ttarantella

Tired of travelling

2009-08-22T05:40:00.000-07:00

I'm back in Singapore from Cambodia (and Netherlands and Hungary and Slovakia and Czech Republic and and and...) and I must say I'm sick of travelling.

Visiting Cambodia was eye-opening and very educational. I think I would have enjoyed it more I if wasn't already sick of travelling. Why? Because travelling's a pretty draining thing in the long run. At least it was for us. Travelling involves a lot of packing and unpacking whenever we moved to a new place. It also involves us walking about and exploring the area no matter rain or shine- because you only get to see the place once!

Anyway, by the time I got to Cambodia, all I really wanted was air-conditioning, my laptop and a good wireless connection. All right, a good coffee wouldn't be missed. I was in no fit state of mind to undertake any new country, much less a new third world country. (Also perhaps I had gotten so used to Europe that I wasn't ready for mud roads etc etc etc)

And the whole point of this post? To declare that I'm sick of museums, cathedrals, castles, fortresses, town views etc etc etc for the time being.

The Scariest 24 hours of my Life in Russia

2009-06-17T04:11:00.000-07:00

We were awoken abruptly at 3am on the train. There was supposedly some problem with our visas, and so, shaking with fear and cold, we packed our luggage and stepped out into the unknown. It was dark and cold and windy, there were Russian military police everywhere, no one spoke any english, and huge dogs prowled. I really had no idea what to expect. Roy was shaking so hard that her knees were knocking together. I was really expecting detention rooms and cells.

Here's an excerpt from the journal I wrote then, while awaiting our fate:

Everybody's writing their journals, so I guess I better write something to keep myself occupied.
...
This sucks.
I wanna get out of this hellhole.

The problem was that we had exceeded our visa by 3 hours. We had left St Petersburg at 8pm, but the train only reached the border at 3am, so our visa had expired.

We were taken to some office in the barracks. The worst thing was that nobody spoke any English and so we werent' clear what we were supposed to do, and what we could do to get out fast. And at some point, they took Roy away to buy train tickets. However, I didn't know that, so I got more and more nervous as time passed- were they going to be interrogating us one by one?

There were endless forms to fill up, and endless bureucracy to get through. Maybe 4 hours later, at 6am, much of the paperwork was settled and we could rest. So we slept in the chairs in the waiting room.

At 9, we went to the bank to change our money to change our fines. At about 10, everything was sort of settled. So we settled down to wait for our train to come again at 2am. And so we waited and we waited. I was tense with anticipation because I didn't know if new bureaucratic roadbloacks would be thrown our way at the last minute and we would have to stay in Russia for another day. And so we waited.

What a classic case of a holiday gone wrong.

Riga

2009-06-10T09:51:00.000-07:00

This will be the beginning of (hopefully) a series of posts about my backpacking trip across Eastern Europe this summer. I'll try to blog whenever I get wireless internet at a hostel or get to an internet cafe.

The beginning of our epic journey wasn't very good. We arrived in Riga grumpy. As grumpy as you could imagine us possibly be, and wandered around Riga in a daze. We were probably too tired to admire its beauty, but walked because we felt we had to. So in our first day, we went to the House of Blackheads and the Occupation Museum, but we were really really tired. We were so tired that we gave up and returned to our hostel, falling asleep at 5 pm in our hostel.

2nd Day
The second day was much better. We woke up bright and early and cheerful (though HZ and I later went back to sleep till eleven =))

Anyway, we went to Riga's Central Market, where there was food, fruits, and flowers galore.

Went to the Bastejalns

Freedom Monument, affectionately called 'Milda' by the locals.

Peeves:

It's not a peeve, but I'm not entirely sure people are supposed to read this much while on holiday with other people.

Raves:

The locals were really polite and friendly and patient. The cars on the street were really courteous and did not horn at us (sigh londoners) jaywalking across the street. The shop keepers and waitresses were also really patient, explaining to us over and over again what the different kinds of food were, and where to go to. I was really impressed, because this is so different from brusque and efficient Singapore, or generally reserved London.

Impression: quiet, friendly

Not the vibrancy of a big city, but retains its old world charm and friendliness

Next stop: Moscow

Packing Madness

2009-06-04T16:49:00.000-07:00

Here's a picture of what my room looks like now-- what a contrast to the initial photos of my then unlived in room. Yes- this is packing madness!

I am trying to pack for four places at one go. The backpack is for my trip to Eastern Europe. The boxes are to keep my books, files and winter clothes for storage. That big black luggage is what I'm bringing back to Singapore, as well as what I'm bringing to Amsterdam for a month.

Anyway, its now countdown time for the mega Eastern Europe trip, and I am super excited. It's what I've been dreaming of, and thinking of, and hankering for, for the last 3 months or so. I will try to keep updated, and post loads of pictures and interesting stories-- if there's a proper internet connection anyway, be assured I'll get it =)

I'm super chuffed for this trip, and I hope it'll turn out well. Maybe we'll end up quarelling and tearing each others' hairs out (hopefully not), maybe I'll find out that I'm really not suited to a backpacking life and never go backpacking again (hopefully not too), but at least I'll have experienced a lot more and learnt a lot from this trip.

Eastern Europe ahoy!

Exams Exams

2009-05-03T07:02:00.000-07:00

I can feel doom descending on me! Argh.

On another note, I had a fantastic birthday celebration

2 days in Bath

2009-03-26T10:14:00.000-07:00

We started with a trip to Salisbury- Stonehenge. It was a rainy day and the sky was grey with looming clouds. Visiting Stonehenge under these circumstances was atmospheric, to say the least.

Stonehenge

In fact, the wind was so strong that we were blown sideways and forwards while we were walking around.

Luckily, it was bright and sunny on our second day. We walked around Bath and wandered round the area near the river avon.

We went to Bath Fashion Museum, then to Bath Abbey.

Outside Bath Abbey.

Stained Glass Window inside Bath Abbey

Inside the Abbey

Roman Baths

We ended our trip with high tea at the Tap Room. That was the part where we intended to bust our budget. The setting and the atmosphere inside was fantastic! The service though, was slow and a bit snobby- perhaps because we looked like (and really were) budget conscious students.

Jacked

2008-12-14T18:31:00.001-08:00

Photo of the day

2008-10-20T14:20:00.000-07:00

Girl in the Park

Pictures of my room, and some food I tried/ate in the UK

2008-10-01T19:51:00.000-07:00

The view out of my temporary room. My permanent room wasn't ready yet, so I was given a room on the 9th floor.

My new room

The corner of the room where I have my bed and bookcase.

The view out of my new room. Its on the first floor (actually the 3rd), but its not too noisy. And I don't need to climb too many flights of stairs.

Ok,now for some of the food I've tried.

On Day 2 for lunch, I had some guo tiao at China town. It cost me like 4 pounds, and as you can see, it doesn't look very good. The taste was nothing spectacular too. Those who're still in Singapore, be grateful!

Day 2's dinner. Or part of it anyway. Flatmate's mom cooked some rice and offered us some. Not to sound ungrateful, but it looked better than it tasted.

Baku teh and noodles we cooked for dinner. To be frank, this looked better than it tasted too. The meat was pretty good though.

Some fish and chips I had at covent garden market. This was better than Long John Silver's, but that's not saying much actually. Honestly, this one looked better than it tasted too.

Beef Burger at LSE sports grounds at Berrylands late afternoon today. It was fantastic! The beef patty was so thick and juicy. Finally, one food item that tasted better than it photographed.

Second part of my dinner: soup and bread. The soup was really good- it was hot and thick.

And finally, apple cider. It was my first time trying it. I liked it at first, but it got sickening after a while

First Day in London

2008-09-26T00:00:00.000-07:00

The view from the plane, before take off. It wasn't a very comfortable plane ride, but I tried my best to sleep. There was a lovely old British lady flying back to the UK from Australia and we talked a bit.

I arrived at Heathrow at 6 am, and I managed to clear customs and get my baggage relatively quickly. By 6.50 I was at the tube station waiting for the tube. I'm actually moderately proud of myself for figuring out how to take the tube to Holborn station and then how to walk to my residence, thereby saving the 30 or so pounds a taxi would have taken.

The interior of the train. The train was nearly empty at Heathrow, but soon filled up.

Me on the train,looking slightly dazed. I was actually quite tired, but didn't dare to sleep, after hearing all the stories of the UK being less safe,and of things being stolen from unsuspecting tourists. So I had to stay awake to 'jaga' my stuff.

After getting only slightly directionally challenged, I got to my accommodation relatively safe and sound. I say relatively because, the tube stairs were a bitch. I had to carry my friggin 30+ kg of luggage down this horrendous flight of stairs. Finally at the last 10-15 steps or so,some one took pity on me and helped to carry it down the rest of the way. My biceps are still complaining now.

After checking in, I managed to get the internet working. I then:

1.went to the bank to get my ATM card

2. go down to Oasis sports centre to check out the gym, swimming pool and other facilities

3. went to carphone warehouse to enquire about getting a phone

4. After that, I took the tube to check out the rink. Enquired about lessons and talked with some peope about skating, the coaches there, the sessions etcetcetc.

5. Then I walked to the skate shop and got fitted for my boots and blades. I got my new pair of skates!!!

6. While waiting for the blades to be fitted to the boots, I walked down the streets past Bayswater station. There were lots of interesting shops.

I know some of my friends (ahem ahem) have been very interested as to the 'eye candy' in the UK. I am lols. There are there are. But I forgot to bring my camera out when I was walking around. (And besides, I'm not that despo)

But I do have pics of even better eye candy! (For me,at least). My new skates!

Going to be freezing my ass off

2008-09-20T22:23:00.001-07:00

Just realized that the temperature in London now is 10-18 degrees celcius. Thats bloody cold!

I made cheesecake!

2008-09-14T08:51:00.000-07:00

Successfully, and it was my first time ever baking a cheesecake! It is/was good. And I have pictures =)

Here's the cheesecake in its tin, with a section cut off. I used a tin instead of those panfoil or sth thingys that you are supposed to use for cheesecakes cos I didn't want to buy one when I'm going to be leaving in a week or so. Anyway, it turned out all right.

Cutting the cheesecake....

And tadah! Lovely slices on a plate. You can see my eager brother already reaching for one.

Actually I was a bit worried about the cake turning out badly, it being my first try and all. And to compound matters, I was pouring the cream cheese mixture halfway when the phone rang- it was my father calling- of all times. What does he want? He wants me to turn on skype? OH no. So I stop pouring the mixture, so the pan's like half full with this gloppy mixture, rush to turn the computer on, and realize that the mixture's a bit lumpy. Ok turn on the machine again. rush to computer. Oh dad, you can just talk to gramps for a while. I have a vim (very important mission) now in the background. I'm making cheesecake!

Ok. Anyway,
since the shop only stocked cream cheese in 2kg units, that was what I bought. So I have a surfeit of cream cheese, which means I will be like baking every other day this week. So judo juniors! (all of you lurking and not commenting), you can expect cheese cake some day this week when I pop down to visit and say bye. I'm planning on baking oreo cheese cake and toblerone cheese cake. It be good!

Pilobolus

2008-08-07T10:39:00.001-07:00

Just watch! This is great!

It sucks to be sick on planes

2008-07-28T02:56:00.000-07:00

I'm back in Singapore, but unfortunately, with a bout of what I would classify as, maybe moderate, food poisoning. And I can tell you,the plane ride was sheer torture.

Why moderate? Because its moderate in comparison to the last time I got food poisoning, which was when my mother was away in China and I ate some chicken pie that had been left in the fridge for too long. Then, I woke up at 5 in the morning, and from then till 1pm, puked three times accompanied with acute stomach ache. The amazing thing about that episode though was, I did not cancel my skating lesson. So at 3 pm, I dragged myself out of the house, walked to the MRT station, took the train to Jurong East, and went for my skating lesson.

This time, on the day of my flight, I woke up not feeling well. It must have been the beef and tomoto noodles I foolishly decided to try. The stomach did not hurt as much as last time though. What I did not expect nor realize was that I was slowly getting a fever. I mean I passed through the temperature checks at the Hong Kong check point perfectly well.

But as the flight progessed, I got colder and colder. Even though I was wearing my thick grey jacked and had the airline blanket tucked right up till my ears. And besides the cold, my eyes ached, and the seat seemed to be slanted too far back and the space was too cramped. So all I could do was obsessively monitor the flight path, and endure till the journey was over.
It sucks to fly while sick indeed.

Do British tabloids have too much time to spare?

2008-07-22T05:28:00.000-07:00

Posh's Footsie Index: Or how much her heels cost per inch

The daily mail spent an entire article analyzing how much Victoria Beckham aka Posh Spice, spends per inch of heels. They compiled 11 rows of the above close-ups of shoes she wore on various occasions. They found out the brand of each pair of shoes. They found the cost of each pair, the height of the heels, and divided the cost by the height to find the price-per-inch, or PPI as they call it. Too much time, no?

PS: Of course, this means I confess to reading this daily time wasting gossip about celebrities. I mean, its pretty good brainless fun. Hehe.
Here's the article

'Reports of my death have been greatly exaggerated'

2008-07-15T07:32:00.000-07:00

I've always found this phrase amusing- theres just a certain ironic wit to it.
Edit: No wonder! I've found that it was Mark Twain who first said it.

Here's an interesting instance

Found on wikipedia:
Jonathan Agnew: in January 2007, this alumnus of Cambridge University heard that his death had recently been reported in the Trinity Record (presumably a newsletter of Trinity College, Cambridge). He contacted the Record saying he had apparently also been removed from its mailing list, and requested a copy of the obituary so he could check and if necessary correct it.

And here's what was published in the newsletter:
Exaggerated Reports
of My Death

Philosophy is supposed to reconcile us to death, and even
to reported death. It is nice to confirm that it can indeed
do so. This message was sent in January to the Trinity
Record by Moral Scientist Jonathan Agnew (1960).

Subject: Exaggerated reports of my death

To the Editor of the Trinity Record

Dear Sir,
I have been informed that the latest issue of the Trinity
Record reports that I died last August. I am unable to
verify this information directly since, with a certain
internal consistency, you are no longer sending me a copy
of the Record. I am pleased to tell you (and I hope that
you will be pleased to learn) that I am alive and well and
assure you that, within the limits of my powers, I will
inform you if the situation changes. I should be most
grateful if you would publish a correction before reality
catches up with your report and send me a copy of the
latest issue of the Record so that I can read and, if
necessary, correct my obituary. Without parapsychological
means, I remain a devoted reader of your Record and give
you my permission to publish this email.

Yours faithfully, Jonathan Agnew

Here's a few more amusing incidents:

Dick Cheney (US Vice-President) in the CNN.com incident. The draft obituary, which had been based on the Queen Mother's, described Cheney as 'Queen Consort' and the 'UK's favorite grandmother'.
Rex Alston (sports commentator, journalist and sportsman): when The Times updated its internal obituary file for him in 1985, it was accidentally published as an obituary. Alston remarried the following year (aged 85), thus having the unusual distinction of having his marriage announced in The Times after his obituary. He lived until 1994.
Daphne Banks, a resident of Cambridgeshire, UK, was declared dead on New Year's Day, 1996. However, while she lay in a mortuary an undertaker noticed a vein twitching in her leg, followed by breathing and snoring. (wth? I'm sure!)She recovered in hospital. Local authorities and Mrs Banks' family refused to name the doctor who had declared her dead; her local GP would not comment, citing patient confidentiality.

Frozen Grand Central

2008-07-12T09:19:00.000-07:00

This is absolutely cool, and the reactions of the NYC communters are hilarous. This is seriously good- these are seasoned commuters who don't notice crap- you know, the ones that tut if you walk like a milisecond slower than usual- and they were TOTALLY bewildered.

I know something similar happened in Singapore recently, but check out the poses in the videos! There were some really good ones.

Moving on, moving on

2008-07-08T17:21:00.000-07:00

Yea. The very lesson after I wrote (typed) the previous post, my instructor moved on to new things. *looks a bit sheepish*

I'm in China now and will be back in Spore end July

2008-07-07T07:27:00.000-07:00

Unfortunately, this means that I will have to miss the Judo team prelims and finals as I will still be in China at that time. All the best to those participating though! Good luck!

And now, an update on what I've been doing in China:

Skating
Thats basically the bulk of what I've been doing now so far. Shen zhen is an ice skating haven, with three rinks in relatively close proximity- large, not very crowded rinks some more. Having grown acccustomed to super crowded fuji ice palace, the rinks are fantastic here.

The coaches are top notch too, all former national team competitiors. The bad thing though, is that my previous coach was not as careful as he should be in teaching me my basics, so now I'm back to working on basics again- forward and backwards crossovers. There were so many things I didn't realize I had to do. I'm also a bit impatient with myself. I mean, how long does it usually take to get backward crossovers working properly? It seems as if I've been doing them for forever, and I KNOW I'm still not gettting them right. Argh.

Skating takes up like about 8 hours each day, including transport, time I spend slacking, plus lunch.

Shopping/exploring
If I have free time and energy after skating, which is not a lot, I explore a bit, do grocery shopping as I'm now responsible for cooking the meals.

Oh, and I'm like single-handedly bringing down the style quotient in Shen Zhen, China. Here, most people take the effort to dress up properly. Not Singapore- T shirt and jeans= properly, properly.

I mean, its like 80% of the girls/women are wearing high heels? Don't their feet get tired? And they wear nice dresses or slacks. I hardly ever see any one wearing jeans even. And me? I'm usually in a T-shirt and trackpants, since thats what I've brought to and bought in China. And birkenstocks. I wore FBTs out once, and kept on feeling like people were staring at me- I was literally the only one wearing shorts that day in the area.

Watching TV
Watching sports on HD TV is fantastic! Need I say more?
Oh, and I watched the Fed-Nadal final at Wimbledon. So heartbreaking!

Yea, basically, I'm slacking and I'm enjoying it.

This is a dream come true

2008-07-03T23:45:00.000-07:00

I'm giving my piano teacher a heart attack

2008-06-03T06:23:00.001-07:00

As my judo mates will all attest, how well I do differs vastly from day to day, and it appears that this fluctuating performance has been carried over to my piano as well.

To paraphrase a friend of mine, 'how well Jingyi plays is never fixed. It seems to depend on how she feels when she wakes up in the morning, what she had for breakfast, her mood at that particular moment..'

Well, I wasn't feeling very 'on' when I went for my practice session on the exam piano on Friday, and I completely BOMBED it. I made every mistake in the book. My piano teacher was horrified, and rightly so. I was demoralized too, and I didn't even feel like practicing when I got home. So Saturday, Sunday and Monday went by without me touching the piano properly. Tuesday morning, I panicked, practiced for 2 hours, and with coffee boosting me, performed miles better than I did on Friday.

What can I say? I just wasn't feelin it on Friday.

I am suffeirng. Oh! How much I'm suffering from...

2008-06-01T04:44:00.000-07:00

Ipod withdrawal.

Yes, that shiny sparkly red was necessary to express the depths of my torment. Because my lovely (Oh, shall I compare thee to a summer's day?) ipod has officially given up on me. I suppose I shouldn't blame it, since I was the one that (accidentally) soaked it in contact lens fluid, and since that day I should have known that its time was limited. I should, but I didn't.

And the big problem is, I dare not buy another Ipod! At least, not until the big Apple developer conference- WWDC is over. Mine eye and heart are at a mortal war- I must resist the temptations of the gleaming new ipods in the apple store. And how will I survive? How like a winter my ipod's absence has been. What dark days will these be- without any music or podcasts to accompany my travels?!

Note: try to spot all the mangled Shakespeare references that I've put in. And bah, the first one's easy easy easy.

Moving on, I thereby resolve not to be 'slower than molasses'. I went to the library today and realized that there was a skating competition going on, so I went up to take a look. And I finally realized what the people in the forums were complaining about when they derided some skaters for a lack of speed. Seriously, cute as some of these kids may be, watching them inch their way across the ice can be painful at times. Now I know what I need to work on-- I bet I'm guilty of the same thing myself. So I'll resolve to work on my speed, and not subject any unsuspecting eyes to 'turtling' or 'trundling' or even 'crawling' across the ice.

I'm watching 'Sex and the City' tomorrow. Glorious glorious days =)

Bliss

2008-05-13T20:09:00.000-07:00

What could be better than lazing half asleep at 11am on a Wednesday morning, doing nothing but listening to the sound of the rain?

All I wanna do is: Skate my lil heart out!

2008-05-06T17:09:00.001-07:00

skate skate skate skate skate

Yes, ice skate, even though yesterday's pactice left me with 'lovely' bruises on my knees.
Here, have a look:

Yea, that was because I fell forward on my knees three times during the session. I was practicing backward crossovers (and on that note, I think I've got them, but we'll see what my instructor says today) and I would be going pretty well I would lose focus or sort of blank out. So I would be leaning and trying to move, while my legs were still crossed together. You know what happens next. *bish* then *OWWWww*

Actually the first fall was pretty ok. I was like, OK, lets get up and try again.
The second fall- 'Owwwwww', then I sort of hobbled and jumped around half heartedly on one foot before making (hobbling) my way back to the rink seats and nursing my sore knee.

But despite all that, I'm ready to go for my lesson today. As I said, all I want to do now, is to skate and skate and skate my heart out.

LSE!

2008-04-25T17:16:00.000-07:00

This morning, I just had a hunch about UCAS, so without checking my email or anything, I logged in to UCAS track. And what did I find?

"Congratulations! Your place at London School of Economics and Political Science (University of London) (L72) to study Government and Economics (LL12) has been confirmed."

Yay!

New Hairstyle- photos

2008-03-26T07:22:00.000-07:00

Hi Carmen! You wanted to see my new hairstyle? Well here it is. Its blurry though-- i set the camera to timer and apparently it didn't focus well. But its clear enough to get an idea of my hairstyle I suppose.

Random, random

2008-03-26T07:16:00.000-07:00

Well, heres a report of how things are going so far

Work:
is going better. Relations better with colleagues + I get to write a bit more. Seriously, its a waste of brain power transcribing interviews that are shit boring

Driving:
Getting better too. Buckled down and both basic theory and final theory were finished chop chop. Not that I studied much, but I was ridiculously determined, and had a good idea of how much leeway I had before I failed the test. Driving on the road is going on well too. Instructors are complimenting me on how fast I learn Ha! This is a girl who managed to drive a toy car into the sea, for goodness sake!

Judo:
NUS training has stopped. Wails. I'm going to get flabby. Not that I'm not already flabby already. Sigh.

Ohters:
Met Ms Tay at West Mall today. Was so fun talking to her!
Qin Pei, Rui Yan, Shi Jia, Adeline, Rannald-- When are all of you free?!

How to make hairstyle changes

2008-03-13T05:11:00.000-07:00

STEP ONE:
Decide what hairstyle you want.

For me, the decision process was extremely simple.
JY: I'm sick of my hair, I want a change! Shall I chop it all off? AH, I know, I'll perm it. Or should I...
MOTHER: I beg you, reconsider! Your hair is perfectly all right as it is. Remember when you had that horrible perm in primary two that made you look like your head was exploding?
JY: OK, thats settled. I shall curl my hair

STEP TWO:
Go to the hairdressers. And sit there for a very long time.

Of course, giving precise instructions is of paramount importance. Here, I give the extremely excellent example of how I bugged (the hell out of) my hairdresser. Be extremely clear as to what you want.
Of course, I was an absolutely horrible (and boring) conversationalist, but hey, you've got nothing better to do in a hair salon anyway, right?

So, I'm lying down on this strange chair that vibrates (perhaps it was intended to be a massage chair??) while the hairdresser washes my hair.
JY: so yea, I was really sick of my hair and I want a change
Hairdresser: er hm
JY: Yea, so can I have curls that are not too big, but not too small either?
Hairdresser: hm. ok.
JY: Yea, I don't want it to wear off in like 3 months. But the curls can't be too tight ok?
Hairdresser: grunts
JY: I want curls that are just nice. Is there such a thing as curls that are not too loose and not too tight, and are just right?
Hairdresser: erm. yea.
JY: Ok, so you know I want curls like...
(I'm pretty sure you get the idea)

STEP 3:
Sit at the hairdressers for a very long time.

Useful tips include:
try not to fall asleep-- looking and thinking nasty thoughts about the people sitting beside you is quite a good tactic. Or you can try eleevesdroping on their conversations. That works too.

try not to be scared of the machines. I mean, there's this weird flying saucer thing that emits heat as it spins over your head. And another one where tentacles are attached to your hair and begin to heat up-- that thing could have worked pretty effectively as an instrument in my book. Yea. But its a tad difficult to perm one's hair if one doesn't even dare to let heat emitting machines near one's head.

AND,
thats how my hair went from this:

to this:

And hows work going now?

2008-02-21T06:01:00.000-08:00

It's sucking pretty moderately now.
Suck.
Sucks.
Sucking.

actually if you replace the 'S'es with another letter, you get a pretty good idea of what I'm thinking while at work.

Random junk: how fast can you type?

2008-02-18T07:05:00.000-08:00

Yup, this is the only sort of thing I have energy for when I get home after work and then judo training on mondays.

88 words

free Touch typing

A great blog I've started reading: Baby Barista

2008-02-15T17:29:00.001-08:00

http://timesonline.typepad.com/baby_barista/

A fictional account of a junior barrister at the English Bar, this blog combines unrelenting meanness with, more than abundant, wit and style. As someone who has no interest in becoming a lawyers, I found this blog absolutely fascinating, not to mention amusing. I got to learn a bit about the peculiar workings of the law, and hear about the scheming and rivalrly among lawyers. With one reviewer commenting: "His blog is very clever and witty but I can’t take such unremitting meanness, it’s like swallowing sulphur or eating vindaloo curry everyday", what's there not to like of this blog (in small doses)?

Here's an excerpt from the blog:

Year 2, week 19: hook, line and sinker

the insurers had ridiculously dug their heels in for no apparent reason. Well, no reason which they gave anyway. All in, it was a rear end shunt worth £1,500 where the insurers had suggested that my client had contrived the accident but unfortunately for them without a shred of evidence. Almost in a sulk at their lack of success they refused to give any instructions to settle and instead insisted on their barrister cross-examining my client at ridiculous length as to his finances and his general situation in life.

By the end of the first day the judge was getting ever so slightly irritated by the droning on of my poor opponent and eventually brought the evidence to a close. Come submissions, he only asked to hear from my opponent before giving the briefest of judgments in my favour.

All in all, I must have been on my feet about ten minutes for which I earned a total of £6,000 after the uplift was taken into account. With the smell of money still fresh from the case I rang my solicitor only to be told,
“Well done BabyB. Nice little earner for all of us. It’s getting easier by the day to make insurers think even the most honest of cases is dodgy.”
“What do you mean?” I asked.
“Oh come on. Surely you know the routine by now?”
I didn’t.
“It’s so easy BabyB. You just throw out a teeny weeny inconsistency early on and they fall for it every time. First they start alleging fraud and then go on to make it into some huge and most importantly expensive trial only to be confronted by a nice upstanding member of the community when they get to court. Hook, line and sinker.”

Oh.

Sorry about the lack of Updates

2008-02-11T07:11:00.000-08:00

I've started work-- it'll be my 6th day today-- and I'm busy, and tired.

I'm adapting though, so Ill proabbly have the energy to blog instead of rotting away once I get home. (That image of one slowly rotting away once you reach home is pretty cool though).

Taiwan Trip Highlights: Days 1 & 2

2008-01-22T17:59:00.000-08:00

Day 1

We arrived in Taiwan, and at my grandmother's house in time for a late lunch. After some rest, we went to the Confuciuis Temple (孔庙 kong3 miao4).

Why would we go there, you ask. Well, my parents are history buffs. So it to the temple we went, though we had already been there the last time we went to taiwan (and the time before, and the time before that... you get the idea.) . I know the temple is a place full of history, but at the risk of sounding shallow, I don't really find that sort of stuff fascinating. But it was fun! Because while my parents were traisping around listening to the guide, my brother and I were taking photographs.

This picture gives you an idea of how much attention we were paying. The guide was speaking to my parents, my brother was taking a photo of the temple, and I was taking a photo of my brother taking a photo. Fascinating stuff, really.
My parents were pleased though. We didnt whine and moan and constantly ask 'What time is it'.

We went back for dinner, and then I watched Espn. If you know me, you'll know that is a highlight. Because I am a sports nut (basketball, badminton, swimming, heck, any sport!), and I don't have ESPN at home. Hence, whenever I go overseas, the first thing I check at the hotel is whether they have the sports channels.

Day 2

My cousin took leave from work to bring around on Day 2, and it really made a difference having a local bring us around. We went to Chi Kan Lou and the area surrounding it. I shall not elaborate on the temples/architecture, as you already know my opinion.

What was important was the food!

I forgot what these round white balls are called, but some of these are cruncy while others are chewy, and there are white sugar as well as dark sugared varieties.

We went for lunch next. What my brother is cutting here is a 棺材板 'guan chai ban' (which roughly translates to 'coffin board'?) Its thick toast where they fry the toast, then cut off the top and dig out the middle. The hollow toast is then the 'coffin' and the top the coffin cover. They then fill the toast with something that tastes like campbell's coup. The soup oozes out when you begin cutting the toast, and it tastes lovely.

After that, it was time for some beancurd. We went a shop that was quite renowned, and the variety available was quite mind boggling. There was white beancurd and black bean curd. You could have your beancurd hot or cold, with red beans, with sweet sauce, with salty sauce, with with pearls (as I did, and you can see in the picture), or with everything if you dare.

We felt bloated after that much food, so my cousin brought us bird watching. The boys went to try to catch crabs, and they caught one, a tiny one, after much yelling and shrieking. I yelled too-- when they tried to bring the crab near me.

We watched the birds in a small wooden hut, and we had to keep quiet so as to not scare birds (if any) away.

I'll end with the pictures of birds I managed to get. It was quite difficult capturing them though, as the big flocks were at a distance from us, so all I managed to get were individual birds, through extensive zooming.

Federer-Tipsarevic Liveblogging, Australian Open 2008

2008-01-18T22:25:00.000-08:00

Finally got sports package, and it'll be my first time ever getting to watch the Fed. I'm horribly excited, so I'll try detailing what happens.

Refresh for updates!

Starsports switches over to Federer-Tipsarevic match midway as Blake match drags on. I'm staring at the TV and urging Blake to finish the job, quickly.

Then my computer dies. Wonderful.

Finally get to start.
First set 6-6. Tiebreak. Tipsarevic just 'clobbered the ball'. 3 points all
Tipsarovic serving. 4-3, Tipsarevic
Fed serve and volley 4 all.
Running forehand from Tipsarevic. Wins tiebreak
6-7. 48 mins, first set to Tipsarevic! Fed missed several easy volleys.
Its more competitive than what I was expecting.

Second Set
Fantastic serving by Tipsarevic. Goes up 0-1
Fed's serving better in the second set. Playing patient baseline game, but he's the one making the errors, not Tipsarevic. 40-30 Fed. And then draws level, 1-1.
Nice crosscourt backhand return by Fed. 15-30
Deuce. Adv Federer. Tipsarevic challenges after point is over. Fed thinks its too late to challenge, commenters agree. Challenge holds, point to Tipsarevic who proceeds to win the game.
Crowd seems to be behind Federer. Cheers when he goes up 15-0.
17 unforced errors by Federer so far. Tipsareovic 11.
2-3 Tipsarovic. It was 40-20 to Fed , butTipsarovic saves two break points, and then wins the point.
Fed looks grimmer. Think he has 3 aces from serve, wins the point. 3-3
Tipsarovic serving. Makes 3 unforced errors in a row. Fed up 40-0. But now its Fed's time for unforced errors. 40-30, Fed. Big serve by Tip, deuce. Tipsarovic fights back! Tipsarevic wins the point. Fed's trailing 6-7, 4-5
Very quick serves by Fed. second set 5-5
Federer challenges, but ball is way in. He has 1 challenge remaining. Fed seems to continue his trend of making strange challenges. But we know the +/- error of hawkeye. Is it possible that Fed can actually see more accurately than the computer?
Error by Federer, dumps a return into the net. Tipsarevic 6-5!
Extended rally, fantastic forehand return right down the line by Federer.
Federer wins point. 6-6. We're going to a tiebreaker
Crowd seems to be willing Federer to get back into it.
Flick backhand crosscourt by Federer. Tipsarevic scrambles, seems to get tangled at the net. 4-1
Serve by Federer 5-1. Resigned look on Tipsarevic's face
Federer wins the tiebreak. Second set goes to Fed, 7-6. We're going to at least 4 sets

3rd Set
1-0. Federer
Ace by Tipsarevic. 15-0.
Tipsarevic goes to the net, returns the shot but slips and flals on his butt. Fed easily sends the ball to the other side of the court. 15-15
At 1-0 Fed now. Deuce.
Interesting stat: 16 break point opportunities by Fed today, so far he has succeeded in taking only one.
Deuce no.3 now
Federer up 2-0 in 3rd set
2nd breakpoint opportunity by Tipsarevic. Broke Fed back on serve. Fed 2-1 Tip

Federer 2-2 Tipsarevoc.
Huge serves by Tip to 40-0

Federer 3-2 Tipsarevic
Ace no. 20 by Federer

Federer 3-3 Tipsarevic
Failed drop shot by Tipsarevic, Fed goes up 15-0. Tipis serving but Fed returns excellently. Drop shot by Tipsarevic at net which Federer rushes to and amazingly returns. But Tip is waiting at the net, and he easily taps the ball over. 30-30. Tip coming to the net more now, fantastic forehand and backhand drop volleys, ges up 30-40.

Federer 4-3 Tipsarevic
Reverse Two handed backhand by Tip, right down the line! Fed ace, he now has 21, to Tipsarevic's 8. Another ace by Fed 40-15. The classic cross-court Fed backhand, and the point goes to Federer.

Federer 4-4 Tipsarevic
Fed sends return obviously wide, but stll challenges. 'Out', hawkeye says. Tip serves ace to go to 0-40, and then game.

Federer 5-4 Tipsarevic
15-0 Fed--Extended rally, Tipsarevic really wants this, he races from one end of the baseline to the other to return. Fed takes advantage of his momentum rushing back to put the ball the other way. Fed seems to be getting into stride. He serves to extreme corner of the court, and Tip returns, but can only stand and look as Fed smashes the ball to the other extreme corner.

Federer 5-5Tipsarevic
Remarkable volley at the net as Tip climbs up from 15-40 to deuce. Tip sends ball to extreme right corner, nice position. The Angled backhand return from Fed finds the net, again this afternoon/evening. Fed lost 2 set points in this game.

Federer 5-6Tipsarevic
Tip sends a return wide and yells in frustration. Commentator says that its the first time that he's miscued on a big point. Fed's serve seems to be the only thing that working remotely ok at this point. He just sent a forehand wide, which he normally throws down the line, and he expected it to be in. Wow, magnificent passing shot by Tip. ADV Tipsarevi. He's succeeded in all his break point opporunities. 100%. Cross court winner, and Point to Tip.

Federer 5-7 Tipsarevic
30-0:Whopping ace by Tipsarevic--200km/h. Stunned. Its now set point to Tipsarevic. 2nd set point: Fed dumps a backhand into the net (again), and point to tip.

Tipsarevic leads 2-1! And it had thought before hand that it would be complete Fed dominance. The Serb is much better than I had expected. His serve is good, and he can return shots. That, combined with one of Fed's ho-hum days, is it enough for an upset?

Fourth Set
Federer 1-0 Tipsarevic
0-15 Tip. Federer just sends a forehand long Oh dear. Fed is serving well though. Serves 2 aces to get to 40-15 (I think). 25 aces for Federer so far.

Federer 1-1 Tipsarevic
0-40 Tipsarevic. Fed sends a backhand return wide. That is becoming a familiar motif this evening... 30-40: Federer successful with a slice volley. Fed sends a return wide, Adv Tip. Fed dumps a service return into the net. Game Tipsarevic.

Federer 2-1 Tipsarevic
30-15. Tipsarevic very flat return, drives the forehand return down the line-- Fed puts the ball in incredible positions, but Tipsarevic somehow manages to run this one down for a winner. Federer serves big for the game.

Federer 3-1 Tipsarevic
Tipsarevic sends an obvious drop shot, and Federer capitalizes-- backhand down the line; 15-15. Fed unleashes his crosscourt backhand, Tipsarevic goes for broke, and his forehand misses the line by a meter; 30-15. Double fault, Tipsarevic. Its the first time thats happened in the match for the serb. Is he nervous? 40-15, Fed leading. Break point for Fed, whereupon he dumps a backhand into the net; 40-30. Fed looks calm though. Extended rally, and Tip does admirably returning the ball. But the Fed's position is perfect, and he drops the ball down.

Federer 4-1Tipsarevic
Business as usual for the Fed. Rallies are short, and in his favour

Federer 5-1 Tipsarevic
Lovely inside out backhand by Federer, but it curls a bit too much and is out; 0-15. Its 3 hours into the match. I seem to remember Fed saying part of his preparation/strategy for slams is avoiding unnecessary or 'stupid 5 setters' in the early rounds. Smart play by Fed. He uses a sharply angled passing shot, and Tipsarevic can only watch as the ball flies past; 30 all. Another amazing play; a rushing Federer reads Tip's poorly disguised drop shot, and sends the return to the other end of the court; 40-30 Fed.
Federer sends a drop shot, Tip rushes and retrieves it; Fed sends the ball to the opposite corner. Somehow Tip gets it, Fed drops it, Tip who's seemingly off balance, rushes back and volleys the ball down. Fantastic rally!
7th break point; Fed whips his backhand cross court.

Federer 6-1 Tipsarevic
Miss some action while publishing, but look up to see Fed dump a backhand into the net; 30-30. Fed is still in control through, and wins the game in short order.

We're going to a 5th set!

Fifth Set
Tipsarevic medical time out. Seems that he slightly tweaked an ankle. Trainer is taping it now. Crowd is noisy, and commentator suggests that they have reason to be cheerful given that they paid for an afternoon session yet its 8 at night and they're still watching in the stadium. Thats some pretty heavy wrapping around Tipsarevic's ankle, so it might be a pretty serious sprain.

Federer 0-1 Tipsarevic
Tipsarevic serve and then forehand winner 0-40. He then dumps a forehand into the net right after that though. Federer sends a forehand long, game to Tipsarevic.

Federer 1-1 Tipsarevic
30-0. Tipsarevic sends a return high, and Fed does not hesitate in smashing it. Commentator says Tip seems to be able to read Federer's serve while Fderer has no idea where Tip's serve is going. 30-30 as Fedrere sends a backhand long. 40-30 Tipsarevic dumps a forehand into a net and yells in frustration. Federer changes his serve; that works, and he wins the game.

Federer 1-2 Tipsarevic
0-15; Ace numer 12 by Tip. Three easy points for Tip, goes up 0-40. Federer fails to return Tipsarevic's serve. Game to Tip

Federer 2-2 Tipsarevic
Fed is serving well again.

Federer 2-3Tipsarevic
0-15 both players come to the net, Fed volleys well.
Tip digs himself out of a possible 40-0 again. Tip sends a forehand and Fed, amazingly fleet of foot manages to retrieve, but Tip is waiting at the net and calmly volleys the ball into the opposite corner.
40-30. Fed comes uph with amazing half volley winner.
40-40 deuce.
Amazing forehand by Fed for advantage. But Tip comes right back with a cracking Ace-- 203km/h! 'Incredible effort', the commentator says
Another Tip serve, which Fed returns wide. Adv Tip. I'm on the edge of my seat.
Play is stopped by umpire in the middle of point. Apparently a ball had fallen out of a bag. Fed is not happy about it.
Tip serves, Fed returns wide. Point to Tip

Federer 3-3 Tipsarevic
Fed serves, and its game to him so very quickly.

Federer 3-4 Tipsarevic
Tipsarevic is grunting very loudly now. Awesome groundstroke, Fed seems stuck to the ground. The crowd, which seemed more on Fed's side at the beginning, is now cheering for both.
40-15. Tip forehand to his right corner, Federer sends return to the net.
Big serve from Tipseravic. Game to him! Crowd is going wilder by the moment

Federer 4-4 Tipsarevic
I'm nervous for them too... 15 all.
Clever play by Federer. He looks out of the corner of his eye to make sure where Tip is before sending the ball to the right corner.
Strong forehand by Tip that a rushing Fed fails to return.
Fed is in a potentially sticky situation at 30-30. He looks calm though.
Serve by Fed 203 km/h. Ace no. 32 Thats about the maximum speed of Fed's serves.
Tip sends return to net. Point to Fed

Federer 4-5 Tipsarevic
0-15 Tip forehand winner. Is it me, or does Federer look a tad nervous?
15-40. Serve and Volley by Tip. Great execution, not even a slightest hint of hesitation as he comes to the net.
Tipsarevic forehand, which Fed doesn't manage to get into the net.

Federer 5-5 Tipsarevic
Crowd giving both players a standing ovation.
Federer ace to go 30-0. Fed now has 33 aces so far. The Serb sems to fight back, going to 30-15, but Fed passes him.

Federer 5-6 Tipsarevic
I have to say, Tipsarevic's groundstrokes are holding up to the pressure! He moved Fed around, till Federer couldn't reach the ball.
Awww! Tip sends a flat crosscourt forehand into the net. Audience sighs in unison.
The tension is growing...
Tip sends a forehand wide... as soon as i said hisstrokes are holding up
Another big serve and forehand. This young man can match cools with the Fed. I'm impressed. Tip another fabulous serve to win the point.

And theres no breakpoint in the fifth set. Tension

Federer 6-6 Tipsarevic
Two consecutive aces by Federer
Tip sent an easy drop shot over, the crowd gasped in anticipation, and then Federer slices the ball into, the net. Collective gasp again.
Return by Tipsarevic long. Camera shows Mirza letting out a sigh of relief.

Federer 6-7 Tipsarevic
Tipsarevic's steady serving continues in this set. Marvellous serve by Tip that Fed reaches but can't return; 0-15.
Quite a log rally. Fed sends the ball to the extreme corner, Tip returns it wonderfully to the opposite corner. Fed retrives, Tip error. 15-30
Fabulous flat forehand down for a winner by Tipsarevic. This is tremendously exciting.

Federer 7-7 Tipsarevic
Fed leads 15-0. Seemingly perfect forehand from Tip to draw level 15-15.
Crosscourt backhand by Fed 30-15. 196 Ace by Fed. Serve by Fed that Tip doesn't manage to get cross the net.

Wwill Tipsarevic choke? Or will he win?

Federer 7-8 Tipsarevic
Federer sends ball into net while just trying to keep it in play.
0-30.Tip crosscourt forehand. Very flat. Comentator says that 'shouldn't be possible.' Thrilling.
Tip forehand long. 15-30.
Tough shot by Tipsarevic to try change direction. Ball goes wide. 30-30.
Serve by Tip thats just marvellous, serve to the extreme right corner standing on the left, which leaves Fed perfectly, out of position. 30-40. Whose nerves will crumble next?
Fed forehand into the net! Tip wins point!

Federer 8-8 Tipsarevic
Federer's serve basically working.

Federer 9-8 Tipsarevic
This is crazy. Drop volley by Tip that Fed somehow manages to get. Tip gets to it though, and slidddeeeees it down the line.
Fed unable to crack the groundstrokes of Tip. Fed sends ball into the net. 0-30, Tip
Another brilliant groundstroke by Tipsarevic that Fed can't read. That guy seems unflappable. Perhaps Fed had thoguht Tipsarevic would fold under pressure like Djokovic did?
Fed seems to be getting read on Tipsarevic's serve. breaks him to go 30-40. Tipsarevic does rely a lot on his serve.
DEUCE!
Tipsarevic sends what seems to be a given forehand long.Adv Federer. Crowd is going wild.
Big forehand from the Serb which Fed can't return. Deuce again.
Federer is clutch. High back end volleys. He is visibly agitated after that shot. Break point no.21.
Tipsarevic sends a shot into the net. Mirza is smiling and clapping.

Federer 10-8 Tipsarevic
Fed serving for the match.
Ace no. 31. Just inside the line.
Crosscourt backhand, right into the corner. 30-15
Match point, Federer. He sends the ball into the net.
Fed serve, Serb sends the ball into the net.
Roger Wins!

Final
6-7 (5-7) 7-6 (7-1) 5-7 6-1 10-8

Respect to Tipsarevic though. He fought Roger all the way. Crowd is giving him a standing ovation. I'm looking forward to more of him.
This match reminds me of another 5 setter, Andy Roddick against Philipp Kohlschreiber. The rhythm of that match was different though. Their game was more reliant on serve-- I mean, Kohlschreiber had 103 winners! And rallies were shorter than the Federer /Tipsarevic match.

OK, thats it, folks. I need food.
I'm drained just from watching the match. Whew.

Introducing: my new dahling

2008-01-16T04:20:00.001-08:00

The 12 inch IBM X61!
You may look at it and think 'What's so special about it?'

well.....
tadah! Pink! Pretty pretty.

My white macbook was getting very slow and laggy after three years, so I finally got a new laptop. I couldn't stand the boring black cover though- I mean its like there are a million other black laptops. Hence I got it wrapped. Pretty.

It wasn't all smooth sailing at first though. I switched from Mac to PC because there might be some programs I might need in the future that only run on PC-- access, for instance. I wasn't exactly very happy about that, for I liked using the mac. And when I first switched, I thought Windows Vista was the stupidest operation system ever known to mankind.

It was so frustrating! At first I couldn't even find a way to get 'my computer' onto the desktop and had to ask my brother for help. After all, it was automatically there on my mac. And then what about the endless and annoying popups asking me to verify my password for every thing I download? ARGH! And why are the windows so weird? I was used to having multiple windows that don't automatically occupy the whole screen, sort of like this:

see how the multiple windows overlap each other? Then I could switch between multiple windows without going to the taskbar, just by clicking the edge of the other window. And I could automatically have two different word documents side by side, with another hidden behind,which I could easily switch between.

I have another peeve (sorry, this is turning into a rant). Windows automatically hides file extensions. I wanted to change the file extension from .divx to .vlc, and imagine my irritation when the extension just refused to show up. A bit of googling, and it was rather easy changing the view settings on my computer. But. Still.

It is not all bad though. It turned out to be not so bad once I got used to it. But in the future, if I need Windows at my workplace, I'm going to get a Mac as a personal computer.

My opinion: Get a Mac if you don't have to get a windows. Really.

Away, travelling

2008-01-08T04:05:00.001-08:00

I'm going on holiday to Taiwan! Be back after a week with posts. =)

I will get my essays done. I will!

2007-12-22T22:42:00.000-08:00

If only the essays would get done by themselves if I say that enough times. Because I am horrendously behind schedule, and working at a horrifyingly slow pace. I try to write, and then spend the afternoon staring at the screen till I can't make head or tail of what I'm saying, and can't even decide what to change.

Meeting Up

2007-12-12T09:20:00.000-08:00

Met up with Carmen and Tracy after SATs for lunch and to shop for a prom dress. Was fun chatting and doing the dress shopping. Thanks for accompanying me!

Met Adeline today for lunch and coffee. We talked for a really long time; it was always good. You know, serious world important stuff that girls normally talk about?
You know, like, erm, boys? Or makeup?

Highlights, courtesy of me

"Ok, I've checked my schedule, and I believe I'll have time in college for a boyfriend"

"I mean, why would I want to have kids? I don't even have pet goldfish"

"If you want a boyfriend thats handsome, caring, thoughtful and doesn't talk back, get a dog"

The As are over over over!

2007-12-07T00:57:00.000-08:00

Wohoo!
(If these celebrations seem a bit late, let me explain. There are extenuating circumstances.)

My As ended on the 29th of Nov. (Dratted H3 eccons)
After which I prepared for my SATs, which were on the 1st of Dec.
And had to shop for a prom dress from the 1st--3rd of Dec.
And Prom was on the 4th. (which was spent tottering around on high heels and getting blinded by camera flashes, but thats another story)
It is now the 7th and I have uni applications to complete.

Bah! What holiday?

The prelims are over

2007-09-19T15:54:00.000-07:00

And I can finally blog about something I've been obsessed with for a period of time- figure skating! I have wasted countless hours of my live on youtube just watching skating, so. yeah. And I have persuaded mom to let me learn skating after the 'As, so thats something I'm eagerly anticipating.
And back to videos and skating. I spend a disproportionate amount of time watching 1 skater in particular. His name? Evgeni Plushenko. I first saw his picture in the papers for the 2006 Torino Olympics, and I thought 'hey, that guy is pretty cute. And his hair is nice.' So I googled him. Then I youtubed him. And I was STRUCK. His skating is fantastic! And he flirts with the audience!

I've watched the other competitors, and they've failed to leave as deep an impression on me. After Plushenko, the others all seem slow, clumsy, or technically deficient. There is one other skater who can compare though--Alexei Yagudin. His 2002 Olympic programmes were just gorgeous.

The point of all this? To declare that I love Plushenko! Nah. Thats probably post-prelim delirium.

Die!

2007-03-17T20:10:00.000-07:00

I am so dead.
Its the day before CTs, and what am I doing- surfing the net when I haven't even done a fraction of my revision. Especially history.
Oh, why did I go for training(s).

Die econs essay, Die

2007-02-25T03:33:00.000-08:00

I will finish this before tomorrow. I will. I must.
Maybe if I say this enough, the essay will be mysteriously written by itself.

Oh, ohh
'Reliance on unrealistic assumptions, such as the rationality postulate has resulted in a failure on the part of economic theory to capture the complexities of the real world'. Discuss

*dissolves into existential angst*

McDonalds, McDonalds

2007-02-15T04:14:00.000-08:00

Its been an extremely hectic week. Besides judo occupying almost the whole of Saturday and Sunday, an International History Term Paper due on Monday compounded matters. That the SEA History Term Paper and Raffles Asia Programme papers were due on the same day (Thursday) did nothing to relieve the stress. I found myself tired and listlesss during practice, that the throws were not working out, and thinking 'I need a vacation!'
BUT-- finally the week is over and I can look foward to Chinese New Year. I've borrowed DVDs from my judo coach to watch on the long journey to Malaysia, and I'll try to get rubber tubing so that I can work on my pulling and avoid going mad with boredom in godforsaken Muar.

OK, on to more interesting matters. I found this fascinating article on McDonalds.
It narrates how McDonalds has chanaged and adapted its strategy over the years. For instance, I never knew that breakfasts were one of the most lucrative times for fastfood restaurants. The article also details the exhaustive research that goes into a new product.

As dietblog says:

McDonald's CEO James Skinner claims "We've learned. We've evolved. We believe we've cracked the code in the United States."
What is the code? Americans like to eat all day long.

Most outlets are open 18 hours a day. Others are 24/7. McDonald's essentially want you to stuff yourself from dawn 'til dusk.

It seems that many customers are only too happy to oblige. After all, McDonald's have kids play areas, they have McCafe's, they have wide-screen TV's.

The salads and so-called "healthy options" are nothing but a nod in the direction of the food police. McDonald's have been talking about reducing trans fats for years. Ironically at the same time they do the talking - they come out with snacks like the chicken Snack Wrap. Each "snack" has about 330 Calories and at least a gram of good 'ole trans fats.

America: McDonald's has you under their big fat meaty thumb.

I was so intrigued by the article that I went to search for more articles on McDonalds. This one by the Economist is pretty good too.

Some interesting quotes from the Economist Article:

"Yet the really interesting thing going on here is at a hybrid restaurant, which in part uses McDonald's Japanese system—creator of the Teriyaki burger—and a new concept from Sweden, which grills burgers vertically instead of horizontally as on a traditional griddle. This new type of grill offers great space-saving possibilities—extremely useful in crowded Japan."

"The average sale in a McDonald's is just under $5. Typically what might happen is a mother comes in, buys her children a Happy Meal, and herself just a coffee. Now that salads and other lighter options have been added to the menu, many of those mothers now buy themselves a meal too, lifting the order value to around $12. The lighter options also encourage existing customers to come back more often because there is a greater variety of things to eat."

Some related, and not-so-related articles:

My life is exciting

2007-02-03T23:02:00.000-08:00

not

Monday to friday:

Go to school
Go for training
Then practice piano and do school work at home
Sleep

Repeat

Saturday and Sunday
sleep. do work. practice piano. train (on sun)

Yep. No exiting jaunts with boyfriends till 3 am for this girl. No watching movies everyweek and shopping. I lead a boring life.

Apple iPhone!

2007-01-10T05:04:00.000-08:00

After much speculation and debate, the iPhone has finally been announced! All the rumours were true after all. Though I read rumours, and saw dozens of fake mock ups, its still a tad hard to believe that the iphone is out.

Gizmodo has details of the phone's functions and a review of each function

wize comparison- iPhone vs other phones

video-iphone in person behind glass

The Iphone is not a SmartPhone

School reopens

2007-01-04T01:11:00.000-08:00

school in = fun out
nevermind, theres still training
grinz

Back From Hong Kong

2006-12-19T02:22:00.000-08:00

Our Hotel Room

Its quite nice and big, and the girls get a sitting area, which the guys don't, cos they had to fit 3 people into one room.

We had a nice view of the river from our room

Oh, and pudding! We went out to shop, and decided to try the mango pudding. Toon Wen had mango sago pudding (the one on top) while I had just plain mango pudding. It was great!

We went to Stanley Market, a quaint place named after Stanley Ho the tycoon. Its were the rich people in hk live. the houses are really nice, not like some cramped ones we've seen on our way to our hotel; land is very scarce in Hk.

Me, Jing Wen and Alwin posing at the top of some mountain. We're supposed to get a very good view of Hong Kong, but I suppose the fog, and our silly heads have blocked out most of the scenery.

Toon Wen and me. There, a clearer view of the buildings, but the sky is really very foggy.

Of course, this was meant to be a judo trip, so we had trainings (note the plural, I refuse to go into details here). Toon Wen, Shima, Yumi, Me, Siu-- the girls present at Hong Kong Judo Club .
So thats it from Hong Kong =)

Piano recital

2006-12-03T15:04:00.000-08:00

I found out some three weeks ago, that apparently my piano teacher holds a 'concert' for all her students to perform every year. And yes, I was supposed to perform. I wasn't exactly thrilled when I heard the news.

Anyway, Saturday was the big day. Before the big day, I had gone through several disastrous piano lessons where I did one or more of these things

forget whole chunks of the score which I was supposed to memorise and collapse completely
grimace rather visibly when I made a mistake
complain that I wasn't ready for the concert
complain that I would forget everything during the concert

The concert was held at the Methodist school of music. I was relieved when I saw the place we were performing. I had horrid visions before hand of a huge concert hall, but the venue was just a rather small dance studio. whew. One pressure eased.

We got the chance to test the piano before the parents were allowed in. And then it was performance time! I was the third in line to perform, and my heart was thumping while the two before me were performing. I don't think I like waiting very much...

And then it was time to perform! I played the first movement of Beethoven's sonata in C minor op 10 no.1. I think its a very good concert piece, with extreme ffs and pps. It was certainly more dramatic than the chopin pieces (3 people played chopin). I think I may be more suited to the temper and dramatics of Beethoven's pieces. I like the banging then the sudden silences. I was thrilled in a childist kind of way when I realized that I could go much louder on the grand piano than at my piano at home.

I was nervous and I made some mistakes, but I did the dynamics ok. And just like that, in a span of 3 minutes, my part was over.

After the whole concert ended, I went for a cup of coffe with my father. Yay, a yummy end to a nerve wrecking day.

interesting stuff

2006-11-26T00:21:00.000-08:00

Via adrants

and...
A burrito is a sandwich?
an excerpt from fastfoodnews:
Panera Bread Co. feels certain that a burrito is, in fact, a sandwich... at least when it helps them limit competition to one restaurant in their fast-casual chain.

Panera sued their landlord to try and stop a Qdoba Mexican Grill from opening in the same shopping center because they had a clause in their lease preventing the landlord from renting space to another sandwich shop.

Bliss is...

2006-11-22T06:04:00.000-08:00

reading sappy fanfiction at 2 am in the morning,
with equally sappy Josh Groban music in the back ground

Bliss is...

2006-11-18T07:32:00.000-08:00

Enjoying a good book, drinking a nice coffee, sitting and watching people pass by, alone.
Or perhaps with the genius of Mozart at the back of my mind.

That is bliss.

Its been a year...

2006-11-17T17:17:00.000-08:00

A very sweet and busy year since I joined RJC...
A year where I slacked too much
A year where I found joy in a sport i truly liked
A year where I seemed to have lost my drive
A year where I lost my drive

And I'm not sure I can go back

But I think I will try,
For my future, if for nothing else

ipod Shuffle unboxing

2006-11-11T23:53:00.000-08:00

Bought my ipod shuffle today! After much deliberation, I chose to get the shuffle instead of any other one of the wide variety of flash-based players available. Now I can use this dahling to go running. Yay
The lovely shuffle, just waiting for the unboxing...

1 1gig should be enough, after all, I'm not likely to want to listen to Bach or even Wagner when I'm puffing along on the track, am I?

Another pic of my new lovely...

Accessories, and the shuffle

The player is SOOO tiny

Korean Drama Watching

2006-11-09T04:44:00.000-08:00

Korean Drama Watching, GOONG

Day 1
episodes 1-10

the female lead is super cute! squees-- her eye expressions are super funny
I want to smack the blardy prince. I mean, whats his blardy probrem with his blardy black face
omg, I'm going to die from laughing too hard
omg, the female lead's crying AGAIN. tissues please
tissues
tissues
I swear never to watch korean drama again! I can't stop!!!

Day 2
episodes 10-16

parental scenes starting to get a tad boring. Fast forward
aww so sweet... he carries her when she faints...aww...aww
they're starting to like each other- yay!
palace scenes starting to get a bit boring. Fast forward
the female lead is crying again. mom thinks i'm having a runny nose and tells me to eat my medicine. I carry the laptop to the room to cry in peace
2nd prince is rather cute too. reminds me a bit of zai zai in meteor garden.
wazzup man, can't you two, like, you know, communicate? you know, kom-mui-neee-kate
I can't stop! Continue cheonging!!!!

Day 3
episodes 16-19, 24

will you two pris pris pris get together
fast forward palace scenes
fast forward parents of female leads
story getting too plotty. all i want to know is WILL YOU TWO GET TOGETHER?
2nd male lead getting irritating. Fast forward
fast forward
will you two get together? pris?
fast forward
fast forward
finish 19, skips to 24
fast forward
so sweet... they're getting together =)
BUT still arguing???
I'm NEVER watching korean drama again!

at least the mission is accomplished. GOONG in 3 days!

Things that Martial Artists want you to know:

2006-11-02T00:00:00.000-08:00

THINGS THAT MARTIAL ARTISTS WANT YOU TO KNOW:
note: gacked from judoforum

1. I really, really enjoy Martial Arts. As a consequence, even when I know better, I will talk to you about Martial Arts. Just like someone interested in Photography, or Golf, or a Television Show. Please don’t take it as a threat to your ego. I am not challenging you in any way. Just smile and nod like you do to everyone else’s boring stories about interests you don’t have.

This is so, so true for me- oh, the urge to chatter non-stop about the minute details of training. Pray stop me before you keel over from boredom

2. Also, please don’t take this as an opportunity to spout out “That’s why I carry a 9mm in my car at all times!” We are perfectly aware that Martial Arts training will not stop a bullet. Are you aware that we are currently between you and your car, and our Martial Arts knowledge is not locked in the glove compartment?

3. While we are on that note, nothing it our code of conduct prevents us from owning firearms, either.

4. No, I don’t have to register my hands with the police. No state law says “black belt = deadly weapon”.

5. Before you ask, no, I probably could not beat Chuck Norris, Bruce Lee, Steven Segal, Matt Hughes, Royce Gracie, Jet Li, Mike Tyson or Jackie Chan. Safety Tip: Please note that your name is not on this list.

6. I could probably break a cinder block with my hand or head, but I’d rather use a sledge hammer.

7. I could probably take you down using just two fingers, but since I have all 10 of mine I’ll probably use them all.

8. If you ask me if I can beat you and your two buddies, I honestly don’t know. I might walk away, or your buddies might walk away. I guarantee you that YOU won’t walk away.

9. Yes, if I have been training long enough, I have been beaten. In fact, I have probably been knocked out by a woman, thrown down by a blind man, kicked in the head by a kid, or in some other way beaten by someone that does not compute through your macho thick skull. However, do you really think that improves YOUR chances?

10. When I invite you to come to my class, it is not a threat. It is an invitation to share something that I find very enjoyable with you. Consider it a compliment. (For further information, see number 1 above).

11. Yes, some people train in Martial Arts and do not become great fighters, and some people are great fighters with no martial arts training. However, no matter how good a fighter someone may be, Martial Arts training will make them a better fighter. It will probably make them a better person as well.

12. A Black Belt in one Martial Art does not mean the same thing as a Black belt in other Martial Arts. In many Karate or Tae Kwon Do schools, a Black Belt represents about 2-3 years of training, and can be achieved at age10 or even younger. In most Judo or Jujitsu schools, a Black Belt may take 7-10 years, and most do not award these ranks to those under 18. If you really want to find out how much experience someone has, ask them how long they have been training.

13. No Martial Art is perfect. Some are better at a distance, some are better close, and some are better versus multiple opponents. Those that try to cover every aspect tend to have much less depth of technique. For example, I would be a lot less worried about the guy who had a year of Jujitsu, a year of Tae Kwon Do and a year of Shotokan than I would about the guy who had three years of any one of these.

14. The reason that I can avoid, block and/or take these strikes, take downs and other attacks so easily is not because of some ancient, mystical secret passed down by a monastic order at the top of a mountain somewhere. It’s because I have been doing this for twenty years.

15. What is the secret of the Martial Arts? Dr. Jigoro Kano, founder of Judo, said it best: “Never Miss Practice!”

Memories of Bukit Panjang Govt High

2006-10-28T00:59:00.000-07:00

Went back to BP yesterday-- thanks, Yuting, for dragging me out of the house. It was sort of a 'celebration' or farewell as BP will be moving to Teck Whye.

The old school building holds a lot of memories of me. Yuting and I were at the hall for a short while and then we went to find Mr Chin. Later, we found Angeline Wong.

While I may have resented the school or what it has not done, nevertheless it still holds a lot of my memories. As I said to Jia Wei while we were walking around the field, while the grass may be greener where we are at now, it still feels good to visit the fields where we once roamed.

How do I say this? I miss bp. I don't miss bp. On one hand, I'm glad I got out of it (Yuting will disagree), that I have many more opportunities where I am now. On the other hand, I miss the times I had there, the friends I made.

I suppose its true that we don't really treasure what we have until its gone. To the IP students: though you think you won't miss your former class, school or friends, you are sadly wrong. I thought that too. Time has proved that false.

I remember...

sneaking food back into the cabin classroom during recess, ocassionally doing work, more often listening to Abul and Ming Hwang arguing about silly things... laughing hysterically

Yuting beating Mr Chin at Table Tennis

Ashwin, me and rannald conducting a 'chat' consisting of a piece of fulscap paper passed down and around during 1.5 hours of a.Wong's bio, which resulted in all the 3 of us not knowing what happened during the lesson

Talking so much among ourselves during English that I didn't know what Mrs Hoe was talking-- and she knew and chose not to comment (thanks)

Ashwin and me having a very heated discussion about whether girls should wear short skirts while rannald looks on in amusement (me for, him against)

How I was told by a teacher to keep quiet or that I was noisy (Mrs Poh) for the first time in my school career because I was talking too loudly to Ashwin (imagine my outrage and Aswhin's delight)

Chatting with Yuting and having fun with Miss Kong's endless stories during Chinese

gradually increasing the number of books I keep under my table over the year until finally I have to spend a whole week slowly carting books back home before the exams when we have to clear our tables

New Year, teachers day, national day, youth day celebrations-- which I all ponned

Essay writing sharing for hist and ss before the Os

Playing basketball with Ber, Denise, Xue Qi, Serlang

Jia Wei's ability to talk about bras and sanitary pads with the best of the girls while daniel or any other guy quickly turns a rather pukish shade of green

Preparing for RMUN with qin pei, rannald, rui yan, aiman-- painting the masks, discussing in Macdonald's, dissing the sec-gen at RJ

ranting with the RMUN ppl about how to improve BP

Tan Suan Tian blowing his whistle at us, and how the girls must do push up so that we can carry babies in two hands (or something equally ridiculous). And the girls would always walk instead of run when we were behind the bushes

Cheering Com... though I hated cheering and found it a waste of time
Angeline Ee's interminable and infernally irritating announcements
Tiger Tan's lessons which were a almost complete waste of Tan
Mr Ng's crappy but amusing stories during Lit
Dissing King of the Castle (only me, while the rest roll their eyes at the rantings of a lunatic)
Mrs Wong's 'pendulous earings'

Memories. Oh fond memories

A long tiring PW trip (though hwa chong was worth it)

2006-10-17T13:32:00.000-07:00

We went filming for our PW OP presentation today, basically trying to find out what people thought about youth initiatives.

I'm quite proud of myself- I managed to take the bus to the totally unfamiliar King Albert Park when I'm not really that good with directions. Met Carmen (Chu) and Kaleni there where OMG nothing has been filmed yet. panic panic.

We had one interview at the bus stop, then Carmen had to leave to see her chiropractor. Kal and I then went to Ngee Ann Poly where we were daoed by numerous people, but we managed to get some interviews in the end.

We then went to Hwa Chong- Carmen sounded really surprised when I called her and asked if she was still in school. Yay! Thank you Carmen, for being or first Hwa Chong interviewee =) Was really happy, cos I haven't seen carmen for ages- missed her loads. Saw Qin Pei too, they both look really happy in HC.

It feels a bit weird being in Hwa Chong, with Kal in his white and white, and then there are thoughts running through your head: this is the school you could have gone to... what would have happened there? Its a creepy feeling..

Mansfield Park

2006-10-10T07:58:00.000-07:00

Its one of the books I started reading after Promos.

Ok, basically this book is about

A girl named Fanny who is sent to live with her relatives
She grows up pretty but rather shy (and she cries a lot)
She is pursued by a man named Henry Crawford
Which she rejects, and he persisting prolongs the novel for like a hundred pages and endless weepings and descriptions of Fanny's virtues and shyness and delicacy
Did I mention she cries a lot?
Finally she marries her cousin (Edmund) whom she's been crushing all along but never realizes
And they're married.

And I must rant: I really don't like Aunt Norris. Maybe its partly Austen's genius, but whenever Norris comes into the scene, I just think bitch

2006-10-07T02:28:00.000-07:00

Maria Sharapova Nike Ad

Its really cute! =)

2006-10-04T23:52:00.000-07:00

Uchi-mata

Judo Blog

2006-09-30T17:33:00.000-07:00

I've decided to write about judo in another blog, so that I'll stop boring you ppl with random Jap stuff no one knows about or cares about. Feel free to visit my judo blog at www.judoisfun.blogspot.com. =)

End of Promos!

2006-09-28T06:42:00.000-07:00

Haha, my promos are OVER! (while the rest of you are still promoing

To rub it in, heres what I did today after I finished my last paper (lit)... slacked with classmates, went to new cathay, went to Plaza Sing for dinner at Swensens (double yay), and finally Kino to get a book.

I've been remiss in catching up with my old class mates. How are they doing?
jia wei's nostalgic and has a moderately nasty incident with his braces
Ching Ching's humour is as sharp as ever, and I do admire the fugly shoes
Arpita is busy mugging
Adeline's another one I'm able to gloat over cos she'll still studying- and so are the others at NJ- best of luck!
Jocelyn's blog has this really cool rotating thingy while she's having strange sleeping patterns
Michelle remembers 911
Qin Pei at Hwa Chong sure gets nice bird shit during GP

Ok, thats it so far, I'm too tired to go further.
If you feel strongly outraged and unappreciated that I've left you out, do leave a comment or tag- I'm really absent minded

Ciao

Hiatus

2006-08-16T10:35:00.000-07:00

Temporarily on Hiatus
Due to numerous commitments in Real Life

Hahahaha...

2006-08-08T03:28:00.000-07:00

Found this while surfing the web...super funny

Gacked from Alvin Chan, CJC judoka, aka shuaige

JUDO DICTIONARY
in recent months, there have been a slew of people taking up judo in cjc. however, judokas have a dialect of their own and most laymen do not understand it.

so, for all the newly-recruited and the uninitiated, here is a brief transalation of some of the more popular terms used by sji/cjc judokas.

(ps. if any of you know any terms i've left out please tell me.)

start class- time to start

warm up- an important part of judo that ensures you won't get hurt later by hurting you now.

one straight line - a line said by the coach to indicate that the warm up is over and the real training is beginning.

randori - sparring.

randori with juniors - getting to kick some serious ass.

randori with seniors - getting your ass kicked.

randori with old boys/coach - letting your ass be kicked so bad it may as well be a soccer ball

shiai - getting your ass kicked in front of everyone else at training

ne-waza - an excuse to roll around on the ground in very compromising positions with another person of the same sex.

sweep - 1.cleaning the dojo by running your feet over the surface of the mats. 2.a throw which involves forcibly ramming (also known as zam-ing) your foot into your opponent's ankles.

tomo nage - by right,tomo-nage is a stomach throw. by left, tomo-nage is a kick in the groin.

RJC - the home of smart and strong judokas. also known as raffles junior college, RA(raffles academy) and "those bastards!!!". see also "jason tan"

HCJC - the home of smart, strong and crazy judokas. also known as hwa chong junior college, HCI(hwa chong institution), "those crazy bastards!!" and most popularly as "gold medallists". see also "huang hao"

CJC - the home of alvin chan and the "chio bu" judokas. also known as crazy junior college, "those idiots!!!" and " cj who!??!?"

lau yu don - a stupid bastard. eg. " why the hell did you try and tomo-nage the RJC coach?!?! you think you lau yu don is it!?!?" note that the key word is "try"

jason tan - a crazy bastard. eg." wa lau this guy jason tan is it?!?! broken collarbone can still do 15 pull ups!"

huang hao - a scary crazy bastard. eg. " he huang hao man, can bounce after getting thrown by him."

davis seow - a dirty bastard. eg. " that guy davis seow man, tickling my neck while choking me!"

sherman ho - a poser. eg "stop jumping around like sherman ho lah! later get sweep then you know!"

CHIN peng phay - a big coach. also, a skilled judoka who uses "tactics" for that added edge.

"tactics" - techniques not taught in the books and used by davis seow, like drving your chin into your opponent's chest while you're holding him.see also above "CHIN peng phay"

justinian chua - a bigger coach. also, a person who uses "the last ride" throw.

the last ride - a judo throw which involves a great height, some screaming, and a lot of cringing from its witnesses.

alvin chan - a very charming, witty, good-looking and yet humble judoka. also known as "shuaige". only person to use the tomo-nage the right way and hero of sji/cjc judo. eg. "wa shuai ge is SO handsome!!"

BPGHS Speech Day

2006-07-28T22:29:00.000-07:00

Left school early (12pm) for Speech day today. Yay!
Actually, I went to Orchard with Jasela, Carmen and Yuk Yee to eat. We had a great lunch at Breeks and had a fantasic chat about inter-college rivalry as well as crazy ideas like bombing NJ food across to Hwa Chong or getting Hwa Chong welfare to deliver food to Bishan. Cool right?

We decided to be fashionably late to the speech day. we were instructed to be in school by 3, Speech day starts at four. We reasoned that we would maximise satisfaction (econs, aha!) by enjoying ourselves in air-conditioned comfort instead of being lectured and told what to do in the stuffy hall.
We reached BP at 3.45.

I came well prepared. I brough American Gods by Neil Gaiman (fantastic book btw) and famous amos cookies to while away the interminable speeches. Ms Tay was looking at me in ABSOLUTE envy. Coz, while she had to be tortured, I was immune, happily doing my own thing!

It was great seeing my classmates again. Especially you, Yuting! (Muz mention you right?) But I forgot to bring my camera, so unfortunately I have no pics.=(

A group of us went for dinner at pizza hut. I think Ashwin had great fun crapping. Well, we had great fun listening to his "crap".

Oh, This article is really cool. So talent counts, but hard work counts for more. Take that, Purvis!

The end of a busy week

2006-07-23T03:06:00.000-07:00

This week has been super duper hectic. For one, there were JUDO FINALS on wednesday,
hence I couldn't concentrate at all on monday and tuesday (read: tons of work not done and needing to be caught up)

Monday: Racial Harmony day briefing + stress test frm 1-5 then piano lesson
Tuesday: Chinese Listening + Training
Wednesday: Judo Finals, Debrief, Dinner with Team
Thursday: Napfa test ( 5 items +2.4) after school
Friday: H3 econs from 4-6, Tuition from 8.15-10.15
Saturday: Racial Harmony event 6.45-1300, went to Queensway from Woodlands to buy shoes
Sunday: Judo from 10-1

Its no small wonder that I'm feeling dead
But the A Girls are the judo team CHAMPS! YAY!

The atmosphere at Yio Chu Kang stadium was electric, with Raffles and Hwa Chong on opposite sides cheering and cheering and cheering...
The whole place was just buzzing with energy and noise- i couldn't stand being inside, so i went and sat and paced outside the stadium, with led to numerous people asking whether i was stressed.

After the event, the whole team went to NYDC for dinner. (No pics, cos my camera ran out of storage space) It was great for the girls, cos we were all on a high from winning. However, the boys were despondent. At the debrief we were overhearing things like "do better next year" and general gloomy faces all around. But for all of us, it was the perfect end to the season for the seniors, and something to aim for next year for the juniors.
Jia youz Judo girls! We'll repeat next year ok?
AND, thanks a mil for the awesomely CUTE voodoo doll! =)

OK, i just realized that most of my friends (besides the judo ppl), don't really know what judo is about.
1. Main form of "attack" is throwing people (yea, thats they most basic way i know of explaining, i suppose)
2. The aim is to try to throw your opponent onto his back. Thats an IPPON or full point in competition, and the match ends right away.

Heres a video of a throw (uchimata in this case), ending in Ippon
Uchimata

If your opponent lands mostly on his back, with less force, thats a WAZARI (half point- 2 wazaris make an ippon)
Opponent lands on the side- YUKO (1/4 of a point, not accumulative)
Very very minor landing- KOKA (1/8 of a point, not accumulative)

The team event is where each school sends 5 people (of different weight category) to fight.
Each bout lasts for 3 minutes. And after all the 5 bouts have been fought, the school who has won the most bouts wins.

Does that make the team competition less confusing?

End of CTs and Judo outing

2006-07-01T09:00:00.000-07:00

Yay, the CTs are finally over.
And I know I'm going to flunk them and I only have myself to blame. Sigh.

Anyway, I had to go to school just to take the silly chinese tingli. Silly cos I'll spend ONE hour travelling to bishan, ONE hour travelling back, for HALF and hour of ting li. Very clever.
Anway, i thought it was going to last for one hour and was sorely disappointed that I couldn't go with my judo friends to Kbox, but since it only lasted for half an hour, I was free to go. YAY!
Kbox was very amusing. I didn't know any chinese songs (nor english songs to speak of that matter, but nevermind), so whenever i joined in, i think that part would sound out of tune hahax. Oh, and Wei is a very good singer, her range is fantastic.

After Kbox, we went back for training. It was fun. The RGS girls were having selections for national schools so we had self training and got to practice what we wanted- this was really precious. Practiced the uchimata I learnt on thursday. Then Mr Tan called me to go fight Sarah out of the blue. So I went there, looked blur- he looked amused and just went to fight. I was like pulling and pulling and decided to do something. Suddenly she was on the floor, I was going to do ground work and i head 'ippon sonomate'. I stood up, looked blur - he looked amused again and I went off. Till now I have no idea what i did. Probably uchimata ba.

Review of Plays- Warning: Extremely LONG Post Skip if you have a short attention span

2006-06-14T08:17:00.000-07:00

You see, I typed quite a lot in the UK, but had no chance to write anything on my blog. So now I'm literally dumping everything out. Heres a blow by blow account of the plays we watched. If you get bored, move right down to the pictures. Does this excess of words satisfy you, ade?

The Crucible
We were giving a choice of watching this or Feydra, a Greek tragedy. Of course, I chose the more famous one, me being the fickle-minded shallow person I am. And I am sorry to say, that I fell asleep in the theatre. I fell asleep. In my defence, I was NOT the only one who fell asleep. Lots of other people watching the play fell asleep too, some even slept through the whole play (at least I only slept through one quarter). The people watching Feydra fell asleep too. The play was actually quite good. But the theatre was warm, and dark… zzZZZZzzz
Religion as an excuse
For the part I DID pay attention to, what I gleaned from it was that the people were so caught up in their beliefs that they used religion as an excuse to justify all their accusations. Religion can be used, and against that ultimate reason, no one, innocent or not, can prevail. It was terrifying, the power of religion and authority figures, and I was suitably frightened to hope that I would never fall into the hands of such people. You can die bewailing your innocence, knowing that you are right, but the hysteria of the masses and the voice of authority damns you to death. And all in the name of justice. What a cruel fate. However, the law today is a bit like that. If you know how to work the system, you’ll have a better chance of coming on top. However, even if you know how to work it, theres no guarantee that you’ll come out unscathed. Maybe that’s why lawyers are disliked, and so many lawyers come to sticky ends. Bleargh- maybe I shall be one. Just joking.
Full Theatres
The theatre where we watched The Crucible was a tiny one, but it was packed. It was just one of the many small theatres in London. And I was amazed by the theatre going culture of the British people. That such a small area like London could support so many theatres, and there are so many plays and musicals going on at the same time, and many of them are sold out. Singapore in comparison, is dull and lifeless. Perhaps it takes time for the Arts scene to develop and to mature. I hope that I’ll be able to see plays and musicals in many parts of Singapore and that the theatres will be full when I go there, not half empty.

Titus Andronicus
Very very very bloody play.
When first told that I would have to stand shivering in the cold for three hours, I was extremely reluctant to watch the play at all. In addition, a small group of us (including me) had foolishly opted to stay around the tower of London instead of going back to the hostel. It rained cats and dogs and the weather was miserably cold- remember, it was before summer had set in.
However, the performance exceeded all our expectations. The cast was marvelous and made use of the arena extremely well. The Shakespeare Globe was a recreation of Shakespeare’s original theatre (Shakespeare in love was filmed there I think), and it was open air. We stood in the pit, and the actors were pushed around. It was extremely fun to have to move or be pushed around to make way for the actors- then we could see them up close! There was real audience involvement and the actors were very engaging. They were totally into their characters, and being close up, we could see each tortured emotion, each nuance clearly. I was hooked.
Being in the pit was also great in that we could choose to stand really near the stage. At first, me, Huiling, Daphne and Linmin were right at the back, but as the play got increasingly bloody, we moved up to the front after the interval in order to enjoy the blood fest (hehex). Some people fainted or felt nauseous because of the tremendous amount of blood split in the play. At any time, one could see green-faced people making their way towards the toilet, signaling that they could not take it anymore. It was tremendously amusing- to me at least.
Anyway, about the play. Its about this Roman general, Titus Andronicus who returns victorious from Rome. He sacrifices the Goth Queen Tamora’s son and Tamora vows revenge. She becomes the queen and has Lavinia, Titus’ daughter’s tongue cut out and her hands cut off. Titus’s sons are also killed off except for one. Titus begins to act strangely, and Tamora lets down her guard. Tamora’s two unsuspecting sons are killed by Titus. And in the last scene, Tamora eats pie containing the fingers of her son, Tamora, the king, Lavinia and Titus are all killed or die. And everyone dies happily ever after.
Yes, extremely bloody indeed. The part after Lavinia’s tongue has been cut out was the bloodiest and most disgusting part- very like WWE. The actress was extremely good. She was jerking and then dribbling out lumps of red coloured things, which looked like blood and bits of tongue mixed together. Fantastic stuff.
Oh, and one of Titus’ sons injured himself while he was being ‘killed.’ He was killed, but could not get up and had to be helped off the stage. Tremendously amusing. The actors were good sports though. Titus asked the audience to pretend that the body was still on stage and then recited his part with only the tiniest hint of irony.
Another great theatre part was when Tamora’s sons were killed. They were hooked upside down onto a bar, and the ankle cuffs were the coolest things, they had hooks on one side that allowed the actors to be hooked up, but the audience could not see that. And when they were killed, the actors took care to slash and smear blood while their bodies were blocking the view of the audience.
So fun! So cold!

Midsummer night’s dream
This was a rehearsal held in an open field. Once again, I was extremely reluctant (hehex) and had to persuaded by Aditi, though again, I was very grateful that I was persuaded in the end. Yea, I seem rather unenthu at the beginning of the trip- my reason for being reluctant was that I didn’t want to sit in the wet grass and get cold- rather lame really. Anyway, the play was performed by an all male cast, and I was amazed by how well the male actors played female roles. Their gender was not obtrusive and did not mar the direction and flow of the play. The cast was extremely small and all of them had to double up. Shakespeare was really great in crafting his play such that a small group of performers could manage to stage the play- just like small traveling troupes would have to do so in the past. There was no fancy orchestra or acoustics, instead the actors sang and hummed. The effect was very good, and the harmonization fantastic- see I still can’t run away from music.
All I can say was that the actors, the music and the stage were great. It all came together and really made the play work.
Aside: We were sitting near the front and the manager came to ask us to move to the back so that the actors can project their voices. I think he’s gay. He has that earring in the ear and a way of speaking that almost has me convinced. Hehex. Random and absolutely boh liao thing to notice.

Julius Caesar
A disappointment. It was by the Royal Shakespeare Company, and we had gone on the backstage tour earlier. The theatre and costumes all seemed fantastic, and it being the RSC, we had high expectations. However, the play turned out to be rather draggy. They used a minimalist set with use of lighting and colours. The actors were quite good. The theatre part was good, but the play was not. It should have been. All the parts were there. However the characters were not engaging, the monologues seemed too long, the scenes too draggy. I was struggling to keep awake for the second half, and while one could hear rustlings and see people fidgeting during the first half of the play, none of that was evident during the second half- the people were all knocked out KO. Even the teachers were struggling to keep awake.
I liked that Mark Antony was played by a black man. He had a loud, booming voice and great stage presence. Portia’s speech was also good. But otherwise the play was just a boring blur (I’m really sorry to say that. Ok, actually I paid attention to the first part of the play cos I knew the plot then I lost focus in the second half where I couldn’t get head of tail of what was going wrong- but the play REALLY was boring. I’m just trying to list all possible externalities.)
I really can’t pinpoint what exactly was wrong with the play. Perhaps it was that what were supposed to be the most dramatic parts turned out to be the opposite. Perhaps it was too self-indulgent, with too many dramatic pauses and time given to the soliloquies were nothing was happening.
However, Julius Caesar the play was also insightful and instructive. It sheds a lot of light into human nature and how to manipulate it, as well as leadership. I remember thinking during the play of jealousy, of manipulating emotions through speeches, and the options left open when one knows that a rival a jealous. I came away resolving to be the best of myself, not to worry about what is leadership or what is the best way to lead. Trying to be a jack of all trades brings no success, rather, it is by being the best of yourself that you can best the best of others.

One Flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest
It’s a play by Oxford students, and I think it was better than Julius Caesar (a play by PROFESSIONALS.) The play is about Jack a misfit from society who has been sent to a mental hospital by authorities who have no idea what to do with him. The mental hospital is run by the domineering Nurse Ratchet. The patients are put through humiliating group therapy sessions and are dosed with medication to keep them docile. Jack quickly shakes things up and goes into a series of confrontations with Nurse Ratchet. The play ends with Jack given surgery. He dies and a patient escapes.
While the settings and lightings were simply used, the play WORKED. The pacing was good and I was constantly on the edge of my seat. I didn’t fall asleep, but then Mr Reeves sitting next to me may have been a factor too. =)
Open rebellion vs quiet subversion. Which one is better? In real life, if you rebel openly, the authorities crack down on you really harshly and you come to a sticky end. However, a life of confirmitiy means that the status quo remains and in a sense, you are allowing bad things to be done to you. If you never try, you never know. To really rebel, one must really NOT care about anything, to have a spirit that transcends the controlling nature of others. And, part of me does want to confirm, yet while confirming, I want to rebel at the same time. Its contradictory, like wanting to be close and distant to people.
Like taking risks. Life is about taking calculated risks. We can’t control everything, nor can we treat life with reckless abandon. When I decided to just ‘heck it’- to quote myself, the recklessness got me injured and out of playing for some time. So, the lesson is learnt and I’ll have to continually remind myself- be cautious but not too cautious.

Note: we watched two more plays- Antony and Cleopatra and The Royal Hunt of the Sun. Reflections not typed yet. May be up if you find the above interesting.

Music and the UK

2006-06-14T08:08:00.000-07:00

Ok, here comes some of my thoughts while in the UK
Music and the UK
It’s the first time I understand the loveliness of music. I realized it at Bath, where this combination of music and wonderful architecture combined to create an absolutely marvelous atmosphere. A group of musicians were playing against the open air and the Roman Baths.A feeling of bliss envelops one, and I realize I can never completely escape. Once you have known the first taste of it, theres no going back. Like first experiencing harmonizing in a choir or ensemble, I understood how the music could spring naturally, and so wonderfully. It was live music, music alive.
Music that fits the setting.
Or the hills and moors or Windermere Lake in the Lake District. I can finally understand the evocativeness of the music. It’s the first time a place makes me think immediately of a piece by any composer, or I can visualize the place immediately when thinking of a place. The hills and moors make me think of Schubert or perhaps Mozart, gently rolling on and a wonderful expanse of green. I tried listening to Rimsky-Korsakov and his music did not fit the scene at all. The Russian school tends to evocate images of towering gates and buildings, a sense of tragedy and sorrow that’s not evident in the green fields and lovely cottages of the English countryside. Photos fail to do the view justice.

Back from UK lit trip

2006-06-14T08:04:00.000-07:00

Sorryz for not posting. I've just come back from an 18 day lit trip and theres no wireless broadband there and I have to pay S$1.5 for 7 pathetic minutes of internet, so thats a valid reason for not posting. So Ade, technically for that period, I'm BUSIER than Rannald. =)

First, the post I did up for my Class Blog. After that comes the *exclusive* content(hehex) I suppose.
Jing Yi is finally back from the Lit trip! YAY! And for the next two weeks the loud thumps that can be heard emanating from the RJC school hall will be Jing Yi being unceremoniously dumped through the air and onto the floor by her juniors.

Pictures of men on horses and men with fluffy hats

Well, besides living in some cramped hostels, sharing communal showers and enduring long bus rides, the trip was great fun. We visited LOTS of castles (Windsor, Tower of London, Warwick, Ediinburgh, Bamburgh) that at the end I thought I would puke if I had to endure one more castle. Windsor was great fun at first, but trust me, after you've toured 5 largely similar castles extensively, you wouldn't want to see another one.

I now understand why Purvis(My super-angsty lit teacher) speaks the way he does- he's watched too much Shakespeare! We watched loads of plays on the trip, mostly shakespearean. And after a steady diet of such plays, we start falling into a sort of cadence and your thinking sorts of go haywire. I have a theory- Purvis is so angsty because he's seen too many people being killed and then people moaning that they were the greatest, noblest etc. Thats why he thinks constantly about gravestones! Tadah! (Mrs Toh will scold me for providing insufficient evidence, improper substanstation and probably numerous fallacies. But heck (shhh..))

Thats stonehenge. And in my not very informed opinion, we spent too much time looking at inanimate rocks.

Ooh, one thing besides wonderful lakes, mountains and scenery. All the shops close around six. And that sucks. I'm so used to Singapore where you can like shop till 10 or 11. But in the UK, the streets are deserted after 6, theres nothing to do, and almost nothing to eat. Which I found tremendously irritating at first. I mean, what do these people DO at night? Sleep?

AND i have a picture of Wemmick's "post-office" mouth

The trip was worth it!

Bye! Enjoy your hols!

I'm happy

2006-04-20T05:06:00.000-07:00

I know its highly incongrous of me,
but
I'm really happy, really contented now

Status Report

2006-04-13T05:33:00.000-07:00

Judo Injury
Some of you may have heard (or seen) that I've injured my ankle. I've spent the last few days analysing what my injury is, my rationale being that the quicker i figure out how to twist my ankle back, the fast I can get back to practice.

It was one of those freak throws/landings kind of thing. Usually, one can throw and be thrown hundreds of times without being injured. I just had the bad luck (no, make that extremely back luck), to be injured in the warm up BEFORE the competition where there were only THREE competitors in my category. Yikes. I hate that feeling. You wake up especially early in the morning, pack your judogi, wear your contact lens, travel all the way from Choa Chu Kang to Bedok, change, warm up... then BAM! you get injured. What an anticlimax.

School
School's been all right so far, I guess. Though I still haven't gotten the hang of writing an A level history essay. Dunno, I keep puzzling over the structure of the essay and what to put inside it. Sigh

Lit Trip and RMUN's coming up soon. I'm in the secretariat- which means I'm in charge of printing certificates. Yeah, imagine the "glory" of getting to type in all 230 names of the participants and printing them out. They should all prostrate in front of me and thank me from their puny little hearts. (just joking) =)

I MISS TRAINING!! (wails)

Thats Harai Goshi, the throw I'm currently trying to Get Right, and which is taking An Awful Long Time.
k, thats abt all. =)

Night Out + Happy B'dae Rannald!

2006-04-01T07:57:00.000-08:00

Went for dinner with Ms Tay, Shi Jia, Adeline, Asyikeen and Rannald. The place Asyikeen brought us to was very nice! Thanks asyikeen! =)

It was thoroughly enjoyable eating and talking, but Ms Tay had to leave at abt 9, so we left. After that Ade, Rannald and I went to Starbucks for coffee. We ended up talking till abt 11 then we went home.
I got a very angry call from my mom wondering why I didn't tell here where I was and who I was with. Apparently, dad gets worried if I'm not home by 10.30 pm (OHMIGOD- thats freaking early)

Nevertheless I had a great time. I know my days are going to get busier and busier with school work and cca. School work makes one really really boring, but theres nothing I can do about it, bah. Anyway, today got me thinking about friends. Its always very nice to have some one to talk to about anything under the sun, and to laugh and talk crap. Being alone is not bad either, but having friends do spice up your life.

Ok, I'm not doing this post justice. I'm too tired- its 12 pm at night, practically unknown for a girl who regularly sleeps at 10.30pm.

So, Happy Birthday, Rannald. Many Happy returns of the day!

tata

Perfect lover

2006-03-24T17:02:00.000-08:00

Instructions: The tagged victim has to come up with 8 different points of their perfect lover. Specify the gender of the target. Tag 8 victims to join this game and leave a comment on their page saying they've been tagged. If tagged the 2nd time, there's no need to post again.

Okaaay, since I got tagged by carmen, and this seems fun, i thought, why not do if just for the heck of it?

Gender: male

1. NO smoking or gambling
The first one is almost exactly like carmen's, but my stand is a tad (ok, a lot) more hardline. I CANNOT stand smokers. If they feel the need to poison themselves, they are free to do so, but must they poison the rest of the people standing around them too? Selfish ignorant fuckdrs.

2. Must get on well with parents
This is one of the most important things in making a relationship work. Usually when the parents disapprove, they can make the relationship really rocky. I've heard of so many relationships and marriages that broke up because of unreasonable and disapproving parents.

3. Have a sense of humour
Any sense of humor or wit will do. I just like guys who know how to have fun, and be able to take a joke at their own expense.

4.these few slots
5.show why I am an arts student
6.- cos i can't count

7. Understands me
This is like the stuff of dreams(and movies and crappy romance books- which shows that i've been reading those too much?), you know, with the stereotypical "soul mates" thingy? Its almost unbearably skin-tingly goosebumpy mindnumbingly romantic. But a girl can dream, can't she?

8. Loves me
Most importantly, no matter what qualities he has, he must love me.

But the perfect lover is the one of misty dreams, of unreality. Life is often jarring, and the perfect man never exists. Don't hold what you have to some unreachable invisible standard, striving for something that can never be. An Ideal is still an Ideal, but I know in my heart of hearts, that I would be content with much much less.

Oh btw, carmen's entry on this is MUCH more interesting than mine's. Go read hers, she's at http://studiousbookworm.blogspot.com/

Who am I tagging? I don't know...
(subtext: I know who I want to do it bt I'm not saying)

I just want a chance

2006-03-17T06:25:00.000-08:00

" I know that I was playing with fire. I ran the risk, and if I was set free, I would do the same." - Ghandi

Why do others judge based on where we come from, what we have done, what we look like? All I want is a chance to prove myself, if you let me. Why do we not get the chance to even try? Is it too much to ask for, the opportunity of being given the benefit of doubt?

And thats whats wrong with a system of a select few elite. It gets impossibly difficult to break into that small select circle. Even if you know you are good, even if you are good, sometimes they just don't give you the chance. And thats what I hate. Rejection always rankles. No, it hurts. And though one may smile, and say, "its ok", the hurt lingers, and festers and it hurts, and you can't say anything to anyone because its not supposed to hurt. It is terrifyingly sad to be rejected not because you were plain lousy, but because you had no chance.

What do you do?

You try again

Life so far

2006-02-18T07:09:00.000-08:00

School's been fun recently--theres so many activities that the difficulty is signing up in time and managing your own time. I'm going to watch a judo competition tomorrow (my first ever), and I hope it'll be exciting. Now that i'm joining Judo as a cca, I might as well give it my all.

I think I'm rusty from not doing work or writing for such a long time, so I've got a lot of catching up to do. However, I don't really feel like doing work, and the work is creeping up and up...

What words do you associate with me?

2006-02-11T08:32:00.000-08:00

What words would you use to describe me?
So please, tick 5 words that best depict me- its fun!
http://kevan.org/johari?name=jingyi

Happy Lunar New Year!

2006-01-27T06:26:00.000-08:00

I had a great time at BP today =) It was GREAT seeing everyone again, and gossiping about the different JCs.

Oh, and thankyou Ms Tay as well as Adeline, Rannald, Shi Jia and Rui Yan for the absolutely lovely dinner on Wednesday. We should do this more often!

Thats all for now
ari

Happy New Year!

2006-01-02T00:19:00.000-08:00

May '06 be a better year for everyone!

It may be a tad late, but hey, I can still bore everyone with my new year resolutions

1. Play basketball aka have a life in JC (highly improbable, but hey, give it a heck!)

2. Be nicer, ok- attempt to be more polite, which is slightly more feasible

Usually people try for at least 5 resolutions, but I ran out of ideas halfway (and I've actually bored myself), so thats about it

I'm selling my piano

2005-12-03T01:34:00.000-08:00

Cos my teacher insists on me changing my piano for the ABRSM diploma syllabus, I'm selling my piano.

Its an ASAHI U1QMP, exam model, 122cm tall.
Bought it for SGD 5000, now just asking for abt $2500

Anyone interested? Contact my mom Mdm Chien at 96726539

Knee Troubles

2005-12-02T06:50:00.000-08:00

That Knee injury from Basketball has not recovered yet and its been almost 3 months. But somehow, this injury is very strange, it doesn't seem like other common basketball injuries I've checked on the net. When the doctor asked me to rest fro 2 weeks, i did so, but the knee did not get better. However, after I started playing again, though there was pain if i did not align my ankle properly after landing, the mobility in the knee got better. So, I went NUH on Thurs morning to see a knee specialist.

I wasted a whole morning today- very very sorry to my poor mom. She had to cancel her lessons so as to take me to NUH. I was supposed to have an MRI to check our whats wrong with my knee. However after countlesss phonecalls to the hospitals to find out where the Radiology department was located, registering, getting the documents, changing into the shift, I chickened out at the last moment.

I mean, it was really too expensive. Bloody f**king 900 dollars for a knee injury thats probably minor? No way. When I saw the cost i was like, stunned. Then i sat in the waiting room for ages, and as time went by I got more and more apprehensive until finally i told my mom I didn't want the MRI.

After we walked out, the doctor came to try to persuade me to go, but I just looked very stubborn and refused to go back in. And that was it. No MRI. Hope the Knee heals on its own.

As my mom says, the bride can always walk away from the altar until the contract is signed. Whew. Saved 900 dollars

Random Posting

2005-09-29T04:16:00.000-07:00

The Bad thing about Mac, is that somehow, there is no easy editing "board" thingy when the window for new post opens on Mac. In short- its quite difficult to change anything about the font, which makes for rather boring reading.

Anyway, the prelim results are out. What's over is over and what matters now is the Os.

I am NOT WORKING HARD ENOUGH!

There is no sense of desperation or exhaustion, in fact I'm happily wasting my time.

By why am I even bothering to say this? Kiasu people will rejoice that "OH GOOD! One more person is not studying, less competition!" Suspicious people would wonder "Is this psychological warfare? Is that why you are saying this?" While some people just heck care, "Why tell me? You study your business wat" Never Mind. That was just to confuse people

End of Exams

2005-09-21T22:09:00.000-07:00

If you knew then what it is that you know now, what would you have done differently? If you had known, from the very beginning, what you would find at the end of your life, how would you have changed it? Would you have changed it? Throughout the years, I have asked myself the same questions and each time, the answers remained the same. There are some things in this life, that are worth the price. They are worth every moment of pain, every second of despair, every sacrifice you make. And long after you have lost the will to continue, when you feel as if you will break from the pain, that which you fight so desperately for will sustain you. If you find that you do not understand what I am speaking of, you need only know that the day will come when you do.

Finally, the prelims are over! Everytime there are exams, I get the urge to think, which is extremely inconvenient. When there are exams, it seems as if all life stops, and the days and night blend into hours of desperate, frantic cramming. And when that happens, I yearn for silent nights, the quiet talks. Theres something nagging at my mind, but I can't put it into words.

But somehow, theres a comfort in knowing that I'm not alone. There's no longer the desperate need to tell someone, anyone; no need to wonder if one's thoughts would be mocked as strange, weird. But with that comfort, there's the loss of the previous desperate need to prove oneself, to survive and triumph in an unfeeling and unseeing world. For when you know there are others that sense, the world is no longer that cold.

mood: reflective

It seems you can never be thin enough

2005-08-08T05:37:00.000-07:00

Some bug got into me today, just felt like blogging. I want to rant about thinness.
It seems that in Singapore, a girl just can't be thin enough. Read SPG's blog and I agree that S'pore men seem to like ultra super skinny girls. No matter how skinny you are, if they don't like you, you're not skinny enough. Even if they like you, there will still be another girl skinnier.

I'm SICK AND TIRED of girls saying how fat they are when they're actually stick thin. I'm sick of barely veiled references to how fat they are- I KNOW YOU THINK YOU ARE FAT, DO YOU NEED TO REMIND ME THAT YOU THINK YOU ARE FAT WHEN I'M HEAVIER THAN YOU?
I'm sick of bird like eating. Why can't just people be confident and proud of themselves? NO! it has to be "Oh, i'm not good enough, I'm lousy"" and its fake!

I read the blog of a western girl, actually she's a high class prostitue. She's highly intelligent with an art degree, reads War and Peace by Leo Tolsky(have you even heard of this book?) and she writes extremely well. She portrays an unassuming confidence and self-assurance that I envy. So from today onwards, I am just going to ignore all jibes about weight and success. These comments do not deserve my attention. If Singaporean men don't like me, I can always fuck any Ang moh later in life.

note: i know i'll have offended people and there will be people who are offended. SO even if I say that I'm not referring to anybody, SOME people just want to be offended. IF you are offended, do be kind enough to pick your bones with me(do you know the meaning of this idomatic saying?), and not give me hissy looks behind my back.

THank YOU. And now I feel so much better.

Its National Day and I don't feel like studying

2005-08-08T00:07:00.000-07:00

OK. Something to express what I've been feeling for the past few weeks. I HATE STUDYING.
I am sick and tired and sick and tired of studying. Studying seems meaningless and tiring, I dunno, there are just some days when i feel like hiding under the bed covers and sleeping just so that I can avoid thinking.
I HATE STUDYING!!!! ARGH!

Finally, the torture ends...

2005-07-20T06:12:00.000-07:00

For my parents, its blessed relief as they don't need to
1. endure 2 hours of identical sounding scales that all go
da da dA dA dA DA DA DA DA Da Da da da da da DADADADADADADADA

2. endure the same three horrid boring songs I have been playing since the beginning of the year

3. horrible crashing sounds which are actually my sight reading attempts

4. ferrying me to my music teacher's house

Eureka, its over, ITS OVER!!!!!

*whoops and dances in glee*

Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince

2005-07-16T10:25:00.000-07:00

FINISHED HBP!! 1.25 a.m.-16/7/05, Sat/Sun, depending on how you see it

Went to Borders, got back at 10.50+p.m and started reading.

WOHOOOOOO!!!!!!!

All in all, its a nice book, a relief from the slightly draggy Goblet of Fire and the horrible Order of the Pheonix.

Strongly recced.

Shit

2005-07-11T04:03:00.000-07:00

Went back home from music for O levels. Started sleep at 6 and was woken up by an irritating person who called me repeatedly for dinner and turned off the air con.
Highly irritated, I PUNCHED THE WALL in a demonstration of bad temper.

Speech Day

2005-07-08T17:25:00.000-07:00

Finally, Speech Day is over! It wasn't as bad as i thought it would be, partly because i was reading a book for 1/2 the time. Before that, I walked to Lot 1 with Qin Pei, Rannald and Ashwin. Then we did history essay there even though there were extremely irritating flies buzzing all over... bleargh. Saw Huiting, our RMUN lo. She speaks with an RJ accent now! Really, she was like "I have a proposition to make..." with a reeeally smooth RJ accent. Dosen't even sound remotely BP.

Reading Anne of the Island now. Its very nice and reminds me of childhood, when i used to be mad over the Anne of the Island novel. Hehex. It just made me wonder. Singaporeans are a reserved bunch. We're afraid to show emotion, to show love. What is love to us is not love but is also bizzarely a form of love; but we tell others that actually what we love is only what we like. Complicated.
Ok, maybe i'm the only one. But i know that I'm highly insecure. Dunno why, but my brother has a sense of security in that he is loved, but I don't. And sometimes I envy Anne of Green Gables for knowing that she always has love waiting for her at home.

Ways to get refunds on Public transport

2005-06-17T08:05:00.000-07:00

Fares for the MRT, LRT, Taxis and Buses have gone up. Read more to find out the Exact process of getting a generous subsidy from the bus companies!

Step 1 - queue for a very long time with many other sweaty people while trying to fill out complicated forms in English (eliminates 1/4 of the queue. Non-English speakers eliminated)

Step 2- face up to irritatingly bland and blur counter officers who try to misdirect and misinform you. (And a very good afternoon to you too! To get to the officer, turn right and walk back. See the exit sign over there? thats it) (another 1/4 stomps off at this point)

Step 3- try to call into the "service hotline" or "help" hotline. Spend 45 minutes listening to a monotonous machines that speaks too fast and press 1, 2, 1, 2, 1, 3, 1, 2 like a brainless chick until finally you are directed to a human relations officer who smugly informs you that it is now 4.59 p.m. and her shift is over.

Step 4- if some hardy soul finally gets to a person with any authority to grant subsities, the officer would try to intimidate you by double checking all the buses and MRT trains you tak (time, bus driver, liscence plate number) and then checking up on all your documents (bad luck if you didn't bring the correct ones in triplicate, try again next time)

Step 5- officer either declares you ineligible, kindly pointing out that you failed to read clause 4.3.1.2a of the size 4 small print. Or if you did read the small print, you are eligble.

CONGRATULATIONS! You get your refund of 40 cents and a subsidy of five cents for each bus ride!

O! What an efficient and affordable public transport system we have in Singapore!

Musical Letdowns

2005-06-10T07:37:00.000-07:00

Violin
I watched Meteor Garden and was promptly beraptured by Vic Chou playing the violin. I always thought that the violin was a mysterious instrument and that it's very romantic. I mean, you know, handsome guy playing some melancholic piece- that was the image i had.
However, my wonderful illusion only lasted till my brother started learning the violin. Now I know, there is nothing mysterious. I mean, after you've heard the bow scratching and screeeching the strings countless times, romantic imagery fails to come to mind. =)

Cello
Yo-Yo Ma makes it look so passsionate and wonderful. The dark, rich tones of the cello seem so appealling. But Adeline says that all is spoit by her CO juniors who manage to mangle even the easiest of piece.

Piano
Remember all those films where the male protagonist plays the piano beautifully and the girl looks on wonderingly? Ok, maybe only Justin has that level of skill. Butden- given Justin Ow-Yong's personality, he would probably dismiss the romantic piece as too easy and refuse to play it. Instead, he'll play a LOUD piece complete with semidemiquaver rhythmic device in allegro rhythm while the poor girl looks on trying to figure out the rhythm.

Ari

Testing my new camera

2005-06-03T08:46:00.000-07:00

Typing at my computer. See the mess that’s my table? I bet only Rong En’s is messier than me.

Rui Yan and Aiman at RJC. Sorry for bad lighting. Sun was behind them and I didn’t know how to adjust the settings. New camera wat

See the two chio bu(s) in the centre? That’s the Canadian delegates. Sorry guys, you are just not as camera friendly as the girls. Hehez, juz joking

Rannald and Qin Pei attempting to look very hard working. Yes, must tell Miss Tay, the Canadian delegates very hardworking one ok?

Sorry Jiawei, forgot to take out my camera until the bus came, so only two photos of RJC. Will take more next time. Promise.

TO MY PIANO

2005-05-30T06:54:00.000-07:00

CAN YOU PLEASE UNDERSTAND THAT THERES NO FUCKING PEDAL!
Got increasingly irritated by the lack of pedal in my piano. How the fuck am I going to manage to practice my pieces without the pedal and being unable to differentiate between loud and soft.
THEN- got scolded, rather yelled by my mom for banging on the piano. WHAT THE FUCK.

CAN THE PIANO PLEASE UNDERSTAND THAT THIS IS NOT THE FIRST TIME , IT IS NOT THE SECOND TIME, IT IS NOT THE THRID TIME THAT THE PEDAL DECIDED TO FUCKING STOP OPERATING????!!!

Meet the Parents Day

2005-05-27T04:12:00.000-07:00

Ok, I'm typing this on mac, so theres none of the fancy word colouring, numbering or bolding allowed by windows on this computer. Black font, it is then.

Meet the Parents Day was HORRIBLE Firstly, the principal was not present. So we had to deal with slow speaking Angeline Ee and the even more slow speaking Vice-principal. Some more, Mr Chin refused to let us get our report books early, even though all the other classes had gotten theirs. MY mood became increasingly foul although I tried to lighten it by joking about the food and the kiasu parents who talked for ages with Mr Chin.

Luckily, TIGER came to our rescue. THankyou Tiger! He persuaded Chin to let us get our report books. YAY! THankyou once again, Mr Tan.

I must say that This is a Complete Waste of My Time.

Actually, I'm just tying to take up space so that there'll be enough length to put my tag board. Hehex =)

Bleargh

2005-05-25T19:46:00.000-07:00

Typing this in the computer lab =)
The Chinese Os are just around the corner. Yet i look at people studying and studying and studying... and I get sick

Its amusing how interesting Mr Brown's blog is while I struggle desperately to find things to write... nOW...
So far after the exams I have:

found new and amusing diversions to amuse myself etc- battle of words
injured my collarbone or muscle on my very first judo lesson after a 1 month hiatus (and by my brother some more)
strained by arms playing too much basketball
played computer from 4 p.m. to 2 a.m.
managed to slack for 2 weeks not playing the piano even though I'm supposed to
discuss a hellavu lot about DSA without doing any concrete action

okie, thats about all

Pictures, finally!

2005-05-13T22:26:00.000-07:00

<"font color=pink">Finally, after struggling with zorpia, I have managed to upload pics there. Here are some ^belated^ photos of my trip to china in the hols

Met new relatives there
Went to my grandfather's home town. Very ulu place. There were even wells there.

But never mind. The ducks were cute.

After that, my father had the urge to go and admire the mountains, so we took the train to Wu Yi Shan. The journey was like 10+ hours by train. But the train was nice. We went for the best ones, so there was like small cabin with 4 bunks.

This is me, stuffing my face with packet noodles

lying on the bunk

At the hotel room. See, the humdity is so low that theres static electricity

The mountains

It snowed!

It was damned cold! BRrr

Oh, went to Florence's house to watch NBA basketball this morning. Pheonix suns against Dallas Mavericks. Was Fantastic!.

I have a new hero in Nash!!!!
Thank you very much, FLorence, for allowing me to watch TV at your house and interrupting your morning time. Thank you!

Basketball Freako

2005-05-12T23:46:00.000-07:00

. Exams are over! And I have gone basketball mad... Heeheex, bball here I come.

My mother nearly had a heart attack when I told her I wanted a digital camera for my belated birthday present. She jokingly went pale and tried to negotiate. Then as a delaying tactic, told me that she would have to consult my father.

I wanted a camera so that I could take photos as reminder of my secondary as well as the rest of my years in school, my friends. Digital cam, Here i come!