cApture

Why is service charge pegged to size of total bill?

2011-04-19T14:07:00.002+08:00

Just struck by this question and realise I actually have no idea but blindly paying 10% for the past N years.

Do I get more service for prawn fried rice instead of pork chop fried rice? Don't think so right... but because prawn fried rice more expensive, I'll have to fork out more service charge in the end.. Might as well just hike all the prices by 10% lar.

If say because overseas give tips based on 10-20% of total bill... that's their business really. They blind doesn't mean we also have to be blindly paying service charge.

Maybe I just didnt grow up with the concept of service charge and needs some justification for this. anyway lots of services at restaurants sucks.

Cried in dream

2011-01-26T09:22:00.003+08:00

i had a dream last nite, not a good dream at all.
it started well, we were at a chalet, four of us.
i wanted to snooze, but the others wanted to go out. already under the blanket.
started to get scolded for wanting to sleep, cried in my dream.

it's strange, how the brain weaves stories from all the very different sub-stories in life.
alex scolded me ytd for using a 'bad' tone. and then he used a lot of f*** at me. im dead tired and sick of it.

a time for prayer

2010-12-21T00:56:00.003+08:00

"If my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and heal their land" 2Chronicles 7:14

typing this with a heavy heart. a time for prayer for the old folks ard me... grandpa leow, my own grandma, and today heard that xiaoli's grandma is also having breathing difficulties and breathing thru oxygen mask. preparing for the worst...

even tho assured of a better heaven that awaits, it's painful to see the suffering and the slowly wearing away of the physical body. the coldness in the legs prompts my granny to ask if there is no more blood. i quickly and repeatedly massage her legs to bring back the warmth of the flowing blood.

God, your will be done and all glory be unto your name.

1 year into work

2010-10-28T08:24:00.003+08:00

can feel more and more thgs to do
i rem one night my senior msg me while i was having dinner... are the issues settled?
that was the peak of my stress

yes im still alive hehe. thank God
world cup craze - netherlands had to settle for 2nd against a spain that scored just 1 goal in each match to move into the final and lift the world cup trophy.
drop by the nursing home now and then... not as often as i want to.. waking up on sat morning is reaaaaaaally tough.
decided to start a new chapter with alex, he's been encouraging and caring.
opened the investment acct, but missed the IPO for GLP and MIT :(:(
some biz ideas here and there.... nobody gets rich by working for other ppl.. wonder wad i will be like if i get rich. probably spend money like drink water :S no wonder Agur prayed in Proverbs to not be rich nor poor.
contemplating studies... shud be applying next year. pray for me!

P is for...

2010-06-06T20:57:00.004+08:00

The toddlers class letter of the day is P. P for pounding. Pound, pound, pound it well. To go with the story of the wise and foolish builder.

There's mama 'P' and baby 'p'. May Nar's cute way of teaching the kids capital letter and small letters :)

Asked the kids to throw out more words starting with the letter p. They're only 4 years old... but they know penguin (and seal eats penguins), party, pig, panda, parrot, and PARACHUTE! Amazing kids aren't they. Tian Le even know pats. On second thought, i could have misheard it - kids their age shouldn't know pats. Should have been pets.

Under the influence of Tian Le's contribution of *pats, gave each of them a pat on the back when they finished writing down three of the words on an ice cream stick. It's nice to encourage them, and I have to admit it was self-therapeutic.

How could this end without a kids moment? Natania started asking for ice cream sticks to write "i love mummy"... then "i love daddy". then Wei En also want ice cream sticks to write that. It grew to loving their siblings, their grandparents, their maid, their family... Eventually, Jovan was the smart one to bring the closure with, "Teacher, can you help me to write I love everybody?" :D

Perfect.I felt so lousy today. I said, better to feel lousy now than to cry next time, little did i know the next time was the next moment.

Choose wisely, pls.

2010-06-06T00:00:00.003+08:00

Everyone can build a house. You can lay comfortably in it on fair weather. The thing is, how does it deal with storms? Choose a foundation that will weather the storms with you. Will you?

Hold on

2010-05-31T21:54:00.002+08:00

hv u ever feel how as the feeling inside keeps building, you wanna risk it all. even if u risk it all. before it explodes. u will find a way to what u find even if it kills u.

will u risk it all?

will u really let this kill u?

Hold on, be strong.

Kill the feeling before it kills u. tc all.

Lull

2010-05-24T23:34:00.002+08:00

Do{

slack;

}

while (lull)

it's been a great month of slacking! wootz. i love this month. scraped, ran, guitared, bridged, ticket to ride-d, ktv, eat hills of potatoes, wah even tau huayed in smu classroom. watched ip man twice. ip man was really good. shrek was hilarious but i still like ip man more. hah. new colleague in the lab. his chinese name is also wei li. hmms. he actually knows wad is munchkin. didnt badminton and cycle tho.

1 last week of lull. June is the hell month. everybody will be piling work on me really soon - i can already feel it coming. haiix. prolly OT everyday :(:( i dont want!!! sadness.

"Welcome 2 Taiwan~!!!!!!"

2010-05-22T15:40:00.004+08:00

I've promised myself this one last indulgence.

Finally, we've bought our tickets to Taiwan for this Nov.

It's been long. Our shared dream as teenagers. Growing up in a family that doesn't go for vacations at all has not been easy, at least not for me. This, I have never whined about it before to anyone - hmm not even Wei Lei - how much I envied people who can fly to US every Dec holidays. In my secret heart, I longed to take a flight out of Singapore to see the big big world. At least when I was younger. The time has come to close this chapter of my life.

Some things happened in the year I began work. Hai decided to quit, take a good long break before scouting for a new job, agreed to Joseph's wedding proposal, found a new job that has a six month probation period. There were times i thought it's impossible to go already, that our teenage dream would not be fulfilled anymore but swallowed my doubts down so that I may not add to the burden of her considerations. Perhaps she could tell.

After all, we've shared the same air when we sleep in one room, there must have been some connection.

Hai asked me if I would mind, if Joseph joins us. I joked that I'm destined to travel with my sisters & their boyfriends before they get married :P After matching some dates, seeking approval from our supervisors, there remains a one week period where we can trio bid sayonaro to work.

Can't wait to scream "Welcome 2 Taiwan~!!!!!!" Hello, Sun Moon Lake, Alishan, Taroko Gorge, rice terraces and megaaaaaaaaaaaaa sausages!!!

避忌的定力

2010-05-20T00:14:00.007+08:00

中四毕业跨过到初级学院的那一年，差一点就一头热的参加一个其实很想去，但不应该去的跨年晚会。就在那时，思齐赐给了我“避忌”这两个字。那时的我，还得靠她苦口婆心的开解其词的含义。她是真的为我好。

忌：Taboo（？）. 不合宜，不应该做的是。Avoid at all costs. 童年无忌，就是小时候，什么都可以做。无忌。长大了，就应该了解人情事理，为别人的心情着想，为后果设想·策划并且付责任。

避忌，就是避免应该忌的事。

用于那时，就是明明知道自己对伟礼有了约定，就得闪避别人的邀请与亲近。不管是再好的人，或者更本没有特别的意思都好，只要是有些特殊的邀请，就必须婉拒。

思齐说得有理，我也就顺了。

那是八年前的事了。事到如今，我还是对整件事抓不清头脑。后来，话说不清楚，思思把一些我不应该知道的说了出来，又添上一句 "Jaymie just wants to protect u.." Sighs, 这一句我已经不想去了解。

过了四年。。。怎么了。又出现了状况。避忌，这两个字不是没有自我提醒过。但炽热的心，应该是把脑袋给烧坏了。

总会让回忆飘回到民歌餐厅的那一晚，伟礼就坐在台上，唱了一首Still. 冲动的离去，那是我绝口不提的遗憾与无奈。从此，Still 就成为我对伟礼最后最美丽的回忆。

Don't give the wrong person the wrong idea. No matter how good it feels to be treated nicely like a precious and special pearl. 不要让世界仅剩的纯真有疑惑。

四年前我做不到的，今天我做到了。避忌是需要很强烈的定力的。四年前我没有的，今天还是myjars在我身边，给了我无尽无私的支持。

Guard your heart, for it is the wellspring of life.

Local legacy

2010-05-15T12:55:00.005+08:00

"...channelling his energy towards helping people, especially the poor and disadvantaged. His guiding principal was to create a better quality of life for Singaporeans - that every man and woman is entitled to a better job, better pay and a roof over their heads, with beds to sleep on. This led him to devote a career in public service, playing a significant role in creating and shapingSingapore's destiny"

~ Ms Tan Siok Sun, daughter-in-law of Dr Goh

Ip man fought for integrity, Dr Goh Keng Swee fought for the people of Singapore.

Yesterday, the man who gave us industries, NS and streaming passed away.

If it was a year ago, I don't think I would feel much for his death - yes, he's a great man. but it doesn't hit home. Things changed during my induction program. Secretly, I admired him and looked up to him as a role model. He was visionary, and iron-willed. To bring all these to pass, I believe he met a lot of opposition, I wonder if there were times he doubted himself or even wanted to give up. Looking at the list of things we remember Dr Goh Keng Swee for, it doesn't seem like he had the time to doubt. There's a good load we can learn from him.

I don't see anyone else as bold enough to start Project Magpie and bring the right people in to realize it. Amazing.

"the whole National Service

and SAF was something completely unnatural to

Singapore? Without Dr Goh, nobody could have

pushed it through. Only he could have done it.

I mean ...he provided the inspiration. He provided

the vision. But he actually barged it through, overcame

the bureaucracy and the obstacles. He made sure

it succeeded."

"He read. He’s a tremendous, voracious reader.

And not only did he read, he would flag out a place in

the journal and sent it down to me with one line, you

know, like, “What do you think of this?” I would

spend the next three days catching up with my reading.

But I know he’s read it, so I had better do it."

~ LG(ret) Winston Choo, longest serving CDF

Read President's and LG(ret) Winston Choo recount Dr Goh's vision and passion.

In a way, I owe him my job. We all owe him our livelihood, no matter how much we hate NS and streaming. Would war be the topic of our lunches if not for him? No, scrambling for our lives, we won't even have time to discuss any topics.

//the last part about reading really reminds me of how I feel towards my RO. He knows what he's asking for, so I better read up more.Quite scary yet inspiring to work and learn from know-it-alls.

Impressionable

2010-05-03T14:51:00.003+08:00

"As the young are impressionable, the mass media has a swing influence on their values & priorities.."
I rem that's how I liked to start my GP essays. It sounded good. Though I was also young. Was.

Every so often, I still pick up every other pet phrase easily, I can control and filter what swings my actions and what I run after. I dont say "oh my tian" at whim. for fear. I copy people's phrases because I like vibrant language and I like to speak wrt people. Language is intended for communication.

Pardon the young who are impressionable, if we have not given them clear directions.

***
Ytd sihui wanted to trim her own fringe. It's nothing new, shuwan does that. Nobody goes to the hairdress to trim fringe. Today I took up my own scissors and trimmed my ends. How easily influenced can I be.

No limits

2010-05-01T15:05:00.004+08:00

the best friend, whom u can count on on your worst day.

he alr knows how judgmental you are, how your family treats u like a princess, believes that u will not discriminate even tho u think that we can't condemn ppl for being discrimatory, how ur boss is not right to say that u are immature.

when u just feel the whole world has gone haywire, u want to scold ur family, and he stands against ur short circuited thinking, tells u babies are more impt than work. tho the stubborn u holds back to admit that he's right (perhaps with a caveat).

then we go our own ways again.

always knowing, the best friend is not more than a phone call away.

when the need arises, between best friends, there are no limits. the trust to be reasonable even if all can be given. we honour that.

i should thank you 2.

Smiley girls

2010-05-01T13:32:00.002+08:00

:):)

Life is short

2010-04-21T16:09:00.002+08:00

it ended before i could meet wai in simei for dinner.
the loudest i've heard of my dad is his snoring. he must have been really drained from these few nights of shou hou'ing pastor's bedside.

life is short. wad would i do with it? so wad if i've done community service and touched a few lives? perhaps it'll bring me a sense of relief in my last moments. but could it just be self-assuring for the emptiness deep within?

Backyard threats

2010-04-18T18:32:00.004+08:00

the fear of losing a buddy who is on the verge of getting attached is terrifying. i dont hv the faith that i can handle the bomb when it detonates. so i wanted to go the other way. run away as far as possible. even if it may just be a jack in the box that pops up and everything is okay (we may perhaps even get to laugh together), i dont hv the faith to take the risk. i dont want to be hurt again. tho u may say it's just my own thots and imagination, this time i'm not writing it off as worries, it's realistic this time. very real. time is ticking, what will happen when the plane lands?

whatever will be, will be? wad?

and what's the use of a contract. we can break it without blinking an eye and hurting our honour.

Date Night

2010-04-17T11:50:00.003+08:00

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1279935/

wootz! 1x hilarious movie. it's the first time Gene had to look away from the screen... but not bcos it's scary, it's just so funny he had to look away to stop himself. we laughed so hard that we had headaches, perhaps there's an area of the brain that got overworked from all the laughing. frontal cortex (?) it seems for both of us.

apart from all the laughter, the movie goes into some marriage topics also. how the couple connects. how the guy reads the book the gal likes tho she confesses at the end of the movie that she's only read the first 30 pages and the last page. how the gal doesn't trust the guys to plan and do things, does everythg then hits back at the guy that she's so tired.

(thinking abt the parallel triplehorn+gal couple now still makes me wanna laugh :D)

the concept of date night sounds very sweeeeeet to me. get a babysitter to take care of the kids, the couple gets to have us time. the babysitter can be neighbours or cousins. build their relationships while the couple builds theirs :):)

the movie challenged the idea of "the spouse is just like a best roomate... that's it" and "just hitting the same restaurant and ordering the same items everytime". actually i think that would be really sweeet. it's not even just things i could live with, but that's probably how my dream life would turn out. why would u not want to marry the best roomate? someone who knows all ur quirks. as for the restaurants, i don't understand why ppl keep wanting to try new places when i already found places i love. yea, there's the thing abt maybe there's a restaurant that u'd love more. but i've already found wad i love. before that i didn't love, so it's not a matter of rankings or substitutions so there's no need to go on seeking anymore. din tai fung and pepper lunch. loveloves. and we know, the greatest love will never change, potatoes!

so i think it's quite sad if ppl start questioning their relationship and thinks that marrying the best roomate is boring and another exciting person comes along and u just get pulled along. that shouldn't be the way. i've gone down this road before and it's just a dead end in my case. lost the best. gotta stop the looney.

A minutes a (few) day

2010-04-17T11:44:00.002+08:00

逃不了的终于来了。

hello kaki.

thankful for the advice from senior:

when writing minutes, just take note of 3 items:

the decision, the rationale and the action.

very useful, but sometimes, ppl are not clear in what they're saying, hinthint here and there to allude to their intentions.

do teachers hv to do this?

after writing the external review minutes on wed, had weekly proj meeting on thurs, then it's writing minutes again.

if ur supervisor offered to write minutes for u, would u agree?

would u be tempted but refuse?

would u not be tempted at all?

Free day = Dream day

2010-04-13T00:32:00.002+08:00

1/many things i miss abt uni is having free day.

took leave for a free day at last, bcos good friday was spent busying with orange valley n passover meal. which was good. but no me time.

i've wanted to visit some ppl for lunch since it's free day, particularly those in the faraway changi whom i can hardly get to meet or perhaps those in cbd area. but i couldn't decide who i wanted to meet most, so i ate with the mother at home. which was good too. i think she misses me since i'm always not having dinner home.

it's pretty good to nua..... i can vaguely understand why luke and jenny gave me the look when i said i wanna go cycle on my free day. butbut i fought the nuaness. cycling on a monday is shiok max seriously. there's free lanes for certain stretches of ecp. just chiong. ecp has changed slightly, the humps are more friendly, and there's an extreme skate/cycle park. can see ppl do stunts.

i am tempted to get a free day each month. but that would mean no overseas trips in the year. which i wouldn't mind much. maybe start next year since this year gotta go taiwan~

recharged~! may this last long enuf til the next holiday :):)

Maya road stamps

2010-04-10T12:49:00.004+08:00

the ppl i trust to get THE stamps in THE font i hearts. without me ever mentioning it. how did they ever know i've touched it N times at MWL?? now i want to get my hands dirty all over~

2010-04-04T21:59:00.000+08:00

thailand sky is so blue~

Wring

2010-03-30T22:38:00.002+08:00

i can get nervous easily, it doesn't help that i have a psychological fear of starting a song on the wrong key and affecting the whole praise and worship.

while i was nervous just like every other time for smad, something really special happened. to others, it may be written off as a small gesture, but to me it meant a whole lot. thankful~

3points

2010-03-23T23:46:00.006+08:00

two highlights of the Man U 2 Liverpool 1 match.

first torres pissed off and giving the bare penalty spot a flick kick before rooney converted the penalty rebound. haiix. dun tell me torres prepared the ground for rooney............... he looked like he kena bought for the match la. the fifth minute opener must hv just been a cover up. haiix.

second highlight was park's header. that strong passion in allowing gravity to pull his whole body piak to the ground. WOAHS. break all the liverpool fans hearts. a picture tells a thousand words:

see how hinged his left feet was. powow.

caught it at vivo's the queen and the mangosteen. nice pub with a good view :)

the whole setting was extremely comfortable. the ceiling fans. birch furniture. black and white coasters.

we sat at the bar which had a good angle to the screen. nice~~

the price to pay for sitting at the bar was that it's extremely awkward when the bartender asks what would we like to drink and we refuse. so we started scrambling searching for a drink. i refused to pay 12bucks for heineken nor tiger... so i chose choc mint martini... quite nice... the mint and martini both 辣 so not the perfect blend. i like ryan's lychee martini more :)

here's how the drink looks like... i love the way the choc dripped down into the drink. totally slurps.

we wondered sometimes if the bartender would secretly be watching or if he's allowed to watch... shifu act how distracted he would be if he's the bartender :P

the only one complain is that the chairs were so high that my birkies kept slipping off :/ after a few drops, shifu ask me to just leave it... and to shake the other side off as well. then he placed the pair neatly just right below my seat :):)

xiao says that i'm very particular abt small things like this so i really need ultra sensitive guys :P 1point.

the other first is our first time watching soccer tog. we pondered hard if we've watched soccer tog before anot... and surprisingly... not! quite strange... duno why also... since we would both support the oranjes! loveloves. maybe cos world cup 06 was with peter and gay. then euro 08 was on exchange. hmms... world cup 10 coming up!

***

gay alr placed bets for brazil and portugal alr :/

the drink would come to within sipping distance every so frequently. 1point.

如果我有车我一定会送你回家。。。等我买车。。。。1point.

2010-03-21T17:03:00.002+08:00

the second greatest joy in life is to go home with weiwen. love max.

awaiting for the praise and worship part 2 :):)

i want but dun want it per se to overwrite the greatest joy in life. aaahhhh.

nervous max! some entertainment.

2010-03-21T02:35:00.002+08:00

(some act cute secret)

me: nervous

yl: win

WIN. he also say win alr liao.

FWAHAHAHA.

then... it got me started saying win againz!

(some crap)

me: u dun think too much

yl: lol i think about what. i dun think

me: win

bg: everyday, yl will ~~psycho~~ tell me AT LEAST one time he suck ah. everybody else is pro. some crap along this line.

yl: i dont use my brain. lol. dumb max. FWAHHAHA.

me: WINNNNNNNNN

*********************************************************

mel ah. how ah. i'm ***trashin*** u in this deal. cui max alr

***

nervous abt tmr!!!

友人大小考验

2010-03-17T20:37:00.005+08:00

荡

友情深浅 - 是藏在心里，思念深远、还是实际地付出精力多少？

我想两者我都有做到了，可是不知道为什么，好像还是不够说服/挽住友人。是一直都在做错了吗？到底要做得多明白？难道你还不明白我的诚心吗？

还需要做比较吗？友情是一对一的嘛，哎哟，友情怎么都不可以分配、也不能做比较。至少我尽可能给的我都给了。。。我们经历了这么多炸弹，还需要计较这些有的没的吗。。？

说老实话，其实我确实是偏心的。因为再怎么比。。。大家凑起来，也赢不过你一个人啊。

不经意的。我们又过了一关了吗？

the 2nd appt

2010-03-16T23:57:00.002+08:00

无风不起浪
by the time senior asks me if i've heard of my second appt... in my mind i know my fate is sealed... other ppl ask i'll be like sure anot, but senior talk cock but i think he know what he talking abt that kind, so haiix.

today spenz and cs chatting at the corridor. tmr is lab retreat. sensing smth is wrong... i dun even want to say hello and straight away chiong for the door... butbut... cs directly ask me if i will take over as welfare rep in the coming fy. why is cs ask not spenz ask. alamaks. so after confirming that there's no joining recreation com for the whole dso (saikang heroes) i agreed la. cs hand alr stretched out to shake my hand alr. haiix max.

after that spenz came to arrow to organise badminton next tues... actually i really dun mind... this kind of organising shit i do best hahaha. It happens to be Gene's elearning week! Whoopees.

***
today is a sucky day, both kaki and i thinks so. maybe his more sucky. if there's a reason we can click, it's because we both can 苦中作乐。he does it better than me. dun be too whiny. comical abit. light hearted mostly. sensible.

tragedy of the commons

2010-03-11T23:18:00.002+08:00

it began pouring by the time we were done with lunch, as predicted by cc.

despite knowing full well that cc would not bring umbrella for us folks stranded at the food court across the street, boss still sms'ed him. him and kaiyang. we placed our ~~bets~~ hopes on kaiyang to "deliver" us.

truly, cc played taiji and didnt' reply directly yes nor no, "it's just raining sir".

sadly, kaiyang didn't reply. i bore hopes that perhaps talk is cheap, he's already on the way here. who knows, he'll just appear in the next moment. but nonono. we waited and strained our necks, almost wanted to exchange $2 for the umbrellas ppl used to chop the seats beside us. haha.

kaiyang's explanation: it's tragedy of the commons.

lesson learnt: if u need help, don't message too many people cos ppl need to feel like u really need their help. butbut we only msg 2? sad max.

at this point in time, i will refrain from saying **.

2010-03-07T22:28:00.002+08:00

the best chocs in the world are ferrero garden~! i thot the pistachio was good, and the almond is just superb. get it from The Cocoa Trees ~~for me~~

rittersport comes close. there's still no peppermint nor strawberry yoghurt flavour in sg :(:(

2010-03-06T09:26:00.004+08:00

march is opening up nicely~

the gancheong abt meeting the director; cos it's prolly smth to do with the confirmation and i dunno wad to say abt my career plan. the bestie that alleviate the worries - your director already knows wad to say and he may already have a decision. loves!

then he ~~flew me aeroplane.~~ had an urgent meeting. i was so relieved on one hand and on the other, sian that the confirmation will be delayed.

however, in that same afternoon, I received my confirmation letter! Woohooohs~~~~

senior was sitting beside me and urging me to open it, eh see if got pay increment anot la~ then when i've opened it, and abt to read it, he added "tho that time i didn't have any" ><>

***

thankful for the time mgt course this week. if you procrastinate on the biggest things and waste time like me on fb and blogging.... i dun think u need the course. ~~u just need to wake up ur idea n decide wad u wanna do.~~

Handling tasks

make a list of wad u have to do. as specific as u can

categorize the tasks - do i need it today? does it add value to my proj or targets? is it routine work?

estimate a time required, and

do those that u need today and allocate a time in the schedule to do the most other impt but not urgent tasks.

Handling interceptions

- when ppl come to find u for discussion, stand up before they sit down. it will cut the conversation short.

- when u find ppl for discussion, to get them to listen and give u efforts, say how much time u need and how many points u want to cover.

it didn't really work for me tho... cos edmund always call! hahaha. he's one focused guy tho. so it's good. just get the work done everybody! yay

i'm gonna try sleep at 11pm and wake up at 7am. my successful rate has been nil. i dun even reach home by 11pm... how to zzz by then :(:( and wake up at 6am. haiiiiix.

the course gave me a good break from work, tho my mind frequently drifted back to work (unfruitfully) during the course. it was fun, to be on the same table as chatty ppl like shi katt and jonathan and kaki! wootz. talked and wrote a lot of rubbish... learnt a lot of things too... got to chat more with aik fung too, whom i always dun get to see cos he's stranded on a different office level as us :(:(

that was a great day too bcos as i'm out of office, i didn't do OT, and can dun fly aeroplane for pictionary at brewerkz! oh yay. it was uber fun and we learnt that we can be really morbid. the masseur turned into a pathologist, the shower turned into jellyfish and electric shock, the squint was a single eyelid surgery. gossip was a good draw. woodpecker. lim yu beng is gonna be a classic. autumn. i like the autumn. and wan of cos like (to poke about) my australia. haha.

that was abt the only thg i drew that evening, and that was before the game started. i really suck at drawing, i'm glad we make a great complementary team!!!!

so we walked off with vouchers for 4 litres of beer in all. it's crazy. we shud brush up on our draw-the-vouchers-skills :D

that was one time i had my dinner this week.

the other time was friday. the buddy brought dinner down, wootz! duck rice and pig ears. pig ears taste surprisingly good. they look a lil flimsy tho... i had some fun flicking it :P quite happy, cos that day was also sports day, and i didn't exactly have lunch and soooooo tired but had to go on to do the proj runs. thanks buddy~! :):)

Blank.

2010-03-04T00:01:00.002+08:00

i've been happy, sad, angry, frustrated, helpless et al.

right now, i just dunno wad to feel. i really dun. it's just staring into space and this sucks.

to some extent, i'm fearful that i'm not feeling anything anymore. i dun want to be indifferent.

2010-03-02T00:22:00.001+08:00

Loneliness is the poverty of self; solitude is the richness of self.

Elmo song

2010-03-01T23:35:00.000+08:00

dun emo alr la. SMILLLLLLEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!

Good Game

2010-03-01T14:55:00.002+08:00

Imagine this.
Our kids, given homework.
mel's: wa lao....
mine: GG.
wan's: woohooohs~! (then realise it's homework....) oh. i need a pen.
jane's: (silently retrieves a pen for wan's. continues to write down the name and date on the homework, machiam printed)
mandy's: ahh, which pen should i use? light blue, blue black or just blue? hmms. i'd go for light blue. it's my colour lately.
rebec's: sounds like a plan~

good laughter.
~~but.~~

we want our kids to say proper english.

so we have a ~~bet~~ deal. i am to stop saying GG (and win and/or handsign is victimized too) and mel is to stop saying wa lao. the discussion goes on.

mel: sometimes ur blog is so singlish that i don't understand. do u pray like this?
me: proper english. must respect abit.
mel: but god understands singlish.
me: really? WIN.

i've plunged too deep into this. **

debugged

2010-02-27T11:35:00.007+08:00

At last! Whoopees!
tho sadly, not by my own merit. been bugging others to assist me in this work of longsuffering. nonetheless. it's been an amazing week ~~of everyday OT~~ of productive debugging.

the problem. what i call the robot who doesn't hear. which was a wrong diagnosis :(:( ysee, that's why i'm burning soooooooo many hours in office. i keep hitting the wrong problems. how to solve a problem when u duno what's the problem, that's why. arghs!!!

perhaps it's bcos yl keep saying he's dumb. and now i think i'm dumb. why do i spend so much time and dun get results? :(:(

well, actually i do have some answers to that question.
- don't have a feel of expected results. duno where to look in the ~~mess~~ mass of results
- lack of knowledge in domain
- not in the habit of effects-based operations
- inputs key in wrongly (dumbest of all reasons :(:()
- not asking for help when i need. there are some software bugs. but i tried to take it on my own. which is dumb. waste time and nv solve the problem. data migration and debugging nv felt like such a pain.
- lack of knowledge in code implementation and association between models and processes. rather not used to splitting the work between analyst and software engineer.

i'm thankful for the boss who is ever so patient and guiding. everytime i say something dumb, he'll just filter and guide me in the right path to think. when i say something right, he'll be generous with kind words. it's a cheap thrill; but i love to hear them :D pardon me, it's only human. i'd say he's made a very wise move... then i'll keep wanting to get things done well. amazingness.

boss even 亲历亲为 to move a PC unit over from lab to my cubicle. haiix. feel like a parasite :(:(
//thanks YL for helping too :):)

now there are 4x CPU and 3x monitors at my cubicle. sauna.

thankful for the software guys who stayed back with me to debug. jonathan hasn't OT'ed since 2 years back? oh no.... david is really good la. he can speak in english and code in c++ at the same time. win. i know why i never manage A for any programming classes now (tho i always think that i'm pretty good HAHA)i like the software folks. very focused at work. off work, it's all munch and talk cock.

boss wanted a good weekend. so i determined to get the batch runs over the weekend. calibrated for super long..... the runs should complete about now *cross fingers*

***
the senior scores at paraphrasing and aggregation. good for indep learning?
that's one thing i foresee myself grappling with for the next weeks.
while i know it's good to be indep, work with minimal supervision, be trusted with macro managing. butbut. my lack of confidence in my current level of ops analyses nudges me. i need more guidance. NEED. how do i say it?

azimuth

2010-02-22T00:41:00.001+08:00

I need some directions on how to calculate directions!

2010-02-21T00:00:00.002+08:00

last fri, i succeeded in eclipsing boss' working hours! as in, i finally managed to wake up - miracle!!! the night before, i had a prompting - that inner voice- that i can bravely set my alarm to 6.30am (hp is fast by half hour... so that's 6am). i'm to sing new every morning. on fri, i woke up seconds before the alarm. and as the alarm rang, i quickly shut my eyes back - standard procedure HAHA. then i rem the voice.... and starting singing that... then..... i was off the bed. miracle!!! amazing. other than zj's morning call, this is the only time i get off the bed without snoozing (and usually for an hour)! powow.

until end march... think my office hours are gonna be 8am - 9.30pm mon-wed and 8am-7.30pm thurs & fri. ky looked so surprise when i reached before him last fri... yl gave me the fwah, so early. brrrrzzzzz.mixed emotions manz.

boss asked me if i'm gg to resign soon... and he say i cannot do that... bcos.... to be confirmed! :P hmms. i duno how to capture all the cute thgs boss says. i wish i can share all this with you guys and gals.

i can almost see myself working at daiso for long...! amazing. nv thot i would ever hv such a thot but yes, it seems feasible already.

taiji'ing ky's suggestion to hv a icecream session. rejected to eat brekkie w spenz and st. there are already enuf intercepts.... really cannot handle anymore...

2010-02-20T23:50:00.002+08:00

everyday i wake up, my mother will ask me eh, u wake up le ah? whywhywhy.
today she hit home run.
apart from double checking that the me walking around is the me wake up (and not sleepwalking huh?!) she ask me where is my sister cos the last she saw was her laying on her bed.
Option 1: i'm sleepwalking so i don't know.
Option 2: i just woke up so i don't know.
How to answer?!!!
I keep silent, she follow me like a shadow.
How to siam?!!!
GG MAX.

zeh says in my mother's world, only the things that she has seen happened happened.

So she never see my sister wake up means she's still on her bed. Then never see means never wake up.

Is that why she has to verify with the already walking around me that i'm awake?!!
whywhytellmewhy.

nijmejin & happily ever after

2010-02-12T22:49:00.010+08:00

2yearsback.
our first of many travels out.
sweden was the first stop as we wanted to catch the aurora before it was gone.
we tried really hard to catch it,
3 germany airports to get to stockholm.
the aurora was dancing the night before, we heard upon arrival
but we were just too late.
it didnt' dance on the night we were there.

on our way "home", we missed the last connecting train from nijmejin back to eindhoven. it was a terrible night. it happened to be my 22nd birthday. we slept in the train station's information counter - we let ourselves in. i've done a dozen of crazy thgs in my life, but i nv dreamt that i'd let myself into an info counter to hide from the crazy netherlands winds and drunkards. it wasn't that safe anyways. (zi... we shud make a list of all the airports and train stations we've slept at! anyways, thanks for being with me through those days...)

i was so depressed the next day, i bought myself a donut to celebrate my own birthday. haiix. so kelian. i rem that day i was especially delighted to receive mel's email :):)

everyday thereafter is a blessing.

even that day i rolled off austrian's hill. perhaps especially that day. thinking back, i still wonder how i did not die. a part of my lower back still stings every now and then; i felt a spike on my left rib yesterday. if there's anything wrong, somehow i don't want to know.

another scary day was in switz, euro 2008. the oranje crowd.

the drunkard who kept talking to me in an unknown language. i think it was german but what do i understand of it with my limited dutch? we were so scared when the man followed us that we sought refuge at a media centre. which was cool cos it had aircon and gave us limited ed of the euro2008 coke bottles. haha.

23rd was spent in sg. there's fyp and biobiz. there's job hunt. there's fears, worries and disappointments.

there came a point in time when i wanted to give up. when i lost all motivation in my fyp. i didn't dare to say it at that time, but i puked or made myself puke to relieve the mountain of stress in me. on the days i rem to pray, it went away. on other days, it trapped me in then ate me up.

when many ppl were just thinking i will make it. there was a handful who saw between and beyond that, my worries and confusion.

as shifu and i recalled last year this time, i rem a particular walk from yih to corner with wai and shifu. they just kept encouraging me. to get me to sch, they enticed me with a hearty breakfast tog at hbf. i dun think i have to bother to say that it worked. hah, there i said it!

three's a cord that's difficult to be broken.

rainbow after interview. a corner for me to invade....with a broken chair and then a cui cardboard box.amazing race fix every mon. reminders of last bus timings (sometimes after it's gone...), time remaining to deadlines - fyp and ptb's assignment etc. my cesspool and companion in complaining abt cui max fyp. you are a very impt fren to me too, 2.

nzj in his funny position, one of.

"ah... 我被逼看amazing race...!" HAHA.

(was it the same day..?)

girltalk helped.

relieved after biobiz~!

yongchean needed a testimonial video. we gave her one.

cannot find our pink fren & way back into love recording :(:(

and i just hv to mention. our fave sr9. my fave.

cannot find the one with the bottle of chupachups nor swee's potato chips :D

I'm still a noob. HAHAH.

2010-02-12T19:51:00.000+08:00

早安！

2010-02-11T12:47:00.002+08:00

Have a good day :):)

my heart leaped uncontrollably. is thi st? from nothing to smth to fade but it's right here.

do{ agent.work()

2010-02-11T00:21:00.003+08:00

the concept of behaving like an agent keep getting mentioned now. boss seems to really love his analogy. autonomous, guided by own goals and values. WIN.

boss also started to mention abt taking autonomy for our software. to become the owner of the software. (which the lab already is, no?) then he swung to me becoming the expert. ohhhh. hokays. i see some arrow launch... the owner is then to have vision of what the model can do/become. Beyond have a problem, analyse with the model, forget abt the model. Keep sharpening the model and generate how it can be used in future or answer future questions.

Big man moved from i have high expectations of you to i have very expectations of you.

The storm of work continues. Now, didn't I just blog ytd? It felt like it's been a week. Each day gets loaded with a week's worth of work. Time to adopt Dave's concept of take all the work u can.... just that u hv to delegate. Uhoh, but I can't, cos unlike Dave, agentding.n(kakia) =0. Hosay~

But I still think I have wonderful bosses. Will always rem W's joke abt how YM left his wingman (me) behind in big man's room :D

On this note, i'd like to give myself some credit on stress management.

Almost cancelled dinner with the jcbabes that i may continue to do work. I know I'm a workaholic IF i start doing work i can't stop. It's a bad habit and I tried to kick it tonight, cos it's my bday dinner i cannot don't go. (sians?!!) the algo continue to harp. arghs.

the jcbabes made it good tho. just that at one point in time, i realised i was munching with 3 attached girls who began to discuss wad to give for vday prez. HMMS. sc asked if she has to give a vday prez, we gave our comments and ideas, then she said actually they've alr celebrated it (w/o giving him a prez) >< WIN.

coincidentally, zx brought the 7 habits book today! flipped through it and realised it doesn't exactly say how much time to approportion to each quadrant. rather, it mentions the Pareto rule: 80% of ur value comes from 20% of ur activities/tasks (completed).

mentioned GG N times to chingching jie while working out on the algo. she asked me what's GG - Good Game//Game Over. “我们是不是有代沟？”哈哈。

the waterfall of work

2010-02-09T23:06:00.003+08:00

W beamed that he has fulfilled his promise to shower me with the waterfall of work. It made me wonder if I should feel happy or sad. YL says I should feel happy... 能者多劳?!!

As work ~~trickles~~ storms in, we discussed abt the conflict of other work needing attn. "有什么事，我扛~" If it's anybody else, I would think wa, real or act superhero?! I looked at W, and I believed him.

As an excellent boss, he took the opportunity to mentor me. That I can manage the work myself. W drew that oh-so-familiar priority/value/"time mgt" matrix.

Background:

There are four types of tasks, Impt/Urgent. Impt/Not urgent. Not impt/Urgent. Not impt/Not urgent.

Ppl start getting stress when the impt thgs become urgent (read: impending deadlines) and we oftentimes spend too much times on this. It recommended that ~60% of our time/effort should be spent on what's impt but not yet urgent. Idea: Plan and prepare. Spend abt ~25%(?? cannot rem...) on what's impt and urgent, 10% on what's not impt but urgent and 5% on what's not impt and not urgent. Always buffer time for emergencies (read: sai kang) and quiet/personal time/summaries.

The matrix shown is an exact replica of what my boss drew. To remind me that to deliver the report by 31/3, the results hv to be out by 31/1. His next question was what month we are in now. I bet he went for some influencing/negotiation/push ur subordinates class! PoWow.

Honestly very lost. I don't even know what are the scenarios, how to give results... Then I realise my senior has been very kind to me... He must hv taken all the job upon himself...

I look at the model, think of my tasks, and the remaining time to the deliverable. This model is the one that has served me well since I first read abt it in sec/jc allright. Now a familiar stranger. I suddenly dunno how I can use it... cos while urgency is obvious, what's impt becomes very grey. Impt to me, boss1, lab head, company, or the country? hmms. maybe not the country so exaggerating. by definition, impt thgs help u to achieve ur own goals. HMMS.

Searching deep down, I somehow know what's impt at this moment... The approved proj vs the upcoming big proj. It's a tough call, boss says I should judge the priority myself. I chose but I still end up doing the other work at OT tonight. Cui max. YM encouraged me that he is also learning priority even at this point. It's qutie amazing cos I don't think boss and YM communicated abt this... shows that everyone is really overloaded and prioritising is the #1 Task over all the other tasks this season.

Admidst all that waterfall, there is a glimpse of rainbow as light shines in. I've learnt "Book 20 Science Park Drive #Entrance" to 71222 to book a cab via sms. Trivial. Haha. Thankful for YM to wait for me to leave :):) Thankful that I've made a sis at work... Ching Ching Jie! Haha. At first I scared she think I childish... but now she also call me xiao meimei already... hahah. working relationship with her is enjoyable :):)

Also heard a glimpse of insider talk and realised what I've been shielded from. Due to sensitivity, I can't say it here so nobody will know. Haha. But God knows. And He has ~~probably~~ helped me to make the best decision in May and Aug 2009. Amazing grace.

ticktock. time is short.

2010-02-07T23:06:00.004+08:00

the trigger:

sijia told me how she will not wake up till 1pm on sat & sun. i sensed an envious seed burning up in me. 1pm... sounds awesome~ i hv to admit that this weekend, i've been tempted to skip both activities that i devote my mornings to, orange valley nursing home visit and church. and yet, i couldn't bring myself to. for they are better options than snoozing :):)

then, there's also how i'm finding myself timeless to spend with my friends aka social life. i wish i could hv some breakfast at kovan, catch a movie at cathay, afternoon tea at secret recipe, makan some yummylicious foodies, shop and look pretty. that said, this is how i've spent my january saturdays:

morning - volunteer time, effort and heart to orange valley nursing home. i was a lil skeptical of how zoe and i would make it there every sat as that was our plan/ambitions/vision. as with every other thg, i wanted to start small, just two of us, soemtimes with the siblings in, adn build a commitment and movement from there. in jan, we made it 3/4 times. see. things will crop up. she had OAC, i had SU training for sunday school. feb will be disturbed by cny too. i dunno how things will work out, unless teh Lord builds the house, we labour in vain... and yet, if God's hand is in this, we will certainly find joy and favour in giving our lives in this manner. so far so good! :):)

afternoon - share knowledge -and hopefully what wisdom - with youths. we've been doing it underground at smu. pretty quiet and nice place to study. i thank god for zoe's faithfulness to mass sms the youths that whoever wants to study can join us.

i don't even need a space for sundays on my schedules. church, youth, dinner at grandma's. i only need space to write which ministry i'm serving in for that sunday. hah. i kinda begin to see why bbt just had to remind me that i'm not a superwoman.

i believe, and still hold on to this, that these are good options... i pray yet that the lack of time on weekends will not eat up my friendships. may the friendships i've built over the years with my beloved friends stand the test of time and never falter~ gmail and fb are pretty good communication tools, but i feel they can never replace the face to face chitchatting.

this month, i really missed peter. it's a mix of his stomach flu saga and the bintan keychain that i am reminded/want to meet up. it's been a month or two since the last banmian!

i've told wan abt this, in hope that the miracle happens again. the last time i spoke to wan abt mingwei and gay, they found their ways to reconnect with me - miracles! wootz. i miss banmian. and my dear brother. i pray that peter's appetite will return soon and so will our fridayly dinners.

primitive scheduling

2010-02-07T00:34:00.003+08:00

our familiar table. no words needed to instruct how to fill in the table. 默契！<3

starrystarrymacau

2010-02-06T01:03:00.007+08:00

the starrystarry tales. the love story video.

behind the scenes:
- wan's contact lens tore the night we arrived. she had to take off her specs before every photo. in some photos, u can spot her holding on to her glasses :P in some, we forgot, like the star jump at st paul's. oops.
- it was really tough to shoot the Jet and Star bear movie. the bears couldn't stand on its own, which really made me pek chey. but we figured to hold the bear by its collar or hand and hide our hands away from the camera lens. i'm glad to have shuwan around.
- we took star jump at every location, yknow just in case. hah.
- wanted to make frens with the other 9 teams over breakfast, but we never did. only befriended a couple cos both teams didn't tell shuttle bus driver to drop us off at Sands and had to alight at the ferry terminal instead :P
- we had 3 egg tarts in 2 hours on the last day in search of the best egg tarts to bring home. that's not counting the pork chop bun and milk tea. absolutely full.
- despite the thot on the 2nd night, both of us did NOT charge our camera batteries. the warning low batt flashes came on both our cameras... finally, my camera died at the wine museum, and we had to go back to the hotel to get our batteries charged before hitting coloane and taipa islands. we didn't want to risk having no photos at the Venetian! Wasted one hour-ish like that.
- one thing i learnt abt wan this trip is that she turns hungry easily but she can really eat... just give her time... and give her supper at night, and she'll stay happy ahhha.
- we also continued the tradition of doing face masks on holiday nights! wootz. my skin was really bad for this trip tho. haiix. the face masks helped a little :):)

the joy to serve abound~

2010-01-31T21:06:00.004+08:00

The burden of sunday sch teaching is becoming a joy;

to abandon the drains of planning and squeezing all sorts of activities into the short one hour. now i just give my love and understanding to the kids that they will learn of God's love, justice and sovereigncy in the Bible stories of Joseph, Elijah, Daniel et al.

spending time to hear them and what's in their minds and hearts - the things that make them angry and fearful. to even be an influence - hopefully positive - to the kids is a great responsibility and yet, great joy.

i'm not superwoman - as BBT says so. but i have a super God. yumyums.

===
and what if heaven is not a street of gold? will not the presence of the great God suffice?

2-8

2010-01-29T00:50:00.003+08:00

Wohoooooo!!! YES We did it again.
Well not the whole thing tho.
Alex prematurely left the room and couldn't find the correct room to return to. Lousy.

Okays. the game.
Every step defend.
Just busy watching all the squares to *try* to get them protected.
It's real slow.

Bottomline. I WON!!~!
Cos time out. Abit no pride. Then again, that's how he's been winning, so what goes.
If time didn't out, honestly i don't have a game plan to win.
I don't know how to win.

Gotta read up on endgame tactics.

Echoes

2010-01-27T17:00:00.003+08:00

should i eat the nachos
you are filling up your pants
i hate you for making me do the right things

这种感觉很微妙. 该怎麽说才好

1-8

2010-01-26T01:36:00.004+08:00

i know i promised i wont' stay up to do it
we also said we'd only do it once per night
and yet.
we did it twice.
okay i priomise myself i'd never to say it as it anymore.
CHESS.

i finally didn't time out. lasted 30moves. SUI.
most memorably
i scored my first ONEEEEEEEEEEE!
i actually figured out how to checkmate. with the time ticking away.
4 seconds left.

my pieces are still unprotected. but at least now i see them.

awareness++

sweating and shiok.

hmm. on second look, this is a v familiar cchess ending...

i think i shud just conc on forcing the king to a corner each time. easier to think lydat :D

Life in moderation

2010-01-24T01:21:00.003+08:00

work a bit
guitar a bit. there are too many beautiful songs. music is a perfect language. contemplating between seagull and takamine, ibanez? really clueless.
makan a bit - zichar on the double. we decided against kim gary, hit long john's despite severe inflation. potato salad redeemed the bbq.
scraps a bit. jieying's impending farewell scrap... self sabo max. well, at least the photos are printed. mel, the clementi 20cents one really better than people's park.
stayover a bit. it felt like years since we last had the stayover. this time must control a bit. no more bridging till 5am sort. i still enjoy the feeling of returning home to/with so many siblings, cosy a bit.
cchess a bit. keeps track record. lost to darius' ipod touch AI tho.
//ichess a lot. add aaron to the list of ppl i've lost to. and i still play really really slowly......... aaron reminds me that there's a thing called time limit. eugene iterates better moves in a shorter time. what's wrong with me?!
//running zero. i give myself til feb to rev up. and yet, i'm away first week of feb. lousy max.

my sentences are now punctuated with 'a bit'. damon calls it life in moderation, everything a bit. yea. except i'm really saying 'a bit' a lot. getting on my own nerves! :D

book kaki

2010-01-22T03:02:00.003+08:00

once in a while, u meet someone with some common interest.

found a book kaki at work... received a borders discount voucher and mitch albom's five people u meet in heaven (i'm trying to catch up here~)

maybe can set up a bookworm club :D

may this friendship grow~ :):)

don't start guessing how we got to the stage of books.

0-6 watch ur ass

2010-01-22T01:52:00.004+08:00

most of my losses came from dumb moves rather than exchanges. haiix. the numerous permutation of moves makes it all the impt to keep pieces defended. aka watch ur ass. watch for diagonals! the bishops and the queen. pop up from nowhere one. even the pawn. painful to lose to pawns.

to do so, i need to first generate all possible moves faster. familiarity. watch the places on the board where it's no man's land. unprotected lands where the enemy can devour u machiam buffet. yeap, that's how i dun get to do exchanges.

i'm hardly even thinking one step ahead now. i hardly even know what to move in each step. slow max.

been warned and yet still die.

many mistakes... moving back and forthh. the rook f1-e1-f1 i think is one of the dumbest mistake plus move back and forth. everything i thot of, i undo it myself. give king some space to zao a bit, and moved the rook back to trap myself. dumb max.

Consistency vs mundane

2010-01-21T00:48:00.006+08:00

mundane = sian, consistency = built in, stable and enjoyable.

triggered by the security guard who sits at the car park entrance in her uniform and just stoning. it looked mundane to me; i wonder if she felt sian. i think abt my job and i wonder if it makes me sian or gives me consistency to allow me to do what i want in a stable envt. haven't quite decided. i do feel that someone's consistency could be another's mundane. we all hv different interests and concerns.

the most impt characteristic of a leader is to be consistent - that the followers can look to for directions.

Movie #5 Invictus features the President of South Africa as a real consistent and inspirational leader (in the movie at least).

he was un-tiresome in greeting ppl. thanking them for coming the distance to meet him. PoWow. humble and respectful. the greatest leader is the smallest servant. i'll rem how he greeted the lady who brought in the tea, and wanted to pour tea for the captain himself. president pour tea for you, beat that.

he was asked about how he used to support every team that played against South Africa's national rugby team Springboks, his reply:
i change when circumstances change, otherwise i can't expect others to do the same.

his family: the 43 million south africans.

my fave part is when he wanted to undo the unanimous vote to change the Springboks cos they were underperforming aka cui. his secretary warned him against doing so, as it risks his political leadership/career.
"the day i fear risking that, i should not lead."
to his people, "you have elected me to lead; let me lead you. who is with me~?"

forgiveness of the guys who threw u into prison and hostile to your family and people. reconciliation.

Stand, when all you want to do is lie down.

Keep believing, keep leading, untiresome. Consistency to the people. if all this is not built-in, habitual/发自内心, i really dun think it can last. it'll be human efforts, pretense, and eventually draining... Inspirational~

i honestly think that Morgan Freeman delivered the role perfectly. Loved the little jiggle he did when Springboks won their opening match against the Aussies :D

so it's our 5th movie and all at vivo hahah.

by now, he dun even bother to ask me abt the time and place. 直接先斩后奏alr liao~ "...anw, tmr 6.35pm movie. book liao" my guess is that we are catching the movie at vivo, yes it's a guess that i realised (now) i didn't even check with him. hah. heng correct~ default alr? :D

one of the least stressful nights of the year. i dunno what i've been stressed with also... but it felt ultra relax tonite.

if i ever end up as a teacher, i'll have Gene to blame/thank. his little stories about the students, motivating them, befriending them and going beyond the academics restore some of the little aspirations and faith that i have :)

0-4

2010-01-20T01:35:00.003+08:00

one day i'll iterate my moves as quickly as i do for cchess. one day...

when will the day come?

it sucks to play chess when i hv no idea what i'm doing at all...

always feel so stuck :(:(

2010-01-18T23:53:00.003+08:00

for the first time at work, i feel rather proud of myself...

and i'm really beginning to enjoy working with my senior. he really understands what i'm talking abt and i'm beginning to forget the feeling of puke blood while doing projects.
YL also commented that i looked really happy in my discussion with my senior from his quick observation from walking past my cubicle :D

even our software engineer is a pro. she can remember signal equations! i dun even know where she learnt it from. disgusting yet pro!
to have software support in my algo work is ultra impt. and having a pro software engineer just makes it all the smooth and brings me to my end point quickier! :)

i rem at the last lm, shifu said that he enjoys working, bcos there will be 成就感。。。那时的我只能傻傻的看着他，现在有了一些体会！

i hope this sense of achievement will never end.

2010-01-18T00:52:00.003+08:00

i think that would be the only time i reject potato. and yet, i wasn't rejecting the potato, nor was i rejecting you, my dearest friend. i dunno what to say exactly, for words can't seem to place my intentions right. and i'm afraid, terribly afraid, that we ever misunderstand how much u mean to me. i shud hv taken up more writing classes, how do i express the conflict in my heart?

For more than half my life...

2010-01-18T00:41:00.002+08:00

I've known MYJARS~! :):)
oh yea. we've finally made it to this day..! I've been looking forward to it since dunno when... when we were so near yet not there...

And the ratio is just gonna increase... imagine when we attend shuwan's 80 70 year old birthday party (? she decided not to be too ambitious.. 70 years old will do) we would hv known each other for 50/70 years!!!! WOW.

快棋

2010-01-17T21:36:00.003+08:00

今天和iz下了两盘快棋，回味快棋的刺激。
many suicides, since he opens with the first suicide move to canon the 马，we don't dare to let each other keep our 马。。。 anything can let go, but the 马 must eat。
i don't think it's a wise move, but it was smth different, hence fun max.

以及重新面对自己对大局的疏忽的弱点。
期待着他可以抓住我的弱点的那一天。
Soon~

期待着对手。
找到了。可惜是错的棋。
正在努力学习，成为配得的对手！

Inspirations at work~

2010-01-15T18:19:00.007+08:00

having great colleagues, seniors and supervisors and chief ops analyst redeems the curse of Work & Associates.

the systems at daiso is not a friend of mine. blundered numerous, ranging from security to hr to even claiming for meeting refreshments. cui~ i should reconsider my ambitions of being a secretary. perhaps staying as ops analyst is a better/more suitable career track.

kaiyang helped me to repatch the LAN port, chingching had to make 2 trips over to my cubicle cos i'm such a noob. they move really quickly! inspiring~

the major proj has kicked off! my first major proj~ no, it's not going to take ten years. 1 year hokays. boss and chief has different conclusions alr, and this is where i'm going to be of value... the ops analyst must keep an objective mind, so there's zero conclusion in my mind now. what really amazed me is how the chief is so enthusiastic and came over to kopped all our files on day 1 to read over the weekend. that's crazzzy!!! inspiring~

除了肯定你会7am已经醒来，也大概只相信世界上只有你的morningcall会有效的把我从被窝里爬出来。或许请求morningcall也含有私心。。。原来早晨醒来听见你的声音会带来开心的reflex。要面对的现实却是屏幕上显示的号码，我已不认得，也无心收存，是不想让自己看到时又被无奈和痛苦困扰吧。

thehumantouch~

2010-01-14T19:03:00.003+08:00

my fave portions of Tuesdays with Morrie by Mitch Albom

Morrie, the author's thesis professor, diagnosed with a neuro disease, terminal. they talked abt a range of topics, the fear of aging, family, emotions, how love goes on, money, death, what would you write on your tombstone, the topics of life that are frequently masked by our worthless small talks.

Forget the culture
~*~
our culture tells us to be ashamed if we can't wipe our own behind. but then i figured, forget what the culture says.

(...)

i began to enjoy my dependency. now i enjoy when they turn me over on my side and rub cream on my behind so i don't get sores. or when they wipe my brow, or they massage my legs. i revel in it. i close my eyes and soak it up.

it's like going back to being a child again. someone to bathe you. someone to lift you. someone to wipe you. we all know how to be a child. it's inside all of us. for me, it's just remembering how to enjoy it.

the truth is, when our mothers held us, rocked us, stroked our heads - none of us ever got enough of that. we all yearn in some way to return to those days when we were completely taken care of - unconditional love, unconditional attention. most of us didn't get enough.

~*~

the tv host asked if Morrie was more afraid now that death was near. Morrie said no; to tell the truth, he was less afraid. He said he was letting go of some of the outside world, not having the newspaper read to him as much, not paying as much attention to mail, instead listening more to music and watching the leaves change colour through his window.

Love, is to be fully present. With all you are. You and that person in front of you.
~*~

I believe in being fully present. That means you should be with the person you're with. When I'm talking to you now, Mitch, I try to keep focused only on what is going on between us. I am not thinking about something we said last week. I am not thinking of what's coming up this Friday. I am not thinking about doing another Koppel show, or about what medications I'm taking.

I am talking to you. I am thinking about you.

~*~
Mitch has a professional singer as a wife. Morrie asks her to sing for him. Surprising to her husband, she does.

Morrie closed his eyes to absorb the notes. As my wife's loving voice filled the room, a crescent smile appeared on his face. and while his body was stiff as a sandbag, you could almost see him dancing inside it.

when she finished, Morrie opened his eyes and tears rolled down his cheeks. in all these years i have listened to my wife sing, i never heard her the way he did at that moment.
~*~

Allow yourself to be loved
this is perhaps one thing we often forget... while we push ourselves to love others, may we give ourselves some grace to be loved as well? :)

~*~
do i worry abt being forgotten after i died? - i don't think i will be. i've got so many people who have been involved with me in close, intimate ways. and love is how you stay alive, even after you are gone.

~*~
in the beginning of life, when we are infants, we need others to survive, right? and at the end of life, when you get like me, you need others to survive, right?

his voice dropped to a whisper. but here's the secret: in between, we need others as well.

Invest in the human family. Invest in people. Build a little community of those you love and who love you.

2010-01-10T16:58:00.003+08:00

human rights begin the day God gave us the freedom of choice
to believe in His existence or not.
to believe if He created us or not.
to believe if He loved us or made us for fun.
to believe that He has the power and control over all the universe
but He doesn't abuse His power

The loving God is always extending His hand to us
that He may embrace us.

It's sorrowful what human rights have absorbed us into.
Gotta be humbled...
what do i have that i have rightly earned?

when i look at the Orange Valley residents...
calling each other names, cry foul of sickness,
in need of attention and affection.

and what has seized us but what is common to man?
There is no difference.
When I realised there remains no man not struck by loneliness, I'm also not ashamed to admit I feel lonely and empty at times - the times when I lose the companionship of God, because I want to do what I want and heck care everybody.

The choices we made every so often turns around to eat us up instead.
I don't know why people love the concept of human rights so much.
I wished we could do without that.

Have we a right to be demanded to be loved?
Yet we are.

taptap craze revived

2010-01-10T01:15:00.004+08:00

After noticing Alex was away for quite some time on gchat.......

i knew i just had to call it to interrupt its streak.

Me: Stop playing taptap.

Alex: Eh! Don't call me! I'm plaaaying~

Me: Yes, stop playing. Go do work.

Alex: I've already knocked off.

Me: It's only 5pm.

Alex: My working hours are till 5.

Me: You've been away since 4.30pm.

Alex: I'll make up for it later. Ok now, I need to go play.

Some time earlier in the afternoon....

"I'll play just once" or smth to that effect :/:/

Balderdash!

===
Hai's streak is 500+ for Love Game! Siao liao..................... Alex's is 400+ for I don't care (at that is just from what i last heard..... ahhs)

There are 2 items for my action.

1. improve my taptap streak. get an ipod touch.

2. find a job with more flexi hours like knock off at 5pm so that i may do item 1.

Countdown to Bintan

2010-01-10T00:36:00.003+08:00

Oh yeah.
I got what I want. Lots of slacking time~~
The trip, in short, here.

http://xxlwanlxx.blogspot.com/2010_01_01_archive.html#820642602436060280

(honestly, she did it just for the Jetstar challenge organisers to think that we are happening lol. perhaps it worked!!! woohoohs~~)

My take.

The villa that got Mel and I excited~ hee. didn't disappoint~ woke up early enuf on day 2... got to appreciate the view from our living room. so tranquil~

until a black monitor lizard 1 foot long crawled across the view with long black slithy tongue flicking. erks.

struggled for some time whether i shud wake wan up for her camera. eventually did. but by the time i got down with the camera, it was gone :/

~the pond that pin say he will jump in to if he's the polar bear............. which he was. and no, he didn't jump in. empty promises! cheys!

i almost forgot abt it le. lol.

some other memborable stuffs...

our double countdown for singapore and then bintan. kena misled by fireworks sounds, led up and down and up slope... but it's really nice in the end~! bintan has hardly any people. really shioks~
HTHT on day 1 night~

it's our second holiday doing facial masks. lol. i think we shud do this every holiday! bring our own facial masks and do. woahs. so shiok la.

Sand therapy with Wan on the beach on 2nd day was especially good. and so was our afternoon alcohol :P

M was for MacBook Pro then...... to commemorate our year ending with the Discovery Race and chionging for 15" MBP.

Now I realise M is for the first exciting thing of the new year........ Macau! Oh yeah.

ATV by the beach and through the forest was really exciting...!!!

Rebec fell off the ATV... rebec is really brave... the bike must be how heavy cos jane couldn't push it up... and it was totally on her leg... on top is bike below is small rocks that left their dents on her pretty leg... alamaks. but she never really complain... salutes~
we watched Batman 3 days cos that's what HBO was showing... and i came up with my own joke!
What's Batman's bad habit?
Gambling (inspired from the Texas Holdem set permanently parked on our dining table lol)

Bcos he's BEtman! :D

we figured guys without wallets cannot marry... and guys with coin pouches build sweet homes~~ HMMMMMM. Guess who I'm thinking of now :P

===
wan and i dun think we'll head back to bintan anytime soon.

a week on, she says she look back at the photos and think it was a great time and place and will want to go back... but not anytime soon. lol. let's hear from her again next week~

===
There are times when i will begin to wonder if work will drift us, less time to talk/meet... but i feel that we shud rid our hearts of all doubts. cos it eats us up. and it's hardly ever true. nv doubt our friendships built.

tell me which other group gives books, page one vouchers, & home-made calendars for christmas presents anymore. and we almost all got our books right! cool man. i think i shud really go find my fave books and give them so i can borrow from them to read.........some time........... :D

there's a lot of power in human imagination. and it can go two ways. let it do good.

this is really unglam........... but heck it. it was fun~!

life shud b like this mah... dun fear... dun hold back..!

the early reunion

2010-01-10T00:19:00.004+08:00

family is a beautiful concept.

we came together bcos
1. jieying is going off to down under for studies
2. ada is going to give birth during cny/confinement

so we had a mega feast. i love the whole highland road filled with people and convos. and the younger cousins just grilling outside talking abt surviving overseas and food~

just without jieying doing an interpretative dance of her going away. awwwwwws.

food! everybody suddenly brought some food... yumyums.
i contributed the griller, portobello mushroom with mozzie cheese, & my fave bacon asparagus wrap~ :) quite ke lian to be my guests... must eat my fave food lol. but i must say it was really really populary okays~!! :P i resisted really hard to bring curly fries... hahaha. loved khusnul's chicken curry too~ yumyums.

===
played the singapore version pictionary for the first time... so that jieying will take off with some memories of sg. mrt station, all the foods (even tau huay - dialect?!), ORD lol. it's a very new experience cos er yi and jiu ma joined in the fun too~ jiu ma can draw reaaaally well! :)

and the board games begins....
biaojie's car boot is a walking board games cafe... she brought out Sequence which all the 9 cousins & partners played~ Sequence remains one of my fave starting games... gets everyone participating and suspensed. good for makan time also... need to think but not messy with cards :) but i shud nv buy Sequence & so many other games i love (think: Citadels) cos biaoge/biaojie alr has it...

after the younger cousins & the pregnant one left as the night grew on us, cj itched for Settlers. Hoho. Game on anytime. A quick tutorial for Joseph and we're building on... Placed the starters wrongly! Kena blocked, like almost from the beginning of the game. Nonetheless it was fun. Hai almost depleted the whole development cards deck lol. And she actually won like that.

In between all that, we had our tap tap challenge... and i won 3-0! Highest only abt 200+... When will i ever hit 400k?!!! Learnt from Alex that the 3 circles to hit actually give feedback

Green: On the beat
Blue: Hit but not exactly there
Red: Miss

woohoohs. the feedback keeps me closer to the beat, which improves my streak~ Oh Yeah.

2010-01-04T15:58:00.000+08:00

Counting on

2009-12-31T11:58:00.002+08:00

flashback to year 1999.

we were once all strangers, roaming near and far, well except rebec and mandy who dates back further :D accidental chats behind the scenes, literally, repels from other ~~ppl~~ person, taking 132 home together... i always love to recall the story of how we got together. fate is a mysterious thing, who we met, who drops out of our lives, and who stays on. Ppl whom we will keep in touch with and conversely.

year 2000.
stanley's class. rebec & mandy gladly presents us their D&T work, wood carved with our initials. in our respective house colours. mine's purple, for Hadley :) after some JAM and whatnot shufflings, MYJARS is born. Us. Soon, Jane does up our logo - awesome jar :) i can never draw it perfectly like her but it's OKAY :D that's why we learn to adore each other.

that year, we split into different classes. 10 classes we can go, all 6 different classes. what are the odds. (no, i'm not going to count that.)

JC was turbulent. fears kept pouring in. we fought hard. i fought really hard. for all the uncertainties i couldn't calculate, i know certainly who i treasure. i didn't know exactly how to show it. i prob didn't do a lot of things i'm supposed to do and did a lot of unnecessary stuffs. but it's okay, it's part and parcel of growing up.

we all made it to unis. pursuing our different dreams. ehh just that i didn't really hv a dream. not exactly, if we compare it with wan, so fixed on mass com and even the specialisation. hmm maybe all of us didn't really hv any dreams except wan. lol. 3 unis in singapore, all 3 trace our footprints. all different faculties.

and yet. the story doesn't end. in between all this, we shared some precious times together. JC saw us supporting rebec at her guitar perf... hoho. her short hair days. also mel and pin's badminton finals :) :) i was the crazy non-rafflesian screaming away in the crowds. there was a point in time when rebec told me, i'm on nobody's side but yours. that phrase struck deep into my heart. this is one friend i would never ever want to lose.

finally, uni is over. we all grad. we celebrated our 10th year at australia. with lots of wine. missed janejane there tho.

2009 comes to an end today. i dunno when we started hving this tradition of counting down together. some time in JC? should b at mel's place. from the bottom of my heart, i pray that it will never end.

as part of gainfully employed folks with greater spending power, we are hitting Bintan in x hours. it's exhilarating i must say. no mandy tho. next year this time, wherever we are, i hope MYJARS will be together counting down and sharing our new year resolutions together... all of us :):) and more? :D

Year 2010.
Our 12th year of friendship. PoWow.

私奔到月球

2009-12-29T20:55:00.003+08:00

Kpo'ed to join in Gary's proposal operation. It's really sweet what the guys did, a pseudo-trailer to play during the time ppl stream into the theatre. Didn't contribute in any way, so unfortunately don't think I'll be sharing the love here. This the song used in my fave part of their pseudo-trailer, the spark and the palm-reading LOL. Enjoy the song, 私奔到月球 by 五月天+陈绮贞 :)

at the end of the pseudo-trailer, it says to be continued...! That's right, love's sweetness never ends. Not with the proposal nor the marriage. Awwwwws.
===
just noticed that the spark section begins with a msn pop up with the sign in and that familiar msn sound, just like in the mtv :P

2009-12-29T20:16:00.002+08:00

It's tuesday. Last tuesday also same, just that nv take mc. Mega sians.

A balancing act, not

2009-12-29T01:38:00.003+08:00

It's not abt keeping a good balance.That is for the world, for the self-justified, for the nutritionalist and scientist.

There's only Yes or No. No maybe. No middle point, no compromise, no balancing act. If you're not a friend, you're a foe. No sitting on the fence.

The wise man has spoken again. In all seriousness. On reading it the second time, when I got to the word nutritionalist and read it again, with no intentions of disrespect, I totally cracked up. That's the way this is.

K.F.C

2009-12-28T17:56:00.002+08:00

Keep Files & Card.

Contemplating KFC.S - Keep Files & Card. SECURELY.

That's my one day worth of thinking. I should be thinking more. The culture is not diffusing into me. Yet?

2010 hopes & responsibilities

2009-12-27T22:11:00.004+08:00

generally, 2010 is gonna be a simple and peaceful year. walk out of depression. pick up the guitar. work out the legs. maybe not so much tennis or swim. less scraps. more people. friends, family, strangers. through board games, guitar, bakes. more languages. the hopes and responsibilities, in no order of priority:

hopes

pay off sleep debt, and try not to accumulate new ones. and yet. the day begins with a chalet. texas holdem. how to not not sleep.
clear off all scrap materials. it's not the way i want to go. but i dun wanna waste whatever i've alr bought. thankfully not too much.
play my board games to make them worth. perhaps less bridge. new game, pictionary singapore edition is in the house. awaiting ticket to ride europe. still a lil gianing for citadels. ahhs.
thai? no followup from nobody... it's always good to be prepared right? :P
definitely hokkien.
guitar. a few songs i definitely wanna master plucking. fix my quirky fingers. mighty to save. none but jesus. who am i. still. play from the heart. chasing cars. collide. kan goa eh chui.
sundown? probably not. definitely no nike run. probably not standchart. i'll just hit my neighbourhood runs. perhaps retry the familiar route to compassvale drive. or push it a lil further to punggol beach.
bake some cakes and cookies, perhaps bi-monthly. that'll be my christmas present to everyone next year. confirm. simple simple.

responsibilities

stay commited to j and z's studies. perhaps zz's too. it's a grey now, meeting weekly on sat. some vibes but no confirm guarantee chop. j is such a changed ~~man~~ boy... i shud not doubt. the youths. they're on a roll. meeting again for korean lunch tmr!?! if they meet on tues and wed and thurs is a default (watchnight prayer... prob roll into a stayover, it's just a matter of where. prob j's place this time). their number of consec days meeting is gonna hit 3 digit soon~ :D
march's induction.
june's anniversary celebration. currently clueless.
i have a wild imagination of what we can do at orange valley nursing home next year. it'll b a blast. it may just be the right time. so touched that angie and ft gave thanks for their orange valley caroling experience. it's time to be bold.
complete our aussie scrap!

my job is to fulfil all of them. and yet to some, i will not be successful. gotta prioritise.
gonna leave that now for some other day :P

Sharing our Christmas love~

2009-12-24T03:33:00.005+08:00

The sdp gang's first christmas celebration. first, bcos i believe there will be many more :):) well, at least til Jordan fulfil his dreams of maple land.

there is some good chemistry brewing in this group :) perhaps bcos of our monthly treats. feels good to hv ppl treating and treating in return rather than going dutch all the time :) which makes the concept of sharing ever more real with this gang.

the gifts. love guojun's gift to kenny: carebear magic mug and calendar!!! i'm cheer bear! woohs

jump in front of vivo tree. and yet. the point of this photo is jordan's photography skills! he place the flash somewhere so zun that the shadows so nice~

my gift from jordan :) super a lot of patterny flavours! i couldn't resist trying one... to which the taste both zi and i can't decipher... doesn't taste fruity at all... aka taste floral?? super fragrant and familiar... lovely~~ after jordan went back to do research, it's jasmine! WOW. no wonder it's 七里香。and it must hv been familiar bcos of jasmine green tea lol. yummys. chocs from Choco World.

one of the best Italian dishes i've tasted in singapore. Casoncelli Alla Bergamasca from Modesto's. The spinach pasta dish is also really nice, but the cheese is really thick and can make u feel full and sick quickly. Good to share :)

happened to be doing props and costumes before meeting the gang. almost thot cannot meet... phews. so z, zzz, darius and bbt joined us for dinner :)

Jordan takes the best photos man. LOL.

Credits: Jordan Tan, http://jimaging.wordpress.com/

I see you

2009-12-23T16:16:00.005+08:00

a simple avatar 3d movie outing on monday night turned into a stayover. hai and i wondered if the Leows and the Liaos would just decide to meet on wednesday too. that'd be a roll of seeing each other for consec 13 days everyday, beginning from day 1 of church camp last sunday.

come tuesday afternoon, they (cos i had to work... sniffsniff) surprise us. they awake to decide to stay for another night. we just love seeing each other. morale is very very high!!! ^^

couldn't wait for work to end after receiving that news. what to wear was immaterial. wa, i vaguely had a feeling of returning home when i stepped into the house and see all my fave people, less sihui who was working. machiam wanna buy big house and give each other a room... so that we dun hv to squeeze machiam x people, x >= 5 people on 2 mattresses. shiokshiok. that night, we realise we will meet again in less than 24 hours when we awake the next day for another stayover with the same people and more the next day!?!

machiam reach home must pack bag again.

===
struck by disasters on both nights. first night, we were eating at gluttons bay. i spilled payaya juice over the costumes! thankful that my jacket was covering over them... so it wasn't that bad... looks gross and stink by the time we got to the Leows residence tho. thanks zoe for helping to wash off the payaya juice on the costumes! :) it also started raining halfway of makan'ing... siao liao... 2nd night is funny to think back on... but quite stress/intense at that moment... we must rem to stay honest and don't prank le! :P

it's been great sharing the times of disasters together:):) pray that the next stayover has less disasters~

===
will keep our laughters from prayers in my heart too~ :)

we couldn't settle down to really pray. keep laughing and laughing :P zoe praying for j's eyebags... j pausing after the first sentence "Dear God....................................... *insert j's trademark sweep hair look* wa v long nv pray alr... what's the next sentence..?" "dear God, i pray that doomsday don't come"

iz's "thank you God for teaching us an impt lesson today..." v hard to conc la. as it is, aft he prayed everyone was asking what's the lesson?? ahhs. how could these monkeys forget. the lesson of honesty... and dun prank!!! :P

then iz forgot to pray for bbt's love life & caroling.
"pls bless muhtian's love life... he is getting old alr..." :D:D:D

then iz forgot to pray for caroling. "dear God, pls don't let there be major cock ups... just a few cock ups..."

LOL.
===
bonds are special. if i may draw the analogy from the sci-fiction avatar, u hv to choose the flying creature but the flying creature must also choose you. plus the "antenna" on each side must connect within that short time. otherwise poofs. all is gone.

and yet. we are one in the bond of Christ. for ever.

Companionship

2009-12-21T02:48:00.004+08:00

My new best friend is the needle. There's a strange momentum. spun out x costumes over the 2 days... gets prettier :P screwed up darius' cos it was the first... thankful that darius can still say cos it's shepherd so got patchwork... :P

while sewing. heard a cry outside. a very familiar sound... that of my fave boy, weiwen's. cham liaos. chi tao put down all thread and needle and rush out. he was on the floor hailing away. dun care if it's fake. one aim. get him off the floor and standing up again. hid in the meeting room w him. everythg i hear next was painful. the thing about kids is no matter how naughty they can be, how they backstab each other, when they are not backstabbing, everything they say about their feelings, count it to be true. everyone needs a friend. the eternal truth.

how do ppl who grow up drift? no longer friends? i've doubted even for myself. and yet. the wise man and i are speaking and smiling again. the lie is exposed. friends who grow up together can nv drift too far from each other.

gained newfound understanding in sihui and iz. there is comfort in understanding. there u know you no longer hv to explain. cos friends understand, and those who don't, you don't hv to explain to them anyways. nonetheless i did try to explain. dun think it helped. hence that statement was true.

~~why are~~ human relationships so complex. must watch tone, timing, etc. careful not to hurt each other. and yet. ownself must find satisfaction in the relationship. alamaks.

the desire for companionship can consume us. and yet. when we give ourselves up, we'll find the best companion. anyone would be a great companion when we give ourselves up.

===
adam found himself no suitable helper. he fret not. God sent him into a deep sleep. when he awoke, there she was, woman. flesh of his flesh. perfecto.

Lapsed

2009-12-19T11:04:00.003+08:00

the dreaded has happened.

i left S on the desk and happily went for my leave. nv lock the cabinet also. received a long email abt the seriousness of things. ahhs. i really hv no reasons to defend myself.

shifu says "you have to force yourself to be careful". yes lo, by nature i am cui-ly blur, i just hv to make a concious effort and "force" myself to be careful.

YL shared w me that he will be v scared that he nv lock up and will come back to check. guess i'll be doing much of these in the near future :(:( the difference may be that he actually always got lock... but for me... i hv zero confidence in myself on this :/

===

that morning, i arrived at workplace without my staff pass, secure token and cabinet keys (the third is useless in light of what has happened while i was away). took cab fro and to work. 30bucks. ahhhhhhhs. attention really lapsed man. how can forget this kind of thing de?!! :(:(

===

thankful for the seniors who made the effort to help me lock up and keep the document... at first i was v sian, v embarrassed and fearful... turn out that they were really doing me a favour... even the email about the seriousness of things is for my good. jenny shared w me what would hv happened if they did not keep for me and instead it was the security dept who found it during their random checks. this incident will definitely stick in my mind.... hmm it better does... I'll force myself to be careful!!!

GAY

2009-12-19T10:48:00.002+08:00

is 21+2 in 2 days! had a early birthday celebration for her together with xiao :):)

a lot of gay things la. like cos xiao treated when she started work and we haven't, we treated. somemore sc not ard, so 2 of us just treat xiao. woohsay~!! :D just imagine how we 一唱一和 to get to this good deal. God did a great job in syncing gay and my frequencies man.

need water. idea'ed to get into a restaurant sit down and just ask for ice water. FREE. hahahha. just dun go into secret recipe.

dingding may just b gg USofA to study. if it's Caltex. woohsay liao. we can all go visit Uncle Sam next next year already. afterthought: for this, dingding shall be decreed to go Caltex. lol.

ask abt zhengjie before asking abt me. "ask about zhengjie is asking abt u ma" champion.

the one thing we are passionate abt. sparked from danchi appointed as delegate to the coppahagen talks. gay's basketball. heng they nv say mine is *ahem*. pretty things it is. phews. xiao say she passionate abt nothing. is it abnormal? very deep. shud dig this topic out again soon.

===
among my many friends, i count my girl friends the most precious. we just can't hv enuf of each other. esp with the hiaktus cos gay is always bz mugging. so, stayover next tues. ahhs. more sleep debts. but i know it'll b so so worth it. i hv the next sem to catch up on sleep while gay hit the books again.

woodlands sausage party

2009-12-19T10:32:00.004+08:00

the name i (am not supposed to) prefer over the monthly bbq :D

oh yea. the thing better than sausages? TAIWAN SAUSAGES~~~!!!!

'nuff said about the food. sorry that i didn't fulfil my promise of even eating 2 chicken wings. the taiwan sausages was just too good :P

===
the trio of alex, gary and damon was pretty entertaining. i dunno if we completed the shanghai chapter or moved on to the nus chapter. had a good laugh. they hv really good mo qi.

===
and aaron brought the cards, with wai and myself around, ever-ready, we started bridging tog w chong yee :):)

what a week of bridge fixes!

wai was wondering if bridge is an anti-social activity. hoho. it is. cos i didn't get to talk to the other half of the ppl around. heehee. dunch care can. sometimes i hate wai for thinking all this right things. ahhhs. dun make me give up my loves.

===
wai was drawing money and asked whether want to re-spark that crazy bet we had a year-ish ago. whoever has more money in the bank to treat the other to a meal. that time we were both broke. we wrote our balance on a cui strip of paper to be opened by the other. he was more broke than me. ridiculous times. not confident of whether i'm the poorer, i cheated and looked straight into his balance. alamak. shud hv bet la. somebody hv turned the tides and soared man :):)

===
the thought that ran thru my mind the moment i alighted at admiralty?
wai is gg pangsei.
feel quite bad for doubting. i just couldn't believe how it was possible to come to this far place to meet new friends.
a friend in deed is a friend indeed.

Bridged

2009-12-19T10:01:00.005+08:00

with the sr9 shifu, joel and yiqi + the i still pref not to hv exams david mak lol.

v glad to see yiqi who has ninja'ed (MIA) for 2 years. 稀客ah! Caught up on how she's landed in Alexandra TOO (oh man, bridge over lunch seems like a near possible now), in the past 2 days abt piles scare and what's gonna happen in the next 2 years. pray that her wish for lim chu kang's rose garden may just weave the way through the old folks. then she started talking abt her trip to thailand... and shifu got totally distracted liao. hahahaha. no turning back, no turning back.

joel got darker, again. it's crazy. looks like scdf is giving him a lot of sun. yiqi and i was still complaining over dinner how work deprives us of sun. i need vit D!!! it's good to go out with joel cos we are 同乡~! haha. can take train back together. hear more stories abt his gf, staying at jalan smth for training and the things that go on inside.

mak is still full of expressions. the way he bids is super qiang also. ambitious. i like. he can suddenly go from PP* to bid to 3 spades bcos he found a hidden card :P PRO. and he won that game. (cos i was his partner) (and shifu was sitting beside me) LOL.

shifu shared his stories about india. ahhs. the noisy streets. how they horn to signal overtaking, turning etc. to signal just them being there. we laughed at how they are like bats/operate based on sonar :D shifu's ringtone is now a thai song, as observed by "i'm now very sensitive to thai" yiqi :P

===
the bridge.

*PP: Permanent Pass. to be used when u give up on all bidding.

we've also talked about the twist - bid for one suit and call for partner in another suit. we can't rem who started it exactly, probably Janice, the systematic of us all :P

mak thot shifu called 8 spades to be partner. no, we do not call 8 spades to be partner. if anything, it'll be 2 spades LOL. and yes, we've done it before. i think we've done everything together before. 3 years of bridging ~~ceaselessly~~ wor. anyways, it was Ace spades. D'oh~! :D

“4点，5点，不是很好。。。” i was lamenting over my rally of cui cards.
at the same time:
me: 6点，天亮了，会比较好
shifu: (looking at his watch) 5点半，好不好？

it was soooooo coming. hahaha.
tho i'm strongly anti-lame, with these ppl, i'm just able to spout lame :P

===
we were talking about recording a video of our bidding and playing. then we got to how we actually did it before... not of our bidding tho. amongst many videos that we've done, there's on about FLYING PIG!!!! wai do u rem this?? :P :P

===
how it sparked

when our junior amos continued our tradition of camping in a archi seminar room (SR) to mug... and alaMAK had to comment tt he hope that they are really studying and not bridging. history hv it that one fateful day when we are done w lunch, cards appeared on the table HAHA. at our first game, makmak just hv to walk into the room and exclaimed "what Are YOU ALL DOING??~!" in his funny tone. as if we r doing anythg crazy. haha. and so we've built a reputation for ourselves. yet we maintain our innocence. that was just a first game~~~~ nonetheless the bridging never stopped. but we really really got study. and when we study, it's v focus one okays.
===

yellow, for our colour of the day. 3/5 wore yellow~! woohs. mo qi ehh :D not this shade tho, the real shade's too hurting for the eye to read :P

soft spots

2009-12-18T00:48:00.009+08:00

weiwen, my confi boy. we were playing dun forget the lyrics. the song was give thanks. he scored totally.

give thanks with a grateful heart
give thanks to the holy one
give thanks bcos he's given jesus christ his son

and now, let the weak say i am strong
let the poor say i am rich
_______ ___ _____ ___ _____ _____ ______ ___ __

he fumbled at first try,
because of what the has Lord done for us

and yet. he totally scored when he corrected himself at the second go.
because of what the Lord has done for us...
AND he finished off the song
...give thanks~~

AHHHHS. i saw that beam on his mother, grace's face... in that moment i totally want to go up and hug him cos i'm so proud of him~!!!!!!

ss tried to psycho him to change answer but he stood so firm. powow. how to not love him.

that moving image is weien who can never stay still. super AA. it was sooooo a weiwen moment still want to steal limelight. haiix.

elecia and nathania. the younger version of me and hai. for z and j. lol. i was quite shocked at some things that elecia did, much more daring than me :/

good that nathania is for j. otherwise i sure lose.

pardon me, why is iz looking at hai like THAT?!! no, i'm not jealous. i'm just asking WHY. even then, he looks really cartoon :P btw, that's the tie sihui and i shopped for him to wear for caroling. hoho. he wore 2 days straight :P yes, i am beaming.

it's still weiwenyap that takes my heart when he took a plate of watermelon for me. ahhhhhhhs. the sweetest watermelon i've ever eaten la~!!

i sincerely pray that z is not seeing this.

"Hello!"

2009-12-18T00:32:00.004+08:00

ultra excited now bcos ptb sent me a msg to hv coffee. excited max. and yet. i'm too stunned to reply. can't wait to see kk to get advice. alamak!!!

===
hohoho. got my advice. and yet. i dun dare to reply still. orh man.

===
i'm getting a phobia with msg titled "Hello!" it's the xth msg i dunno how to reply. most outstanding is the one from mingwei. stunned max. the social bee in me has flown to dunno where man.

church camp highlights

2009-12-18T00:05:00.002+08:00

i found enough courage to do a lot of things that i wouldn't hv done otherwise.

the most memorable event is when i've mustered enough courage to pray with sihui. it felt really weird cos there were so many ppl ard. i dun want ppl to start crowding her and asking if she's alright. but it was a moment. yknow how i believe in moments. now or never. i chose. now. it's a new beginning. of faith. of stepping out. of being a david. of denying ourselves and all our rights and stretching out our hands to pull up everyone around. that we may build each other up. to be for each other.

bridged the gap to josh, iz and darius. not quite sure if it's right. yet. at least can feel josh is talking asked iz the most impt qn and it was positive. really glad. it's the beginning of sleep debts tho. ahhs. nvm. invest in ppl is very worth it. was very seih on the last day and blurted this out to darius... was semi afraid i'd stun him. but he actually responded well that i was listening to the sermon. phews.

invest in ppl is really worth it. i love the prawns without shells :P especially when it's from...............shhh. okok i'm just crapping. cleared the air. so apparently nobody said. i hope he wasn't lying.

played soccer with ss, darius and josh with a tennis ball. it's crazy. shag max. i opt out for the next day's soccer with a real soccer ball. not enough guts to shag out for that. tennis is waaaaaay better. was playing a match with darius but didn't get to complete it cos time was against us. tho not quite too. honestly i was v tired to finish it off also. sibei a lot of deuce. tired max.

gymed with the girls :):) it's really fun to do it without guys, less darius which is more of boy than guy so not counted. hahaha. can fool around and be lousy. dry pool-ed too. quite amazing everyone is all quite interested in pool somehow. guess it's quite an adult game and any youth is interested in any thing adult-y?!! queer. somehow my pool improved. think got more strength now. tried the curious backhand and it worked. powow.

there were still stuffs that i'd love to do but didn't... wanted to spend the last night just talking and sharing abt the past days or even months or year and the coming days or months or year... but i didn't hv enough confidence that everyone will b comfortable or that i'd know what to say... it's crippling, the need to be in control. and yet. i know one day we'll overcome. the ice between us will be broken down. in the name of love. i believe. and when the moment come, i will not let it go again :):)

Disentangle

2009-12-13T10:01:00.001+08:00

every new beginning begins from some other beginning's end
of all the things i love to possess, the champion is past

overnight mj

2009-12-10T18:39:00.004+08:00

To me it happened in the spur of the moment. Was coming back from lunch, when J*nny, Dav*d and Sp*ncer were asking about playing mj. That was Tuesday. We did it on Wed. Came to know on Wed night, when we were all washed up alr, that Jenny held her own reservations if we were just fooling around but she brought her change nonetheless. I was also quite surprised at how onz they were and how easy the date was fixed.

Had our quick dinner, bought snacks - ruffles & tao kae noi, drinks, cup noodles and off to S's house. While waiting for D to arrive from his salsa class, we watched Man vs wild. That host ate the maggot alive - it almost looked like it was doing x crunches - with juice and blood squirting out. Eeeeeeeeeeeeeeews. He subsequently killed a snake, cut off its head, killed a boar, killed a sheep and took out its innards and dumped his clothes in and used it as a buoy to cross a river. Primitive MAX.

mj was good the nicest set was S' wan zi duidui. i had to bao everything cos we were nearing the 7.5 and the winning tile was a fresh tile AND he alr had 9 wan zi out. heng no need to bao x3...ultimate combi la. and so i was the biggest and only loser :( :( s still at first say never win at his own house before.

sang some wu bai songs. and j has the whole Secret album in her phone. wa damn shiok. ruffled. didn't touch the cup noodles cos somehow we were all v full.

seih. switched to my most lousy card game - big2. haiiiiix. i only won 1 game out of more than 20 games?! truly my most lousy card game man.

K.O.

===
glad to find some ppl with a life at workplace... played board games with them once alr. tog w yl & gf too. really nice and considerate and funny ppl. can talk abt office ppl also. heehee. nobody's mean tho. which is really the best part :):)

2009-12-09T19:14:00.002+08:00

"Only put off until tomorrow what you are willing to die having left undone." - Pablo Picasso

my first read tells me that i shud/can stop working cos i'm willing to die leaving those things undone. go do other stuffs - leave a legacy with z, j, supergirl, weiwen, huiyi. reading a second time, it sounds more like it's asking us to do all that we can do today. don't put off til tmr cos u'll regret dying having left it undone.

nonetheless, it sounds nice. cos it's long and will most probably invoke a green wave in microsoft office calling "fragment".

2009-12-09T16:43:00.001+08:00

It's back today.

Caroling's sounds & sights ^^

2009-12-09T16:32:00.002+08:00

Had the first thorough run of the caroling skit with choir and cast in. Harmonising sounded really great :P (i wasn't singing). BBT didn't disappoint with his backdrop painting too :):) Gonna get the fabrics tmr. No time to zest up jt's contemporary solo. or rather build up her confidence that she can just dare to do her beautiful thing.

As expected, we're all plunged into the carol+skit thingy that we've not hokkien'ed. ahhhs. Need to list out the phrases to learn real soon.

===
The latest visit to Orange Valley Nursing Home saw me, hai, jt and zoe talking to an old lady with (chronic) ankle/leg pain. She asked us to pray that Jesus come and bring her home quickly. How do we pray that? and yet. we could only comfort her and talk to her. we sang kan kua eh chiu tog for her... the need for healing, for companionship, ahhs. Only Jesus can fill this spiritual hole.

sneak peeked at zoe knowing the significance of this song to her, but she was so so strong. or at least she didn't show it. great girl.

===
May the day when I neglect my friends for the youths never ever come. Scold me if I do neglect.

Plunge slower-ly

2009-12-07T00:20:00.002+08:00

Discovery Race. Out.

Even before the kick-off, I already knew we had a disadvantage. There were no clues to be solved. The 4 checkpoint venues will be given in the envelope. No clues to solve. Our combined knock-out-all intelligence will be zero utilized. Major sads. This will be reduced to a product knowledge and physical race I thought. But I was so wrong. Because the pile of research I have done did not come to use at all. It was entirely a physical race.

By the time we reached the first checkpoint, dozen other teams have reached. Plausibly cause they ran from Dhoby Ghaut to Somerset or they manage to catch the train we narrowly missed. Shuwan and I wondered if we shud have ran, but we thot, no, we would be even slower than if we had taken the second train. Haha. Leg short, bo bians. Some more never train :S

Checkpoint 1. Rip open clue. Given 12 placards. On each placard there's "We <3>". To find 2x3 shoppers to take photo with 3 of the placards. Snap snap snap. Move on.

Checkpoint 2. EHHHH. how come the clue looks exactly the same??!! Snap photos with 1x3 other shoppers.

Rain big time. Run from Suntec to bugis in the rain. By this time, Shuwan and I have individually decided that our race marshall cannot make it. She keep asking us to take bus and don't run. She super cannot keep up with us. Arghs. How can the limiting factor in a race be the race marshall assigned?!?! And we are also pissed that she told us not to take a certain bus from Central to Suntec. we estimate that we lost 5 min bcos of that. NEVER EVER LISTEN TO OTHER PPL when u hv a best partner already, we've concluded in our AAR.

Checkpoint 3. OMG. SAME CLUE AGAIN??! Take another 3 photos :/

Comes the long ride from Bugis to IMM. Met up with Jane & partner at bugis mrt~!! They are damn qiang. After we deserted them at Central, they actually went to Bugis, run to Suntec, finish the task and run back to Bugis to take train. Wan & I vaguely don't understand why they didn't run to City Hall, but I guess it doesn't matter. Cos they are damn qiang. Run more is good haha.

A quick comparison also led wan & i to realise that... we did something really wrong. Each photo taken must be a different Apple product. OH NO. Thankfully, Wan had been trying to use different Apple product placards at each stop. Honestly, I had zero concept of that. Totally just plunged into it. So glad to have wan as partner lar. And yet. We had 3x MacBook Pro photos - see how much we want it, keep taking photo with it :/ We tried to play punk, ask race marshall if can just take all the remaining photos at IMM. But... I know cannot one la... Must go back de.. Wan also agreed. The other thing is each checkpoint the <3 is different colour, so machiam no play punk :( Anyways, we decided just go ahead with IMM first then return to Bugis before chionging back Dhoby Ghaut.

Final checkpoint. IMM. Apart from taking the final 3 photos with supposedly the remaining 3 product placards, we are to create a 2010 calendar using the 12 photos on iPhoto. Not too tough. But too bad we didn't have the 12 distinct photos. Yet.

Chiong back Bugis. After quickly making up the 2 photos, we began creating the 2010 calendar. Drag and drop photos. Create calendar. Sufficiently intuitive. iPhoto is so user-friendly la~ Except on certain months, the template is such that u are supposed to put like 9 photos?!! So wan say just drag the photo 9 times. I was looking more for the Layout button which is not available in the topbar. Sians. Drag 9 times. Seriously it looks really funny, but I was damn stress at that time. Knowing that Janejane has done all the right photos and is prolly heading to the finishing line at that moment. Cleared mind. Finally see the layout button at bottom of app. iPhoto crashed. Sian big time. How can any Mac thingy crash?!! Reload. Good that the calendar is still there. Finish up the calendar. Cannot find the save button at all. Import etc no use. Screenshot. Super slow. Gan cheong. Called Apple King. Super disappointed at the staff who dunno how to save out the calendar into a thumbdrive. Staff finished screenshoting. Janejane sms'ed that they've reached and are not through. SIAN. we left the Bugis Epicentre walking. Sad. Disappointed.

And we know we are best friends because of this. It's alright to tell each other how disappointed we are. There's no blaming each other. There's only blaming the train, the race marshall who tell us don't take bus 14, the race marshall who wanted to make us take bus from Suntec to bugis (but thankfully we learnt to ignore her), the race marshall who can't keep up with us, and that we are of the weaker sex. Short legs, both of us, to top that. Of cos I feel apologetic that I didn't read the instructions properly. But even so, Janejane also didn't make it through so we are not going to bother about us not reading the instructions well. Only external factors count. Haha.

Post-race lunch at ichiban sushi. which was where we ate after smrt challenge last year too :) the difference is after eating ichiban sushi, we moved on to a surprising 5th place. No change of luck/position this time round. Nonetheless it was a great meal. Fave soft shell crab handroll. Fave beef curry rice. Woohs.

Next challenge: Jetstar Lightsaver Challenge. Woohoohs~! Must plunge slower-ly~!! :)

7 days

2009-12-01T15:58:00.002+08:00

immunity system's MTTF :(
sniffsniff.

MTTF: Mean Time To Failure

YongLiang: (work) sounds good... got work means got chance to perform ma

:):

National Geographic's International Photography Contest 2009

2009-11-30T17:20:00.006+08:00

my fave two out of the 29.

ahh... so sweet to grow old tog and stay in love~ it reminds me of one of the oldies that weilei used to sing

i want to hold you til i die
til we both break down and cry
i want to hold you til the fears in me subside

yea, it's not abt falling in love. the tough part is staying in love. remain as pillar of support to calm all the fears within.

simply awesome this.

smth good is in store

2009-11-26T22:02:00.006+08:00

let's just say that i did think about it for v long. from the 2nd when it was raised... to the 3rd and then to the 4th, i've been honestly thinking abt it on and off. nv sure if the proposal was just some rubbish or sincere. now my fave song involves C#m which sounds really cui with a cui 6th fret :/ time for a new guitar. for myself. for gene. and so i've agreed to teaching gene guitar. siao liao. i hate to say this, but it's prolly another self-sabo.

~ what would i do with a lousy student?

~ what would u do with ur lousy students?

and yet. let's believe smth good is in store.

===
as i run thru in my mind gene's anedotes, his tactics is to show that he is in control and stronger than the students. shall adopt this if the need arises :P

"Why are you here?"

2009-11-26T20:49:00.002+08:00

with choking laughters.

in my seih state, i couldn't tell if the cause of exclamation was you or here. or both. that was alex's welcoming greeting when i finally found "downstairs". idiot. i need an autopsy of the gchat.

this is our xth time miscomm. i really dunno why it just happens. somehow. looking on the bright side, at least we met. without any side waiting. at the right place. lots of improvements haha.

what didn't change was that he dealt me matter-of-fact instructions.again.
"yknow the corners of dining tables? you're not supposed to sit there"
"i always do that"
"arh. cannot"

after which i was showed around the place, read off 殷勤不可懒惰，要珍惜光阴。。。and bcos “过门是客”， i was offered (and of cos i took) Reese's and Mr. Goodbar and Ipoh coffee which is also available at.................. ntuc :D looking forward to sinking my teeth into Mr. Goodbar.

===
alex has the same habit as 公公 to leave some lights on when everybody leave the house so that bad (and stupid) ppl will not attempt to break-in. maybe it's some malaysian thingy... shall ask weizi and gene one day, if i rem.

===
seih-ed from a 3hr meeting. my conservative estimate was 2.5hr... boss just has to impress me that he is really cheong hei.... haha.

2009-11-26T20:45:00.003+08:00

did i not trust ptb or did i not trust ptb enough? not enough faith or no faith simply? don't really regret the decision, just wondering if i've missed out one exciting chapter of faith in my life. yet i know if it's meant to be, the roads will lead me there somehow. to the green pastures where i may rest :)

===
jinrui got his wish to be her ~~personal assistant~~ project executive. we were rubbishing abt 30min lunch, 30min board games... honestly, that would be really nice. board games everyday. hosei.

make merry

2009-11-25T17:35:00.003+08:00

the corridors are greeting "hark the herald angels sing~~" and "joy to the world" :) :) pleasantly surprised that the company plays christmas carols... very nice atmosphere :)

it's also the day to celeb nov babies today :) all the impt ppl to my career has bday in nov! buddy, mentor, supervisor and lab head! wow wow wow. nov is a great month to hv produced all these wonderful ppl. it's been suggested bcos 9 months before nov is feb = chi new year month = good to hv babies month :D

there's a suggestion to head to Universal Studios for our retreat end jan... if it doesn't open by then, we'll just wait til it opens. supposed to be open before next cny which is mid feb. quite excited :D only been to one disneyland so far. and it was beautiful. i'm sure universal studios will be charming too :P

merry merry.

2009-11-24T14:12:00.001+08:00

bold.

Requests & Promises

2009-11-23T23:27:00.002+08:00

Was teaching Sunday school and showed the kids the flower to be used as prop for the caroling skit - yea, the purple flower from muh tian :) the kids loved it. but there's only one at that time... so i promised them i would definitely bring one for each of them the following week. all except wei en had that disbelieving/don't understand look. i asked them if they believed that i would bring one for each of them next week? wei en said he believed me... the rest kept quiet. i repeated my promise and asked them again... this time more believed... though i've been just saying the same thing. and i know i would do just that - a flower for each of them as i've promised.

i wonder if this is the same with Jesus... that he has promised us, and he will do it... but sometimes somehow in our circumstances we don't see it/can't believe it... but you know what? He will still do it nonetheless. He still calls out to us and wants to fulfil our deepest need of companionship with God.

Jesus says, in John 14,
Let not your heart be troubled: have faith in God and have faith in me.
In my Father's house are rooms enough; if it was not so, would I have said that I am going to make ready a place for you?
And if I go and make ready a place for you, I will come back again and will take you to be with me, so that you may be where I am.
And you all have knowledge of where I am going, and of the way to it.

Jesus says unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man comes unto the Father, but by me.
He who puts his faith in me will do the very works which I do, and he will do greater things than these, because I am going to my Father.
And whatever request you make in my name, that I will do, so that the Father may have glory in the Son.
If you make any request to me in my name, I will do it.

====
Go tell Jesus every hopes and dreams :) He is the way, the truth and the life :) God bless y'all. hugs!

====
okays that's like word for word off the email. Ahhs. Super no time. So now, i can only blog off emails and quotes :/ pardon me. i'll update as best as i can okays.

finally ~~translated~~ ripped off the Chinese Bible for the caroling skit~! Phews. Can't wait for the world to be speaking one language. I hate things. Makes me stress at work. Keep consciously stopping myself from editing the caroling skit at work cos that's just so wrong and irresponsible.

yet, i'm still excited. all the more excited after first cut on sunday :) faith is rising... the youths are rising :):)

Buy peace

2009-11-23T11:15:00.003+08:00

"For every year of peace that we have, it's because of our investment in defence"

Though I don't fancy the idea of peace having to be bought, i do believe that world peace is an ideal (ie. cannot be achieved) in this resource-dry, power-hungry world. Only by ~~throwing~~ investing significant sums can we possibly keep our families from being bayoneted and hung from trees. or blown up into fragments smaller than pieces of a 1000-pcs jigsaw.

yet none of this will prevent the third world war. what has to come, has to come.

===
i don't like the way 2012 ended. it's as if man can always cherish a hope that we will not be wiped out. dream on folks...

i dunno why the movie wants to link with "Noah" (the son of the protagonist who boringly never dies) and an ark. If it wants to make reference to Noah's ark, then it's -6000 and not 2012.

yknow how the continents looked as if they could fit tog? left of africa and right of south america, left of north america and right of asia. did the earth expand, brought forth oceans and cracked the lands..? i shall read up on geography one day... despite my huge lack of interest :/

Curved & straight. Left and right.

2009-11-22T23:06:00.003+08:00

bloated? Print screen'ed and drew straight lines over.

The famous dancer. Finally can see it clockwise. But still can't do the consciously switch the girl from anti to clock or clock to anti. rarrs.
http://www.news.com.au/couriermail/story/0,23739,22556678-23272,00.html

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what we see is really not what we get sometimes.
keep thinking abt alex's (inconclusive?) statement abt things can go two ways. think about J's diverging paths that seemingly only point one way. slightly resigned, yet slightly can't stand to let things be. ahhs. heard both the teacher and the student's perspectives... torn.

While wasting 1hr to upload vid to YouTube...

2009-11-21T22:33:00.005+08:00

we self-entertained with Photo Booth :P
check out our smiles despite our super fatigue.

the organisers of Discovery Race should hv trial ran their tasks. The internet connection was so slow~! Took 1 hour to upload our 41.2 MB, 2 min SHORT video zzz. we almost wanted to buy Scoopz - Durian flavour~!! wait until rot man. thank goodness got wan to self-entertain and high with me.

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fail to prepare, prepare to fail.

we prepared~! we came in at a pretty comfortable time. i'm highly confident we'll move into the semis on 5th Dec :) macbookpro.macbookpro.macbookpro. 17".

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shuwan and i are really competitive. her burst sprints are super scary. but my stamina will allow me to catch up with her heehee. which makes us great partners :) plus she uses mac and i use-d iPhone and nano. we will conquer the world... haha.

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Mon evening. Desiree Lee (the event organiser whom wan finds so familiar that we begin mentioning her by name) sms'ed us that we are in to the semi-finals on 5 Dec! Jane & her fren got thru to semis too~!!! Woohoohs. Wan in her cute way says now we are on our way to 15" and 13" MacBook Pro. Woohoohs.

5 Dec, Plaza Sing. Be there to see us get thru to finals on 6 Dec~!! And help us answer some tough Mac questions if you can :P

2009-11-21T21:57:00.002+08:00

just to share the funniest comment i've ever heard in a intended-to-be-scary movie. paranomal activity.

the video timing zoomed through the night. slowed down at 3ish? and everytime the video timing zoom, u know smth is gonna happen. primed for horror.

the girl climbs out of bed, zonked, stands beside the bed and just stares eerily at the guy.

the video zoomed on for another 40 min. swaying but just occasionally.

"wah she can go and do invigilation~"

ah, occupational hazards?!!?