Monday, October 30, 2006
Saturday
1. Cereal with milk
2. 2 packets of M & Ms
3. One box of hello panda like biscuits
4. 2 bags of Jack and Jill potato chips
5. One bottle of Vanilla Coke
6. One can of tuna with mayonnaise
7. 4 slices of bread
8. 5 sausages
9. One bowl of laska
10. One large cup of sugarcane juice
11. One plate of fried oyster
12. One cup of mochaccino
13. One slice of brownie
14. One small coke
Sunday
1. Side dish of sauteed mushrooms
2. Lamb steak
3. One slice of chocolate fudge cake
4. One bottle of snapple
5. One packet of potatao chips
6. German garlic sausage
7. Deep fried camembert
8. One stick of you tiao
9. Two red bean buns
Guess I needa go run again... like I finally did on Fri... Lol...
you have just Slacked with Chris @ 1:42 AM
Thursday, October 26, 2006
At least I managed to get some answers to my questions, and realise that it IS true, the greatest gift God gave man, was Choice...
I am who I am because I choose to be, just as how I chose to do everything else in my life... as long as I can justify what I do to myself... It's fine with me...
External approval is empty without internal approval... Just as how greater wisdom comes with inner peace... Everything starts from within...
Chatting with my bro helped me realise that there are some areas I can change... and I realise that it would be better that I did... Of course, only when I have the time to... heh...
Just like how one has to choose the blue or the red pill in The Matrix, life presents us with choices everyday... How this movie pans out, is up to the individual... Maybe I'll watch all 3 films back to back... just to get the overall idea of the meanings in the film... some really can be applied to daily life...
I won't let you down bro... onto step 2... heh...
you have just Slacked with Chris @ 3:01 AM
Sunday, October 22, 2006
you have just Slacked with Chris @ 9:50 PM
Friday, October 20, 2006
Talked about nearly everything under the sun... his Hons project, my situations, his situations, job markets, overseas degrees... Luckily he's got free incoming even for overseas calls... Lol... and I was using 019, which is supposed to give cheaper rates..
I'm glad he's enjoying himself over there, even if it IS just him alone with his project... He's content with what he's doing, working towards his goals... And I guess it really set me thinking as well... Set me thinking as to whether Life Sciences was really what I want to be doing after I graduate... And honestly, with all the news that most grads dun really get to do research unless they've got PhDs, I might just have to further my studies first...
Which also led me to think... The only reason why I got into LS in the first place, was cos I couldn't do Medicine... and I wanted to do Med cos I wanted to work in Forensic Pathology, which at that time, needed an MBBS.. I couldn't go that route cos back then, my sis was still in Aus, and I didn't want to stress my parents further...
But... now she's back, working... and I'm going to finish my degree soon... Cash might probably be a problem... but... I won't know if I don't try... Maybe not medicine, cos frankly, the NUS-Duke Uni thing is very demanding and at $80k a year, really expensive... and since my main idea was to actually work in Forensics, I might just take up the Forensic Science Degree in Perth... The modules they have sound quite interesting, and with my LS degree, I could probably skip the first year... At A$18.5k a year, its much lesser then Duke... But the question of whether it is recognised in Singapore comes in, as well as whether there's actually a job demand for it over here... I suppose I could always work over there... but... its really sad to leave my family over here...
So many buts now... and no confirmations... I've got one more semester before I decide to do Hons... and if I do, I'll have one more year to decide if I can actually do the 2nd degree... This definitely warrants a lot more research and asking around... something which I'll do when I have more time...
I've got another batch of CAs coming up... 25th and 31st Oct... with another report due on the 27th and a full day ecological trip to Malaysia on the 28th... That's 4 reasons why I decided not to pursue doing Pulze... Blast is already sending a Jr and Snr team... and I frankly dun see myself having the time to find more ppl to send in another group... from now till the 25th, its mugging for one CA, at the same time, working on the report... then after the 25th, mugging AGAIN for my next CA... with a show to do on the 29th as well... It'll be a packed time till the end of the month...
Surprisingly, I'm actually enjoying mugging, or rather, I did when I was studying for immunology... learning about immune systems... I don't deny its cheem... but... understanding is more important than plain memorising.. heh... Animal physio is also quite fun to read... esp the extra readings... but... pharmaco... well... that remains to be seen... got to start on that soon... luckily, ecology doesn't have a CA, but the report is 15%... so its quite high too... Heh...
I hate still being somewhat emotional at times... but... thanks for the chat bro... Felt much much better after chatting with you... now I know y we'll always be 'brudders'... Heh... I'm come over see you sometime... and we'll go crazy on the town again too... LOL...
you have just Slacked with Chris @ 12:34 AM
Saturday, October 14, 2006
The 8 solo and group finalists were all damn good!! Interesting concepts, moves and very entertaining... And having Sheikh Haikel as the MC was just as entertaining...
But the highlight of the event will always be... WADE ROBSON... He's AMAZING... His moves are damn good, sharp when they have to be, smooth when its called for... You really can learn a lot from him by just watching him and listening to his comments for the other contestants... And the comment for the day was... "Make yourself different from the rest"
The solo winner, Daniel, from O school... had an amazing choreo... His fusion of remixed classical music with street hip hop, jazz and 70's locking was just damn nice to watch... I initially wanted to try something like that as well, mix classical with hip hop, but back then, I didn't have the skills to yet... but now I'm slowly learning more and one day, I might just have enough to do that...
The groups winners, Fantastic Four, were just damn creative and very coordinated with their choreo... The moment I saw them perform, I just tot to myself... That's the standard right there... The other groups are going to have to top THAT...
Of course, the crowd went wild when Wade performed... And WHAT A PERFORMANCE!! Him and his 4 dancers... performing SEXY BACK!!! before the intermission, and RAMALAMA!! after the intermission... Seeing the choreo on Youtube was one thing... Seeing Wade himself performing it is another... And the crowd just soaked in all of it...
His moves are so different from others I've seen... when he was teaching the top 2 finalists his choreo, everyone tot that it would be hard at first glance, but as he taught the steps, I realised that it wasn't the steps that was hard... It was the delivery and groove that was hard to get... Anyone can catch choreo, but its how you inject it with your own little flavour, that's whats different...
Even Wade himself said that... He looks for people that have a certain natural ability to bring themselves out into the choreo... No two people can dance the same choreo the same way...
All in all... it was a VERY enjoyable show... even if I had to sit on the 3rd floor, the view was actually quite good... Could see the dancers, their choreo and their formations as well... Heh... So if someone was out of place, it was quite obvious... Hee...
Heh... that makes it two shows I've watched in two weeks... Last sat, I went with my sis to catch the HILARIOUS RUSSELL PETERS!! He's so famous that he had to extend his one show to 5 shows and with minimal advertising, they were all sold out!!
Of course, as usual, ppl cheered when he used "Somebody's gonna get a hurt real bad" and "Be a man"... Who wouldn't?? Even his opening act was just as funny... I was literally laughing non stop for one and a half hours... And yes, his jokes are all new... just took a bit from the New York show... But it was still funny...
I wished they had a recording of that show and sold it... I would definitely buy it... hehe... His jokes came hard and fast, some were a bit crude even... but hey, thats Russell Peters for you... Haha... I wouldn't have it any other way...
Gotta go sleep now... finally finished my essay and CA, can take a slight breather.. Phew... Hehe...
you have just Slacked with Chris @ 2:57 AM
Friday, October 13, 2006
Gotta rush it cos I've been mugging for the immunology CA for the past week... I definitely did the best I could have done... The test was yesterday, 20 questions, each had 5 true/false questions... worse thing is... its NEGATIVE MARKING... Just like the Pharmaco CA...
Students always complain that negative marking is stupid/silly and all that... But after taking 2 tests with negative marking, I kinda feel that its actually quite effective in separating the people who know their work, and those who don't... In normal MCQ tests, if you don't know the answer, you either use elimination, or a 4/5 sided dice to get your answer... plus all these years in school, we've been conditioned to 'just try' even if you don't know the answer...
But for negative marking, its a bit harder to do that, since if you just guess the answer, there's a chance that you might get it wrong, and have 1 mark DEDUCTED, from your score. Imagine out of 5 statements, you get 3 right and 2 wrong, in the end, instead of getting 3 marks, you get only 1... then isn't it better to just leave the other 2 blank? At least you'll get 3 instead of 1... it would be worse if you get 2 right and 3 wrong... there goes all your marks... out of 5 possible marks, you get 0... In the end, negative marking forces the student to actually stop and think about what they are doing, and helps them assess how confident they are of their knowledge... If you're not fully sure that your answer is correct, then wouldn't it be better to just leave it blank? But then again, old habits are hard to break... after more than 12 years of getting nagged with 'just try', it IS kinda hard to stop yourself from filling in all the circles... It's hard, but not impossible...
I hardly like to rant openly, cos I do still want some semblence of a private life, but... sometimes, its hard to keep things in all the time... that's when I turn to my friends... they've been so understanding all this while, listening to me rant, rave and just basically question everything around me... without them, I probably wouldn't have been able to pick myself up so fast... But at times, I do still backslide... especially when I see my other frens in a similar situation... the only thing stopping myself from going to comfort them, is the fact that in doing so, I might actually backslide even more...
I know myself... I know that right now, I can only comfort anyone from afar, give a few words of support and encouragement, and thats all I can offer at this moment... I need to protect myself right now... not from my frens or anyone, but from myself.. My own negative emotions that sometimes creep to the surface again... Emotions like anger, paranoia, disbelief, confusion... Some I've come to terms with, and let them run their course... others, seem to always reappear when I have a gut feeling about something and it usually is true...
It's not healthy for me, not right now... makes me think too much, makes me just wanna stone and not do anything... And right now, I can't do that much... exams in one and a half months, papers not written, CAs not studied for... I cannot afford to just stone anymore... My priority is to my studies right now... really need to bring up that CAP... So I do what I have to to stay sane... Anything that I feel will affect my ability to study, I will push to one side...
After I got that msg last night, I didn't want to write my paper anymore, I just wanted to clear my head, think about things and sort my emotions out... I don't deny that seeing that msg made me smile, but I realised that that word had somewhat different meanings for different people... not to mention the fact that being somewhat high could also loosen the tongue a bit... And while asking for specifics left me in front of a wall again, I also realised that confusion begets more confusion... So while I might smile at that statement, right now, I don't want to do anything... I'm walking away from that wall... until it comes down and I get a concrete answer... I've helped all I can... now its time to help yourself...
By doing so, I might really lose you for good.. Thats what I fear sometimes, but I will face that fear when it comes... only then can I walk forwards along my own path... I hope you can face yours as well... It may be hard to do alone, but I will always keep my promise to you... I don't go back on my word... I never have and I don't intend to start now...
I need time right now... Time to heal, time to seek out my destiny.. And in protecting myself against my negative emotions, I'm also protecting you against them.. You've got enough problems without me adding to them...
I don't know how long I'll take, as long as it has to... its the only way...
you have just Slacked with Chris @ 1:15 PM
Monday, October 09, 2006
This is a tribute to the nice guys.. The nice guys that finish last, that never become more than friends, that endure hours of whining and bitching about what assholes guys are, while disproving the very point. This is dedicated to those guys who always provide a shoulder to lean on but restrain themselves to tentative hugs, those guys who hold open doors and give reassuring pats on the back and sit patiently outside the changing room at department stores..
This is in honor of the guys that obligingly reiterate how cute/beautiful/smart/funny/sexy their female friends are at the appropriate moment, because they know most girls need that litany of support... This is in honor of the guys with open minds, with laid-back attitudes, with honest concern.. This is in honor of the guys who respect a girl's every facet, from her privacy to her theology to her clothing style..
This is for the guys who escort their drunk, bewildered female friends back from parties and never take advantage once they're at her door, for the guys who accompany girls to bars as buffers against the rest of the creepy male population, for the guys who know a girl is fishing for compliments but give them out anyway..
For the guys who always play by the rules in a game where the rules favor cheaters, for the guys who are accredited as boyfriend material but somehow don't end up being boyfriends, for all the nice guys who are overlooked, underestimated, and unappreciated, for all the nice guys who are manipulated, misled, and unjustly abandoned, this is for you..
This is for that time she left 40 urgent messages on your cell phone, and when you called her back, she spent three hours painstakingly dissecting two sentences her boyfriend said to her over dinner... And even though you thought her boyfriend was a chump and a jerk, you assured her that it was all ok and she shouldn't worry about it..
This is for that time she interrupted the best killing spree you'd ever orchestrated in GTA3 to rant about a rumor that romantically linked her and the guy she thinks is the most repulsive person in the world... And even though you thought it was immature and you had nothing against the guy, you paused the game for two hours and helped her concoct a counter-rumor to spread around the floor..
This is also for that time she didn't have a date, so after numerous vows that there was nothing "serious" between the two of you, she dragged you to a party where you knew nobody, the beer was awful, and she flirted shamelessly with you, justifying each fit of reckless teasing by announcing to everyone: "oh, but we're just friends!" And even though you were invited purely as a symbolic warm body for her ego, you went anyways. Because you’re nice like that..
The nice guys don't often get credit where credit is due. And perhaps more disturbing, the nice guys don't seem to get laid as often as they should.. And I wish I could logically explain this trend, but I can't.. From what I have observed on campus and what I have learned from talking to friends at other schools and in the workplace, the only conclusion I can form is that many girls are just illogical, manipulative bitches...
Many of them claim they just want to date a nice guy, but when presented with such a specimen, they say irrational, confusing things such as "oh, he's too nice to date" or "he would be a good boyfriend but he's not for me" or "he already puts up with so much from me, I couldn't possibly ask him out!" or the most frustrating of all: "no, it would ruin our friendship."
Yet, they continue to lament the lack of datable men in the world, and they expect their too-nice-to-date male friends to sympathize and apologize for the men that are jerks.. Sorry, guys, girls like that are beyond my ability to fathom. I can't figure out why the connection breaks down between what they say (I want a nice guy!) and what they do (I'm going to sleep with this complete ass now!)...
But one thing I can do, is say that the nice-guy-finishes-last phenomenon doesn't last forever.. There are definitely many girls who grow out of that train of thought and realize they should be dating the nice guys, not taking them for granted. The tricky part is finding those girls, and even trickier, finding the ones that are single...
So, until those girls are found, I propose a toast to all the nice guys... You know who you are, and I know you're sick of hearing yourself described as ubiqutously nice. But the truth of the matter is, the world needs your patience in the department store, your holding open of doors, your party escorting services, your propensity to be a sucker for a pretty smile...
For all the crazy, inane, absurd things you tolerate, for all the situations where you are the faceless, nameless hero, my accolades, my acknowledgement, and my gratitude go out to you... You do have credibility in this society, and your well deserved vindication is coming...
I realised that while I do like being a nice guy... its also important to make sure you don't get stepped all over... its hard finding a balance... but somehow, I will... I wanna be a nice guy with an edge... =) Not a total pushover, but someone who knows when enough is enough... It's time to let my temper leak out a bit sometimes... Just let emotions flow... I'll just have to remember to balance it out... Slowly finding myself again... and I'm liking what I see so far... =)
you have just Slacked with Chris @ 12:14 AM
Sunday, October 01, 2006
She heard about this cafe called Miss Clarity Cafe at Purvis street that was supposed to have good food at a cheap price, so after walking around Millenia and Suntec, we took a walk down there... Quite nearby...
Decor was quite cheeful... although it looked a bit childish... You know the sort, just tables and colourful chairs, like those you'd find at Ikea... The good thing about this cafe is that there's free wireless... Just too bad there aren't any comfy sofa seats to slack in, kinda farney to be doing your work on the normal tables and chairs... feels too much like a classroom... Ahaha...
Food wasn't bad, main course about $8, drinks ranged from $1 to $4.50, same for desserts... It got a bit noisy as there were a few large groups in the cafe... guess they tried to make it more 'high-class' by placing tea candles on the table.. But... the whole setting just looked mismatched... Heh...
Food presentation wasn't bad... I had the Chicken Ballotine, she had the Chicken Cordon Bleu... The Ballotine was nice and juicy, but the Cordon Bleu could have been a bit more moist, probably cos they were using chicken breast for that... the presentation and sauces were nice though...
Chicken Ballotine... Roasted chicken thigh stuffed with mushrooms, delicious! Potatoes are very nicely done too..
Chicken Cordon Bleu... Breaded chicken with a cream sauce... think its stuffed with ham too...
They had nice appetisers too... the usual finger foods, and in an attempt to cater to a more upmarket crowd, they actually offered fresh oysters and french escargots... Hehe... I just had to try the escargots, wanted to compare them to Jacks' Place escargots...
Whats left of the French Escargots in garlic butter... Yum... Heh...
The winner? I'd say Miss Clarity's... both were comparable... just that price wise, Miss Clarity's is cheaper... Lol...
Dessert was filling as well... The Milk and Bread pudding was damn good... moist and firm, not too sweet, and the raisins on top complemented the pudding nicely... The Mud Ooze I ordered was interesting... Ice cream on top of a serving of brownie drowned in melted french chocolate was just to DIE for...
Milk and Bread Pudding... with raisins too!! Damn sinful... =)
Mud Ooze... Even MORE sinful... vanilla ice cream on top of a serving of melted chocolate and brownie... *drool*
Too bad the atmosphere there wasn't as nice as I'd hoped a cafe could have been... In the end, we went down the street to CAN cafe for its nice cosy area to sit, chat and chill... But not before walking around Bugis Junction to digest some of the food... Haha...
I've always loved the drinks at CAN cafe... interesting mugs used... Ordered a Copacabane Beach and one Sunset Boulevard... Both quite fruity and nice... then we just sat there and slacked... talked crap and laughed at silly things...
Drinks at CAN Cafe... Sunset Boulevard on the left, Copacabana Beach on the right... Good place to chill out too...
I never really had a chance to explore the cafe, but she noticed that they had old newspapers on the wall... and the newspaper itself was quite interesting... One was from The Examiner, dated Feburary 15th, 1942... On the front page, was the article covering the surrender of Singapore to the Japanese... The other newspaper was The Statesman, dated January 31st, 1948... The cover story was on the assasination of Ghandi... who was shot 4 times while on his way to prayers... Its actually quite amzing that the newspapers were actually still in quite good condition...
CAN cafe really is a nice spot to relax in... and if you take a look around, you'd see interesting things in that cafe... Like old ice kachang machines, old cameras and sewing machines too... not to mention all the movie memorabilia hung everywhere... I actually hated it when we had to leave the cafe... =)
you have just Slacked with Chris @ 11:52 PM
