Nomadic lifestyle by Wilson

Moved

2009-10-25T19:30:00.000+08:00

This blog will be moved to http://nomadiclifestyle.wordpress.com with immediate effect!!!

My First Few Weeks of School

2009-09-10T00:43:00.001+08:00

This sums it all. :( :( :( :(

IPPT

2009-08-19T22:28:00.002+08:00

All I want is a repeat of last year, passing my IPPT in SAFRA Toa Payoh, the only test centre which is still using a manual system. I even thought of scanning my result slip and publishing it proudly to show the world I passed IPPT. Yea I know passing is no big deal when everyone gets gold or silver and happily enjoying their $200/$400 of monetary incentive, but for someone who rarely passes IPPT, pass is the biggest deal.

But plans are still plans, my achilles heels - standing broadjump is back to haunt me. And this time it's a record low of 207 which I can't believe it myself. The fast few months of gym-ing has allowed me to pass my pull up and run but seems to have no effect on my jump.. ARGH. After the statics station I requested and was granted a third attempt to jump. No miracles. I told the tester I will got one week to try.

"Welcome to RT" was his reply. Screw him. 9 cms is no big deal and I shall grab every opportunity to retake my broadjump. After all I need not take all the other stations again since I passed all my other stations and running. For a start, I've booked the 0730 slot this Saturday. Freaking early but no choice. I'm desperate to not go RT. After that there's still some windows at Toa Payoh, Maju and whereever I can go. I just want to pass the freaking broadjump.

Sadly, my friends all seems to be quite happy for me to go RT. Here's the evidence.

Yeah, I know RT isn't that bad, after all "NSmen will be paid 1/2 day service pay for each RT session attended which will be credited to their bank account on a weekly basis." So good that I doubt it can even cover my transport cost nor a portion of my opportunity course. So I shall try hard, cross my fingers and hope I get the last laugh.

Genting 101

2009-08-08T17:01:00.005+08:00

Had a short weekend getaway at Genting with a few of the Greenies. Shall not go too much into detail about the trip since facebook tells most of the picture. Perhaps it's good to share some tips for those who are intending to go Genting in the near future.

Choosing Your Agency

With price-fixing among all the coach agencies, we randomly chose five-star as our tour agent, and here's a photo of the interior of the coach towards Genting.

Very spacious, with massage, gaming and video facilities. BUT, I will still not recommend Five Star firstly since the package does not include breakfast. Perhaps other agencies do not provide too but at least should inform the customers or give them an option to opt for breakfast. Next, the coach back to Singapore was of totally different standard. It's just a normal single deck bus without any facilities. Look at all their advertisements, I'm sure that is a form of misrepresentation. Read up a bit on HWZ forum, actually flight will be good alternative since the two-way flight from Singapore to KL is as low as only S$40, and the two way coach from KL to Genting is only RM40, so possibly it's cheaper to take a flight there compared to coach, and the journey time is much faster too.

Themepark

The indoor themepark was so-so with so many attractions changed to signature attractions (i.e. not included in package) but the outdoor themepark was still awesome! But warning! NEVER NEVER NEVER take the ride called SPACE LABORATORY! It's the most wasted 5mins of my life I swear!

Dinosaurland!! ROAR

Pirate Ship

Bumper Car! BANG BANG

The Ride which I Still Dare Not Take

Casino

Yeah! Finally my first trip to Casino. The Casino at the First World Hotel was quite small compared to the one at Highland Resort. A lot of games which I have never heard before let alone know how to play, such as carribean poker, pontoon, etc so we just stand by the side and watch. And after reading the instruction manual, I decided to stick to roulette and tai sai (big small) which is rather idiot proof and the chance is 50-50. Quite happy that they set aside a non-smoking area so that I can gamble in fresh air but sad to know that they no longer serve free sandwiches in the casino. lol. After calculating the stats, I sticked with the games with the least negative expected payoff (the house always win with negative expected payoff) and after about one and a half hour of hardwork, made a small winning of RM50. Quite a small amount but the casino trip was indeed an eye-opener especially the roulette table. After each round you look at the numberous chips sweep by the croupier into the box compared to the tiny amount they pay out, and it's amazing why people still insist to bet on those low-chance options after looking at their money being swept again and again. I've learnt to appreciate the beauty of stats after the genting trip.

Final Tip

What else can it be but good company :)

A Happy Journey Starts Like That

2009-07-24T00:03:00.002+08:00

If there's one thing that makes me hate internship most, it got to be the MRT. Can't wait for internship to end so that I need not squeeze in the MRT during peak hours in the morning and evening and get squashed near the door any more!!

Talk about graciousness, please don't blame the commuters for everything and look at the state of your MRT traffic before pointing fingers.

The way weekends should be

2009-07-19T23:43:00.002+08:00

Probably one of the best weekends I had, not that anything special happened, but I was pretty much occupied and stress free. Met up with TWC group and decided that they will be going Genting on the same day I am going with the Greenies, so I shall have 2 groups of friends with me at Genting. Yeah! Then had a short meet up with the NPCC peeps to receive the usual inflow of (relationship) updates.

No training on Saturday since it's archery outing! Went prawning (a very short one though) followed by dinner. And today met up with the Greenies to celebrate the July babies' birthday. Good to see those who went overseas intern/ exchange once again after such a long time.

Will be meeting up with the above mentioned groups in the near future soon for more hao chi de dong xi. Another happy thing - it's 3 weeks to Merdeka!!!

Slave of Technology

2009-07-13T00:45:00.001+08:00

If you still remember around ten years back when internet was getting more popular and articles were discussing the advantages of internet, one of the advantages is

"With internet, one will not be restricted to the mundane 9 to 5 working hours and can work in the comfort of their homes."

And ten years later, it is precisely this "advantage" which returns to haunt me. Internet has not liberated me from the 9-5 work (9-6 in fact), but has extended my working hours to 24 X 7. After ending work at 6, there will still be another set of work for me to do at "the comfort of my home." First I will need to check my school email, and when the word 'archery' appears in the subject, that's more or less about it. If I'm lucky I will just need to delegate the job to someone else, if not I will have to follow up on the matter myself. Fortunately as the president, I need not have to consult others when I need to make decisions and that save me precious time and the irritation of people asking me fo r work.

That does not end my working day yet. Exploring into forex will means there is much more work for me to do. First of all will need to read on economic data and news, next will be reading charts and followed by monitoring. At least I am still using the demo account at the moment so I expect things to get worse in the coming months. By the time I finish my trades for the day, it should be about 1am and time for me to sleep.

At this rate I will probably get internet phobia soon. Everytime I log on to the school email I wish that there will be no new email and everytime a MSN window pops up, I pray hard that it is non-work-related. It takes courage even for me to log on to MSN nowadays.

Has the benefits of internet outweighed my freedom? That depends. If I get real rich with the internet, if I have more time to hunt mouse and play blackshot, if I manage to find romance on the net. If all the 'ifs' come true, then I will probably be a willing slave of technology.

A week in the life a marketing intern

2009-07-05T15:43:00.003+08:00

Laziness is one of the causes of inactivity of my blog and the other reason is that my blog lacks direction. I am starting to get sick of the template (it was never changed since donkey years ago) and I'm no longer sure of what type of content is suitable. With facebook, there's absolutely no need for events coverage and I can't write stuff that's too personal as well for privacy issue. As a matter of fact I quite like the content of Xiaxue's blog, cause it feels rather real and the issues discussed are rather interesting. No matter what the direction is, the most important thing is that I must stay motivated to blog.

Time has become a scarce resource since I started internship and I decided to investigate where has my time gone to, therefore made the following breakdown of my time in a typical week.

50hrs for Internship (9hrs per day plus OT)
15hrs for Travelling time
10hrs for Archery Training + Admin Work
15hrs for Forex Demo (average 3hrs per day)
3hrs for Tuition (inclusive travelling)
3hrs for Gym
42 hrs Sleep (Average 6hrs per day)

So with 168hrs per week, I'm left with a pathetic 30hrs for myself to go out with friends, hunt mouse, find dates clear my room etc. How can that be enough? Starting to imagine how is it possible for me work a 9-6 job continuously for a few decades with so little hours for myself. And I truly believe that the hours is inflated as I did not take into account time to shower, and napping etc, so actually it's quite a scary figure. I need to get rich quick and get at least 100hrs of personal time every week.

End of the PC Show

2009-06-15T23:30:00.002+08:00

Today is my 8th consecutive working day, thanks to the PC Show. Basically the whole office is stoning today due to fatigue and my productivity has hit a new low since I started intern. And in the late afternoon, I find it extremely hard to keep awake and dozed off occasionally, but at least it's over.

My first time and possibly my last time working at a computer fair. What excites me is not so much of working during the show, but seeing my brochures being distributed at the fair. Total of 40,000 copies printed and distributed during the show which means that around 40,000 people had seen my work, even though most of the brochures probably ended up on the floor or chunked aside within seconds of reading. Nevertheless, it's still my greatest achievement in the design area so far as someone like me can actually produce a brochure for fujitsu which is circulated on such a scale. And i did receive some compliments for the ease of reading for the brochures which made me quite relieved. The remaining brochures that I will be designing for Asiapac will probably be on a smaller scale, but I'll put in my best to build up my design portfolio!

Brochures apart, I have been assigned runner for the four days of the PC Show. Other than the first day when I'm still not too clear of what to do and working with a particular someone is rather annoying, the rest of the days are rather okay as most of the time I'm releasing the items to the customers only. Being trained in customer service in Starhub, it's quite a breeze for me to do the job. Of course my throat was quite chui for all four days, otherwise it would have been an even better experience for me. And after the IT show, I've known even more people in the company now and they are all nice people =).

On path

2009-06-07T23:30:00.002+08:00

Everything seems to be on path for my internship now. Got a bunch of fun and entertaining colleagues which makes office hours pass so easily. Design-wise I'm getting still working hard on it especially in terms of my colour combi and if possible I will also like to pick up photoshop to improve the quality of my posters too.

This week gotta be super busy with PC show starting this Thursday, so having a seven-days work week this week. The only good thing is that I need not stay in the office =)

3 down, 12 to go

2009-05-17T21:27:00.003+08:00

Ended my third week of internship and I have to say that the job is getting more and more challenging, and in MPW language it's becoming a stretch assignment. For brochures and posters, even thought I do not have the experience, at least I had some technical skills. However, now my job is developing into a full Marcom role, and the job scope is expanding into packaging design and booth layout, which are no where near my area of expertise. That's rather worrying for me especially now Ella had left the company, I don't have much to fall back on.

Last week had been an especially tiring week, as I'm giving tuition almost everyday since Lorraine is having her exams. Therefore more or less I'm having a work-sleep-work cycle for the whole week. The two days at the ITE roadshow was more or less a breather for me, even though I'm not really a sales type of person. Fortunately there's many friendly people there at the ITE to keep me and michelle accompany and one of them even treated us lunch on Friday.

So work aside, the lack of personal time make me appreciate my night time and weekends better. Last weekend went for the Kukup ride with SMUX. The R&R there was quite good with mahjong, karaoke and lot's of food just that the pace of the ride was freaking slow. Even though it's the second time I rode there with SMUX, it's still a new experience since there's many new people joining us.

And had an internal shoot once again yesterday, and it was an internal shoot filled with prizes. Got myself a third position and won a $75 voucher. Now I can finally get myself a sight and a doinker to form a full set-up :)

First Week of Internship

2009-05-03T23:14:00.003+08:00

Had a short first week of intern last week since Friday was a public holiday. Started off the first day of work pasting newspaper ads on paper, and that's when I thought this internship is about doing sai kang. Oh well, I was wrong and that was actually my few slack moments I have as I started actual work later in the afternoon. For the time being I will be doing marketing communications, which involves designing promotional artwork.

One of the benefits of internship is that it allows the intern to put what is learnt in school into practice, but for me it's slightly different. I am actually putting what I've learnt in NAFA into practice rather than what I've learnt in SMU into practice. Once again, my old problem of interest versus ability starts to arise again. On one hand, I felt very honoured to design brochures for reputable brands but on the other hand, I knew clearly that was not what I'm best in. When I decided to major in marketing rather than finance, there was already a question if I had an ability in marketing, but fortunately I manage to find some flair in marketing. Now when it comes to design, I'm no longer that sure if I can find the same flair. Somehow I felt that asking Wilson to do design results in a net welfare loss to the world compared to asking me to do stats, finance or analysis.

So for the whole week I was designing, designing and designing. I did not even have the chance nor need to use microsoft office as I was using Adobe Illustrator for the whole week. One of the task I was allocated to do includes designing the office assess card, which came as a stunner to me as I've totally no experience in doing that. In the end I still manage to come out with 5 different designs which I'm quite satisfied with, though in the end they shortlisted a design which I don't really like.

Designing brochures requires less creativity, though many other stuffs need to be taken into consideration, especially when it comes to IT products. All the product specs seems so foreign to me especially the chipsets. The last time I read about chipsets it was pentium 4 and now there's so many new stuff like centrino, core dual, duo core and what not which I still don't know the differences. In the meantime, my weakness in design is starting to show up, especially in a tight deadline. Despite following a conservative approach, I still don't find my designs satisfactory, probably have to do major changes to my design when I return to office tomorrow.

Start of Internship

2009-04-26T22:47:00.002+08:00

My only week of holiday for the summer has just passed. Did not manage to do much actually, and more or less ran out of things to do. Therefore it's not a bad thing that internship will start tml to keep me occupied.

Release of results has been slow this sem, as usual. With MFE exceeding my own expectations, there isn't much left for me to worry regarding to this sem's GPA. Out of sudden I might be joining the committee of the Telok Blangah PA Youth Movement. Initially did not even consider it at all, but after attending the first info session and looking at how strong the committe is, the offer is slightly too attractive to resist.

Intern's starting tomorrow and I'm feeling rather nervous actually. After all I'm the only intern at the company and I had seen only 1 out of my 2 posts. And sadly I have the whole house to me this week since my parents are off to Taiwan for a week starting from today. Boring... So I guess I'm gonna sleep early tonight so that I can wake up on time tml. Wish me good luck!

It's Over!!

2009-04-16T23:05:00.002+08:00

Haven't had an update for quite some time. And it's over!! The finals are over and this marks the end of my yr2 life in SMU. Not the best finals I had with disastrous MFE paper and high chance that I'm going to receive my lowest grade ever in SMU. Just hope that I did well enough for the other papers to cover for MFE.

This summer gotta be different from the last, cause of my internship. It will be starting next next week and ending just a week before school starts, so effectively my whole summer is BURNT, at a low price of $650/month, argh!!! And meanwhile, got so much stuff to settle before the start of my intern, so this holiday gonna be the most xiong hols I gonna have. For now, I need to clear my room which is currently under living standards, work on logos, prepare for intern by looking at brochure designs, train for IPPT, relax, plan archery stuff! And I only got 1 week, haiz...

A Slow Sem

2009-03-18T23:01:00.003+08:00

This semester has been fairly slow for me, and at this point of time I am just starting on or going to start on some of my projects. Especially for IEA, presentation is next week but we are only starting after this friday. Although I have all the zai yr4s in my group, the short time frame to complete the project seems to be testing the limit for my composure. Well, the best thing for me to do is to trust my teammates.

Went for LTM interview today. Prof Kong liked my write-out but I have to admit I did rather badly for my interview. Comparing to my internship interview, I will say that LTM interview is much harder. Firstly I seems to be a misconception on what LTM is all about and underestimated what is expected for a LTM TA. During the interview she stated down her expectations and the desired outcome, which is to allow the TA to discover himself and make a change to others' life, rather intimidating at first. Her style is completely different from Prof Rani's and I supposed many TAs would have flunked if they took under Prof Kong instead. I guess it will be a nice challenge to have. Hopefully my below average interview and the fact that I'm moving on to year 3 will not put me in a too big disadvantage.

I am beginning to love marketing after starting my project, which is decided this week to be POKKA BLOOD ORANGE JUICE. There's so much to find out about a product and they can be found anywhere with an hands on approach. Like going to shop n save, NTUC and cold storage to compare the price of the juice and its competitors, which I feel is so much fun compared to reading financial reports. Now I'm more or less convinced that I made the right choice to change my major to marketing from finance. Cheers, with blood orange.

My Recess Week

2009-03-03T10:16:00.006+08:00

Just a one week break and a little too short to enjoy. Lot's of sleep, lot's of shooting, lot's of biking and a little of projects.

OCBC Cycling

I was cycling damn slow that day and finished around 2 hrs plus. Since I was thinking I paid $40 for it, and if I finished in less than 2hrs, I will be spending more than $20 per hour, and in the meanwhile foregoing the free 100plus at the pit stop.

Tour De Singapore (Nightbike)

I was GL again, leading my dearest Han Zi group with a few new guys. Actually hollanded and missed the game stop and reach the food stop straight away. So proud of them as we are fast and the leading group all the way. Oh well, this should be my last time being a GL, it's time to step down and give the new blood a chance to lead. I'll just slack as a participant the next ride.

NTU Archery Championship
Content to be in the mid-table for the qualifiers though I underperformed as usual. Out in the first round for both individual and team on the 2nd day. Quite disappointed as I thought I will at least get a chance to shoot against the first seed on the 2nd round. But I'm quite happy with my team in general. Golden girl once again din disappoint with her bronze medal. The men novice team did not manage to get a medal, but their fighting spirit was admirable with them fighting back from behind to reach a tie breaker on 2 occasions. The team cohesion has improved during the competition too.

Intern Interview

2009-02-19T23:16:00.003+08:00

Went for my intern interview at today at Henderson Industrial Park which is quite a distance from my house. The hot weather plus me wearing long sleeves made me very sian and the industrial park looks quite run down and then i started to worry about my internship. Went up to the office and a lady led me to the interview room and gave me a form to fill up. For the next half an hour no one attended to me and the entire room is just me and the form. Why would I need more than half an hour to fill up this form? As every minute passed by I just felt more and more sian and thoughts of hecking the interview and just focusing on the Singapore Pools intern came to my mind.

Finally another lady came into the room to interview me, she was quite young and cute, so I gave up the thought of hecking the interview. Apparently she was quite impressed with my resume, which made things much easier for me. Somehow my skill sets matched the job very well, especially with my NAFA course. And for part of the interview, I was showing her my NAFA portfolio which was quite weird considering I am applying for a marketing intern because I'm pursuing a degree in BBM majoring in marketing but have no SMU marketing projects to show. She seemed quite pleased with it too, especially with my Swatch watch design. I always knew that opportunities go to those who are most prepared.

It was more of a chit chat rather than interview and she spent quite some time explaining to me what the job scope is in the company. The job scope sounded interesting, as a significant part of the job is producing artwork, which one year ago I will never imagine myself doing. The job involved marketing research also, which requires me to go down to Sim Lim and Funan to talk with the retailers. An important part was the trade show coordination, which during my term will be The PC Show. So we talked for around 45mins or so, in quite a relaxing mode. Think that SMU presentation Q&As has trained me well, as in words just come out of my mouth quite quickly and since there's no generation gap, I did not put in effort to say politically correct answer. Overall I think I did quite well for the interview, though I do not know who the other applicant for the same position was, but my grades and my NAFA course gave me a bit of unfair advantage. While walking out, she asked me a weird question, with my grades why didn't I chose NUS or NTU? That probably gave a view of how the common perception of SMU by firms, but I certainly didn't expect that question to come out from a reasonably young working personnel.

For now, I just need to wait for the result of the interview through the school as well as wait for an interview from Singapore Pools. If I am lucky enough to be offered by both companies, I might have a hard time choosing though. My business statistics will be put into good use in Sgpools while Asiapac will give me a wide view of marketing. And I'm not too sure how strict the SMU 'choose the first offer' policy is, otherwise by chronological order, I will more or less be interning in Asiapac. Oh well, more choices are better than no choice.

And tonight I'm quite addicted to Hitler spoofs, here's one which I particularly like:

A Strange Encounter

2009-02-12T23:41:00.004+08:00

While on my way to school yesterday, as usual I stopped by Suntec to change bus. Then a singh approached me to ask for directions to Little India and I told him that no bus goes there to suntec. He started talking to me then, telling me he is a yoga professor having hundreds of students. Next he told me in July 2013, I will start my own business. Thinking that he was just another lunatic, I took his words with a pinch of salt. He then told me to send him a letter if his prediction came true and gave me his name and address: Mr Singh (Yogi), Yoga University of New Delhi, postpin 141007 (this don't look like a valid address, and I later research on internet and this university doesn't exist).

That's not the main point. He wrote something on a piece of paper, crushed it and then passed to me. After that, he asked me for my date of birth and I told him. Next he asked me to open up the paper the gave me and my date of birth was written correctly on it. That's damn FREAKY lah and it's even more high level than those street magic I saw on TV. He then told me that I will get married with 2 sons, which sounded good. I hoped to know more about my future, but at the same time I was weary that he was a scammer or can cast some curse, I quickly left when I saw my bus coming. That was the first time I came across such a situation, but fortunately all his predictions were on the positive side. However, I totally could not understand how come my date of birth written correctly on the piece of paper he gave me. Most probably I will never figure that out and some things probably can't be explained by science. Oh well, now all I can do is to hope that his prediction will come true, at least I can be a boss and I won't be a bachelor.

Back to reality, Vday is coming soon and most prob I'll have to spend it at the range this vday =( And recently I have been listening to this song which I like a lot - 黄靖伦 - 缺席. A suitable song for me this vday too, but that's not the complete reason why I'm listen to this song over again and again. Singapore rarely produces such quality singers, and we should give him our support.

25 Random things about Wilson

2009-01-27T23:12:00.000+08:00

As taken from facebook:

1. I don't eat 90% of vegetables. After all I din climb all the way up the food chain to eat those.
2. I can't squad with my feet flat.
3. My right forearm is much bigger than my left.
4. I have no passion, no ambitions but yet can appear as doing well.
5. I own Rain Designs, a company with 0 staff, 0 profit and 0 cost.
6. I can't tread water
7. My wish is to strike toto this thursday.
8. I am not a fan of Valentines and Xmas.
9. I think I'm getting more handsome as the years go by.
10. I have been in all sorts of CCA before, uniform group, music, sports, interest group.
11. I have decided my second major is business stats but is undecided for my first major.
12. I'm going Kazakhstan next year for exchange and deciding on Taiwan exchange after that.
13. I once sold PSP accessories under the name Nomadic Technology
14. I am a fan of Home United (sleague)
15. My best position in soccer is goalkeeper
16. I was in TAF club in primary school.
17. I wish to have purple highlights but will settle for extension.
18. I sleep with Pikachu everynight.
19. I love to shop but hardly find suitable stuff to buy
20. I only pack my room when I have guest coming.
21. I have never eaten instant noodles for years.
22. I get red with just a cup of alcohol
23. I think that school is damn slack and wonder why everyone else is so busy.
24. I like to run on the treadmill
25. I apply suntan lotion when I'm under the sun but it doesn't seem to work.

Patron's Day Submission

2009-01-18T21:04:00.004+08:00

In exchange for a free lunch, I agreed to help Jiaying for the Patron's Day thingy. What I am supposed to do is to produce an A4 artwork representing what SMU means to me. And tada! here's my entry.

The optimistic message I'm bringing out is that SMU gives me plenty of opportunities, such as exchanges, good interns, leadership positions. Nevertheless, there's some hidden messages in the drawing as well. The lion doesn't look happy and it's in b/w while the rest of the stuff r in color. That's probably how I'm feeling occasionally in school - 无敌是寂寞的。 School rarely disappoints be in terms of opportunities and academic related stuff, but sometimes I just want to put all these pragmatic things aside and enjoy like a pack of deer, and not like a lonely king of the jungle.

Oh well, this is not supposed to be an emo post. So ya, recently got a bit interested in arts nowadays, beginning with logo designs and now going back to basic pencil, pens and paper. Attended Articated's workshop last friday but was largely disappointed as no techniques were taught and it seems more like a recruitment drive. At least I had an opportunity to draw stuff, and with the momentum I carried on with this drawing and not use my favorite Illustrator (I did use some photoshop though). Though my drawing still CMI, I'm actually quite surprised that my lion still look like a lion. Probably now I can make better use of my sketchbook and who knows, it may well be my new outlet of frustration.

One Step Closer to Kazakhstan

2009-01-12T22:20:00.002+08:00

Went for the exchange briefing today to know more about going on an international exchange. Basically have decided on the destination for the exchange before the talk, and it's a less known country known as Kazakhstan, and going to the Kazakhstan Institute of Management. JJ will be going on the exchange with me as well, and probably Marcus too, but depending on the school policy.

Just in case anyone doesn't know where Kazakhstan is, it's actually located in Central Asia or Eastern Europe, between China and Russia. Although there's 'stan' like in Afghanistan, Kazakhstan is much more peaceful and prosperous in comparison with its natural resources. So in general it is much safer than it sounds.

Kazakhstan Institute of Management is a rather international school as well, and lessons are taught in English, so there shouldn't be too much of a problem. Had a picture of the school from the website, and you can actually see snow capped mountains from the school. How cool right?

Although there's still one year more if I actually go to Kazakhstan, I have to more or less start my preparations. First is financially, I have to save up although an exchange to Kazakhstan is relatively affordable, and from the talk today, there seems to be quite a number of scholarship going around. Academically, I have to work hard too, since the exchange is more of less a strategic move for me. Not only do I wish to lock in my GPA, I also hope to clear those non-quantitative mods which I am less likely to do well. Finally, I get to do the mods I like related to visual comms without pressure since it's a pass/fail thingy only.

Rain Designs

2009-01-06T15:57:00.004+08:00

This is my (possibly and hopefully) new start-up, or I should say, my little experiment:

The monogram:
Inverted:

Resolution for 2009

2009-01-02T17:52:00.002+08:00

Took sometime to think about the coming year and what I want to have in 2009. Somehow I realized it's easier for me to change to achieve stuff than hope that good things just appear in front of me. This year's resolution will be different I suppose, as unlike the previous year, I don't have new milestones to achieve. I doubt that I will get any archery medals, even less likely to complete another marathon, felt that dean's list is no longer exclusive, etc. Therefore, this year is probably another Wilson changing year. Here's what I which to achieve:

1) Cherish
I have to learn to realize how fortunate I am. Learn to cherish my friends and not lose anymore contact of them. Cherish my time and reduce my nua-ing. Cherish my money and make every cent well spent.

2) Discover
The next semester is one of the most important semester, since that's when I need to declare my major. Up till now it's still a 50-50 tie between finance and marketing, and the decision is probably going to decide my career for the next fourty years. Don't see myself finding my passion anytime soon, just hope that I can find something I'm comfortable with doing.

3) 无乐不做
Not only that, but 有乐一定要做. That's signs that my vision is getting shorter and shorter and throwing the word 'long term' out of the window. Why deprive a few years of enjoyment just to save up one month of future salary? I shall learn to be bad, and only be good to those who deserve it. Also to bring out my personal style in terms of work and other areas, in short a non-conformist.

4) Huat
The obvious way is to strike toto. But the down to earth way is still to work. Obviously I need more cash to increase my current consumption as well as for my exchange next year. Probably have to give tuition more regularly for the good of lorraine's grade and my wallet. With summer, there's internship so that means more money. Hopefully I get my Stats TA this sem and my result will be good enough to be TA next semester. And finally looking at freelancing to put my NAFA skills to good use but that is a bit more difficult.

5) Communication skills
Need to build up more confidence during presentations as the feedback that I got back the last semester is that I have problem with my articulation. Need to improve for that especially with interviews and internship nearing. Have to improve on the art of sweettalking too. haha.

6) Proactiveness
Basically, just less procrastination. Need to put in more effort in meetings too especially since I felt quite bad not doing my best for projects due to other commitments. Need to be more proactive in archery too, given my position. And on a non-work level, I should ask my friends out more often too.

So 6 resolutions for this year. Let's see how this yr will turn out to be.

Looking Back 2008

2009-01-01T18:26:00.001+08:00

Spent the last day of 2008 with a morning mahjong session and an emo New Year countdown gathering at night. The past few weeks has been rather busy for me, so busy that I haven't got the time to look back at 2008. Today has been quite a nua day for me, so now's a good time for me to look back at 2008, but probably just a simple one.

Events for the Year

I had quite a vague memory of my first half of the year, which I think was my slackest semester so far. Then I was still quite active in floorball, had quite a few enjoyable projects but the rest I can't remember much.

Thinking of it, I think I squandered my summers away too, and 3-4months of holidays just passed by like that. Just quite a number of archery trainings, the MAS-ESS Essay competition and some enjoyment and tada, the holidays just went by. But things to remember are the sports camp and smux camp which are the first times I tried being a facilitator, and I enjoyed the camps as much as my freshies do, and made quite a number of new friends which I still keep in contact.

The last four months I have been working like a dog, with 5 modules in SMU and more time consuming the NAFA course. Lots of meeting, lots of assignment, lots of exams and lots of mugging and NO life. Fortunately hard work pays off eventually, as my GPA hits a new high this semester. And it's during this semester I stumbled across the Business Statistics major which I now enjoyed so much. The last month was more eventful, with the 42km run, my new bike, the desaru ride and my surprise election as Archery president.

That's more or less for events. Resolution-wise, I achieved all but one of my new year resolutions, looks good, but I can't really be happy with the last resolution unachieved.

Myself

This year I can see quite some changes in myself as well. I find myself willing to try more stuff this year. Who would expect someone who keep on failing art to take on a course on Visual Communications? Sports camp, smux camp, 2days week, 5 exams in 3 days, etc are many things which many people do not have a chance to try, and I never regretted trying. The 'Yes Man' concept is quite true in real life with return coming in various forms.

I'm spending more resources to do what I like too. Half year and 1.3k for visual comms, $550 and all my Saturdays on archery and another $550 for biking. I don't believe in long term any more and go for present consumption. After all the earlier you spend, the longer you get to enjoy your purchases. Sounds logical?

I think that I'm better in talking to others this year, even in English. It's more of a confidence thing. But still plenty to work on, although I can talk to strangers better, I still can't leave a strong impression of myself.

Others

Overall, I would think that 2008 lacks significance to me, no milestone achieved but I guess it's a training year to prepare me for the next milestone I achieve. Thanks to all around me to help me survive yet another year, for all the joy that you all gave me throughout the year.

This Christmas

2008-12-29T12:37:00.003+08:00

I have to admit I was never a fan of Christmas, thinking that it's more of a festive occasion for couples and emo occasion for singles. Plus this year my parents will be overseas, leaving me all alone in the house and there's no emo xmas eve gathering this year since zx has found his happiness. Surprisingly for me, this year's xmas was one of my most fun-filled and happy Christmas.

So on Xmas eve, I met up with stoney for lunch and movie and coffee. Food can always make people happy even though stoney witness how small my appetite is. As for the movie, we watched Bedtime Stories. It's good to watch some children shows at times and let your imagination run wild. Despite being slow paced at times and fairly predictable, it's still a decent movie. Meeting an old friend on Xmas eve is not too bad an idea after all and it's nice to do catching up considering before the previous meet up last week the last time we met was around 4yrs back. Hopefully can meet up with the last member of our 'stoning gang', rock soon. So far both of us have lost contact of Linli aka rock. So if anyone knows any Linli born in 1987 and was from Hwa Chong, please tell me =)

On Xmas day, had a NP dinner gathering (part-time NP included) and met up with more old friends. Sure they are old friends since we have known each other for 8-9 years already. After food and dessert, went to Juncheng's house for cards and stayover. Daidee, Texas and in-between kept us occupied for the night.

After sleeping for the whole day on Boxing Day, at night was a party, AT MY PLACE!! This is probably the first time I held a party at my place and what a good timing since the house is empty. And who else but the Greenies. A night of Wii, movies, card games, food and most importantly good company. Even the long lost Dawn, Jieyi and Joys appeared and that's how rare!

After sleeping for the who day (again), at night was SMUX Xmas party. The dress code for the night is party attire, so I picked up my long sleeve and my blazer and head on to school for the party. The only thing I ate for the whole day is a piece of bread and ice-cream, so I was starving by the time of the buffet dinner. Had a nice chat with my Desaru group and after that was games like passing the parcel and don't forget the lyrics. And after the party, had tau huay with some of my Desaru group members for dinner. Looking at the standard of the party, I really felt that more can be done for archery in terms of cohesion. Although the culture in archery and SMUX is totally different, there's no harm in trying out. Alright, there's too many problems in archery at the moment, seems like this can wait a while more though.

I am beginning to like Christmas now =)

Good ride, good food and good company

2008-12-25T00:07:00.005+08:00

Went for my 2nd Desaru ride and my 5th Malaysian ride on the 22-23 December. That's the first overseas ride I had with my GT which makes life much easier for me.

As usually, we took a ferry ride from changi to Pengerang jetty

So upon arrival at the Pengerang Jetty, it's a relatively ride to Rengit where we had our lunch, before a hilly ride to Desaru. The wind this year is relatively strong and against us on our trip there, making the ride tough especially for the first timers. With the group supporting each other and helping each other out, eventually we made it to Desaru.

The Desaru resort was quite shiok, with a choice of showers and bath. Had a BBQ buffet dinner which wasn't the best though, as most of the food tasted quite bad. The breakfast the next morning was much better though. Afterwhich, we set off from Desaru back to Singapore. The ride back was a breeze with the tail wind and the slopes were generally more gentle.

Nonetheless, the ride was not exactly smooth through out as Jamie got injured...

And fatigue sets in and heads go down
But for all the FOOOOOOOOODDD, everything was worth it =)

Even though the ride seems relatively easier this time round, it was still a lot of fun. Thanks to the GLs, the organisers, my fun groups and most importantly my GT which went with me all the way. Desaru for a third time next year? maybe. haha.

My Latest Acquisition - GT Avalanche 3.0

2008-12-20T22:10:00.006+08:00

After countless rides with SMUX including 4 Malaysia rides, I've finally decided to get my own bike. With my limited budget, I got myself a GT Avalanche 3.0 from white sands on Thursday. That's $550 injected to stimulate the economy =(

One day after I got the bike, it's well utilised during the desaru pre-ride, where we cycled from ECP to west coast to jurong hill to bukit timah and back. Had lot's of fun, food and thrill of riding. Actually of all the rides I had with SMUX, yesterday's ride was the fastest.

@ The Esplanade

It was a tough ride up the Jurong Hill, but the view on top is splendid

Fats replenishing is present in all SMUX actitivities

And here's some after thoughts of the bike:

The gear was superb with smoothing changing of the gears and no cranking sound
Good speed and efficiency on flat land
Too heavy for a upslope bike. Grace easily overtook Jamie's and my GT with her rented Urata while going upslope. Totally demoralised us =(
Putting it to further test for Desaru trip tomorrow

Now it's time to save up further to zhng my bike. I'll need a helmet, front light, back light, sleek tyres and perhaps neon lights. lolx.

Old man's activities

2008-12-17T23:22:00.005+08:00

You know you are old when you are enjoying activities which old people enjoy doing, such as PRAWN FISHING!!!

Once again, with the greenies =)

And here's the prawn I caught, which is quite small. I always din manage to swing the bigger prawns up, so ended up catching quite a number of small prawns.

And that's y people always tell you not too look at how food is prepared otherwise you won't feel like eating the food anymore.

Prawns can be cooked to rare, medium rare and well-done. Bet you din know that.

This sums up why prawning is an old people thingy..

...............................................................................................................................................

Archery is another old man sports which I enjoyed. The past Sunday was Telok Blangah Open and it's more of a fun shoot for me than a competition. Since NUS Open last year or around that time, I have been jinxed in competitions and underperformed super badly. This competition was no exception. I did so badly with countless misses that usually don't happen during training, and I actually don't have strength to finish even one round of competition.

Probably now I will spend more effort on running the club than winning competitions, and I did not even bother to participate in the yr end competition. Think things just come naturally, just a week ago I was thinking of all the burden of being a president, now I feel like I'm thinking for the club most of the time. Seeing the club members getting more bonded and the potential the year ones are showing really makes me feel I should do more for them.

Congrats to the winner of the comp =)

Standard Chartered Marathon

2008-12-10T23:29:00.003+08:00

Let's make this post a post of numbers.

42.195km is the distance I ran/walk
21477 is my tag number

6hr:2min:41s is my timing
3 friends running with me all the way

Shiwei, me and zx. Richie joined us later

0 of my photos taken by marathon photos
1% chance that I will run a marathon again

These are insufficient incentives for me to suffer another 42km

Archery Retreat

2008-12-08T23:44:00.003+08:00

Had my archery retreat last week at Downtown East chalet. Just a simple and unofficial retreat where we played Xbox, mahjong, cards and sang Kbox.

One of the main purpose of the retreat was to have the AGM and somehow I became the president of SMU Archery Club. To be frank, I did not expect to get the position even though after the nominations I had a 50-50 chance. Maurice was so much hands-on and takes initiatives to do things for the club and I'm sure all the seniors can see his effort during training too. On the other hand, most of the time I am having a 'more talk, less action' approach, which is not what a club president should be having. Perhaps how I got the vote is during training, I often slack and go to talk to the year ones while Maurice is training hard. That's probably one of the main weakness of democracy.

The position comes with so much responsibility and work that I'm feeling it as a job jus a few days after I assume my responsibilities. Gone are the days where I can just go to the range as and when I like and just shoot. Now before I get to shoot I have to send out e-mails before the day, go to school first to get stuff which they need before I reach the range. Even after reaching the range, I still can't shoot in peace, as I have to make sure everything is in order and have to talk to the range master about admin stuff and to strengthen the relationship between the clubs.

I am starting to admire Winston and Vincent for their selfless contributions to the club for the past one year and I wonder how did they do it. No way will I be like them no matter how hard I try since my character is just not that type. For the good of the club, I will have to distribute the work well to my Exco and take more of a supervising role than a hands-on role like them. Probably some archery members will come across this post and sorry if you are disappointed to find out that your club president lacks passion in running the club, but rest assure that I will not neglect my responsibilities and everything will still be in order, just like the good old days.

End of the Exams

2008-12-01T23:55:00.002+08:00

My exams formally ended last Saturday and 5 exams in 3 days don't sound as bad as it sounds. At least mentally wise you could still last through the 5 papers but how well you can score is another matter.

The exams this time round are real tough, especially MA, where I am just writing whatever workings I can write and most of the time I am just guessing my way through. Truly demoralising for a first paper. Other papers seems alright though but at the end of the day, anything may happen. Results should be out one by one for the next few days and hopefully things are not as bad as they seems. Now my hope lies on stats, which should be the first result to be out. If even stats also chui then I will be totally gg-ed. I have even submitted to be a TA for stats, so just keeping my fingers crossed.

Even after exams, not too happening this time round. Spent Sunday for soccer and nua-ing, and today clearing up my room which by now look more like a room and I can finally see part of the surface of my table. Next few days will be quite packed with archery meeting tml, and SMUX bbq, archery retreat and 4SAB BBQ. Hopefully I still can have enough energy to last through. After that will be Archery training on Saturday and Standard Chartered on Sunday!!! Argh!! I am so gonna die. My pre-training will just be 5km today and another 10km tomorrow.

Too Fast Too Furious

2008-11-22T19:30:00.003+08:00

The title looks appropriate for my finals this semester. After all, I'm starting my examination in 5 days time and ending it in 7 days, covering 5 exams in the process. Here's my timetable, probably one of the most compressed uni examination timetable which you can find.

Even with this timetable, I'm rather confident that I can finish my revision on time. Of course, this is after eliminating all non-study related activities, such as not going for archery training today, and going back to school to revise.

Surprisingly, those around me seemed more concerned about my timetable myself, thinking I'm crazy to plan this type of timetable. There are some who predicted that I will not do well this semester, which I have to agree partially. I started off with a GPA forecast of 3.5 at the beginning of the semester, but has raised it after the mid-terms. There's also some 'noises' telling me I need not study, which I have to constantly filter off as I know how dangerous they can be. Even the pre-exams require so much thoughts, the sad reality of SMU.

For now, I just want to focus on my revision, and hopefully finish before Wednesday so that I can relax for at least half a day. This is going to be a tough campaign, must make sure I don't burn out before Saturday.

Don't work. Avoid telling the truth. Be hated. Love someone.

2008-11-19T11:08:00.006+08:00

It's good to see someone who shares my view regarding work. Here's a speech by Adrain Tan at NTU Convocation 2008 which Marcus forwarded to me. Pretty long but interesting, so I've summed up the main points.

The first part is about life expectancy, in order words, don't expect yourself to live to a ripe old age

...Forget about your life expectancy. After all, it's calculated based on an average. And you never, ever want to expect being average. That is what is expected of you. And if you live up to it, it will be an awful waste. If you expect that, you will be limiting yourself. You will be living your life according to boundaries set by average people. I have nothing against average people. But no one should aspire to be them. And you don't need years of education by the best minds in Singapore to prepare you to be average.

The next part tells you not to work

...Work is anything that you are compelled to do. By its very nature, it is undesirable.

Work kills. There's a common misconception that work is necessary. You will meet people working at miserable jobs. They tell you they are "making a living". No, they're not. They're dying, frittering away their fast-extinguishing lives doing things which are, at best, meaningless and, at worst, harmful. Do not waste the vast majority of your life doing something you hate so that you can spend the small remainder sliver of your life in modest comfort. You may never reach that end anyway.

Resist the temptation to get a job. Instead, play. Find something you enjoy doing. Do it. Over and over again. You will become good at it for two reasons: you like it, and you do it often. Soon, that will have value in itself. Find that pursuit that will energise you, consume you, become an obsession. Each day, you must rise with a restless enthusiasm. If you don't, you are working...

The third part is about not telling the truth, which I do not really understand

...The truth has a great capacity to offend and injure, and you will find that the closer you are to someone, the more care you must take to disguise or even conceal the truth. Often, there is great virtue in being evasive, or equivocating. There is also great skill. Any child can blurt out the truth, without thought to the consequences. It takes great maturity to appreciate the value of silence...

The following part is about be hated

...One does not have to be evil to be hated. In fact, it's often the case that one is hated precisely because one is trying to do right by one's own convictions. It is far too easy to be liked, one merely has to be accommodating and hold no strong convictions. Then one will gravitate towards the centre and settle into the average. That cannot be your role. There are a great many bad people in the world, and if you are not offending them, you must be bad yourself. Popularity is a sure sign that you are doing something wrong...

Finally, love someone

...I didn't say "be loved". That requires too much compromise. If one changes one's looks, personality and values, one can be loved by anyone.

Rather, I exhort you to love another human being. It may seem odd for me to tell you this. You may expect it to happen naturally, without deliberation. That is false. Modern society is anti-love. We've taken a microscope to everyone to bring out their flaws and shortcomings. It far easier to find a reason not to love someone, than otherwise. Rejection requires only one reason. Love requires complete acceptance. It is hard work - the only kind of work that I find palatable.

Loving someone has great benefits. There is admiration, learning, attraction and something which, for the want of a better word, we call happiness. In loving someone, we become inspired to better ourselves in every way. We learn the truth worthlessness of material things. We celebrate being human. Loving is good for the soul.

You will find, that when you have someone to love, that the face is less important than the brain, and the body is less important than the heart.

You will also find that it is no great tragedy if your love is not reciprocated. You are not doing it to be loved back. Its value is to inspire you...

Don't work. Avoid telling the truth. Be hated. Love someone. Out of the four I probably only achieve don't work, since I appear quite slack most of the time and I'm always asking people not to work that hard. Unfortunately, it's not due to the fact I realised that I should live for the moment, but rather I don't see the point of working so hard when I cannot find my obsession. Not telling the truth is probably something I can't do, but I don't wish to do it either. I have been more direct and truthful for the past 2 years, and I'm quite comfortable with it. Being hated is something I need to work on, as it seems I'm far too compromising at times and I believe being hated is part of the trade-off for being loved. And loving someone, that's something I really long for.

The End of Classes

2008-11-13T23:08:00.004+08:00

Today marks the end of formal classes for term 1 of my 2nd year in SMU. Had a MA presentation in the morning, my very last presentation of the semester. Our group sort of overdressed for the fun of it with all the guys wearing vest and tie. We look more like waiter and waitress or those working in a casino. Just an average presentation and in fact I underperformed, but I sort of make it up with my Q&A.

So here's some pics of my smart looking group :)

Finance class in the afternoon was my last class of the semester. As usual nothing special happened, just that Hong Dong ended class 1 hr earlier. So I have more time to have my dinner at Aston's before going for my last class in NAFA.

Basically today was just submission and thankfully I manage to complete my final project after staying up till 3am last night. Some of the people in my class produced very impressive work for the final projects, making me quite nervous about presenting my work. Fortunately it did not turn out too bad, as the lecturer was quite impressed with one of my Zoscards, and that saved me from getting a C. More or less neutral comments were given on my other works, with pointers on how to improve it, and my main weakness was probably selection of fonts.

Got back all my work for the past semester. Although the grades were not that fantastic (with average around B-), what matters is that I can see my improvement for the past four months. Never for a moment in that last few months did I regretted signing up for the course. Not even with the many nights when I have to stay up late to do the assignments or crack my brain super hard to think of what to do. The things I learn and the friends I've made will probably make this course a very memorable one.

Looking back at the past 4months, it was a wonder how I manage to survive till now. (Anyway, the original class size reduced from around 18 to today's 10 ) From the very first lesson, I got the shock of my life when I was asked to draw stuff manually, which was what I did not expect when I signed up for the course. Eventually, drawing dots, lines, and later stars and eventually layouts have just become so normal. Even for computer work it has been a natural process to draw on the layout pad first. From spending hours on the arrangement of dots for the first assignment to developing quick sketches now, I can't believe I have come that far. The real nightmare came when painting was introduced. So many times I have to repaint the same thing over and over again cause I can't get the colour I want or the brush strokes are too obvious. For someone who failed his art all the way in secondary school, it was quite a remarkable achievement. Perhaps after exam I can scan all my assignments and upload on facebook so that you can see how horrenduous my works are and how little flair I have.

Only after attending the course I realized how little of my brain have I been using for the past 20years. Understanding things in academic context is easier in the sense that after reading the same thing for a few times eventually you will get it. Thinking of something out of nothing is much harder. You got to first think out of the box, experiment, come up with random thoughts. That requires much more brain power than understanding. This probably explains why I'm coping fairly well with my 5 modules in SMU but struggling in NAFA. I stayed up late a few times this sem, never once for SMU assignments. For SMU projects, I probably can see the end product after seeing the projects requirement, but for NAFA projects, I can't even see the start.

Looking forward, getting the cert will certainly have no impact on my career at all compared to some of those who signed up for the course in hope of looking for a career in design. It probably changed the way I think and look at stuff. As of now, I'm still considering if I should sign up for the two specialisation courses to upgrade to a specialization cert. I probably want to make use of what I learn as well. Although I'm quite hesitant to apply what I learn in projects (since in projects I'm very focus on content), I will want to continue to make e-mailers and posters for archery. After some practices, I will go for some marketing posts in school and even targeting the school newsletter, Blue and Gold. That's probably some of my plans for now.

Welfare Redefined

2008-10-26T17:38:00.002+08:00

I received this two mailers from the school Student Welfare Secretary and was rather sadden by how bad the situation is in SMU now. When did providing aircon for people staying in school till late and night or coming back to school on public holidays became a welfare? In the first place, nobody should be in school at these hours or on PH and providing aircon somewhat encourages that.

The pro-family policies implemented in company should be extended to schools as well as it will be quite sad if parents went home early from company thanks to pro-family policies to have a family dinner only to find their children still mugging in school. And I've heard of people who do not have meals at home since the beginning of the semester and probably that's knowledge rich but family poor. Thankfully I still manage to eat at home quite often and I really appreciate that, and hope SMU don't degrade further.

Fun Among Busy Times

2008-10-21T23:34:00.004+08:00

Statistics has shown that the frequency of blogging is inversely proportionate to how busy the blogger is. So from the frequency I'm blogging this year, it's not hard to see how busy I am this year. Most prob for the time being, I will have short and more frequent posts.

Despite the busy schedule, I manage to get a few enjoyable moments during my recess week. Firstly is the Rengit ride. After going for so many overseas ride, Rengit ride is totally no kick considering how flat it is and how short it is.

After leaving floorball, cycling is now my primary physical activity apart from jogging. Looking forward for 2 xiong rides to Desaru and Batam in December and getting my own bike hopefully by end of the month.

Internal shoot was another important part of my recess week as I was the events head for the event. I had to admit I did not do a good job and it was pure luck that I did not screw up the event. Oh well, it's only when something bad happen people start to point fingers so since in this case everything manage to carry on as planned I managed to get away with it. It was quite a good experience for me as this is the first time I was overall in charge for a event and source for door gifts and trophies. In the end I managed to get third and got a trophy which I purchased myself. That sounds lame but still, it's my first individual trophy even though it's an internal one.

It's the holidays

2008-10-02T22:48:00.002+08:00

Despite my long absence from blogging, I have never forgotten about this blog. Just that this semester is a bit different from the previous sems. Firstly I am taking 5 mods per sem instead of 4 the previous sems, not counting the extra course at NAFA. Next the amount of homework is at least 2-3times that I had the previous sems, as there's 4 hw and 1 reading to be done every week. Next, my other commitments did not decrease. Still active in archery and getting more active in biking and investing. But for now, I'll take a breather from all these stuff. After all, it's the HOLIDAYS!!!

Even though it's only a one week break, there's many things which I will like to do. For now, I have more or less planned for 4 days of programs, with 2 of the days allocated for projects. For the other 2 days, 1 will be for Rengit cycling trip and the other for the Internal Shoot, which I'm organising. Some other stuff which I will be doing includes:
1) Filing
2) Study for 2 mid-terms after the break
3) Tuition! Lorraine's exams coming soon, got to give my best shot.
4) Run! Otherwise stanchart will confirm chui. Hopefully can clock at least 1 half marathon this wk.
5) Cycle! Might be getting my own bike with Jamie, then I can go cycling more often with SMUX.
6) Clear my never ending NAFA assignments
7) Sleep and procrastinate - that's life.

Looking back, the past few weeks hasn't been that smooth sailing for me with more stuff to worry about, but what doesn't kills you makes you stronger. (I don't think the same applies for milk products though. Haha)

Fear'Is Wheel

2008-09-21T23:41:00.004+08:00

A cycling event by SMUX which happened last Saturday. Since most of members in my group were from my SMUX camp group, there wasn't any problem breaking the ice and the rest of the group blended into the group nicely as well.

Team Han Zi+

A relatively easy ride from ECP to kallang to serangoon to yio chu kang to upper thompson and back, think only around 50-60km. However since this is the first time cycling long distance for most of the freshies, the slopes were rather xiong for some of them. But everyone made it.

Before the ride we had a mini birthday celebration at BK for MC as well as a belated one for Dylise and me. This was one of the most special celebration I have seen as we actually used video call to conferrence with Dylise as she could not meet us then and the video is up on my Facebook.

Halfway through the ride, MC's girlfriend had a surprise party for him at Serangoon Mac which was very sweet of her as somehow she manage to get Jamie and my telephone number to arrange for the party. We had another post party at a open field in Jalan Kayu, saboing MC with cable ties, toothpaste and deep heat. You can fill in the rest :P

The Surprise!!

Had games, a night walk, lots of food during the ride. With Jamie leading the group, I could well slack behind and enjoy the ride. Now I'm sort of tempted to buy a personal bike for myself so that I can bring it for the Rengit ride and many other rides to come.

@ The prata house

My Chiongster co-GL Jamie

Belated Bday with Wall-E

2008-09-12T21:23:00.004+08:00

One week after my actual birthday, went out for a belated birthday celebration with my usual gang of Wilson, ZX and SM. Sort of a tradition (since last year) for the birthday person to treat and this time round we went to Marina Square.

This time round we went to MOF for a feast of Japanese food at my expense. The food looks better than its taste but their deserts were still of high standard.

After that went to watch Wall-E, but since we still got a bit of time, and ZX brought his cam, we did some camwhoring before the show.

who's cuter?

About Wall-E, although it's a cartoon, I felt that it's more suitable for adults because of the environmental message that it is carrying. It is partially a romance film as well between two robots and simple love between robots can actually be more romantic than humans. The part where computers and robots made life so easy for humans and eventually have control over humans is also quite scary. Just a point to note, this movie is not suitable for people without patience as there's practically there's no single conversation in the first 15 mins of the show and though out the show there isn't much conversation as well since robots' vocabulary is quite limited.

An Unforgettable 22nd

2008-09-04T00:34:00.000+08:00

Birthdays usually aren't very special days for me. Even though I like to remind people about my birthday, sadly the truth is I usually do not have any plans on the day itself. But for this year I will say that it's one of the more special and memorable birthdays for me, much thanks to the greenies.

The day started off with Peskan Sukan, the most important and major archery competition I had. Somehow, compared to other major competitions like Sembawang, SAFRA and NUS, this competition felt more relaxed for me.Probably my first time shooting a 30m/50m competition which I have to admit I wasn't prepared for it and there was absolutely no chance of winning, so it's sort of presure-less. So I just did my best under the bad weather and finger tab condition and underperformed as usual. Seems like I have no pride on that day and I did not feel bad or sad at all despite the poor results unlike previous competitions. It just wasn't a day to be sad and disappointed about the competition but nevertheless I was quite disappointed with something else...

So after the competition I chiong home to have a mini celebration with my parents, just a simple cake cutting. As for my wish, it's a secret....

Finally went to met up with the greenies at Timbre, our usual drinking place. As the birthday boy, I was naturally the target but got to say they were quite gentle with the drinks. Despite the fact that they added vodka shots into my beer while I went to the gents, the effects wasn't felt.

A special birthday cake by them too which was actually a box of donuts. Quite creative and smart of them too as it saves the trouble of cutting and distributing the cakes.

The most memorable part of the night was went the band was asking people up the stage and of course I was once again sabo-ed up the stage. And I managed to get Bin up as well to make a fool of ourselves and there was another random guy sabo-ed by his peers as well. Basically we just stood there and move a bit as the band sang "Pump It" Afterwards we were asked to dance with the mic stand (i.e. pole dance) in front of the full Timbre crowd which was so OMG!! Got to be sporting so I just did a normal one but Bin was more creative as her understanding of pole dance was the pole dancing around the human. That totally terrorised the band.

Once again thanks to all who remembered my birthday and your well wishes. And hopefully this will indeed be a good and memorable year for me.

Sleaze and Feast

2008-08-27T00:59:00.000+08:00

Met up with my SMUX freshies last Friday after Vivace for this internal event of ours titled "Sleaze and Feast" held at Geylang. As the name imply, eating at this food paradise was an important component for this important event.

Our first stop: Tim Sum at Lorong 17

The Tim Sum was just an appetizer and the first stop of our food hunting. Our next stop was the frog leg porridge.

Next up was at You Tiao Dou Jiang stall at lor 27A. This was where we ate to our heart's content with dou jiang, you tiao, meesua.

It was around midnight but the night is still young. It was time for desert and we had durians, tonnes of them. After the first round of durians we were still not contended and we went to
another stall selling cheap and good durians for a second round.

This event is not called Sleaze and Feast for no reason and even though it's past midnight, the event didn't end here. We proceeded on to the Sleaze component which was a walk around the darker areas of Geylang with MC and JJ as our guide (not too sure why did they know so much about the place)

Very glad to have this group of freshies who were willing to enjoy life even after school starts and happy to see they are still so united after the camp. Looking forward to the next event with them which will be night bike.

Start of School

2008-08-25T23:53:00.002+08:00

So many stuff to blog about but so little time. Surprisingly, this is only week one of school as a year 2 and I'm so busy, even when I am having a three day week. Not that I'm mugging, but somehow time just passes without me noticing. For now, just a short recap of my school life in this post.

My week started on Tuesday afternoon with my Management of People at Work class. Not a proper lesson as the prof introduced about herself, the syllabus and she gave us some time for interaction between the class. Not exactly my favourite type of prof as she seems rather closed-minded regarding the type of project and even the presentation style. Now it seems like I'm being closed minded about her but my gut feeling seldom fails me, but oh well, I'll try to accept her and see how after tml's lesson.

Two lessons on Wednesday starting with Intelligent Organisation in the morning. Did not know a single person in the class and I guess I'm the only year 2 in the cls with the rest all year 3 and year 4. As the title suggest, I suppose you need a high level of intelligence to understand the class and I'm not there yet. Was contemplating about dropping the course after the class and my mind was made up when I took out the worksheet the prof distributed and read the lecture outline. It's just not the course for me.

Had Management Science in the afternoon by a boring prof. So boring that Lewis dropped the course and left the class halfway through. I decided to stay on though since I thought it's just a mugging subject and with the textbook and some hard work it should be fine. And my group should be doing well with LiangJun in my group.

Another two lessons on Thursday, starting with Management Accounting in the morning by a Korean prof. He's the best prof I'm having for the semester so far, being very funny and easy to understand.

My week ended with a Finance class which I'm quite serious about as that's going to be my major. Therefore I kept my laptop and went to class with hardcopy notes so I can pay full attention. Even as the prof was completely monotonous, the subject itself could keep my interest and had a good share of class participation with my background in finance and the rest of the class was simply not interested in the lesson.

After dropping the Intelligent Organisation, I bidded for the Probability Theory class which will start tml morning. Do not think there will be any people I know in the half filled class but at least I know the assignment can be done as I manage to finish last week's assignment without attending the lecture. Just concerned that the exams fall on the same day as MA. Got to decide again after tml's lecture ba, after all I'm quite active in the BOSS bidding system.

SMUX CAMP

2008-08-13T23:33:00.005+08:00

Went for SMUX camp last week as a facilitator and that's probably one of the last freshman camp that I will be going in my entire lifetime. It was a completely different experience compared to sports camp, not only in terms of the events, but also in terms of the type of freshies in my group.

Day one

On the first day was skating and games at WCP. It was my very first time skating and initially had problem even standing up but got used to it rather fast and found it rather similar to ice skating which I had tried twice before. At the end of hour plus session of skating, I was comfortable to skate around the park, just that I still could not brake. Fortunately while I was going down slope, Cynthia happened to pass by and save me from crashing onto the tree.

Had other games like tug-of-war and laser tag (my first time trying) and it was during the time in between when we play games and bonded well as a group. For dinner we had outdoor cooking, which the guys in the group were rather sick of it after having enough of it during NS. But for a white horse like me who did not go out field and rarely eat instant noodles, it was quite an experience.

Even after the sun set, the night is still young and we went for ice-skating and I believe not many people had the experience of ice skating from 11pm to 1plus am. My third time ice-skating so more or less I got the basics right but ice-skating during the camp was totally different compared to during the normal days. That's when you form super long trains and make each other falls. Thanks to Yingbin who was ever so 'helpful' to accelerate the trains, my group and I fell quite a number of times.

Day Two

After a sleepless night at Changi due to the fact that I was a lightsleeper and the planes there were extremely noisy, we headed down to Mount Faber SAFRA for diving. Steph's group got extra slots so I decided to crash their group and try diving, another first for me. Wore the diving apparels and went a couple of rounds in the pool. Looks cool but I did not really enjoy it as the breathing wasn't that smooth and I am more of a land creature.

Biking at the Tampines Trail and PCN in the afternoon despite light showers while we were cycling at the Tampines Trail. But we wasn't that lucky as the showers turned into a thunderstorm while we were on the way to Changi, so no choice but to take shelter at a bus stop before the trip was called off. So no more chicken cutlet noodles from Changi V but my freshies were self-entertaining as they sang and played games at the bus stop for a couple of hours.

Performance night back in school and I was proud that Mr and Mrs Smux of the camp came from my group. After the performance night we had our mini drinking session in the room despite SMUX camp declared a non-alcohol camp. Just drinking for fun as we had mild drinks like Malibu and Bailey's and somehow Weixin got a little thirsty and began to rob drinks as we prevented her from drinking too much.

Day Three

Last day of camp and had a little amazing race and according to the scenario, one of the facilitators was kidnapped so I was left alone to lead the group. Seems like the group wasn't too eager to save Weixin as we strolled to the station and I allowed them to feast in KFC in the midst of the race instead of rushing to complete the race. Therefore it was no surprise that we manage to finish the race last without completing all the stations.

The last activity of the day was a trek from McRitchie to Bukit Timah. The group was playing and singing English songs which were totally alien to me. The camp then ended after the prize presentation and I went off with a few of them to Island Creamy for ice cream and a heart to heart talk.

Aftermath

I will say that Weixin and I had the easiest of job as facilitators there was nothing that we needed to do to lift the morale of the group as they were extremely hyper and provocative. Meet up with them once for dinner and tentatively will be meeting them next Friday for another outing. Hopefully we can stay in contact for a long time after the camp.

Pro Accent Debut

2008-08-05T00:13:00.003+08:00

My new Pro Accent finally had its first piece of action the previous Saturday after much delay due to camps and the tiller problem. But good stuffs are always worth the wait and it gotten much attention due from my teammates due to its light weight. After all, it was the only W&W bow in the team that broke the Nexus dominance and even Buffy is considering getting the bow instead of the Nexus. Not too sure if Mr Wee actually notice the bow or what was his reaction as my bow was the only bow not carried by him and if he knew that it was bought from his rival guess I'll be on his banlist, but so far so good. I think upgrading archery products is another form of addiction as Maurice, Auggy and many others just bought new upgrades over the past weekend and I'm very very tempted to get the Shibuya sight which cost around $300 I think since the normal sight can't fit onto my new bow. However, due to budget constraint, most probably I'll just get the cheap Cartel sight. How I wish I can strike toto this Friday so that I can upgrade everything at one go.

Another happy event that happened during the last weekend was my IPPT. Chose to have it at SAFRA as I thought I had no chance to pass it but miracles do occur as I actually passed it, in particular my standing broad jump, though not in the most orthodox manner. It was recorded as 222cm and I think I did reach that distance but did not manage to stay at that distance and took a few steps backwards. Another white horse privilege :). The only station I was disappointed with was the sit up station which I failed to get the full 5 points. Oh well, at least I passed. Though a standard considered low by many, I was satisfied with my results. After all, it's only the 2nd time I actually passed my IPPT. I had the motivation to keep myself fit after attending the IPPT as I see how chui the other servicemen were. Appearance-wise they look that they have not been in the sun for a long long time and the new balance shoes were the only running shoes they had. Fitness-wise I fear for the defence of Singapore as the first station wiped out one third of the participants and this is the first time I see people fell off the treadmill.

Today, I finally managed to watch Dark Knight with the archery peeps. So what if 99.9% of the people had already watched it, watching it late is still better than never watching it. It is truly deserving of all the good reviews by the media and all my friends who have watched it. Since most of the people have watched it already, nothing else need to be said.

A Breather

2008-07-31T23:12:00.002+08:00

Life has been busy and yet uninteresting for the past week. No major surprises, just many random stuff, and here goes.

1) Eason Concert.
Thanks to Derrick and Lana i get to go to Eason's concert for FREE. Always like the way he sings and many of his songs (especial emo songs). At the beginning of the concert there were many surprises as many of the hits were re-arranged and dance elements were added. Sadly towards the end, the language of the songs and conversations was changed to Cantonese which I did not understand at all. Those songs which had no Chinese versions were quite hard for me to enjoy as I was totally clueless about the meaning of the songs.

2) Stars
That's my latest NAFA project and it sure took hell lot of my time and my brain cells. I took around 5 hours to complete my first star and I took 2 full days to complete the project. Fortunately it's the hols and I can afford the time. When my drawings get better maybe I should create an album on facebook to showcase my mini-portfolio.

3) Pro Accent debut delayed
Waited so long to use my Pro Accent but before I can fire my first shot the tiller which was screwed out cannot be screwed in. Sent it for warranty and got it back today. May it have a successful debut this Saturday.

4) My hair got darker
Mum was constantly nagging that I look like a Ah Beng with my yellowish hair so I dyed it to a darker shade of brown today. Look a bit dark to be noticeable from far but I'm sure after a few wash my hair will turn yellow again.

SHAZAM 08

2008-07-24T23:03:00.007+08:00

Haven't been blogging for a long time due to camp commitments, and those camps are so fun that I'm sort of addicted to camps. Too many happy memories so no rush and I'll blog them one by one, starting with sports camp. Enjoyed the sports camp as a freshie, so decided to sign up as facilitator this time round. It was just as fun, just do a bit of admin stuff and the good thing is you need not pay for the camp.

Day 1
Had an amazing race round the island, from school to sentosa, to telok blangah, to kallang, back to school and finally east coast.

Here's where it all began

Start of race, in the MRT

Siloso Beach (obviously)

Going up the Luge

The Luge warriors, and an Ang Moh found it interesting and took a photo of us.

SMU Jump

That's how self-entertaining the freshies can be

Gotta mention this. This photo was taken in a mini-coach which we hitch-hike, thanks to Jingwen's charm. So hitchhiking is certainly possible even in Singapore.

Shagged towards the end of race

Day 2
Had a sports clinic at Kallang, playing sports like handball, bossaball (I have a talent in it), floorball, frisby and softball.

My co-faci, commonly known as the Bimbo faci in the group
Learning the Judo Slam
The Brazilian Martial Arts
Home Run
And a well deserved drink in the night
And card games

Day 3
Some random games in the morning till the evening before we had a closing. I miss u guys and girls... Hope to meet up soon :)

The mummy sneak preview
Legolas and the TREE

ESS Annual Dinner

2008-07-12T22:52:00.004+08:00

Just as on my previous blog I was posting that I have not heard anything regarding the MAS-ESS competition, the next day I received this following e-mail:

"Hi Wilson,

On behalf of ESS, I would like to invite you to our annual dinner on the 11^th July 2008 (Friday) at Ritz Carlton. This invitation is only to the finalist of the participants of the MAS Essay competition. Your seat will be fully sponsor by the Temasek Holding, please confirm your attendance by 080708."

Free food at Ritz Carlton, and since I will be free that day, I replied immediately to confirm my attendance. After that, I was quite worried as I have never been to such a formal dinner like this and didn't even have a blazer to wear to the dinner (fortunately manage to borrow from Lewis). I wasn't sure what they meant by finalist as well and e-mail them but did not receive any reply.

On the day of the dinner itself, I felt lucky that the table I was allocated to was filled with people of around my age and quite a few of them were from SMU while the rest were all students. It seems like a networking session as we talk about school stuffs and I finally manage to put my name cards to use. They were all smart people who knew their school stuffs at the back of their hands and most of them were double degrees, double majors or on the dean's list. I may be on the dean's list and most prob taking double major as well but the intellectual level difference between me and them is rather wide. I don't think I'll be like them nor will I aspire to be like them since it's alright if you do not appear extremely intellectual as long as you manage to get things done well. And I can't imagine myself going around networking as it a bit fake as I believe you should make friends for who they are and not what they are. Haiz, I wonder how I'll survive after graduation since I'm a business student after all and networking will be a part of my life.

Anyway, the guest of honour for the event was MM Lee, so I manage to listen to him live talking at the one hour dialogue session. I have to say that I was quite impressed at the way he answer questions especially his belief in his own ideology and he did not have to explain too much as most of the time he was able to use the success of Singapore to prove what is correct.

MM Lee Live!

How can we forget about the FOOD? Yet apparently the food does not seems to be the focus of the dinner as it was only a four-course dinner with small portions. Nevertheless, the food were rather exotic and taste fabulous.

Appetizer - Tuna with mango salad

Swordfish Fillet

Yummy Deserts

Sports Camp Preparation

2008-07-07T22:12:00.002+08:00

Third month of nua-ing in the holidays and it seems like the focus of my holidays is shifting every month. In May it was the MAS-ESS Essay (no news abt it =( ), in June it was ALL about archery and for this month of July, it's school camps, in particular the sports and SMUX camp.

Went for the sports mock camp the previous Saturday to try out some of the ice-breakers and stations which the programmes have come up with and some of them are rather interesting. Who will have thought of playing touch rugby with a whole raw chicken and the head and wings dangling. That sounds grossed but fun to watch and play. Unfortunately some of the games did not work out as expected and need to be scraped or modified extensively. With less than two weeks to go, it's quite worrying that the programmes may fail to come up with games which work and I may be quite disappointed because I enjoyed my last sports camp and joined as a faci this year to pass on the fun to the freshies.

Today went to help out to promote sports camp in school as it was matriculation. Looking at the blur and curious looks on the freshies made me feel old at times. Unleashed my limited persuasion skills and manage to persuade quite a number of freshies to sign up for the camp. Unfortunately by the time I ended my duty the sign up was rather tilted towards male freshies. Hopefully the next few batches will be able to persuade more female freshies to sign up and end up in my group.

Anyway the previous Saturday was ZX's birthday, so went to watch Hancock with the usual gang. Unfortunately most of the nice parts were in the trailer and at the front of the show. Towards the end the scriptwriter seems to run out of ideas and the plot was rather crappy towards the end. Yet there was a few touching parts, illustrating that being good is not good enough. You will still need people's concern and appreciation to feel good.

Never Underestimate Dots

2008-07-03T23:31:00.005+08:00

If you think that dots are insignificant, think again. In MSN and SMSes, '...' is always used, but putting these dots in design, it opens up a totally new world.

The focus of today's principle of design lesson is precisely dots. Basically I spent 1hr learning about dots and 2hr drawing dots. Not at all exaggerated because there's actually a lot to learn about dots, and we are supposed to show concepts such as order, radiance, attention, merely using dots. That's when I realise we should never underestimate dots. Actually I was feeling quite stressed while coming up with the drafts since the last time I did something similar was sec 2 and even then I was failing art all the way. True enough 7 years down the road, I still can't draw and come out with nice designs while the two sitting beside me was like drawing stuffs which I can't imagine myself to think of it. Eventually after some advices from the lecturer and some modifications, managed to get 4 drafts to be approved for the project. So now I got one week to expand my draft to submit next week, better start early or confirm will get stressed closer to next Thursday.

sneak preview of my not-so-nice-but-will-get-nicer drawings

It's only the second week and so stressed le, and actually I felt that this course is more stressed than SMU. But I'm sure I can persevere till the end but just got to work harder and practice at home, especially while now is still the hols. Anyway, after 3hrs of dots when I walk out of the room, everything look like dots arrangement to me. Street lights, vehicle headlights and other random pattern looks like dots moving around to me, and I was quite traumatized.

GST credits came in handy but too small an amount to be significant. Can't even pay a fifth of my new bow, so I decided to spend it on more meaningful stuff.

Materials are expensive =(

My entertainment for the next 1 month

Certificate in Basic Visual Communications

2008-06-25T23:56:00.002+08:00

Attended my very first lesson for Visual Comms yest and Tuesday lessons are for computer studies. Basically the first 5 weeks of computers studies will be on Adobe Illustrator, and the next 5 will be on Adobe Photoshop, and the last 10 will be on Adobe InDesign. Looking around the classrooms, some of the students were aunties, some were office ladies and there were also a few arty-farty looking youths.

When it's time for the class to start there was no instructor in sight. It was only after 15mins an old bald man walked into the class and I was rather disappointed that it was not a weird looking artistic instructor. In addition, the screen was totally out of focus, making the words on the screen unreadable. The content of the course make up for it partially though. Firstly, we have nice Macs to use and that was actually my first time using a Mac. Next, the effects of Illustrator is simply amazing. Even though the first lesson is simply about text and vectors, a few clicks can turn those text and vectors into beautiful logos. The instructor sort of went out of stuff to teach in to last our as he gave us a mini-project to work on and more or less left the time for us to explore the various filters and effects.

The next few days got to install Illustrator on my laptop and work on my first project. No GPA at stake so finally I can let my limited creativity run free in a project. Probably will start to post some of my 'art work' on the blog so stay tuned to see the other side of Wilson. Tomorrow will be the first lesson on Principle of Designs, hopefully it will be a new eye-opener for me.

SAFRA Open 2008

2008-06-23T21:08:00.012+08:00

Oh well, seems like Wilson is quite a no life person during the hols as this is yet another archery related post. Sad but true as for the past few weeks I'm either at home or at the range. However, this event is a must-blog event because this event ended my 21years wait for a first sports medal. Being slow and weak I never got the chance to participate in any track and field events, even those inter-class events. Late is better than never and this first medal is a gold medal for the team event.

My first ever sports medal

A gold medal in hand but I feel rather undeserving of it though. Firstly, my performance that day was the worst in the team so my teammates brought the score up. Next, there's only 5 teams and 2 of them walk-over. Finally, the top individual archers did not participate in the team event. With all the factors on our side, it was not hard to clinch the gold medal.

Individual event. Rank 10th

My Standard Men Team

The Team Event

Prize Presentation
I look so tiny again
The Winners
Team SMU
An event to remember

This gold medal is not the end, especially I'm now only in the standard category and I still intend to stay in the standard category for a while more to win more medals, preferably a personal medal the next time round, though it will be hard. Anyway thinking for a bow upgrade to a metal one (finally) since my current bow won't be able to compete in the next competition where the target is 50m. Settled on two W&W models at this moment: the NX Xpert and the Winact. Since Mr. Wee is not bringing both this bows, I gotta source for the bows myself, either from other clubs or even import it in myself. Regardless of which method, it is bound to burn a hole in my pocket.

The NX Xpert?

Or the Winact?

More than half a year over and 2 resolutions down. 4more to go and they are real hard ones. Jiayou Wilson!!!

NUS Open 2008

2008-06-16T00:08:00.002+08:00

A lesson to learn from.
An event to be forgotten.
A day I felt like a sportsman and remembered that I'm still human after all.
That day I truely felt the concern of Team SMU Archery and I fully appreciate it. And yes, the inverse of Newton's Rule: What goes down, must come up. It's just a matter of how high can I go and time is not on my side this time though.

Put away all the disappointment and tears and I shall train harder. Wilson will be back at SAFRA Open 2008.

Upgrading in Progress

2008-06-13T22:07:00.003+08:00

Two months into the holidays and I've sort of went out of things to do or places to go. For the past week I'm either at home or at the range, and instead of being a stayhome emofreak, I decided to take this chance to upgrade myself, by reading books.

The first book I read is the Intelligent Investor by Benjamin Graham, the father of value-investing. This is the only non-textbook which I have bought for the past few years. I will strongly recommend this book and have learnt a lot from it, and have read it twice and even summarised the keypoints of the book, and now waiting for money to drop from the sky so that I can put the theory into practice.

Since the library is having a 'promotion' where members can borrow 8 books at a time, took some time to borrow some books. Borrowed a few books on layout and typography to prepare myself for the Visual Communication course. I suppose most of the students there more or less have some experience or talent in this field, so it won't harm getting more exposure. Despite finding some suff hard to understand (that's why i opt going for a course), I find the designs very fascinating and now can't wait for the course to start.

Finally, I borrowed a book on Adobe Photoshop CS3. After going through one third of the lessons, I am totally impressed with all the functions. So far it's mostly on photo-editing which I doubt I will put to use in the future, but it's always good to know more.

That's about it for my upgrading plan for June and that should keep me occupied. Anyway it's the Euro season now so finding things to do is not really an issue. Off-tracking, have been getting a lot of weird dreams nowadays, perhaps it's due to overusing of the brain that it's still active while I sleep. And tomorrow is NUS Open, wish me good luck (I really need a lot of it tml)!

Passion Run 2008

2008-06-08T22:36:00.005+08:00

Woke up super early at 5+ today to go for the Saucony 100 Plus PAssion Run 2008 at ECP. Signed up for the 15km run with ZX and initially we ran together but I PS-ed him at the 5km mark. Maybe I was too used to running on the treadmill so found the run quite tough at times, but thanks to the numerous cute girls volunteers/supporters, I still manage to complete the run at an okay timing of around 1hr 22min 3sec with a ranking of 258 out of around 2000 participants in the men's open 15km. Exceeded my target of 1.5hr. yeah!!

Spiderman spotted at run!!!

Anyway, went to watch Narnia. Although did not watch the first movie still did manage to understand the plot. However found the story a bit too draggy and too fairytale like, or maybe I was just too old to appreciate this type of movie.

Longing for a Simple life

2008-06-03T21:20:00.003+08:00

Watched the match between Singapore and Uzbekistan at the national stadium last night. A bad night for the lions as they lost 4-7 to Uzbekistan. A very big crowd there so we only manage to get into the stadium around 10mins after kick-off. It was already 1-0 to Uzbekistan when I entered the stadium. Very entertaining match with plenty of goals and it was already 5-2 at half time. The Singapore defence is atrocious and I can't believe Lionel Lewis is the keeper. The plan to attack backfired and I'll rather see them play a ten man defence like the previous matches I've seen and depend on counter attack. After the match, it seems like we can forget about Goal 2010 but good job for coming so far, though quite sad that most of the players in the team now are foreign talents. Most prob should still be supporting them in their next match against Saudi Arabia.

And just some updates on life after submitting the MAS-ESS essay. Maybe I have push back all my tasks because of the competition so even submitting the essay, I still find myself with plenty of stuff to do. Archery has more or less taken up most of my time. With the NUS open and the SAFRA competition both coming up this month, training intensity got to increase again. Other than two weekends, got to train during weekdays to avoid flopping during NUS and increase chance of winning in SAFRA.

Also received my 3rd SMS reminder for me to book my IPPT. Haiz. SBJ confirm chui again, and so hard to find time to train for it. Still gotta train for passion run coming up this Sunday. Hmm.. isn't this the holidays? Something is wrong. I just long for a simple life now, not worrying about competitions, GPA, IPPT or stock price.

Sembawang Open 08

2008-05-28T02:34:00.006+08:00

Went for my second archery competition last weekend and here's how it go.

On the first day was supposed to shoot two rounds for the qualifiers but after we finish shooting one round, there was a thunderstorm hence the second round was cancelled and the first round score was taken. I shot a score of 202 which was close but slightly lower than average. At night, received a call from Vincent, my team captain that I actually qualified for the top 8, as the 8th seed!!! What a pleasant surprise.

Team SMU

First day score sheet

The next day, went back early in the morning and was told that I was tied on score with the 7th place the previous day, so we had a shoot-out to decide who is the 7th seed. Tied again after the first arrow and won him on the second arrow, and I was the 7th seed. So instead of meeting the 1st seed, I will be meeting the 2nd seed for the individual knock-out round instead.

Fighting for 7th Seed

Quarter-finals: A very tight match as the lead changes hand after each round, eventually I won by 1 pt to knock out the 2nd seed and progress to the semis.

Quarter-final against the 2nd seed

Semi-finals: Fought back from 4 pt deficit to tie at the third round. At the crucial 4th round, I lost by 1 pt. Just 1 pt and if I have gotten 2pt more, I would have gotten at least a second.

The sad Semis

3rd/4th placing: I lost my cool after losing my semis and actually twisted my sight in the process. Missed lots of arrow and got thrashed in the shoot out. Therefore, got a 4th placing and medal-less. Haiz.3rd/4th Placing

My team qualified for the team event as well. We got knocked out after the first round after losing by 4pts. Mostly my fault I have to admit, as after losing at the Semis I was shooting atrociously. Perhaps I am not mentally strong enough to lose by one point and still thinking of the last shot which I did not do that well.

Team Event
2pt shy of a silver medal

Empty handed but happy team

I shall practise even harder this time round as in a month's time, I will be participating in the SAFRA open. This time round, I really wish to win something as it might well be my best chance to win something this year.

Still related to archery, after Legolas, I've found another Idol Archer: 李智雅 as 秀芝妮in 《太王四神记》

Full-time and part-time student

2008-05-23T00:36:00.003+08:00

After a month of planning and many days of decision making, finally followed my heart to sign up for the Certificate in Basic Visual Communication course in NAFA. That makes me now a full time student in SMU and a part time student in NAFA.

A little info on the course: The course is designed to provide students with the opportunity to acquire the skills and knowledge in the areas of graphic design. The training includes concept development, graphic design skills, typography, digital media, art media and presentation techniques. On top of that I will be learning how to use softwares such as Illustrator, Photoshop and InDesign (never hear before).

Business and art are not that distinct from each other after all, but most of the time we are talking about the commercialisation of art. How about the other way? In a world of business plans, charts and numbers, a little art will bring more life to the industry. So I suppose this course not only cater to my interest, but is also related to my field of study and work as well. I can always improve on my content of my assignments and reports in school but I feel that a well-designed report will add a third dimension to my work and beautiful powerpoint slides always impress me and now it's my turn to impress others. Even when I go to work, I can create nice analysis charts, corporate reports. That will be really cool.

Having taken the first step, I have to continue this enthusiasm for the next one year. I can foresee quite a few challenges in my way as the end of the course is close to my examination period so I might have to study and do my projects at the same time. For the next sem, I should be taking 5 modules, so putting aside 6hours a week aside for the lesson and several hours for the project is really no joke. But well, no point worrying for it now and I have spent so much money on it that there's really no turning back now.

Life of an unemployed

2008-05-18T01:07:00.002+08:00

It's almost one month since holidays started but till now I'm still unemployed. Initially was busy with holidays and fun and when I finally decided to find a job, found that good and high paying jobs are hard to get. Perhaps I was just being choosy, as I only applied for jobs with pay $7 and above, as I felt that I'm giving myself up for exploitation if I accept jobs with lower pay. At this current rate, it is highly likely that I will stay unemployed till school starts.

So what is this unemployed person gonna do for the next three months? For now, the MAS-ESS competition is my main source of 'entertainment'. This 3000-4000 essay is much harder than I originally expected and the research that I have done is overwhelming. And with around 2weeks left or so, I'm only halfway through my essay, so for next week got to work even harder and hopefully I can complete the entire essay by next week. Other than typing the essay, for the rest of the time, I will try go out when possible. If I have to stay at home, then it's dota, sleep and a lot of emo-ing.

So during the prolonged period of emo-ing, a lot of ideas and emotions came into my mind. Since I do not have a diary, perhaps it's a good idea to share some of my thoughts here.

On emo-ing:
I realise that I have been emo-ing too much for my own good. I start to wonder why is it that I will only feel sian when I was alone in the past, but now with more people to talk to, I actually feel emptiness and urge to talk to somebody when I'm alone. Is it just that because I have more to lose compared to the past that's why I felt insecure and start to imagine stuff?

On dependency:
I do not know whether I should be sad or happy to admit that I have lost most of my emotional strength in the past year or so, because it will mean I have become more human, but it also means that I will get sad and affected rather easily. For the first twenty years of my life I was rather self-sufficient emotionally but things start to change when I began to grew dependent on others and others may be slightly dependent on you. Yet dependency is another double-edged sword. Realising that others have grown less dependent on you and unable to depend on someone you are highly dependent on is probably the worst feelings you can have.

On friendship:
Enjoyed all the times spent with friends and after becoming more human I began to know my friends better too. I feel disgusted and sad linking 'turnover rate' and 'friends' but have to admit that a relationship exist between the two. Perhaps a friend is like a can which comes with an expiry date, finite or infinite. Sometimes you just left a can on a shelf for a long time and the next time you feel like eating the food in the can, it has passed the expiry date. I.e. you might miss that friend but just do not know how to go about contacting him or her again.

On love:
Somehow I feel that I'm always either meeting the wrong person at the right time, or the right person at the wrong time, so there is no happy ending. But pondering on it, is there this thing known as 'the right person' or 'the right time'? Or does happy ending just happens between any people at any time?

Shall not continue with more depressing stuff. So far it's already so many questions I have asked myself but no answer to it. The only solution is probably to keep me occupied so that I will not think of all these stuff.

Terror on Skates

2008-05-17T01:25:00.004+08:00

Went for ice-skating for the very first time in my life, at the undeveloped Jurong. Started off at the railing area where I was quite surprised that I can actually stand on the two thin blades. Slowly moved on to walk before gliding a bit. That's when the terror begins. As I lose my balance, I tend to grab someone near me and pull that person down. So, everyone started to stay away from me. As a result, I started doing quite a lot of 地板动作at the skating ring. Luckily it wasn't too painful falling on the ice just that the melted ice will wet my jeans. Anyway, witness an accident where a girl who was skating quite fast fell and hit her head and gone into a seizure. Her eyes rolled back and her expression was really scary and was later sent to the hospital. Hope she's alright by now. Yupyup, let the pictures do the talking then.

All the skaters

I'm taller =)It's snowing

Kukup 2008

2008-05-14T09:51:00.005+08:00

Survived yet another biking trip to Malaysia and it's Kukup this time round. Kukup is approximately 100km away and it's my longest cycling trip so far. Twice the distance I cycled for my last trip to Desaru but fortunately the terrain is 'relatively' flat. Prior to the trip I was told that it was flat, only to realise that there's still many slopes on the way there and my bicycle is totally not suitable to go on slopes with an useless front gear.

Rented the bike from ECP and head back to sch. Slept for only an hour before setting off at around 3am. Met with a thunderstorm so had to take shelter at Mac and had our breakfast meanwhile. Fortunately the rain stopped in less than an hour and it's 一路向北.

Going through the causeway was quite interesting as this is the first time I cycled across the causeway. So among the long queue of motorcycles you can see a big group of cyclists. Later we was told that we can take the car lane so we carried the bike across the barricade and it was a fast clearance. Off we go to Kukup.

Crossing the causeway

No.1 to no.11
The flat land
The slopes =(
Another group photo

On the way to Kukup, other than the Mac breakfast in Singapore, had another KFC lunch and prata high tea before we finally reach Kukup. And once we reach, it's seafood lunch time. It's quite an decent seafood lunch with prawns, crabs, clams, etc.

Spent the night at the resort where we had yet another sumptuous BBQ dinner before the return journey the next day.

Usually the return journey will be faster but not for this. A journey full of accidents with bicycles crashing to each other as we were drafting close to each other and a couple lost control and fell quite badly. Fortunately no bones were broken and no other vehicles were involved and we finally reach Singapore at night after a long 10hours cycle. Oh well, late is better than never.

A shagged group during the return journey

Harold and Kumar

2008-05-03T01:12:00.003+08:00

Watch Harold and Kumar 2 today and it did not disappoint as it was as funny as the first. A good movie to watch to relax although it contain an excessive amount of nudity.

There was one poem in the movie which I must share here. Looks funny prima facie but on closer look, it's really romantic and sweet.

The Square Root of 3 by Dave Feinberg
I’m sure that I will always be
A lonely number like root three

The three is all that’s good and right,
Why must my three keep out of sight
Beneath the vicious square root sign,
I wish instead I were a nine

For nine could thwart this evil trick,
with just some quick arithmetic

I know I’ll never see the sun, as 1.7321
Such is my reality, a sad irrationality

When hark! What is this I see,
Another square root of a three

As quietly co-waltzing by,
Together now we multiply
To form a number we prefer,
Rejoicing as an integer

We break free from our mortal bonds
With the wave of magic wands

Our square root signs become unglued
Your love for me has been renewed
-----------------------------------------------------------------------

My own life has more ups and downs recently with a mix of good news and bad news. This more or less has dampened my happiness for the recent achievement which I had. With all the results out today, I had finally completed one of my new year's resolution - to get into dean's list. With the unexpected A from Biz Law and Analytical skills, I had more than covered the B+ from BGS to achieve a GPA of 3.86 for this sem and a cumulative GPA of 3.82. Good achievement and I deserve some pampering from myself I suppose. Oh well, one down, 5 more resolutions to go.

Bangkok 2008

2008-05-02T22:58:00.004+08:00

I'm back from another exciting and fun trip to Bangkok which we planned our itinerary only upon reaching Bangkok. Nevertheless, with good map-reading skills and prior experience, we still managed to go wherever we planned to go.

Day one: Arrival in Bangkok

At the Budget Terminal

Day two: Went to Central World but was quite disappointed because despite the size of the mall, there isn't much to shop though and the goods sold there were too high-end. Proceeded to MBK then for some recee as we did not have enough time to cover the entire mall. In the evening went to Patpong night bazaar and there's lots of shopping and night activities. Somehow the Thais seems to like Indians as Anand was constantly pestered by the clubs to enter to see thai-girl show.

On the MRT

Tom-Yum

Day three: Adventurous and free tuktuk ride as we receive a free ride in return for going to a tailor shop and a jewellery shop so that the tuktuk drivers will get gasoline coupons from the shops. The entire ride took around two hours before we reach the pier. Took a boat ride down the river (took a wrong ride across the river at first) to view the sceneries. Went to Suan Lum night market in the night for more shopping :)

On the Boat

Day four: MBK day and last minute shopping before home sweet home. So there's the total damage.

At DFS: The new Absolute Mango and Archipelago, for use during the next party.

Next Stop: Bangkok

2008-04-28T11:49:00.002+08:00

I will be going to Bangkok (again) for the 987654321th time from tonight to 1st May. So for the time being, I will be uncontactable, so try not to miss me too hard k? Despite having gone to Bangkok for so many times, this is only my second time going without my parents, but with Wenguang and Anand instead. Hopefully this will be a brand new and refreshing trip for me.

A good time for the trip though, as I receive back my BGS results yesterday. Got B for finals and B+ overall. Some might say that it's not too bad a result but perhaps my expectation is higher. After all this is my first ever B I've gotten and after completing the finals, I was still quite confident of it. I just need some time to forget about it and hopefully the remaining 2 papers will turn out to be good to cover this B+.

Not fated to run

2008-04-26T00:50:00.004+08:00

My old Adidas Adipreme had finally retired and replaced last week. Bought it in Taiwan around 3 years back and after that ran with it for numerous kms in the army, including AHM, training runs, and help me to pass my IPPT for the very first time and also wore it for cycling trips, floorball trainings etc. Sadly shoes do not last forever and the sole drop off bit by bit till it's almost unwearable.

In: Asics Gel-1130

Out: Adida Adipreme

So, here come my new Asics Gel-1130 which I bought at runninglabs last week. Comfort-wise it is definitely superior to my past shoes though design-wise it's only so-so. Went for a debut short run last week and I can feel the difference between good shoes and not so good shoes. Today, decided to go for a longer run. Unfortunately, one treadmill in the gym is down and an old man arrived one minute earlier than me and took the remaining treadmill. Having no choice, I decided to run outside and chose to run a new route. Not easy to run with so many roadworks going on as I had to go on the road then pavement then road and at one point where I had to go down to the road from the pavement and I landed rather awfully and there goes my ankle. Sprained it and looking back I ran for only 500m or so from my starting point. What rotten luck. Not a good time to sprain considering I'm going Bangkok soon and I guess that I can't run too far for the time being too. At this rate I will be so far behind my training schedule for my marathon. Haiz.

End of the Exams

2008-04-19T23:02:00.002+08:00

After one long week, the exams are finally over. Might not do that well for one or two paper but since thinking of it does not serve any purpose, I shall put that aside for now while the results will only be out in around 2-3 weeks time.

No special celebration after my last paper, BGS, but headed to archery training. Quite a good way to destress and vent all the frustration though but my strength was totally gone after a lapse of not shooting for 2 weeks. Nevermind, since I will have much more time to train during the holidays. After training, we pampered ourselves with a good dinner at Chomp Chomp. Stingrays, satay beehoon, chicken wing, oyster omelet, etc. That's not all, after that went to ice3 to enjoy some ice-creams and discuss some club stuff.

I have started my holidays but those NTU/NUS/SIM pple are ending their exams so late so for the time being still cannot enjoy too much. Nevertheless, I have more or less planned my holidays. So here are some highlights/ agenda for the coming summer holidays.

1) Find a job - I need a Mon-Fri job since I have quite a lot of stuff on wkends, shall start sourcing next week
2) Archery Training - Competition in May and maybe another in June
3) Floorball Mega Event
4) Train long distance run - Going for passion run, standard chartered, and maybe AHM
5) Train for IPPT - White horse not exempted
6) Outings - Fun, movies, haochidedongxi, retail therapy
7) Sports Camp - Woohoo :)
8) Kukup cycling trip
9) Personal finance advice
10) Read books - The intelligent investor and Men are from Mars, Women are from Venus
11) Check out Visual Communication course
12) MAS-ESS Essay Competition
......

And I believe the list will get longer and longer as the days go by. This makes me wonder if I will have the time to work. Alternatively I can just go for hardcore archery training like 3-4 times a week and probably I will be able to upgrade to a metal bow by the end of the hols. A matter of choice which I will have to make within the next few days otherwise I can totally forget about getting a job. Stressful decisions even after the exams...

A Test of Luck

2008-04-15T00:50:00.002+08:00

Began the exam week today with analytical skills exam. Taking it rather easy and started revising for it only on Sunday and since logic is more or less innate, studying too much for it will not help. Nevertheless, i had a good preparation today prior to the exams. Went through the past year questions in the morning and had a good nap after lunch so that I can have a clear mind during the exam. After that went to Kuan Yin temple to pray and went to Sim Lim to buy mouse and toto (haiz, din strike again) before slowing making my way to school for the exams.

On first look of the exam script I was quite surprised with the format. 14 MCQ constituting 70% of the paper!!! That's nothing close to the past year papers and some of the questions are rather hard and getting them right is just a matter of chance. It was a 2 hour paper but soon after the 1hr mark people started to leave. Most probably they must have given up on the paper and believed that logic would not strike them within the next hour or so. On the other hand, I more or less finished the paper in an hour an a quarter but decided to stay on to critically analyse each question again. Each MCQ is five marks, so there's plenty of incentive to do so. It was a worthwhile stay as I managed to sort out some thoughts and analysis and even spotted some mistake in the last 10minutes. By the end of the 2 hour mark, the examination hall was 2/3 empty. That didn't mean that I'm less clever than them since I need so much time to finish but rather that I was just more determined. It's impossible to solve all the question but every correction or inspiration is an bonus isn't it. Since it's more or less a test of luck, it's hard to gauge how good or bad I did but at least I did my best by staying on till the last minute. Hope that my prayers were heard to give me high "tyco index" today.

What's over is over. 1 down, 3 to go. 5 days to FREEDOM!!!

In the Midst of Mugging

2008-04-10T22:59:00.002+08:00

I've been a good student so far, mugging hard during the study week. Started slow initially and squandering my time procrastinating, watching movies and soccer matches online, oversleeping, etc. Staying at home to mug is just too difficult for me as I can never find a way to resist the temptation of my bed. Studying in school was much more effective for me and the Biz Law discussion we had that day make me learn a lot more too.

Still could not see the end of my revision so far and most likely it will drag into the exams week before I can finish my revision. A bit stunned that it actually took so long but fortunately I had set aside more than enough buffer time. Perhaps it's because I did not expect my BGS textbook to be so thick and time consuming and maybe it's just that my expectations are higher this semester. Had not even started on my AS so far and hopes it doesn't give me too much surprises when I start revising it.

That's it, nothing interesting about mugging anyway, so just keep it short and sweet.

The Start of the Mugging Season

2008-04-05T23:35:00.002+08:00

My last lesson of my Year 1 in SMU has officially ended on the past Thursday which happened to be BGS. A good ending as prof Raj sponsored snacks and brought in red wine to class to make the end of the lesson. Although that would not change my views on him and I will continue to place him as my most hated prof who wasted 36hrs of my youth this semester. I shall not comment too much on him now as it will take a long long post for me to pen down all my thoughts about him and he don't deserve so much of my time and attention at this moment of time.

The one week study week officially started and unlike last semester where I only have two final papers, this semester I have four final papers which means that I do need to study during the study week. How I missed the study week last semester when most of the time I was playing my PSP and sleeping. This means that I might need to go back to school at least for a couple of days to do hardcore revision and having bad profs don't help as I need to figure out more stuff by myself. Nevertheless shall keep to my policy of a balanced lifestyle. I shall go running and continue to sleep eight hours a day for optimal mugging.

Got another incentive to mug hard this semester as of now I do have a 50-50 chance of entering into the dean's list (one of my new year agenda) and this semester will probably be my peak semester followed by decline from next semester onwards. Having higher GPA this sem would probably be crucial for cushioning the fall as well. Not many projects and assignments this semester so it's quite hard to gauge, but based on what I have gotten back and on gut feeling, my performance this semester is very satisfactory for me. What's important now is to stop complacency at this very last stage. Jia you to me :)

I'm a Singapore Fan

2008-03-26T23:14:00.002+08:00

Not being nationalistic but I've been participating in Singapore related sports and music events for the past week. And I went to the National Stadium/ Indoor stadium for the third time this week today. First time for the Singapore-Australia friendly, second time for S-Pop Concert and today for the Singapore-Lebanon WCQ. All were great experiences.

The Singapore Australia friendly was already mentioned in the previous post so shall not mention more about it. The next day went for the S-Pop concert, thanks to Bin's sis. So many good songs sang by the various singers from Singapore and abroad. Listening to the good voices live is exceptionally satisfying and the more notable singers include JJ Lin, 李圣杰, 李宗盛 and the most popular among the crowd, 萧敬腾. For the benefit of those who had not heard of him, I posted this video of him vs 杨宗维 (another great singer) during 星光大道.

But after all this is a song writing competition, and both songs which made it to the final were great. So it doesn't matter that the 雨伞 which I favoured lost to 发烧. Think the songs would be sold to some renowned singer soon so keep a lookout for it.

Today's trip to watch Singapore-Lebanon match was rather sudden as I was about to be a good floorballer going for training when Derrick tempted me to go and watch the match. And oh well, we were slightly late and missed the first goal :( but at least we managed to catch the second goal. The atmosphere was much better than that during the friendly and Singapore did play some nice soccer during the first half and was 2-0 up during half time. The second half was very typically Singapore though with Singapore playing all out defend, which was totally BORING. There was some good play by Singapore playmaker Shi Jiayi though and I think his vision really rocks. If only my vision in floorball is as good as him...

That's it for my pro-Singapore post, now let's hope Singapore goes through the qualifier :)

Rewarding Myself

2008-03-23T01:26:00.003+08:00

It has been an hectic week for me because of the two presentations I had on Thursday. Very untypical of me, to be in school for almost the whole day from last Sunday till Thursday. I still insist that I'm not a mugger, since strictly speaking, I am only completing my assignment and not mugging. After all the hard work and after Thursday, I could really feel the unloading of all the burden and stuff. I am quite proud of myself for the work though. Despite the fact that I had the two presentations on the same day, I still manage to sleep for at least six hours per day during the week. The Biz Law presentation was quite okay in my opinion although I can feel myself smoking through the Q&A. So far all the comments I received from the prof and my peers are quite encouraging. However, for the BGS presentation, I am not that confident though. The feel in the Biz Law and BGS are completely different. In the Biz Law class, I enjoyed the class because I felt that the whole class is learning from each other and as a whole, and everyone is encouraging each other. For the BGS class, I can feel the competitiveness and seems like people are more interested in shooting each other down rather than helping each other. The root of the cause got to be Raj, one of the prof who I hated.

Enough of school work and since it's a short week because it's Good Friday, I realised that I have to enjoy myself after all the hard work in school. So on Good Friday, met up with Team 100 plus minus for Dim Sum buffet at Dragon Gate @ Habourfront Center. Ate till super super full (that was the only meal I ate for the day) although William and Roger claimed that I ate very little. I just have small appetite I suppose.

Proceeded to Caelan's house for a session of Sabourteur. All the mind games played and for one of the game I did something extreme and nobody believed I am a miner. sob. Ben Dan seems to be destined to be a sabourteur for about 5-6 consecutive games during the first round.

The next day went for archery training. Finally upped my poundage to 26lbs. No much difference in strength required but my accuracy improved (although I cannot see the sight and have to guess where the bull's eye is) Perhaps it's just tyconess ba. Bought new arrows too but can only start using them next week. Hopefully it's a worthwhile investment since they cost me $64.15. The sad things that the colours are totally not what I wanted. I wanted red notch, and purple and yellow fletches and ended up with white notch and blue and yellow fletches. If only I can sue Mr. Wee for breach of contract since he said last week that he has all the colours. haha. Anyway will look online (US$ is falling) for the colours I want. Dun think it will take long before I upgrade to a metal bow at this rate : )

Caught up with the green team again at National Stadium for the Australia v Singapore friendly soccer match. Bin and I were around 20mins late for the match as I left the range late and I thought the match will start at 7.30pm. How defensive can Singapore play as most of the time they were having 10men in their own half. Having said that, final score 0-0.

Went for Geylang for entertainment (quoted from Gary) in terms of supper. Had Dim Sum at Lor 17 (despite the fact that some of us had Tim Sum buffet the day before) but at least the variety and style were different. After that proceeded to Lor 27A for 豆浆油条. Guess I had now recharged enough and ready to chiong till the final papers!

Efficiency is the Key

2008-03-13T22:03:00.002+08:00

Haven't been blogging for some time cause suddenly quite busy with school work. Quite hard to imagine that I will be busy with school work right? Apart from school work, CCA is taking up quite some time as well.

Went for my debut archery competition in the SP Open. Not a very pleasant experience for the whole of the team though not just because we did not manage to win anything, but due to many other reasons as well. For myself, first thing my sight is too protruding so I have to shift it just before the competition start and for the sighters rounds I actually sighted wrongly, so that my arrows always head towards the bottom of the board. By the time I realised my stupid mistake it's far too late. So for the first round I shot my personal low of 227, which is more than 50 points lower than my training average. Second round I shot near my average at 275, but after adjusting down my sight, it doesn't hold anymore, so after I shoot a couple of arrows my sight will drop down and I have to re-fix it again, super sian. So with my final score of 502, I got a ranking of 48/70 which is actually super bad. Quite surprise I did not get last 10 though with my first round score.

Went back on the 2nd day to support my team. Mervyn entered the quarter-finals and met the first seed. Tied after 2 rounds and entered sudden death, super exciting and dramatic cause it was raining heavily that time and Mervyn won after the 2nd arrow to enter the semis. Unfortunately, the coach of the 1st seed was quite sore and appealed that Mervyn's string is not allowed. No one could prove that the string is not allowed though it looks different from the normal string and after some arguments the initial decision was to disqualify Mervyn. After an appeal they allowed a rematch after changing the string but no sighters are allowed. After changing the string the sighting will change and all that and they actually expect Mervyn to shoot without sighting. Needless to say, he lost in the rematch. Quite disappointing for SMU as we seriously have the chance to win. Throughout the conflict, many people from other organisations showed their support for us with our sportsmanship and probably the outcome of the competition don't matter anymore. Now I understand why the seniors said in the past that archery is a dirty sport.

For myself, I will be upping my bow poundage this week and I got to improve fast before I totally lose pace of Maurice and Teng Chiat completely. Probably no one will expect me to win anymore after this competition but deep down I know I'll do it one day. Targeting to get a metal bow by June too and I shall have my revenge at my next competition - NUS Open.

Now my work is seriously piling up, unexpectedly. Drew lots for Biz Law today and my group got to present next week. Definitely the worst time possible as I am having my BGS presentation on the same day. AS and Stats homework will be due next week as well. That will put my efficiency to the test and I have to tell myself 'No Issue'. Right now, all I need is sleep. Have been rather easily agitated the past few days due to lack of sleep and that don't feel good. Right now I'm going for the 12hrs sleep that I promise myself. So nitez all!!

Waikiki 2008

2008-03-03T01:30:00.003+08:00

Went for Waikiki 2008 yesterday, an outdoor sports event held by SMU at sentosa. Formed a team of handball and a team of soccer with the floorball people to take part in Waikiki. Our handball team was down on luck, being group with the NUS handball team and the SMU handball team. Needless to say, we were totally trashed. NUS beat us 13-0 while the game against the SMU handball team was slightly better, losing 1-9. Played keeper against the SMU handball team but only managed to stop a couple of shots. The worst is when you went out to help in attack and the opponent keeper tried to score from goal to goal and I got to sprint back all the way, most of the time to no avail. Soccer was better though, we manage to qualify through the group stage to the quarter finals (and I kept 3 clean sheets), sadly losing through penalty shootouts.

Despite not winning anything, it was a fun and memorable event and happy that the other floorball team participating in soccer went against the odds and got first runner-ups. Looking forward to Waikiki 2009!

Next on my agenda will be SP Open, my very first archery competition. To think that I'm participating in the standard class for my first competition, I'm not expected to win anything. Did rather well for training today, scoring a personal best of 297, though no where near to medalist standard, it was a good improvement from last week. And a veteran archer gave me some pointers to improve my form and even gave me a free finger sling!! After which I saw my best grouping ever at 10m. That gave me lot of confidence and I'm thankful to him. Now I got to try to do some changes to my form so that I won't hit my arm. As of now I'm more or less addicted to archery. Planning to go training for the next two days despite all the school work I need to do and now I'm enjoying the Youtube videos of the Korean archers.

Enjoying the Holidays

2008-02-29T01:04:00.004+08:00

Holidays are here for a reason, that is for people to take a break. It will be too sad to just spend it to catch up on school work, since we have already spent so much time and effort during term time on projects and assignment. So far the term break was fantastic for me and I'm really enjoying it.

Went for the internal shoot on Tuesday and although I was not one of the top archers, I was very satisfied with my own performance. Compared to the last internal shoot which I totally flunked, my score was much more respectable this time round. Slowly and surely, I am catching up on the likes of the senior archers. First competition coming up in one week's time but no pressure since I wasn't expected to win anything this time round, just hope that I fall within the median range.

After the shoot went for a Kbox outing with some of the Greenies. The Kbox session where the most number of English songs were sung due to the 'kang dang' influence by demong, nat and lewis. Nat's 我要你的爱 was totally owning and made us burst out in laughters.

Last night went for Wheels for Meals, a round-island expedition cum makan section organised by SMUX. Started off at ECP, we cycled to Old Airport Road, Newton, Bukit Timah, Lau Pa Sat and finally Geylang for good food. What can beat having the chance to eat all your favourite food all in one night? Wanton mee in Old Airport Road, cheese prata, ice cream prata and other pratas in Bukit Timah, dou jiang you tiao in Geylang, etc. Even typing these makes me hungry now. And cycling in a group gives u the advantage of trying out all the different variety of food without feeling too full. It's not just the food that makes the trip fun, but the accompany as well. Especially with Lia in the group, there's hardly a moment of peace but plenty of entertainment.

Before Set-off

Old Airport Road
Lao Pa SatGeylang 豆浆油条

Revival of the Harddisk

2008-02-26T01:18:00.004+08:00

People say when you do good things you will get good karma. Probably clearing up the room is a good deed for me, considering how messy my room is and I did not even bother to clear up my room during CNY since no one is coming to visit. Since holiday is here, no harm spending some time cleaning up.

Before:

After:

It sure look more like a room now

The evening was spent with good food and cakes. Bakerzin cakes rox! So far had tasted three flavours of their cake and found that the best is the Frasier, a must-try.

clockwise from bottom: Bloom, Frasier, Strawberry shortcake

The best surprise of the day and the best karma I can get is when I reach home, my dad told me he had recovered all the data in my portable harddisk. By using some adaptors or what I'm not too sure, but all my photos are back. My precious! Now everything is backed up now. It sure feels good to get back my 'lost memories'

The End of Creativity Thinking

2008-02-22T11:16:00.005+08:00

The final presentation on Tuesday marks the end of my Creative Thinking module. What we did for this project was to trade with people for stuff of a higher value, starting with an Ikea pencil. Proceeded on to ask random people and friends in SMU to trade with us. On a couple of days me and Sarah even went out on the street to ask the public to trade with us, an of course we received countless rejections.

The Stating Item

Just an overview of what item we managed to exchange:
Starting item Ikea pencil
Using the Ikea pencil, we traded for S$12 worth of ringgit, rupiah and baht
->a kbox card, gutters and laser pointer
->a pair of Bone concert tix
-> a pencil box
-> a wallet
-> a calculator
-> earrings
-> a bag
...And finally a printer

Quite a series of good deal right? However, our project is not meant to earn from the exchanges but rather to see the human reactions to such requests. While doing the project didn't think too much of the grades but rather enjoy the process. How many people actually have an opportunity to approach random people on the street for these purposes? With all the experience begging and terrorizing, CT's the most fun modules I had so far. Of course there's hardwork too. Lost count of the distance me and Sarah walked around SMU and to Orchard and Bugis for this project, as well as the amount of time and effort that we put in for this project. This project also make me test the new cab midnight surcharge twice and learn how to use Adobe Premiere to edit the videos. It's usually not that difficult to do video editing but when suay-ness step in, anything can go wrong. We found so many computers that actually can't read .avi files and computers without Moviemaker and the last straw is after editing for 2hrs plus the night before, the program just close itself!!

On the actual day of presentation, we put up a static display as well. A rather different static display which look more or less like an obstacle course where we put the display under the table, hang on the ceiling etc, so the class and prof have to crawl at times to look at the charts. After which we showed the video which we did. I've uploaded the video on Youtube and here so do take a look!

The obstacle course

Think we will do well looking at how hard the class and prof laugh and commented on the presentation. Looking at others' presentations, some of them were very interesting and entertaining as well, but there was one particular group which was disastrous. Had a skit on 'should CT be abolished' and neither the topic and the presentation was interesting and it still exceeded by 20mins. The group just proved that creative thinking cannot be taught and all the hype of diversification (the group consist of 4 nationalities) is false. If I were Kirpal, I would be so sad that this is what they can present after teaching them for six weeks.

Other groups aside, I'm not that happy about my own group as well. 90% of the work is done by me and Sarah, 8% is done by our friends and only 2% is done by the other 2 group members. That's the worst free-loading I've ever seen and I wonder how people can freeload to this extent without feeling guilty. Sadly, there's no peer evaluation as well otherwise I'll file a freeloading report cause they seriously don't deserve to get the same grades as me and Sarah. Very thankful that Sarah is in my group otherwise I think I may just pull up to do up a project myself.

Overall I enjoyed this module a lot with inspirational talks by Kirpal each week and the opportunity to try creative stuffs. Get to know myself better as well in terms of my creativity ability though it's not that good to know that I can conceptualise and optimize well but can't generate new ideas and implement well. Nevertheless, that's it, CT is over and here comes my two-days-week!!!

Greenies Food and Gambling Outing

2008-02-18T15:51:00.000+08:00

The last sad post is there for quite some time so it's time to post something so that sadness don't appear right on top of my blog and people will not think that I have died from depression. Especially since I don't feel sad after Vday or I should say I had no time to feel sad after Vday.

Greenies outing on Saturday with nice steamboat buffet and of course gambling. Since it's quite over shan't elaborate too much on it. Just let pictures do the talking.

Think my luck has changed after Vday?

Think again

The girls are so mean to me that day, causing physical (see above) and emotional damage to me. After Bin told everyone how sad my valentines day is they actually formed a mini choir singing "All you need is love" Rub salt into my wound.. Awww...

Money are at stake

Unexpectedly I actually won money during the blackjack session. Initially I was losing quite badly but with Cai Shen Chih as banker, it's actually quite hard to lose. Just hope that the little winnings won't cause me to play Wii this Xmas.

V-Day Depression

2008-02-14T21:21:00.003+08:00

My most hatred day of the year is here again and too bad, I have lesson today, in fact for the whole day, so I can't stay home to avoid seeing things that makes me sad. Boys and girls dressing up preparing for the date at night, bazaar selling things in pairs at the concourse and people carrying flowers around. These make me feel more alone than alone.

Throughout the day this song keeps sounding in my mind: All you Need is Love. Perhaps it's the lyrics which pointed out exactly what I felt.

"All you need is love, all you need is love,
All you need is love, love, love is all you need.
Love, love, love, love, love, love, love, love, love."

Even after school at home, I'm feeling the effects of Valentines' Day. My parents want to eat outside and initially thought I have tuition, so asked mum not to cook. In the end, tuition is canceled and I have nothing to eat. Not wanting to eat outside, I decided to cook myself. Ba Kwa Soba, now with prawns and mushrooms. Sounds nice but not too nice tasting though as I was cooking in a rush and it was sort of impromptu. Tried out a new drink too, peach vodka with green tea. It seems to be the perfect drink to drink alone on Valentines' Day as the vodka brings out the bitterness of green tea and bitter plus bitter equal super bitter, just like how singles feel on Vday. Definitely not a drink which I would want to try again.

My favourite activity during emo times is to listen to emo songs. Recently seems to have quite a number of good emo songs springing out, with one song which I would like to highly recommend. 洋葱 by 杨宗维 of 星光班. One of the very rare good voices nowadays and with a good song like this written by 阿信 of Mayday, it's definitely a must-listen to song, regardless of emo or not.

It's getting harder and harder to endure the sufferings during such festivals and I really don't wish to suffer more.

CJ 7

2008-02-10T11:53:00.000+08:00

Despite the amount of work piling up, CNY still has to be enjoyed. Went to Derrick's place together with some other NP guys to visit and chill up. CNY is one of the few times in the year to gamble, so we had some games of blackjack. As the theory stands that this year I shall 赌场失意，情场得意， so I ended up being the biggest loser again, with losses of $20plus. I did not lose on purpose though, just that luck is seriously not on my side, play around $1-$2 also can lose so much. Hopefully the girl comes quick otherwise I will be too broke to go out on a date by then. Carried on to play FIFA which I'm better at with my Italian style of playing, holding on to 0-0 and win at penalties.

Later on went to Bugis to watch CJ7. A good brainless Stephen Chow style movie to watch during the CNY to relax. Not much plot to talk about but it was very funny and most importantly of all, the alien dog CJ7 is so so so so cute, with the expressions that it can make in the movie. I might just be tempted to get the plush/ voodoo doll of it if I see it.

It's even cuter in the movies

Goodbye the Pig, Welcome Rat

2008-02-07T22:52:00.001+08:00

Chinese New Year is here again and it's the year of the rat. What is associated with Chinese New Year? Ang Pow, food, gambling, visiting...

Ang Pow
One of the few wonderful things you can look forward to during CNY and I'm waiting for the Ang Pows to finance my post-CNY retail therapies. Had been holding back my spendings as income doesn't seem to be able to catch up with expenses most of the time. Sad to say in times of inflation, everything had gone up but ang pow money seems to shrunk and the mode of the ang pows collected so far is $4. Haiz... And got my first CNY ang pow from my sis and this year I need not collect ang pows on behalf on her coz she's not eligible to collect ang pow anymore.

Food
Don't seem to be able to eat so much this year. Ate very little rice for lunch and dinner and a little CNY goodies but that made me felt so full for the entire day. Got to maintain my weight below 60kg but guess it's gonna be real hard. After CNY gotta exercise hard and think I shall replace some of my meals with salad and snacks next week.

Gambling
Thought after selling off my PSP I will rot at my granddad hse but all thanks to Mahjong, I'm pretty occupied this CNY. Usually my dad is the one who's playing Mahjong but this year he gave up the chance to play. Started with the normal 20cents/40cents game with the less pro players. Won $10 this game and later the pro players started to arrive and wanted to start a game with stake 3-6 which I know is quite big but dun really know how big is it, so I din really wanted to play. But my mum asked me to pay and she said she'll pay for my loss and if I win I'll keep the winning, so why not? It's only when I started playing I realised how big is the stakes. Min is $1 and max is $20. 'Zi Mo' still add $2. Even an 'An Kang' cost $4, which is more than the limit of what I usually play. Real scary sia considering that my hands started shivering even when I play the 20cents/40cents game. Totally pawned as my tiles CMI sia, during the less pro game still can overcome with skill but against the pro it's gg for me. Report card after 2 rounds: $79 lost. Ouch!! The consolation is that all lost is covered by my dad and 赌场失意，情场得意！！

Visiting
More visiting to go for the next few days meaning more ang pow, more food and perhaps more gambling (hopefully not coz I know I'll be down on gambling luck this year) At the same time got to start on my work as well. Week 6 and week 7 will be extremely busy with the CT project taking out most of my time. Since it's a fun project I dun mind doing for the fun of it but quite sad coz seems like only me and Sarah is interested and committed in this project. Also got to do up my BGS assignment. Maybe Sunday got to go NLB to do up my essay and not go visiting. Haiz, Mugtatouile is here!!

Paddle and Pedal

2008-01-30T23:58:00.000+08:00

Went for Paddle and Pedal by SMUX last weekend which is basically a two-day kayaking (Paddle) and biking (pedal) event.

There we go starting at the Punggol beach with our warm-ups.
After the buoyancy test it's off to the water!!!
And for some reason me and my partner Tim aren't able to control the boat well so it keep moving to the right towards the bum boat. Maybe that's a blessing in disguise that we have more pictures taken cause we are nearer to lia who's taking photos on the bum boat.

And this is my partner Tim

Not forgetting to take photos at the same time

and play games too

before we cross the channel over the ubin, we decide to change partners and here's my new partner John
After crossing the channel we started to capsize each other. My kayak was one of the kayak being capsized as well. But since I'm already wet and I can't drown with a floatation jacket, I don't really mind going down the water.Reached Pulau Ubin near the evening and you can see after a whole day of tanning, I've turned into a 阳光男孩

After which we had our BBQ and ended the night lying on the ground sheet gazing at the stars. Never realised stars can be so beautiful in Singapore. Did not have a good sleep though. The mosquitoes seems to be immune to the mosquitoes coils I set around. What they said about O+ blood attracts mosquitoes seem true too.

The next day woke up early and kayak back (this time round me and Tim managed to go straight and faster too) to Changi and began our cycling after lunch. Cycled on the PCN towards Pasir Ris and Tampines playing games on the way. More or less a leisure ride until we went to explore the Tampines Trail.
Took an easier route but nevertheless quite fun and challanging too. After which I tried to cycle across the ramps. Managed to pass through the first few and got stuck at one ramp and fell a bit and no choice have to give up. How can a cycling expedition happen without any casualties? We have 3 casualties that day and John is the worst casualties as I witness him fell and fly in front of my and rolled a few rounds.

Definitely a fun trip which I might want to try again next year. I'm finally tanned now but my face is peeling so I guess after the peeling my face will turn fair again. But sort of realise that kayaking isn't my cup of tea so think will try out more SMUX land activites soon, with round island biking expedition being the next activity. After all, water dog should stay in water too long :). Paid for SMUX membership today and so there will be discount for future SMUX activities. Yeah.

Creative Thinking

2008-01-22T20:29:00.000+08:00

In today's creative thinking class we had an impromptu class group project where we were divided into groups and given one hour to brainstorm and present our idea. Quite a stressed free assignment even though the weightage is actually 20% of the total. Nevertheless, that is not the main point of today's post. It's what Prof Kirpal Singh said during class which actually spurred some random thoughts in me.

The point he mentioned is that whenever someone tell you his or her own stories, it meant that he or she cares about you. Analyzing between someone lending you a sum of money and telling you a story. For a rich man, the sum of money may mean nothing to him. However, whenever someone tell you his or her personal story, he or she is actually giving you time and sacrificing a piece of his or her life. Quite true isn't it? But most of the time when someone tell you their story, you would start to think,"Why tell me that? I'm ain't interested in your personal life" So now, we should start to appreciate whenever tell you their own stories and make sure their life aren't sacrificed unnecessarily. As for me, I'm giving all the readers of this blog, as few as it may be, a piece of my life whenever I update my blog, so I'm caring about you as well :)

He gave some mention about money as well, which I have been mentioning once and once again. When describing someone, why must we use 'poor BUT happy'? After all does being rich means one will be happy? There's a rich man living in Nassim Road all 'alone' with five servants but he's probably just a lonely sad old man. I'm now much much much poorer than before but somehow life feels more meaningful. Probably I don't need so much money as I planned for the time being. After some thoughts, I guess I will just work hard for the next three months and make the best out of it for the rest of the year.

Moi ish a good tutor

2008-01-19T00:58:00.000+08:00

Gave my first tuition today, not English of course, but maths. Sec 1 maths so no much preparation was needed and by reading the assessment book I was able to get most of the memory back. Quite satisfied with my performance today and I hope Lorraine thinks so too. It's not hard to teach her too, cause although she might take some time to understand the concept, once she understood it she could solve the problems quite fast.

Previously I was quite against tutoring and taught it was rather unethical. This time round, by circumstances and by chance I started tutoring. It's tough for the the last few months financially as after entering my expense and income on Microsoft Money most of the time I will find my account in the red. All I can do was to save whatever I can and push backward whatever expense I can push and sometimes if I'm lucky, I would be just able to break even at the end of the month. Now with delayed expenditure amounting to a large amount and depleting reserve, I have no choice but to go against my principle and start tutoring. Looking at my timetable and commitments I doubt that I can have other career opportunities.

Still it will take sometime before I can live a luxurious lifestyle during the pre-SMU days. Hopefully by end of March I would be able to liquify the assets which are required to liquify and allow my cash holdings to earn some passive income for me (one of my new year resolution). Maybe I would be able to take another 2-hr/wk tuition assignment to refill my depleting reserve and to clear off the delayed expenditure. Of course it would be best if I can strike the CNY 10mil toto.

It's true that money and women are my greatest worries. From putting effort to save cents in Kopitiam to budgeting to investing, it's killing a lot of my brain cells. Students should still have the right to lead luxurious lifestyle, please let me get rich soon.

End of week 1

2008-01-12T00:30:00.000+08:00

The new sem has started with new modules, new profs, new friends and new experience. Unlike semester 1 where everyone do not know each other, everyone is more or less in groups this semester.

Started the week with creative thinking under Kirpal Singh. Super interesting prof with high degree of freedom to do whatever we like for the project. Got into a half-international group again and had my very first meeting of the sem today.

Stats was just the opposite and super boring, even worse than accounting. But fortunately I guess all I have to do for this course is to recall my A level stuff. No project for this course but somehow got the temptation to continue to work on my toto stats in view of the coming 10million draw.

Analytical skill mod was rather short this week and ended in 45mins. And in the same class as my old Dunman friends Ellery and Derrick.

Business Law was more interesting than expected as the class participated very actively in discussions. However this should be a taxing course as quite a substantial amount of reading is required. And till now still couldn't get a group yet, must go around and advertise myself le. Haha.

Business, Government and Society, really dunno what to say. Prof Raj was quite entertaining and spent 3hrs on course overview and 15mins on the course. Looks like another TWC to me and had already formed a group and hopefully can do another TWC with Irving for BGS.

Overall this semester seems to be more challenging then the previous but first thing first is to make more friends. Sort of felt quite bad when you walk into a class and you do not know anyone in the class. Another priority will be not to get suck into the rat race and continue my slacking yet efficient way last semester. After all I was assigned a 3-day week and I assume it's a sign that I should not be overworked this semester. Just do my best and hopefully quality will prevail.

Greenies Outing @ Sentosa

2008-01-06T01:21:00.001+08:00

Went to Sentosa with Bin, Demong and Gary. Played some frisby and soon it started pouring. There goes my plan to be tall dark and handsome before school starts. Haiz.

Gary looks sad coz someone is not here

Hot Hunks @ Sentosa

Frisby!!

After that joined by David, William and Roger for dinner at bukit timah (sounds far but thanks to bus 154, going home is a breeze) . Sumptuous hawker food including stingray, carrot cake, etc. After which went to Mac for bridge and Roger's magic tricks and he revealed some of the secrets to them. Haha, gonna practice it and who knows it may be useful to 骗小妹妹and hopefully, no Wii for me for the next Xmas.

NP outings

2008-01-05T00:42:00.000+08:00

Spend an entire day out with good food and lots of fun with the NP peeps. Started off with lunch with the NP guys at Imperial Jade La Mian Xiao Long Bao. Basically it's a pirated CJ La Mian Xiao Long Bao and I still prefer the original CJ La Mian. Carried on with bowling and quite a good game for me hitting above 100 for 2 out of 3 of the games bowled. Finally cut my hair after two plus months. Felt that it look a bit guai compared to my original hairstyle but at least it looks neater and perhaps its time to try a new style.

Dinner was at Sushi Tei, with NP guys and girls again. Afterwhich went to Max Brenner for chocolate while the girls went to watch their musically. Always wanted to try out their chocolate since the StarHub days but never had the chance. Tried out their dark chocolate Suckao which is one of their signature dish however was rather disappointed. The dark chocolate is just like those normal sweet chocolate sold outside and when melted with milk, it tasted just like milo. Guess it's more style than substance for the chocolate cafe.

Anyway, met up the girls again and went to Cineleisure for K-Box. There's actually supper buffet served over their which include nice food like satay, sushi, ice-cream, etc. Sang all the way till 4+ in the morning but my voice was rather bad that day. Nevertheless, it's quite an entertaining Kbox session. Tried out the new cab fare home and the meter really jumped faster.

Damage for the day: $96.50 (Ouch!) and quite significant amount of fats.

My New Year Resolutions

2008-01-02T20:39:00.000+08:00

It's already the second day of 2008 and so far so good. Had been full of hopes though nothing in particular happened. It's just the omens and the feeling that this year is gonna be the best year that I had so far. In view of this, got to keep this spirit up through the year and this years resolutions will be more ambitious.

1) Dean's List
Sounds ambitious, and is indeed quite ambitious. This sem's grades did make the mark but it's more luck than anything else. So got to work a little bit harder next sem as it seems like it's my only chance to get into Dean's list as the next few years would be much harder and competitive.

2) Complete a Marathon
The Standard Chartered Marathon at the end of the year is the top priority. If time permits might go for AHM again to collect one more medal and as a warm up, might even go for the vertical marathon as well. Anyone interested to go with me?

3) Archery Medal
After training for months my grouping still can't make it and after learning and unlearning my form is just bad. Still believe I got to have the talent for it and I just need more practice and some luck to get a medal in my first novice competition.

4) Passive Income
Manage to survive on the allowance from parents but I'm not quite content with it. How I missed the good old days of luxurious spending without feeling the pain. Basically now I have cut on all single items costing more than $100 in order not to dig into my savings but that's self-torture man. Maybe going to find tuition or other lobangs so that I can go back to my luxurious spending ways again.

5) Mr. Magnet
Meaning I want to be more attractive in 2008, both appearance and character-wise. Want to build up a more defined personal style and carrying on my willingness to try out new styles. Maybe it's possible to change my character and be less of a 乖乖男孩 and more of your sunny and friendly guy next door.

6) No more Lonely Christmas
Last but definitely not the least. My annual resolution which always did not manage to be realised. Will this year be the year it finally come true? I hope so.

That's all that I can think of currently but that doesn't end here. Talk is cheap without action so I will work hard for my resolutions to achieve as many of them as possible. Good luck to all and let's work hard together for your resolutions as well =)

Good Bye 2007

2008-01-01T18:07:00.001+08:00

A very enjoyable New Year's Eve for me this year. Firstly met up with Wilson, ZX and Nut for dinner. Originally wanted to shop first but found that we just went to Marina Square to shop just a few days ago so there isn't much to shop for either. Anyway, had dinner at Billy Bomber's with their very limited new year menu and as usual, the meals served are extremely filling. After dinner proceeded on to Orchard to shop a bit but found that Wisma is surprisingly a ghost town on New Year's eve and since everyone is shag we decided to just chill out in Mac and play the Ipod quiz on Wilson's Ipod. Headed back to Marina to watch the fireworks display. The crowd was rather bad especially with all the foreign talents pushing hard to proceed to the front. Finally got squeezed to a quite forward position and enjoyed the fireworks display. Not exactly a brilliant display compared to NDP nevertheless is a good way to kickstart a year.

The rest of them went home after the fireworks but for me, the night is still young cause there's another Greenies party at Caelan's place. It's a night of fun till dawn with Chih's Wii. First time playing Wii and found it fun but some games like boxing can be real tiring. Not forgetting the booze and the card games as well and it's one of the very rare occasions where nobody went down from alcohol.

The start of a new year is also a good time to look back at what one has achieved in the past year. So just a quick recap of what had happened for me in 2007. The first half of the year was spent in StarHub where I met all the cool Greenies especially Team 100. Even after being transferred to Callback team I was still very attached to the Greenies. Then came the two special weeks. Sadly not all stories end with 'happily ever after' and 5months down the road today, it's still hard to get over it. 也许时间是一种解药也是我现在正服下的毒药。 Next come the start of my uni life in SMU. I supposed I've chosen the right school and so far had survived well in SMU and continued to remain slack in the highly competitive environment. All the CCAs and ac-hoc activities in school had also made my year more happening and made good used off. This year also marks my 21st birthday but it doesn't seems to make much difference. I have yet to watch a R21 movie yet and being 21 just makes me feels old at times.

Back to what I have achieved this year. Looking at last year's resolution I would say that I have achieved half of what I wished for. Apart from better finance due to working in StarHub the rest of my achievements are somewhat intangible. Firstly, I felt that I looked better and my guess is that people will be calling me shameless. But looking at the before and after photo picture below taken at the start and end of the year respectively, it's not hard to understand why do I think I looked better.

Transformation 2007

Other achievements will be in terms of character development. In 2007 I felt more confident to try out new stuff as well as networking. This is also one of the most happening years in terms of going out much often for good food and stuff like that. One year ago being alone seems alright for me but now I'm quite scared of loneliness but that's a good thing. So in conclusion 2007 is a rather fruitful year for me but let's hope 2008 will be better.

I Hate Christmas

2007-12-25T22:38:00.000+08:00

I have to admit that I was never a fan of xmas, actually it's my saddest day after Valentines' Day. It's always such days which make one think more about loneliness and stuff like that. The days before christmas are quite enjoyable with gatherings and outings but every year on xmas eve, I'm more or less 'alone'.

This year there's a gathering at my place for my relatives to celebrate xmas. Nice food with turkey, cake, hams and knuckles but I was rather anti-social last night. Lingered in the living room to watch TV and eat for a while and then retreated back to my room. Later in the night played dota with my fellow no-life loser friends together with other losers out there and was still in a game when the clock strike 12. Xmas, so what...

As much as I dun like Xmas, Santa doesn't seem to like me either. This year, there's one more reason for me to hate xmas. My portable harddisk broke down. Songs and movies lost can be downloaded again but what I really felt sad about was the photos. At least 4 years worth of photos are gone. All the good and bad memories, there's no way money can buy it. Tried all the methods I can think of: changing com, changing cable and even freezing the harddisk. All failed to work. Now looking for professional data recovery which is going to cost at least $100+ but if all the photos can be restored, I'm more than willing to pay that price.

All I want for xmas is my photos back

Sad as it may be, life still have to go on while waiting for quotes. Had good food with ZX and Wilson in an attempt to raise my spirit a bit, this time at Waruku. First time eating there and my experience is more or less similar to the reviews I read about the restaurant. The food was tasty and the portion was huge but the service is slightly lacking.

Huat 'slave' and 'peasant'

Lastly, this is the song I listen to again and again every christmas, since it's quite a good description of my feelings. Hope I need not listen to it again next year.

Greenies Xmas Party at Caelan's

2007-12-24T17:26:00.000+08:00

Had a Greenies Xmas party at Caelan's house last night consisting of movie marathon, games and of course not forgetting alcohol (lot's of it actually). So we started off with a rather harmless red wine.

大哥是对的

So some of us started watching movie while the rest started playing a game called "Bang!" By then all of us had a plan in mind, which is to down Lewis.

First up, Team 100 consisting of Weiling, Deming and me started to play Daidee with Lewis to make him drink. Sadly none of us manage to make him drink.

Demong and his Johnny Walker

Next up played intra-SMU, again, Lewis survived.

Finally, everyone joined force.
However, I did not know what happened after that because I was a bit down by the alcohol and took a rest.But when I regained my soberness after an hour or so, this is what I saw. Apparently they succeeded =)
Continued the movie marathon, watching The Fast and The Furious, Internal Affairs and My Sassy girl through the night.

Merry Christmas to all. Greenies, I have uploaded the rest of the photos on facebook. Click here to view or you can request the photos from me when you see me online, but it's around 100mb.

NP outing @ Timbre 22/12

2007-12-23T17:09:00.000+08:00

Sort of an annual event for everyone in the NP squad and for this year had it at Timbre.

Did not really drink that much that night, with everyone drinking only one bottle of Heineken each. With beer we started playing the "I had never..." game to expose everyone's darkest secret that we do not know despite having known each other for 7years.

Even Wenwei has some stunning secrets. But what is said at Timbre stays at Timbre.
And of course we have veterans who have lot's of reasons to drink with their experiences. But generally our squad is still very lacking in experience in terms of relationship. May next year be a better year for all and more can break the NP curse.

Cycling from ECP to Changi

2007-12-22T10:23:00.000+08:00

After some overseas cycling in Desaru earlier this month, it's time for some local cycling at ECP. Since now is the monsoon season, it's not surprisingly that it rained on that day again. Waited till the rain stop before we set off.

Rain start pouring soon after we set off though. So it's always useful to learn one-hand riding so that you can take an umbrella while cycling.

The wet weather program: refer to dry weather program. So we continued cycling towards the kallang area.

We were quite garang (girls and demong not included) that day and hence decided to play soccer in the rain. You can see how wet the pitch is from the photos, but who cares, as long as everyone has fun.

After the short game, continued to cycle down the new connector all the way to Changi Beach. It really make cycling much safer and easier. Used to cycle on the road side by side with the speeding heavy vehicles and going upslopes and downslopes.

Cycled till dark and had our standard seafood dinner to replenish the fats loss for the day.

The Kuala Lumpur "Trek"

2007-12-17T21:36:00.000+08:00

After much preparation finally we are all ready to go caving and climb up Stong and Ayam.

Had a good meal at Secret Recipe before setting off to the train station

Where true colours start to show at the train station

And it was a happy and smooth ride with card games, chit chat, sleep and confessions of pain

Until the train stopped at a place called Gemas, which was only around 40% of our journey. There we were told that there was flood in the area in front and the train was unable to pass through. We have 3 alternatives: To travel to transit to bus and back to train to continue the trek, go for R&R or return to Singapore straight. So after some discussion,

KL here we come! And it just happened to be my first time visiting KL.

There we spent our 2-day R&R with FOOD!

and more food! (tim sum)
And still more food! (deserts)
And since nothing much to do, caught 2 movies in 2 days as well. Both were nice movies and worth watching especially in KL movies only cost ard S$5. "I am Legend" was not even launched in Singapore yet so we managed to get the first hand view of the show!

Had some retail therapy and photographing while some went sight-seeing. Not a nice place to shop as things weren't particularly cheap so it's more of window shopping.

And finally, it's home sweet home via coach.

Bye Bye PSP... For now

2007-12-14T02:17:00.000+08:00

Sold off my PSP today, not because I'm bored of it, but because I want to upgrade to a PSP slim. I'm eying the purple colour PSP by the way and gotta get it before school starts so that it can keep me company during the break between lessons.

Sold: My old fat black PSP

My new target: Purple PSP Slim

A day of good food and movie today. Had dinner at Shimbashi Soba. My second time there and the soba still tasted just as good, so is the desert. After which went on to Bakerzin for cakes. Saw several reviews on how good the cakes are and finally have the chance to taste it for myself. The cakes really taste as good as the reviews stated. I had a strawberry shortcake while Bin had the Fraisier. Both tasted great with giant strawberries though I would prefer the Fraisier because of the strawberry liquor in it. It's something like rum in chocolate I suppose, and the cakes are not too sweet and I'm never too full eating them. There are many other cakes available there which look very attractive and I'm sure I will be back there to try out the other flavours.

Watched Alvin and the Chipmunks as well. The Chipmunks are so cute and the songs in the movies sang by the chipmunks rocks as well. In short, watch the movie and get the soundtrack.
By the way, going for a five day trek in Kelantan tomorrow. The conditions there remain bad with continued flooding and people are dropping out of the trek. I've done my prayers at the temple today and hope everything will be fine. And people, dun miss me too much, even though i know it's hard. But it's just 5days, I'll be back soon. =)

Holidays Redefined

2007-12-11T22:14:00.000+08:00

More than a week has passed since the holidays started and sad to say this isn't exactly the type of holiday I expected. Initially I planned to have a holidays filled with activities but now I realised that it is too packed for my own good. Since the start of the holidays I have yet to have a single day to slack at home, and this day will not come soon since as of now, my schedule is packed till 18th at least.

Till now, a few days have been spent out with friends (that's good), the Desaru trip and the rest of the time have been spent training in floorball and archery. Ironically I'm beginning to feel the pressure of two CCAs only during the holidays and not during term time. Floorball trainings are taking a bulk of my holidays. For this week alone there's 3 trainings and 2 of them are at RP, which is so freaking far. The traveling time, the training time and the makan time after training will mean that my entire day will be gone whenever there's training. It's especially taxing on me physically too with my dog-like stamina. I got to lower my level of commitment soon before I die of fatigue and think that will be after the selection. By then probably the frequency of the training will be lower and there's more incentives to skip training too.

Archery trainings are getting more frequent too and currently twice a week. Fortunately it is less physically taxing and training is at Potong Pasir which is much nearer compared to RP. However, having gotten into the EXCO as logistics manager, this mean that my level of commitment will have to increase as well. That will sort of disrupt my current balancing of my 2 CCAs as well.

Not too sure it's a good thing or a bad thing. I'm going for a 5-day trek in Kelantan for 5days starting this Friday. I see it as a chance for me to escape from all the trainings to try something new. But this trip is not going to be easy. Got a call from my GL today telling me that the weather condition in Kelantan now is actually quite bad with heavy downpour and flood. Being a white horse in army this might well me my most challenging outfield experience.

I still long to have a day for me to slack at home just reading comics, watching serials and sleeping. When will that day come???

Desaru 2007

2007-12-06T14:04:00.000+08:00

Cycled a total of 105km from Pengerang to Rengit to Desaru for this 2D1N trip. Definitely more challenging than the previous Rengit trip in terms of the distance, the terrain and definitely the headwind on day 1.

Welcome to Pengerang

Away from the bustling city life

The ride from Rengit to Desaru was full slopes like this
GL's inspirational stories

Desaru Golden Beach Hotel

Hao Chi De Dong Xi @ Rengit

This should be the longest cycling trip I have ever attended but I am still craving for more longer, tougher rides. A combination of speed and endurance make cycling one of the sports which I enjoyed most. Surprising, during the return trip the GL allow me to cycle on my own, so I abandoned the group to chiong a few km on my own (though GL has to catch up with me later when the trip IC told the him that it was a safety breach), and during that time I really enjoyed myself, riding at full speed up and down the slopes.

It's the HOLIDAYS

2007-12-02T21:37:00.000+08:00

Just finished my last paper yesterday and guess I did well for the FA paper. At least everything which is suppose to balance did balance. But now it's not the time to think of exams and GPA coz it's the start of the HOLIDAYS!!

Five weeks is not too long a holiday too, considering the amount of things that I have to do. School activities will take up more than half of my holidays. Firstly there's the Desaru Cycling trip the next two days. Then there's a 5D4N Stong Ayam Trek starting next friday. Not forgetting the floorball and archery trainings to be attended.

Since it's the holidays, still got to reserve some time for myself to watch serials and movies, read comics, play computer games, get emo, go for retail therapies and go for outings and gatherings. Of course there's serious stuff to do too, like learning how to use photoshop for my future projects, follow up on investments, sell off some of my stuffs, find a girlfriend before christmas. Just kidding, i'm not that despo :)

Seems like this holiday should be a busy holiday for me, but still anyone, feel free to ask me out!! I want to enjoy this holiday fully before I begin my next semester, though next semester seems to be a rather slack term for me.

Enough said, coming next Desaru 2007!!

One down, One to Go

2007-11-27T11:45:00.000+08:00

In case you are wondering why this blog isn't updated, the reason is not that I'm too busy mugging that I got no time to update. It's just that I got nothing to blog. Mugging is seriously boring and mundane. I spent too much time napping that I can't sleep at night, watched a few shows online and even completed my PSP game. So I guess that instead of blogging all these boring stuffs, it's actually not to blog.

Just finished my TWC exam yesterday, which happened to be my first exam in three years. SMU has literally ruined my ability to write as it has been years since I wrote so much stuff. My hand were aching terribly halfway through the exams and I never wished so much that I can write with my left hand as well.

That aside, stepping out of the seminar room, I felt that I wasted my time studying for the exams. Time would be better spent going to the temple praying since I'm guessing the answers for all the MCQ and was crapping through the essay questions. One more thing, I really felt bad killing the trees and printing out my notes since they were of not much use after all. Nevertheless, I don't think I did too badly though, but just not up to the Wilson's standard.

Out: TWC which owned me

What is over is over, now I got to focus to own FA for revenge.

In: FA which I gonna own