - that three weeks of school are already over is just insane - and it's now just under two months till ht is due [and so far the (lack of) progress report sees me having written no more than a tentative, pre-edited and horribly overly-long lit review (but i've probably read more books than the whole rest of last year already)] and exactly a month after that when i take my first and last papers of the sem and of my entire undergrad career. That's quite hard to fathom now, but judging from the pace that things have been coming this way in no time it should be easier to grasp - just hope that my writing can keep pace with it! But seriously (yes, seriously =p) i'm quite happy with the amount of stuff that somehow has been done so far - it's a real reminder that the Lord is carrying me through it...
So cny is coming up, and as per usual i'm looking forward to it as much as i am to the latest update on Britney Spears' struggles with sobriety, child custody and the like. Guess the big silver lining i can draw out of it is the extra few days free to get some work done (i wanna say "but who am i kidding?" but in faith, i'm sure i'll get quite a bit done =)
And hooray for trips post-exams (dunno what they might be yet, but i shall celebrate in advance too)!!!
Finally managed to catch me some tennis the other day since channel 5 decided to air the Aussie Open Finals - only managed to catch the men's one, but anyways i guess my eardrums needed a rest and subjecting myself to Maria Sharapova's shrieks wouldn't help. As normally happens when i end up following a match, the one i didn't want to win won, and by my analysis it was more of Tsonga losing the match than Djokovic winning it (not that he wasn't good though), but ah heck, at least it was real quality tennis. My father, of course, theorized that Tsonga would have played better sans the ear stud - i'm not too sure about that one =p
And speaking of tennis, who's game for this wed 10-12pm at SRC?
Was reading the ST when they talked about the monetary awards presentation to the SEA Games gold medal winners - i couldn't help noticing the many foreign-born people among them - then they were also talking about how player A from the table tennis team just overtook player B in the world rankings, and how she's the highest non-Chinese player in the rankings. Then i thought to myself, but wait a minute, she is Chinese, as is player B, and i reckon just about close to every single player in the world's top ten.
Kudos to the Chinese (no matter what country they represent) for being so talented at ping pong. Heck, if i remember correctly, all but one member from our male and female national team's players are actually from China. And honestly speaking, i don't think that under these circumstances, Singapore deserves any more credit than being the best recruiter of Chinese talent that would otherwise be barely able to represent China on the highest world stages cos there are too many better players already in China. So to that end, i don't really care for any of the foreign sporting talent's achievements for S'pore, as in i welcome these foreign-born S'poreans, and they definitely deserve their accolades and all, but the SSC shouldn't go around trumping their achievements as S'porean achievements, assigning the S'porean label to them just like that. To me, it just cheapens the S'poreanness of the whole thing.
Was also reading about the upcoming Uni Town thingy nus is putting up, and how it was put in some special 'green' category which meant that it would be given priority access to limited building resources. Same goes, if i'm not wrong, to the casino (let's call a spade a spade please) developments. Fair enough - what i think stinks is that they never did the same thing for the new KTP Hospital, something that is arguably more important. After all, the Uni Town is only being pushed to be completed so fast because S'pore is bidding for the Youth Olympic Games, yet another marquee event that would put S'pore up there with the Londons and New Yorks as a (and i'm so sick of this term) "World Class City". Healthcare for a rapidly ageing (and expanding - though lky took the target down by a whole 1 million people) population takes a back seat, even when there's been a space crunch at the govt hospitals, especially in the C class wards. Just as well that something is being done to regulate the demand side by introducing means testing, but how about the supply side by speeding up the construction of the hospital (and original plans in fact had in mind a general hospital in Jurong by 2004 or so - what happened to that?). Once again the everyday S'porean whose voice gets lost amidst the progress-minded and pragmatic in our political landscape has gotten played out...
Friday, January 25, 2008
hard at work - or as close as possible to that...
Aided in no small part by finally being hit by the fact that the final draft of the ht is due in just over two months from now, and a useful jolt to get cracking during my recent ht consultation, i'd have to say that i don't recall being as hardworking as i've been in the past two weeks ever since probably the first ever sem here (i.e. before i started getting real involved in cf stuff - you can draw whatever connections you'd like, they're probably not true anyways), yes the fabled sem of a string of As stained by one B- for HY1101E of all things...
I'm not exactly the most enthusiastic of readers, but owing to the aforementioned prep i've had to plunge headfirst into book after book for lit review purposes, at the rate of close to one a day in fact. Yes, a book a day, a feat last accomplished when i read through the book of Jude, with 3 and 2 John before that. And if we don't count the Bible, then we're looking at Bookworm books here. Yuppers, you see where i am going here? So in short, i don't really do books, which makes the close-to-a-book-a-day thingy that much more miraculous, by God's grace really...
Yup and thankfully, i'm starting to really like what i'm (supposed to have been) writing about. It hits home quite a bit - to the end that i actually felt a bit emotional when i was reading in one book about the forced eviction of elderly folk from a low-cost residential hotel which some of them had frequented for as long as 60 years to make way for relentless corporate America - real yucks, that was. Anyways, it makes the writing of these 10000-12000 words (including footnotes - aargh!!!) less of a chore. That being said, i'd much rather be writing the acknowledgements page hehe...
Well anyways, today after consultation i went down to the library to borrow more books to (aargh!) read (side note: i'm now holding 12 books - a personal record) and when i pulled out one of them from the shelf, i took a major step back when i saw the cover photo - suffice to say it's not a book i'd be parading around with the front cover facing outwards when i walk, and i'll probably hide it behind another book when i read it too - ask me if you want to see what's on the cover - so paiseh man...
While thankfully distractions have been less of an issue for me in the past week especially, i did succumb to some worthless youtube watching - for some reason i remembered that American Gladiators is being relaunched - one of the must-see shows for me last time in primary school - i remember it was Gladiators at 4pm and then WWF at 5pm on Channel 5. But anyways i wanted to see what it's like now - so i did - for two whole worthless hours. I know to my young eyes it already was bordering on tacky when i saw it on TV all those years ago, but now the new season has definitely outdone itself - see it for yourself - my goodness - some of the gladiators do so amuse me.
Nevertheless, i still remember when i saw it on tv and i was like "oh i can do that". But then i tried some of those things in army and i was sorta persuaded otherwise. Now it's become even more intriguing though cos for some of the events, instead of a mattress to cushion their fall, there's a big pool of water - and they've to swim under a lake of fire (i kid you not) in the final event as well. Quite fun.
Hmm anyways it would be quite interesting to see what a Singapore Gladiators might be like - off the top of my head i'm thinking of gladiator names like lau lee, ah meng, pai kia, MDA senior management...
No Djoke, the Fed got beat...
I'm not exactly the most enthusiastic of readers, but owing to the aforementioned prep i've had to plunge headfirst into book after book for lit review purposes, at the rate of close to one a day in fact. Yes, a book a day, a feat last accomplished when i read through the book of Jude, with 3 and 2 John before that. And if we don't count the Bible, then we're looking at Bookworm books here. Yuppers, you see where i am going here? So in short, i don't really do books, which makes the close-to-a-book-a-day thingy that much more miraculous, by God's grace really...
Yup and thankfully, i'm starting to really like what i'm (supposed to have been) writing about. It hits home quite a bit - to the end that i actually felt a bit emotional when i was reading in one book about the forced eviction of elderly folk from a low-cost residential hotel which some of them had frequented for as long as 60 years to make way for relentless corporate America - real yucks, that was. Anyways, it makes the writing of these 10000-12000 words (including footnotes - aargh!!!) less of a chore. That being said, i'd much rather be writing the acknowledgements page hehe...
Well anyways, today after consultation i went down to the library to borrow more books to (aargh!) read (side note: i'm now holding 12 books - a personal record) and when i pulled out one of them from the shelf, i took a major step back when i saw the cover photo - suffice to say it's not a book i'd be parading around with the front cover facing outwards when i walk, and i'll probably hide it behind another book when i read it too - ask me if you want to see what's on the cover - so paiseh man...
While thankfully distractions have been less of an issue for me in the past week especially, i did succumb to some worthless youtube watching - for some reason i remembered that American Gladiators is being relaunched - one of the must-see shows for me last time in primary school - i remember it was Gladiators at 4pm and then WWF at 5pm on Channel 5. But anyways i wanted to see what it's like now - so i did - for two whole worthless hours. I know to my young eyes it already was bordering on tacky when i saw it on TV all those years ago, but now the new season has definitely outdone itself - see it for yourself - my goodness - some of the gladiators do so amuse me.
Nevertheless, i still remember when i saw it on tv and i was like "oh i can do that". But then i tried some of those things in army and i was sorta persuaded otherwise. Now it's become even more intriguing though cos for some of the events, instead of a mattress to cushion their fall, there's a big pool of water - and they've to swim under a lake of fire (i kid you not) in the final event as well. Quite fun.
Hmm anyways it would be quite interesting to see what a Singapore Gladiators might be like - off the top of my head i'm thinking of gladiator names like lau lee, ah meng, pai kia, MDA senior management...
No Djoke, the Fed got beat...
Friday, January 18, 2008
self-control
This morning after hy class in the morning, which by the way easily takes the cake for hy class with the most CFers/people i know taking it), i had to go over to science for a breadth class, which in contrast, takes the cake for biggest class taken where i know almost no one.
Since i'm not taking this class with anyone, once i got to the lt i found myself an empty seat and sat down (duh). Then this guy seated two seats to the left (to the left) of me asked sheepishly if i could move down one seat to the right (to the right) as it was reserved. At that point i was already a bit flustered from the overwhelming attendance of the previous class, so while i complied with his request i couldn't help but remark to him that if you want to reserve seats you can at least try and make them actually look like they are reserved.
Then, his dear friend came by and after a short conversation with him informed me that now the whole row was reserved and so asked if i could move somewhere else. I was trying to exercise some self-control so i spared her the irritated eye-roll and sarcastic reply and so instead just more or less repeated what i had told her friend about making the seats at least look reserved if she wanted to do so. So i then moved to the row immediately behind.
By this time i already was quite pissed and to make matters worse the girl started talking with her hitherto phantom friends who finally decided to shed their invisibility cloaks and sit down at the row i had earlier been forcibly evicted from. I was not annoyed so much at the talking per se but more at her annoying voice. If i were into meditation, by that time i would probably have been in the lotus pose, floating high in the sky by that time in an attempt to channel my anger into less violent actions.
So, just when i thought the worst was over, two of her dear friends. not five minutes into the lecture proper, said their abrupt goodbyes and left the lt, leaving two of the seats in the row now empty. I was appalled to say the least - the pissed teacher in me would have tapped on the shoulder of the girl, demanded to have her parents' number, and then called and scolded them for not teaching their daughter proper courtesy (and of course scolded the annoying-voice girl too - who by the way at the end of lecture was asking her other friends in a super-whiny voice "will you miss me?" repreatedly - in retrospect i'm glad i didn't decide to give her my honest answer right there and then). But well that would not have been any better methinks, so instead i've decided to just channel all of my pent-up negativity into this post... I just hope though that i don't kena such things again or i may just blow my top...
In more positive news, thankfully things regarding ht are now much clearer after consultation and i'm less inclined to predict total disaster for this sem. Have a lot of reading to do though, which i'm looking forward to as much as i am to hearing "dong dong dong qiang" the next time i step into Cold Storage...
Since i'm not taking this class with anyone, once i got to the lt i found myself an empty seat and sat down (duh). Then this guy seated two seats to the left (to the left) of me asked sheepishly if i could move down one seat to the right (to the right) as it was reserved. At that point i was already a bit flustered from the overwhelming attendance of the previous class, so while i complied with his request i couldn't help but remark to him that if you want to reserve seats you can at least try and make them actually look like they are reserved.
Then, his dear friend came by and after a short conversation with him informed me that now the whole row was reserved and so asked if i could move somewhere else. I was trying to exercise some self-control so i spared her the irritated eye-roll and sarcastic reply and so instead just more or less repeated what i had told her friend about making the seats at least look reserved if she wanted to do so. So i then moved to the row immediately behind.
By this time i already was quite pissed and to make matters worse the girl started talking with her hitherto phantom friends who finally decided to shed their invisibility cloaks and sit down at the row i had earlier been forcibly evicted from. I was not annoyed so much at the talking per se but more at her annoying voice. If i were into meditation, by that time i would probably have been in the lotus pose, floating high in the sky by that time in an attempt to channel my anger into less violent actions.
So, just when i thought the worst was over, two of her dear friends. not five minutes into the lecture proper, said their abrupt goodbyes and left the lt, leaving two of the seats in the row now empty. I was appalled to say the least - the pissed teacher in me would have tapped on the shoulder of the girl, demanded to have her parents' number, and then called and scolded them for not teaching their daughter proper courtesy (and of course scolded the annoying-voice girl too - who by the way at the end of lecture was asking her other friends in a super-whiny voice "will you miss me?" repreatedly - in retrospect i'm glad i didn't decide to give her my honest answer right there and then). But well that would not have been any better methinks, so instead i've decided to just channel all of my pent-up negativity into this post... I just hope though that i don't kena such things again or i may just blow my top...
In more positive news, thankfully things regarding ht are now much clearer after consultation and i'm less inclined to predict total disaster for this sem. Have a lot of reading to do though, which i'm looking forward to as much as i am to hearing "dong dong dong qiang" the next time i step into Cold Storage...
Monday, January 14, 2008
last(ish)
So school has started again - and it's the last semester, so to that end today was the last first day of school i'll ever have (well, at nus at least - there are many more to come actually...), the first of a whole host of lasts at nus (since i'm one for such nonsense thingies) - last first lecture, last mid-sem break, last having to deal with the wretched cors etc...
Moving into pgp again went about without any hitches thankfully - think things would be far more of a hassle for me if i had to travel to and fro everyday [of course, i've only a three day week (which i thought was pretty good until i saw some other people's scheds but nvm) but i'd be in school on the free days anyways, or risk totally wasting away the hours at home]. I can only imagine how screwed up things may be next (academic) year at nie, but we'll get this over and done first eh...
Of course now that school has started, there's all the stuff i've been putting off reading staring me in the face, and today i finally got down to looking at them - thankfully when push came to shove stuff managed to get done, and to that end, i managed to plow through two of the initial nine books that i've gotten from the lib. Which makes for (only) seven more to go... Plus innumerable newspaper articles... Bleah. Holiday!
Anyways, went for a sec 4 class gathering the other day - the first one i've been to since i was still in JC methinks - so hadn't seen some of the guys for a real long time - reminded me of how much i really appreciate my time in barker, something that i've sorta forgotten recently. One thing that i was especially (pleasantly) surprised about was that we actually started off dinner by saying grace, something that as my classmate Weiliang pointed out later, we'd never have imagined would happen looking at the class those close to ten (oh gosh has it been that long already?) years ago. It's great to see how the Lord has been working in the lives of many of my classmates since then (eh, and i guess myself included heh =p)
Yay for the Australian Open... And how 'bout them Tar Heels too =)
Oh, and check this out - cool stuff =p
Moving into pgp again went about without any hitches thankfully - think things would be far more of a hassle for me if i had to travel to and fro everyday [of course, i've only a three day week (which i thought was pretty good until i saw some other people's scheds but nvm) but i'd be in school on the free days anyways, or risk totally wasting away the hours at home]. I can only imagine how screwed up things may be next (academic) year at nie, but we'll get this over and done first eh...
Of course now that school has started, there's all the stuff i've been putting off reading staring me in the face, and today i finally got down to looking at them - thankfully when push came to shove stuff managed to get done, and to that end, i managed to plow through two of the initial nine books that i've gotten from the lib. Which makes for (only) seven more to go... Plus innumerable newspaper articles... Bleah. Holiday!
Anyways, went for a sec 4 class gathering the other day - the first one i've been to since i was still in JC methinks - so hadn't seen some of the guys for a real long time - reminded me of how much i really appreciate my time in barker, something that i've sorta forgotten recently. One thing that i was especially (pleasantly) surprised about was that we actually started off dinner by saying grace, something that as my classmate Weiliang pointed out later, we'd never have imagined would happen looking at the class those close to ten (oh gosh has it been that long already?) years ago. It's great to see how the Lord has been working in the lives of many of my classmates since then (eh, and i guess myself included heh =p)
Yay for the Australian Open... And how 'bout them Tar Heels too =)
Oh, and check this out - cool stuff =p
Sunday, January 06, 2008
525,600 or some odd minutes ago...
you may know i'm one for remembering random stuff and to that end one such random piece of stuff is that it was exactly a year ago (yup, and almost to the minute too, in fact) that i arrived back here from exchange. One year since the end of one of the best times i've spent in my close-to-quarter-century (eek! - and i say that both cos of the age and cos Bingo just made a prolonged gagging sound which made me think he was barfing - false alarm thankfully) of life so far.
Hmm my last couple of days really don't seem too long ago when i think of it - the time spent at Urbana and the valuable lessons learnt from there, the 14-hour bus ride back to Chapel Hill from St. Louis whilst suffering the unpleasant after-effects of eating 16 White Castle hamburgers in two sittings within a five or so hour period (kinda like how Bingo probably feels now), the last minute picture-taking and what not on the Hill itself, then the looong flight back here, featuring the lady in front of me during the Chicago-HK leg of the flight surprised to see me taking a flight alone cos she thought i was all of 13 years old (i kid you not). And since coming back boy has it been one heck of a ride eh...
Ah well - memories are meant to be cherished and all, but i guess not to be obsessed over - though personally speaking i can't see how the next semester or even year ahead could match up to the five months in total spent there - we'll see how things go nevertheless... [And anyways, while the USD continues to perform as masterfully as it has as of late, hopefully a trip back looms in the near future (or at least before it strengthens again) - so i guess, it's until then =)]
Hmm my last couple of days really don't seem too long ago when i think of it - the time spent at Urbana and the valuable lessons learnt from there, the 14-hour bus ride back to Chapel Hill from St. Louis whilst suffering the unpleasant after-effects of eating 16 White Castle hamburgers in two sittings within a five or so hour period (kinda like how Bingo probably feels now), the last minute picture-taking and what not on the Hill itself, then the looong flight back here, featuring the lady in front of me during the Chicago-HK leg of the flight surprised to see me taking a flight alone cos she thought i was all of 13 years old (i kid you not). And since coming back boy has it been one heck of a ride eh...
Ah well - memories are meant to be cherished and all, but i guess not to be obsessed over - though personally speaking i can't see how the next semester or even year ahead could match up to the five months in total spent there - we'll see how things go nevertheless... [And anyways, while the USD continues to perform as masterfully as it has as of late, hopefully a trip back looms in the near future (or at least before it strengthens again) - so i guess, it's until then =)]
Wednesday, January 02, 2008
(new) journey to the east
I wasn't too keen on making the mopping up of the product of Bingo's bout of diarrhoea be the highlight of the first day of the new year, and the weather was accomodating enough and i had time enough to cycle down to ecp (um ok actually i've like almost all of my supposed initial ht readings left to do) and then explore part of the new eastern S'pore park connector thingy that has recently opened up - went up to Changi Village and back again just to have a look see...
The interesting thing for me is that this new connector runs parallel to my old usual cycling route, which is basically along the road hugging the perimeter fence of Changi Airport. While on the one hand this new route is much safer (where one runs far less a risk of kena langga by a speeding car), better lit and even has strategically-located shelters every km or so; it somehow strikes me as too sanitized in a way, perhaps making things too easy - it feels like one has accomplished something when using the old route and successfully making one's way to Changi Village and back, but now any average cyclist could make the journey as long as he/she has enough patience + energy to do so. And i guess that's why i've my reservations about the new route - there are too many people traveling between ecp and Changi Village now (granted it was new year's day today) - the fan of solitude that i am now has one less quiet place to retreat to... But i guess this also opens up safer possibilities for future night cycling expeditions so it's not all bad...
And while we're talking about cycling - today i encountered far too many people who are practically strolling hand-in-hand on the cycling path, making cyclists like me swerve constantly from side to side. How inconsiderate - i'd half a mind to stop and scold them there and then but ah i guess that wouldn't be very nice - for now i settle for giving annoyed glares, which of course doesn't really work cos my annoyed glares don't get seen by them since when i give them either their back is to me or my back is to them... However, i draw the line when it comes to little children on training bikes who happily work way across the bike lanes blissfully unaware of the annoyed cyclists trying to avoid banging into them. Of course, it's not really their fault, they are children after all (that doesn't mean i've had a change of heart and like children now) but their parents ought to do more... To make me a bit more satisfied however i try to screech my brakes as loudly as possible whenever one of these annoying children cross my path, so as to alert their parents and hopefully milk at least a slight chide of their children from them - eh dunno if that's mean, but boy does it feel good to do that :)
The interesting thing for me is that this new connector runs parallel to my old usual cycling route, which is basically along the road hugging the perimeter fence of Changi Airport. While on the one hand this new route is much safer (where one runs far less a risk of kena langga by a speeding car), better lit and even has strategically-located shelters every km or so; it somehow strikes me as too sanitized in a way, perhaps making things too easy - it feels like one has accomplished something when using the old route and successfully making one's way to Changi Village and back, but now any average cyclist could make the journey as long as he/she has enough patience + energy to do so. And i guess that's why i've my reservations about the new route - there are too many people traveling between ecp and Changi Village now (granted it was new year's day today) - the fan of solitude that i am now has one less quiet place to retreat to... But i guess this also opens up safer possibilities for future night cycling expeditions so it's not all bad...
And while we're talking about cycling - today i encountered far too many people who are practically strolling hand-in-hand on the cycling path, making cyclists like me swerve constantly from side to side. How inconsiderate - i'd half a mind to stop and scold them there and then but ah i guess that wouldn't be very nice - for now i settle for giving annoyed glares, which of course doesn't really work cos my annoyed glares don't get seen by them since when i give them either their back is to me or my back is to them... However, i draw the line when it comes to little children on training bikes who happily work way across the bike lanes blissfully unaware of the annoyed cyclists trying to avoid banging into them. Of course, it's not really their fault, they are children after all (that doesn't mean i've had a change of heart and like children now) but their parents ought to do more... To make me a bit more satisfied however i try to screech my brakes as loudly as possible whenever one of these annoying children cross my path, so as to alert their parents and hopefully milk at least a slight chide of their children from them - eh dunno if that's mean, but boy does it feel good to do that :)
Saturday, December 29, 2007
Whither the Weather
Some of you may have heard me complain ad libitum about the (imho) overly-warm and humid weather in S'pore and my penchant for cooler climes (which is one reason why i like to holiday in faraway atas places where possible, as well as partly why global climate change vexes me so much and hence why i'm quite environmentally conscious, but that's another story). Anyways last year around this time i was on the last leg of my time in the States - over the holidays after exams i went to places like Boston and St. Louis. And it so happened that in all these places they were experiencing above-average temperatures - fair enough. So i didn't get to experience snow and what not, hardly the end of the world.
Now that i've cable though, and hence watch CNN/Headline News in lieu of Channelnewsasia (cos imho, the latter sucks and i really could not care any less for mediacrap), i've been observing the weather patterns in North America quite a fair bit - and lo and behold, places which i'd visited last year in the Midwest and New England have already experienced crippling snowstorms, stuff strikingly absent when i was there. Not that i'd have liked to be there during such frigid conditions, but it still seems to reinforce the conclusion that i've arrived at, which is that the mercury always seems to head upwards whenever i'm in town. Apart from this prime example, i also recall last year when there was quite a bit of snow in Chicago just the week before i arrived there, which of course had all disappeared by the time i got there, and which reappeared just after i flew back to Chapel Hill. Even when i went back to the Philippines earlier this year, my cousin-in-law told me that there was hail the morning of the day i arrived (of course, i only arrived at night). And there are more examples where those came from... Sigh - how to ever do stuff like skiing like that (and i don't count snow city as a legitimate example)?
CORS bidding is just around the corner, and i'm as indecisive as ever. Experience obviously doesn't breed ease of action in this case... It doesn't help that i never got around to doing the pre-allocation this time round cos i was occupied with other stuff, and so it totally slipped my mind. I'm as fussy as ever when it comes to choosing classes, even though i've only three to choose in total, and i've already decided on one of them... Anyone else is shopping around for a good s/u-able (and hopefully non-examinable) breadth class?
Managed to go down to Esplanade to watch ACJC Choir caroling the other day - got to meet some of the people from my batch as well which was good... Miss those days quite a bit (well ok, maybe only parts of it) - i could still remember a good deal of my parts from the songs, especially since they've by and large remained the same even after seven years.
Yesterday's PRC camp, by God's grace went well - i think that was the only truly sunny day we've had in the whole of this month (and to that end i now have a painful reminder that i musn't forget to apply sunscreen on the back of my neck...), and thankfully no one got injured or anything like that. Once again, just like the prc camp i was at three years ago, i'm pretty sure that i spoke more Mandarin the whole of yesterday than i have in the rest of the year put together. And i was reminded why i'm so reticent about ever taking a holiday in China/HK/Taiwan etc - language frustrations would just drive me bonkers...
I totally concur with what mr brown posted about taxi drivers. Government affiliations aside, i think that it's just not right that basically no matter how bad the situation gets for the drivers, the cab companies basically are hardly the worse for wear, since regardless of how much (or how little) the drivers earn in a day, they still have to pay a fixed rental to the company. Talk about being out of touch. This latest fare increase basically affects the demand for taxi rides, at the expense of the drivers, whereas the companies themselves definitely feel less pain. It's situations like this that make me more sympathetic towards a proper labor movement in terms of unions and what not (and please NTUC so doesn't count). Of course, this has many messy drawbacks, but still nevertheless the drivers deserve to have it better than they do now (and yup, i'm speaking up for them even though they have caused me many an angry moment when i'm cycling).
Now that i've cable though, and hence watch CNN/Headline News in lieu of Channelnewsasia (cos imho, the latter sucks and i really could not care any less for mediacrap), i've been observing the weather patterns in North America quite a fair bit - and lo and behold, places which i'd visited last year in the Midwest and New England have already experienced crippling snowstorms, stuff strikingly absent when i was there. Not that i'd have liked to be there during such frigid conditions, but it still seems to reinforce the conclusion that i've arrived at, which is that the mercury always seems to head upwards whenever i'm in town. Apart from this prime example, i also recall last year when there was quite a bit of snow in Chicago just the week before i arrived there, which of course had all disappeared by the time i got there, and which reappeared just after i flew back to Chapel Hill. Even when i went back to the Philippines earlier this year, my cousin-in-law told me that there was hail the morning of the day i arrived (of course, i only arrived at night). And there are more examples where those came from... Sigh - how to ever do stuff like skiing like that (and i don't count snow city as a legitimate example)?
CORS bidding is just around the corner, and i'm as indecisive as ever. Experience obviously doesn't breed ease of action in this case... It doesn't help that i never got around to doing the pre-allocation this time round cos i was occupied with other stuff, and so it totally slipped my mind. I'm as fussy as ever when it comes to choosing classes, even though i've only three to choose in total, and i've already decided on one of them... Anyone else is shopping around for a good s/u-able (and hopefully non-examinable) breadth class?
Managed to go down to Esplanade to watch ACJC Choir caroling the other day - got to meet some of the people from my batch as well which was good... Miss those days quite a bit (well ok, maybe only parts of it) - i could still remember a good deal of my parts from the songs, especially since they've by and large remained the same even after seven years.
Yesterday's PRC camp, by God's grace went well - i think that was the only truly sunny day we've had in the whole of this month (and to that end i now have a painful reminder that i musn't forget to apply sunscreen on the back of my neck...), and thankfully no one got injured or anything like that. Once again, just like the prc camp i was at three years ago, i'm pretty sure that i spoke more Mandarin the whole of yesterday than i have in the rest of the year put together. And i was reminded why i'm so reticent about ever taking a holiday in China/HK/Taiwan etc - language frustrations would just drive me bonkers...
I totally concur with what mr brown posted about taxi drivers. Government affiliations aside, i think that it's just not right that basically no matter how bad the situation gets for the drivers, the cab companies basically are hardly the worse for wear, since regardless of how much (or how little) the drivers earn in a day, they still have to pay a fixed rental to the company. Talk about being out of touch. This latest fare increase basically affects the demand for taxi rides, at the expense of the drivers, whereas the companies themselves definitely feel less pain. It's situations like this that make me more sympathetic towards a proper labor movement in terms of unions and what not (and please NTUC so doesn't count). Of course, this has many messy drawbacks, but still nevertheless the drivers deserve to have it better than they do now (and yup, i'm speaking up for them even though they have caused me many an angry moment when i'm cycling).
Thursday, December 27, 2007
happy (hectic) holidays
Well the holidays this time have not exactly been the most relaxing of moments for me as there have been a lot of things going on over the past month or so - allow me to randomly recall and recap...
AnnTIC this time round was a bit of a change from previous ones i've been to - with stuff like exco time and all that, plus the fact that i came a day late and was rather disoriented at first. Thankfully the message of the theme talks especially was something that i hold rather close to my heart, and so those at least really rang a bell with me. I guess i'm the sort who may not be complacent in terms of knowledge, but rather complacent in terms of action, if you catch my drift; so the message was definitely a timely and relevant one. Glad to have gotten to know quite a few new people too. And if time, inspiration, and creative energy permits, i'll get cracking on that song sooner or later. One regret though is that i never managed to get down to playing any games at all, after having looked so forward to that initially...
Have also had to get started on prep for ht, and to that end i felt like i had accomplished so much when i went down to school on at least three separate occasions for consultation and book-borrowing. That however has proven to be the more-than-easy part. The actual reading of all of these resources is another matter altogether, and i've barely begun with anything where that is concerned. Can't seem to get out of the lazy, holiday mood and get down to actual work (schoolwork of this nature during holiday time is a rather alien concept to me). Hmm, but come to think of it, there's a big load of stuff to read. So think i shall have to find my way back to school and do my research there - at least the environment there is somewhat more conducive (i hope).
Christmas this year was the first in three years i've spent here - there was MEET camp two years ago and then was at my cousin's place in MD last year. Nothing special though - went for the Christmas Eve midnight service, first time in donkey years that i've been for the service at SAC. And i never realized that having the right family connections could secure one a reserved seat in the front row (all the better to fall asleep in front of the preacher in). So i was seated right in front of the lectern, and in the middle of methinks Joy to the World i looked down and lo and behold i spotted a little gray mouse peeking its head out from its base (and let me clarify, it was a little cute gray mouse, kinda like the kind people keep as pets, not a vile gigantic brown rat). Yup so that was the highlight of my Christmas i guess. Fun, eh?
I was admittedly rather anxious about this past sem's results, particularly because i've been straddling the fine line between classes of hons. And well, after this sem, basically nothing has changed, which i'm thankful for, that at least things have more or less maintained rather than regressed. What intrigued me a bit was the specific grades for some of the classes - i trust our dear friend Mr Bell Curve had a rather heady role to play in that one...
Yesterday was floorball time - something that i've missed over the past one and a half years or so - was good - finally got some exercise this month (and coming right after all the Christmas pigging-out, the timing could not have been any better). And as proof of the exercise i now have the expected body aches and orh cehs (sp?) on both knees, the latter thanks to my unintended expertise at sliding all over the floor while lunging for the ball. Ah well, it was fun, so all these are worth it.
Parents are away now at some clergy retreat thingy (it's supposed to be a family retreat, but almost all the children who go are like primary school age and under, and the last thing i want to do is to babysit annoying children), so i've had to do my part in bringing Bingo down to answer nature's call - i must say, it's hardly the most fun thing in the world to scoop up his waste matter from under him and pop it into the bin. Ah heck, it's only for two days... On a related note, it's sad to see how he's aged exponentially ever since we moved over here (he's 14 btw) - now he hobbles about as if he had just gotten neutered, and can't pee the usual male dog way of lifting one leg anymore (cos think he'd lose his balance), and constantly slips on our marble floor, and has to prop himself on his snout before lying down or else risk bashing his head on the floor. Poor thing.
AnnTIC this time round was a bit of a change from previous ones i've been to - with stuff like exco time and all that, plus the fact that i came a day late and was rather disoriented at first. Thankfully the message of the theme talks especially was something that i hold rather close to my heart, and so those at least really rang a bell with me. I guess i'm the sort who may not be complacent in terms of knowledge, but rather complacent in terms of action, if you catch my drift; so the message was definitely a timely and relevant one. Glad to have gotten to know quite a few new people too. And if time, inspiration, and creative energy permits, i'll get cracking on that song sooner or later. One regret though is that i never managed to get down to playing any games at all, after having looked so forward to that initially...
Have also had to get started on prep for ht, and to that end i felt like i had accomplished so much when i went down to school on at least three separate occasions for consultation and book-borrowing. That however has proven to be the more-than-easy part. The actual reading of all of these resources is another matter altogether, and i've barely begun with anything where that is concerned. Can't seem to get out of the lazy, holiday mood and get down to actual work (schoolwork of this nature during holiday time is a rather alien concept to me). Hmm, but come to think of it, there's a big load of stuff to read. So think i shall have to find my way back to school and do my research there - at least the environment there is somewhat more conducive (i hope).
Christmas this year was the first in three years i've spent here - there was MEET camp two years ago and then was at my cousin's place in MD last year. Nothing special though - went for the Christmas Eve midnight service, first time in donkey years that i've been for the service at SAC. And i never realized that having the right family connections could secure one a reserved seat in the front row (all the better to fall asleep in front of the preacher in). So i was seated right in front of the lectern, and in the middle of methinks Joy to the World i looked down and lo and behold i spotted a little gray mouse peeking its head out from its base (and let me clarify, it was a little cute gray mouse, kinda like the kind people keep as pets, not a vile gigantic brown rat). Yup so that was the highlight of my Christmas i guess. Fun, eh?
I was admittedly rather anxious about this past sem's results, particularly because i've been straddling the fine line between classes of hons. And well, after this sem, basically nothing has changed, which i'm thankful for, that at least things have more or less maintained rather than regressed. What intrigued me a bit was the specific grades for some of the classes - i trust our dear friend Mr Bell Curve had a rather heady role to play in that one...
Yesterday was floorball time - something that i've missed over the past one and a half years or so - was good - finally got some exercise this month (and coming right after all the Christmas pigging-out, the timing could not have been any better). And as proof of the exercise i now have the expected body aches and orh cehs (sp?) on both knees, the latter thanks to my unintended expertise at sliding all over the floor while lunging for the ball. Ah well, it was fun, so all these are worth it.
Parents are away now at some clergy retreat thingy (it's supposed to be a family retreat, but almost all the children who go are like primary school age and under, and the last thing i want to do is to babysit annoying children), so i've had to do my part in bringing Bingo down to answer nature's call - i must say, it's hardly the most fun thing in the world to scoop up his waste matter from under him and pop it into the bin. Ah heck, it's only for two days... On a related note, it's sad to see how he's aged exponentially ever since we moved over here (he's 14 btw) - now he hobbles about as if he had just gotten neutered, and can't pee the usual male dog way of lifting one leg anymore (cos think he'd lose his balance), and constantly slips on our marble floor, and has to prop himself on his snout before lying down or else risk bashing his head on the floor. Poor thing.
Friday, December 07, 2007
(temporarily) paved paradise
Don't it always seem to go
That you don't know what you've got
Till its gone
These words, albeit taken completely out of context, sum up pretty much my thoughts regarding what's been going on over the past month. As much as the little idiosyncrasies and recurring questions and what not may have caused distancing on my part over the past, i don't know, ten or more years, the swift and sudden progression of events culminating in early this morning bring about a strange sense of longing for just a quick fresh experience of being at the receiving end of some of these actions that would otherwise draw me further away. I'm glad for the minimal suffering though, and trust that all that was expressed during the past couple of days especially was heard - after all, hearing and touch are the last to go they say... There's an endless succession of brighter days in a better place ahead, and the prayer now is that one day in that place there will be a joyous reunion - if it is in God's will, then for everyone, bar none. And until then, while there will always be regrets and struggling to know what to feel and all, the important thing is i guess to keep looking ahead, and more importantly looking upwards...
That you don't know what you've got
Till its gone
These words, albeit taken completely out of context, sum up pretty much my thoughts regarding what's been going on over the past month. As much as the little idiosyncrasies and recurring questions and what not may have caused distancing on my part over the past, i don't know, ten or more years, the swift and sudden progression of events culminating in early this morning bring about a strange sense of longing for just a quick fresh experience of being at the receiving end of some of these actions that would otherwise draw me further away. I'm glad for the minimal suffering though, and trust that all that was expressed during the past couple of days especially was heard - after all, hearing and touch are the last to go they say... There's an endless succession of brighter days in a better place ahead, and the prayer now is that one day in that place there will be a joyous reunion - if it is in God's will, then for everyone, bar none. And until then, while there will always be regrets and struggling to know what to feel and all, the important thing is i guess to keep looking ahead, and more importantly looking upwards...
Thursday, December 06, 2007
Wednesday in the Park with the Birds
Exams ended for me yesterday (or technically, the day before yesterday) - not much to say about it really save for that there appeared to be some kind of consensus among the class that the compulsory question was quite one kind, for anything else we'll just wait for the boxing day present from nus...
I'm still in pgp though, at least up till friday, cos i've amassed quite a bit of stuff over here over the past two months or so and i'll need transport to bring it all back, and the folks have been away as of late - which has complicated overall happenings at home but anyways...
Yup so to that end i was looking forward to today, cos, armed with my zoo card that costs a bomb but i've not used ever, i was sorta intending to take a random trip up to Mandai and perhaps cover both the zoo and the night safari at one shot.
As they always say, however, the best laid plans of man can go wrong, and to that end it just had to be today when the rain came and lasted practically throughout the day up till early evening. I wouldn't actually have minded still going there, just that i think the animals would probably be less keen on the constant rainfall than i am.
So instead, and so as not to totally waste the day just lounging in my room, i decided to take a looong walk over to Kent Ridge Park, just cos i've not been there in a while - and so off i went on a methinks 45 minute trek in the pouring rain (i made an exception to my general lack of enthusiasm for umbrellas even in the pouring rain simply cos it was such a long walk) and then got there and just soaked it all in (the scenery, as well as the water into my sandals and berms). One thing that cracked me up was some of the anti-poaching/fishing signs that i encountered there:
While there, i chanced upon an info board that listed some of the bird species that one might encounter in the park - but as it was pouring unceasingly at the time i didn't think that i'd actually be able to spot any of them. One bird listed though, did catch my attention, the White-crested Laughingthrush, which inspite of my semi-familiarity with local bird species, i'd not paid much attention to before.
So then on my way back i decided to use the science park route, and just as i was going down the steps towards there, i heard this noisy group of birds in the trees above me (they must have been unsettled by my sudden appearance cos i was like one of ten or less people in the whole park, as far as i could count) - it was a call unfamiliar to me - and it sounded strangely like laughter. Then i looked up and after a couple of seconds, i spotted them - a group of at least six or seven White-crested Laughingthrushes =) Unfotunately i did not get a shot of them, but i must say, as geeky as it sounds, that spotting them made my whole rain-soaked trek to the park more than worth it.
I dunno if these were clouds but if they were, they sure were low...
I'm still in pgp though, at least up till friday, cos i've amassed quite a bit of stuff over here over the past two months or so and i'll need transport to bring it all back, and the folks have been away as of late - which has complicated overall happenings at home but anyways...
Yup so to that end i was looking forward to today, cos, armed with my zoo card that costs a bomb but i've not used ever, i was sorta intending to take a random trip up to Mandai and perhaps cover both the zoo and the night safari at one shot.
As they always say, however, the best laid plans of man can go wrong, and to that end it just had to be today when the rain came and lasted practically throughout the day up till early evening. I wouldn't actually have minded still going there, just that i think the animals would probably be less keen on the constant rainfall than i am.
So instead, and so as not to totally waste the day just lounging in my room, i decided to take a looong walk over to Kent Ridge Park, just cos i've not been there in a while - and so off i went on a methinks 45 minute trek in the pouring rain (i made an exception to my general lack of enthusiasm for umbrellas even in the pouring rain simply cos it was such a long walk) and then got there and just soaked it all in (the scenery, as well as the water into my sandals and berms). One thing that cracked me up was some of the anti-poaching/fishing signs that i encountered there:
While there, i chanced upon an info board that listed some of the bird species that one might encounter in the park - but as it was pouring unceasingly at the time i didn't think that i'd actually be able to spot any of them. One bird listed though, did catch my attention, the White-crested Laughingthrush, which inspite of my semi-familiarity with local bird species, i'd not paid much attention to before.
So then on my way back i decided to use the science park route, and just as i was going down the steps towards there, i heard this noisy group of birds in the trees above me (they must have been unsettled by my sudden appearance cos i was like one of ten or less people in the whole park, as far as i could count) - it was a call unfamiliar to me - and it sounded strangely like laughter. Then i looked up and after a couple of seconds, i spotted them - a group of at least six or seven White-crested Laughingthrushes =) Unfotunately i did not get a shot of them, but i must say, as geeky as it sounds, that spotting them made my whole rain-soaked trek to the park more than worth it.
I dunno if these were clouds but if they were, they sure were low...Wednesday, December 05, 2007
From north to south, they're as blonde as they come
good to see that she knows when to laugh at herself though haha...
(at least now that exams are over i can waste time over at youtube et al without feeling guilty)
Saturday, December 01, 2007
Score one for the Preble's meadow jumping mouse
My downstairs neighbor is an intriguing fella - i've never met him before but i've heard his music very frequently (throughout the day and night) and at very loud volumes to boot - it's an eclectic mix of repeated mandarin pop (kinda brings me back to my army days when my ears were constantly at the mercy of my bunk mates, for one particular CD each from Jay Chou and Stefanie Sun were all that they ever would play for two and a half months - no surprise there as to why i can sing to you at least the choruses of virtually every song on those two albums) and tacky Disney showtunes. The chao mugger in me is inclined to stick my head outside and yell at him to turn the volume down, but oh well, the chao mugger in me is miniscule to say the least. Oh, and did i mention he sings/whistles along to the songs as well?
Ah but when life gives you lemons, make lemonade, eh? This is the perfect opportunity for more random ramblings...
I was doing my usual morning browse through the internet news, when i came across this report on endengered species rulings in the US. Apparently there was this official in the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Services (and surprise surprise, she's a Bush appointee) who was using her influence to unduly pressure scientists into altering their findings that would have otherwise given certain species protection under the Endangered Species Act. Earlier on, she also had used her position to influence the delisting of a species of fish from the Act - and it so happens that the fish was endemic to the area where she so happened to have an 80-acre farm. Disgusting, if you ask me. Well, she has since resigned, thankfully. I especially like what this environmentalist was quoted as saying in the wake of that: "Julie MacDonald's reign of terror over the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is finally over." And also what a congressman said about her actions being an example of "this administration's penchant for torpedoing science." Haha... Hopefully once Bush finally leaves someone will take over who will get down to signing and ratifying Kyoto once and for all.
And while we're on the subject of Kyoto, another reason i'm glad that Labour has won in Australia is that unlike Howard, Rudd's firmly committed to the need to be a good steward of the environment and to that end is going to ratify Kyoto as well - not a moment too soon either, given the latest report that puts the Aussies as the worst carbon emitters per capita. It's nice also that his cabinet features a specific ministry, apart from environment, dedicated to water and climate change - he's obviously sending a message that he's serious about it.
And speaking of the Aussie PM i was doing more random wiki-ing and found out that his annual salary is $330,000 (i presume it's Aussie dollars, but anyway nowsaday they're almost on par =p). The American President's salary is justifiably somewhat higher: US$471,000 (enough for peanuts, i suppose)... Fair enough. S$3.1 million? You gotta be kidding me man...
i was thinking back again about the latest happenings in the Philippine political scene again, and then i remembered that i did in fact get stranded there once beforehand due to a coup attempt - it was quite a serious one too - lasted for about a week, and the Presidential Palace itself was hit. But then even then (1989), it was really nothing to get overly worried about. Or at least that's what i perceived from how people were reacting to it over there (but then again, i was all of six years old at the time). Maybe it's some of that been there, done that feeling that has been passed on to me, such that i don't really see all the nonsense that's going on there as much more than just that - annoying nonsense...
eh, and i guess i should make the disclaimer that any views expressed here are strictly my own personal views =p
Hmm should try and do some work eh...
Ah but when life gives you lemons, make lemonade, eh? This is the perfect opportunity for more random ramblings...
I was doing my usual morning browse through the internet news, when i came across this report on endengered species rulings in the US. Apparently there was this official in the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Services (and surprise surprise, she's a Bush appointee) who was using her influence to unduly pressure scientists into altering their findings that would have otherwise given certain species protection under the Endangered Species Act. Earlier on, she also had used her position to influence the delisting of a species of fish from the Act - and it so happens that the fish was endemic to the area where she so happened to have an 80-acre farm. Disgusting, if you ask me. Well, she has since resigned, thankfully. I especially like what this environmentalist was quoted as saying in the wake of that: "Julie MacDonald's reign of terror over the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is finally over." And also what a congressman said about her actions being an example of "this administration's penchant for torpedoing science." Haha... Hopefully once Bush finally leaves someone will take over who will get down to signing and ratifying Kyoto once and for all.
And while we're on the subject of Kyoto, another reason i'm glad that Labour has won in Australia is that unlike Howard, Rudd's firmly committed to the need to be a good steward of the environment and to that end is going to ratify Kyoto as well - not a moment too soon either, given the latest report that puts the Aussies as the worst carbon emitters per capita. It's nice also that his cabinet features a specific ministry, apart from environment, dedicated to water and climate change - he's obviously sending a message that he's serious about it.
And speaking of the Aussie PM i was doing more random wiki-ing and found out that his annual salary is $330,000 (i presume it's Aussie dollars, but anyway nowsaday they're almost on par =p). The American President's salary is justifiably somewhat higher: US$471,000 (enough for peanuts, i suppose)... Fair enough. S$3.1 million? You gotta be kidding me man...
i was thinking back again about the latest happenings in the Philippine political scene again, and then i remembered that i did in fact get stranded there once beforehand due to a coup attempt - it was quite a serious one too - lasted for about a week, and the Presidential Palace itself was hit. But then even then (1989), it was really nothing to get overly worried about. Or at least that's what i perceived from how people were reacting to it over there (but then again, i was all of six years old at the time). Maybe it's some of that been there, done that feeling that has been passed on to me, such that i don't really see all the nonsense that's going on there as much more than just that - annoying nonsense...
eh, and i guess i should make the disclaimer that any views expressed here are strictly my own personal views =p
Hmm should try and do some work eh...
Thursday, November 29, 2007
misquoting Esther
Anyways, i sure did spend a lot of time following this - having cable proved a boon cos i watched the election returns on the Australia Network - in some ways it was more exciting than election night here, just cos there actually was a competition going on... Am pleasantly pleased with the result - no surprise i'm not a fan of Howard anyways. Oh the perils of associating oneself with Bush...
I also was sad to hear of the deaths of the five national dragonboaters. It's so hard to believe that something like that could happen. At the same time though, i wonder how many people actually know that there was a sixth person killed during the same event as well, just that he happened to be a Cambodian. The local coverage of that was limited to one paragraph in the Straits Times, to the best of my knowledge (and forgive me if i'm wrong here) Although definitely five Singaporeans ought to receive the bulk of the local coverage, at the end of the day should we really forget that there was someone else who also died? Kinda reminds me of what happened in the wake of the Virginia Tech Incident - one country's own tragedy (and i'm not taking anything away from this) blots out everything else.
And lastly, ah so yet another coup thingy in the Philippines - sigh will these never end? I know that typical S'pore crisis mentality means that no one here would be too interested in going there now (or at least their parents would not be), but oh well, that's just part of life over there really... I'd personally still go there in a heartbeat, and anyways, if i perish, i perish :p
Thursday, November 22, 2007
oh the pain...
i really feel for these people if they don't know how unintentionally hilarious their little attempt to be trendy or whatever you want to call it actually is. But if they didn't writhe in pain when negotiating some of the lyrics of this piece (or when they saw the finished product for themselves) then well maybe they deserve it... And whoever conceptualized and produced this in the first place, well - i also dunno what to say... In comparison, it makes even the PCK SAR-Vivor Rap seem like a grammy contender...
anyways, with our mass media in the hands of creative geniuses like these, no wonder why sometimes i'm not too big on staying cooped up here...
Friday, November 16, 2007
if anyone ever wants a good cry...
(and is not in the mood for any ridiculous, ott Northeast Asian soaps)
this is just the thing...
A Little Fall of Rain = A Huge Flow of Tears
(or is it just me?)
side note: ah i'll eternally regret falling asleep watching Les Mis on Broadway (even though i didn't miss this part - just the boring part in the first quarter of the show)
aside: dear downstairs neighbor, please turn down your atrociously loud and repeating Chinese music say about a hundred notches k...
edit: whoops, it got taken down =p - anyways for the record, it was Lea Salonga (Éponine) and Michael Ball (Marius) singing A Little Fall of Rain from the Les Misérables Tenth Anniversary Concert - great stuff.
this is just the thing...
A Little Fall of Rain = A Huge Flow of Tears
(or is it just me?)
side note: ah i'll eternally regret falling asleep watching Les Mis on Broadway (even though i didn't miss this part - just the boring part in the first quarter of the show)
aside: dear downstairs neighbor, please turn down your atrociously loud and repeating Chinese music say about a hundred notches k...
edit: whoops, it got taken down =p - anyways for the record, it was Lea Salonga (Éponine) and Michael Ball (Marius) singing A Little Fall of Rain from the Les Misérables Tenth Anniversary Concert - great stuff.
Wednesday, November 14, 2007
physically un-proficient, mentally even less so...
Can't seem to get away from noisy and therefore distracting people around keeping me from getting real productive work done while in the engin com lab so...
Just got back from ippt - was the first time i've taken it when i failed - i'm not too annoyed that i failed (and anyway, as i've only recently come to realize, being a full-time student precludes having to sign up for rt even though i failed), but it's the way in which i failed which is so frustrating for me.
Managed to finish the four static stations with little trouble (as in just barely cleared all of them save for shuttle run, even though to my slight surprise i almost couldn't to enough sit-ups). So i needed to get a 12:20 to pass and an 11:00 to get $100. I was not too convinced that i could do 11min though it was vaguely possible, but 12:20 was definitely no prob. Or at least so i thought...
Cos of my number tag (091) i was placed in the first detail (i.e. all those whose numbers ended in '1'). And when the clock started, (and only cos think everyone else in my detail was older and therefore didn't need to run faster) i immediately went to the front and hence led the way. Things were good until say the 500 meter mark - btw this was the first time i was running in Maju Camp - and one thing about the route here is that, unlike Bedok, where you've to do 6 laps of the track; here you do three laps of a road route. Now, i actually prefer the road route, cos it feels shorter than the same distance run on the track. The problem was that since i was not familiar with the route, and i was in the lead, there was no one for me to follow - so i happily turned right instead of left (cos they had said follow the yellow line and there was a yellow line turning right as well - the line left was actually broken since it was across the junction and when one is running at such a speed one usually is less-than-observant). I went on in the wrong direction for at least half a minute before turning around and realizing that no one was behind me - i knew i couldn't have been that fast, so it was only then when i realized that i salah. Think whoever was behind me must have been more aware of what was going on and so went the correct way. So i ran across a portion of the parade square to rejoin the actual route - but the whole think took out so much from me both physically and mentally that by the end of it all, i stood no chance... Must have lost methinks at least near a minute owing to my error based on the extra distance alone, and prob more due to an inability to recover from that.
Well, what are the odds that things came together in such a way that i just happened to be the fool leading the way? Thankfully i'm more or less beyond being too worked up about this (though admittedly it's mainly cos there are no adverse consequences to failing). I also can't help but see the irony - running is basically the only prep that i did for ippt (and i did quite a fair bit of that), and in the end it was the very thing that did me in. Heh.
Just got back from ippt - was the first time i've taken it when i failed - i'm not too annoyed that i failed (and anyway, as i've only recently come to realize, being a full-time student precludes having to sign up for rt even though i failed), but it's the way in which i failed which is so frustrating for me.
Managed to finish the four static stations with little trouble (as in just barely cleared all of them save for shuttle run, even though to my slight surprise i almost couldn't to enough sit-ups). So i needed to get a 12:20 to pass and an 11:00 to get $100. I was not too convinced that i could do 11min though it was vaguely possible, but 12:20 was definitely no prob. Or at least so i thought...
Cos of my number tag (091) i was placed in the first detail (i.e. all those whose numbers ended in '1'). And when the clock started, (and only cos think everyone else in my detail was older and therefore didn't need to run faster) i immediately went to the front and hence led the way. Things were good until say the 500 meter mark - btw this was the first time i was running in Maju Camp - and one thing about the route here is that, unlike Bedok, where you've to do 6 laps of the track; here you do three laps of a road route. Now, i actually prefer the road route, cos it feels shorter than the same distance run on the track. The problem was that since i was not familiar with the route, and i was in the lead, there was no one for me to follow - so i happily turned right instead of left (cos they had said follow the yellow line and there was a yellow line turning right as well - the line left was actually broken since it was across the junction and when one is running at such a speed one usually is less-than-observant). I went on in the wrong direction for at least half a minute before turning around and realizing that no one was behind me - i knew i couldn't have been that fast, so it was only then when i realized that i salah. Think whoever was behind me must have been more aware of what was going on and so went the correct way. So i ran across a portion of the parade square to rejoin the actual route - but the whole think took out so much from me both physically and mentally that by the end of it all, i stood no chance... Must have lost methinks at least near a minute owing to my error based on the extra distance alone, and prob more due to an inability to recover from that.
Well, what are the odds that things came together in such a way that i just happened to be the fool leading the way? Thankfully i'm more or less beyond being too worked up about this (though admittedly it's mainly cos there are no adverse consequences to failing). I also can't help but see the irony - running is basically the only prep that i did for ippt (and i did quite a fair bit of that), and in the end it was the very thing that did me in. Heh.
Saturday, November 10, 2007
as if
The other day i randomly came across the news that the latest Times Higher Education Supplement World University Rankings (you know, the one where NUS was methinks two years or so ago ranked #16) were out. And then last night, after piecing together my thoughts for the think piece, i went over to the library and finally read the newspaper for the first time this week (excluding Sunday) and came across the article that had a headline with "NUS drops from 19 to 33 in World University Rankings" or something to that effect. After a big laugh (silently, as i was in the library), i read the subtitle to the headline which of course had to attribute the big drop to a change in ranking criteria, which saw student-to-faculty ratio counting more. Then i forget who was defending NUS, talking about how it doesn't have the kinda endowments that other schools have to get lots of faculty, and how it has to take in more students blah blah... Oh well, whatever, criteria schmiteria...
So i just came across the rankings online, and here are some excerpts of it:
Seriously, even though NUS dropped 14 places, it's still better than the likes of Beida, UCLA and U of Toronto???!!!
Ack and egads! UNC is joint 151st? I wonder if they mean just UNC at Chapel Hill or every single member of the UNC system as a whole - i'm inclined to think the latter since they didn't clarify it on the ranking, unlike say California or Texas, but oh well... Any ranking that had NUS at #16 before is inherently suspect in my books... I remember reading that report a couple of years ago, and i nearly gagging in response to that. Kinda like how i felt when i heard that the batch after me at ACJC had put it into the top 5 JCs (where it apparently still is today?)...
Oh well, i'm not anti-NUS or anything, just that i can't imagine how it's that good of a school as the rankings suggest it is. I'm thankful to be here all the same, though something tells me that if they included students' own impressions of their own schools as part of the criteria, NUS would be even further down there... And of course, i don't want to do my part to further perpetuate S'pore's obsession with rankings [e.g. corruption-free, living standards, ministerial pay (heh maybe that's not one they'd want to broadcast eh)]. Of course there are other rankings like press freedom, human rights and democracy that are far less harped upon, but well, i'll leave that off the record...
So i just came across the rankings online, and here are some excerpts of it:
Seriously, even though NUS dropped 14 places, it's still better than the likes of Beida, UCLA and U of Toronto???!!!
Ack and egads! UNC is joint 151st? I wonder if they mean just UNC at Chapel Hill or every single member of the UNC system as a whole - i'm inclined to think the latter since they didn't clarify it on the ranking, unlike say California or Texas, but oh well... Any ranking that had NUS at #16 before is inherently suspect in my books... I remember reading that report a couple of years ago, and i nearly gagging in response to that. Kinda like how i felt when i heard that the batch after me at ACJC had put it into the top 5 JCs (where it apparently still is today?)...Oh well, i'm not anti-NUS or anything, just that i can't imagine how it's that good of a school as the rankings suggest it is. I'm thankful to be here all the same, though something tells me that if they included students' own impressions of their own schools as part of the criteria, NUS would be even further down there... And of course, i don't want to do my part to further perpetuate S'pore's obsession with rankings [e.g. corruption-free, living standards, ministerial pay (heh maybe that's not one they'd want to broadcast eh)]. Of course there are other rankings like press freedom, human rights and democracy that are far less harped upon, but well, i'll leave that off the record...
Wednesday, November 07, 2007
no regrets, no consolation
i received back ca grades for one of my classes a couple of days ago, and though they were not exactly spectacular, i can't say i was expecting anything more than what i got actually. So, semi-irrational worries over how this may help to pull me down to the next class aside; i'm pretty at peace with what i ended up getting, and guess am a biiiit extra motivated for the final to put in much more effort into the class than my (inherently lacking) interest in the subject would require.
what i'm sorta annoyed about is the class participation grade, not because i didn't deserve it (cos i so did), but more because i don't see how i could have gone about things in such a way as to get anything higher than the B- that i got. Basically class participation for this particular class equals to asking question s at the end of each person's presentations. My beef is that i honestly believe that my brain generally processes info at a slower rate than many others in my class - so what happens is that once each presentation ends hands tend to shoot up all over the class in order to ask questions - and not once has one of those hands belonged to me, simply because in such a short time frame, i normally am still processing what has just been presented, and therefore i'm not able to ask anything that would not make me out as a total doofus (e.g. - "uh, i don't quite understand your presentation - can you repeat it again please?"). and basically, the time allocated for the questions tends to zoom by with intelligent question after intelligent question being asked, and once the question time ends (rather abruptly, due to time constraints), i'm left still grasping at random straws with which i can ask questions with...
so this has gone on for pretty much the whole semester, and before i knew it, and after two token questions that by God's grace have come out of my mouth, that's the end of my chances for this 15%. Doesn't help that the other 45% ca component is far less than stellar (even trash like the Hyundai Stellar) as well. And that i feel somewhat helpless where this participation grade is since i dunno how things could have gone differently, and in any case i do so hate asking questions/ commenting just for the sake of it, and without any constructive purpose being served for the person whose presentation i'm responding to (not that i'm insinuating that anyone else in my class did so, of course - they have the same purposes in mind, they just think far faster than i ever could)... One feels like such a loser at times like these - ah crap.
what i'm sorta annoyed about is the class participation grade, not because i didn't deserve it (cos i so did), but more because i don't see how i could have gone about things in such a way as to get anything higher than the B- that i got. Basically class participation for this particular class equals to asking question s at the end of each person's presentations. My beef is that i honestly believe that my brain generally processes info at a slower rate than many others in my class - so what happens is that once each presentation ends hands tend to shoot up all over the class in order to ask questions - and not once has one of those hands belonged to me, simply because in such a short time frame, i normally am still processing what has just been presented, and therefore i'm not able to ask anything that would not make me out as a total doofus (e.g. - "uh, i don't quite understand your presentation - can you repeat it again please?"). and basically, the time allocated for the questions tends to zoom by with intelligent question after intelligent question being asked, and once the question time ends (rather abruptly, due to time constraints), i'm left still grasping at random straws with which i can ask questions with...
so this has gone on for pretty much the whole semester, and before i knew it, and after two token questions that by God's grace have come out of my mouth, that's the end of my chances for this 15%. Doesn't help that the other 45% ca component is far less than stellar (even trash like the Hyundai Stellar) as well. And that i feel somewhat helpless where this participation grade is since i dunno how things could have gone differently, and in any case i do so hate asking questions/ commenting just for the sake of it, and without any constructive purpose being served for the person whose presentation i'm responding to (not that i'm insinuating that anyone else in my class did so, of course - they have the same purposes in mind, they just think far faster than i ever could)... One feels like such a loser at times like these - ah crap.
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