Where never Lark, or even Eagle flew

2011-02-12T15:13:00.001+08:00

visited 28 states (56%)
Create your own visited map of The United States

2011-02-12T15:07:00.003+08:00

Is it just me, or no one blogs about anything anymore ever since Facebook came about? Clicking on all the links to friends' blogs shows how much blogs have fallen into disparity. Its just that much easier to post pictures on facebook! (and more fun)

Its amazing how much information gets kept online but never gets lost..

2008-03-17T06:13:00.001+08:00

A very good summary of Spring Break 2008!

Blog Entry!
http://livingonapearl.blogspot.com/2008/03/nola-spring-break-2008.html

Pictures!
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2418506&l=06f5a&id=7957324

2008-01-18T06:34:00.000+08:00

I learned about the short history of Astronomy today in Spacecraft Dynamics! Prof Lightsey talked about how common people in ancient times used to have a higher competency in astrology then those today. This is because there was nothing much to do at night AND because there's so much light from urban areas today.

We talked about the stars and planets. People used to observe planets because they "wander", or in other words, they moved relative to the stars. Most stars remain in the same celestial positions.. But planets moved. Hence 'planet', or wanderer in Greek!

And Planets not only moved, they had momentarily undergo retrograde motion! (Moving from west to east instead of vice versa) Then you had the Aristotle/Plotemic solar system(Where earth was the centre). Copernicus, a Polish Priest, was asked to investigate, and suggested the Sun-centered model, though it only remained an idea.
However, the Julian Calender(which had 365 days but no months) had a small error of 11min and 14sec each year. So over 1500years, in the 14th century, the holidays weren't right anymore. Winter was happening in "july" and people were wondering. So to correct that, the Pope announced that 2 weeks would essentially "disappear" and the Gregorian Calender was born!

Within 60 years, the Copernicus model was changed. 3 great men changed this. Tycho Brahe, a danish aristocrat founded and was the Head of the Danish(Denmark was way bigger then) Royal Observatory. He kept an accurate observation of Mars for 25 years. He died before the significance of his discovery was found out. Brahme was a flamboyant, social aristocrat blah blah blah.

Johannes Kepler (German), his assistant, was the opposite. Shy and always keeping to himself, he founded the 3 Kepler Laws! All these discovered in the 1600s where they did not calculus or computers to help them with math.

Then came Galileo. Italian Inventer, Popularist, Scientist, he popularised the Copernicus Model. He published his works in Italian(language of the commoners) instead of Latin, which was usually reserved for scholarly works. This allowed a larger audience to read his works. Galileo also perfected Optics. His telescope observed Jupiter, and for the first time in history, observed the large moons of Jupiter going round Jupiter. For that reason, the big moons are called Galilean Moons.

Then Newton was born the year Galileo died. He discovered gravity, and invented calculus, but only as a mathematical tool. Little did he know that Calculus was so useful. In addition, he mathematically solved planetary motion, but didn't thought too much of it. In fact, he thought his theory was wrong because he couldn't not calculate the orbit for the moon! If not for Sir he would not have published his works at all!

So with the Newtonian Laws, the Copernicus model gained acceptance as people could mathematically predict the orbit/motion of the planets. And so ended the short history of Astronomy..

Then in English we learned about the background of Sir William Bradford, one of the immigrants on the Mayflower. He was a Calvinist/Purist/Separtist). Calvinism was a Religion by John Calvin, whom founded a holy city of sorts in Geneva, Switzerland. Wanted even further reformation of the Catholic Church and made up his own church. Bradford, went on the Mayflower, originally bound for Virginia. But went to Plymouth instead as it was a long arduous journey and their ship sucked. Lead extremely pious life. Wanted to escape religious persecution in the Old World and ironically religiously persecuted people in the New World. Interesting huh? =)

TULIPS(Calvinism in a glance)
T - Total Depravity(Everyone's depraved, a sinner guilty of Original Sin aka OS)
U - Unconditional Election (Church is ALWAYS right)
L - Limited redemption(Only Calvinists were the chosen people)
I - Irresistable Grace (of God when he gives you grace by forgiving O.S.)
P - Perseverance of Saints(not R.Catholic Saints. But that people go to heaven after they died)

2008-01-12T08:09:00.000+08:00

Highlights of 2007
Part 1 of 2.

Looking back at 2007 from 2008

2008-01-03T22:59:00.000+08:00

Just drove to Houston and back! Little tired. Managed to take a picture of a nice sunset that I shall use later, maybe even use as a new background. I think I should have enough pictures of Texas that I can use...

Hmm, having a car of your own does bring more exposure.. =)

I've just picked up all the rubbish in the front passenger's seat, including 2 duracell batteries left at the door handle! Heh. They're all in one plastic bag right now that I will throw away at my convenience, together with the 2 trash bags that are outside as I type and the numerous few that are in the living room.

Today I'm going to.... hmm..

1.Make breakfast!
Was very hungry on the way back. Wanted to stop halfway to buy food but was discouraged by small-town-macdonalds. I am quite encouraged to boycott Macs now.. Not to mention we(sorry, I meant I) have alot of bread and spreads to eat it with...

2.Do Laundry
(have to delay bedsheet since napping on it...)

3.Clean up common areas
Will clean up the kitchen area and the living room. Have to keep all the boxes and the Hello Panda. Shall decide on a solution to the.... 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8 pairs of footwear that I have outside my room right now.
2 X Timberland Big Boots
1 X Timberland brown shoes
1 X $70 brown shoes that I bought
1 X Cheap NS Sports shoe
1 X Cheap NS Black formal shoe
2 X slippers

Man. EIGHT PAIRS! Somehow buying a $20+ shoe-rack from IKEA seems over-the-top. Perhaps I shall hint to room-mates that I need a present like a shoe-rack. HAahaha.. (learn from you!)

4. Blank
I left my organiser in the car. DARN. Can't think of more stuff to do off my head..

To a productive pre-Spring 08 period!

2007-11-17T11:50:00.000+08:00

I found my PENCIL CASE!!!! WHOOPIE!!

It was in an "unknown" portion of my bag that I totally forgot about! Thats a downside of having a backpack that has MANY zips and places to put stuff.. Heh.. Now I'm going to have more mechanical pencils when the parcel from Singapore arrives.. Well, guess you can never have too many pencils eh?

=)

2007-10-31T06:02:00.000+08:00

Today, I mourn the loss of my pencil case. I had it during math lecture in the morning, remember putting my pencil case into my bag, but by tutoring at 11am, it was missing. I have NO IDEA where the hell it is. I traced my steps back twice, but didn't see it. Fuck.

Of honorary mention, my blue mechanical pencil of 6 years since J1.
Sob sob...

2007-10-28T02:01:00.000+08:00

Need to get those small button batteries? Buy a 12 Volt Battery instead!

http://www.metacafe.co.il/watch/773138/12_volt_battery_hack_youll_be_surprised/

2007-09-03T14:07:00.000+08:00

TUBING in News Braunfels.

Today (tubing) was a day where I REALLY WISHED you were around. First it was the drive to San Antonio. Gillian also sat at the back, which was Spring Break-esque. She even said, "Oh I'm sitting at the back again, time to sleep!" That's so Gill. Heh.

Yup, and tubing! Ok, it is ALOT more fun that it sounds. Sure, renting a rubber tube for $11 just to float down a river is not very appealing. But its fun in a group! There was a 'tube shoot' too! Basically its like a tunnel where the water is faster and its a thin curvy 'rapids' of sorts. It was SO FUN! Too bad there's only 1 such 'tube shoot'. Yeah, I wished you were there. We could have went down the tube shoot together, OR lazed around in formation. The water was cool too! Although there was a fair bit of grass floating around, it was generally OK. Oh, and there was a piece of drama.

Oh, and some girl bared her breasts! Cool. Its not that big of a deal. Its just like what you see in the movies. Heh.

Soe Han fell off his tube. But I was just looking at him and no one did anything. But Jan shouted, "Soe Han doesn't swim!"
Then I thought, "oh fuck! and he's in the water!"
So I dived down and helped him. Yay! So heroic. Haahahaaa. Well, to be fair I Was the closest one to him, and I think I was the only one looking at him wondering why he couldn't put his head above the water. HE tried, and got his forehead out, but thats it. Well, after 2 seconds of "trapping water" I heard and registered Jan's voice, so I "fell off my tube" and helped him. Quite drama. Haaha, but it was really Jan's shouting that alerted me.

Yup, met a fair bit of Malaysians at Paul's place. Met/talked to 3 initially. But only got to talk (like a fair bit) to two new Malaysians. So happens that they're all Malaysian Chinese.

One is Victor. He studied in Imperial. He's 24, now doing his PhD in Physics. Talk about Genius. =) The other is Mei Yan(sp?). She's 19? Born 1988. Lazy to do the math. Studied in AJC, same year as Daphne.

Yup, we ate at Hype Park and Grill. I ordered Chipotle Pepper and Raspberry Glazed Pork Loins. Nothing great. Pork was sucky by chinese standards. Dry and hard.

2007-08-23T15:30:00.000+08:00

These are my planned courses for Fall 2007:

C C 304C: Greece/Rome: Film And Reality (GALINSKY, G - 33090)

M 427L: Adv Calculus For Applicatns II (KEEL, S - 60075)

M E 210: Engineering Design Graphics (AANSTOOS, T - 18000)

E E 331: Elec Circ, Electronics, & Mach (FRIEDRICH, O - 16620)

ACC 310F: Foundations Of Accounting (VERDUZCO, D - 02475)

If my schedule changes, you can view the current version here.

2007-07-13T16:13:00.000+08:00

Champion. I like this guy. Not sure if its because his balls are big or he has bigger balls behind him. Heh.

Dear Sirs and alI,

I am about to disrupt my national service to pursue further studies, and this will likely be my last email sent out for the next half a decade. Unlike the common “ORD letters” that you read, this letter unfortunately cannot be as cheerful. I am using this last opportunity to issue a letter of complaint against the quality control of officers in the SAF, more specifically against LTA X. During my time as his subordinate, LTA X was AWOL on at least 2 counts, attempted bribery, and lied to his subordinates and his superior officer. The battalion HQ has effectively given no punishment, and has not even made these infractions known to the rest of the battalion.

Let me first give you some background. I am the ____ ____ platoon commander from __________. In order to maintain operational readiness my duties are performed at _____ camp where our ops bus and servers are instead of at stagmont camp where our battalion is. The company is structured like so

OC
|
Centre Head
|
PC

The duties are therefore shared between the PC’s, PS’, and the Centre Head. LTA X is the centre head of the __________.

LTA X, was originally supposed to be on duty at _____ Camp as the duty commander for the _______ on the 20th and 22nd of April, a Friday and Sunday respectively. I was on duty on the 21st of April that Saturday, to minimize the changing over, I contacted him and asked if he would like to swap duties for the Saturday and Sunday. To this he agreed, and thus he was to be on duty on the 20th and 21st of April.

On the Friday however, LTA X called to inform me that he was busy during the day, and if I could cover for him until the evening. To this I agreed to do so. At about 1600 hours, I received a call from LTA X, informing me that he was on the way and that I could leave first, thought this would result in a time where there would be no duty commander in camp, he informed me that this had already be cleared with our OC. I therefore left camp.

On Sunday the 22nd of April I arrived back in camp to take over duty from LTA X. After he had left camp the men informed me that he had not arrived in camp on Friday at all, and that he only arrived in camp at 1800 hours on Saturday the 21st of April. On Saturday they had tried to contact him to ask his whereabouts, to which he told them that he was in fact in _____ in ______ camp getting some work done. The men contacted their counterparts in ______ camp to verify this, however no one in______ camp had seen LTA X. 1 further confirmed with the ______ duty personnel on Saturday that none of them had seen LTA X, this was also with confirmed with that day’s BDO.

This news obviously was very distressing, I confronted LTA X regarding this information to which he confirmed that he only arrived in camp on Saturday at 1800 hours, but that he was at _____ for a while then left later to run some errands. Upon learning that I was to bring this information to our OC, LTA X then made an offer to do some of my duties for me to which I declined, his words were “You know if you need me to help you do some of your duties..”

On Wednesday after I had completed my personal investigation and confirmed that these events had indeed transpired, I informed our OC of these offences. Our OC spoke to LTA X regarding these issues, and let him off with a warning.

I would like the story to end here, however LTA RX was again on duty at ____ Camp for _________ on the following Saturday the 28th of April. At 0030 hours on Sunday the 29th of April I received a message from the duty personnel. The duty personnel of the platoon had just spotted LTA X’s car, a white Mitsubishi lancer driving out of camp. I responded by telling them to check all the car parks and look for LTA X in camp. I received a call at about 0115 hours, the duty personnel informed me that they had checked the whole camp, and that LTA X’s car was no where to be found. They also informed me that LTA X was no where to be found, not in any of the bunks nor any of the offices.

On Monday the 20th of April when I arrived back in ______ Camp for work, I confirmed with both the guard commander and the duty officer for Saturday the 28th of April, that at white Mitsubishi lancer had indeed driven out of camp at about 0030 hours on the 29th of April. This latest information was told to our OC.

When confronted by our OC, LTA X told him that indeed it was his car driving out of camp, he claimed however, that it was not him driving the car but that he had lent it to friend to drive out of camp. After checking with the person in question this was established to be untrue. Finally, LTA X admitted that he had lied, and that is was he who had left camp.

I have been informed that LTA X was to be given 10 extra duties, though this may be considered an extremely light punishment there is a further problem. To date, which is to say, 2 months from the incidents, none of the duties have been published in the battalion RO, in addition, LTA X has not served any of the extra duties he was supposedly awarded. In addition, this system of leniency is not consistent throughout the battalion, or even the company. The following was published in the RO on 1 1th of June 2007:

SXXXXXXXX CPL _____ ________ Non-compliance with a lawful duty or order. stoppage of Leave for 7 days

This was the punishment for CPL ______ for leaving camp an hour before he was supposed to. This was published less than a week after his infringement. If you were to calculate the time AWOL alone, LTA X was missing for a minimum of over 20 hours. This does not take into the account the fact that he repeated the crime less than a week after being reprimanded the first time. This does not take into account the lying to his superior officer. This does not take into account the fact that he is an officer, and thus should be even more liable than corporal.

Absence without leave
22. -(1) Every person subject to military law who is absent without leave from service in the Singapore Armed Forces or from the place where he is lawfully required for the time being to be shall be guilty of an offence and shall be liable on conviction by a subordinate military court to imprisonment for a term not exceeding 2 years or any less punishment authorised by this Act.
(2) It shall be a defence for any person charged under this section to prove that his absence was a result of circumstances over which he had no control.

this is where the report ends and the editorial begins. LTA X’s continued service in the SAF is an embarrassment the entire officer corps. In the SAF we are constantly being told that we have very high standards expected from our officers. As an officer cadet any one of these actions would have you put immediately out of course. Here you have a person who lied to his subordinates, went AWOL, attempted to bribe a civil servant, went AWOL again not even a week after being reprimanded, then lied to cover himself, and tried to implicate another person in these lies. He discarded his second chance just days after being given it because he thought he could get away with it. I how ask you what exactly are these high standard that we speak of? I am realistically asking you how much worse than this can an officer really go? Does a person have to commit armed robbery or murder before he fails these supposedly “high” standards of officers in the SAF? I simply fail to understand how someone who would undeniably fail the standards expected of a cadet or even a private can continue to be an officer.

The decisions of the battalion HQ are equally saddening. How can a lower standard of discipline be expected of officers than of men? In the our society, when a police officer commits a crime he is held to an even higher standard, and given even greater punishment than a normal citizen, this is because he has betrayed the very values it is his duty to uphold.

I was told that one of the reasons this was so was that they did not wish to ruin his career with a summary trial. However the SAF is not a charity organisation and does not owe anyone a career. I feel that as a regular his status as an officer and his career should be under even closer scrutiny than that of an NSF, to intentionally withhold such information is effectively tricking the SAF into continuing to pay someone whom if all is known, has no place in the organisation.

Another reason told to me for LTA X’s lighter punishment was that it is in light of the work he has done for the battalion, I feel this is unacceptable for several reasons. Firstly in our country we do not mitigate punishments based on past achievements, Durai was not excused despite the amount of money he helped NKF raise, and a doctor would not be excused from molestation no matter how many lives he has helped save. Secondly such mitigation is nothing more than justified corruption and no different from a criminal paying off the police to escape arrest, the very thing we fight so hard to keep out of our society, Finally even if the previous two points are conceded, what LTA X did was not a mistake, mistakes are done by accident. What he has demonstrated is a systematic failure of character and unacceptable as an officer.

Even if you attribute the lack of punishment to extreme leniency, the decision to not inform the battalion is even more suspicious. Especially in a _____ unit such as _________ where the importance of being on duty cannot be over emphasized, to not even inform the battalion of the occurrence is to send a signal that there is nothing wrong with his actions. If it was unintentional it shows gross negligence for something which is clearly an important matter, and if intentional shows a level of corruption that I need not elaborate on.

While some might say this is just a small matter, a story of a single bad officer, the fact that it was not dealt with more severely is indicative of a bigger problem. It shows the lack of quality control being practiced for the leaders of the SAF. The following quote was taken from the army’s own intranet homepage:

“In the 3rd Generation SAF, the quality and commitment of our people will continue to be the most important determinant for advancement” - Member of Parliament Ms Indranee Rajah

We can take criticism about having second hand equipment, outdated training methods, and even questionable relevance to modern day operations. But one thing that cannot be tolerated is a reputation for having bad leaders. Such a reputation would compromise Singapore’s defence credibility far more than using refurbished tanks or old training manuals.

While I may only be a 2nd lieutenant, I am a citizen of this country. And as a citizen I have the right to demand high standards from the leaders of the SAF While it is true that high standards are hard to come by and even harder to enforce, for such events to come to light and yet nothing be done about it is to say the very least, unacceptable and disappointing.

Yours Sincerely,
2LT L i H o n g y i -
___________ Commander

2007-06-22T23:30:00.000+08:00

SPARKS FLY!

Tsk tsk. I recommend Anger Management Classes.

2007-03-19T14:20:00.000+08:00

Perhaps the most ironic thing about blogging to me is its ironic nature.

Blogging, which results is what you read here, is very low of my list of priorities. So, when life becomes good (meaning lots of activities and having fun all the time), I don't really have the time nor energy to blog. Whereas when I do have the ENERGY to, it usually means that there's nothing much to blog about in the first place.

I had fun during my 7 days of Spring Break.

-Drove to Fredricksburg/Enchanted Rock state park(camped one night).
-Drove to Houston. Saw Bastrop, La Grange, Katy, Woodlands, Bellaire as well.
-Drove to Dallas. Saw many numerous small towns. Got a feel or smalltown America. Some redneck, some ghetto, some nice.
-Came back to Austin. Lots of fun. Nicely summarized here.

http://gilllian.blogspot.com/

Looks like its California next after finals! =)
See, come migrate to the US la friends.

2007-02-23T15:00:00.000+08:00

OMG, THIS IS SCARY!

2007-02-23T14:28:00.000+08:00

Where have I been to in this World?

create your own visited countries map

Haaha, off the list in my head, I can think up of.
-Singapore (duh)
-Kuala Lumpur & Malacca & Petaling Jaya & Penang, West Malaysia (since I can't remember, and many many car trips. Most notable was the 2hr flight to Malacca airport where it was manned my incompetent custom officers. Oh well, what can we expect anyway.)
-Batam Island, Indonesia (When I was a kid. Only thing I remember is playing water volleyball and seeing a really huge wasp, and a skin-toned dressed lady dancing. I swear I thought she was naked).
-South Island, New Zealand (Again as a kid. All I remember is the huge ass caravan we had, the green green green grass, and the plentiful white sheep! Oh, and that 'poisonous liquid' that my sister told me not to touch)
-Tel-Aviv & Haifa & Tiberius & Jericho & Jerusalem, Israel. (Fully paid trip with Parents. Very fun, very insightful, and also very expensive. Heh. Spent 3 weeks there. Too bad I don't have pictures.)
-Ankara & Istanbul & small roman city which name I can't remember, Turkey. (1 week of 'recreation' after 3-week long pilgrimage. Very fun, new sights and interesting insight to Roman Empire culture. Brought back lots of Turkish errr, "souvenirs" to use a euphemism. Turkish Apple Tea, Turkish Delight, 50,000 Turkish Lira COIN, a 'dotted plate'(yes the one you eat out off that costs alot) and more.)
-Perth & Pearce & Fremantle, Western Australia. (Sec 2 Band Trip + J2 SYFC Trip)
-Los Angeles & San Francisco & Las Vegas, California. (To see sister perform with VJC choir)
-New York City, New York. (Holiday after 1 year of RSAF. First time traveling alone. Good learning experience coupled with hole in pocket.)
-Vancouver, British Columbia. (Ditto. UBC's a nice place though. =) Thanks to Uncle Victor for the cheap housing! Oh, and the SASHIMI is EXCELLENT! EXCELLENT!!!!!!! Damn shiok. Its the fattiest wild salmon you can ever find for the cheapest of prices.)
-Austin & Dallas-Fort Worth & Houston, Texas. (Current place of residence and studying.. Will add more once I get that car! Yay!!)

Where in the US have I been to before?

create your own visited states map

2007-02-20T13:25:00.000+08:00

I think I'm in danger of becoming an alcoholic. My impression of the best way to fall asleep with with a cup of Baileys diluted with milk. At least that only happens on Mondays & Tuesdays; the two days of the week when stress levels are at its highest.

2007-01-16T15:15:00.000+08:00

Snow Snow!!

School's closed tomorrow because its weather is icy! Yes, thats right! School is closed due to weather!!! Haahahahaaaa, one more day to slack. On the down side, every part of town is closing early and no one wants to drive at all... Sigh.

This means I have to be content with steamed dumplings that I made myself! Anyway I'm glad that there're alot more Singaporeans here for this semester! Yay, more Singlish and like-minded people to talk to!

Now the question is.... What shall I do for Spring Break?

2006-12-11T14:50:00.000+08:00

Tis the Season to be Jolly!

Alas, Finals are a week away, but Christmas is in 2 weeks! Yay. I've not been studying for the last 5 days, even though it means that I've only 5 days left before my Finals. But.... Its alright I guess..

The SSA/MASA had a joint-activity! Though it wasn't a special day or anything, we decided to have a home-cooked food feast! We had plenty of food! Curry chicken, Beef Rendang, Noodles, Roti Prata! Wah, shiok man!After also had a mini white-elephant gift exchange. Its a really new and fun method of gift exchange. We drew numbers, and the first person gets to chose from a pile of wrapped gifts. He/She opens it and unwraps it for all to see. No: 2 then has a choice of either choosing a NEW gift, or taking No: 1's gifts. That adds a totally new dimension of possibilities.

Thats my new toy; Gillian!
Unfortunately, I kind of spoilt in within 5 minutes. As all Slinkys are, they sometimes get entangled and misshapen. It took me 30 min just to get it back right again! I'm never ever going to take it out again. Heh.

Thats a big big group photo of all that came.
Gillian, Zing, Me.
Pammy, Me, Andre, Kirsten.

Yup. One thing I hate about blogspot is that its a bitch to upload photos. I should look elsewhere. Any recommendations?

2006-11-18T15:41:00.000+08:00

Whilst running down a slope, always remember that it'll the only way left soon is up. And its a matter of when, not if. When?

2006-11-08T16:55:00.000+08:00

No lah, not depressed lah. I think pensive would have been a better word. Anyway to sum up the month of October..

HALLOWEEN

We had Halloweeeeeeeeeennnnnnnnnn, and I carved some pumpkins! It was a team effort and 6 of us (all first-timers) managed to did quite a good job! Took some design of the internet, $3 pumpkin with some pumpkin-carving tools and we were in business! I did the right eye-brow, the nose, and half of the mouth!

From right to left, me at the right, Stephanie from up north to my right, with Edgar with the YAHOO hair, Ade from Trinidad and Tobago at the front, Abed from Houston right behind, and Natalia from Corpus Christi. It was pretty fun. I'll just post pictures up. Its sad that 'Jack' the pumpkin has since decayed and was spilling out green foam during his last moments here in Austin. Moment of silence please.
Just playing around with Natalia's wizardry hat. Haa. That stupid hand-sign thingy? Stands for 'Hook'em Horns!!'. Just some school phrase. AH Yang, you should totally send me that 'forever rock!' shirt you have with the exact same sign man.
I dont know what she's doing.
Don't know why the image quality so fucked-up. Its really damn hard to do picture-intensive

Then after that we went to 6th Street, walk walk see see. Its like the 'party-street' of Austin, like M.Sultan in Singapore. OK lah, alot of crazy people around. Fair share short skirts, men in underwear, men dressed as penises, super-short-skirt-nurses, girl clad in stockings amongst others. Some pretty original ideas too, like Borat, smurfs, hot-dogs, blue smurfs? Too bad never take pictures with them, it was pretty cold and chilly.

I also attended a blues-concert at Austin Music Hall. Some free ticket. Friend of hours couldnt make it so we went instead. Caught a bus, travelled downtown, did quite a bit of walking, photo-taking and other nonsense. Haaha, quite fun, music was just plain noisy at first, but got better as the night progressed. I also bought my first alcoholic drink illegally! Haa, its not my fault the bar-girl gave it to me!

I also attended a blues-concert. Some free ticket. Friend of hours couldnt make it so we went instead. Caught a bus, travelled downtown, did quite a bit of walking, photo-taking and other nonsense. Haaha, quite fun, music was just plain noisy at first, but got better as the night progressed. I also bought my first alcoholic drink illegally! Haa, its not my fault the bar-girl gave it t

Nice picture hor? Thats in a park overlooking Town-Lake. Town-Lake is actually the Colorado river flowing through Austin. I've no idea why a river is called Townlake. Beats me.

2006-11-05T05:14:00.000+08:00

I feel like an ant. With no power over anything. That finger can just kill me in an instant.

I'm depressed.

For now at least. As an ant, I can think more about depression and the meaning of life and things philosphical in nature. However, such endeavours usually lead to a downward spiral in thoughts and instead of answers, bring about more questions.

On the other hand, I could go out and find things to do and strive towards, diversions of sorts if you may. I cannot stop and do nothing. Its a waste of time. Time is something that no one has any control of.

What do we do with our time?

I wish I could spend it with you. Problem is, who should you be?
post template here

2006-10-30T13:40:00.000+08:00

And so ends another weekend.

Every weekday I look forward to the weekend. And then on the weekend I look forward to the weekdays. Its weird. I should learn to appreciate what one has now eh?

Just like how I used to miss "only-having-to-worry-about-studies" when I was bumming around, and yet now wish that I CAN bum around. I say its time to stop and enjoy the present! =)

But the grass is always greener on the other side. At least we've grass here now, I guess. Heh.
Perhaps I should just take an hour and lie down on the grass and do nothing. Perhaps, perhaps.

2006-10-25T11:55:00.000+08:00

LIVING IN THE GHETTO IS DA SHITE!!!!

Today is a dark day. The culture and upbringing of HEI-REN was brought to a new low when the one of its spawn did its devious deed.

It used my internet without my permission and ate up all my bandwidth. EVEN AFTER MY EXPLICIT DENIAL.

What kind of evil spawn would not have the basic courtesy, integrity and personal responisibility to not respect a room-mate decision? I swear, sooner or later, this inferior offshoot of human kind would die. Or at least I hope it does.

Its the violent disposition of HEI-REN, the hip-hop/ghetto self-image of failure that truly disgusts me.

I wish HEI-REN all the best and hopes he repents.

2006-10-13T04:01:00.000+08:00

Its time to have fun!
M427K mid-terms was easier than expected! Heh, I think i studied too hard for it man. All the hours of studying were for naught since it was so bloody easy! Ok, I should stop and not jinx myself lest I didnt get an A.

Its starting to get colder. Free Air-Con, at last! Too bad it only lasts till 10am and after sunset. Oh well, at least its dry. =)

2006-10-11T14:24:00.000+08:00

Yes Jac, shall post sth new cuz u asked for it. Its such a pain really.. Especially when i've a mid-term in 9 hours time and another the day after.

OMG my pictures are gone! Stupid interface lah!! Wah piang eh. sianz.

2006-09-19T15:07:00.000+08:00

RANDOM POST @ 2.30am.
(Cuz its the only time the internet actually works. Sigh)

This is what boredom does to guys. Its a co-ed floor but who cares. Haa. Too bad they(I wonder who!) tore down the picture. 6th Floor athlectics is pretty fun. Heh.

That's Billy in blue. Some ang moh.
Andrew in white. Cycling siao-on and business guy. Wants to go into politics and can talk. Will go far.
Leon in black, from Turkey(I think)
Ben who plays trumpet in the band(which is really BIG) here.

Random picture of some angel chasing away "evil horses?"

Same statue, from a different angle and at night. Background in the UT Tower. Main Building on the University. Tower is lit to celebrate the Longhorn's(football team) victory over North Texas.

Freedom Horse. Some horse basically.

Here's 'his' side of the room. This is when its in a "good" state.

Usually there's like 2 lugguages on his bed where he stores his clothing. And the TV is ON blaring hip-hop/NFL or some crappy black culture shite that I totally cannot appreciate.. Do note exam schedule posted on the wall. Its posted with MY pins. Tsk. Not that I mind but still...

This picture was days ago. Well, to be honest my side does look the same also! haaha.. Oh well.

I'm lazy to write words since its 2am already. But uploading pictures take FOREVER. On the bright side, I just bought a bike and a lock. So the next few days I can actually explore the city in greater depth and have a further range. =)

2006-09-12T14:37:00.000+08:00

My Roommate.

His name is , he's from Ghana and yes, he's African-American. He's really into hip-hop music and American football. By that I mean he's REALLY into those things. Its like TV on ALL the time on American football and MTV hip-hop. He even sings along! Way cool huh? Damn noisy man I tell you. Check out the room when I upload the picture. Its like there's no place for homework (on his side of course!) He does homework on the bed! He would rather use the table for the TV instead of using it for homework and stuff. OH well, I guess our priorities are different. He's sleeping now, at 2am. But I'm going to be waking up earlier than him. Tsk tsk.. So when I'm in my room, its always dark.. And i've to be super quiet. Its irritating.. I would have to UPLOAD an actual picture to show you exactly what I mean. Sigh.

It doesnt help that the free internet is really clogged up before midnight. So I always have to wait till its PAST midnight before I come online and do internet stuff. Hence my online hiatus. Well, why pay US$20/month when you can get internet access free in the Engineering Building or AFTER midnight eh? By the way, campus of UT - Austin is really nice. I'll be going on a photo-taking trip round campus tommorow afternoon.. Heh, and I've a quiz tommorrow evening.. Should be easy. Hopefully I won't suffer from hubris.

Anyway, its been a long time since I last updated. Busy lah. Academic stuff to do as well as getting to know other people. So don't worry, everything's going fine.. Under control and getting 'sorted out'. On the bright side, I might be owning a car by the end of this year. So lets see how that goes.

Chris

2006-08-17T09:09:00.000+08:00

Apart from going everywhere and doing admin stuff, there's nothing else interesting to write about really.

2006-08-13T11:12:00.000+08:00

New pair of Levi Jeans. At US$10! Haaaahahaaahaa..
Originally priced at $42, end of season sale at $20, special discount of 50% - $10.
What a steal. =) Too bad its button front. But who cares. Its $10, or S$16. Good deal yeah?

2006-08-12T11:12:00.000+08:00

Time to Kill

I'm been dumped by dad and have a few hours to kill. I don't have any coherent thoughts at this time and I cant really be bothered. So maybe I'll go do what I've been doing on a day to day basis.

7th August
I left Singapore at 0400hrs, 9th August and arrived in Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport at about 2030hrs. The only exciting stuff was the First-Class seat i got for 3 hrs. Nothing special, except that we ate with proper plates and metal cutlery, not to mention the extra space. But other than that, its the same. Here's a picture to show what first-class food is like. Not too shabby eh?

8th August.
Left the hotel and drove to Uncle Meyer's farm/ranch/house. (see previous post) Nice place, nice horses blah blah blah. To be honest, it was freaking boring. Unless u like to carry hay, ride horses, feed horses, look at trees, smell the horse manure and stuff, there's nothing else to do.

But we had good food though! Pictures speak a thousand words, so here they are.

10th Aug
Left Uncle Meyer's farm/ranch/house to the Lim's House. Again nice house, good space and more. Yeah, but i'm sure you get the idea.

11th Aug
Went to a friend's factory near Dallas. There's money to be made everywhere, even in the telecomms industry. Heh. I see millions changing hands. Well, that can wait. Grades would have to come first won't it?

And so there it is, me waiting for dinner time and basically killing time chilling in some lousy golf clubhouse that doesnt even have free internet wireless. Well, I guess the golf course is their main business. Should have just stayed in the factory.

12th Aug

Slept the whole morning. Went shopping in the afternoon. Its freaking hot. Period. That's it. Back to emailing and stuff. And catching up on sleep. Heh.

2006-08-09T07:23:00.000+08:00

Oh shit. I realise the big irony of it. I'm posting about how great it is in the US whilst its national day. Well, happy birthday Singapore! Whatever. Hey friends, your money is better spent here in the US. Well, you could grow hay and get an agricultural tax exemption!

ie: grow hay on ur backyard and feed it to the horses! Cheaper tax that way! (no wonder they've the spare cash to rear horses)

2006-08-09T07:18:00.000+08:00

lat=33.1467363121, lon=-97.0334946036

Texas is fun. Check out that house above! (use google earth)

Thats where I'm at now. Beautiful, peaceful surroundings, rearing horses for fun, relaxing in the patio, growing grass for hay for the horses, whose hoofs provide fun for the dogs(wld explain if asked) and more! Haa, perfect idyllic lifestyle!

Heh we smoked the salmon ourselves, and had devilled eggs, potatoes, olives, cream cheese, smoked salmon for lunch. With fresh tomatoes and mangoes. Shit, I'm gonna miss this kinda good food when I go and cook for myself.

Anyway we're gonna have outback steak in about 30 min time. If you think what I said sounds good, wait till you see the pictures. Heh.

2006-07-30T04:14:00.000+08:00

INSTRUCTIONS:
1. Do the following WITHOUT complaint.
2. Choose 5 people to do this after you've completed yours.
3. Leave a post/tag on e person's tagboard exclaiming that they've been tagged.
4. Start your post with "i have been tagged!"

Favourites
Colour: Purple/Green

Food: For now, anything that is “Uniquely Singaporean”
Song: Song from a secret garden by Secret Garden
Movie: American Beauty, My Sassy Girl and more.

Sport: Soccer, but I suck at it. Golf, but I’ve yet to learn it.
Day of the week: Monday, when I’m unemployed. Saturday, when I’m employed.
Season: Autumn. Summers are too hot.
Ice Cream: Had enough Yoghurt gelato already. More than enough.

Current
Mood: Bored. Reflective perhaps?

Taste: errr.
Clothes: Why should I answer this?
Desktop: Portait of a Bald Eagle.
Toe Nail Colour: Natural?
Time: 0402hrs
Surroundings: Messy Room.
Annoyances: Oh boy, I don’t need to answer this.
Thoughts: Why can’t I sleep?

Firsts
Best Friend: Joel, my neighbour. Friendship spoilt by mother.

Crush: My teacher. That’s enough details. Haaha..
Movie: Don’t remember lah! Lion King?
Lie: “Kor Kor tied me up and dragged me round the table 3 times!”

Music: Whilst in the womb.

Lasts
Cigarette: N.A.

Drink: Teh-O peng
Car Ride: Mine
Crush: Heh. Hush hush….
Movie: Thank you for Smoking. Good show! Watch it!
Phone Call: Not impt.
Last Cd Played: No more CDs. Download music for free!

Have you ever
Dated one of your best friends: eeeeeeeeww.
Broken the Law: All the time.
Arrested: IF you wanna do sth against the law, don’t get caught.
Skinny-Dipped: No.

Been on TV: Don’t remember.
Kissed someone you don't know: Hmm.. when I was a toddler maybe?

Things
You're wearing (5 items): WTF? There’re only 3 items on me now.
You've done today (list 4): Thought about what to pack, Tried to pack, Drove, Explored.
You can hear right now(list 3): Music: Violin.. Piano and some obscure percussion.
You do when you're bored: Things like these stupid questionnaires?

2006-07-18T23:53:00.000+08:00

What's the point of writing entries for blog when u're meeting up with everyone so often and there's no new news that u wanna tell the whole world? Heh.

No point la, really.

2006-07-11T00:38:00.000+08:00

Heh, despite the slight anger that I had when I was told (no, ordered!) to work this evening in a short notice of 2 hrs, at least tonight was quite happening.

First, I saw a freaking accident. Guy A who drove a white car(white cars are driven by incompetent people, proven statistic), whilst parking scratched a black, parked subaru. So me, being the keh poh that I am, went to look see! (Immediate thought: Hmm, shall pose as subaru owner and demand for $500 for paint job!) I walked over, ostentatiously in front of Guy A's car, only to discover that there was someone in the black car! Damn, there goes the $500! Alright, since there was someone in there already, obviously there was no need for me. So I went back to the store and minded my own business. (Best part: girl in black car continued sitting in black car after the car was scratched.) Luckily, they manage to find Guy A in the end. Quoted from Guy A, "Sigh, my car also kenna scratched. you think I wanted this to happen meh?" Tsk tsk, cannot park properly don't blame other people lah!

And more on parallel parking, I was made to wait by some incompetent P-plate driver! Wah piang. IF YOUR STARTING POSITION IS LOUSY AND YOU CANT GET YOUR CAR'S BUTT IN, THEN DRIVE OUT AND TRY AGAIN! AND NOT REVERSE, GO FORWARD, REVERSE, GO FORWARD, REVERSE, GO FORWARD!!!!! I tell you, if not for his bloody P-plate, I would have horned already lah!! Give you the time to try FOUR times still not enough?!!! I really wonder how these people pass their driving tests.. If you cant park parallel, don't park parallel. Tsk tsk.. It was only after a double-tap on the horn that above-mentioned driver, definately embaressed, moved off and went one circle to try again. Heh, best part: We saw him trying to park at the same lot after we've parked. (take note:trying) He ultimately failed as we didnt see his car when we walked back. What a lousy driver.

As I said to David, the road is not the place to learn how to park. Go learn how to park properly in the circuit, and not waste people's time! No Poles is a lousy excuse. Do what I did, tell your instructor (whom u're bloody paying anyway) to teach you how to park WITHOUT the poles. And learn how to park properly(without poles) IN THE CIRCUIT. But whatever you do, do NOT EVER, be like Guy A and scratch other people's car.

2006-07-04T00:34:00.000+08:00

Profound.. Profound..

How do you be contented with what you have, and at the same time find motivation to achieve difficult and ardous goals?

I am a lazy person, and would not do normal tasks, what more challenging endeavours if I don't see the need in it.

My worry is this. If I am ever contented with whatever I have right now, there is no way I would garner the extra motivation, discipline, focus and energy to actually start and achieve that goal.

Should I ever be contented? I am contented for most matters, most of the time. Can greed actually be a good thing?

2006-07-03T20:08:00.000+08:00

Far from Fired.

Darn, I wish I was fired. I'm tired of working at the this lowly rate of $4.50/hour. Spoil the labour market only!! Lets quit together lah! No point working already. Would rather spend money everyday and then whine about total lack of money later.

And Germany would win the World Cup! Mark-eth my words! I hope they do. Whatever it is, it looks like its going to be a Germany - France finals for 2006! Sounds exciting. Now, whether or not to place $10 on germany to win... Hmmmmm......

2006-06-29T00:07:00.000+08:00

I am uninspired to write entry now. Am totally drained from work. For the record, closing F&B outlets are a pain in the ass. AND IT MAKES THINGS TEN TIMES WORSE WHEN YOUR SINK DOESNT WORK AND YOU HAVE TO EMPTY WATER OUTSIDE THE STORE!

What kind of work environment is this man. The sink's leaking, only 1/3 of the air-con works, the ice-cream container/display is falling apart literally!! What more can I ask.

Anyway(remember, there's no 'S' in anyway), blogging in quite redundant. No one ever says anything. I guess its because of the very fact that blogging is but one-way conversation that makes it so boring and therefore hard to keep up.

I am but not very creative when it comes to literary works. Bah. So what. Heh.

2006-06-20T21:15:00.000+08:00

Interesting and Educational!! Read on.

The next time you are washing your hands and complain because the
water temperature isn't just how you like it, think about how things
used to be. Here are some facts about the1500s:

Most people got married in June because they took their yearly bath in
May, and still smelled pretty good by June. However, they were
starting to smell, so brides carried a bouquet of flowers to hide the
body odor. Hence the custom today of carrying a bouquet when getting
married.

Baths consisted of a big tub filled with hot water. The man of the
house had the privilege of the nice clean water, then all the other
sons and men, then the women and finally the children. Last of all the
babies. By then the water was so dirty you could actually lose someone
in it. Hence the saying, Don't throw the baby out with the Bath
water..

Houses had thatched roofs-thick straw-piled high, with no wood
underneath. It was the only place for animals to get warm, so all the
cats and other small animals (mice, bugs) lived in the roof When it
rained it became slippery and sometimes the animals would slip and
fall off the roof. Hence the saying . It's raining cats and dogs.

There was nothing to stop things from falling into the house.. This
posed a real problem in the bedroom where bugs and other droppings
could mess up your nice clean bed. Hence, a bed with big posts and a
sheet hung over the top afforded some protection. That's how canopy
beds came into existence.

The floor was dirt. Only the wealthy had something other than dirt.
Hence the saying, Dirt poor. The wealthy had slate floors that would
get slippery in the winter when wet, so they spread thresh (straw) on
floor to help keep their footing. As the winter wore on, they added
more thresh until, when you opened the door, it would all start
slipping outside. A piece of wood was placed in the entranceway. Hence
the saying a thresh hold.

(Getting quite an education, aren't you?)

In those old days, they cooked in the kitchen with a big kettle that
always hung over the fire. Every day they lit the fire and added
things to the pot. They ate mostly vegetables and did not get much
meat. They would eat the stew for dinner, leaving leftovers in the pot
to get cold overnight and then start over the next day. Sometimes stew
had food in it that had been there for quite a while. Hence the rhyme,
Peas porridge hot, peas porridge cold, peas porridge in the pot nine
days old..

Sometimes they could obtain pork, which made them feel quite special.
When visitors came over, they would hang up their bacon to show off.
It was a sign of wealth that a man could, bring home the bacon. They
would cut off a little to share with guests and would all sit around
and chew the fat..

Those with money had plates made of pewter. Food with high acid
content caused some of the lead to leach onto the food, causing lead
poisoning death. This happened most often with tomatoes, so for the
next 400 years or so, tomatoes were considered poisonous.

Bread was divided according to status. Workers got the burnt bottom of
the loaf, the family got the middle, and guests got the top, or the
upper crust.

Lead cups were used to drink ale or whisky. The combination would
sometimes knock the imbibers out for a couple of days. Someone walking
along the road would take them for dead and prepare them for burial.
They were laid out on the kitchen table for a couple of days and the
family would gather around and eat and drink and wait and see if they
would wake up. Hence the custom of holding a wake.

England is old and small and the local folks started running out of
places to bury people. So they would dig up coffins and would take the
bones to a bone-house, and reuse the grave. When reopening these
coffins, 1 out of 25 coffins were found to have scratch marks on the
inside and they realized they had been burying people alive. So they
would tie a string on the wrist of the corpse, lead it through the
coffin and up through the ground and tie it to a bell. Someone would
have to sit out in the graveyard all night (the graveyard shift.) to
listen for the bell; thus, someone could be, saved by the bell or was
considered a .dead ringer..

And that's the truth...Now, whoever said History was boring ! ! !

Educate someone. Share these facts with a friend

2006-06-20T10:51:00.000+08:00

So this is.. War? (Tsk..)

Eph 6:10-17 (NIV) ...Be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. Put on the full armour of God so that you can take your stand against the devil's schemes. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. Therefore put on the full armour of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand. Stand firm then, with the Belt of Truth buckled round your waist, with the Breastplate of Righteousness in place, and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the Gospel of Peace. In addition to all this, take up the Shield of Faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. Take the Helmet of Salvation and the Sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.

2006-06-04T03:12:00.000+08:00

Purpose and Passion.

A man with purpose and passion would achieve and excel. Both 'purpose' and 'passion' are equally important when one endevours on a ardous, difficult task.

Having a 'purpose', an intent to reach an end is important. It provides direction and a focus on what to achieve or work towards. When one has purpose but is without passion, putting 100% effort into the 'purpose' would be an uphill task, full of challenges and will most probably fail. (Just like how I fail Chinese all the way)

Hence having a 'passion' for the 'purpose' is also important, for one with passion but no purpose would be lost. One would put a great amount of effort and time into something he/she is passionate about. But without a direction, a focus, a plan, most of this efforts would be in naught.

Sigh, I need a purpose in life. Help. It was always;
A: Find a purpose first,
B: Become passionate about abovementioned purpose.

'A' is the main obstacle. For me, 'B' is never a problem if 'A' is worthy enough. Somehow I would be able to conjure and motive myself up to the task at hand.

Before this(ie: now), there was always something to achieve. Now I'm lost. Its just so profound. I need purpose, a direction, a goal. How?? How?? Sigh. Perhaps divine intervention is needed.

2006-05-29T10:20:00.000+08:00

Why the FUCK do you want me to study NOW??!?!?! Why the FUCK do you want me to study NOW??!?!?! Why the FUCK do you want me to study NOW??!?!?!

Now. Is. Break-time. Break-time is for slacking and skivving and recreation and everything slacker-personified. NO, BREAKTIME IS NOT FOR STUDYING AND MUGGING AND NOT FOR GAINING OH-SO-IMPORTANT WORLDY KNOWLEDGE. FUCK la.

KAN NI NA BEI CHAO JI BAI!!!!!!!!!

But, what a straight-to-the-point post. I like.

Life is unfair. Perhaps it is time to go to Croatia and press olives the whole day long in return for free food and free lodging.

2006-05-27T11:07:00.000+08:00

Time to get up and about!

Okay, after one entire week of sleeping at 6am and waking up at noon, I've finally and officially broken the cynical, screwed up body clock of mine! With a morning jog once more, where else, but round the neighbourhood.

Man, a year ago I would have been more than happy to run, any given time, any given day. Fast forward to now, after slacking for so long, and I'm such a slacker! Yes, we really adapt to our environment. Slack place=slack Chris. Time to think of a sport to join whilst in Uni. Football? Or Track & Field (to boost up lousy stamina. tsk.) Or Rugby(Nah too small eh?). Decisions, decisions.

2006-05-23T00:12:00.000+08:00

whoa, I didnt know alvin read my blog too! tsk. eh, people people.. leave ur name in the comments yeah? then i'll know who's reads this man! and tt'll give me motivation to write stuff too! tsk tsk..

Anyways, I wanna lament about my financial and driving status! This suck-eth! it does! Bah! shall look forward to new jacket next week as well as killing that oh-so-big brute in Shadow of Rome (PS2 Game). Thanks Jun Hong! You're e best!!

Tsk, it does satisfy my sadistical want for blood!! Kill kill kill!!!! Oooo I rrruurrve bloooddd!!
On a side note, there is a MORNING STAR in the living hall!!
Hmmmm......... (thrust morning star into female of the house? to do or not to do? Sigh, dilemma dilemma...)
Nah, should not... FOR NOW...

2006-05-18T00:23:00.000+08:00

yes yes, I'VE HEARD YOUR CALL!! I will update sec 4 story soon... In camp of course when I have the time. Yes, so sad. I'm gonna leave my colleagues.. AAWWWWWWW. =(

2006-05-14T12:48:00.000+08:00

"My mother's life would be greatly improved by her death."
Christopher, 14th May 2006.

I just realise I have invoked this prayer about 3 times in my life so far. And I forsee more to come in the future. Now people, if I was truly evil, I would have bought a clock for today. AH, FOR I AM SOOO FULL-ETH OF FILIAL PIETY! I AM!! I TRULY AMM!!

I am but just a good leetle boy.

2006-05-12T02:20:00.000+08:00

Wah lau eh, I'm losing my interest to update mah blog man. I mean, "hey everything's mundane" and its not worth broadcasting that to the whole wide world aint it? So why bother? Its just so much easier to meet up with friends anyway. So till the day come when I cant do that. Well, we'll have to adapt nevertheless.

"Out of sight, out of Mind", I say. Well, that said, there's so many things to looking forward to!

21st May - Geh Kao's coming back from USAFA to suffer in PLAB. Haaha-BaoYing!!

31st May - Last day of NS. [So sad.. yet so happy!]

1st June - Grace's coming back! Alright! Now to persuade 'The one who spawned me' to lend me the car. fucking Bitch, no not you Grace. =)

1st Aug - Goodbye Humidity. Goodbye Singapore. Goodbye friends. =(

Ahh, but 1st Aug is still so far away.. for now.

2006-05-07T00:57:00.000+08:00

Of Singapore and the 2006 Elections

Potong Pasir - I'm glad Chiam won! Not to mention by a ever-increasing margin!

Aljunied - Sigh, WP lost by such a narrow margin! PAP's 56.08% vs WP's 43.92%.
Sigh, include my house under Aljunied and out of Marine Parade next time round lah!
I hate bring in Marine Parade GRC! Get me out! Out!

AMK - PAP's 66.13% vs WP's 33.87%. Honestly our PM's a brilliant man. But oh wait, its not a good idea to say such stuff here. Ok, .

Hougang - Yeah, Low Thia Kiang's a capable speaker! At least he speaks with conviction, I like.

2006-05-04T14:35:00.000+08:00

Yeah, since I'm so bored and have absolutely whole afternoon ahead to myself, I shall share with you people the first time I skipped school. Yes, sharing is caring. It is!

My First School Exchange Exposure!

I remember the date clearly, being the first time where I dared to blantently break school rules. Friday the 13th, May, 2001. Not exactly the most auspicious day to be playing traunt. But we did.

I was initially grumpy, having been arrowed by class monitor that I had a dental appointment in the Primary School. Now everybody hates dentists(don't you?). And not to mention the first period was fun-filled geography lesson with Miss Foo. However my initial angst was removed when I found out that there were 12 other people coming down along as well! We all appreciate a little time to skive, so the 13 of us took a slow stroll to the Primary School dental clinic. What a way to start the day, I thought.

Dental session per se came and went. Nothing spectecular except for occassional sharp pain in mouth no thanks to evil dentist! Essentially all 13 of us were done by 8.30am. As much as we lurved talking to middle-aged aunties aka dentists, they obviously didnt lurve us nor appreciate our company. "Okay okay, go back to your class now!", says Auntie.

Now 8.30 was a bad time to go back to class, at least thats what I thought. Not only had Geography class just ended, 8.30 was the start of a one-hour long chinese lesson with.... with (shivvers) Cai-lao-shi!!!! NNNNNNNNNNNNOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!! Even the mention of his name brings shivers to my spine. Lets juz call him X for now. So as I was saying, 8.30 was the start of a 1-hour long chinese lesson with.. X. Now X is a horrible, totally vile and humour-less middle-aged man who obviously thinks himself as the best and the rest of us 14-year-olds as naughty, recalcitrant, lazy kids.

It didnt help matters that X loved to give out homework to us, in the matter of chinese compositions. Obscene amounts of work is okay, but giving obscene amounts of work and expecting us to hand them up within a rediculous time frame is pushing it! Yes, let me give you an excerpt of fellow classmate bargaining for less. Not a good idea.

Sam Ah (who would be called S for brevity): Lao shi, wo ming tian jiao zhuo wen ke yi mah? (teacher, can I pass up my composition tmr?)

X:Ni yao ming tian jiao ah? wo xiang yi xiang xian. (you want to pass it up tmr? let me think about it.)

S: Lao shi, wo men zuo tian you hen duo dong xi zhuo. Wo ming tian jiao ge ni ke yi ma? Wo hui qing zhi huan ge ni! qiu qiu ni! (teacher, we really had alot of work to do yesterday. Can I pass it up to you tmr? I would personally give it to you, please?)

X:(stroking chin, looking into the sky) hao.. ke yi. ni yao ming tian jiao, ke yi ming tian jiao. KE SHI YAO JIAO LIANG PIAN! (alright alright. I would allow it. If you want to pass up tmr, you can. BUT YOU BETTER GIVE ME 2 COMPOs!)

S: *looks on with disbelief*

X: Ni zhui hao shi jing tian liang dian ban jiao ge wo! Bu ran de hua yao jiao liang pian! (you had better give it to me by 1.30pm! If not it'll be 2 compositions man!!!!)

S: nods head with disappointment and totally down-trodden with knowledge that recess and lunch-time would be spent writing above-mentioned composition.

X: nah xie mei you jiao zhuo wen de ting dao ma? bie shuo wo mei you jing kao ni! (those that didnt pass up ur compositions heard that? Don't say I didnt give you any warning!)

Yeah, But I digress. Gist of above digression is X aka Chai-lao-shi is an asshole with Masters in Chinese studies and an absolutely disgusting moustache.

Back to the story.....

So yeah, none of us in the group of 13 wanted to go back to class, knowing that we'll face 60 min of X. Not a good idea. So 13 young minds gathered outside the clinic, wondering what to do over the next 60 min so that they'll give chinese lesson a miss. Of course, pious students (class monitor blah blah) went back without asking, much to our happiness. With him gone, we can discuss what we really wanted to do!

"Lets crash St. Nicholas Girl's School!", one said.
"Okay lets go!"
"No thanks man, you guys are nuts!"
With that said, the Group of 13 broke up into 5 and 8.
Group of 8 went to wherever they went.
Group of 5 ventured to the main gate! Outside of this cloister called Maris Stella High and bravely facing the entire, strange new world out there. Searching, looking for the place called St. Nicholas.

Stay tuned. Interesting part comes when we actually enter the school itself.
Hint hint: its NOT Saint. Nicholas, but close. Tsk.

2006-05-04T14:21:00.000+08:00

I have 2 days MC and am happily skivving off at home preparing for the long long weekend! (yeah, I've monday off as well!)

But the downside is that I think it'll be another day before my eye becomes well again.
For all those not in the loop, yeah, I've a swollen left eye. And it was irritating. But now its fine thanks to wonderful medicine given to me by professional doctor. Speaking of him, he shortchanged me on the MC!

I asked and he gave me 2 days, but after resting for 4 hrs (and with a better-feeling eye this time) I noticed that the MC only covered 1 day! Tsk, will have to call him up on this.

Anyways who's this guy from "www.1walklongdistances.com"? (see comments)
eh man, I dun appreciate strangers leaving weird comments! But yeah, I agree! $2.21/hr is freaking under-paid lah! But I don't have a choice. Yes, sigh! Sigh for me! Sigh!
Till then, to the future, with better paid job next time! Till then!

2006-05-01T22:44:00.000+08:00

Temp Jobs Available!!

Duration:(1 month)
Location: Ministry of Defence, Air Intelligence Dept
Job Scope: Minion a.k.a. Clerk
Pay: $2.21 per hour
Working Hours: Monday - Thur: 8am - 5.30pm
Fridays : 8am - 5pm
P.S: Lunch and Transport NOT provided.

Interested applicants please submit a written resume to this blog.

Why oh why did I sign up for this. = (

2006-04-25T22:42:00.000+08:00

Ok, I will tentatively be leaving Singapore for Austin at the end of July/start of August.
Till then!
That means I would have like 2 months of Singapore time after I ORD. tsk. That's alot of time, come to think of it.

2006-04-16T22:51:00.000+08:00

On Soccer - 16th April

Soccer Tactics

Somehow I was persuaded to play soccer at Towkay Toh's (or TT for short) School.
Abovementioned TT even persuaded me to go clubbing on saturday night when I was
to be sleeping at home and be a pious good boy. But I digress. (damn u TT for lying! damn you!)

We all know that I really suck at ball-games, and I absolutely cannot play soccer. Except for Goal-keeper. It was a tough match, since my team had a lousy player, myself. But none the less, through superior tactics and teamwork, we managed to beat TT's team! Let me explain.

Backgound info: It was a four on four match, with 1 goal keeper and 3 players on each side.
It was at TT's school.

Winning Team: Opher, Jeremy, David, Marcus
Losing Team: Ian Toh, Shaun, Junhong, Junhong's bro

ok, and now presenting the winning tactic of "Le nonchalant".
"Le Nonchalant" will only work when there's either
a: a traitor on the opposing team, or
b: a bo-bo shooter on the opposing team.
In this case, it was 'b'. with the bo-bo shooter being TT himself.

Le Nonchalant

When the opponent has the ball, mark and tackle all his players, with the exception of bo-bo shooter, leaving bo-bo shooter unmarked and in a shooting position.

Hint: Even if the opponents know that he's a bo-bo shooter, it doesnt matter. Passing to a unmarked Striker is a sub-consious decision that most people would make. Better still if Opponents don't know that he's a bo-bo shooter.And ta-dah!
success!
Opponent takes the bait, and passes to bo-bo shooter!
and bo-bo shooter misses, as he's supposed to!
Hurrah, we win 5-4. Hahahaa.. 3 cheers to the victors!

2006-03-28T16:34:00.000+08:00

Superstition Personified.

In my whole circle, my colleagues are about just the two most superstitious people! Daily horoscopes, feng shui are but just the basics. There're star signs compatability issues, astrological events (ie: mercury retrograde), and many unheard of factors that are but part and parcel of daily life. Never fails to amaze me the incredible reason one can make to, 1, not cut hair, not shop, be in a bad mood et cetra. But they're fun people to hang out with, and have definately made my NS life much more vibrant and fun that what it was without.

Haha, now days when I go to work,
some duties include:

1. Skivving
2. Checking horoscope
3. Completing today's Today Suduko
4. Washing Grapes/Kiwis/Cherry Tomatoes
5. Eating Grapes/Kiwis/Cherry Tomatoes
6. Making Chinese Tea
7. Drinking Chinese Tea
8. Playing computer games like Super Marios
9. Chatting via e-mail.

Oh what more can I ask for my NS. tsk tsk..

Introducing the 30-year-old Auntie! (Not her real age. Heh)

And her fellow skivver (Affectionately know as Harlot!)

And here's the 2 of them together.

2006-03-26T22:22:00.000+08:00

Words I've lived my life by.

May the Lord grant me the Serenity to accept the things I cannot change,
the Courage to change the things that I can,
and the Wisdom to know the difference.

2006-03-20T01:21:00.000+08:00

Hello Free-Air-Con!!
Bye Singapore! (such shallow thinking, I know)

As I logged on the MSN, I saw an emailed titled "Immigration information for UT Austin"..
For a moment I wondered, "hmm. could it be? Or is it one of those spam that I've recieved from Purdue?"
I logged on to check my application status immediately. I've been accepted!

Its kind of sad to make such an important discovery whilst you're alone. I mean, imagine the bigger reaction had I found out whilst at work or something, with people around immediately to share my joy! Haha..

I've decided to blog more often, at least with some consistency! I mean in about a year's time, apart from MSN conversations, email, telephone calls.. This would be what most of you people would read about my life. Sigh, graduation from school has just shown how people's lives cross and change each other. I'm gonna miss my friends, my house, food, and my friends, and my friends, and my friends.. Heh.

Well, I'm done. Stay tune for more! No promises though. tsk tsk. Anyway here's some pics of last friday's bowling event.

Ok blardy hell! Blogger sucks and hosting pictures lah! What the hell is wrong with you! Maybe its time to switch..... ah damn i'll try later.

2006-01-22T04:57:00.000+08:00

Needs a tagboard!

Who knows how to create? teach me please?

2006-01-22T04:41:00.000+08:00

Oh! Indecisive Qing! (by Yours Truely, and to be sung with a irish song medley)

Indecisive Qing,
no new year clothing!

Brought Chris out to shop,
Me bought two nice tops!
Found a nice black dress,
But no boobs to flaunt!
Other day perhaps,
Not a time to taunt!
Back to work for now,
Indecisive Qing!

Always next weekend,
for more shopping trips!
I'll treat you dinner,
but please be wiser!
Five days all there's left,
to Chinese New Year!
But no new clothes yet,
for poor pretty Qing!

Indecisive Qing,
no new year clothing!

2006-01-22T03:55:00.000+08:00

Could have been. Would have been. But never will.

heh, I know its just a passing phase. It just that point in life where you wonder about the things that could have been different if certain events could have been avoided. I guess it especially sucks when you yourself knew that they were achievable goals. Goals that could be achieved had it be for more effort, or determination on your part. Doesnt help when your friends are busy achieving what you set out to do few months back. This the world I left behind man. (Since my lazy, me shall post thousand-worded pics!)

What I would have been up too daily.

Yes, could have been my face there.

Which (I'm confident about it) would most definately lead to my face being here.

Which would lead toand ultimately this

ok, actually to be more realistic, this one. haha.

But life's a bitch, like the one who spawned me, shit happens. But well, not all's bad lah. I forcast the next few years of my life to be something like this..at

That's not confirmed, but at least its highly likely.. Yes, please please please accept me University of Texas at Austin.
"Me Chinese! Me Asian! Will slog for green card! So give it to me!"
Hahaha, I seriously wonder how university life would be like. I honestly hope my classmates this time would be more fun-loving this time. Please not let my classmates be like my JC classmates. please please please!

Yes, my five-year goal would be... (Oh, this means successful graduation! I think they're e happiest graduates google can find online.. heh)
Well, not neccessarily Singapore Airlines as well, but their livery most appeals to me! Heh. So i say...

CHERISH WHAT YOU HAVE NOW. Carpe Diem most importantly!

2006-01-03T23:27:00.000+08:00

Happy new year my friends!

heh, sorry lah, never update. well, with so much WERK to be done.. can't blame can't blame.
can u believe i met Norman Teo in camp today?! like WTF man! freaking hell, and he doesnt recognize me. what kind of senior is this? heh, and then in the evening i saw my BMT SGT! wah lau, he's damn havoc now la, moustach beard and whatever. didnt know he stayed at lor ah soo. so near.

Oh well, but i didnt get to meet some pple also. thanks to faulty doorbell. well, hope dear neighbour returns umbrella!

Anyway, work was fun today, and will be fun tmr! seriously, didnt know 30 year olds can be so childish in a fun way. heh.

actually, i feel this' a lousy entry. no inspiration lah. seriously, write here also not many people get to read. and like what's the point? too lazy.

ah well, post pictures lah!
lets see....

Pictures of Singapore!
eh freak la, blogger doesnt want me to post. so be it. another day it shall be. there's always tmr. (wif this attitude u'll never go anywhere my friends)

2005-12-24T02:15:00.000+08:00

Office Humour

Okay, this is so funny. you guys have to read this... Penned by the humourous and fun loving people who're my colleagues. heh. I quote

" -This story is based on real life events and little effort has been made to deviate from actual occurances....

The Colonel and the Clerk by IAN TAO

*G popped his head into the room, the loud cracking noise from the retractable door hinge doing little to hide his arrival. "Not going off yet?" he asked in a heavily accented Australian tone. *W barely looked up from his work but gave a subtle nod. "C'mon dude. It's already five-thirty and I want to make it home in time for kick-off." G persisted before making his way back to the main office. The closed latched firmly in G's wake just as W finished typing. With a slight sigh, he shut down his computer and slumped into his chair, staring into oblivion, if only for a while to let the day's events trickle through his tan and well-toned, albeit tired body. A pilot, he was back from university on attachment and was now desk-bound for the foreseeable future, at least until the new term started. And while enthusiasm still flowed from his youthful exuberance, his persistent need for adventure told him that combat flying was still his passion.

Snapping out of his hiatus, W gingerly pulled himself out of the chair and proceeded to the main office where G was waiting. Entering, he was met by the wide grin of *C who had been eagerly anticipating the end of the day. C, or 'oi', as he was commonly called, was the clerk of the department and was serving out his time as part of his national service commitment. Though never fully comprehending the logic behind the need to give two years of his life like every other boy of his age, he dutifully kept up appearances in the office so as not to antagonise his thirty-year old female boss who had a penchant for sudoku, tea, and tasteless footwear. G and C quickly stood up to make for the door as W walked in, attempting to hasten their departure from the office. With a quick wave of the hand, they bade goodbye to the staff in the office and proceeded down the hallway to the lift with W lagging behind.

As the threesome made their way to the lift lobby, a tall discernable figure loomed in the distance and upon closer inspection; they realized that it was an air force colonel. He was an impressive figure, row upon row of medals bedecking his neatly pressed uniformed. He was quietly engaged in conversation with two of his staff when the ‘ding’ of the lift announced its arrival. The doors open to reveal a menagerie of service personnel joining the rush hour traffic home and it quickly became clear that there was only room in the lift for three more people. Without hesitation, C rushed into the void and stood there, bag in hand, expecting W and G to follow suit. But contrary to this, W and G stood outside the lift, allowing the colonel to enter first and probably wait for the next available one. However, it became apparent to the two ff them that the colonel was a little put-off by C’s actions and resigned himself to taking the next lift together with his colleagues. Both parties refused to budge, waiting for the other to make the first move and an air of awkwardness descended upon the events taking place on the lift lobby. Then suddenly, a crisp voice broke the thorny atmosphere, “eh, hurry up lah!”

With a look of disbelief, W and G turned to look into the elevator and saw C smiling inquisitively back at them, beckoning them to enter the lift. Both of them were caught in a no-win situation which had taken a sudden turn for the worse. Seven pairs of eyes stared out from behind C to see who would make the next move, like a group of half-naked men hunched around a cock-fight, money in hand and egging their favorite rooster to launch the first decisive attack. But this was the case, they were to be disappointed as the colonel mentioned for the pair to board the elevator and said that he would wait for the next one. W and G uncomfortably entered the lift and watch the lift doors close, the colonel staring back at them with a profound look of disappointment.

And the atmosphere in the elevator did not get any better, the awkward atmosphere seemingly having followed the duo into the narrow confines of the lift. W looked up and saw C, smiling obliviously back at him, and the other participants of the ordeal looked up at the ceiling, feigning innocence to what had just transpired. Should the lift have stopped then, there would have been little doubt that W and G would have just died under tense atmosphere.

The doors opened as if to release all the pent-up energy in the elevator and the crowd came pouring out of the lift. With a sigh of relief, the threesome made their way to the car, driving off home after yet another day at work.

2005-12-12T21:31:00.000+08:00

'Work' sucks.

Firstly, the pay sucks. Honestly, working at such rates and at such duration is obviously a freaking waste of my time. Who the hell works at $21/day?! that's like freaking less that $3/hour.

and guess what, that's just the tip of the iceburg. Secondly, being in a communist-like organization means.... (ta duh!) work does not pay. whether or not i complete a given task in 5 min, or 5 days, it doesnt matter. No one gives a shit. As if to make me pissed, my immediate supervisor takes it personally that i have to look busy all the time. Thus i can never ever look free. I shall now take as long as I forbid for the simplest of tasks. Yes, for <$3/hour, i have a right to be dumb, forgetful and downright stupid when i like it.

Sometimes, the only things i look forward to is the little 'tribute' one recieves every now and then. Yes, sometimes working less can make you work more. Its one of those small facts of life that surely does sound wierd at face value doesnt it? haa

2005-12-09T00:07:00.000+08:00

Finally, I think this template is more or less it. I wonder how it is. Any comments eh?

2005-12-08T20:00:00.000+08:00

ah yes! i'm so smart! Finally, my own photo for the background! heh, this HTML thingy is quite hard. ok, time to make things happen!

Think i'm going to start a new blog and put all the relevant pictures! heh, that way i'll juz delete all the old and redundant entries. haha.. work work..

2005-12-08T19:27:00.000+08:00

Hmm, I'm beginning to dislike this green template already. It has all the basic stuff. But its plain. Unorginal. But..................... www.blogskins.com has such a lousy way of catagorising stuff! Everyone's like just dumping the skins into every catagory. So what's the point of catagorising in the first place eh? I wonder if there's a better site in which to find skins. Or if I can just rip off templetes! haha, that'll be great.

I'm such a parasite. And skiver too.

2005-12-08T00:54:00.000+08:00

heh, this is the only way to get a picture onto my profile; pardon the narcissism.