darkblackrose.blogspot.com

23 days to 20 years of existence

2012-01-16T21:46:00.000+08:00

I turn 20 on February 8th.

No, I'm not trying to be discreet to friends about giving me gifts but what I'm trying to say is that I'm not young anymore.

20 years old. 2 decades of existence. Some people don't even make it past this point to think about it.

In my 20 years of existence, I've learned two important things which could sum up my whole entire life.

1) Always trust no one but yourself and never be dependent on others.

Only because we, humans, have weaknesses are prone to failure. And that we can't be always there to help someone in need. Fortunately or unfortunately, I've probably learnt that very early in life: Backstabbing. The best lesson anyone can learn in life.

2) No one is smart. The people are the ones who recognize other people's talents and "monopolize" on them are the "smarts".

Alot of people probably don't recongnise that they have talent and are probably surrounded by people who never notice the talent in them at all. I've met alot of charismatic people in my life, but too few put their charisma to good use. I try to observe the behavior and actions of other people and make a mental note on their strengths and weaknesses. Reason why? Some people are just better at you at certain things and probably one day, their strengths might cover your weakness and that combination might just turn out to be winner.

To end it all, in 20 years, I've seen alot but, in the next decade, I'd love to see and experience more.

One thing that I learned from RWPS

2012-01-02T18:31:00.003+08:00

This is an impromptu blog post.

About a year ago, I had this module called Report Writing and Presentation Skills and I was supposed to write (I think) around 12 pages for the report.

I think I only wrote 11 pages and somehow (by some miracle) managed to get an A for the module.

And I wrote the whole report out while designing the yearbook. I remembered stressing out during CNY week to finish the report and I thought it was kinda crap when I submitted it. People had like 20 pages and mine was probably the shortest report. And I remembered thinking: "If I had more time, I would have probably written it way better."

My point is you don't have to write freaking long reports to get an A.

I guess the teacher was sick of reading so many reports and liked that mine was short.

ps: I'll never know how the hell I got an A for that module.

ps/s: Reason why I writing out this entry? I'm sick of people trying so hard to write reports that involve complicated sentence structures.

Summary of 2011 and My 2012 Resolution

2011-12-27T22:44:00.001+08:00

A few days ago, I was looking through the December 2010 archives on my blog to find my 2011 resolution but I realized I didn't have one. I was disappointed not to have written one so I decided to make it a tradition to have one every year from now onwards.

Before that, I would like to summarize my life in 2011. In true Photoshop manner.

Firstly, I'd like to say, this whole 2011 experience was nothing like I had before. Normally, I had years which turn out really bad or really boring but this year was...... enlightening.

Yeah sure, I may have swore on twitter more than once, complaining how bad my life is, but now after my major projects are done, I think I won't be using swear words for a while (at least).

Below is a quote which I used for my "Summary of 2010" blog post, which I think is apt.

"Be not afraid of greatness: some are born great, some achieve greatness, and some have greatness thrust upon 'em." -William Shakespeare

So, I opted to enter into two major projects last year and I think I did do them quite well. People always think it is difficult to be able to handle such projects but I don't think it's as challenging as what people perceive them to be. I guess it all boils down to confidence. Some people are just afraid to take on challenges, but to me, if I fail, at least it's an experience. I have since completed those two projects and my experience has been unforgettable (to say the least). Not only did I get to know more people, but also I acquired wisdom and skills.

OK, so enough on dwelling on the past. Here's my 2012 resolution.

1) To be healthy

Health always comes first. One has to be healthy in order to enjoy life right? In 2012, I hope to exercise more regularly and to eat well (less junk food).

2) To get my driving license

Always wanted to drive on the roads. Singapore's public transport isn't going to be better any time soon so I should learn.

3) To learn sound editing software

This is a new resolution which came back to me within the last couple of days. About 10 years ago, when I was in primary three, my dad had bought me a piano keyboard (with MIDI ports and percussion sounds in it). The idea was that I continued to practice the piano after I dropped out from my Grade 1 piano lessons to focus on my studies. The fact was, at that time, there was no such thing as the internet and therefore no way to better my skills. So, I just gave up the idea of learning the piano. Up till today, the piano is still in my house, although I've never practiced on it for the past 9 years.

A few days ago, I was watching youtube videos on the internet and saw this one.

I thought it was damn cool. I also saw other music videos and was surprised on how people can actually make songs in the comfort of their homes. And I recalled when I was young, I had wanted to connect my piano to the computer to make full use of the percussion sounds embedded in the keyboard.

So, an idea was born. What if I could make songs?

Of course, the idea is far-fetched and even if I could do it, it will take a long time before I can master the basics. I thought: "If I can learn photoshop with minimal help, maybe this wouldn't be too hard?"

All I need to do now is to invest in a decent microphone and some midi cables. I won't do this now but I think I'll do this project after poly is over.

Which leads me to my final resolution (and probably the most important of them all).

4) To get into a local university after poly

I'll be honest. Based on my current GPA, it might not be possible for me to enter but I'll still remain an optimist. From what I've heard, SMU grants interviews and if you're lucky and the interview goes well, you might be able to enter. So, I've decided to try apply in future even if I don't meet the minimum GPA requirement. No harm in trying, right? Even if I don't get in, I would probably apply to overseas universities.

That's about all for my 2012 resolution. Now, I shall challenge you to do one on your own and type or post is as a link in the comments section below;)

So Yesterday

2011-12-22T20:14:00.001+08:00

If you're wondering, the title is also a Beatles song but I meant it more literally.

Went to Jurong Point yesterday to watch a movie and to shop for some stuff. Booked my tickets online the day before and the movie I watched was:

Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol.

If I were to rate the show, I would rate it 7/10, only because I felt that certain parts of the movie were a little cliche and that the introduction was rather exaggerated. However, I liked the part where Tom Cruise actually scaled one of the tallest buildings in Dubai. That stunt was awesome and the emotion of hesitation from the actor was priceless. Other than that particular stunt, the rest of the stunts were average.

So after the show, I ate lunch and then bought my leather conditioner at Feb 21. After that, I decided to go to Popular at Basement 1 to look at the sale that their having. (Fyi, Popular@JP is now having a 70% off selected English book sale and 20% off best sellers if you're a popular cardmember.)

I initially wanted to get a book on leadership on the best sellers list but then when I looked at the price, I decided not to get it. It was around $36 and I wasn't a popular card member either. So, I decided to settle for two books that were on sale.

They are:

The Ultimate Practical Guide to Scrapbooking and

What on Earth Happened?

Now, these two books are really good books to give to someone this Christmas (if you're still shopping for presents). The Ultimate Guide to Scrapbooking is really good for someone who likes art in general (and of course someone who does scrapbooking himself/herself). It has a lot of pictures for inspiration and it also teaches collage, photography and colour blocking techniques. For someone (like me) who does digital art, this book also provides a guide on how to create your own digital scrapbook. I will highly recommend this book to a person who appreciates art and who needs to be constantly inspired.

The next book, "What on Earth Happened" is another good book for someone who wants to acquire more general knowledge or for someone who likes reading about history. Basically, this book explains about the big bang theory and the evolution of animals and mankind since the existence of Earth till present day.

What is contains.

And the illustrations in this book are rather "cute" as well. This book has a timeline that is based on the 24 hour clock and the time is displayed on each page of the book so that the reader will know how far has he or she progressed through history.

This particular page actually describes the burning of books during the Qin dynasty.

Was reading this book this morning and here's a fun fact: Did you know that the Sumerians developed a system of mathematics based on the number 60 and that's how eventually we inherited the sixty second minute and sixty minute hour? Apparently, they chose the number 60 for their system of mathematics because it is easily dividable (60 can be divided by 2,3,4,5,6,10,12,15,20 and 30). The Sumerians were also the first to have numbers written on the left and then larger values written next to them (smallest value on the left, larger values on the right), which was also eventually adopted by modern day people.

Yes, I like reading these kind of stuff ~~because I'm a nerd.~~ But I bet this book is good for anyone. It also documents about the Chinese dynasties and the history of religions.

If you like to get either of these books, you might want to get them now since the sale only lasts till 2 January and I don't think they replenish their stocks at the Jurong Point outlet. (Warning though, the queue gets ridiculously long in the afternoon, so if you want to get the books, go early in the morning at 11am. Otherwise, be prepared to wait.)

Another book that I've been reading:

Postcards from the Heart. Borrowed from my school's library. I have not finished reading it but so far, it's been quite an entertaining read. Will do a review if the book is good.

Other than reading, I've been working on my Managerial Accounting project as well. My messy table is proof that I've been working ~~hard~~:

And I know some people love my attention-seeking mouse. Another fun fact: This mouse has been in use for at least 4 years. It hasn't totally died on me yet. Might bury it if it's dead.

Going to watch TV now since it's the holidays then work on project again and the cycle continues......

ps: Was reading a page of the Earth book (it's in the picture btw) and wondering if Qin Shi Huang hadn't burnt the books, we, the Chinese, would have been much more advanced than any nation in the world, especially in the area of medicine. #justsaying

Public Transport in Singapore from Bad to Worst

2011-12-18T14:40:00.002+08:00

So nearly everyone knows about the news. How can I not blog about it?

In case, you're away overseas or been cooping inside you house for days with no internet access or newspaper subscription, here's what happened:

On Wednesday (14 Dec), the circle line was down from 6am to 11.45am and on Thursday (15 Dec), there was a major disruption on the red line that affected over 100,000 passengers. As of today (18 Dec), train services on the red and green lines will only start at 10am.

Honestly, after reading the news, I can't help but wonder how our MRT service standards dropped so much the last couple of years.

I admit that I have not been stuck in an MRT before and neither have I been affected with the recent events. However, being a student who travels to school by train, I feel that our MRT service standards are declining. I feel that MRT trains are getting crowded even at non-peak hours. It wasn't like that when I was young (maybe like 10 years ago). I used to remember MRT trains weren't that uncomfortable and it was a pleasant ride back then.

In all honesty, I think that the government may have a part to play with the recent events. If one were to think about it, the general population in the last 10 years has increased significantly with influx of foreigners as well as the natural population growth; but transport infrastructure has not improved fast enough to meet with the demands of people. If I had to point the finger, I'll definitely point it at the minsters.

Sure, Singapore has increased tourism rates, more shopping malls, more investors setting up their businesses here.... that's all good... but has the government really thought of the other side of the coin? We may be getting all the revenue and enjoying the wealth right now, but at what cost? We may not see it now, but consequences will come later... and this is what exactly that is happening. MRT breakdowns is only a small symptom that we're seeing, but real problem is the fact that the government is not prepared of the consequences that come along with the increasing population growth and with the increasing number of businesses setting up in Singapore.

In short, demand for infrastructure by the people is fast outgrowing supply. The government should step up their game, otherwise they would probably lose the support of their people in the next election.

And it also doesn't help that people are coming up with pictures and witty quotes like these below:

All from my facebook timeline. I'm sure you can find funnier ones than these in your timeline. Trust me, social media is so powerful nowadays that it can influence people opinions to events.

And just one more thing I'd like to say: I don't think the CEO should step down. I mean it wasn't her fault that the trains got their shoes wrecked. It may have been an oversight in maintenance but is it really directly her fault? No.

Food for thought.

Desire to Survive

2011-12-03T18:18:00.001+08:00

As Charles Darwin said in his theory of natural selection,

As many more individuals of each species are born than can possibly survive; and as, consequently, there is a frequently recurring struggle for existence, it follows that any being, if it vary however slightly in any manner profitable to itself, under the complex and sometimes varying conditions of life, will have a better chance of surviving, and thus benaturally selected. From the strong principle of inheritance, any selected variety will tend to propagate its new and modified form.

Hence, I believe it is never the strongest who survive, but the most adaptive one.

Anyway, so much for my random introduction. I'm currently having test from now till Wednesday and I have two project submissions on the coming Friday. One for my NVP project and the other on company law.

Now, I've just started studying the second chapter of my Information Systems module, which is arguably the most uninteresting module I've ever taken. And I need to score an A for this otherwise my GPA will be affected significantly. Been drawing mindmaps to keep my interest in the subject and so far it's turning out quite well.

Yesterday, I stayed up till 10.30pm in school. New record time for the latest I've ever stayed in school. Not that I like to boast about it... but it was for a good purpose. We had to stay back to prepare materials for next day's presentation. When I reached home, it was almost 11pm. Showered and prepared my stuff for the next day and I slept at 2am. I woke up at 6am today, which means I only had 4 hours of sleep.

Oh, the things I would do for a year long project.... but it will be nice if I get an A for effort.

To relieve all the stress of test and project deadlines, I've also started playing Sims 3. Thankfully, Sims 3 worked alright with my dad's new desktop. Still getting around the new features, but so far I'm only impressed with the build feature, which allows for diagonal structures and furniture now.

And I SO want to build a house like this in Sims 3.

Will probably take me months to learn it but I think I should really improve on building skills.

Anyway, gtg now. Good luck to those taking test next week!

World Orchid Exhibition at Marina Bay Sands

2011-11-17T15:22:00.001+08:00

Back to blog about my trip to Marina Bay Sands (MBS) on Tuesday to see the World Orchid Exhibition. Yeah, I'm "too free" to look at flowers (inside joke). Well, I wasn't there to just look at the orchids. I was there to take photos of them and to practice my photography skills with my new Lumix GF2 micro four thirds camera.

The idea of taking macro flower shots came about one day when I was thinking of subjects to take as practice shots on the new camera. I thought of taking pictures of flowers by the roadside but then it would be embarrassing when people walk pass. So, as I was reading the papers last weekend, I chanced upon an advertisement on the World Orchid Exhibition. The rest as they say is history.

I went down to MBS after my classes on Tuesday (which ended early at 1pm) to meet my mum there. Overall, it was an amazing trip. Although the orchid display wasn't impressive enough (in my opinion), the stalls at the exhibition were very interesting. From gold plated orchids to miniature orchid gardens, there were many stalls that displayed their orchid-related goods. Of course, almost half the stalls there were selling orchids that were ready to be planted. Looking at the flowers at the exhibition, one will feel more relaxed. Hopefully, the pictures below give you the same sense of relaxation. (Note: Click to enlarge pictures.)

I'll start with one of my favorite shots. It's a beautiful white orchid indeed.

All the purple orchid flowers unite!

This reminds me of a lady's finger.

Another good shot. Pink orchid flowers instead. I wished I photographed the name on the flower.

Potted Orchids. I realized that the yellow one in the background won several awards.

Making use of white space to let the orchid stand out.

I named this image as A Forest of Orchids.

Now, below are the shots which were taken at the stalls beside the exhibition.

At the back of my mind: "This pot of orchids won't be cheap..."

One of my super close up shots of the purple orchid. The lighting here is amazing and way better the exhibition lights, which were directional lights. (On this note, I can't believe they actually used such poor lighting for a world orchid exhibit.)

This is one of my favorite shots too. Also, I made a black and white version of it.

Want to have your own orchid garden? Buy one!

After spending one and a half hours in the exhibition hall, we decided to venture into the The Shoppes at MBS. It's basically the huge shopping section the MBS resort. Towards the north end of the MBS shopping section, there was a huge outdoor wooden porch that overlooked Singapore's Central Business District skyline. And this is my shot of the skyline.

This one is called "Heart of the City".

After enjoying some fresh air outside, we went back in (to shop of course). I wanted to visit Sephora so I went in with my mum to get some products (Picture of the products we got are at the end of the post.) Walked around the shopping section afterwards and I found it a pleasurable experience walking around the place. This is because in most shopping malls in Singapore, I always have to find myself trying to not knock over people. In MBS The Shoppes, you see alot of empty space, which doesn't make one feel stressed.

At around 5.30pm, we decided to walk over to the Gardens by the Bay at Marina Bay through the connecting bridge. The connecting bridge passes through the Marina Bay Sands hotel section. This is yet another picture I took of the unique architecture of the hotel building.

After passing the hotel building, we continued walking along the bridge and it also passes over the PIE (or the Marina Flyover). An awesome view from the skypark bridge.

Unfortunately, me and my mum felt that the Gardens by the Bay wasn't nice to look at and we started to hear lighting from a distance. Night was already falling and we headed back.

Night time view of the Singapore Flyer and PIE. Alot of professional photographers were taking shots in the dark. This was the best I could do without a tripod.

The trip back home took 1 hour and 20 minutes and we were exhausted. However, I thought that it was indeed worth the trip. The view was (almost) breathtaking and honestly, there isn't much good photography locations to take a good skyline shot. MBS, being one of the places which is open to the public, is a great location to take photos, especially when there's an event like this going on.

Before I forget, the stuff that we bought at Sephora. From left to right: Urban Decay Naked Palette, Fresh Soy Face cleanser, Urban Decay eyeliners. The eyeliners were a steal at $45.

That's it, folks. Alot of photographs this time to make up for the lack of photos in my blog. Hopefully, you've enjoyed the pictures.

Beginning of the End

2011-10-31T22:41:00.002+08:00

I'd thought I'll just blog about my first two weeks of school. It's so far been a bit of a hard time for me adapt back into school life after the end of the holidays. I feel like I've been slacking all this while, even though I've been working on my NVP project.

It's the feeling of not working hard enough but yet you don't want to push yourself too hard so soon. Or maybe I haven't got into the school mood yet.

Anyway, for this semester, I have three projects. Corporate Secretarial Practice, Communication Skills for Business and New Venture Planning. The most demanding of them all is of course, New Venture Planning where we have to compile all the reports we've done so far into one report and to give a presentation on the 3rd of December (in a month's time). We've yet to plan out the details but I think we'll do it soon. The school's nice by giving us a budget of $250 per team to spend of materials used in our presentation. (Got to make full use of the money right? That's why we NEED to plan.)

As for the other two, they're just as important but I have a good feeling I'll do reasonable well for both if I put in effort. Language module assessments are sometimes like the flip of a coin. Either you do very well, or that you don't do well at all.

Besides, I've been practicing on my Ukulele and now I'm trying to play I will follow you into the Dark (by Death Cab for Cutie) and Dancing Queen (by ABBA). I've mastered 3/4 of the first song and 1/2 of Dancing Queen. Dancing Queen involves more than 10 chords so I think I'll take a while to learn that. In addition, I'm now very comfortable with Somewhere Over the Rainbow and I'm trying to sing and play at the same time.

Do I need ukulele lessons? Maybe not but I'll see.

Term Three has just started and it's the beginning of the end. Will the ending be sweet or sour? I have no clue to what it'll taste like until I've reached there.

Music in the making

2011-10-13T14:17:00.001+08:00

If you've been following my twitter, you would have already known that I've purchased a ukulele. Went to get a ukulele last Saturday at Ukulele movement at Little India. It is a small shop specializing in ukuleles. Got the Makala MK-C (Concert size) and paid a $130 with the strings changed and tuned.

OK, to confess, I don't have any musical background. All that I know from my Grade 1 piano class was that the musical scales go from A to G and the counts on the piano. I'm (sort of) blindly buying the ukulele and hope that with lots of practice, I can play it well. I'm not kidding about this since I first made a fool of myself in the shop and the guy had asked if I have a musical background.

Since Saturday, I've been practicing on it alot. First started out with just holding the ukulele. Holding is tricky because it is a concert size ukulele. Fyi, the ukulele comes in 3 sizes (from smallest to biggest), the soprano, the concert and the tenor. Being a concert size and that my arm is small, the ukulele doesn't stay securely under my arm. So, I've decided what the heck, just play it sitting down.

After that, I learnt how to fret and played some chords. Looks easy but it isn't. For beginners, one will start having finger soreness after 2 hours of continuous play because the player has to push down the taut strings. But once you know how to fret properly, it becomes less painful.

Strumming was pain the ass too. You need to know the beats or rhythm of the song really well in order to strum. When I tried playing Somewhere over the rainbow, the strumming pattern was difficult to master until I noticed it was easier to strum when I played the song in my head.

Alot of practice helps to make my strumming better. So, here's how I've been doing so far. Today is Day 4 since learning to play this song and it's only the first verse. I'm playing on repeat because the second verse is the same as the first. (Used a pair of spoiled earphones that came with a working microphone to record, so ambient noise is inevitable.)

Somewhere over the rainbow practice by giny-yee

Erm, it isn't perfect but I'm getting there:)

The reason why I bought the ukulele was that I feel I needed to learn a string instrument. I've played on instruments such as the piano, harmonica and the recorder but I never played on a string instrument. Initially, I wanted to get a guitar but I found out that a ukulele was a much cheaper alternative and it's easier to learn with only four strings. I like it so far and I hope that I'll be able to master the ukulele and to progress to the guitar in a year's time.

Going out later today to collect my mother's bag and to get a ukulele/ guitar tuner. I'm currently using a software downloaded on my computer to tune the instrument and Audacity to record the sound. Talk about being resourceful.

Anyway, got to go out now. Till the next post, I'll still be strumming on my ukulele. HAHA

ps: Blogger now has this nifty feature to easily load pictures from picasa to blogger. I'm really liking it.

If today was your last day...

2011-10-06T22:24:00.000+08:00

Oh yeah, you might be thinking; I'm probably one of the one hundred million people in the blogosphere blogging about Steve Jobs death. Well, you're wrong. I'm not blogging about him, but the speech he made in 2005 in his Standford Commencement address.

Earlier this morning, I was on tumblr and many people were reblogging quotes off this speech. Honestly, reading the quotes wasn't as inspiring as watching the video from youtube. And let's just say, I can understand what he meant by connecting the dots by looking backwards. I reflected upon this and I realized I've done the same thing 2.5 years ago when pondering upon my decision to go to poly or not.

You see, I had grades that could have gotten me a place in a relatively established junior college (More specifically, I could have gotten into either JJC or with luck into, CJC) and many of my classmates took that route (because of the obvious reason that it's easier to get into a university). In addition, I was in a class with 12 "creme of the crop" students, all of which wanted to get good grades so that they could get into which the top JC's in Singapore.

Well, imagine the kind of environment that I was in. And yet, I'm the only person out of the 12 to get into a poly. The rest never bothered seriously considering poly as their first option.

So, I took the unconventional route.

The reason why I did so was that back then, I had a tough time competing with 12 smart students in secondary school. In JC, there will be more than just 12 smart students. But the most compelling reason was that I felt that in JC, there wasn't going to be any room for practicing my artistic skills. Back then, I had photoshop knowledge and I knew it's capabilities in producing designs and web/ paper publications. All I needed was an opportunity to prove my skills. And hence, I decided to go to a poly, where I know such opportunities exist.

Let's just say, if I didn't make that choice, I would have designed my first commercial publication (the school yearbook), which sold a thousand copies.

Yeah, doesn't sound like a big deal being a designer but ask yourself, how many people can actually design a 150 pages of a magazine?

If I went to JC, I'll probably stay as a top student wannabe, which would have sucked alot.

This is what Steve Jobs said about connecting the dots backwards. If he didn't drop into the calligraphy class, I wouldn't be typing out this entry because of the lack of proper typography in computers. Same for myself. If I drop into poly, I probably wouldn't know my artistic potential.

And then there's another thing that Steve Jobs said that was inspiring as well. That is living each day as if it's your last.

In primary four, I had a classmate who sat beside me. She had leukemia (cancer of the while blood cell) and died two years later. All that I know was that even when she was at the hospital doing chemotherapy, she never stopped studying and catching up with school work when she was away from school. She was also my neighbor and once, her parents had asked me to bring down homework and hand outs from school to her home. I never figured out why she worked so hard until I was older.

If you had one day to live, what would you want to do?

She decided to learn as much as possible and maybe make her parents proud.

Even today, when she's long gone, I admire her for that. Studying while fighting sickness. Makes slackers like us feel like _____. But I admit, whenever I think about this, it makes me work harder.

So, like what Steve Jobs has proved to us, live every single day like it's your last and don't be afraid of doing the "unconventional";)

#oneofmysecretstosuccess

New template change and shopping photos

2011-10-03T14:07:00.000+08:00

As you can see, I've changed my blog layout once again. This time, I'm going for a more unfinished/ unpolished feel because I find that it's something that will differentiate my blog to other blogs which have a classic, polished layout.

Didn't take too long to do up the blog layout. Was looking through blogskins.com and found a navigational template which I liked. (Original layout credits: http://www.blogskins.com/me/teacakehouse) Made a new header using my current favourite font, which is Vaguely Repulsive (available for download at dafont.com) and using the liquidfy tool in Photoshop, I made it a little bit more artistic and bloody-looking.

I like this new template because it allows for larger photos and the text font is larger than my previous template. In case you're wondering what happened to the tagbox, it's nicely hidden. Hover over to the words "Only to be rebuilt again" and click on it.

In case you're wondering about the quote below the header, it is taken from Brendon Urie, the lead singer of Panic! at the Disco. In his public twitter account, he said:

"Everyone's got a secret to their survival. We destroy ourselves, in one way or another, only to be rebuilt again. So.. what's YOUR secret?"

Thought I'd use it because it sets people thinking:)

Anyway, hope you like the layout! Something unique and it's an improvement from the previous layout.

Onto the topic that I actually want to write about: SHOPPING.

You know, I don't often shop at Orchard area because of the travelling time. It's a hassle, having to travel 45 minutes in a bus/mrt carrying shopping bags, especially during peak hours. However, 2 weeks ago, I had an appointment at Peace Center and decided to go shopping with my mum after that. My original intention was to take a look at the new H&M outlet but it was so crowded that I decided not to buy anything (and to quickly get the hell out of there). By the way, I thought the stuff at H&M was just so-so. If you like buying quality basic clothes (like plain simple tops), H&M is good but I'd still think Uniqlo is better.

And I went Uniqlo after that and I got myself some basic tops without having to slide my way though groups of people. And the tops I bought were on sale!

Well, before I got to H&M, couldn't resist buying the green tank top and grey vest from a nearby shop at Peace center. Bought two of those because they match with jeans or jeggings.

After I got the clothes, my mum asked me if I wanted to go to Peach Blossom at Centrepoint before going to my grandmother's place. Was a bit hesitant at first because I was already tired from walking but since I don't shop here that often, I decided to take a look at the jade.

Guess what, my mother bought another jade bracelet (to share between us)! The rope needs to be shortened and hence it's not with me now. I'll probably take photos of it after I get it from the shop.

At my grandmother's place, the shopping bags! Was pretty exhausted at this point, having to travel from Jurong to Orchard and then to Macpherson, where my grandmother stays.

After that, we went back home and I was in time to watch the qualifying sessions of the F1 race. lol.

As I have taken a couple of photos during the holidays, I'll post them as mini posts below so that this whole thing doesn't get too long and you'll get the idea of what I've done during the holidays.

Went to Sim Lim Sqaure during the first week of holidays. My dad bought the following items:

AMD CPU

A motherboard

A new hard disk and memory chip to upgrade my laptop (I have not started using the new hard disk due to technical issues but I've inserted the memory card, which makes my laptop run ALOT faster.)

Some random interior shot while waiting for my dad to make up his mind as to what to buy. I'd always think it's hard to maintain those steel bars. Like how workers are able to clean them?

Oh, and I like taking shots of structures on fire.

Shell oil refinery on fire. Yes, I saw the smoke from my house balcony. Taken using my Canon Powershot SX100IS, which has an awesome 10x optical zoom. (The reason why I'm not dumping the camera just yet :P)

Last but not least, I bought Starbucks coffee power. If you're interested, I bought it at $13.90 and it comes in 12 sachlets. They're currently having a promotion of giving away 3 sachlets. I bought mine in Italian Roast. I got the Columbia sample as well. It sucks as compared to Italian Roast. Don't ever buy Columbia or you'll regret.

Right, the end of all that's random. Hope you have a good day and thanks for reading my ~~insanely~~ long blog post!

Editing in Progress

2011-10-02T18:57:00.002+08:00

Implementing a new blogskin. The previous blogskin had words which are too small. Might still be editing the header later on and adding the comments link at the bottom of each post.

This is simple and clean. Hope you like it and if you don't, tell me why (in the tagboard section) so that I can improve on it.

Chao!

Holiday Plan

2011-09-01T18:52:00.000+08:00

Before the exams started, I had a rough idea of what I want to do during my holidays. I haven't had an actual holiday for more than half a year. The last holiday was my "internship" programme. That wasn't a real holiday.

This time round, I have planned my activities. My holidays will still stay free (not like I have activities packed back to back).

I have decided to:

1) Get a job

I have just applied for relief teaching again. It's good money and I thought why not? However, as the system to apply for relief teaching is slow and non user friendly, I have to wait for them to give me provisional approval before I can teach. This will probably take 2 weeks. For the time being, I'll just be a couch potato. Kidding.

2) Learn to drive

Decided that I should take up driving. Singapore's transport system is getting less reliable and I always wanted to learn how to drive. I think it'll be cool to drive to school too.

3) Financial planning for New Venture Planning Project

As part of our final year project, we have to do up a 2 year pro forma financial statement for our new business proposal. We have already presented our initial idea and marketing as part of our project. All that's left are the financial planning and stimulation phrases.

4) Learn the guitar?

This will depend on whether I have enough funds and the people that I know of who are willing to teach. Currently, I'm asking around to see if anyone can provide me with advice on which guitar to get and where I can sign up for lessons, which must be affordable. Was researching on the internet and I found that the lessons can be pricey. I'll probably consider it once I have enough money to get a guitar (which is why I'm doing relief teaching).

5) Be more active in photography

I've recently bought a new camera and that I think it's time that I should practice my photography skills. I'll take photos on a ac-hoc basis and post it up here or my tumblr blog.

So yeah, nothing fancy as for my activities during the holidays. I'll take it slow and easy, for the next 6 weeks......

All in a day's Photoblog

2011-08-16T19:25:00.007+08:00

Decided that I should practice my photography skills since I did take a module for it previously in Year one. If you have been following my tumblr, you would know that I've bought a micro four thirds camera. It's a Lumix GF2 and here's how it looks like:

Brought it to school today and decided to take some shots with it on my way back home.

Did I say that the view from my HDB block is amazing?

11th floor view:

This view is towards Jurong Lake. (Apparently, if they didn't build the Lakeshore condo, we would be able to see part of the lake.)

View towards the park. I can see the whole park from my floor (which is on the 8th).

Got to say, I love the view that I have from my balcony. Not many people have the luxury of waking up to see this everyday.

I think lift upgrading works have started since I saw some workers digging holes into the ground today...

Ugly rack outside my neighbor's house. I have no idea why he can't put such a small rack inside his house.

For the past 5 days, I've been consuming...

My "Rugose Rose flower, Chinese Hawthorn Fruit and Barbary Wolfberry Fruit" tea. What a mouthful!

and I've been using...

My collection of markers. And my collection is more than what you see in the picture. I love my markers.

Artistic picture of my house gate:

OK, time to end my (awesome-ly) random blogpost. Hope you enjoyed the pictures!

ps: Will be MIA for 2 weeks due to my semester exams. Wish me luck!:)

ps/s: Didn't realise that my lens has got distortion until I took the shot of the markers.

Banged up but still kicking

2011-08-05T21:32:00.003+08:00

Notice that I've been blogging more and that's a good thing. I want to revive this dead blog.

Anyway, today is considered to be a rather hectic day for me. One thing, 50% of my Audit module is determined today. 40% on my audit report and 10% on a discussion topic on whether auditor's are responsible for fraud.

I'll be honest. I wasn't in the best emotional state this morning as I didn't prepare much for the oral. In addition, I was overly worried for my project the day before. Stress and lack of sleep has already taken its effect on me for the past two days. Even up till now, I still feel that my body is a little sluggish (although I'm already feeling better after submitting my Audit report and knowing I got an A for the discussion.)

The day started badly. I was already late for my discussion group's meeting and my dad wanted to drive me to school. As it turned out, his car battery died and I had to make my way to the MRT by foot as usual and took the train to Dover. I was late by 20 mins.

On this note, I have to say sorry to my group mates. It's partly my fault too.

At around 10.55am, we went up to the classroom, only to find that the group before us hasn't ended their discussion. We waited for around 10 mins before they came out and we went in.

Guess what? After the discussion, the teacher told us that got an A. And the reason was that we were patient while waiting and unlike the other groups, we didn't knock on the door or opened the door wide (because those two actions will be considered disruptive on an ongoing discussion). Honestly, at first, I was like: "What kind of reason is that for us to get an A?" but subsequently, I thought about it. Alot of people (maybe myself included) are far too focused on what we need to do that we forget to practice basic courtesy. Sometimes, it's good to practice basic courtesy and be nice to other people. After all, auditors are supposed to professional and it's also important to put yourself in other people's shoes.

So after the discussion, I went into a lift and got banged by the lift door. Got hit in the shoulder but luckily it wasn't serious. Maybe because of the lack of sleep, I wasn't paying attention.

After that, lunched and had class photo taking at 12.30pm. Left to do project after that. Finished the project at around 4pm and decided to finally take a break. Went to Starbucks my friend and chatted to de-stress. We talked about jade and I realized I haven't been taking care of mine (I guess that's why I got banged by the lift door=/). Went back home and rinsed my jade. It looks way better now, I swear.

After this whole week, I finally feel relaxed and relieved. I've been sleeping for 6 to 7 hours each day the this week and I'm glad I feel naturally tired now.

*Big yawns*

Got to go sleep now. Till the next time, bye!

I learned three things today

2011-08-01T21:59:00.002+08:00

1) There's such thing as a spamming application for the iPhone that can send 13 same smses at one go. ~~And makes one's phone vibrate like an adult sex device.~~

2) My blue laptop case likes Snapple drinks, especially Cranberry Raspberry. Had to wash my case when I got home.

3) Whenever I'm stressed, I always wear my jade. (I don't know how true this is but I guess this is 70% correct?)

All these are not related to academics... How ODD.

ps: Thinking in investing in a purple jade piece soon but we'll see...

Choose your own religion wisely

2011-07-19T22:17:00.003+08:00

OK, I really don't want to blog about religion since it's such a taboo topic but since Mitch Albom can talk about religion liberally in his books, I shall attempt to do the same. However, if anyone is offended by what I'm going to blog, please feel free to never visit my blog ever again.

This blog entry was inspired by what I had experienced today morning.

I had a break from 10 to 11am today morning after my GEMS module and since I had a test at 5pm, I decided to look through my tutorials during the break. I was looking through my work at the study area near McDonald's (in campus) when a parent accompanied by her teenage daughter asked if they could sit at the same table as me. I was actually quite surprised at first but I thought they were probably in campus to survey the environment for future enrollment.

So, they started introducing themselves and one of them asked which school I was from. I said School of Business and immediately, they figured I was from Accountancy since they saw the calculator that was on the table and my tutorial. As we chatted, I realized that the girl was already a graduate and I asked her what she doing in SP in the morning.

Her reply: "Oh I was reading the bible this morning at home."

In my mind, I was like: Wtf. Must be one of those Christians trying to get church followers again.

And obviously, the conversation slowly went on to talk about the Bible and God. Being someone who is somewhat trained to identify brainwashing, I was a little skeptical. However, I was too polite to say in their face that I wasn't interested or ready to commit to any religion yet.

And ...... we talked for half an hour. YES. Full 30 minutes.

I admit, I was at fault for prolonging the conversation since I did give my opinions but if anyone was smart enough to get my non-verbal clues (like my mum is a Buddhist and I'm a free thinker and my constant eye shifting), people would know that I'm trying to feign interest.

Reason why I don't want to tell her in the face was that, I like to know more about the Bible (but I'm not ready to commit) and I'd like to see how good you are at trying to talk me into your religion.

At one point of the conversation, she was talking about having a monologue relationship with God and then she asked if I knew the meaning of monologue. Then I said: "Ya". At the back of my mind, I was like: Right I'm having a monologue with you now. Then, she went on to explain how she's a bad person and how religion made her admit her mistakes blah blah blah...

Around that point in time (when I finally figured the conversation was no longer educational for me), I started slowing packing my stuff... and lady finally realised that I had to go off for lecture and you know what she said?

"Can I have another two minutes with you?"

I nearly wanted to leave but since I was towards the end already, I just wanted to know what tricks left she has got to pull. She ended off by saying that god loves me and she asked if I will be in the same location next week. I said no and left shortly after.

I swear if I ever meet this kind of person again who tries to sell me their religion in school, I will complain to SP Student Welfare Dept. This is the second time that I've been in such situations.

A school is supposed to be free of religion, not some kind of recruitment ground for followers. This is entirely wrong. If every religion starts recruiting students from schools, you can imagine the kind of environment that we will be studying in.

What disturbs me the most was that these people don't even know what their doing is illegal. And these people also probably belong to some external organization that isn't even affiliated with SP.

OK, I know some people think that I have an extreme viewpoint but let me give you this analogy.

If a person comes up to you and sells a product and says that this product can make your life better/ less miserable/ gives you enlightenment, obviously people will be inclined to buy it.

Problem is, religion isn't a product that you can sell just by stating its benefits. Anyone can tell you that the religion they follow is beneficial for them but they fail to say how much time and effort they spend to get that "benefit".

Ladies and gentlemen, religion is a form of commitment to god. Only through commitment, you will feel a sense of belonging with your fellow religious friends and hence you will start to believe religion.

If you read Mitch Albom's "Have a Little Faith", you will understand this point.

So if someone sells to you religion like a product by saying how much good it has done to them, you might want to ask how committed is the person towards religion;)

And don't forget that religion is a choice; no one can force you into a religion. If someone tries to influence you into a religion, that person is just plain rude.

ps: I think some Christian's may agree with me that this isn't acceptable. And to prove that I'm not biased, my mum's indeed a Buddhist and I have Catholic, Christian and Muslim friends who are firm believer's of their religion.

Whee Term 2... Not

2011-07-05T21:39:00.003+08:00

Looking at my schedule, it seems... hectic for the past two weeks that is.

Insane actually. Still suffering from post MST syndrome and I'm having a headache while typing this out.

School's the same old since it started yesterday. Why the school can't allow an extra week of holidays after MSTs? I wouldn't mind if they cut down the 7 week holiday to a 6 week one. It's too long a stretch anyway.

Got to admit, life's been a little boring ever since I got out of yearbook. Well, previously, I had to juggle between designing and school work. Now, it's full time on school work, which is really boring. Lately, I've started noticing that the content is much so drier and em, un-interesting to the point where total interest in the subject is killed.

I'm pretty sure I'll get a proper hobby like learning to play the guitar or I'll get to practice photography soon. Not being able to do arts for me is like a fish being out of its water. Well, maybe it's also a way for me to de-stress and not worry about other things.

So, what's your favourite method of art you use to de-stress? Leave a comment and I might try it out if it sounds interesting:)

I'll blog until here today. Honestly, my blog's been a little bit dead lately, but I don't give a damn. Besides, I'm considering getting a DSLR soon so I might post some nice pictures within a month's time.

ps: What's up with telling me that you can't commit a 100% for NVP when at the back of my mind, I already know? Thanks for the honesty.

Normality

2011-06-01T16:17:00.003+08:00

This post is inspired by the song "You are a Tourist" by Death Cab for Cutie.

The first thing that I have to blog about is that the yearbook (that I've been working for so long) is finally being distributed today! :)

So, I had to design the 100 plus page school yearbook for around 10 months, starting from last June till this year February. It's a really long process, right from the conceptualization of the themes to the actual design and finally colour proofing with the publishers.

Let's just say it's definitely not your average poly project. Imagine having to stay back 3 consecutive days till 7 pm to finish up till 75% of the yearbook.

Well, now that it's over, I can finally go back to my normal student life and I can now enjoy my school holidays.

(And before I forget, support by buying! It's only $10 a book and the book's quite thick, so it's quite value for money.)

Lately, I've been focusing on my school work, which I should be focusing on anyway. I've also been going out more often to orchard area, relaxing and window shopping to before my weekly appointment starts. Good way to destress. Of course, I always plan my schedule before going out.

I think it's kinda cool to lay back once in a while and enjoy life as it is. Previously, I hardly had any time to relax and reflect on the day's events. The pace that I was going was quite dangerous. ITP had actually made my work pace much slower and it forced me into a routine, which I was really lacking before. Now, things are exactly at the pace that it should be: Not too slow and not too fast, to keep things comfortable but not boring.

Music is also another thing that I am into right now. Currently loving alternative rock and ABBA. Listened to alot of ABBA songs when I was young and it's like evergreen music to me. Alternative rock is something I'm now liking.

So yeah, life's like a beach. So far.

ps: If you want to know more about how I designed the yearbook and its concept, refer to my tumblr! http://giniie.tumblr.com

Talking to Strangers

2011-05-21T22:07:00.002+08:00

I'll just blog about today's experience.

Woke up around 8am today. Did Audit tutorial and ate lunch at 11.15pm. Went for hair appt at 11.30am. Complained quite a bit to my hairdresser about the highlights being too outstanding so she cut the highlighted strands thinner.

Did cut and blow. Costed $34. Not going to do it again=X

By the time, I reached home, it was 1pm. I knew I was going to be late. Dressed up and reached at 2.40pm at Orchard MRT. After the hair appointment, somehow my mood got really bad. (Maybe it was the attitude of the hair stylists there because I had requested that the female hairstylist not to blow dry until it's totally dry. The last time I let them blow dry, my hair got damaged. Well yeah... not quite happy with their service standards somehow.)

Right. Anyway, I was supposed to reach Orchard at 2pm to do my fieldwork and surveying for my NVP project. Was 40 minutes late and I felt bad for letting my project mates wait.

After going to an educational toy shop at Paragon, we started doing our surveys. There were 3 of us and each of us had 20 surveys in our hands which we had to complete. Our target group was parents who have kids less than 12 years old. We split up and I decided to camp around the kids playground, where many parents were.

It definitely wasn't easy getting the parents to do our surveys. Majority of the parents were looking after their kids. Not to mention that I don't have the best speaking skills and I'm always nervous talking to people whom I'm not comfortable with.

However, I did put my observation and acting skills to good use today. The tactics I chose was more of targeting a specific group of bored parents, especially dads since their wives will looking after the children. Even if I've found my target, I'll wait a while until they are really bored to death before I approach them.

The approach will then depend on my acting skills. Something I learnt from relief teaching and through drama class in primary school; that is, even if you fear failure, don't show it in your eyes and face. Keep calm and act confident.

Yeah, it is difficult but it is a skill that I've learnt through the years. I still stumble but it is not as much as before, all thanks to the training I put myself through.

And the other thing I noticed was that if you were to look at the person's eyes while presenting, the person will be more likely to be convinced by whatever you say.

In the end, I got by 19 survey responses in 3 hours, which to me, wasn't so bad and I didn't expect to finish all the surveys in one go.

It was definitely an experience talking to strangers.

ps: 2 more days to yearbook distribution. Will be at the convention centre from 9am to 1pm on Monday. Anyone graduating then?

Random Photos from April

2011-04-26T20:43:00.008+08:00

Figured that I would do a random blog post using the pictures taken from my handphone for the month of April.

First, my favorite fragrance currently is the Gianfranco Ferre In the Mood for Love EDT. It has a floral fruity scent with top notes of red apple and peach. The peach gives it a tinge of sweetness, which I like. If you've tried DKNY Be Blossom EDT, it's similar but a little stronger.

I also got the Panic! at the Disco's latest album: Vices and Virtues. I can't say how great this album is if you're into alternative/indie rock. Ironically, iTunes lists the tracks under the genre of Punk, but I think it should be alternative rock. Their music is a little experimental plus mainstream. In my opinion, it's interesting and I love their design inside the crystal CD case. Heh

Then, I finally got my ipod nano, which I have been wanting to get for almost a year already.

Was thinking of getting an ipod touch to this but I stuck with my decision of nano as I like the idea of having to clip on the nano onto my clothes. Not the cheapest choice of MP3's, but hey, I think it's a great investment. My shuffle lasted 4 years. So, I expect this to last as well.

With a good music player, one will also need a good pair of headphones. OK, so I bought this one about 5 months ago but still, I think it's a good pair for someone who isn't so particular/ fussy about sound quality.

It's the Audio Techinica Portable Stereo Headset ATH-SJ5. I mainly use it to listen music from my laptop at home (I use it pretty much daily for that purpose) and occasionally, I may use it to listen to music on my ipod. I seldom bring it out though because I'm afraid I may break the joints or the wires may break (since it's quite thin).

It's comfortable and music quality is reasonable. However, it doesn't really isolate sound and I wouldn't bring it out due to its light plastic body and thin wires. (read: fragile)

Lastly, I also went to Johor on the 2nd of April and I wanted to show this: Malaysia's range of cosmetic products in supermarkets.

I don't think Singapore beauty stores/ supermarkets can compare. The photo only shows half the range they have. They have a whole entire aisle of middle-ranged priced make up. And on the opposite side of that aisle, they have moisturizers and products to treat acne, dry skin etc.

It's just a mind blowing range of beauty/ skin products that they have there. Some of the products are not even available in Singapore. If you happen to be in Malaysia, check out Jusco or Carrefour for their skin products or if you need to get a particular beauty product.

That's all for this blog post. Chao!

ps: Saw the Youtube video, Stranger's again. If you have spare time, take a look at it here. It's true that a relationship has those stages and I've seen people change from each stage to the next.

Rainy Morning

2011-04-18T20:48:00.005+08:00

I guess I'm back to what I used to be into...... blogging.

I know I've been more active on Tumblr but it's obvious that I've mainly only reblogged other people's stuff. From now on, I'll try to blog here more often since everything here is 99.9% my original work/ ideas. Onto my blog entry......

Today is the first day of my 3rd and final year in poly.

Let's just say that the morning was eventful.

Firstly, it rained heavily in the morning at around 6.30am. Went out of the house at 7.30am. My dad had intended to drive me to the station but due to the traffic jam at the T-junction before the station, I had to get out of my dad's car and walk.

In order to get onto the pavement, I stepped into the grass, just like how you would on a dry sunny day.

The next thing I knew, my slippers were all wet and my feet was in muddy water.

Stupid, I know. But surely everyone has that experience before right?

With wet slippers (Mind you, not rubber slippers but the Birkenstock type), I survived the 500m walk to the station.

At the station, I tapped my ez link, went up the escalator and the next thing I saw were hoards of people waiting at the gate barriers. And they were unusually large amounts of people taking the train today, despite it being peak hour.

Then, the announcement came: The trains bound for Pasir Ris were delayed. At the back of mind, I was going OMG.

After 10 mins of waiting, I finally made a decision to ride the train to Boon Lay to board the train there because I was in the middle of the group of people waiting towards the front gates of the train and I was quite sure that I'll either not make it on the train or I'll get squeezed.

By the time I made that decision, it was 7.53pm and my lesson starts at 8am. Did I mention that the first class was my new elective module class too?

At Boon Lay, I managed to get on the train bound for Pasir Ris (Surprisingly, there were quite a number of people who did the same thing as me and dashed towards to opposite train).

Reached class at exactly 8.25pm but thankfully class hadn't started yet. It was only after I reached then class started.

Moral of the story:

1) If it rains, go early.

2) Don't rely on road traffic during peak hour.

3) NEVER WEAR BIRKENSTOCK-LIKE SLIPPERS WHEN RAINING. Only applies to Birkenstock-like slipper lovers:)

How to live life

2011-04-15T16:30:00.001+08:00

Yeah, I'm blogging about what I've learnt from my attachment. Well, I think I've learnt much more than just work skills... I've learnt about living life.

Hmm, how should I explain? I'll start from the beginning.

So, as part of my diploma course, I was attached to a financing firm (I shall not say which firm I'm attached to... you'll see why later). I was under a person called A. Basically, what A does is to allocate me some work daily. At the firm, what I do is mainly administrative stuff.

Let me just describe A for you guys. A is a typical workaholic. At work, she'll pick up calls and print financial statements. With a meagre $3000 salary, she does alot of the sh*t work.

One day, she was sitting at her desk and felt faint. Then, she sqautted under her desk in vain to stop the fainting spells. The boss of the firm walked by and told her to go home. And she told me to accompany her downstairs to the taxi stand. And you know what? A started telling me and other intern who had accompanied her to the taxi stand about how she got depression from the critism she got when she took MCs due to sickness.

In my mind, I was like: "Why the hell are you telling us that? Isn't this supposed to be kept to yourself? After all, it was way back in the past."

She just kept ranting on about how she got her sickness and depression until the cab arrived and just I kept nodding my head. (I didn't comment much though)

So, I've been talking to my boss alot (although sometimes I give lame replies). I'm pretty surprised at the fact that she's still surviving, seeing the amount of sh*t she does every single day.

The way she keeps her emotions in check is like a yo-yo too. I also noticed that in the morning, whenever her senior is around, she isn't as talkative as in the afternoon, when the senior isn't around. Mind you, it wasn't just being quiet. It was almost like she was having split personality.

I think her stress is causing her to have mental and physical problems. Having long working hours doesn't help too. Sure, you maybe doing it for the money but is it worth having to lose your mental and physical well-being? No.

Then, there's another person called B at the workplace. She is what you call a bit*h. No joke. I shall quote what the other intern was saying to me during our lunch together.

"On the surface she's nice, but when you get to know her under a period of time, you will realise that it is all fake."

OK, just to make things clear, I'm not directly under her. But it is a fact that none of the interns like her.

They went on and said that during calls to other people, she will be talking to them in a polite manner but after the phone call, she will be swearing out loud.

Yeah, I'm really dishing the dirt out because I have a point to say: Some people are willing to sacrifice their health and morals for power and wealth.

I know it sounds stupid but these people truely exist.

However, these people have left me with such lasting impression. I've reflected about it, perhaps, we people nowadays work too hard to achieve our goals. Ever seen people looking half dead on the MRT? I think you guys know what I mean.

I think it all boils down to a person's personality and ability to cope with stress. These people should learn how to balance their life because certain sacrifices aren't worth it.

We shouldn't live life on accrual basis. In fact, I'll say if your work suddenly comes to a point where you have to sacrifice your morals and overall well-being, quit straight away because that promotion isn't worth your life and soul.

(PS: Boss, if you're reading this, I'm indirectly advising you to screw your job. HAHA)

(PS/S: I love my boss. It's just that I hope she will learn how not to let other people get to her and cope with the workload. Otherwise, she's a great person to hang out with.)

ITP and on Tuesday...

2011-03-19T09:15:00.005+08:00

For the past two weeks, I've been mainly occupied with my Industrial Training Programme (ITP). For those who don't know, under ITP, we're working as interns and are attached to a company to experience adult "working life".

I must say, it's a new experience for me since I have never worked for more than 8 hours a day and I've no experience with jobs which requires one to seat at the desk for the whole day. Even up till now, I wonder how some people can tolerate sitting at their workplace for hours without having a break.

Needless to say, I'm not very good at sitting still. I'm always taking toilet breaks (around 4 times a day) or going into the pantry or walking around the office. However, I don't think my boss minds since I do the work at a pretty fast pace in their perspective (I think I work at normal pace actually and maybe it's because they have low expectations of interns generally?) Regardless, I find my job quite slack as compared to my friends who are doing crazy amount work for such little salary.

So what's my my role in the workplace? It's quite simple to understand. Since I had some free time at work yesterday, I decided to draft out what I wanted to write in my logbook. Here's my description of one activity that I did this week (or rather for the most of this week):

The Group Compliance and Services Department is made up of many units such as the Anti-money laundering unit, Transactions Surveillance Unit and (inserts one more unit which I've yet to find out the name). I'm attached to the Anti Money-laundering Unit (AMU) which assists the police/authorities in investigations into white collar crimes. The section that I'm attached to is a four man section whose main objective is to reply to every request from the police/authorities. My job in this section is to input the information needed by the police into the Financial Crime Intelligence System (FCIS).

In order to do so, my superior would first scan through the requests from the police or government departments and print out the relevant information as requested in their letters. Information that maybe printed out include financial statements of the interested account holders, particulars of the account holder and location/ branch that the account was opened. Once the information has been printed, I would have to produce a production order code from FCIS. I would input the reference number that is stated in every letter/request and the names and account numbers belonging to each entity that the authorities are investigating into. I would also need to key in other details such as the date in which the letter was issued, the date in which the letter was received by the unit and the investigating officer's contact number.

Once all the information required has been keyed into the system, a production order code will be automatically generated by the system. I would then write down the code generated on the letter itself. In this way, the unit is able to keep track of all of the requests and the reply them in sequential order.

-End of my description-

I think my description is quite accurate and detailed. I'm going to print this out and attach it to my logbook later:)

OK, enough of ITP, I going to blog about what's happening on Tuesday.

Tuesday is going to be the most EPIC day of my poly life because not only the results will be out, but also, I'm going to the publishers (with the editors and my design junior) to see the first colour print out of the completed yearbook.

I've to take half day LOA from work on Tuesday as I need to see the results of the colour proofing at the publishers. And my results are going to be out on Tuesday morning. I don't I ever worked that hard during an examination period before. I literally had to study even in sickness. It was a tough time......

Going to end here as this entry is way too long. I might do another post tomorrow to make up on the blogging deficit. Chao!

ps: The feeling when your whole year's of effort is hanging by a thread. That's what I'm probably going to feel like on Tuesday...

Take a break

2011-03-06T14:45:00.000+08:00

...and take a kit kat.

Kidding.

ITP's starting tomorrow. Cool. But I think I haven't rested enough yet. Yearbook's still incomplete but I have passed on the task of completion to my junior.

Yesterday, I went to Jurong Point to meet up with my junior to teach her everything I know about photoshop and indesign. YES, EVERYTHING.

Before the meeting at 1pm, I wrote down the things that I was going to go through with her. Those things included:

1) Yearbook Concept and themes
2) Yearbook committee working environment and structure
3) Margins, guides and bleedlines
4) Colourproofing
5) Photography: CMYK conversion, rule of thirds, editing of photos in photoshop
6) Photoshop tricks and skills: Use of 300 dpi in publications, cropping and extraction, colourisation, blurring and sharpening, brightness and contrast, copying into a new document, filters and effects
7) Use of DSLR photography
8) Indesign: layers, stroking, text wrapping, PDF conversion, packaging
9) Briefing of all outstanding work.

All this took 5 hours at Starbucks. Phew!

Honestly, this is my first time teaching someone advanced techniques in photoshop. Quite an experience and my junior was able to take in most of it (thankfully). But I forgot to teach her batch in photoshop, which I will if I meet her again.

Well, if anyone is interested to learn any of the above, I don't mind teaching if you can afford to pay $100 an hour. HAHA!

Anyway, I'm feeling tired now because I've been working very hard for these two weeks. My exams started on last week Monday and ended on this week Wednesday and then I had to complete the yearbook by this Friday and present to the deputy director. On Saturday, I had to go out and teach for 5 hours.

How can anyone not be mentally exhausted?

These two weeks were like having passed through hell. The worst day was probably on Tuesday when I had to fall sick. Didn't manage to properly revise for my cost accounting paper but by a miracle, I was able to do the paper with confidence. That was because I called my friend who was able to help me with a question on Tuesday night and that a similar question (with a high weightage) came out during the actual exam. I was so lucky.

In all, these two weeks have been stressful. So, it's time for me to relax, even though it's only for a day:X

Have a Little Faith

2011-02-10T20:08:00.003+08:00

Recently, I've finished reading a book by Mitch Albom, "Have a Little Faith". I love the book because it is universal even though it talks about religion. Besides, I also like the fact that it is based on true stories, as compared to the other books written by the same author.

Basically, the storyline is such: After making a speech at some event, Mitch's old rabbi (something like a pastor) walks up to him and asks him to do his eulogy. And then the story unfolds on how Mitch lost his religious beliefs and how he found it all back again. It is one of those books that make you reflect on the meaning of life and how religion helps other people in desperate times.

Shall quote one phrase: "What profits a man if he gains the whole world, but loses his soul?"

In addition, the book also talks about how religions have the tendency to discriminate other religions and how we should respect people from other religions.

Can't talk enough how good the book is... You would have to read it yourself to know:)

Exams are coming in two weeks time. I hope I'll do well for this exam. Got to study the hardest in my whole entire life.

ps: I'm impressed by your leadership. I thought at first, you wouldn't last. It's hard but we all made it this far. Don't give up, let me tell you this. If you give up, I think I'll give up too because we're all on the same boat. Have a little faith in yourself.

Music and Books

2011-02-06T18:31:00.000+08:00

I realized throughout my life when I can’t deal with people these are the two things that I get into.

Currently reading “Have a little faith” by Mitch Albom. It’s a great book about religion. I’m a free thinker but I decided to get it because I just love the way he writes and the meaning behind his stories. I’ve read “The five people you meet in Heaven” and it one of those books that gave me a lasting impression.

Another good book which I really like is “The White Tiger”. It’s the story about the underdog. The book contains alot of vulgar words but to me, it brings out the essence of the book.

As for classical music, I’m currently listening to music by Bach and Beethoven.

It’s the last week of school. I hope everything goes well.

ps: The more I do this yearbook thing, the more I realize I should get into Mass Comm. When you do magazine publication, isn’t it the same thing as what you are going to do in Mass Comm?

Imagine

2011-01-16T17:02:00.002+08:00

Recently came across Sam Tsui's cover of Imagine on Youtube. Probably one of the best covers that I've ever heard.

"You may say that I'm a dreamer, but I'm not the only one."

Dare to dream, everyone:)

On a side note, I don't think I'll have time to blog longer posts since I'm busy with multiple projects and the end of academic year exams are coming up. (Need to secure that GPA, man!)

It's been fun but full of ups and downs lately. I feel the need to focus on just one thing, which is studies. It's been hard to cope, but somehow I hope I'll be able to pull through all this and come out as a survivor.

Summary of 2010

2010-12-28T12:10:00.003+08:00

I'm going to try and make this brief, probably in less than 500 words?

I'll start with a Shakespearean quote.

"Be not afraid of greatness: some are born great, some achieve greatness, and
some have greatness thrust upon 'em."

This quote mainly summarizes what I've done and experienced in 2010.

In 2010, I've tried becoming a relief teacher and I have been more active in Yearbook. Relief teaching was really a leap of faith for me since it is my first job. Yes, it took a lot of courage (well, at least for me) to try out relief teaching as a first job. It wasn't really as tough as I expected but taking that first step forward is important.

Secondly, being more active in yearbook has also taught me alot in the process of producing a magazine. You might think: Oh, learning to produce a magazine isn't really that useful in life. Sure, one might think that way but certain skills that you learn along the way are useful in the working world. For example, when I first started out as being a head of design for the yearbook, I didn't know any of the committee members (except the co-head of design). This is one of the things that I've learnt: Social/Interaction skills. All of the committee members come from different diploma courses and the amount of time spent on knowing the people in the committee is limited. Fortunately, we're pretty good communicators and we are able to work together comfortably.

Overall, I think I pushed myself to be better in 2010. It may have been rough roller coaster ride but at the end of the day, what's important is that you have learnt something out of it.

And before I forget, Happy New Year's Eve to everyone!

One day left till Holidays

2010-12-08T13:50:00.002+08:00

Listening to Adam Lambert's acoustic version of down the rabbit hole while typing this. It's so good......

Anyway, I have one more day left till the "holidays". This will be my most productive "holidays" ever. I have 5 projects during the "holidays". Fantastic eh?

1) RWPS

2) FACC

3) Taxation

4) Audit

5) Yearbook

I just feel that my life needs a little calm and peace right now.

Also, I'm planning on what to write on my blog since I haven't been updating much lately. I've alot to blog but somehow I always miss out on taking photos or I've writers block. So, I've decided to just list down the stuff that I'm planning to write down here:

1) Tech review of my headphones, handphone (Nokia E72) and printer

2) Food review on hawker food here in Jurong (I wanted to write this a long time ago, but I always forget to bring my camera along. You will surprised to note that the hawker centers at my place sell alot of delicious food.)

3) Christmas haul

4) Summary of the whole year and new year's resolution

Yeah, awesome blog stuff is coming it's way in December but for now, good luck to everyone for their last (or second last) paper!

In November

2010-11-06T11:51:00.002+08:00

It's been hectic since school reopened. School projects, tutorials and yearbook stuff are keeping me occupied.

For example, this week, my schedule was such:

Monday:
12 to 1pm: Photo taking booth duty. Overshot till 1.30pm and 5 minutes after entering the lecture hall, the lecture ended-.-

Tuesday:
3pm to 4.45pm: CF project
5pm: Photo-taking for yearbook committee (which was postponed as two people didn't turn up) Proceeded to red bridge to follow the editors and accountant for their photoshoot instead. I needed to check if there was going to be any under/over exposure since I won't be able to see it accurately on my computer screen.

It was interesting to see the three guys posing in front of the camera on the red bridge with the sun setting behind them. It was that scenic.

Wednesday:
2 to 3pm: Yearbook Design Dept meeting (which few people came, I don't blame them though. The photos and articles were not in and I could not even delegate the work to the juniors.) Instead, I learnt how to play monopoly deal and played with some of the committee members. It was fun.

Thursday:
Stayed in yearbook room to do my tutorial and to meet up with one of my junior designers, who had difficulty designing one of the pages. Yearbook room is an awesome place to study/slack at your own privacy. Haha.

Friday:
Lunch at nearby mac with Nisa. It's been a long time since I met up with her. I also walked around the Jurong market and found that there are alot shops selling clothes. I really wonder how they can sustain their business. Anyway, chatted for a while and I found ABE environment to be more open. In case you didn't know, for Architecture and Built Environment year 1 and year 3 students, they have their own work cubicles in school. How cool is that? They even allow students to personalize their workspaces. Wished business school had such facilities......

Maybe to some people, my schedule isn't considered hectic but for someone who's always used to routines, it's considered hectic for me.

It's November already and I can't believe that time has passed so fast. The only time which I remembered clearly was my February and March holidays. Everything else in between March and November is like a passing whirlwind.

Oh, before I forget, I'm attending a wedding dinner on 27 November and I maybe blogging and posting pictures about that. So, keep a lookout for pictures coming up soon.

That's all I have to blog about. Till the next time, cya people.

Holidays being burnt

2010-10-08T20:28:00.005+08:00

Blogging this at night which I don't normally do. Weird.

Anyway, I think I should type out this blog entry because it helps me to think in the right frame of mind and reflect on certain events.

Firstly, this holiday, I have been quite active with my relief teaching stint. Perhaps, a little too active. So far, I've earned around $500 as a relief teacher for 8 days. Not too bad, but I've come to realize that relief teaching isn't really my calling, after suffering from hoarseness on some days when I come back from work. It's good pay, but is it worth it? I don't think so. Thus, I'll probably relief teach one more time (max) next week and call it quits.

It's difficult, relief teaching, especially teaching 40 primary one kids at one go. Even the permanent teachers themselves have a hard time controlling. Primary two kids are much better and more matured.

Maybe I'll try to become a tutor for primary school kids in future, since I already have some experience in teaching.

On the other hand, my holidays are also spent on my yearbook CCA. Honestly, I can't be doing both relief teaching and yearbook stuff at the same time. I can't say much about yearbook, since I'm not supposed to but the lecturer can sometimes be a pain in the ass. (HAHA)

I'll probably look back at this holiday and see how busy I was back then. For all those people busy with doing nothing, I envy you people.

ps: I got my first dist for understanding weather. LOL!

Japanese Food in Malaysia

2010-08-18T11:04:00.005+08:00

Last week, I went to Malaysia for a half day trip with my dad (again). This time, we ate at a mid-class Japanese restaurant (Sushi Monzta), which is almost comparable to Sakae Sushi in Singapore.

Firstly, whenever I eat at Japanese restaurants, I expect the food to be good because you're paying quite high for it. If it sucks, I'll probably curse the restaurant and not go back again. (Nah, kidding about the curse part.)

Also, after going to Japan to taste their heavenly food, you'll find that majority Singapore's Japanese food offerings suck. This is because, they don't use fresh foods and also some of the chef's do not follow strictly to the Japanese style of cooking (I'll explain this later).

So, I was kind of hesitant of eating Japanese food in Malaysia, especially when I already feel Singapore's Japanese food is bad.

However, I was surprised that the food was actually better than Singapore's Japanese food.

And it was value for money too. In total, it cost RM43 both, which converted to Sing dollars, it would be around $20. Considering that we ordered a bento set, an udon set and tofu side dish, it was cheap.

Unfortunately, I didn't bring my Canon camera with me that day and I only took a picture of the bento set using my handphone camera.

The sushi was good by the way. The chicken was a bit too thin for me and they didn't use Japanese rice.

Cope this picture from their facebook. It's their tofu side dish.

One thing that I didn't understand was that, why didn't they use Japanese rice? And also, why are the meat servings so little?

But other than that, the food was delicious. I enjoyed the udon and the tofu but was a bit disappointed that they overlooked the meat portion and the type of rice that they used. Honestly, I would rather pay slightly higher for more pieces of meat in my udon and for eating Japanese rice. I mean, we're in a restaurant. The least you can do is to serve Japanese rice.

Overall, I think that the food there was good and I'll probably go back there again.

ps: After writing this entry, I went into google to find the name of the restaurant and I realised that they have a facebook page. Here's the link, in case you're in Johor and want to try the restaurant. It's a newly opened restaurant and their facebook page has a lot of pics. Check it out.

Sushi MonZta

ps/s: I will be missing in action for a few weeks as I need to study for my exams at the end of the month. I won't blog as much as previously but I will make up during the holidays.

Habits Never Die

2010-07-27T09:34:00.005+08:00

I need to get into the habit of blogging at least once every week.

Was looking at my blogger dashboard. 135 posts in 5 years sounds rather pathetic. (If you didn't know, I started this blog in mid 2006). This means every 14 days, I will blog once.

So, it's not that bad after all. It just means I have to blog two times more than usual.

Anyway, I've been thinking to myself lately. Whether accounting is a good choice for me.

You see, I never really liked maths when I was young. As a matter of fact, I wanted to do Mass communication in poly. I hated JC like shit. Ten years of wearing uniform and flag raising ceremonies, you'll get tired of it. Not to mention the constant daily nagging from teachers and principals.

I needed a way to get practice my artistic skills and not always facing science and maths every single day in secondary school. That was the only reason why my English teacher liked me then because I had put in much more effort into writing my essays than other people (I'm not a good writer by the way. It's because I did more research than everyone else.). I learnt photoshop when I was in Secondary two and developed my skills from there. However, I stopped practicing photoshop when I was in secondary three as it got harder to cope with studies.

I wasn't that bad in Science but somehow, it really isn't my calling. I think scientists live a very boring life (imagine doing tons of research work) and doctors are stupid (in my opinion, because they expose themselves to viruses everyday). I'm afraid of dying, btw.

So, becoming a scientist and a doctor is definitely out of the question.

Next, I wanted to become a lawyer. However, I gave up on the idea, seeing how poor my debating skills are.

Ended up, I was advised into accountancy by my parents. I was willing to give it a shot. After all, accounting is pretty much an iron rice bowl. The irony is, I was never exceptionally good at my maths and science. My track record proves it:

PSLE results: B for maths, A for english
O'lvl results: A2 for Amaths and Emaths, A1 for Combined Humanities and A2 for English, A2 for Biology and B3 for both Chemistry and Physics

Considering that I was a triple science student and I had tuition for Amaths, my maths and science results are below average compared to my other triple science friends.

Best of all, I put in the least effort into Combined Science and English. I didn't have tuition on these subjects. Yet, I still managed a distinction.

So, it's really ironic that I'm here right now.

But I've told myself, somehow when I've made enough money from accounting, I'm going to be in the media and creative industry. Maybe accounting for them or be a writer. I don't just want to be an accountant forever. It's a boring life and it's not suited for me.

Don't get me wrong. I like accounting (so far) and I'm coping quite well. It's just that it's not what I envision myself to be in the future: An accountant.

Call me stupid. But in we're in Singapore, and we are all realist. Being an artist doesn't make much money now does it?

So after when I've made all my money, I'll pursue my artistic side. It seems like a better way in Singapore's context. I don't think I'll ever give up writing or designing meanwhile.

It's my way of life.

ps: Dedicated to all of those people whose lives are being torn between pursuing their passion and embracing reality.

A little bit of Inspiration

2010-07-18T14:20:00.001+08:00

"Though we cannot change the direction of the wind, we may adjust our sails to always reach our destination."

And right now, the winds have changed. It's time I've adjusted my sails. Instead of blaming god for the change of wind direction, move on. Because, all hope is not lost, until the day you've given up.

Anyway......

This week was a really long week. I had meetings on Wednesday after school and yearbook themes presentation on Thursday morning (which I had to skip my cost tutorial, dang!). On Friday, had to go to school early to help out in the phototaking booth. Then, on Saturday, I went for meet the parents session as a volunteer/usher.

For consecutively two days, I had volunteered to be an usher. In the past, I would usually think that ushers have the most lame jobs ever but not anymore. Haha.

Next week will consist of mainly project meetings during and after school. If everyone does their part, I think we should be able to finish on time.

Rights. That's about all. Sorry for the short post. Tons of things to do and I can't slack. Will probably blog more in depth at a later date.

ps: If everything could be returned to their original form, we humans, would not have been any wiser. Don't you think so?

ps/s: The quote was taken from David Archuleta's twitter site, in case you're wondering=D

Twitter extinction?

2010-06-13T17:12:00.005+08:00

You know, every once in a while, we (twitter users) have this annoying little problem:

"Twitter servers being over capacity, ~~shit~~."

So, I was watching photoshop tutorials this morning when I stumbled upon a video, talking about Twitter's popularity and whether it is sustainable. I found it pretty interesting.

Moral of the story: Twitter is popular, but it is pretty broke as compared to other social media (eg. facebook) because it can't generate advertising revenue.

No advertising revenue= no funding= twitter extinction.

And it's not as if it's the first time social media sites became popular then failed. Remember Friendster? (Ah, the good old days of writing testimonials......) Sad to say, not many of us use Friendster now as much as we used it then.

So, is twitter going to be extinct? Maybe. However, the video was made in 2008 and twitter still remains strong up till today. Will it last another 2 more years? Let's wait and see.

(By the way, the guy also produces good quality photoshop tutorials. If u want, u can go to his channel to learn some photoshop techniques.)

Short entry but I hope it sets twitter users thinking about twitter's future=)

Break time

2010-06-10T16:24:00.002+08:00

I think this blog is kind of dead right now. Who cares? I'm still going to keep blogging on since I've been doing this for years already.

It's been a crazy month. Coupled together with MST, I feel that I can hardly breathe. So these two weeks are well deserved breaks for me. Hopefully, I'll be able to rest and rejuvenate within these two weeks before the term starts again.

I always keep a list of things to do during the holidays. I might as well list it down right now as I'm blogging. In no order of priority:

1) Facial
2) Pedicure
3) Shopping

I need a facial man. Pedicure for my dry feet. Shopping, well, it's the Great Singapore Sale.

4) PC show

Maybe going if I have spare time.

5) Yearbook

Have to draft out the cover page soon to stop him from nagging because I know he will ask=X Besides, I still have to think of ways on how to teach Photoshop to the new members.

6) Table tennis

Tentatively on Tuesday at JE. Anyone who wants to play can come along too=)

7) Community Service

On my two Wednesdays, not confirmed yet as I have yet to find someone who's going also.

8) Movie with class

Most likely on second week. Hope they confirm soon on what movie they want to watch.

That's about all of the list of things to do.

As for my comments on the tests, Tax n GEMS were alright. FF was super screwed. FACC was so-so. COST and BLAW were surprising not that difficult.

Expecting to fail my FF. Anyway... enjoy your holidays everyone!

ps: Tumblr is way better than blogger. The only thing that blogger is good at is posting multiple pictures at one go. Tumblr doesn't seem to have that feature.

I'm just tired now

2010-05-11T13:38:00.005+08:00

These two weeks have gone past in a flash. Mainly because of my aunt staying here and the amount of school work that I have to do. Next week will be pretty hectic too.

Oh ya, I've seen my design in the new yearbook and I'm proud to say that my poly 50 design turned out quite nicely (though my Achiever's Congress design sucks). Considering the fact that I had limited time to design, I think I did okay.

Currently feeling very tired due to sickness and mental stress. Caught the dreaded flu on Monday and up till now, my throat is dry and scratchy. I hope I can recover for floorball training tomorrow (My energy has been rather low the past few days. I keep yawning all the time).

Been quite stressed lately too as I find that I'm hardly coping with the lecturers. Cost accounting and Business Law are headache. Taxation is not too bad because the tutor makes things easy for us to understand. Financial accounting is potentially a big problem.

The only module that I think I can cope is finance. Finance is quite similar to econs, thankfully.

I think year two makes year one sound like a walk in the park. But I'll do my best to cope. For now, I think I need to rest and think about how to solve my problems.

Off to sleep now. Byes.

ps: I really need a timeout to think.

Some of my relatives suck at times.

2010-04-26T21:06:00.005+08:00

Firstly, like the new blog skin? Decided to change it because I needed to have a larger width to show bigger pictures and videos.

This week has been tiring due to the lack of sleep. Today, I had intended to sleep till 8.30am but someone had to forget to switch off the alarm clock...

Anyway, my aunt's coming here to stay for 10 days as my grandmother has decided to visit her brother in China. I'm going to be out of the house for as long as possible. Seriously, I don't want to be held responsible if she gets into an accident in the house. Having a less than normal IQ person to be in the house without adult supervision is scary. If anything happens, I'm as good as dead. Besides, I'm not legally bound to take care of people.

Call me heartless but when people don't give a damn and pass their responsibilities to you without even asking..... this is just ridiculous.

Family obligation= no need for basic courtesy= take people for granted.

That's how some of my relatives view it.

Man, I regret making my grandmother's passport for her to go to China. Less than one month after getting the passport, she files off to China. Like wth.

On the positive side, I can temporary preoccupy myself by going to CCA meetings next week and doing relief teaching (which I kind of miss doing). By the way, I've signed up for four CCAs during the CCA fair. They are: Leo Club, SP Ambassadors, SP Student xchange and Floorball. I'm going to reject SP ambassadors and student xchange as I don't have a postive impression of them after talking to a year 3 student from my GEMs class.

Yeah, that's about all that I want to blog. Below is a gallery of photos which I have been collecting from other users in Deviantart. View it in full screen and enjoy!

Sketching on the iPad?

2010-04-25T08:50:00.008+08:00

Remember that I talked about a touchscreen device for photoshop users a few weeks ago? Well, I came across this video in Youtube about Autodesk Sketchbook Pro on the iPad.

Cool huh? Drawing using your fingers. This makes me wanna own an iPad now.

So, it's not impossible for photoshop to come up with touchscreen software right?

Anyway, my first week of school was quite relax. Some of the lecturers had a sense of humor while others were in my opinion, a little not up to standard. The two modules which I currently have interest in are finance and business law. By the way, I wanted to become a lawyer when I was in primary school. But in the end, I chose accounting because it's easier than becoming a lawyer.

Yeah, that's the end of my blog entry. Just wanted to show the video. Oh ya, I'm working on a new blog skin now. Should be up pretty soon. Keep watching=)

School holidays are ending

2010-04-15T16:06:00.003+08:00

Ok, I haven't been updating that much lately here. That's because I'm updating more on my tumblr blog about photography, art and fashion.

So yeah, if you want to check it out, it's here.

After getting back from Malaysia, I didn't receive any calls for relief for a week. I was kind of worried that I've lost my opportunity for relief permanently because of the few days that I was in Malaysia. They kept calling everyday when I was in Ipoh. I thought they were fed up with me not picking up on their calls. Haha.

However, this week, I got the call on Monday and I was happy to go work. I taught for three days. Today, they called again but I said that I wasn't feeling well enough to go to school. I was still tired even though I slept for 8 hours. Furthermore, I hate to teach in this hot weather. I can't imagine how I managed to survive yesterday and relief for 3 hours straight with no break in between.

Relief teaching isn't THAT easy. It's slack when you don't have any class to relief during that period but when you go to class... it's the real test of a person's tolerance and teaching skill. Of course, when you're paid more than $10 an hour, there's a certain level of difficulty involved. Personally, I think it's worth it if you were to weigh out the pros and cons. It's just that I don't like teaching for more than 3 days. It's tiring.

Another advantage about relief teaching is that you get the opportunity to train your voice. After shouting a few times, you will get used to it and your throat won't hurt anymore. LOL.

Erm, yeah, that's the good and ugly of relief teaching. Anyone interested in relief teaching should take my pointers for consideration.

Anyway, a week ago, I went to Queensway shopping center. Bought a new bag since my current is too small to put my laptop in.

Also bought two skinny jeans in grey and black and some tops from G2000 (@Anchorpoint). And a new water tumbler (in pink!)

I'm going to end it here because it's getting too wordy. Byes!

ps: Going to get a haircut soon. Not sure if I should change my hairstyle. Maybe I should?

Malaysia Trip to Ipoh and Cameron Highlands

2010-04-01T16:18:00.009+08:00

Before I start, I must warn that this post will have a lot of pictures. So don't blame me if your com lags.

I went to Ipoh and Cameron Highlands in Malaysia from Sunday to Tuesday. It was a short trip but it was memorable. Got to spend time with my dad and appreciate the natural surroundings of Cameron Highlands. In addition, I enjoyed the food in Ipoh. It was really delicious!

Traveling time took around 6 hours from Singapore to Ipoh and back. Didn't expect it to be that fast. My dad was driving at an average speed of 120km per hour.

So yeah, I'll get started with the pictures right way. Captions will be underneath the pictures so that you'll understand what's the picture about. It's easier that way rather than typing out a post full of words.

Checked into Tower Regency Hotel. Although the room rates were RM178 (nett), the facilities were not too shabby. It was value for money as the studio apartment was spacious and it had a small kitchen bar, which was convenient for us.

The view from the hotel room. It overlooks Ipoh town.

The view of Ipoh at Sunrise. Shot at the hotel's swimming pool floor at dawn.

As I have mentioned, the food in Ipoh is absolutely awesome. Turn at any corner and you'll see an eatery or a food court selling hawker food. After getting off the car, we ate at a food court at the town center. We ordered prawn noodles soup and it was the best I've ever eaten so far. It was served Penang style and the soup stock was refreshing. I don't have a pic for this because I was too hungry and never thought of taking a photo of the food=)

Moreover, the other dish that left me with a lasting impression was this:

Fried fish noodles soup. If I'm not wrong, my dad says that the fish is Spanish mackerel and Fugu fish belly. Anyway, the soup stock is a bit sour and tastes similar to sour fish soup. Eaten in the morning, it wakes you up and makes your day right.

For dim sum, there's no restaurant that can beat Foh San's restaurant in Ipoh. Although we didn't eat in the restaurant, we bought some of the dim sum from their take away counter. Not bad but I think I've tasted better dim sum in China (maybe because I didn't eat on the spot, that's why). Their yam puffs and sesame balls are great but their egg tarts were just so-so.

Finally, their beansprouts are delicious as well. Their beansprouts are quite different from the ones in Singapore. They are much thicker and shorter as compared to Singapore's. Personally, I prefer Ipoh beansprouts because they are much crunchier.

After a night's stay in Ipoh, we went to Cameron Highlands the next day.

The road to Cameron Highlands was long and winding. I think there were easily 50 turns on the way there. The route back was much, much worse. Almost collided with a red car while overtaking a truck towards a corner. I swear I'll probably never go to Cameron Highlands again because the road back was at least a 100 turns over mountains and jungle terrain. If you were to miss a corner or fail to turn in time, you could plunge to your death. Seriously.

Anyway, on a lighter note, Cameron Highlands is worth visiting if you hate the hot weather in Singapore. The temperature in Cameron Highlands is around 22 to 27 degrees. Hence, the environment there is suitable for a variety of crops to be grown as it is high up in the mountains and has good sunshine. Visited a few vegetable farms and took pictures of the plants and fruits:

The first farm we visited and some of its crops include:

Beetroot

Sweetcorn. Tasted the corn in the farm and it was really sweet.

Berries. I don't know what's the name of the berries but I took a small bunch back home. Supposedly good for colds, headaches and car sickness. I ate it and it does perk one up because it is sour. I like.

Lemons.

Had to walk up the steep slope to get back to the car. Was a good form of exercise after sitting in the car for so long.

Some of the other crops grown in Cameron Highlands are.....

Strawberries. Almost every fruit stall sells strawberries as there are alot of strawberry farms in Cameron Highlands. Bought 2 packets back too.

Tomatoes. They also grow cherry tomatoes which are cheaper as compared to in Singapore. Bought 3 packets of cherry tomatoes for RM10. Very cheap.

Finally, they also grow huge turnips, which are sold in their local markets.

Next, are pictures of the scenery from the hotel and vegetable farms.

That's me! Wearing jacket because it's freezing in the morning. Btw, the locals wear jeans and their jackets to the market. It's that cold.

Finally, pictures of flowers in Cameron Highlands. My favorite pictures apart from the landscape pics.

The best shot of flowers that I've taken so far. LOL.

That's all. SUPER LONG ENTRY. My hands are getting tired from typing. Byes.

ps: photography gems: A. yay!

Primary School Kids

2010-03-22T21:13:00.008+08:00

Firstly, I want to say this. I’m blogging part of this in the school staff room while using their LAN cable. Besides, I hate the placing of my work cubicle. It’s directly at the corridor where the teachers walk past and it irritates me because I can’t do my blogging properly.

Anyway, if the first paragraph doesn’t make sense, that’s because you are not following up on my tweets. I’m relief teaching at Shuqun Primary School from Monday to Wednesday. The school called me on Monday at 11.30pm and asked if I was free to relief at their school in the afternoon. I was stunned with such short notice. Furthermore, they also asked if I was free from Monday to Wednesday. I said that I was available and accepted their offer on the spot.

So yeah, the whole thing was very random and unexpected. But I accepted their offer anyway.

I arrived in school at 12.30pm (the school is only a 10 mins walk from my home) and the clerk briefed me about the layout of the school and the timetable for the day. I could have told him that I’m an alumni to save him the trouble of talking about the layout but I didn’t. After that, one of the teachers brought me and another relief teacher to our cubicles and told us of our duties. It was then when I realized that the timetable for the week had already been pinned up on the board at my cubicle.

Timetable for the week. I'm teaching the same class for three days.

At 1pm, I left the staff room and went for assembly. During the assembly, I had to sing the national anthem. It’s been eons since I last sang it (about one year ago). There’s no flag in the school hall. Imagine singing the national anthem to a wall. Really weird.

After assembly, I brought them up to class and read to them “Magnetic Max” which was a big storybook. I was quite successful at it since I had previously done storytelling before. Almost everyone was involved in reading.

At 5pm, they had dance lessons. As a relief teacher on the first day of work, I had to sit in the dance class with them in order to make a good impression with the teacher (my immediate superior) next door. I was surprised that they had such dance lessons in school. In my time (perhaps in yours too), there was no such thing as dance classes. The only thing that kept our creative juices flowing was art and craft classes (the best art and craft class that I had in P2 was probably weaving a mini basket made out of raffia strings). Nowadays, kids are so privileged eh? Anyway, halfway through the dance lesson, I went out of the class and roamed around the school.

Took some pictures of parts of the school while walking.

The school hall. Duh.

Concourse view outside the school hall.

Staircase leading to the hall. At this particular staircase, I was caught first time for being late.

Parade square. I used to play hopscotch here.

Taken from the third floor of the school during sunset. It overlooks to the HBD flats facing the school.

In my opinion, Monday was relatively easy. Tuesday was the killer.

On Tuesday, I had three periods straight (from 5 to 6.30pm). Controlling the class was hard. The children were not at their seats and made a lot of noise. As a result, I had to shout at them a few times. When I got back home, my voice was hoarse.

Luckily, my voice managed to recover the next day. Had lessons from 1 to 2pm on Wednesday and I taught them about proper nouns and common nouns. I also revised with them verbs. It was pretty good. Noise was kept at a minimum and most of them were seated down. After 2pm, there was break until 4.30pm. During the break, I was looking up on how to teach multiplication to primary schools kids on my netbook when the IT in charge (I suppose) walked past and said that teachers aren't allowed to connect the school's LAN cable to their personal laptops. So, I disconnected the LAN cable from my laptop. Half an hour later (when I was sure that he wasn't coming back), I plugged it back in.

So much for exercising one's rights. I spent the remainder time blogging as I had already prepared the lesson plan at home.

The next class was from 4.30 to 6.30pm. Taught for 2 hours straight. It was exhausting yet again.

At the end of the day, however, I went back home with the feeling that I've learnt something from the job. I've learnt class management skills and caring for kids. I've also become more observant of the pupils behavior. Even at the age of 8, some of them love to play truant and would give any excuse just to go home. Considering the fact that the pay is quite attractive, I would most likely be relief teaching again for the next holiday. Perhaps only for a day or two.

ps: A few minutes after I've typed out this entry, the school called again asking for my services for a day. When I asked about which class I was taking, the fella on the other line said that "You can't arh? Ok, nvm." Good reason for rejecting? My voice hasn't recovered yet.

Maybe we should give Jack Neo a break?

2010-03-17T18:34:00.007+08:00

I bet all of you have been hearing a lot about the Jack Neo saga lately. A few days ago, I was listening to the radio and I heard the DJ incorporate Jack Neo's movie titles into a series of events for the scandal. If you guys listen to class 95, you will know what I mean.

So, I was wondering if Jack Neo deserved all this attention. I mean after all, celebrities thrive by all the press coverage and controversy about them. Just like Tiger Woods. In most people's minds, they would be thinking: "Should they be really forgiven?"

I feel that it is not up to the public to decide whether they should forgive them or not. Because ultimately, if Jack Neo's films are good, it doesn't matter if he is a cheating husband. If you ever think about it deeply, a person's ability to achieve to his/her full potential is not directly related to a person's moral character. People who are at the top, do you think that they are all saints? They are just like normal human beings, with weakness. But being at the top, their flaws are all amplified once revealed. That's why people say:"The higher you climb, the harder you'll fall."

Besides, in a world of commercialism, this kind of media attention can only bring in more money. Imagine if Jack Neo were to create a movie about his experience. Everyone would be curious to see his show and would probably buy his movie tickets. This would only make him richer and at the end of the day, he will have the last laugh.

So, think about it. Jack Neo is "being human" after all. Teasing him would only provide him free publicity. Like what my friend used to say:"There's no such thing as bad publicity."

Holiday Plans

2010-03-06T16:32:00.003+08:00

Exams were over on Tuesday and yet I'm only blogging this today (Yes, I'm slow.) Anyway, I was calculating my estimated GPA this morning and I'm disappointed. If I were to get B+ for my PACC, I would only get 3.71 for my GPA. That sucks:( And even if I get an A for PACC, I'll only get a 3.79. The only way to get 3.8 is that I get B for CRS and an A for PACC.

It's impossible for me to get a B when I've screwed 70% of CRS module. I didn't realize it'll be that hard to score a 3.8. Seriously.

Ok, I stop talking about GPA and list my plans for the 7 week holidays.

1) Work Part Time

It has dawned on me that it is time that I should start working. I was counting the money in my money box and I was shocked to realize that I had saved less than $100 in a year. Where did all my savings go to? Clothes and food. *Sighs*

So I've decided to get a job and do relief teaching primary schools. It's tough, but which job isn't? Besides, the pay is pretty good and if I get a school that's nearby, there will be no transport cost involved.

The only thing is that I have to apply online with MOE first and they have to send me some authorization letter before I can start relief teaching. And that takes around 2 weeks.

What I'm going to do till then?

2) Photoshop Tutorials

I'm going to start making Photoshop video tutorials. It's a good opportunity to learn more video editing skills and I think that these skills are going to be useful later on. I've tried doing on one tutorial and I've posted it up on YouTube. However, I need to buy a microphone to narrate in the tutorial. Planning to buy it during IT fair next week. Also, I'm probably going to get a wireless mouse and a new phone too.

Which brings me to my third point.

3) Get a new phone

My current phone is almost to 2 years old. I remembered that bought it during the March holidays in 2008. After using it for two years, it's high time for a change. The thing that I hate most about my phone is that it is bulky. The thickness of my phone is around 15mm and it's a slide bar type. Since it's so thick, I put it into my bag. So when people call/sms me, I can't reply them immediately. It defeats the purpose of having a phone in the first place.

Have been looking at phone reviews and these are the few phones which I'm interested in.

Nokia E72: I like that it is slim and has good design. Furthermore, the keyboard is good and the display is really vivid and clear. But the interface is a little outdated as compared to other phones in the market.

HTC Hero: It's a little thick but I like the HTC interface. The only thing that I don't like is it's design. Looks weird.

HTC Desire, which is not out yet. I think it's slated for release in April. It would be the perfect phone if only it were to be released earlier. And I think that the price would be steep since it's a new phone.

I think I'll be getting the Nokia E72 even though I initially wanted a touchscreen. After thinking about it, touchscreen isn't really better than a physical keypad because it sucks alot of battery life (and contributes to global warming).

So, that's about all that have planned so far for the holidays.

Happy holidays to everyone=)

ps: My lips are so dry. All thanks to the weather. Wished it'd snow in Singapore for a day.

Exams coming

2010-02-19T14:37:00.003+08:00

The academic year end exam is coming up. I need to conquer three subjects, which are Statistics, Accounting and Economics. Just finished revising Accounting (the easiest of them all). Going to start revising econs today.

I don't think I have time to revise much of Stats though, since revising econs will probably take up most of my time. I'm just way behind schedule!

Anyway, pictures from my last photography gems project. I really miss taking photos nowadays. It's easier than studying alien terms and formulas.

Might have been taken at my 10th attempt of pouring.

Cup of blood. Nah, it's just concentrated orange food colouring.

Not easy to take this though. Imagine trying to make a point and shoot camera focus on a transparent cup.

Err, nothing to say about this pic except that it is in black and white.

Just another way of taking a box.

Hope that you enjoyed the pics. Lastly, I won't be blogging until 2nd March, which is my last day of exams. Till then, byes!

ps: If you buy a DSLR camera, you better make sure that you know how to use it. He doesn't even know how to focus the camera even though he's been using it for a year now. Like wth.

The First Photoshopped Picture

2010-02-12T14:58:00.007+08:00

Yesterday, I was re-organizing my files on the computer when I found my first photoshopped picture. It was created on the 2 December 2006, around three years ago.

At that time, blogging was the IN thing, way before twitter and facebook came into the picture. I was fascinated by the way people created their own custom blogskins and the way that they personalized it (if you've seen xiaxue's website, you know what I mean). From there, I learnt a bit of html coding and went on to get my hands on Photoshop software.

At that time, people might have said that I was wasting time on doing redundant things like html coding and photoshop. Not anymore. I feel that having good IT skills in poly is really an advantage when doing projects. In fact, I want to learn how to use 3D modelling software.

Although I did not use Photoshop in secondary school, I've applied it for my poly projects like FOM, ONOW, ITAB and photography gems.

Looking at the first picture I made, I remembered how difficult it was to create it. I think I spent at least 6 hours on perfecting it. But after that, I had a clear understanding of layers in photoshop. Eventually, I used this as my main blog picture in Decemeber 2006. (Btw, my blog was created on May 2006. Three years already!)

After that, the second pic was much easier. Personally, this is my favorite pic out of all of the pictures I've created for my blog.

Created by using brushes in photoshop only. (May 2007)

After that, I was in photoshop hiatus till after my o levels.

Somewhere in March 2009, I learnt to create animated pictures (or gif) after looking at a tutorial. One year later, it proved useful for my ITAB.

So, I just want to say this: Never give up learning new skills and always follow your interest. You will never know whether it will be useful in the future.

ps: Just one word- Trust.

Touchscreen Device for Photoshop users

2010-01-30T20:05:00.000+08:00

This week, Apple unveiled a new device called the iPad. It's a touchscreen device that (almost) works like a PC. I say almost because it only has a 1Ghz processor. Works like a PC because it can read email, view photos and has wifi connection etc.

Anyway, I was thinking to myself:

Why hasn't anyone of a touchscreen device developed for photoshop users?

For those who have used photoshop, you'll understand what I mean. Imagine having to do cropping and extractions by hand. It's ten times more convenient than using a mouse. Furthermore, fluid lines can be drawn more accurately by using a stylus than using a mouse.

Currently, for users who want to come up with line art in photoshop, they have to use a tablet connected to their PC via USB cable. And the tablet ain't cheap either. It costs at least a $100.

With Photoshop installed in a touchscreen device, there will be unlimited possibilities. Photo-editing will be so much simpler. So, someone please invent that device.

ps: I'm more active on twitter than on facebook nowadays. I guess I'm getting bored of facebook.

5 projects.

2010-01-20T15:56:00.007+08:00

I've not been blogging for a week for a few reasons. Firstly, for the past two weeks, I've been to school on weekends and secondly, I have major projects going on.

Today, in an attempt to organise my schedule, I made up a list of project deadlines and things to be done.

The one's in stars, at the moment, are of top priority. I'm predicting that I'll have to spend this weekend (yet again) to do either my MOB report or CRS discussion.

Stress man. I hate it.

Lately, I've been feeling tired because of sleeping at 11pm. Yeah, I know, it's early for a lot of people. However, I have this habit of sleeping in early so if I sleep later, somehow I'll feel moody and lethargic the next day.

However, on the bright side, I'm starting to feel that I'm learning to manage my time better and to do things more efficiently.

Going to show some pictures to make this post more interesting. These photos were submitted as part of my project, along with the narration. Free free to click to enlarge because all these images are in high resolution.

This picture was taken during my holiday trip to Penang. For this picture, I had to wait for the waves to reach the shore in order to have the desired effect. Besides, the presence of a horizon gives the picture a sense of tranquility.

Picture composition is kept simple with negative space in the middle of the picture so as emphasize the dangerous act that the person is doing.

The “rule of thirds” come into play in this picture. By positioning the subject in one the intersecting points, it makes the picture unique.

For this picture, the sun is positioned exactly in between the blocks of flats and this makes it the focal point of this picture. This picture also uses the rule of thirds and a frame within a frame technique.

Sorry if the narrations suck. I couldn't think of better narrations as this was quite last minute work. Besides, we're supposed to state and describe the techniques used.

That's all for now. I've to do my revision for a quiz tmr. Byes.

Down with flu... yet again

2010-01-09T17:38:00.003+08:00

First week of school and I'm down with flu. Thankfully, I'm not as ill as the previous time I caught the flu. The last time I caught it, I had to skip lessons as I developed a style in my eye during the recovery process.

I hope to make a recovery tomorrow though. I still have projects and tutorials left undone.

This week, I got back most of the results from the mid semester tests and projects. I must admit that that I'm pleasantly surprised by my statistics test marks and IDEAS project marks. I thought I was going to fail (or at most marginally pass) my IDEAS project because my group didn't meet the requirements and was shot at by the teacher. Luckily, I managed to get a 75. I have a feeling the teacher gave us chance but still, I need to buck up for my next IDEAS project as I want to at least get a B+ for this module.

Statistics test marks was really beyond expectations. While I was doing the practice paper, I referred to the textbook and still got most of the answers wrong. I guess that re-doing the tutorial questions helps a lot.

Ok, I will stop ranting about marks and end off this post. Byes!

ps: I must add a few more points to my list of resolutions:

6) I must not fall ill for than 3 times this year

7) I must not eat any of the following:
a. Subway cookies
b. Chicken rice at FC6
c. Japanese food in FC6
d. French fries or any deep fried foods sold outside

Otherwise, I will run the risk of having sore throat and then flu. Trust me, it's already proven.

Reflection + 2010 New Year's Resolution

2009-12-31T15:43:00.005+08:00

2009's Resolution (referring to 1st Jan 2009 post)

1) To get good O'level results:

I think my results were good enough=D (Although it could have been slightly better)

2) Get into a poly course which I enjoy:

Alot of people have been saying: "Accountancy is boring course." Personally, I don't think it's as boring as having to study Biology. If you can digest terms such as the definition of photosynthesis and osmosis, I really don't think it's as boring as studying Science. I mean it.

However, I'm not sure if Year two is going to be boring because of more accounting modules. Let's just see.

3) Find more friends in poly/JC:

Definitely knew more people this year than last year.

4) Get a job:

I am disappointed at this. Didn't get to work for the whole year because of certain reasons (laziness and delay).

5) Sell off my old books:

Have not sold my o'level stuffs yet and my place is becoming like those second hand bookshops at Bras Basah. Man, I really need to dispose those books......

6) Get involved in a sporting activity:

Tried to get into table tennis CCA but got rejected (apparently, they wanted top players). Well, at least I tried.

7) Rebond hair:

Rebonded and regretted. Now my hair is not healthy as before. And I'm not going for second rebonding anytime soon even though the hairdresser wants me to rebond another time in March.

So, after reflecting on my 2009's resolution, here's my new year's resolution for 2010.

2010 Resolution

1) To be top in class (or at least GPA 3.8)

Sounds crazy, I know. But I think I've got to at least try. One has got to reach higher to know their potential, eh?

2) Get involved in a sporting activity

I'm going to try (again) to get into a sports CCA in 2010. Not really sure of which sports CCA to join but I'll be looking around during CCA fair.

3) To get a gaming console/ iTouch/ Touchscreen phone

I'm quite bored with playing facebook games. After all, I used to be a hardcore gamer. I need my entertainment. Ultimate dream: To get the final fantasy PS3 console. Reality: I don't think I have the money to buy it and my parents are very unlikely to buy it for me=(

4) Get a job

I need to earn money to buy my dream console. In addition, I was counting my money one day and I realised that there is not much change in my finances before I started poly and until now. That means, I didn't manange to save much. For me, that sucks.

5) Learn to overcome my own weaknesses

Obviously, I'm not going to tell you my weaknesses. That would be really stupid.

Hmm, I think that's about all for my New year's resolution. It's a very short list but I think it's enough. Overall, 2009 has been an "okay" year for me. There were ups and downs.

In a nutshell......
Downs: mainly being rejected for the CCAs and scholarhsips; some projects were screwed up and some led to misunderstandings

Ups: learnt alot more IT skills and project skills; made more friends.

2009 is not the best year and neither was it the worst for me. I'm hoping my luck will be better in 2010 and using the experience and skills that I've learnt in 2009, I hope I can overcome most of the obstacles in 2010.

Why is Tiger Woods is getting so much attention?

2009-12-26T01:00:00.000+08:00

The title says it all.

I think everyone knows by now what Tiger Woods has done. The 10 mistresses and the alleged millions of dollars worth in the nuptial agreement. I'm not going through the details but I think I need to say my piece.

I really don't understand why people blog about this guy.

And it's not as if people have not done it before? I mean, there are tons of examples out there of men being unfaithful with their wives.

Besides, does the Tiger Woods incident make a major impact on your life? It doesn't unlike global warming. So why all the media attention?

Moreover, people pity the wife because they say that she's the victim. Tell me something, if your husband has 10 mistresses, how would not know that he's a casanova? Unless you have been living in a cave for a decade, of course.

However, don't get me wrong. What Tiger Woods did is unacceptable. I just don't like how people blog and report about it like some kind of propaganda. People make mistakes. I think people should be given a chance to repent, that's all.

Black and White

2009-12-22T18:50:00.003+08:00

Hmm, I'm not really in the mood to blog right now. Kinda lazy and I've actually prepared a post, which I have not finished before this. Gonna have to finish that post first.

However, right now, I'm just going to show some pictures from my GEMS Assignment 2: Black and White. The requirements were to take 4 photos with the same object at different lighting positions and another 4 pictures to showcase "the decisive moment".

Did the first half of the assignment today. And if you think it's easy, it's not. Try using a rusty tripod stand and adjusting window blinds to control the amount of light entering the room. And my camera ain't DSLR. So that means there's no such thing as manual focus and doing a macro shot without manual focus is tough.

Looks easy, but there's alot of factors which one needs to take note of before taking that perfect shot.

The photos (photoshopped to make it black and white):

Which is you think is your favorite? Comments are appreciated.

Ok, going to end here. Byes.

Funny YouTube Comments

2009-12-11T22:10:00.003+08:00

Finally, MST is over! YAYNESS.

By the way, today's post is inspired by a facebook user's status about the silliness of YouTube commentators.

Have you always noticed that videos on Youtube have hilarious and utterly "creative" comments?

Today I logged into my YouTube account (which I don't normally do since I'm just viewing videos) and got a shock of my life after I looked at the comments of my Durian Farm video.

There were 15 comments all together.

From a harmless video about durian plantations to having sexual intercourse with durians.

Look. (click to enlarge)

I almost laughed off my chair. Literally. Even after re-reading again, I will still laugh.

If you wanna see what other people had commented on my video, go check it out here.

You know what, I'm not going to remove any of the comments because there will always be someone more creative. HAHA.

And When the Walls Start Falling

2009-12-01T16:18:00.003+08:00

Today, during MOB discussion, we had a mini-conversation that was about the end of the world. Yeah, I know, you've heard about those end of the world theories countless of times before. It's not as if it's anything new but my opinion is different from everyone's else.

So, someone was saying that she wished that the world would perish in her lifetime. Another added that she would want it to happen on her too and if she can, she would hold her family member's hands and die together.

I thought it was kinda melodramatic. Imagine everyone holding hands and dieing together. The worst part was that, they all wanted death.

Personally, I thought the end of the world theory is really stupid and fictitious. Come on, there's really no scientific evidence to prove this. And even if the world were to perish, I wouldn't want to die that easily. I would have seriously tried my best to survive, even if there is a real end of the world situation.

I thought that the people who said that they wanted death in their lifetimes didn't appreciate life as it is. I mean, from what I've seen, they weren't really suffering. I guess its because I've seen people who are much worst off than them. That's probably the reason why my opinion is rather different than theirs.

But I definitely felt sick in my stomach after hearing this. Wanting to die... there's probably no reason why you should live if you have that kind of mindset.

Just food for thought.
ps: I'm here because of the fighting spirit I've got. Fuck those people who give up easily.

Travelling Time

2009-11-21T09:41:00.003+08:00

I realised that I've traveled from Jurong to the city area three times within this week. That means I've wasted around 5 hours on traveling time. That sucks.

This week has been seriously crazy. Had to chiong through many projects. Up till now, there's still 2 projects left undone. And with tests coming, I doubt I have enough time to study.

On Wednesday, my mum and I went to ion orchard. Was my first time there since it's opening, which was months ago (I know I'm slow).

Christmas tree

Streams of water

Architectural shots for my photography gems.

In the end, after looking around taka and ion, only bought a liquid eyeliner at sephora for $20. My mum was very tempted to buy the make up palette set at $75 but I convinced her not to buy.

On Thursday night, I submitted by photography gems assignment. Finally.

Yesterday, went to eat at Sakae Sushi for project. Was supposed to the rate its environment and service but was too carried away with eating and enjoying the food that we forgot to do the checklist. HAHA.

Wish that I can blog more but I have to go now to city hall for MOB project. I'm seriously going to be late. Byes.

Week 5

2009-11-15T11:31:00.005+08:00

I'm having runny nose now and I'm feeling tired. The best way to cure it is to sit in front of the computer because somehow, it stops me from sneezing and having the chills. Weird, I know.

Anyway, just to update on what I've been doing this week.

On Wednesday, went to Chinese Garden again (the last time I went there was about a year ago) but this time round, I went there to take architectural shots as well as self-portraits for my gems assignment.

Some photos that were taken at Chinese Garden (thanks to Pei Jin for helping me take the self-portraits):

After that, I walked from Chinese Garden all the way back home. To roughly gauge the distance, it's like walking from School of Business to McDonald's and back again. THAT FAR! It was a freaking 30 mins walk under the hot sun. Luckily, I drank soya bean milk before starting out the journey, otherwise I think I would have fainted=X

Then, yesterday, went to Bugis for yearbook informal meeting to learn more about indesign and to allow people to critique my work. Did something productive like resetting my Wireless@SG password (coz I'm always unable to login) at the national library.

Apparently, at the meeting, Sam was having problems with indesign so I helped her out a bit. She treated me to lunch at mac after I said that I would help her deisign 1 out of the 2 pages for GYL camp.

So, the next time anyone wants my expertise in indeisgn or photoshop, you will have to treat me for a meal. Haha!

As for the progress of my projects, I have completed:

- All of my MOB research work
- 90% of ITAB ppt
- 50% of my photography gems

Planning to do most of my tutorials today. Next week is a super busy week. I'm planning to go out with my mum on Wednesday evening just to do my photography gems stuff and to visit ion orchard (which I haven't been to). I also want to play table tennis with my friends on next week Saturday but I'm afraid I don't have enough time. GAH!

Interesting CRS research work

2009-11-07T18:13:00.008+08:00

So, I was doing research on my CRS project on foreign workers and foreign talent when I stumbled upon this article.

(Adapted from sgharry.blogspot.com)

"Leaders of Las Vegas Sands have said, “We see no reason why the work force can't be entirely Singaporean.” But of course they left out some words in order to gain some popularity among the masses. What they had actually intended to say was, “We see no reason why the work force can't be entirely Singaporean if they are willing to accept the crap salaries that we are prepared to give.” Of course it would be crap salary, as Singaporeans have to compete with the world! Full of cheap labor from developing countries! But the proletarians of Singapore will have no choice. They will have to accept the jobs or face unemployment. As a result, the Gahmen initiatives only address unemployment, but never about the raising of wages and salaries, because they know it is unachievable. For the blue-collar workers to get out of their plight, they have to not be a blue-collar worker. They have to be white-collar workers. How do you become a white-collar worker? Picking up your books, getting a diploma or degree is almost impossible given the tiring nature of blue collar work and also with the limited spaces and the costs of the courses."

Entertaining article and brought across valid points. Expecting blue-collared workers to upgrade their skills is easier said than done. The competition that Singaporeans face against foreign workers is undeniable too. After reading this, I had the sudden inspiration to talk about globalization on Monday CRS session. In fact, I am feeling good about this=D

Anyway, for my project, I also had to find info on my partner's article (on negative teenage stereotype) and I found this:

Research by Carl Howland (a psychologist) suggests that more intelligent people are less easily persuaded by one sided messages.

That means that stubborn people are more intelligent right? Haha.

I love this kind of stuff. It enlightens people.

Kind of busy till week 5 as more projects are coming up. Projects in poly are like free-flow somehow=(

Feeling tired and lazy

2009-11-02T01:00:00.000+08:00

Was looking through pictures on google for my ITAB powerpoint project on fashion when I saw this.

Gorgeous skirt. I love things which look simple but yet, there's a sense of sophistication.

Anyway, this week was very stressful and rushed for some reason. I think I need to take some time off to relax today to prepare for tomorrow, which is a whole day's worth of lessons.

In addition, I'm having my Zbrush presentation tomorrow. It's worth 30% of the module marks and I'm not confident of my model somehow.

It's meant to be a paintbrush holder.

Wish me luck. Hopefully, the teacher doesn't question my model=X

Feeling tired now and I think I have to revise for my SPSS test on Wednesday.....

ps: You say that I do nothing, how about you? You go off to work at 7am and come back home only at 6pm. In weekends, you do nothing but read your cookbooks and never offer any help around the house. To say I do nothing? It's like the pot calling the kettle black.

To create without a purpose is stupid.

2009-10-25T09:55:00.005+08:00

Hello (to my blog), and long time no see yeah?

Been busy this week as it is the first week of school reopening. I didn't expect this much work to be done:

1) Projects (deadline):
- ITAB powerpoint (wk 5)
- Zbrush 3D model design (wk 3)
- Yearbook design template (wk 3)

2) Homework
- PACC tutorial
- 2 photos to be discussed in GEMs
- SPSS Revision

Although it doesn't look that much, the amount of time spent on it is alot. Easily, each of these can take up 2 hours of my time. *Dreads*

I'm especially dislike the 3D model design that we're supposed to do. The task is this: Play around with the Zbrush software and come up with a model. Then, think about how the model is practical in real life. It can be any object so long as you can explain how it works.

Why I hate this? Because it is like creating something without a purpose. Every designer even before they start designing will have a purpose in mind (eg. designing for a building). Only then will the design be practical.

Anyway, here's my design. (click on it to enlarge)

By the way, it's meant to be a paint brush holder. I created the deisgn because in secondary school, we weren't allowed to use the sinks at the art room very often. Besides, I think everyone finds it a hassle to clean up after painting and sometimes, we accidentally knock over the cup and the dirty water gets spilled.

So, I guess you get the rough idea of the design. Whether people would accept it, I don't know yet.

Then, yesterday, I tried to take some pictures for my GEMs module. Sounds easy, but difficult.

Failed shots. I admit they look amateurish. Will try to improve since it's graded.

On the bright side, I'll be using the Canon Powershot more often. Might even bring it out on normal days.

Lastly, yearbook design. I realised that this isn't for the faint hearted. Especially if you are designing for pages for a big event, like Poly 50.

I was kinda surprised that they ask me to do Poly 50. It's challenging because I'll have to do at least two pages and not just one. Somemore, I have to use Adobe Indesign to do up the pages.

Imagine learning to use Indesign. I bet it's as difficult as using Photoshop for the first time. For those who don't even know how to use photoshop, good luck man.

That's all I going to blog. Have to do designing work now, byes.

Random update + photoshop contest entry

2009-10-14T14:40:00.004+08:00

Ok, before I continue blogging onto my main point, I need your opinion.

Which picture is better?

Seriously, tell me your opinion because I'm participating in a Photoshop contest organized by Swimchick.net. The winner gets free advertising for one month on their website. The closing date is two days from now.

This is the first time that I have ever participated in a Photoshop contest. Cool, right? But even if I don't win, I'm hoping that they will feature it somewhere in their blog.

Onto my main point of blogging today......

Yesterday, there was registration of General Elective Module (GEM). Basically, every poly student has to register for a GEM that is unrelated to their field of study. Even before I had registered, I have heard about how flawed the registration process is and how fast the spaces for the modules were taken. The worst of all is that it goes by a first-come-first-serve basis, which is really unfair because we're given specific timeslots to register for each group. And of course, the earlier groups of people would have a much greater advantage.

So, my time to register was from 1 to 1.30pm. After 1.30pm, the system will not allow you to register again until 9pm.

Naturally, after hearing all the horror stories, I standby at my SAS before 1pm.

In less than 10 seconds after 1pm, I was logged in and started registering.

At first, I wanted to get Digital Imaging since it's mainly Photoshop stuff. However, when I checked, ALL of its 125 places were full.

I was like: What the heck! (And I thought there won't be so many people taking that module=.=)

Obviously, I checked for vacancies for my second option, which was revealing eye to digital photography.

By the time the webpage loaded, only one vacancy was available from Friday 1-3pm. I immediately grabbed that space.

I think by now, all of the spaces for photography would have been gone. By the way, photography has like what? 280 spaces?

Anyway, I consider myself as extremely lucky as I have a three hour lunch break on Friday from 12 to 3pm. The photography lesson fits into my timetable nicely.

Lucky or what? One last available space on Friday, 1 to 3pm.

Damn lucky=D

Singtel vs Starhub

2009-10-12T14:50:00.002+08:00

Hey, time to blog about something that everyone's talking about. From the title, I think you guys should know what I'm going to blog.

In case you don't know, I suggest you read this article.

Now, normally I wouldn't blog about 'national' affairs. I don't own a Starhub TV box. However, I do have mio TV at home but it's been a white elephant for roughly a year.

So, when news broke that Singtel won exclusive rights to EPL and ESPN channels, obviously, it sparked my long gone interest in mio TV. In addition, according to the Sunday times, Singtel has decided to price these channels lower than it's competitors offering.

Hence, I'm gonna give my humble opinion now.

First, I must say this to those considering to switch to mio TV. Singtel's mio TV service is not reliable. Not only that, it's troublesome. When I first started using mio TV late last year, I experienced connection issues and it took around 5 minutes for the mio TV box to synchronize with the broadband router. Besides that, you have to leave the TV set and the mio TV box on throughout the day if you want to watch television instantaneously.

By the way, did I mention that you must have an LCD screen for mio TV to work?

Imagine the damage done on your electricity bills. That's why my mio TV set is a white elephant.

But all that changed after Singtel's successful bid to EPL.

Now, my dad's talking about using mio TV to watch sports channels.

Suddenly, the once neglected mio TV box becomes a topic of hot discussion.

I might be exaggerating here but it's true. If Singtel didn't win the bid, I bet people won't even think about switching to mio TV. Mio TV might even be extinct if it weren't for the exclusive rights.

Of course, the Starhub people are now furious. They might be thinking: "Screw Starhub". But I don't care how these people think. Honestly.

However, I'm more concerned about the long term of cable TV.

The reason why Singtel is pricing it's sport's package lower than it's competitors is simple. It wants to gain larger market share (promotional pricing).

Believe me, Singtel will price it higher in the future (maybe in three years time, you will see the difference).

Then, in three years time, Starhub will use Singtel's tactics against them, that is to bid really high for exclusive rights and win.

Finally, consumers are the suckers because if the situation remains unchanged, they will have to keep switching set up boxes.

Get what I mean?

So yeah, that's my point. The monopolist wins it all in the end. And those sports channel subscribers will become the losers.

That's all I want to say.

ps: I actually wanted to blog about FB games but I think I should postpone it.

ps/s: For GEM, I've decided to go for digital imaging rather than photography.

Chalet and photoshop training

2009-09-24T19:09:00.005+08:00

Just going to quickly update on class chalet and yesterday's yearbook meeting.

On Tuesday, I went for class chalet. I thought it was fun, especially on the first day when we played heart attack. My voice became hoarse after the game though because of all the screaming and laughing but it's ok now.

Also, went to watch "The Ugly Truth" at Tuesday midnight. It's a good comedy and I would recommend people who had BGR before to watch it because the show revolves around BGR. It's hilarious, I can tell you that.

Instead of showing picture after picture of chalet photos, I made a collage of selected pictures. It saves time on uploading individual pictures and gives me a chance to exercise my rusty photoshop skills too.

Click to enlarge. Seriously, squinting ain't good for your eyes.

The rest of the photos is in my facebook account.

Next, gonna update on Photoshop training organised by Yearbook designers at Esplanade library yesterday.

Learnt "loads of stuff" from the training since, for most of the time, my laptop was in hibernation mode. In the end, I decided to stay till 4.30pm in the library to install photoshop CS3 since I thought it was a waste to bring my laptop and not fully utilizing it.

Interestingly though, the seniors actually taught us how to digitally enhance faces. And one of the seniors even showed us a picture of himself before and after digital makeover. In addition, they told us that some of the yearbook committee faces featured in the yearbook were photoshopped. I was definitely amused.

Oh ya, if anyone in the yearbook committee requires a digital makeover, I'll be willing to do it at a price. Just saying;D

Last but not least, I've gotten back my laptop. And I'm happy about that.

Trailers and laptop repair

2009-09-18T11:45:00.003+08:00

Hmm, time to update my blog. It’s been quite a long time since I’ve updated.

Yesterday, I sent my laptop for repair at the Axioo Service Center at Kaki Bukit. Obviously, my dad drove me there. Travelling from the west to east is really fast if you’re in a car but on MRT, it’s at least an hour’s ride.After that, had lunch at Joo chiat’s Wan ton noodles stall and then had Bak Kut noodles at Mustafa center.

Suddenly, I miss my laptop because it’s a chore typing out this entry on a netbook. (By the way, the keys on this netbook is almost 1cm x 1cm each. Man, I should have bought the HP one with larger keys.)

Sorry, sidetracked a little.

These few days, I’ve been kinda active on facebook and YouTube. Currently, I’m hooked onto facebook games such as RC and Farmville since I’m bored. Besides that, I was initially interested in Roller Coaster Kingdom but somehow I think that the game is bugged and I’ve quitted playing it since.

I’ve also been watching YouTube movie trailers and I thought it’s been a while since I’ve put up videos on my blog. Hence, I’ve posted some trailers of movies which are coming out later in the year. (Note: Watch in full screen!)

Seriously, I think that the graphics are way cool. By the way, I’m so going to watch Astro Boy and New Moon, which are both produced by Summit Entertainment (which I didn’t know it existed before Twilight came out).

I will end by posting a last video on multi-tasking. I saw this on clicknetwork.tv and thought it was hilarious especially when Paul recites the tougue twister.

It’s normal to laugh out loud while watching this in front of the computer. Because I did it too;)

ps: Next week is gonna be hectic. Chalet plus yearbook meetings. Luckily, I didn’t get a job.

Coincidences

2009-09-05T10:56:00.000+08:00

*Note: Written half of this on Friday and continued the other half on Saturday.

Hmm, I just feel like blogging today.......

I had Yearbook general meeting today at around noon. Waited at the MRT station for a friend to come and as a result, we (consisting of el, wj, eli and me) were late. Moreover, we entered the classroom only to find that there weren't enough seats for us but fortunately, my design committee head gave up his seat for me.

I sat down and found myself sitting beside a girl. So, I was like listening to Mr Goh's briefing when suddenly, she turned to face me and asked me if I was from Hua Yi.

And I was like stunned because I seriously didn't know who she was.

I said that I was from Hua Yi and asked her if she was from the same school too. To my amazement, she and her friend in the Photography sub-comittee were from the same school as me.

Small world, huh?

To add on, I don't know her but she can remember me even after one year since her graduation. I wonder if it's due to her excellent memory or if I had actually talked to her before but I had forgotten.

Then, naturally, I asked her which class she had graduated from. Apparently, she was from 2007 4E3 (My ex-Chemistry teacher is the form teacher of that class too) and she said she didn't really like the school because of the strict discipline master. I said that I didn't like the school principal. She agreed by saying that the previous principal was indeed better then the current one and that some teachers don't like the current principal.

Out of the blue, she also commented that my primary school friend, Sam, who was sitting next to her, looked like Miss Chiang.

Of course, I didn't say anything.

After the short briefing, we were divided into our sub-committees and we (designers) discussed about the cover page design. I remained relatively quiet because firstly, I didn't really know what was happening initially and secondly I wanted to obverse how they work. They came up with several ideas before they came up the last idea for the meeting which was sticking Polaroids on the grass and having the school in the background.

I nearly wanted to comment by then but somehow I kept mum.

Firstly, the budget is set only at $50 (inclusive of printing a sample cover page). It's pathetic, I know. I wanted to complain but as a newbie, I didn't. Seriously, I think we need at least $80 to buy the materials to come up with the cover page.

Secondly, I think that the idea of having Polariods stuck in grass itself is rather inappropriate as a cover page. The cover page should be kept simple in my opinion.

Anyway, the theme and cover page isn't confirmed yet and so we will be discussing it during the next meeting.

At about 2pm, we were dismissed. Went back with EL on the MRT and so we chatted on the train. As we were talking, he told me that his CCA in sec 2 was 73% and he lacked another 2% in order to get into the pure science stream.

Sad. But it reminded me of something.

I also lacked 2% in order to get into the pure science stream initially because the benchmark was set at 65% for English (I got 63%). However, I managed to get to the triple science stream in the end.

The irony was that I first heard from my form teacher that I wasn't selected. However, a few days after that, my Maths teacher told me that I was selected.

Obviously, I believed my form teacher.

Funny how fate works. The more you don't believe that you'll get something, the more that you will get it in the end.

Sometimes, I think it's pure luck that I got in. If I had been into Fuhua or some other school, I probably wouldn't be in triple science class and I wouldn't even be in SP Accountancy in the first place.

I guess I'm just lucky. So, I should cherish whatever I have got now and don't be too emo over things which I don't have, right?

On a lighter note, my mum received this on Teacher's Day.

LOL!

It's fake cake. Not real cake. But it looks SO REALISTIC. Don't you think so?

The funniest Teacher's Day present ever and it's now a decoration piece in my home.

Things to do during holidays

2009-08-29T12:22:00.001+08:00

Finally, holidays are here!

Since it's a 7 weeks holiday, I've created a list of the things to do during the holidays, other than slacking around whole day (and doing nothing). Here's a rough idea of what I'm going to do (in no order of priority):

1) Fix laptop screen and USB port

I've haven't got anytime to go to Kaki Bukit (Axioo Service Center) in the east to fix my blinking laptop screen. Recently, I also realised that my mouse isn't working at times even though I've replaced my mouse. That's the trade off of buying Intel Core duo laptop at a price of $799. (You get a screen that blinks occasionally and USB port that malfunctions with less than one year of use. ~~How nice.~~)

2) Get Adobe Photoshop CS4 and The Sims 3

I think the last time I've played a proper PC game was 2 years ago. With seven weeks of holidays, I think it's time that I start playing PC games again. In case I ever get bored, at least I have PC games to kill time. Besides, my Photoshop CS2 is going to become an antique. People are now using CS4 and the online tutorials that I've been learning from are now teaching using CS4 software.

Man, kinda think about it, Photoshop software is really expensive. In 2006, photoshoppers were still using CS2. Three years later, most of them have upgraded to CS4. So, every three years, they have to spend around US$200 (I've checked online) to upgrade from their current version. That works about to be $300 Singapore dollars. WOW.

Of course, I'm not stupid enough to get it online;)

3) Maybe organise Photoshop courses?

Some day for the past week, I've thought about how some of my classmates got Photoshop downloaded into their computers but don't really know how to use it. Hence, an idea stuck me on how I can teach them how to use Photoshop on their laptops. I think it's an excellent opportunity to earn extra cash since many projects in the polytechnic require basic photoshop skills. However, I wonder if people are interested......

So, PM me if you're interested to learn photoshop from me. If there are more than four responses, I'll try to organise since I have time. Otherwise, I'll probably slash off the idea from the list=X

4) Class gatherings

There are two class gatherings during holidays. 4e1 class gathering and DAC 05 chalet on the same week (I think). Hopefully, I'll attend 4e1 class gathering. As for DAC 05 chalet, I don't think I'll stay overnight but I'll definitely go for the BBQ as it's paid for by the school.

5) Malaysia Trip

Going to Johor for half day trip to get some stuff and sightseeing. Btw, I love the food from Johor. Near City Square, there are street hawker stalls and one of the stalls sells awesome oyster omelet. I feel like having that right now.

Yeah, this is rough idea of what I'm going to do during the holidays. The details are not planned out yet for the photoshop course thingy but as I've said if you're interested, msg me on msn and I'll reply you. As for course fees, I don't think I'll charge more than $10 for an hour session (price is negotiable).

That's about all and happy holidays everyone=)

Another Four More Days Left

2009-08-25T18:44:00.000+08:00

I'm posting during exam week and I'll keep this short and simple.

Exams so far are quite ok. Well, actually better than I had expected as I had predicted much worst, especially for Accounting. Turns out, I had more than enough time to finish PACC paper and even had 10 mins to check my answers. Last week ITAB was a breeze and finished it like 30 mins before the paper ended.

So far, so good. I guess. I wish I could say the same for Econs and FOM too.

Econs revision is still at very most 50% done. I think I'm doomed for Econs and I hate having to study late at night. Reminds me of the ~~good~~ sh** old days where I had to study 6 chapters of Bio in one night.

That feeling of mugging and cramming infomation into your head sucks. I can tell you that.

Hmm, I've got to go now. Later, I will be studying for Econs (at night).

Time Crunch

2009-08-11T21:29:00.000+08:00

Last week, I went for SPOT interview. SPOT stands for Singapore Poly Outstanding Talent Programme. I think the interview was OK, but I don't think I stand a chance to enter the programme because the interviewers seemed to be more interested in another student. Well, at least I tried.

By the way, it was my first interview as I never went for a job interview before. As my first interview, at least I wasn't that nervous as I expected but I was nearly late. Got to work on my punctuality, I guess.

Today, there was ITAB lesson from 11am to 2pm. It was actually supposed to be on Monday but because of the national day holiday, it was rescheduled. Spent three hours rotting in the computer laboratory doing nothing but practicing on Microsoft Word skills and listening to music. Realized that listening to music while doing Word helps me to focus better. Too bad they don't allow students to listen to music while doing the exam the computer lab. (Otherwise, I would have scored in my exam. Haha.)

Hmm, what else to blog? It seems like I'm running out of things to say.

Oh ya, recently Chaanel 5 has been broadcasting Smallville and Heroes on Thursday. It's good that they've brought back Smallville because I like that show=) Moreover, The Mentalist is a good show too. All of you should watch it! It airs on Tuesday 10pm and it's one of the top-rated shows in the US. I like the male lead as his character is very cool. Must-watch!

I'm going to end it here as I've got to mug for econs and pacc tests coming in two weeks time. Byes!

ps: I'm hiding my true feelings towards some people. I don't know if it's good or bad. I guess some things are better left unsaid?

Shopping Spree

2009-08-02T20:45:00.001+08:00

I must confess, I have a weakness of buying clothes that I don't wear and leaving them in the cupboard to rot (You'll be surprised that most women have this weakness too).

So, yesterday, I went to Jurong Point and spend more than $100 on clothes. I have this guilty feeling that I won't wear most of them and this feeling is still haunting me up till now. Seriously, though, I hope I'll wear them otherwise I'll be wearing the same old T-shirts everyday to school=X

Anyway, I managed to get some pictures to put into my blog.

These pictures above are for our Fundamentals of Marketing project presentation by the way. We're supposed to evaluate and recommend marketing strategies for a company and we chose to do our project on Toast Box.

In case, all of you are wondering, Ya Kun Kaya Toast is still the best as compared to Toast Box's and Old Town's. Personally, I think Toast Box is good because of their colonial atmosphere and it's a good place to sit down and chat. Food-wise though, Ya Kun and Old Town are still better. Old Town sells good polo buns that I think you should try=)

Other than FOM, I still have Effective Communications presentation on Tuesday and ONOW presentation tomorrow. I guess I'll be busy for these few days.

ps: Wondering how I get my pictures uploaded while the posting blogger page is screwed? Try blogger in draft (http://draft.blogger.com)... it's a new platform that blogger has bulit to test out some of their new ideas.

100th Post

2009-07-22T20:36:00.003+08:00

Firstly, I'm posting in blogger in draft as there's some problem with the posting layout on the normal blogger page. This is the second time that such layout problems have occurred. The last time was in 2006, if I'm not wrong. Anyway, if you have the same problem as me, please go to blogger in draft (http://draft.blogger.com) to post until the problem has been resolved. I think there might be a problem with my browser, but I'm not sure.

On to my main post......

Yesterday, I had a very unpleasant experience while I was buying mineral water at ABC convenience store at Boon Lay MRT station. As I was queuing up at the cashier, the lady in front of me was paying for her slurpee and as the person attending to the cashier lifted up the drink, it spilled right on the counter.

Then, I realized that the other cashier was empty and I gave the Indian lady at the counter $5 since I had no small change. I was expecting a $3.15 change as the bottle of mineral water costs $1.85. However, when she gave me the change, it was only 15 cents.

At that time, I was a pissed off and when I said that I thought I gave her $5, she replied back: "You gave me $2 and there's no $5 in the cashier"

By then, I was quite furious.

Immediately, I asked my friend waiting outside to come in. I asked her if she saw me giving the lady $5 but she didn't notice. Moreover, to make the situation worse, my other friends were already in the MRT station and I was going to be late for my lesson.

However, I knew that I gave $5 to the lady and hence, I firmly told the fella to open up the cashier and let me see what's inside.

The fella told me to wait as she needed to attend to the customers who were queuing behind me. So, I waited for around three minutes.

Once she had finished attending to the other customers, she closed the counter and counted all the cash in the cashier. As I was waiting for her to finish counting, a male customer at the other counter (the one which had the surpee spilled on) was quarreling with the lady there. Apparently, he had told her to only top up $20 for his ez-link but due to some human error, she had topped up the whole lump sum of $50 for him into the ez-link card. Moreover, the value in the ez-link card cannot be refunded and the guy had to lose $30. Sad right?

If I were the guy, I would have complained. Really.

Back to my case......

The Indian lady counted the cash twice and that took about 10 minutes. Meanwhile, I was standing there and was in doubt to whether I could even recover my cash back at all. Finally, when the receipt came out of the cashier on the total tally, there was a difference of $3.75.

Unfortunately for the lady, her opponents were two accounting students. And if total assets were to be equal to owner's equity and liability, there shouldn't be a balance.

But still, the fella was reluctant in giving me back my money and dilly-dallied for a few minutes. Then, my friend said: "If you said that she give you $2, how come there's a balance of $3.75?"

With nothing to say, the fella finally gave me back my $3. I left the store and as soon as I was out, I couldn't help but saying the F-word.

The worst service ever. Three incidents happened in the store within 20 minutes. Can you imagine?

Only three words to the workers at that convenience store: Extremely f***ed up.

Believe me, I've tried to find an excuse on such bizarre incidents but there's really no excuse. It's just plain, poor service and lack of training.

In addition, the fella never apologized at all. And I was late for my class. And I had to make my friends wait.That's why I'm angry enough to blog on this.

Very, very pissed off. In fact, I initially wanted to write a complaint letter to ABC convenience store but I didn't since I had no time.

In conclusion, never go to ABC convenience store at Boon Lay MRT station. Even if you do, make sure that you check your change and if the fella there is extremely f***ed up, please consult me and I will write a "nice" complaint letter on your behalf. (Note: Seriously, my complaint letters have been made into model essays for the class. If you need me, I'll be most willing to write one for you.)

That's all I want to blog about. Sorry for the lengthy post but I just can't help it. I need some place to pour the chili sauce out=)

ps: THIS IS MY 100th POST! Blogging for 3 years and I've never changed my URL address. Haha!

Love and Hate

2009-07-17T20:22:00.002+08:00

Ever had this feeling that you like this particular person but hate him/her at the same time?

That's what I'm feeling right now. Contradictory, I know.

On Thursday, I got back my Statistics results and it was better than what I had expected. However, I thought I could have done better. (Btw, my result is 87 marks and as compared to the highest scorer, I'm 13 marks away.)

Lesson learnt. Next time, I must try harder and not be complacent.

Also, I went for an interview for the SB Yearbook Committee on Wednesday. Although I have not received any comfirmation, I think I'm in because they have a shortage of designers. I hope they are not that as choosy as SP table tennis team otherwise this would be the fourth time that I've attempted to join a CCA.

Four attempts...... I wonder how many people would have the determination to go through four attempts just to get a CCA.

Tomorrow, I'm going to have FOM project meeting in school. This is my first time having to do a project meeting in school during weekends. It's significant (haha). Moreover, I'm determined to do well for my FOM project. Very, very determined.

Hmm, that's about all that I want to blog. Sorry for all the short entries as there are higher priorities than blogging which need attention.

ps: I'm more tolerant than I should have been. But you really shouldn't test my tolerance because on the other side, I'm a monster.

New RED Blogskin

2009-07-12T14:45:00.002+08:00

I've just changed by blogskin (AGAIN!). Yeah, I know that I keep on changing blog skins from time to time but that's good because I find that the skins keep getting nicer and nicer with each change.

It's a rather drastic change as compared to previous skins but I've always wanted to experiment with a red background.

This blogskin is a combination of two templates from blogskins.com (look at the credits below for their links). Although this isn't entirely my work, I came up with the colour combination, so it is partly my work. I hope people won't rip it off and use it in their blogs.

Other than that, constructive comments are appreciated on the blog layout and the colours used.

Onto my actual blog post...

Tomorrow is "Monday-blues". Why "Monday-blues"? That's because I'm having FOM, ONOW and ITAB lessons tomorrow.

FOM=project stress.

ONOW=waste of time with impromptu debate.

ITAB=sit in air-con for three hours. Due to oxygen-deprivation, your brain will start to shut down after 1.5 hours in the room. Trust me.

Honestly, I dread FOM the most. FOM is like a love and hate affair. I love his lectures but hate his tutorials. How ironic.

Going to stop here as I have to do my FOM project and PACC and Econs tutorials.

ps: So many things to do, but with so little time.

A load off my burden

2009-07-09T12:40:00.002+08:00

YES! I've finally configured my netbook and I'm using it to blog in school during break. So, from now onwards, I'm going to bring this netbook to school for most of the time (and maybe including ITAB lessons).

Anyway, going to nake this entry short since I only have 20 mins left to my next lesson.

Today, I just signed up to be involved in School of Business Yearbook design. Other people in my class have signed up too but most of them are photographers. I don't know if I'll regret my decision because I don't know anyone on the list who want to be designers. Well, I hope designing will be fun.

Hmm, other than that there isn't anything much that I want to update. Will update later with a longer post during the weekends.

ps: I really need to find a proper CCA. Seriously.

The Quote

2009-07-03T18:14:00.003+08:00

“Do not spoil what you have by desiring what you have not; remember that what you now have was once among the things you only hoped for."

Got this quote from my ex-maple friend's blog. Seriously, I think this quote is really meaningful. Especially to someone who has sacrificed alot to fufill a desire.

Anyway, MST is finally over. Looking forward to normal lessons starting from next week=)

In addition, I'm going to configure my Acer netbook once I get the USB drive from my friend. It is really under-utilised and is gathering dust on the shelf.

Today, Statistics was tough as I didn't have enough practice. Haix. I don't think I'll score well for ITAB and Stastistics. On the other hand, I can only depend on PACC and Econs for solace. (if I do well, that is)

Let's just hope for the best.

ps: Will write a long entry soon when I have time. My entries are rather short coz I have nothing much to blog on since it's MST week.

MST Week

2009-06-30T17:54:00.002+08:00

Just came back from Economics test and I'm blogging here. How hardworking I am.

Anyway, I think my emo mood is back and it won't be over until MST week is done. Emo is like a disease. It comes and goes like the wind. Maybe you can compare it to the occasional panmedic, which reminds me of H1N1.

Ah, H1N1...... loads to talk about it. Seriously, why can't schools close? Even though it isn't fatal, but it spreads rapidly like normal flu viruses. And victims are among 10 to 20 years old. Aren't teenagers like us in the age range?

Sometimes, I really wonder if the government is doing the right thing.

Just voicing out my opinion=)

Tomorrow, I'm going to have Principles of Accounting test and I'm still having the dread of going to school. I've revised for all of my modules (except doing things such as looking through my PACC file and practicing for ITAB and Stats) but I'm still not confident of doing the paper well. Lack of self-confidence maybe?

Haha...

ps: The song '7 things' kept playing in my head while I was walking to the MRT station.

Community Service Project

2009-06-25T21:28:00.008+08:00

There's a reason why I've not posted since 8th of June because I was hoping to blog about the outing with ex-table tennis seniors but I had problems receiving the pictures. So, instead, now I'm going to post about Community Service Project which I did yesterday.

Most of my team members arrived at 10am at Bishan Home. However, Eugene tan, Pei jin and I arrived late and Pei jin and I went to eat lunch first before going to the home. Our time-in was 12.45pm. But in the end, they gave us 8 hours of service even though our time-out was 5pm. They are such nice people! =)

Pics up next. Enjoy! (credits to elieen)

Interaction with the folks at the Bishan Home through colouring activity.

And they love colouring.

We took pics with them too.

After lunch, we had to do cleaning.

After the cleaning, I had to admire the lady cleaners there. They have to do the cleaning every single day. Believe me, it's physically draining.

Helped them to wipe the tables in the dining area too.

Pets at the home. Some of them are cute.

1...2...3...AWWW!

That's about all of the pics I want to post. As for the others, I'll save them for the presentation.

If there's one thing I've learnt from this project, I've learnt to admire the work of lady cleaners. No joke. ps: I'm not going to blog about it because I'm not that stupid. Blogging doesn't solve anything.

Why should I be blogging here?

2009-06-08T19:10:00.003+08:00

Yeah, I know I've not been updating frequently but that's because of the projects that I have in school.

Believe it or not, I'm having holidays now. The ironic thing is: there's a test week immediately after the holidays are over and I have three project meetings during the three weeks of holidays.

So, more accurately, I'm having semi-holidays now.

Last week was (extremely) screwed in some ways.

Firstly, I had to redo my FOM project. We presented our Fundamentals of Marketing project on F1 on Monday. Unfortunately, our tutor thought that we didn't put in enough effort and told the whole class had to redo and present again the following day. By then, I nearly gave up on the whole thing. We spent so much effort on the presentation and it was only worth 15% of the total marks for the module. However, my team mate msn me on Monday night and said that we had the possibility of failing. That shook me hard and after that, I seriously chionged the project on Tuesday.

Still, I think we're the worst group. No offence, but Monday's worst group performed better than us on Tuesday. (Nvm, must buck up on CA2, which is worth 30% of the total marks)

After Tueday's FOM presentation, I went with some classmates to join Violin for SP Strings Orchestra. I thought I could sign up on the spot but somehow, I didn't manage to join and was rejected (yet again!) due to overwhelming response and that their registration period was over.

Let's see for CCA... Table tennis... kicked out of trials... Ultimate Frisbee... can't take the heat... Violin... was too late...

I won't give up until I find a CCA because my aim is to get into a local university. That's for sure.

On the same day, I was rejected for SP scholarship programme. That sucked the most.

Had a seminar on Security at the convention centre on Wednesday. Was dressed overly formal but the long-sleeved shirt that I wore kept me from freezing in the Econs tutorial room.

Here's what I wore.

On Thursday, had dinner with YZ at food court 5 and ate KFC. Caught up with the old times and guess what: Design students don't have tests after holidays. *ENVY. *

There was no Econs lecture on Friday and hence, I had two hours of break. I went with my friends to the main library and did my PACC tutorial at the cafe there. The coffee at the cafe was so-so but they sold Japanese bread and it was quite nice.

In conclusion, the last week of school was pretty hectic and full of obstacles. My priority now is to get a CCA. Can anyone recommend me one?

ps: Thank god I wasn't your infatuation because I don't wanna reject you.
ps/s: I think I'm going to change my URL address. My mum has been looking at my blog from her laptop; keeping way too many tabs on me.

Had a Bad Day

2009-05-27T21:25:00.003+08:00

Today was one of those days whereby things just don't go your way.

Firstly, I woke up at 9.15am in the morning which was quite late as I would usually wake up by 8.30am at the latest. I had lunch at 11am and I only ate a small portion of my lunch. Left the house at 11.30am and was almost late for my 12 o'clock lesson.

Anyway, on the MRT, my sub-conscious mind kept thinking about passing the day quickly. Even at the MRT station, I saw my classmate and I didn't go and talk to him. (Maybe I was emo at that time.)

Then, after my Economics tutorial and Statistics lecture, I had Ultimate Frisbee CCA. It was my first time at the CCA and the weather was scorching hot. After jogging for two rounds around the field and doing some sprints, I got dehydration and felt faint. Rested around half an hour and managed to walk back to Food Court 6 to get a drink. Luckily, I got my energy back and went home after that.

Moreover, my ONOW project for the Bishan Home has been cancelled because there's a first case of H1N1 in Singapore.

=.=

Haix, things didn't go my way today. This isn't the worst day, but it's bad enough to make me feel emo. In Chinese, there's a saying that goes "Yu guo tian qing". Hopefully, tomorrow would be better.

Projects and more projects

2009-05-19T18:19:00.004+08:00

Time files.

It's been project after project since this week started. Let's see...... I've got FOM, Community Service Project and ONOW Flyers to finish. Poly life ain't easy after all.

Anyway, on a positive note, I've recovered from the flu which I had last week. As a preventive measure, I will be jogging every weekend from now on (actually, I've started jogging since last week on Saturday and Sunday). When I was jogging, I realised that my stamina had reduced significantly and I felt tired after 1.5 rounds. This was unlike my secondary school days, where I could at least jog 2 rounds and I won't feel tired at all. I guess this is also due to the fact that I had PE in secondary school, whereas in poly, there's no PE. I think poly should have PE so as to encourage people to excercise. Don't you think so?

Since my recent posts are lacking in pictures, I decided to post the design for my "Our Nation, Our World" anti-littering project flyer.

This is only a draft, not comfirmed yet. I might change the font for the below part but I like the design because it is simple and sweet.

I'll keep this entry short as I have tutorials to finish.

ps: I hope Adam Lambert wins American Idol and I'll definitely be watching the finals on Wednesday.

I'm down wif Flu!

2009-05-12T20:19:00.003+08:00

Damn it, I'm down with (seasonal) flu again!

The last time I caught the flu was only 4 weeks ago. I think I have to seriously consider taking a flu vaccine against seasonal flu.

Anyway, school was pretty ok today. Had effective communication in the afternoon for 1.5 hours. I think I should had porned the lesson because the teacher was going through speech-writing (something which I've already learnt in secondary school and I suck at it).

Yesterday, though, I managed to call the YOUTH centre in Jurong for our Community Service Project and finally got a positive response from them. So, we would most likey be conducting our project there. In case you are wondering why we're doing this project, it is part of our module marks for Our World, Our Nation (the name of the module). Personally, I don't like this module as it is like CME in secondary school.

A bloody waste of time.

And if you think that helping out in centres and homes is something to be proud of, you're wrong. Most of the centres that we called were not cooperative. For example, the first centre that we went to visit told us that the social worker wasn't around and that we had to wait for him to come down to the centre. Fine. Then after five minutes, the clerk came out of the office and told us not to wait anymore and to call their office number to speak to the social worker directly. After that, my friend called to the centre and the social worker gave the reply that because of the swine flu, they can't have any voluntary work held in the centre. My friend had actually wanted to say that we're only going there in June but the social worker didn't give her any chance to speak and she hung up. A few days later, when the flu level went down to yellow, we decided to try again. You know what the social worker told us?

"If you're coming in June, you should call us a few weeks before June to discuss."

By then I was fed up. We called them two times and even went down to the home. Yet, they gave such negative response. Furious, I told my group to call a few other homes. Finally, I called YOUTH centre in Jurong and the response was quite positive. They said that I had to send an email to them to discuss the details and to confirm with them.

I hate doing community work. No offense but this is also partly due to bad experience on Flag days.

On one particular Flag day, I was in Bukit Batok doing community service. This lady, who was dressed prerogative passed by me and as she put in 20 cents into my tin, she said this in a barely audible whisper:

"Qibai, I pity you."

Yup, no joke, that's what she said. I didn't dare to retaliate because I was in school uniform and in public. I ignored her in the end.

So, if you think that students doing community service is good, well, think again. Most people in Singapore think we're nuisance but the fact is we have got no choice. It's the schools that decide Flag days and it is the schools that require us to do community service. Hence, we ain't volunteers but merely conformists who are scrutinised in public and are labelled as public nuisance.

That's all I wanna say. Till the next time, goodbye.

CCA Fair today

2009-05-07T15:41:00.002+08:00

Gonna do a short update here as I'm using Cherie's laptop to update.

Today, there was a CCA fair in the sports hall. To my surprise, there was a table tennis CCA in SP. The last time I checked the website, there wasn't a table tennis CCA listed in there. So, I was like elated that they have table tennis in SP. But, when I looked at the other corner of the sports hall, I noticed that there were only two table tennis tables there. It reminded me of my secondary school days, where the school totally didn't set a budget for table tennis. I'm afraid that if I join a sport that is unpopular, there won't be enough opportunities for me to learn as the facilities are limited.

On the other hand, due to unpopularity, the likelihood of getting a leadership position is high as there's little competition within the CCA.

Haix, should I join table tennis or not? I have only one more day to decide.

poly life vs sec sch life

2009-04-26T15:00:00.000+08:00

One of my juniors asked me on msn a few days ago on how is life in poly. I told him that on the first day it was sian but now, come to think about it, I gave an inaccurate answer. So, now, after one week in poly, I'm going describe the difference between secondary school life and polytechnic life for the benefit of those taking O'levels this year.

1) School Attire

This is obvious. But unless you're that type of person who really likes to dress up and make up (for girls), you won't really find it enjoyable. Personally, I find it a chore because I'm the typical slacker when it comes to dressing. I don't really wear make up to school and I don't accessorize. Buying extra clothes for poly is a waste of money as compared to buying uniform. However, there's the freedom of wearing sandals to school, which I find it a nice change from secondary school.

2) Timetable

There's a big difference in timetable between sec school and in poly. In poly, there's days where you have to be in school from 8am to 5pm and there are days where lessons only last two hours and you can go off after that. In between lessons, there are also lunch breaks and breaks in between lectures and tutorials. In secondary school, the timetable is fixed; ie school starts and ends at a specific time.

I prefer the poly timetable as I can get more time to sleep=) As simple as that.

3) The teaching method

Secondary school is all about spoon-feeding. Normally, the teachers get stressed when students don't perform because it affects the bonus they get at the end of the year. Not in poly. If you can't perform, the lecturers aren't going to chase after you so that you will pass up your assignments. The only thing that they will do is to give you a lower GPA.

In my opinion, the poly teaching method is better because it is no-nonsense. In secondary school, teachers (even principals) spend too much time on disciplining students (eg scolding students when they fail to pass up homework) Wouldn't it be great if teachers didn't have to waste time disciplining students and spend more time on planning their lectures and notes instead?

In conclusion, life here in poly is still better than in secondary school. Secondary school life is rather mundane as compared to poly life. There are also plenty of opportunities to interact with your friends during break times in poly. I like it here so far, though it is still too early to say anything yet since this is only the first week.

ps: I managed to design the DAC 05 class blog. To look at what I've designed, go to www.dac-oh-5ive.blogspot.com

First day of school

2009-04-20T16:55:00.002+08:00

I'm just back from school and I'm really tired. My back is stiff from carrying my laptop, even though I used a hoversack.

Today, lessons started out with lecture on IT stuff (they call it ITAB). It was extremely boring and that lasted three hours. The lecturer talked about how to retrive notes from the school website and how to use hotmail and calendar (like as if we don't already know). Meanwhile, I chatted with one of my table tennis seniors on msn. However, halfway though the lecture, my battery went flat and I didn't bring my charger. I was forced to listen to the lecture from then on.

At lunch, I ate with my class and met up with my senior. It was a very long time since I last talked to my senior. I keep bumping into him all the time but always have no chance to talk him. But I didn't talk long because my classmates wanted to go to Popular to buy books.

After lunch, had character development class. It was totally like CME. Boring.

The only interesting lesson was fundamentals of marketing. The lecturer was very funny and interesting. Made me want to know more about marketing even though I didn't think it was that interesting at first.

So, that's all for the first day of school. Of course, I really hope I can get used to life here and adapt as fast as possible.

SP Orientation Week

2009-04-14T19:03:00.011+08:00

Had Freshmen Orientation Programme at SP and it was good! Made a couple of friends, but I'm still having difficulty to remember some of their names. Yesterday, I couldn't remember the guy's name who was going to meet me at Lakeside MRT for Flag Day until I asked him. Seriously, my memory can sometimes be very bad=( So forgive me if I forget your name.

Day One of orientation:

Had SPICE training (which is just basically introduction to SP online services) and then played several games with our own classes. I'm in DAC 05 and so we had 22 people in our class.

Played neighbours and blow wind blow.

And some of us (including myself), kena forfeit which was chicken dance.

DAY TWO:

Assembled in Convention Centre and played station games.

We had our legs tied together for one of the games but in the end, it was too difficult and we gave up.

Also had interaction time.

Our facilitator, Hui Lian, in the middle of the circle.

At the end of our station games, we had our class photo taken.

DAY THREE:

Stayed in SP for only three hours and we mainly played Accountpoly. For Accountpoly, we had to buy and sell diapers for a profit. It was hilarious. Not only our group cheated as we didn't pay for the first diapers we bought, we also lost all of our money by the end of the game. LOL.

After the game, we had to write down our first impressions of our classmates on pieces of paper which were passed around.

Seriously, I found mine contradicting.

Most people write friendly and quiet. Interesting eh?

DAY FOUR:

Last day of orientation. We had Flag Day and I had to wake up at 5am to go to Serangoon. Met up with Eugene at Lakeside MRT and the others at Outram. Once we reached Serangoon, we split up and I went with Xiao Shi and Pei Yun to Serangoon market to ask people to donate. At the end of the day, we counted the money in our tins and I collected $54.60. My personal best for Flag Day=)

By the way, did I mention that there are only 6 guys in my class?

On the MRT, Germaine and Samson cam-whored. Germaine is our other facilitator.

After the Flag Day activity, we celebrated Carol's birthday.

Chocolate cake was yummy. Haha.

Overall, orientation was tiring but fun. I also take back on what I said to the facilitator about orientation not being not high enough. It was definitely high and I think everyone enjoyed themselves. Got to end here now and start thinking of how to design class blog. Byes!

ps: If you are good in photoshop or CSS, we need you to help us design our class blog! Moreover, good photographers and bloggers are also welcomed to become blog administrators. If you are interested to be part of class blog, pls contact or msn me. (only applicable to DAC 05 peeps)

SP campus is HUGE!

2009-04-08T13:18:00.008+08:00

Last week, I went to Singapore Polytechnic for notebook configuration and submission of scholarship documents. As yc was late, I went to submit my documents first and I managed to walk all the way from Dover MRT to school of business without getting lost. Then, yc came and we waited till 11am for notebook configuration.

In the computer lab...

We were sitting at the last room and those in the second room came in before us. By the time we left the room (about two and a half hours later), they were still waiting for their computers to finish installing their programs. That's how long it look to configure.

Next, we wanted to eat lunch at Pizza Hut and we thought it was near Mac. But in the end, we searched around and still couldn't find Pizza Hut. So, we settled for Mac in the end.

I don't know why but as we were walking along the corridors, it felt very creepy. The whole place was pretty much deserted and the corridors were dark... there were also tall trees everywhere... especially near the chemical and life sciences blocks.

Today, printed out my class timetable (apparently my class is DAC/FT/1A/05).

My timetable sucks. Reasons?

Firstly, Monday is impossible.

Secondly, most of the tutorials and lectures are in the afternoon and if it turns out to be as boring as my Biology afternoon lessons with trainee teachers, I promise you I'll be half-awake.

This timetable has got to be the worst timetable I have ever gotten in my whole life. Seriously, how can it get even worse? I don't see how.

Gonna blog next week again. Till then, byes!

Rebonded hair

2009-03-24T11:36:00.009+08:00

YES! I've finally rebonded my hair after so much contemplation. However, I won't do it again because the process was kinda scary. Besides, it's damaging to my hair.

The hairdresser had to apply the softening chemical onto my hair twice. Normally, she would only apply it once. When my hair still refused to soften, it was eventually put into the steamer.

I can still imagine smelling the fumes coming out from the steamer... it smells almost like dilute hydrochloric acid. I'm definitely sure that the stuff that she put on my hair contains some kind of acid, otherwise she wouldn't be putting on gloves.

Anyway, if I had asthma, I would have probably suffocated there.

So, that's the worst part of the whole experience. Like I said, I won't do it again.

Onto other stuff...... I received another letter from SP, informing that I am invited to join their SP scholarship programme.

I've already applied for it online but I still haven't handed in the documents yet, which includes an essay (of not more than 200 words) on why I should be selected for this programme and the CCA that I'm interested in.

Honestly, I don't know why people like to give such lame questions. I've already written my essay and it sounds just like a rip off from my form teacher's testimonial, except that I explained my interest in accountancy and my mission to "lead and serve for a better future".

By the way, guess what CCA I'm interested in?

SP Pool and Foosball Club. LOL!

I initially wanted rock climbing but my parents didn't approve=( The other sports also look demanding so I didn't join any of those either. And between Mind Games Club (a CCA that only confines to boring boardgames) and Pool and Foosball Club, I think Pool and Foosball suits my personality better.

I think that's all for now. Will be going to SP tomorrow to submit my documents and to configure my laptop.

Before I forget.....

I have imported my blog into Facebook. That means everytime I publish a new post, it will automatically come up as a new note in FB. Also, I have added new subscription links in my blog's sidebar so that people can either subscribe to my blog using Google Reader or view my blog's feed via Feedburner. Just baby steps to improve my blog's viewership;)

Acer Aspire Netbook

2009-03-16T16:33:00.007+08:00

Just bought my Acer Aspire netbook and I find typing a real chore on this netbook.

It's keys are pretty small and it will take some time to get used to this, especially with the backspace key; it's extremely tiny and I get it wrong 4 out of 5 times:(

So, about two days ago......

I went to Suntec City for IT fair. Bought $88 scanner other than the netbook. After buying the scannner, we looked around for a netbook.

At first, we compared MSI to Zyrex (some unknown brand) and thought that MSI was actually better, though Zyrex was much cheaper. Then, my dad suddenly thought of Acer as some models of MSI are out of stock and we went to their booth.

The rest they say is history.

Just a brief review on the netbook.

It's keyboard is pretty sucky but it's still better than some other models in the market. The keypad is quite good though, so that's a plus point.

What I love most about this is that you don't have to bring along an adapter if you're outdoors. I've been using the netbook for around 1.5 hours and there's still 77% of battery life left. As compared to using a normal laptop (3 cell battery), the laptop can only last at the very most 3 hours.

Also, the netbook only weighs 1.3 kg and if you're like me, the 1 kg difference between a laptop to a netbook can make or break you (literally).

In conclusion, this is good if you're travelling (eg on a plane or in a car).

However, I don't know if this is suitable for poly use. I've heard that installation will be long and I don't know if some of the drivers for poly use can be installed onto the netbook that I've got.

Hmm, looks like I've got to research more about the installation at SP. Hopefully, the installation will be smooth; otherwise, I'll have to tug around my 2 kg laptop to school almost everyday=(

me? smoke? whatever lah.

2009-03-07T18:37:00.004+08:00

A few days ago, I went to do medical checkup for the second time as I didn't complete some of the tests. Then, the doctor asked this question at the last station.

"Are you always that skinny and small?"

Me: dumbfounded. I didn't know how to reply. But I tried anyway.

"Erm, one of my parents is like that lar."

He checked my palms. After that, he looked at the checklist of tests done to ensure that everything was normal.

"You do PE in school right?"

"Yes."

"Having problems with PE?"

By then, I was thinking of getting this done and over with.

"No problem. Really no problem", I said. I was thinking of adding that I play table tennis for school team but I guess that the doctor would get a shock.

"Normal... normal... Hmm, accountancy, I think you are fit to do your course. You can leave now."

"Thanks," I said and I was out of the room faster than when I came in.

That was freaking embarrassing and least expected.

But the irony amused me. He actually thought that I was having problems with PE. Ha! Indeed, looks can be deceiving......

This reminded me of another incident which occurred two or three years back, when I was still in secondary school. I can't really remember everything but it was my yearly school med checkup and the nurse was talking to me. Somehow, my reply wasn't to her expectation.

"Do you smoke?" She asked.

At the back of my mind, I felt like throwing a vulgarity at her.

"No..."

I was pretty pissed off by the nurse and what's worse was that my friends were laughing (for some unknown reason).

Let's just say this: Never judge a book by its cover. Even though I maybe physically smaller than most people, I'm actually 100% healthy. I don't know why being physically smaller equates to not being able to do PE and being a smoker (lmao). It's strange that people think that way. In fact, my NAPFA timing is always above average and I used to play for the school table tennis team.

So, why is it that people think that I'm unfit? And why can't people be naturally skinny and smaller-sized? Up till today, I still find it a joke that the nurse accused me of smoking.

Changing blogskin soon...

2009-02-26T15:27:00.003+08:00

Hey, peeps! Most likely gonna change my blogskin soon because I have found a new blogskin which I really liked at www.blogskins.com.

So, keep checking for updates from time to time!

Anyway, last week, I received my enrolment package from SP.

I didn't expect that it would arrive so early. I thought I would probably only get it in early March. So, when it came, I was confused as there were many forms inside and I got a headache after reading the forms.

After discussing with my parents, I managed to figure out which forms I had to fill. All in all, there are only three documents which I need to submit (not including medical checkup form).

Luckily, all that paperwork stuff is done now (except photocopying of birth cert etc). Currently, waiting for enrolment day to come (10th March). Anyone enrolment on the same day?

ps: Just realised that the medical examination checklist is really long. Haix, why make things so difficult for students enrolling?

Table tennis promo video

2009-02-13T12:39:00.006+08:00

A few weeks ago, helped out a friend who needed to do a video project. He sent me a copy of his video and I posted it up onto facebook. Enjoy the video! (and try not to laugh out loud)

In hiatus

2009-02-11T11:26:00.006+08:00

I'll have to admit, I'm freaking obsessed with Facebook nowadays (especially with Pet Society).

And since I can't access Pet Society at this moment due to certain technical problems, I'm gonna spend time blogging. Lucky you, because I didn't want to blog today actually.

Now, just to explain my current situation....... I'm waiting for a job.

One month ago, my dad offered me a job at his place for scanning in old documents and building drawings. I wanted the job, however, his team of inefficient workers haven't even bought the scanners yet and they are still checking out the cost of renting the equipment. They promised $60 a day. I really doubt that I can get as much if I work at other places. So, I guess I have no choice but to wait. Besides, poly only starts in April. I have time on my side.

But it's frustrating to wait for inefficient people.

Anyway, last Friday, I accompanied my mum down to JP to get her wallet which she ordered a few weeks ago. The owner made a mistake and thought we ordered red instead of brown and my mum ended up buying the larger brown wallet, which costs an extra $20.

Here's a picture of the wallet.

Seriously, it looks even better in real life.

From the same shop, I bought a shoulder bag which I can use for poly.

For dinner, we ate at Delifrance.

Chicken Ham Spaghetti. Quite nice but a tad too cheesy for my liking.

My mum had this.

Chicken and Steak. I preferred this to my spaghetti, since it had more veggies and the steak was well-cooked.

For dessert, we had Mango Cake.

This dessert is the star of the whole menu, I tell you. It was sweet but there was a tinge of sourness in it due to the strawberry sauce. There was also some ice particles in the cake itself. So, it tasted like mango sorbet.

You must try this dessert if you happen to eat at Delifrance. I swear you that won't regret it.

Overall, the dinner costed us $23, including minestrone soup and a cup of coffee that came with each set meal. To me, it was value for money as the servings came in big portions too.

Gonna stop blogging now as I don't want my entries to be too long. Till the next time, bye!

Posting results

2009-01-30T15:33:00.005+08:00

I'm now being posted to Singapore Poly Accountancy and I'm not surprised.

In fact, I feel kinda bad coz my L1R4 is 7 (including CCA) and accountancy's COP is 12. I have a friend who submitted her first two options as accountancy and yet, she didn't get into the course she wanted.

Yeah, hate me because I have deprived some people of the opportunity to pursue their dream course.

I bet in tomorrow's newspaper there will be parents writing into the forum page complaining about how their child couldn't get into that particular course; blaming the government for their flawed tertiary education system etc.

I assure you that there will such cases.

But I don't care what these ignorant parents say, honestly. Life is competitive, especially in Singapore, so face it.

If you can't, I suggest that you should migrate to another country.

Anyway, on a lighter note, CNY was OK. The same as every other year but this year was special, because I got less hongbao money. (all thanks to economic recession) Somehow, I get the feeling that this year's CNY was more of a muted affair. Don't you think so?

Posting random pictures taken during the eve of CNY. Before we ate at Rama Thai, we decided to stroll down the streets near Tiong Baru. There were alot of bridal shops there so we compared from one shop to the other.

One of the bridal shops displaying cheong sams. Personally, I don't like the design.

Daniel Yam's shop.

No cheong sams but there were a lot of other normal black and white gowns and dresses. Better than the other shop, at least.

That's about all that I can blog for now. Will be probably blogging more next week.

ps: Finished reading new moon but I've yet to read twilight. Hopes to get twilight soon.

I've made my decisions

2009-01-16T10:38:00.004+08:00

I'm bored so I'm blogging to waste time.

Firstly, I just want to say the route that I've chosen is unconventional. I could have gone to an average JC but...... I've decided to go poly.

The reason?

I know that JC isn't going to be easy. For all I know, I may not even cope with the syallabus there. I already had a difficult time trying to manage triple science so probably it isn't realistic for me to go to JC.

Anyway, my JAE options, posted on Wednesday.

I hope I'm not going to regret it. Accountancy. *cross-fingers*

Results and Desicions

2009-01-12T17:15:00.004+08:00

Just got back my o'level results and it was quite unexpected and expected at the same time.

Unexpected beacause the subjects which I thought will score well didn't score as well as I had predicted.

For example, I scored A1 for Chemistry during prelims but for o'levels, I got B3. And A.maths which I put in alot of work, only got an A2. I actually hoped for A1 but was disappointed when I saw the slip.

It sucks to have the feeling that all the hard work went to waste.

However, there were some subjects that were beyond expectations like English, Maths and Humanities. I thought these subjects would get a B3 but in the end I got distinctions for these subjects.

What was expected was the L1R5 which I got 12 (I know you people are like curious to know my L1R5) and L1R4 which I got 9. Overall, I was satisfied by the results:)

Now I have to think where I have to go. Most likey will be going to poly, I guess.

New year's resolution

2009-01-01T11:04:00.009+08:00

Since it's the start of another new year, I guess it will be good to make a list of things which I want to accomplish in year 2009.

My New Year's Resolution

1) To get good O'level results

I mean, who doesn't want that to happen! I also heard that O'level results is gonna be released either on the 9th or 12th of Jan. Kinda shocking it's gonna be released super early this time round. So, got to be mentally prepared in advance for the worst (just in case).

2) Get into a poly course which I enjoy

Decided that if my L1R5 (including CCA) is 10 or lower, I'll make JC as my first option. Otherwise, I'll go poly. (But what are the chances of me obtaining 10 points and lower? Maybe 5 percent chance? I'll find out on the day itself.)

3) Find more friends in poly/JC

It's good to enlarge one's circle of friends, right?

4) Get a job

I've been jobless for one and a half months already and I'm in desperate need of $. Although my dad says he can offer me employment by arranging and scanning in old documents in Bukit Timah shopping centre, it's not confirmed yet whether he can actually secure me (and my cousin) a job. Some more poly only starts in April. What am I going to do till then???

5)Sell off my old books

This serves two purposes. Firstly, I'll get some cash from selling off old books and secondly, it helps me to do CNY spring cleaning faster.

Anyone interested in buying second-hand o'level texts/guide books/ ten or five year series can tag on my tagboard or sms me at my handphone number (if u know me personally). Just indicate what subject you're interested in buying and what type of book you want (eg. guide book/ textbook etc.....) I have quite a number of books so just ask me what you want and I'll see if I have it. Price is negotiable.

6) Get involved in a sporting activity

Seriously, for me, life without physical activity (I mean exercise!) is boring. If I had to choose a CCA in JC/poly, I'll immediately choose a sports CCA. Really. Non-sporting activities after school will leave me brain dead. Also, I hate to be sick and wanna be fit so I won't suffer from sickness:)

7) Rebond hair

The hairstylist told me that my hair texture is rough and suggested that I should have it rebonded to make my hair smoother... Don't know if I should listen to what she says because I thought rebonding makes the hair more brittle, right? On the other hand, short hair requires high maintenance unlike long hair as you need to cut once every month. So, maybe it's time for a change? (or an excuse to be lazy?)

I guess that's about all for my new year's resolution. I hope to achieve all of them in this year! Wish me luck!

I'm back from Penang!

2008-12-25T11:33:00.014+08:00

Went to Penang last week from 18 Dec to 21 Dec and here are the photos from the trip. (Don't worry, there's some description provided along the way so you won't get lost.)

For the first day, we stayed at Sri Sayang Service Apartment. The view from the apartment was really beautiful.

Hope that you're not afraid of heights because we were staying at the 20th floor.

However, the service was not as great as the view. The bed was hard and the air-con was noisy. So, we shifted out after one nights' stay at the service apartment. Then, we booked a family suite at Vistana Hotel and stayed there for the remaining 2 nights.

While in Penang, we visited the Batu Ferringhi beach. It's amazing how they manage to keep the waters and sand so clean. The beach has fine white sand and the waters are crystal-clear with a tinge of blue. It's the cleanest beach so far I've seen in my entire life and if you imagine the perfect beach, this is it.

They have all sorts of activities on the beach. For example...

Horse riding

Parachuting

Boat riding

And if you're broke, there's always sun tanning on the beach for free.

Next, we went to have a look at the fishing port near the Batu Ferringhi beach.

The view of the sea from the fishing port was great too.

We returned to the same place in the evening when there was high tide. And it was kinda scary to see the waves go right up to the shore.

By the way, you guys should see this video to get a better idea of the waves and the fishing port. It also covers the activities on the beach itself (I highly recommend watching coz you get to see the parachutist landing)

Anyway, onto shopping. Shopping in Penang isn't as good as shopping in Singapore. The price of fashion apparel in Penang is almost the same as in Singapore and they don't sell much high-end quality goods. But they do have a gigantic shopping centre called Queenstown mall in Penang.

Nice Christmas decor.

Bought a wallet from Jusco in Queenstown mall. Can't remember the price but it's 'genuine leather' (or so it says in the inside of the wallet).

Other photos taken from elsewhere (but still in Penang):

Penang skyline.

Outside Golden Sands Resort

Fishing boat (duh!)

Candid shot. Not aware that my uncle was taking photo can?

Have to end here. Currently still recovering from gastric flu that I had on Sunday. Before I end,

Merry Christmas Everyone!

3rd week of hols

2008-12-01T17:21:00.016+08:00

It’s the third week of holidays and I know most people would have been bored to death by now. Not me. I’m enjoying the simplicity of life that I would never have had if I were still in school=)

I don't understand why people would write things like "I'd rather be in school than to have holidays" Hello?! Ever heard of this sentence, "Be careful what you wish for or you might just get it all"? It's not really a saying lah, but it's true.

So, my point is: Don't complain that life is boring now, cause there are always things that may make you feel far more worst than being bored. Like the dreaded feeling of being a student.

Anyway, onto more exciting stuff...

I GOT A NEW LAPTOP!

*jubilant, happy, excited... everything!*

Was extremely happy when I got my hands on the laptop. They were selling it at $895 during the SITEX fair. We bargained till $885 plus free anti-virus software. I swear that it cannot be anymore cheaper!

Laptop cam-whoring:

In addition, the purchase came with lots of freebies like Cyberlink DVD Suite, speakers and an optical mouse. Sweet.

And the best of all, I don't have to pay $700 for the cost of the laptop. Not that my parent's sponsor. You all have to guess who paid for my laptop coz I won't reveal;) Hint: If I tell you who sponsor, taxpayers will kill me.

Also bought new headphones to replace my spoilt old headphones.

Spent two days installing programs and transferring information into my new laptop before I could even type this post. Now, with a new laptop, Photoshop loads two times faster, and iTunes, which took forever on my old laptop, pops out in a window almost immediately.

And I like the new Windows Photo Gallery feature in Vista. It makes it easier for me to search for pictures.

In conclusion,

I love my new laptop!<3

Next, I'll blog about prom night. Some of you maybe thinking why I didn't blog about prom night a few weeks ago. It's because if everyone is blogging the same thing at one time, people will be bored seeing the same pictures. Moreover, I forgot to bring my own camera so I have very little pictures of prom. Well, if you wanna see, here they are:

Wore this dress to prom. Don't know how my mum managed to find a dress to fit my small frame but she did it anyway.

Initially bought this one-inch heels from Nova at Jurong Point.

It's a nice pair of heels on its own but was conned by the sales lady who said that it can match the beige dress.

Oh well... can only blame one's self for not making the right choices. Had to buy another pair of heels.

Not as nice but matches. Btw, it's my first time ever to wear heels. Saw people wearing three-inch heels for prom and I felt "zi bei".

Photos taken during prom night:

Besides, we took quite a number of class photos that day.

Note: These photos are different from the originals as I've edited them. Otherwise, they'll be the same, old, boring pictures that you've seen in facebook. Just to make this post more interesting=)

Overall, thoroughly enjoyed prom and thought it was good experience.

I wanna end here as this post is freaking long and I'm tired. Byes!

Morning Trip to JB

2008-11-17T14:48:00.004+08:00

Today, I went to Johor in the morning. Had to wake up at 6 am just to get there and to avoid traffic jam. Then after clearing johor immigration, we had to wait for my dad's friend to arrive.

We waited in the car near the roadside.

Meanwhile, I slept in the car and took a picture of Singapore immigration from Johor.

After 20 mins, he finally arrived and we ate wan ton mee nearby for breakfast.

Next, we drove to one of the car workshops located in the Southern City of Johor as my dad's friend needs to do some patching work on his car. We waited like 1 hour for the freaking car mechanic to arrive. Apparently, it's okay to be slow in Malaysia. You know, if you ever been to Malaysia and shop at their supermarket, you will realise that their service is slow as compared to Singapore. In Singapore, cashiers would hurriedly scan in items and try not to make customers wait while, in Malaysia, it's the other way round; you have to wait for the cashier to scan in the items. That's the problem wif Malaysia: no sense of urgency.

Anyway, took this picture coz I was bored waiting. Why there's a golf club in the car? Answer: For self-defence when needed, especially in Malaysia.

My dad's friend talked to car mechanic and he told us that the car would be ready by 12.30pm. After that, we went to Johor Jaya to try the Dim Sum at one of the eateries there.

The Dim Sum looks good hor......and it tastes good as well:)

We ordered 2 Lor Mai Kai, 2 Char Shew pau and 6 Dim Sum side dishes and miraculously, we managed to finish all of them! I guess we all have big appetite.

After we makan finish, we went to another car workshop. This time, my dad wanted to fix his water tank. His water tank had algae in it and this reduced the amount of water used to clean the windscreen.

After the tank was fixed, we shopped at Giant. Bought some groceries and toleteries. (Initially, I wanted to get some pirated MP3 songs but then, I didn't buy coz they don't have much variety to choose from.)

When we walked out of Giant, we saw impending rain clouds and rushed to the car workshop to see if my dad's friend's car was ready.

Unfortunately, the car machanic had not finished patching up by then and my dad and I went back to Singapore, leaving his friend behind.

Homed at 1.30pm. Considered fast for a trip to Johor, right?

ps: I know you all want to see prom pictures but I haven't finish collecting.

O'levels are officially over!

2008-11-13T10:51:00.003+08:00

O'levels are offically over! YAY!

Been waiting for this moment for like 2 years but when I finally arrived at that moment, there is still a sense of emptiness. Don't know why...... maybe I'm still slow at reacting or maybe I just really wanna get prom over and done with first.

But at least, from today onwards, I won't have the dreaded feeling of waking up early in the morning and sleeping late at night. (bye bye to panda eyes!)

Nor would I have to tahan morning assemblies listening to the principal talk (lecture) or razak explaining about "I care, therefore I do" (crap).

So, byes to morning assemblies that take up 30 mins of our time everyday!

Also, gone are the days of lessons after school. Yippee!

Last of all, I won't have to see any teacher's (black) face after today. (specifically pointing towards one teacher whose face can sometimes be so black that her thick powered makeup cannot cover)

But secondary school is not that bad lah... there are some things which I would probably miss, like my friends, CCA mates and teachers that make school life habitable.

And also I'm thankful for the teachers who have encouraged me to achieve greater heights.

Secondary school life was bittersweet. Hopefully, poly life will be better than secondary life. *I'm being optimistic :D*

However, secondary life has defined me as a person as I now know the real world a little bit better.

I still remember a friend of mine who is in secondary one (she's not from the school that I'm in). She said that teenagers carrying handphones are bad people. I was like stunned coz I was using mine when she said that. I didn't take it personally though. Then, I asked her why she thought so.

At the back of my mind, I was already thinking: This girl is SO naive lah. Everyone nowadays carry handphone, don't tell me that they are all bad people. Besides, didn't she think about MY feelings when she said that?

Then, I realised: She's only a secondary one student. Perhaps, I was like that when I was young. So, I should cut her some slack and probably ignore what she just said.

Maybe we were like that 4 years ago? It could be due to education that we have grown wiser and that we don't say such things anymore. Or maybe the girl is really naive. Who knows?

In the end, don't let secondary life dictate what you would do in the future, but let it be part of you. I always believe that greater things are yet to come, so we should try to embrace the future with open arms.

The day before the end of o'levels

2008-11-12T14:53:00.002+08:00

I have completed the new blogskin! (finally!!!)

Comtemplated for so long before its completion, but it's done now. I hope that most of you would like it! (Even if you don't like it, it doesn't really matter coz it's MY opinion that counts. And my opinion is that this skin rocks.)

Also, I would like to congratulate those who have completed their o'levels today. It's something to celebrate about, right?

But for me I still have another 18 hours left till the end:(

Moreover, prom is tmr and I'm still wondering if I should go......