Ting feels very blessed! =)

Gahh.

2011-10-15T07:13:00.001+08:00

Such a dread when you're sick but hafta drag yourself to work on a Saturday morning.

Feelslikecrap.

On a sidenote, I'm even dragging myself to work coz it's a colleague's last day at work. Sigh. First time a colleague's leaving our company (well, other than Xian, whom I still got to see in school after she left haha)! Quite sad to see her go, but she said she'll come back! Hehe hopefully =)

I wonder how it feels to leave your first job, and what would make me leave when it comes down to me one day... Hmmm.

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Procrastination

2011-10-09T13:17:00.001+08:00

Yes, yes, the mood will come...

After I finish watching one more video, I'll be ready to work.
Maybe I'll just have lunch first.
Time to meet friend go shopping first.
Ok, half the day gone, must work now.
Perhaps after I Facebook for awhile, I will settle down.
Maybe I should just check my emails first to put myself at ease.
I think it's time for dinner, let's eat first.
Maybe I can watch another video over fruits, then the mood will kick in.
Let me check my Facebook again.
Ok, I think I can read one chapter before bed.
I'll just skim through and make notes tomorrow.
So sleepy, no point reading when not focused.
Let's go sleep first, wake up earlier tomorrow and read when the mood is there.

(Source: http://www.cse.wustl.edu/~faanly/miscellaneous.htm)

Thanks, Baby =)

2011-10-02T12:54:00.000+08:00

And I know just who this perfect guy is =)

2011-09-22T08:47:00.001+08:00

It's a late late week!

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Daily contentment could be simply..

2011-09-19T22:45:00.001+08:00

A good morning when you're really unlucky, but received a sms from your loved one cheering you up.

A good afternoon at work, seeing clients really making progress;

A good evening after work seeing old friends and catching up.

What made you contented today? =)

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Turning 24...

2011-09-11T13:31:00.004+08:00

I'm 24!!

It strangely doesn't mean much to me. Haha. Perhaps it's true that after 21, birthdays don't feel much anymore. But I do feel blessed that I have a lovely boyfriend, friends, family who make me feel like my birthday lasts a month every year =) *Mental note- next time give birth to kids at the beginning of the month* Haha.

Looking back, I do feel quite accomplished being 23 years old. The biggest change I guess, would be stepping out into the working world, learning to be more independent.

What does Graduation mean to you? I never used to think much of it, other than Freedom to pursue my dream and being more responsible for my own life (especially financially).

However, after working for over a year, I've come to realize that the greatest meaning of graduation would probably be No more second chances. In school, you're mostly accountable to yourself, where being lazy or doing the wrong thing would at most cost you your grades. Whereas, when you're at work, you're accountable to your bosses and clients, and if you're lucky/didn't make too big a boo-boo - you simply get a gentle reminder/warning; but if you're not so lucky/made a big boo-boo - boss is not gonna tell you "Nevermind, try again next time.", and client's not gonna tell you "It's ok that I paid you so much and you booboo-ed. Just don't do it again". Haha, pretty scary isn't it? I believe we all truly understand the meaning of Accountability now.

For me, Graduation also brought about Purpose. Studying never meant more than the pursuit of knowledge and grades, a vague goal of I'm studying hard in order to fulfill my aspirations. So how exactly does memorizing many studies and psychologists' names and spending hours twigging around my independent and dependent variables bring me nearer to my dreams? I would say I never really understood the importance of those things until I started working. Ok, to be fair, not every single thing I've learnt in school is useful to work. But at least it laid a strong foundation to whatever knowledge that needs to be added upon to fulfill the goals at work. Like for me, having knowledge about Reinforcements and Behavior Modification helped me more easily understand my training content at work; having knowledge about research helps me to look for answers independently when I want to know more about things at work that nobody might be able to spoon-feed me with; not every presentation I've done in school seemed meaningful, but at least they cumulatively honed my skills to address people and answer questions; even being ticked off by professors helped manage my emotions better when supervisors give feedback. And the list goes on... Of course I also believe that no amount of skills learnt in school would help without any practical application at work. It is often when there are work goals to fulfill, that I would more strongly see the purpose of learning and relevant knowledge acquisition!

The luckiest thing being 23? Getting a flat with my dream guy in my dream location! Let's not discuss whether it's my dream price or not, but it suffices to say that it's a reasonable price =) It's a BIG thing to us, coz that brings us one step closer to settling down, and adds another reason for both of us to work harder for each other! Actually, I'm very much convinced that the luck came from my dream guy, coz I've never had much luck with important stuff my entire life. Phew! So ultimately, the luckiest thing being 23 is that I've snagged a nice guy! =)

Anyway, I'm pretty satisfied with life right now. Twelve more months, and I would be at the quarter-mark of life (Let's be really positive, and assume that we're all gonna live to be centeranians). Long-term goals would be career advancement, better management skills, better financial management (I wish there were more finances to manage...), and be nicer to my dream guy! =)

May everybody feel more accomplished and happier each and every year aged! =P

Work & Life...

2011-07-10T10:32:00.003+08:00

Life has been kind and happening to moi!

Work has taken a slight change since mid June and so I've had more time to spend with my colleagues at the center, and learn more new things everyday! Big bosses came from the States and went back with very positive comments, so we are all happy. Now the thing is they have more plans for us, and we would be even busier! Hahaha. Not that I'm complaining though. To me, busy = more things to learn! Well, at least at work...I don't want to establish that the same theory holds in school :p

Besides keeping big bosses happy, I've come to realise too that at least to me, even more satisfying than keeping bosses happy is Client Satisfaction. It's one thing to have bosses tell you "Good job, you're doing well.", but a totally different and more rewarding feeling to have your client tell you "We really appreciate your hard work", "We're seeing improvement in...", "Thank you for changing lifes", "Each of you is a noble and inspiring example of .....", etc... =)

Perhaps because my job involves directly crossing paths with clients regularly and every single day, it can get rather emotional or frustrating at times. There are happy times of coz when we would wanna go "YAHOOO!!!!", but there are down times too where you just want to get out of the job, and there are times it wears you off so badly you just feel you can't carry on anymore. Even one of the bosses told us "All it takes is 1 frustrating minute to change and whip off all that passion you have." Yes, it can't be more true. So colleagues' support are important, to fight away any negativity we feel at the end of a hard day. And even more so, knowing our clients are thankful and satisfied with what we have been doing, hearing a heartfelt "Thank you", it sometimes just lift you back off the ground, and feel that every punch you take at work is worth all the while! =) =)

Haha, I guess that's human nature... you know it's tough, you feel like giving up, but you know you won't actually give up, but you just want to feel appreciated so that it's worth hanging on! =P

Anyway, other than work, Deardear and I have been really lucky too! Things are progressing really well for us, and we can't be more thankful about that!! Not to brag, but the number of happy things coming our way makes me feel like we're re-entering some Honeymoon Phase. Haha.. We'll just sit back, *cross* our fingers and toes for abit more, enjoy the happy world passing by, before we need to start worrying about what comes next =)

Yay! So, for now, I'll just be thankful that work and life are going on well, and grab this opportunity to learn learn LEARN more about anything and everything! Hope the remaining 4.5 months of the year would be as fruitful as the first half of the year!! =)

Love this song! Lucky =)

2011-06-16T23:03:00.001+08:00

This is a special and meaningful way of depicting the word "Lucky"...

It's a thankful and lucky day to be listening to this again! =)

Never in a hundred years would we dream of accidentally witnessing an eclipse together! Hurray! So 莫名其妙 de happy! :)

Happyness!

2011-05-22T00:10:00.007+08:00

20s is an interesting age group to be in.

We get to attend lotsa weddings! =)

Which means a few years down the road, we're gonna get to attend lotsa baby showers! ^.^

That's a whole lotttt of happyness in the years to come!

Life would be just great if everybody's this happy everyday as they are before and after their one special day!

We've got just a whole lotttt to learn on how to maintain a lifetime of happyness after that one day of happyness =)

...

I think I have found my happyness for life. And I wouldn't mind spending a lifetime maintaining that happyness! :)

It's a good day to count my blessings when...

2011-04-19T21:07:00.003+08:00

1) The train gets delayed in the morning but I still arrive on time for work.

2) I dropped my lunch bag on the escalator and everybody turned to see tupperwares and bottle tumbling out, plus the soup container opened a little, making my bag wet, but some kind soul was nice enough to stop staring and helped me pick up my bottle.

3) Some oblivious kid emptied my kid's entire box of chicken into the dustbin!! But the other kids happened to be having chicken for lunch too... so thankfully my kid still gets to eat chicken.

4) School was so super crazy that I just wanted to stone like a stone after that... and the empty bus came immediately. So I got to sit and stone comfortably in air-con silence.

5) More madness awaits me at work, but I get to eat chocolate as comfort food after that; chocolate given to me as a token of appreciation by somebody who appreciates me!

6) Work was mad, but I have helpful and nice colleagues.

7) My 2-weeks old shoes split open, which means I get to buy shoes again.

8) I missed 2 buses and had to walk in that cursed sweltering heat to the MRT station, but I get to see my lovely when I reached my destination!

9) After an exhausting and tiring day, I get to grumble to my lovely!

10) After a tiring day, I reach home to my favorite soup for dinner!

11) After I finish counting my blessings on a horrid day, I actually feel better! =) =)

Can you feel my powerful self-conviction? Haha.. Alrighties. Time to turn in early to reward myself for surviving the day! YAY! =D

Cravings cravings cravings!

2011-04-03T21:41:00.002+08:00

When I recover from this cursed flu, I am going to eat:

- Stingray
- BBQ Chicken wings
- Hokkien Mee
- Sambal Kangkong
- Manhattan Fish Market Seafood Platter (coz got voucher la, haha)
- Chicken Chop (don't know why got the sudden urge haha)

Woot! Am so going to visit the hawker centre once I get well!

Bon appetit!!!!!!!

LEARN.

2011-04-01T21:56:00.004+08:00

Watch and think.
Listen and think.
Read and think.
Think, then ask. Then, think again.

There's just so much you can learn! =)

Life is good!

2011-03-20T17:49:00.004+08:00

...so far.

Haha.

I still like my work despite frustrating moments now and then. I kind of like it that I still don't execute my work that perfectly, coz that means there's still room for improvement! -.- Hahaha. I'm abit nutty. Maybe just excuses for myself. Anyway, I think I need to work on reminding myself everyday that I should observe the rest more and reflect on my own standards every single moment i'm executing my duties; I feel that there's just much more to learn when I watch the more 'senior' colleagues doing the same things that I should do. And I definitely need to learn to be more patient too, and listen more! Fortunately, I have very patient and nice colleagues who take care of each other and take care of me too! =)

Anyway, work aside, I feel fortunate to have a lovely boyfriend always supportive of what I do, and showering me with loads of unconditional love! =) It feels nice to have a partner you can strive and work hard together with towards the same goal, though you're working on very different things. And I feel happy to spend my happy and precious moments with someone whom understands me, and would allow me to be my crazy, nutty self, although he sometimes winces a little at my craziness. Hahaha!

Friends around me are lovely too, caring for me whenever I'm not well =) And whenever I'm well, they entertain me and listen to my silly rantings. And also go shopping with me, and erm, not good, but splurge together with me. Hahaha! And I love just sitting around somewhere random over dinner or drinks, and talking endlessly about anything!

My family, I know loves me, just in a more subtle way. Mummy takes care of me like I'm still her baby, really. Haha. Daddy's there, but doesn't probe too much. He always nags me when I sleep late though, and would randomly ask me to cross the road carefully -.- Hahaa and then he would ask about my important events but forgets them the next day, and ask again and again. Zzz... Haha. Gorgor's really lovely, and the one I go to before I tell Mum & Dad anything important, coz he's the one less prone to disagree. Haha. He's forever busy with work, but still asks about me whenever he can get a 'moment' with me. And he's always generous with giving the family stuff =) Totally a big brother!

You know life is good, when on a random day you think about your life, you think you can smile and be thankful about it! Little bumps and squabbles day-to-day doesn't count; at least they don't make up enough for me to erase the thankfulness I feel! =)

Haha. Random nonsense thoughts on a senseless idle day cheer me up sometimes! =P

知足常乐

2011-03-05T22:54:00.002+08:00

There are just so many things in life we do everyday that we take for granted; we wake up grumpily, get ready for work/school sleepily, squeeze in that darned train or bus grouchily, go about work/lessons maybe wholeheartedly or maybe in a daze, go out and meet some friends/loved ones/family, exercise or go clubbing, go home, finish up work, fb/iphone, sleep. Repeat.

Maybe things are good just the way they are. Maybe some things could be better.

What if one day you wake up without having to get ready for work or school? You could just sleep for as long as you want. You don't have to squeeze in that darned train or bus. You don't have to make your boss smile or sleep with your eyes open in seminars. You get to stay at home all day and do nothing. You can just idle your whole day away. Read or watch shows or fb or iphone. Eat. Bathe. Stone. Sleep. Repeat. With the exception - you are immobile and can't get out of your house.

What are you going to do with the whole day at home? Watch more shows? Eat more? Sleep more? Stone somemore... and then? Repeat.

Wait.

Repeat what?

I am so oddly glad and deliriously grateful to be working, and not having to spend my whole life idling around at home.

May Monday be here soon! =D

Men, Women, and Hair

2011-03-01T20:01:00.002+08:00

"Women like to have perfect hair with nothing out of place. But men prefer something that is not so perfect. They want women to have hair that they can touch."

- Yoshio Nakahara

Hahaha! How interesting.

Guide books

2011-02-27T20:18:00.003+08:00

Guide books can be kind of nice to read when they are read leisurely, and not as textbooks. They are really helpful and informative! =)

PHS - Post Hols Syndrome!

2011-02-08T23:13:00.002+08:00

Finally going back to work tomorrow after one week!

Basically I only had 2 days left in Singapore to rot after coming back from Malaysia. I spent one day doing chores, going shopping, going bai nian, and watching PPS. Then I thought I would be better off spending the next day at home so I don't spend money. I ended up watching PPS and online shopping. What a fulfilling holiday I had huh. Haha. And I am actually tired of nuaing. I didn't do anything the whole day, but I'm feeling lethargic already. Vs. Actually spending some time bonding with my cousins at Malaysia and feeling tired after spending hours travelling around in a tightly packed car, but still not mind sleeping at 3am.

I say, I dread setting the alarm clock again after 1 week of ditching it... But I secretly don't mind getting back to work again! Haha is it normal to not like nuaing too much? =/

The New Year

2011-01-28T22:41:00.003+08:00

How fast! The new year barely started when I last blogged, and now it's almost end of the first month of the new year already!

For me, the new year kicked start with some changes in work, and I'm glad to say that it's been going well so far. Well, at least I've adapted better to the changes by now =) Heh. Happy happy. I had one of my happiest cup of bubble tea today - Green Apple Green Tea with Aloe Vera & Jelly! =) =)

So much for being busy at the start of the year. Been so busy that I kind of just realised I haven't really met up with much friends this month at all, and CNY's coming already! Bleah. Feel kind of out of touch with everybody... Especially since I haven't peeked at Facebook/blogs often enough =X Can we meet up soon after CNY so I can kaypoh again? Hahaha.

On the bright side, one week of hols are coming! But strangely, coz of the one week of hols I just had a month ago, I'm not that excited about the upcoming one. Lol. Maybe it's coz it's only like 2-3 days more than others, despite it being unofficially one week long -.-''' Hahaha!

Oh well. February's sure gonna be a happening month ahead! Enjoy, everybody!

Happy CNY! :)

Who are the people in your family?

2011-01-18T23:02:00.004+08:00

- "Daddy, Mummy, Gorgor, Me, Fireman Sam, and Bob the Builder. 6 people!"

Random yaking

2011-01-02T19:53:00.003+08:00

Just got back from Aiyah! chalet (with dear's friends) in the afternoon.. heh. Get-togethers like that are indeed a nice way to end/start the year! =)

Feeling so lethargic now. Barely slept for less than 3 hours the first night, coz for some strange reason, I've come to realize that for not the first time already, too much Coke actually keeps me very awake! Yea, I know Coke is supposed to be caffeinated, but I am kind of okay with falling asleep after drinking most coffee, and Coke is supposed to be less caffeinated than coffee yea? -.-'' I guess I'm just weird..or perhaps I got desensitized to coffee already. Haha.

Anyway, I suppose most people here know about my history of super kuazhang alcohol allergy. But what you've been missing is that, I've been training to get myself desensitized to some alcohol too! =P Hahaaha. You see, on certain occasions/celebrations, my colleagues and I would go for happy hour kind of thing after work. So after abandoning alcohol for a couple of years, I decided to try drinking again just to see what it would be like. So I downed 1 bottle of I-forgot-what, and got a little flushed and a little 'high' (note: not drunk, just 'high' and giggly. haha). It was manageable though, and after I got home, I itched for about 1.5 weeks.

Yay! It's an improvement from itching for 2 weeks afew years back ok! Hahaha. So subsequently, I just drank a bottle each time we go for happy hour and itch for 1 week or so (No, we are not a party crowd, nor am I becoming a drunkard, it's only about twice or thrice so far I think).

So, funnily speaking, at the end-of-year xmas event, my company was creative enough to come up with cute and fun certs for each of us, to recognize our funny little 'oddities'/'strengths'/etc... like there was Martha Stewart award for the one that bakes really well, and the Mirror Mirror on the Wall award for the one that keeps looking into the mirror, and well... they not surprisingly gave me an award "in recognition of her(my) alcohol intolerance and her bravery to overcome it".

ANYWAY. The purpose I mentioned this was because of the chalet. I was so hyper and sleepy all at the same time on the second day though I was really tired and starting to feel dizzy. So to wash off the Coke, I started to kope dear's beer everytime he drinks. So I started to get flushed again by about 10pm last night. And stopped. Managed to fall asleep by 1+am, and slept quite well throughout the night. Yay!! Happiness.

So when I woke up today morning, I lived up to the name of the award my company gave me! - "Red Lobster award". Hahahaa!

But good news is, the itch is like 70% gone by now already...which is only like less than 24hours! So wheeeee~ Hahaha. Maybe next time I should try to consume alcohol after I get caffeine overdosed. Tsk tsk tsk. That sounds like 2 awfully unhealthy junk one after another. Haha.

Anyway, I don't know why I'm talking about all this.

I meant to talk about my 1-week of hols just flew by, starting, lasting, and ending on a very nice note, and that tmr's gonna be a fresh beginning for me at work! =)

Haha. I'm still happy but exhausted from chalet, disappointed that my 1-wk hols is ending so super fast, and excited about work tmr! What a draining mix of feelings~ Haha.

I hope tmr and the coming year works out well for me, coz it really means much to me that this works out fine!

Tingting jiayou!! =)

Zzz...yes I will sleep early tonight...

Happy New 2011!! =)

2010-12-31T12:34:00.003+08:00

I am supposed to be packing for that chalet happening in a few hours, but I'm still doing a thousand and one other things... Like being here, after leaving it to collect dust forever!

So I should review my resolutions before the year ends...

Resolutions in 2010

1. Get a job that I like asap!
Yay, I did get a job before I graduated!

Well, if you ask me whether I like my job or not, one thing I would daresay is that, many of us probably realise by now that this is a very grey-area question.

I would say that I'm doing what I've been dreaming of doing for the past few years of my life, but it is no doubt challenging, not to mention my benefits package is not comparable at all to the rest of my peers. It is of course, also rather different from what many of my peers are doing right now. This was something I struggled to accept in my first few months of the job. It seemed that everyone's doing something more relevant to the skills taught at school and receiving better benefits for that. Sometimes I even fear that I might lose these skills if I stop using them at work.

But after awhile, I've come to accept my job and enjoy it better, instead of comparing it to others'. Everybody, I believe, faces a different set of challenges at their job. When I have a very bad day at work, I tend to augment my negativity, like Is this really meant for me? When the very good days come, everything's so sweet and rewarding I feel like I could just stay floating forever! (manic-depressive episodes huh? =P) I've come to accept all these as part of work life now. This job may or may not be meant for me in the long run, but at least it hasn't boiled down to intolerable; my happy days still triumph far more over the bad! =) I know what I'm doing makes a difference, and a very good difference that takes time to materialize; a very good difference that might last forever if it turns out well.

I'm sure everybody's job has a good end-product, and is value-added in some sense, whether we see it directly or not. Perhaps one of the job-fit criteria could be whether we want/need to see this result. Or perhaps we should just learn to accept that we may not see results directly at times. To me, job fit takes time to realize and I should no longer rush to decide whether I fit in. To assess job fit, respect your job for what you do and what it results in. For now, I've at least come to terms with that.

Now, I'll need to learn more from what I'm doing, progress in value-addedness before deciding whether I need a change. I'm not really in a hurry for change, coz I believe every job has it's takeaway, whether in a technical expertise sense, a cultural sense, learning to deal with people, or simply integrating with the society. All these are things that I see room for progress in if I stay in the current company, and so I'm not giving up my 'dream' job yet for a change or for better benefits! =)

(I'm lacking relationships with colleagues and pay package in my review, coz there's no super major problem with these for me so far)

1a. Do my best, learn as much, and make my part-time job a very meaningful experience!
Ok, this feels so long ago. Yes, I've definitely learnt much and never regretted taking up the part-time job. Though, yes, I really felt like dying juggling FYP, studies, and work all at the same time O_O

2. Start a regular fixed saving plan after getting a full-time job!
Ok, this is something I hoped to avoid. Haha. I just recently started portioning out what I earn to what to spend and what to save. But it hasn't been really steady yet, coz it's too hard to be a girl. Hahaha. I'm not throwing out some lousy excuse ok. There's really a hundred and one things girls have to spend their money on every month. Sigh.

Fineee, I just need to manage my expenses better this year, period!

3. Better better time management
I think I did managed to accomplish better time management while I was studying and working part-time. Though it of coz came with sacrifices like less time for play. But I think lesser time to complete your tasks, in some sense, forces you to portion your time better for these tasks, and sticking better to your personal deadlines.

Hmm I'm not so sure though whether I compromised the quality of my work though. Haha, though eventually the results were satisfactory la.

And I'm rather relieved that now that I'm working full-time, I've less 'homework' to bring back, and more than enough time to manage. Haha. Which basically means, the amount of time I have is so much more than compared to when I was in school. Which brings me to a funny conclusion that maybe I should pick up something else so I have less free time.

Hahaha. Man is never satisfied with the status quo huh. When I was too busy, I wished for more free time. Now I'm so free, I wish for more work/less free time. I think I'm too used to working my brain for at least 16 hours a day, now I feel like my brain is rusting for at least 12 hours a day. Hahaha.

I'll have to see that I reach a satisfactory equilibrium this year I guess.

4. Get an international qualification for my langauge(s)
Oh my. This is one major let down to myself! I haven't been trying to do anything to accomplish this at all! =X

One thing of coz is the financial cost this may bring about, and another thing is I don't seem to be that actively interested anymore =X Sadly, I'm still passively interested when I see/hear things that I've learnt, but I don't seek out more new grammar/vocab etc.. as actively as before anymore. Which means my acquisition has probably decayed.

Oh my. I don't know what I want to do about this now. Haha.

5. Be a better better girlfriend!
Ok I don't really know about this! Haha.

I guess I spend more time with dear now, coz we both have more free time. But I think I still need to learn to listen more at times =)

6. Maintain the grades and get that honors.
This resolution feels so prehistoric already! Haha.

Yay. I did that somehow though some of my modules were like crap. Saving grace once again is...LANGUAGE!! Hahaha. Sometimes I wonder if I'm a psych major or language major.

Ok, I think I still prefer being psych major. If only there was a language minor! Hmmm.

7. Exercise more regularly!
Oh crap. This resolution totally failed! I'm so super fat nowww!!!

Haha, super need to work on this next year =/ Tingting stop being a bad and lazy girl!! =(

***

Alright, end of review, brings me to realize it has been an overall, good year after all! =) Many many changes, many many happening things, but Tingting pulled through the year... Yay!! Growing up can be all sucky but fun at the same time =)

Resolutions for 2011, are of coz something I shouldn't be aching my brains about on the last day of 2010 =P Hahaha.

Hope everyone's had a good 2010, and have a even better 2011 ahead!!

HAPPY NEW YEAR! =D

Making things hard to read 'can boost learning'

2010-11-14T14:50:00.002+08:00

Difficult-to-read fonts make for better learning, according to scientists.

The finding is about to be published in the international journal Cognition.

Researchers at Princeton University employed volunteers to learn made-up information about different types of aliens - and found that those reading harder fonts recalled more when tested 15 minutes later.

They argue that schools could boost results by simply changing the font used in their basic teaching materials.

Hard to digest
The 28 volunteers in the Princeton study were given 90 seconds to try to memorise a list of seven features for three different species of alien.

The idea was to re-create the kind of learning in a biology class. Aliens were chosen to be sure that none of the volunteers' prior knowledge interfered with the results.

One group was given the lists in 16-point Arial pure black font, which is generally regarded to be easy and clear to read.

The other had the same information presented in either 12-point Comic Sans MS 75% greyscale font or 12-point Bodoni MT 75% greyscale.

The volunteers were distracted for 15 minutes, and then tested on how much they could remember.

Researchers found that, on average, those given the harder-to-read fonts actually recalled 14% more.

They believe that presenting information in a way that is hard to digest means a person has to concentrate more, and this leads to "deeper processing" and then "better retrieval" afterwards.

It is an example of the positive effects of what scientists call "disfluency".

"Disfluency is just a subjective feeling of difficulty associated with any mental task," explained psychology Prof Daniel Oppenheimer, one of the co-authors of the study.

"So if something is hard to see or hear, it feels disfluent... We'd found that disfluency led people to think harder about things.

"When we found that in the lab, we were very excited, because it has obvious implications for the classroom."

Schools could boost results by simply changing the font used Difficult-to-read fonts make for better learning, according to scientists.

At school
Keen to see if their findings actually worked in practice, the Princeton University team then tested their results on 222 students aged between 15 and 18 at a secondary school in Chesterland, Ohio.

Teachers were asked to send all supplementary learning materials to the researchers, who then changed the texts to the harder-to-read fonts Haettenschweiler, Monotype Corsiva, and Comic Sans Italicised.

Students were split randomly into two groups - with some of them receiving the amended versions, and the others the original, unchanged documents.

Teachers were not told about the hypothesis so as to avoid influencing the results.

Students given the harder-to-read materials scored higher in their classroom assessments than those in the control group. This was the case across a range of subjects - from English, to Physics to History.

The lead author of the study Connor Diemand-Yauman told the BBC that psychology is revealing all sorts of "counter-intuitive" results in the field of education.

"Everyday psychologists are showing that seemingly insignificant factors can have big effects on how we process and retain information.

"We're living in a recession. Now, more than ever, we must spend wisely on cost-effective teaching strategies."

Prof Oppenheimer also argues that their study has big implications for schools: "We all want to improve education. Most attempts involve curriculum reform which is both costly and time consuming.

"The fact that we can improve learning... with an intervention that costs no money and takes basically no effort to implement means that we can potentially improve education quickly and cheaply."

Limits
The researchers caution that their research was done with paid volunteers - who might be more willing to put in that extra bit of effort - and with students at a high-performing school.

And Dylan Wiliam, Emeritus Professor of Educational Assessment at the Institute of Education in London, told the BBC "the effects they represent are quite small".

"What really matters most when reading is mindfulness... it's not printing things badly that's needed, but more thoughtful reading".

For some types of learning "we need to slow the mind down," but according to Prof Wiliam this can be achieved very simply by getting students to read in groups, or just by following text with a finger.

The researchers stress that there are limits to how hard the font should be to read - following a roughly "U-shaped curve" after which the problems start to outweigh the benefits.

So what is that limit? "I wish I could tell you the answer" Prof Oppenheimer told the BBC.

"Obviously, if you can't read it at all, you can't learn it. At some point you may get so annoyed that you give up without trying! Different people probably have different thresholds.

"So, for the time being, its probably best to use small changes... rather than try to push the boundaries - at least until we know more."

By Cordelia Hebblethwaite BBC News
(Taken from: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-11573666)

***
See? Maybe if I had known this many years earlier or MOE/NTU had reprinted our textbooks in Comic Sans, my PSLE marks would jump by 30, my L1R5 would go down by 5, I would have gotten an A for my 'A' Level Physics, and then graduated with a First Class Honors in Psychology!

Ha. Wake up wake up! Too old for lofty dreams! =p
Besides, I never ever use Comic Sans for anything, and change any Comic Sans I see to other decent readable fonts. (Says a lot about how boring people never strike it big, haha.)

But anyway, it's still an interesting finding! Once again reminds me of how limitless psychology and their research studies really can be! =) I often grumble a whole lot about doing research, but I actually love to see them being put into literal and practical uses like this. Haha. Maybe I'm just not the one to make these things happen...

Still... Kudos to all researchers dedicated to making things happen! ;)

*P/S. This was written in Comic Sans so everybody remembers this finding better and put it into good use!! =p

It feels weird to be studying again!

2010-10-05T21:32:00.002+08:00

This is the one last thing I allow myself to do before I stop my procrastination.

Now you truly understand why I say I only blog when I'm mugging!

2010-09-29T20:49:00.004+08:00

I'm trying to keep this space updated, though I don't know with what. Haha. Considering how infrequent I turn on my computer nowadays, it's good enough that I'm here every 2-3 weeks! :p

Life's the same~ I spend most nights either watching tv/videos or reading my book. I seem to have this fascination about stories that are set in the old English/Victorian times (I'm not sure of the correct term for it actually). Haha. Like I quite like to read stuff about the Kings and their Queen and mistresses (English equivalent of concubines, haha). Somehow they always have very complicated and interesting, twisty stories behind the scandals, and then it kind of keeps me interested in eventually whether the Queen or the mistress triumphs. Wahaha. I think I sound sadistic. Actually, it's not just English royal families, I also like reading about Chinese Kings and concubines! Tsk tsk. Seriously, men of that era are so evolutionarily driven- the one with the male heir is most often the one with the last laugh. Hai! Why are men like that ne? Hahah.

Anyway, I tried baking my first banana cake (bread), and it failed very miserably!! Hahaha. Think the ingredients a bit haywire, I would still love to try again though! :)

Exciting weekend coming up, finally a friend's getting married! Haha. I remember we were still chatting about the issue of marriage and he was mentioning proposal and all that last year, now he's getting married!!! Woohoooo. So exciting!! Hahaha.

What else?

Oh, the family photos we took at the studio are out already. We went to collect samples yesterday, to decide which are the ones to make into the proper portrait. Haha. Brother says he'll scan them if he feels like it on Friday. So maybe I'll upload them too when I feel like it. Lol.

Alright, I shall go back to stoning at the tv. Adios!! :)

Half of September

2010-09-15T00:00:00.005+08:00

Thinking back, I actually mostly blogged when I got bored of typing reports/studying.

Sigh. I'm lazy even to upload photos now! Haha. Let's see what I've been doing for the month:

1) Celebrate Teacher's day! For the first time, I'm on the receiving end! :)
2) Celebrate Hatch day! Colleagues got a cake for me and B's belated bday! Nice deco on the white board. Haha. Rose from a very sweet kid&mummy :) :)
3) Celebrate Hatch day again! Lovely went to fetch me after work! :) Went to eat, had a lovely time chatting, and got very lovely and awesome creative presents!
4) Celebrate Hatch day somemore! Met mabbie the next day and went for tepanyaki :) and uh, the usual "window-shopping" at Watsons/NTUC.
5) Dans gathering! - All 6 were present and we went for dim sum! Lalala~ Was nice to catch up again, the first time after everybody officially grad! :)
6) Went for some massage coz had promo coupon =D
7) Celebrated one of the kid's birthday! Another kid came back to visit coz he was leaving the country for good. Much stuff happened, both happy and sad, and I think that was my most emotional day at work thus far.
8) Met manics =D had a good dinner/dessert and catching up. Got more niceee presents! :)
9) Went for Tampopo with colleagues!
10) Went for family grad photoshoot @ Serangoon Broadway! :D FINALLY. Haven't got the photos though. Don't know how it turned out. Mummy was gorgeous though :)
11) Celebrated lovely grandma's birthday! Lovely turned up after work again with a surprise! :)
12) Happy 33rd Monthniversary!! Watched Grown Ups and it was good and funny! :)

Ta-dah! Pictures only speak a thousand more than words, when you're hardworking enough to upload them. I think it's easier for lazy people like me to type. Haha.

Alright, midnight. So that was my first half of September thus far! :)

2010-09-12T20:32:00.002+08:00

Haven't blogged for so long that I forgot I still had a blog. Haha. Changed it to pink so that I might be more motivated to blog, though I doubt so.

Tis' September to be a joyous month! :)

Idle or Ideal?

2010-08-17T20:15:00.004+08:00

Work life is strange. At least, to me...presently.

I don't despise it, and frankly speaking, I quite like it. Compared to the past 10+ years of studying life, it's routinely peaceful and predictable.

Waking up every morning, going to work, knocking off and either hanging out with my colleagues for a bit or wait for Lovely to knock off, or knocking off early and heading home, going out with friends or Lovely sometimes after work, reaching home and turning into dust infront of tudou or tv, or at times, reading any book I can lay my hands on/make me tear myself away from tudou, sleep. Rewind, and repeat.

Not having to bring any work home to do relieves me, and yet makes me feel strange after having to pia even after reaching home for the past 10+ years. It feels so nice though to go out every weekend or spend time with somebody who matters to you, without thinking about that pile of work or reports waiting for you at home.

I would say, to me, the only more visible aspect of work life that is saliently more sian than school life, would be counting down. I/We spent the large part of our school life counting down; counting down to that end of the period, counting down to that recess, counting down to that dismissal/end of the day, counting down to that deadline, counting down to that weekend, counting down to that term break, counting down to that end of exams, counting down to that end of semester, counting down to that end of school life eternally.

But when all that counting down is over, and work life comes in, I find nothing much to count down to anymore other than weekends or public holidays, which is really no biggie. Well, especially when I usually knock off after 2pm on Saturdays, with half the day gone, nuaing around abit more, comes the next day, and blahblah, Monday is here again. And we march into work, crying "It's MONDAYYYYYYY" again :/ Public holidays feels abit better, coz you feel abit more 赚到 than usual; like it's not the usual weekend. But then, it's usually short, and leaves you with withdrawal symptoms after that, like when's the next public holiday!!?

Perhaps I need that extra oomph or push to go do something else with my free hours. But again, it feels like pushing myself back into that whirlwind of busy-ness and unhealthy rapid ageing again for nothing. How ironic.

I wonder what I would answer when somebody ask me "How's life?" :
- "Good, idle!"
- "Good, ideal!"

Sally The Camel

2010-08-11T23:14:00.000+08:00

There's this song I keep hearing recently, but incompletely. Like, due to some reason, I always hear only half the song, then it stopped. It goes...

Sally the camel has FIVE humps.
Sally the camel has FIVE humps.
Sally the camel has FIVE humps.
So, ride Sally, ride.

Sally the camel has FOUR humps.
Sally the camel has FOUR humps.
Sally the camel has FOUR humps.
So, ride Sally, ride.

etc...

Until it becomes NO humps.

I thought it was quite a silly and meaningless song. Coz I've never heard of a camel with as many as FIVE humps anyway, and why would the number of humps keep decreasing? So what happens when it has no more humps?

Anyway, after a few days, I finally heard the full version of the song today! I was so amused by the ending that I burst out laughing. Haha.

Here goes!-Find out what happened to Sally the camel!!

Hahahaha!! SO kuakuakua~ right!

Antibiotics?

2010-07-11T17:43:00.003+08:00

Doctor: "I'll give you antibiotic eyedrops."

- "So I have to finish using the whole bottle?"

Would you fancy one too?

2010-06-29T23:49:00.006+08:00

Can you guess what are all these?

Answer @ www.crazycoffins.co.uk

I'm not sure if I would really fancy one of these for myself. It's pretty, but i'm turning into ashes and dust anyway, so I probably won't get to live in such a pretty piece of artwork :( Well, I may consider if they make urns. Haha. But come to think of it, I wouldn't want my loved ones to spend such money on me after I'm gone.

Hmmm.

Oh well. It's still quite a thoughtful business for these entrepreneurs to think up of! I guess it does help the loved ones in their greiving, coz helplessness is often a salient feeling and this would probably let them feel they can do one last thing for the departed? Hmmm.

Work

2010-06-27T15:42:00.006+08:00

If you're wondering about my hectic work life I blogged about when I just started now, it's in control now :) I'm knocking off mostly by 4pm for now. Haha.

Anyway, I may not know if this is what I want in the long run, but it's what I want to do for now. After more than a month of work life, I feel more humbled than before. I used to think about getting a promotion as fast as possible, but now I realise there's just so much more for me to learn.

A friend once told me that somebody commented to him/her that fresh grads keep eyeing opportunities for advancements when they're searching for a job, but they don't put enough consideration into what they can value-add to the company. It's very true in Singapore, and admitedly, I guess I used to be one of those fresh grads. For now, I would still like advancement of course, but I now know my limits and won't expect one before I'm deemed fit for it :)

It's a big world out there, with so much more to see and experience for yourself! There's so much more to feel and be touched. I would like to stay put at where I am to experience and learn what I'm going through now and learn from my fellow experienced colleagues, and be humbled with all these first.

I have no sky-high salary, but I know that every one of the clients I am serving is thankful and appreciative for what we provide for them. I have not many days off from work, but the tiny smiles and endless peals of laughter keeps me going for now. I have no eye-boggling bonus and welfare packages, but my heart is warmed everyday. I know what I am doing now has a life-altering effect in the clients I serve, and this makes me both proud and humbled at the same time.

Job satisfaction can alter this much your attitude toward the benefits you are receiving compared to your peers. Don't let yourself be shaken by comparing with your peers what you're receiving. Ask yourself what you wanted at the beginning, and whether you have/am on the path to achieving your goal.

Grass is greener on the other side? There's just a thin line between being unambitious, and being rationale, giving oneself and one's job the due respect and time before starting to compare :)

If you think you're having a much harder time or working much harder than others, why fret? You're young and you've just taken off. It's the best time to strive harder! If you can take the extreme hardship now, there's nothing that can overwhelm you in your many more years to come!

That is of course, given you're not working under super disastrous and horrible circumstances. Haha.

Alright, shall stop my out-of-nowhere prep talk. I'm off for a jog! :)

Bejeweled! research

2010-06-25T22:44:00.003+08:00

This came out some time ago already, but I believe there are people who missed it anyway... So here goes!

NTU Study Reveals Bejeweled May Boost Cognitive Skills
(http://news.scoopasia.com/index.php/news/ntu_study_reveals_bejeweled_may_boost_cognitive_skills/)
Playing Bejeweled 2 for Ten Hours in a Week May Lead to Improved Visual Cognition

Singapore, 9 June 2010 -- The Nanyang Technological University (NTU) in Singapore today released results of a ten-month study on PopCap’s Bejeweled 2, showing its subjects’ improved response time and attention to details after playing the video game for ten hours in one week. The participants were randomly selected and monitored by a group of four psychology major students from NTU’s School of Humanities and Social Sciences.

According to Dr. Michael Donald Patterson, Assistant Professor from NTU’s Division of Psychology, playing some computer games may actually lead to positive benefits. “Since people in Singapore of all ages spend significant hours playing these games, it is important to understand their effects, specifically on cognition,” he said. “We chose Bejeweled 2 because the game makes high demands on visual perception, attention, and planning. We examined whether increased skills acquired through playing the game are transferrable to non-gaming, real-life situations. The results of this initial study indicate that improved performance in everyday life is possible,” he added.

Bejeweled 2 is a sequel to Bejeweled – recently awarded by Guinness World Records 2010 Gamer’s Edition as the Most Popular Puzzle Game Series of the Century – developed and published by PopCap Games. Bejeweled 2 was chosen for the study as it is a free web-based game, which is popular amongst Singaporeans regardless of gender and age. In addition, the game is easily accessible due to its availability on multiple gaming platforms – including Play Station, Xbox, and Apple’s iPhone and iPod Touch. The game features a range of secret game-play modes that can be accessed upon completion of any of four modes – the Classic, Puzzle, Endless and Action modes. The Action mode was chosen because it restricts players to a limited time to complete each game level – requiring players to react quickly to create as many cascades as possible in order to advance to the next level of the game. The progressive increase in difficulty is one factor which may inspire game players to improve their play continuously.

Over the course of ten months, students were randomly recruited to participate – declaring that they had never played Bejeweled and did not play action video games on a regular basis. This study was to examine whether playing 10 hours of Bejeweled 2 in a week would result in superior cognitive abilities, including selective attention, executive planning, and visual spatial resolution – compared to playing Pet Society, which is a neutral social networking game hosted by Facebook. Participants were asked to take the same set of cognitive tests before and after the 10-hour game playing session. Results showed that those who played Bejeweled 2 improved in their cognitive tests performance compared to the control group. These Bejeweled players were able to ignore irrelevant distracters that clutter their visual environment better than their Pet Society player counterparts – translating into improved visual attention and spatial acuity.

The objective of the Bejeweled game series is to swap one gem with an adjacent one to form a chain of three or more, requiring the player to identify the correct gem to move from the rest (visual selective attention), especially when all the gems are closely packed (crowding effect). The study incorporated the Flanker Test and the Crowding Test as the most relevant as they highlight the general phenomenon of identifying a target object in a complex setting when distracting objects are present in the immediate vicinity.

“Selective visual attention is one of the most commonly used skills applied to daily tasks, like driving and shopping. Furthermore, being able to focus and avoid distractions is also advantageous in day-to-day life. Therefore, we believe it is important to study whether the benefits derived from playing video games may, in fact, apply to real-life situations. The result from the students’ final year project is an intriguing start to research into this cognitive behaviour,” Dr. Patterson concluded.

A similar outcome from a study on Bejeweled and Peggle – other PopCap Games’ franchises – was recently announced by East Carolina University in the United States; establishing a clear link between regular exposure to video games and the resulting positive effects on cognition.

# # #

Alternatively, you may see it in the chinese news and look at P's funny hair! :p

<br/><a href="http://video.xin.msn.com/?mkt=en-sg&vid=&from=&fg=sharenoembed" target="_new"title="南大调查显示：一周十小时电脑游戏提高辨识能力">Video: 南大调查显示：一周十小时电脑游戏提高辨识能力</a>

Haha. Our lovely little 默默耕耘 de division becomes famous! :)

Hurray! I play Bejeweled, and not Pet Society! Hahaha.

Optical illusion!

2010-06-20T00:08:00.005+08:00

Ok, this is freaking awesome. Look at the picture above-do you see a girl spinning on one leg?

Do you see her as spinning in the clockwise direction or anti-clockwise direction?

Well, it's actually up to your control whichever way she spins! :D

It's no computer effect or whatsoever trick at all! It's a freaking hard optical illusion! I saw it turning in the clockwise direction first, then had to stare for about 5min before I saw it turning in the anti-clockwise direction, then had to stare for even longer (less than 10min la) to see it turn back in the clockwise direction again. So after a few times, I can see it turning whichever way I want in less than 5 seconds! :p

SO freaking amazing!! Hahaha. This is supposed to be how it works:
The spinning girl is a form of the more general spinning silhouette illusion. The image is not objectively “spinning” in one direction or the other. It is a two-dimensional image that is simply shifting back and forth. But our brains did not evolve to interpret two-dimensional representations of the world but the actual three-dimensional world. So our visual processing assumes we are looking at a 3-D image and is uses clues to interpret it as such. Or, without adequate clues it may just arbitrarily decide a best fit – spinning clockwise or counterclockwise. And once this fit is chosen, the illusion is complete – we see a 3-D spinning image.

By looking around the image, focusing on the shadow or some other part, you may force your visual system to reconstruct the image and it may choose the opposite direction, and suddenly the image will spin in the opposite direction.
-Taken from http://www.theness.com/neurologicablog/?p=27.

Haha. Cool stuff. I'm still amazed!!

No Life!

2010-05-28T11:09:00.003+08:00

I know I said that I won't be blogging anymore. But since work started, I have cut down on my computer usage, reason being too tired after reaching home, or nothing to do online since my top reason for turning on the computer in the past was to type reports and do research, and surf Facebook/Tudou when I get bored of school work. Now that I don't have school work to get bored of, I don't really feel motivated to surf Facebook/Tudou anymore.

Life has changed after almost two weeks of work. There are many things that I have to readjust to. One of the biggest changes thus far should be the No Life-ness. Haha.

The nature of my work, I would say, is more Physically draining than the usual. I still get my usual post-lunch coma that everybody gets, safe the fact that I have no chance to stay still or fall asleep. It's tiring, in the way that you have to stay alert at all times, keep moving around, and be very active. Plus point is, I don't have to worry about work anymore once I step out of my work place. Minus point is, I probably work more than 50 hours a week.

No Life-ness stems from the long working hours, I would say. I wake up minutes before 6am every day, so I've been sleeping at average of 11pm. That is so goddamn early for me, as compare to before! But, usually, by the time I reach home, I would be so tired that I wouldn't mind sleeping early anyway. Plus, like I said, there's nothing to do online. Haha. Nowadays, I just spend my free time reading books and watching TV. Even one of the first things on my to-buy list after I get my salary is a book -.-''

See? No Life! Hahaha! Oh well. I'm not really complaining (yet). This is neither better nor worse than school life to me la. At least my lovely still works near me, and I get to knock off together with him a few times a week :) Yea, maybe you would say my concern sounds very No Life-ish too. Haha.

Caught Shrek, and ate at Old Airport Road this week. Going to ky's house for homemade steamboat later. Meeting xian tmr for some talk and catch up. I'm happy with the week thus far! :)

*yawns* Little Miss No Life is tired. hahaa. Happy Vesak Day! Enjoy your long weekend which i'm deprieved of! Haha.

Indian condom ad - Haha! This is quite amusing

2010-05-17T20:51:00.008+08:00

I don't think i can ever sell this condom! Everytime somebody come buys from me, i will imagine him/her in the dance! -.- Hahaha

But I must say this would make quite a good ad for sex education! wahaha

Quick update

2010-05-12T00:19:00.004+08:00

Just came back from short getaway to Bintan with dear, mabbie and her bf wilson on sunday. Lazy to upload photos haha.

And have been going out quite abit. Just came home from gathering with the manics :) so nice! hee. Not forgetting, met up with porkie too almost 2 weeks ago to sing k :) :)

Work's starting next monday! (Initially I typed "school's starting" hahaa must change that natural tendency!) Not really dreading it, just not looking forward to no more slack time~ haha.

Kind of lost interest in blogging I think =X I think i will further lose interest after my work starts and i reach home tired. hahaha. Maybe my blog will start collecting dust soon =X

Must emphasize my unhappiness with NTU convocation schedulers everywhere I go. Convocation @ 6pm! Wth is wrong with them man!! Super annoyed. Graduation liao also don't let ppl graduate happily! -.- haha we should really go earlier to take photos before dark~

Alrighttt. All the best people! I'll be here on and off~ =) Maybe i'll blog more if working life is boring! Lol.

My Lovely's 27th Birthday! =)

2010-05-03T23:08:00.002+08:00

Heh. Shall blog about my Lovely's birthday! =)

This year's birthday was celebrated 2 days in a row! Haha. He had his usual party-gathering with his secondary school friends at his house on the actual day. So I celebrated with him earlier one day in advance!

We went to a japanese restaurant along Tanjong Katong Road. It's called Minori-Ya. Actually my brother went to the other branch at UE Square before, and said it was better than Kuishinbo (it's ala-carte buffet). But like I said in the previous entry, that branch closed down liao, so we went to the TK branch instead.

BAH. It was really really bad! Initially when we went in, the ambience was quite good, and the appetizer and all that was not too bad. The menu did not have as much stuff as Kuishinbo, but it had more non-desert-ish stuff, if you get what I mean. Haha. Ok, nvm~ then the restaurant started getting more and more crowded, and it started going wayyy out of hand. We stopped like 3 waiters to get our drinks refilled, and it still wasn't refilled after 20 minutes. And likewise, had to stop 3 or 4 waiters to get our order taken (each time, they went like hold on ah, hold on ah, and never came back). And they super buay zi dong! We finish eating what we ordered liao, and the table was so full of empty plates, and so many waiters walked past with empty trays, also didn't bother to clear the table! And when they tried to serve more food, but the table was too full with plates already, they stacked the plates in one corner, put down the newly-served food, and walked away without clearing that stack of plates!!! -.- The food wasn't particularly nice either! Initially it seemed quite good (don't know whether was it we were hungry). But after awhile we realize they seemed to use the same seasoning for every single dish! They all tasted the same although they were very different dishes! BOO. So terrible. Shall never go back there again! Bad service bad food! Haha. Didn't bother to take food photos either~

Anyway, moving on to presentsssssss. This year, there were two presents for the Lovely! The first one was a coin pouch. Haha feel so paiseh talking about this coz it sounds very lame~ But nwae, lovely needed one coz he lost his previous one. And I know he's definitely unwilling to change his wallet coz it's still very new, very nice, and from his good friends. Yup, so I got him a Goldlion coin pouch, which was very nice, but I forgot to took a photo of! Hahah.

The next present is the main highlight nwae! :p

I got Lovely a create-your-own Starbucks Tumbler! Haha. I must declare that it was unintentional that I bought him a Nike bottle in the 1st year, a Nalgene bottle in the 2nd year, and a Starbucks tumbler this year! Lol.

Well, anyway, the rationale being I thought it would be good if he could put a tumbler in his office so that he can make hot drinks, and erm, keep them hot. Hahaha. And well, the create-your-own was of coz just to make it more personalized la. Haha.

Yes, so I tried very hard to come up with the design given my super limited designing skills. I tried to pick up Photoshop, but to super uber no avail. Haha. Picasa didn't seem to be very helpful this time. So I resorted to using Microsoft Powerpoint. Haha, ya I know very noob -.-

So after many days of editing, this was what I ended up with:

Haha. I thought it looked a little kiddy =X But nwae it looked quite nice when put into the tumbler ok! Hahaha =X But the problem was that, after I put it into the tumbler, I started to worry that it looked abit too kiddy for him to put in his office. Haha. So I made the design double-sided! And the above design I faced it inwards, then for the outer design, I put:

Wahaha! Super dots right! Don't xiao kan that apple look so simple. I couldn't find the right size of apple against the appropriate background, and had to cut and paste the apple out myself ok!! Lol.

But in the end, Lovely, being very lovely, was very happy with the original personalized design~ Lol. So erm...

Hahaha! He decided to flip this side outwards to use! :D Wheee! Although cut and paste the apple for nothing, but i'm still happy Lovely likes it the way it was! :)

Hee. Anyway, as always, the bottles I buy for Lovely always comes in pairs! :p And if you noticed, I wrote Happy 27th Birthday on his tumbler. But I didn't know what to write on mine -.- So to make it matching, although it's not very appropriate, but....... I wrote Happy 23rd Birthday for myself!! HAHAHA. So lame I know~

Lol!

This was on the way back home on the bus~ :)

*

Ok, the next day, was... LABOUR DAY!! Wahaha~ Deardear very sad, always don't get recognized by his friends de. They'll come to his house and wish him Happy Labour Day! Lol.

And for those who're curious to know, the cake was bought from http://cakesandpastries.blogspot.com/, it's a secondary schoolmate's mummy's blogshop. Haha.

By right, this is their most famous cake:Chocolate Banana Maltesers cake, which I wanted to try la. Looks super yummy! :) Haha. But dear's family all don't eat bananas except for his mummy. So I ordered the same cake minus the bananas.

It was not bad, except dear's fridge seemed to have overloaded that day, so the cake was not cold enough I think. Hahaa. But I think i'll still head down to the cafe the blogshop supplies to (Food For Thought) one day to try the with banana version of the cake! :p

Heh. This is the only photo I shall post, coz the rest got his friends and family, which I don't think all of them want to appear in my blog. Lol.

And that's the end of The Lovely Boyfriend's birthday celebration! Simple, but happy time spent together! :)

Hope you had a great time like I did. Love you! :)

Happy 27th Birthday, My Love! =)

2010-05-01T16:00:00.000+08:00

Lovely's Birthday Preparation- 23 April Friday
Feel so relieved today! Hehe. Have been encountering quite a few hiccups while preparing for Lovely's birthday! The Starbucks tumbler was out of stock when I tried to go back to Tampines to buy a second one for myself -.-''' They had to call quite a few branches for me to check for stock many of which had no stock too. In the end, the staff got very busy, and passed me more numbers to call by myself. Ended up heading to Changi Airport Terminal 2 in my lok cok clothes (I was only prepared to go Tampines buy liao then go home already!) to buy the tumbler. Haha.

And anyway, I've been having quite a lot of problems with the tumbler design for a week or more. It's finally settled today! Yay!! Felt so happy when it was done :D

Then I tried to call to make dinner reservations at the restaurant today. There were 2 branches, and I wanted to go the one my brother recommended/went before. So I called up the number, but got some sort of weird Singtel message. After a few times, I just called up the other branch and asked why the first branch had no answer. And they told me that branch ceased operation already. .......... !!??? *stunned* haha nvm, made reservation at the other branch anyway.

Oh, and I managed to order the cake for Lovely's party too, from a secondary schoolmate, whose mummy bakes cakes to sell at a blogshop and also supplies cakes to some cafes. Heh. Was cracking my head where to get cake, coz didn't want to buy from somewhere that bought before liao de.. And after exchanging many many FB messages with that friend, managed to finalized the details liao. Whee!! Hopefully the cake would be nice! :)

Almost everything's set to go now. Feel so relieved!! :) Was so afraid couldn't prepare everything in time, with exams in the way and all that.

Special thanks to Mabbie whom I bugged many many times to ask for opinion about my tumbler designs and the cake details. Yay! Xie xie ni fei chang fei chang duo! =D

Now I feel extremely radiantly happy! *hums a cheerful tune* ^^

***
Happy Birthday, Lovely!! I hope you had a wonderful time so far! :)
Te quiero! =P

I say, Snobbish people don't deserve a place.

2010-04-17T17:29:00.011+08:00

UNIVERSITY ADMISSION
JC students deserve priority

POLYTECHNICS lure students with glossy brochures and spiels about their fabulous courses, but fail to tell them how difficult it is for them to enter local universities via the poly route.

How many 16-year-olds will forgo sexy-sounding courses like communications and finance over subjects like physics, chemistry or mathematics?

Ironically, these polytechnic brochures often boast of how many of their graduates enter university. But they are silent on the reality that employers value degrees more than diplomas.

Polytechnic graduates cannot have it both ways. They must know the Government spends more to train a polytechnic graduate than a junior college (JC) student.

So they cannot expect a second bite of the cherry with the same priority in university admission as JC students who complete two years of school and hold only an A-level certificate.

Polytechnics pride themselves on hands-on training while JCs arm a student with more in-depth grounding in core subjects to prepare them for university.

To JC students, university is and has always been their final destination. To poly students, their end point, in Singapore at least, should be their diploma.

If they want to go beyond that in Singapore, they should choose the JC route. If they do not qualify, it is not the Government's fault.

Nothing should stop them from pursuing their dream overseas, but they cannot expect greater access to local universities just because it is costlier to study abroad.

A place in a good local university is a limited resource and should go to the most deserving; in this case, those who qualify for JC and have consciously decided to take the JC path to prepare themselves for a university education and not a diploma.

In the past, a JC education was called 'pre-university' education, and it is precisely that.

So it is time polytechnic graduates accepted the implications of their decision to choose between polytechnics and JCs, and not gripe that the system is unfair.

Lee Beng Tat

Taken from: ST Forum
http://www.straitstimes.com/STForum/Story/STIStory_514733.html

**************************
I can't believe this guy! He is so........head stuck in the clouds. SERIOUSLY!

How can anybody even write something so offensive, snobbish, and ignorant! Polytechnic should be the end point?? University should go to the most deserving?? Who are you to quantify who are the most deserving people! Just because people go to JC, so they're more deserving? Well, I come from a JC, but I don't see how much more deserving I am to get a place just because I studied a bunch of so-called core subjects that served little purpose to help me through my university syllabus.

Seriously Mr Lee here, have you ever been to a university? Have you counted the number of people topping their cohorts every year? If things go by your most-deserving logic, could you kindly explain the substantial amount of ex-polytechnic students in the dean's list?

And I for one, chose the JC path, because what I wanted to study was only available in university, and not in polytechnic. And for those who chose polytechnic path, does not mean they do not intend to move on to university. What's wrong with honing your applied skills before going to university? I would say it in fact preps one more for university than JC. Why do you think some polytechnic students are allowed direct entry to 2nd year in university? If JC prepares us more for university, why don't they just allow all JC students to admit straight into Year 2??

So, compared to a person who has taken applied stats in polytechnic, and me from JC who took physics, how much more deserving and prepared am I to go to university than a polytechnic student?? I don't get where this chap is coming from, but he obviously has gotten his facts all wrong.

Yes, if JC students do not go to university, they'll end up jobless and useless after A levels. But face it, if you were the university admission team, would you choose an undeserving JC student who screwed up his 'A' levels just so that he won't end out there on the streets begging for food for the rest of his life, or would you choose a straight As polytechnic student already-equipped with relevant skills to continue a more advanced varsity education? So is the university meant to be some charitable organization that admits people so they won't be jobless for the rest of their life, rather than a place to further hone a person's strengths to a fuller potential?

Ok, I sound a tad like I'm putting down myself and other fellow-JC people. But isn't that the reality? At the end of the day, I can only say most JC students only fare slightly better in language as compared to polytechnic students (and it's not even always the case). I don't feel polytechnic students fare any or much worse in maths, science, or other arts subjects (well, depending on whether their module was arts- or science-oriented).

More importantly, polytechnic students have gone through 3 years of varsity education already, and while JC students come from a more rigorous/rigid/rod-learning environment prior to university. I don't see why polytechnic students should be valued any less than JC students, yea?

Yes, I do agree that a place in university should be given to the most deserving people. But please do not quantify a whole group of people blindly as deserving just because they come from a certain background. Open your eyes wide and remove those "colored-glasses" that blind you. There are more deserving people out there than that small little well you are looking out of.

Last day of school!

2010-04-14T14:16:00.000+08:00

Haha i'm like blogging in the hss library now. It feels damn odd.

Just had my malay oral and was stumbling like all the way! Hahahaa. Lucky I s/u-ed alrdy :p So i'm damn free now coz meeting my spanish oral peeps at 2.30pm to rehearse and blah for the oral test later. And not unintentionally I bought nothing to study or do. And that explains why i'm feeling odd to be surfing fb in the library when everybody around seems to be studying or rushing some assignment or another. Haha.

It's the last day of school for me today! Well, excluding exams lah. Haha. And the last day of school started out BAHHHHHHHH bad.

Train got delayed coz there were some track problems in Tanah Merah. So it stopped at Tampines for like 15min, and another 10min at Simei, before I decided I should just go get a cab coz i'm gonna be late for Malay oral. So I went down and saw a whole mob of angry people headed by one gungho alpha male shouting angrily at the control station people. Well, I probably would have stayed to find out more about refunding if I were not rushing for time. Hahaa. Anyway, I walked out of the MRT station, and everywhere was swarming with cabs, cabs with passengers -.-''' And everywhere was swarming with people waiting for cabs. So I had to walk up further and walk and walk for like another 10-15min before I managed to flag down an empty cab. And then I wasn't really prepared to take a cab, you see. So when I reached NTU I wanted to pay by card, only to realise the cabbie had no nets visa masters whatsoever. So I dug out all the cash I have, and was...10 cents short of the cab fare. -_-''' Haha cabbie uncle was nice enough to let me off, but I felt damn paiseh!

Yes, that was how I found my way to my last day in school. Hahaa. Ok, shall prepare to go off for my meeting now. Hope the spanish oral goes ok later! Never s/u this time cannot play play liao! Hahaaa.

Meeting lovely tonight, yay! Happy 28th month, darling! :)

I Will Always Love You

2010-04-13T19:55:00.003+08:00

有点越听越过瘾的...

果然是人不可貌相。厉害吧！
今年24岁了哦，看不出吧？

(I can't think of a title).

2010-04-08T10:34:00.003+08:00

Haha i'm here again, when i'm escaping from work as usual! :p

Supposed to be writing my spanish oral script. =X

Anyways, Malay test was over yesterday!! That marked the lastest test i'm ever gonna have in my entire university life! Well, excluding examinations of coz. And err, 1 more listening test, and 2 more orals next week. Haha. Every semester, towards the last 1-2 weeks, I would start cursing myself for taking language classes coz the bulk of the work's always towards the end. Hahaaa. Oh well, it's the last sem! :p

Well, for the last 3 months of taking Malay, i've been having issues with the teacher and needless to say, due to fyp, I haven't had time to sit down proper to revise my stuff. So i've been complaining endlessly about the horrors of it. And on Tuesday afternoon, after submitting my fyp, I finally sat down proper to start studying, and I suddenly realised it's so much easier than I expected! -.- Yea, I still have issues with the teacher anyway, but at least it's a self-studiable thing. Haha.

And the test was quite doable too anyways =X Bah. Alright, I feel so cheated of my s/u now. Hahahaa. AH well. I should stop studying too much for it and focus on my Spanish now. Lol. I ended up not s/uing it -.-

My spanish teacher's not been feeling well for the entire sem. So finally yesterday, she didn't come for class, and guess who came to take over the class? My levels 1/2 teacher!!! :) :) Gee, I missed her so so much!! Hahaha. I don't really have anything against the level 3 teacher; and in fact, I think she's really good, very nice and very dedicated to teaching us too. But I guess, it's more about being used to the past 2 levels' style of teaching already. Haha :p So I was soooooo happy during class yesterday coz somehow felt I could understand better lidat =X Ahhh. So sad, that was the last lesson already. Hahaa. Anyway, my levels 1/2 teacher REMEMBERS ME!! Wuhahaha.. Ok, it's no amazing feat; but imagine you teach at least 4 or 5 classes every semester of over 25 students per class, it's no joke to remember names ok. Hahaha.

Ok, i'm just trying to make myself happy. Lol. Righhhht. Shall go start my oral script. Can't wait for post-fyp steamboat with the manics tonight!!! :D Tee hee.

Oh yea, xian and I took odd looking photos before we submitted our fyp report. Haha. Shall upload them after taking more photos tonight. Hahaa. I didn't promise to upload them immediately by tonight though :p

Ciao!

=)

2010-04-06T21:05:00.002+08:00

YAY!!! =) =)

Finally no more reports for....some years at least? Hahaa.

GOOD RIDDANCE APA FORMAT, I WON'T MISS YOU!!!

Hahahaa. Everything would be just about perfect if I don't have a test and a meeting tmr. Sighh.

Whatever, I'm still hopping happy!! :D

2010-04-04T09:56:00.003+08:00

S/U deadline today!! And i'm not decided about Spanish yet! How how how.

Have tried permutations of my gpa, but it looks like a pretty 50-50 thingy. Sigh. Why am I even taking such a long time to decide? Pondering on it for too long makes me want to revoke my Malay S/U as well =X Haha.

Help! Menolong! Me ayuda! Aides-moi!

Near the end!

2010-03-28T17:36:00.003+08:00

Seems like Sunday's only the day I get time to blog.

Well, I'm finally not spending my Sunday rushing another report this week! *cheers!* Haha not because there's no report to rush anymore, but I have an upcoming Spanish test on Wednesday, so decided to dedicate a weekend for it, and continue rushing my report again after this is cleared.

Ah, I feel like I've been neglecting my languages this sem! =( Malay is needless to say, a total mess for me. So I've got it S/Ued already. Spanish is the one I feel very sorry for. I still like the language a lot but I can't seem to fork out time to revise it. Bah! Haven't did any notes for it at all since the first week of school, and it's now 3 weeks away from end of school! =X Haha I sound like I'm personalizing it! :p

Well, well. I'll try to study hard for this test just to have a gauge whether I should S/U this too =X Ayeee. I really hate to S/U something I like. Hmmm.

After submitting the previous report, the week ahead suddenly seems so..lax. Haha. Like overwork for the previous report liao (slept for only one hour on the submission day!), now too tired to do anything anymore. One more final report for FYP, two more language tests, two more language orals, three final papers, and it's graduation!! The semester just ZOOOOOOOOOOMed past again! O_O

It's really really fast. Aye. Three more weeks of lessons left only! That means you guys have only three more weeks to catch me around in school!! :p Hahaha. I think I'm gonna miss school, yet I can't wait to get out of it! It's been a very max-ed out semester, though I think I can safely say I've really lived my final sem to the fullest, and gained a lot :)

The past four years have probably been the busiest time of my life, and if I start to age very soon, it's no doubt attributable to uni life! The lack of sleep hours can probably accumulate to one year of sleep.. X_X

At one point of time I told myself I should stop being so involved in activities/volunteer/cca/research/work here and there. Did I really had to do so much to feel that I'm properly utilizing my years in university? But after I started working on my resume last sem, I'm really glad I did all that. Thankfully, I happened to be involved in all things that were quite relevant to my field, and I really enjoyed the learning process. I would say university life for me is meaningful because I got myself involved in this many different learning opportunities :) Not like my grades are like woohooo, but at least I'm experienced in many more things that grades may not acquire. Honestly speaking, even if I had abandoned all those learning opportunities and just concentrated on studying, I believe my grades wouldn't have been much better than they are now.

I speak like I'm old and reviewing my life. Haha.

I AM SO HAPPY SCHOOL IS ENDING!! WOOHOO :) :)

Haha attending my brother's graduation ceremony in a few weeks time! Mine will be in a few months time, and after that it's graduation photos time! Gorgor went to sign up photo-taking package just now when he collected his graduation gown liao. Yay! Excited~~ ^^

Ok, as usual, when I blog, it means I'm not doing what I'm supposed to be doing. Hahaha. Ciao!

Learned Helplessness

2010-03-21T17:47:00.000+08:00

Why do I spend every Sunday rushing a different report -.-

When time doesn't seem to fly at all

2010-03-14T21:09:00.002+08:00

It just struck me that last semester I was sitting in the school lab with my lovely, typing my Introduction and editing my questionnaire furiously while he did up his own FYP report.

Now that he's working and getting to spend his Sunday out, i'm still stuck at home typing my Discussion.

The crap about sighhh how time flies certainly is not significant and has low validity tonight.

Sighh. I wanna be out playing!

New cam!

2010-03-14T10:17:00.006+08:00

Ahhh! I SERIOUSLY need to work on my GP draft!! Have been procrastinating endlessly and my deadline for draft 3 is tmr!! :( Seriously hateeeee writing discussion! It's worse than intro! Hai.

Anyway, went to the IT Show @ Suntec ytd~ it was so terrible and full of ppl! Eeeek. Well, the only reason we wanted to go was to get a camera.. haha. I can't imagine how my brother goes a few times every year, I only had to go once and I feel like swearing off that place already! Stupid pseudo-muscular fat guy kept pushing, felt like whacking his head! And the human jam @ Citylink Mall on our way back to the MRT station was so scary~ it's like worse than after NDP lidat. Hahaha. Got stuck outside HMV for i think 15-20min O_O

Ok ok, that aside, deardear and i finally bot our shared camera! :) Haha, it's supposed to be our belated shared valentine's day present, but it was coincidentally our 27th monthniversary ytd too! :p So this present is very multi-purpose~ Lol.

No, we didn't buy a DSLR or something, it's just a normal digital camera.. haha. (my friend got excited when i mentioned i'm getting a camera tgt with my bf and thought it was a DSLR -.-) After much consideration and 2 hours packed within the crowd looking at many brands, we eventually still settled on the brand we were initially looking at - FujiFilm. Not a very popular brand, but we like its convenient and user-friendly interface and the meaningful functions! Other brands look prettier and have other fancy functions too, but we decided they were not of much use to us lah. So we eventually picked FujiFilm Finepix F72EXR. According to the chap, its a more limited edition model in Singapore, coz the original version F70EXR was out of stock already, so they imported a few hundred F72EXR just for this IT SHOW.. But anyway, we dear managed to bargain to S$339, with 2 free 8GB SD cards, extra battery, camera case, mini tripod, screen protector, and an ugly mickey mouse mp3 player (anybody wants?). Hahaha. So it's a very good deal!

Haha and so this was taken with the new cam later on the train..

And we went to our friend's house to play with their baby again! Hehe. He's 7 months old and uber cute! ^^
this photo looks very unglam coz our friend (the baby's daddy) was trying to make all sorts of silly faces and gestures to make the baby smile at the camera, and we all ended up laughing so hard (instead of the baby -.-)..so ya. Haha

And then I was made to read bedtime story to the baby~ Hahaha. The storybook is so cute! Disney's stories..then it really has like 1 short bedtime story for each day.. so when they bought the books, the person still tell them total got 366 stories, bonus 1 free story for them somemore! -.-''

Anyway, I learnt that Daisy Duck has 3 nieces called April, May, June. HAHAHA! I was so amused...

Ok, ok. I REALLY should get back to my draft!! :(

Ciao! Happy monthniversary, lovely! :)

Discover BOBO!! =D

2010-03-08T21:17:00.003+08:00

I was on the shuttle bus into school today, and caught a very quick glimpse of ~~something~~someone interesting on the lamp post... MY BOBO!! :D

Haha. Apparently the banners for this year's open house are up already :) As usual, like every other year, the slogan's Discover L.I.F.E. @ NTU, and then they would put one of Discover Engineering/Discover Sciences/Discover Teaching/etc.. on each banner. So MY BOBO!! is on Discover Arts, Media, and Social Sciences! (Haha, no link, but I think we have the longest name -.-)

Yea, the school is so sneaky! Tell her take photos for the HSS brochure or something only, never say put her up on the lamp post lol. So I turn sneaky too! I only sms her tell her the lamp post got her banner, never say my blog got her banner too! =x

WHEEE! My Bobo!! :D Haha. Ok, this isn't the one on the lamp post. I don't know why they put a different one up on the website, so I can't find the lamp post one!

Any freshie wants a tour around NTU? I am so proud of my bobo that i would gladly point out all my bobos to you! ^^

Zoooooom!!

2010-03-06T22:50:00.003+08:00

...And the hols are over!! =(

How saddening~ I was still jumping around happily the week before after forensic presentation.. and now it's more than a week later, with less than 2 days worth of the vacation remaining, and I'm hardly checking things off my to-do list =X

Hahaa.. I could say that i've been playing too much. But then again, it doesn't feel like i've played alot either.. Working, typing reports, watching shows, attending talks and field trips, going gaigai~ that pretty up sums up my week! Guiltily, only one out of five items are high priority stuff waiting to be checked off in the notebook.

It kind of feels weird. Coz I just realised today this is already the last official holiday before my graduation, and I feel like I haven't spent it well on...resting? Hahaha. I mean, holidays are meant for rest right? So shouldn't we be resting more during our last official hols? =X

Ahh, we're less than two months away from the last day of school! So fast so fast~ And it's the third month of the new year already! I can't believe the time just passed like that! =( I must say it's one of the busiest times of my university years, but also one of the most meaningful times spent :)

Be it a pity or a good thing, 天下无不散之宴席! Good things must all come to an end. Let's make the best out of the boring last leap!! Sigh. Drawing the boring last leap as a parallel to the 宴席 is a totally bad idea; it's like serving almond jelly for the dessert of the 10-course meal, and still having to gobble it down! -.-

Hahaa so random~ i'm just tired ok. Plus I haven't blogged for ages! BAH.

Tchao! Happy holidays! =X

Passion...

2010-03-05T09:25:00.001+08:00

I never thought it could make me feel this bad and hesitant about it.

My 4yo cousin woke up crying from a bad dream where she was eating chilli.

2010-02-17T21:24:00.005+08:00

How cute is that! ^^

Test Your Awareness : Whodunnit?

2010-02-08T22:44:00.001+08:00

Hahaa must watch this man~ damn cool! Wait for it to load finish then watch =)

HAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHA!

2010-02-07T14:39:00.003+08:00

What a weird fb group!

-.-

Happy CNY!

2010-02-06T10:25:00.007+08:00

I think any friend who knows me, whether from secondary or JC or uni, would know and have seen me with long rebonded hair for like the past (at least) 5-6 years? The question mark, coz I've been rebonding my hair for so long, that I've long forgotten when I started it. Haha.

Anyway, the reason being my hair's super wavy by nature. Wavy as in the messy wavy, not the pretty perm curly wavy. And I only rebond my hair about once a year, coz I don't wanna damage it so frequently..so usually when you see me during the second half of the year, the upper part of my hair would look like some mass of moppy lion. Hah, so I tie up my hair regularly too to avoid looking like the huge lion-looking dog along Orchard Road. And even if I cut it, it would still look messy, and worse coz it's not heavy enough, and gets even more wavy.

So, I finally got bored after many years..ok, I'm sorry it took me that many years to get bored, I'm obviously not too adventurous~ Yea, so after many years, can't beat the waviness, I decided to join it, and

PERMED~~~~~ my hair! =D

Woohoohooooo~ I think I quite like it so far (less than 24 hours only), probably coz I haven't washed or styled it myself after I came back from the salon. Wahaha. But still feel a little bu xi guan I guess.. it's the feeling that I try to imagine myself, but the picture that pops up in my mind is the straight-haired girl. Hahaha.... And I'm quite happily surprised that my hair is still so long even after I curl it! Yay!! Ok, sorry I'm still a sucker for long hair. Lol.

Right, I'm lazy and busy to upload photos, so you'll see me when you see me =P And I hope I don't scare the kids on Monday... =X

Back to the mountain of work!! I seriously don't know how I can get them all done before CNY! =( Will be heading back to my grandma's house again in Malaysia this CNY eve, so I guess...
HAPPY CNY in advance!! Have a good break, eat more, and collect more money! =D

Apple iPad

2010-01-30T11:11:00.001+08:00

Eeew. Apple and the incredibly wrong name~

-.-''

Happy!!

2010-01-29T17:31:00.006+08:00

Lalala~ Happy for my lovely!!! =D *dances around*

Haha another week passed!

Work is so time-consuming, no time to do work!! X_X And i'm so sad about.................you-know-what =( Work's never gonna be the same again after Feb. Sigh.

Oh, and we're attending another one of Toolbox's friend's ROM on Sunday! =) Since we got attached, it's like his second friend getting married liao, and none of my friends yet so far!! Lai lai, kuai dian. Bu yao shu gei ta de friends~ Hahaha.

Ok, I'm super bo liao.

Ought to get back to GP, the weekly blogging is over~ Hahaha..

So stressed!!

Oh, and I have found new joy in reading terrorism articles! Lol. I mean, since 9/11, I have never bothered reading any terrorism related stuff until now the forensic psych project is about terrorism. And I realised it's really interesting!! Haha, Singapore has very good rehab program! Woohoooo. I sound like i'm so pro-singapore. Lol.

***

(From Bobo)

大多数二十多岁的男人处于他一生中最暗淡的时刻，没事业，没钱。二十多岁的女人正处于她一生中最光彩的时刻，她年轻，她漂亮。所以20多岁的男人更应该珍惜在这个时候爱他的女人，因为她是用她一生中最光彩的时刻来陪伴你一生中最暗淡的时刻!

How seemingly true is that!! =P

***

Rights, back to GP. Urrgh.

BYEEEEEEEEEEES!

El fin de la segunda semana; El principio de un mal sueño.

2010-01-22T20:34:00.010+08:00

Woohoo. Week 2 is over and the nightmare is just about to begin!

I hope i'm not catastrophizing;
- 3 weeks to submission of a messy GP/FYP Draft 2
- 5 weeks to a major presentation we have not much inkling about

Amongst a very scary Spanish class where everybody seem pro and a professor whom I am still not quite used to, much Spanish/Malay notes to write and homework to do, a slightly over 20-hours work week, much research to do, and meetings abundantful to come.

That doesn't look like a lot huh. It does look scary on my calendar though.

MUST SURVIVE!!!
必胜!

Haha you're looking at somebody who's talking rubbish coz she's procrastinating again.

Establishing operations.

2010-01-22T20:06:00.001+08:00

Tiring week!

2010-01-16T18:58:00.008+08:00

It's been a very tiring week! Yea, I would say tiring more than busy..

I've been working for like 6 days this week! No la, not 6 full days, different days go different number of hours la. But will always start at 8am in the morning. And I have to leave house before 6.45am, so it's like damn tiring everyday since i'm still not used to sleeping very early and go to sleep only at like 1am :( Thankfully, after school starts next week, we won't be going in everyday anymore :)

Work has been a very good experience so far, and although it's tiring, I don't regret taking up the offer so far (after 1.5 weeks). I think we've definitely learnt alot of things, whether in the practical sense or theoretical sense. It's really not easy at all! I guess like any other job/thing we do, it can feel very rewarding when things go very well, and become very exasperating when things go wrong.

I'm still learning not to let work affect my overall mood! :)

Anyway, the only lesson I had in school this week was Forensic Psychology (last core mod!!), which was not too bad. Lecturer's good and famous~ Hahaa. But I secretly feel he likes to talk about himself =X Lol. Anyway, he's still quite good, and I like the way he talks about psych in a practical and applied way, instead of the theory and research based most profs emphasize :)

And, this week, the manics met up too! :) Realised it's been quite awhile since the full manic strength! Yay! Hehe. First meet up after bobo and qiqi graduated~ and there's so much gossip to catch up on! :D hahaha everybody's life is so happening~

Happy 21st Birthday, Meimei!! :)

Haha August was there too, but poor him only helped us take photos, and then we realised he's not in any of our photos! =X Hah but it's alright, I tagged his serviette in fb liao~ Wahaha!

Anyway, Lovely and I went to watch The Spy Next Door yesterday. I'm not exactly a fan of Jackie Chan actually. Haha, but I thought the trailer looked funny so we went to watch lor. Haha it was quite funny la, but looking back after the show, you'll realise the plot is the very typical Jackie Chan movie sort of plot. Anyway, he and his girlfriend (in the movie) look totally incompatible!! =X But the little girl in the movie is super cute! ^^

Haha, anyway, just got around this photo that was taken last week when we went to our friend's house to play with their baby! ^^

Haha resolution's not very good, but he's super uber cute! Has the blur baby look :p Lol. Anyway, he's a very happy and cheerful baby!! Just turned 5 months old this week I think :) Wheeee! Wanna go back play with him again soon~ Haha.

Alrighty. That's about all. Haha. Lazy to blog nowadays~ Shall do some advertising all at one go, before I get complaints of being biased! :p

Please visit:
http://mistermissiee.livejournal.com/
http://elliefannie.wordpress.com/
http://hermorningglory.livejournal.com/

Enjoy! =)

The woes of add/drop!

2010-01-11T01:25:00.003+08:00

It's like the super duper last final add/drop of the rest of my life, and I'm having so much trouble with it! Yea, I guess it's not just me. Hai. Why can't they just let us graduate in peaceeeeeee!!

Haha, I think i'm kind of like in a dilemma. I got the elective I wanted (French), but after the previous semester's results were out, I realise I probably should continue taking Spanish instead if I don't want to die in my final semester =x Not that I would confirm score well for my Spanish, but I think it'd look better than French ba =X Hai. Which brings me back to my point that I don't know if I would be able to change that successfully tomorrow during add/drop, cuz they fall in the same time slot, which means I would have to drop French, before I add Spanish. And if I drop French, and Spanish suddenly has no more vaccancies, I'll be dead meat O_O *faints!!*

Plus, I need to add Malay Level 1 too! Haha. Yes, I decided to take Malay too, not because I like it particularly, but just because after so many semesters of taking languages I like, I decided I ought to be practical for once, and take something that's more useful instead of more love loves~ Hahaha. And the time slot I want no more vaccancies liao!! So Eywa boh biah, I have to add a timeslot I don't want and go around begging people to change with me. Stupid right.

Sadded leh. This is the first time I'm having so much trouble add/dropping! Usually I'd be pretty fixated on what I want, and stick to it, while other people are still madly add/dropping. Haha. And they just can't let me stick to it in my final finalllll semester, and give me so much trouble! Grrrr *grumpy look*

What is wrong with NTU!!

欠过年的 2010 New Year Resolutions!

2010-01-06T22:00:00.001+08:00

Yes, another new year is here! And i'm actually kind of looking forward to it! :D Haha, reason being 2009 has been a rather bad year for me, so i'm hoping for a better one ahead! =X

Ok, maybe not all things bad.. but as usual, bad things tend to be more salient than the good things, especially when sickness and stuff are involved :(

ANYWAY, let's be more forward looking!! I've been working on this post on and off since December, but bcoz of other busy busy commitments, so it's delayed til' after new year! Lol.

SO. ...I tried to search for last year's resolutions first, in order to evaluate if i've met the goals i've set for myself (as inspired by porkie! :p)... Haha and I realised I only set very non-specific goals for myself, that was hastily summarised into a paragraph! -_-'''

2009:
This new year, i wish for better time management, to be a better gf, to be a better family member, to manage my finances better, to manage crises better, to manage homework better, a more balanced life, to be more disciplined, more time for play, a more loving family, acceptance, a less braty tutee, more pretty clothes, and more collared clothes for intern. -_-'''

Sadly speaking, I look at it and can't conclude much about my brainless resolutions. Hahaha.

- Better time management -- not really.

- Better gf -- I think so, but it's not really up to me to judge right? =)

- Better family member -- I don't know

- Manage finances better -- kind of..

- Manage crises better -- super alot of crises last year, totally broke down n number of times that i've lost count, so it should be easy to evaluate right? But I really don't know how to evaluate whether I managed it well or not =(

- Manage homework better -- not really

- A more balanced life -- maybe yes...coz I don't bother to manage my homework as well? Hahaha -.-

- To be more disciplined -- ermm sadly, I don't think so! At least not when work is concerned =X

- More time for play -- haha I really don't know how to comment on this! I think I play when I'm not supposed to *ahems* But then, if I never ever play during those times, I suppose I will never ever have to play liao =X

- A more loving family -- I suppose it's status quo, things either remain stagnant or become worse after 20 over years.

- Acceptance -- Hmm i'm not sure what I meant by this a year ago haha.

- A less bratty tutee -- nope!!

- More pretty clothes -- haha more clothes definitely, but my amount of shopping is very insignificant compared to other girls (especially the one whom I receive msn offline msges with abundant blogshop links every single time I come online AHEM.). Yea, so I think I surf more clothes than I buy clothes lol.

- More collared clothes for intern -- err yea, kind of. This better not be my 2010 resolution, I'm not supposed to be looking for an internship again -.-''

***

Yea, so as you can see my resolutions aren't strictly speaking resolutions, but more like wishes! And I think I kind of wasted a year's worth of resolutions, coz' they're rather random stuff.

So I shall attempt to set better resolutions this year *ahem* better, as we all know, is rather subjective.

Here goes:

1. Get a job that I like asap!
This is very practical, as much as I do not wish to keep harping on it. In fact, it is very important to me in a farsighted sense, coz I don't like to stay in debt for too long! Fact is, who likes being in debt? But I just feel very guilty and restricted about spending money when I keep seeing that huge amount of debt looming around. And yea, I would prefer my money spent on something else that's meaningful and lovely, rather than annoying stuff.

Of coz, given my personality, I probably won't thrive for long doing something I don't like. So why go into something that I know I'm not gonna do well in? Right, that is unless I'm jobless for many many months already, then I might consider going into * choy choy CHOY!! x1000000000000* research. *grimaces* I feel sinful at the mere thought of it!

1a. Do my best, learn as much, and make my part-time job a very meaningful experience!
Heh. Yes, I managed to get myself a part-time to full-time job. Pay's not too good, but I'll close one eye, and learn as much as I can! I'm actually quite excited about it!! Hehe. Cuz I would say, it's quite hard to find something of your interest with a Degree only in our field. But this looks like what i'm actually interested in :)

No speculations, and no promises about making it a full-time job though. It'll eventually depend on how they evaluate my performance and of course how I find the environment and job to my liking too! But it's alright, I still think the experience is very important and I'll learn first, and talk later... Yay! =)

Anyway, on a side note, i'm working with XIAN again. AGAIN. So perpetually stuck with her. We are involved in every single thing in and out of school together. What is wrong with me man! :p

P.S. Pls don't start discussing here about what my company is and all that!

2. Start a regular fixed saving plan after getting a full-time job!
Haha, I made that sound like starting some formal investment like that.

Actually, I just want to start proportioning out my monthly salary clearly into what I need to spend/save the money on. Yea, overspending is no good. Need to plan more for reserves! And of coz clear the annoying debts. Hah, can't stop harping about the debts... they're getting on my nerves!

3. Better better time management
I wished I don't have to repeat this every year, but I just can't seem to fulfill this every year! =X Haha. And I shouldn't give up, coz this year, especially, is gonna be a very heavily-loaded year! Yes, so all the more I need to manage my time and events better...

I want more time for my lovely!!! *blush*

Ahem.

4. Get an international qualification for my langauge(s)
Ok, this is not a very high priority la, maybe either this year or next year. I actually registered for the French one last May already, but because my grandpa passed away, I went back to Malaysia and skipped the test.

I'm hoping to go for it again, or maybe the Spanish one. But it's kind of hard coz NTU adjusted their calendar to start and end the semester later. So it might clash with my school exams if I register for them lor :(

Yea, so if I don't get to do it this year, I think i'll try to save some money, and take some classes before sitting for the exams ba. Haha, as you can see, i'm somehow quite fixated on my languages =)

5. Be a better better girlfriend!
Somehow I feel lovely is always too nice and too sweet to me. Bahhhh! (Not that I don't like it la) =X Hehe. So I want to be as nice/nicer to him as he is nice to me! (:

6. Maintain the grades and get that honors.
Haha I must pretend that I am very studious. Actually I was only reminded of this coz I saw Julyn's blog. Ahem.

Anyway, this is important too to get a good pay ma. Haha. So it shall be a resolution too~ And of coz the bulk of it is Graduation Project (GP) la. Can faint leh. That's like obviously the most difficult to score :( Jiayou jiayou!! Hahaa.

7. Exercise more regularly!
Haha I just started this reccently, and I think it's something I ought to continue... Healthy lifestyle is very very important!! (:

Only problem is probably getting started =p Haha, and somehow it's always easier when lovely drags me along together! =X Hahahaa...

Ok, I can't think of anymore resolutions at the moment...

May 2010 be a better year! :)

Annoyed

2010-01-04T21:16:00.001+08:00

with some neighbour who plays non-stop low batt out of tune lantern music.

-.-

Flowers for Algernon

2010-01-04T01:16:00.003+08:00

Happy New Year!! :)

I shall start my very first post of 2010 with a book review! Haha.

So, in my last minute frenzy leaving the house (heading back to my grandma's house in Malaysia), it struck me that I had no storybook in my bag! Yea, it's became kind of a habit to read on the coach back to Malaysia.. Haha, and so all the books I've borrowed have been read, and in exasperation, I grabbed a book that had sitting on my bookshelf for about 9 years, unread.

The book was Flowers for Algernon. I obviously do not usually buy books that I don't read. But this was a compulsory buy for English/Silent reading during Secondary 1. I remember they came up with a whole list of books, and randomly assigned everybody to each buy one of the particular books. Then we were supposed to exchange among ourselves after we finish reading our own book.

Well, I didn't get pass the first 20 pages or so of Flowers for Algernon then, because the book was written as kind of a journal of a mentally retarded (MR) man, and tis wahs baseekuly how he rites fo the fuhst fehw chaptuhs. Haha, yea. Worse still, he wrote on and on for those chapters without any punctuation! o_O

Haha, of course they can't let the whole book go on with such terrible spelling and grammar.

So, the story was that this guy, his name's Charlie, was selected by some psychiatrists, psychosurgeons, scientists, and what-nots to be part of their experiment. They've been trying to perform brain surgery on animals for some time already, to increase the intelligence level of the lower-IQ ones. So, they've decided that they're ready to try it on the very first human of their experiment.

Evidently, for the surgery to work, the individual must be eager to learn too after the surgery. Charlie was chosen because of his intense motivation to learn. Although he was MR with an IQ of only about 70, he was always happy and eager to learn to read and write (albeit the futile attempts). He had a cheerful and eager-to-please disposition too, always wanting to make more friends.

Prior to the surgery, Charlie worked as an odd-jobs laborer in a bakery, where he was happy with many of his friends. His friends were always laughing and happy around him, and this made him happy too, and treasured those friends.

As expected, after the surgery, coupled with his keenness to learn, his IQ started to increase rapidly (Spelling and grammar turned normal at this point, haha). Not long after, he had became an exceptional genius with an IQ of 185, even mastering about 20 foreign langauges.

However, his emotional development was compromised. Seeing things clearer than when he was MR, he realised that all along, his "friends" at the bakery have been laughing and making fun of his stupidity.

He recalled very bad childhood memories that were previously forgotten (due to poor memory of being MR), and learnt that his mother had been ashamed of him and often threatened, spanked, and screamed at him for every little thing, and especially if he caused a hindrance to his younger sister's development.

Such memories continued to haunt and affect him despite his high IQ after the surgery. Although he had became a genius, he suffered emotionally. Moreover, nobody saw him as an individual - he was often merely regarded as an experimental product, together with his most successful animal experimental counterpart, Algernon the rat.

So the book goes on about what he experiences, and later, when the unexpected failure of the experiment surfaces, what happened to him, and to Algernon as well.

Apparently it's a sad ending la. Haha.

Oh well. It's still nice, and good for a short read. Less than 300 pages! :D Haha, anyway, I wiki-ed it and found that they actually made it into countless movies, TV shows, musicals, stage-plays, etc...and in various languages too!! [Click here to find out more!]

Woohooo! Maybe I'll hunt down some of the shows and movies to watch when i'm more free :)

Yay. I feel happy, cuz there's one less dust-collecting book on my shelf now. Haha. The simple joys of unexpectedly discovering something nice :)

Maybe one day I'll be garang enough to read Perfume as well o_O Haha.

Avatar (3D?)

2009-12-29T20:08:00.003+08:00

Finally watched THE legendary movie of the year Avatar - in 3D today!

Ok, it's quite good la, the plot and all that, but I think the 3D-ness is overrated! I've seriously seen better 3D shows, that looks like the character is popping out right in front, like you can reach your hand out and touch it lidat de!! =X But Avatar's effects doesn't quite feel 3D enough leh. In fact, it just felt more like 2D+more well defined colors to me =X Haha either my memory or my eyes got problem~ or that cinema's 3D glasses are just not so good. -_-'''

Lol. Ok, but 3D or not, I still think it's quite a good movie! :) Can watch can watch~ Haha. The girl somehow reminded me of Disney's Pocahontas! -.-'' Actually, come to think of it the movie feels quite Disney! Haha.. Ok, I think nobody wants to watch movie with me liao, I always give very weird comments. Lol.

Anyway, I've just realised minutes ago that results are coming out tonight!! Haha, I'm so slow man. I kept thinking it's on 30th, so it'll be 30th night -.- Ok, so it's tonight after all. WOOHOOO!

Right, judging on my last sem's cui performance, I shall go off and do more GP now to accumulate more karma for later~

大家保重! 祝你们好运!! Eywa保佑!!

BYEEEEEEEEES.

Supposedly Busy.

2009-12-28T21:40:00.004+08:00

Yea, i'm supposedly busy yet fidgety. GP report's NOT going well. I'm like yawning everytime I look at it, and it hardly looks 1/3 done. But i'm leaving for Malaysia in like two days' time, and when I come back i'll be two days away from the deadline. Awesome, huh?

Aye. One tiny step at a time. I can forsee myself being EXTREMELY packed this coming semester! *sulks* Ah, must be far-sighted. It's for a better tomorrow! =X Hahaaha.

Gotta pull through the next few months. May it be a fruitful and worthy one! :)

I'm actually halfway through blogging about new year resolutions, but am losing the drive and the time. Haha. So it's been saved in drafts for some time already~ bleah! And I think it'll stay there until i'm at least done with my report.

Ahhh. Okay. Back to the meepokingggg! *Aja fighting!!*

Alvin and the Chipmunks 2 Locker Reveal

2009-12-25T17:02:00.001+08:00

Hahaha!! I think this scene was super cuteee! :D

The horrors of POPCORN.

2009-12-25T15:06:00.006+08:00

(Source: http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/SP464407.htm)

Movie popcorn plus soda can equal 3 McDonald's burgers
20 Nov 2009 04:31:09 GMT
Source: Reuters

LOS ANGELES, Nov 19 (Reuters Life!) - Moviergoers who tuck into a medium popcorn and a soft drink could be eating the equivalent of three McDonald's quarter-pounder burgers topped with a dozen scoops of butter, according to a U.S. study.

A laboratory analysis of snacks sold at U.S. cinemas and commissioned by the Center for Science and Public Interest (CSPI) found a medium popcorn and soft drink contained 1,160 calories and three days' worth -- 60 grams -- of saturated fat.

"Who expects about 1,500 calories and three days' worth of heart-stopping fat in a popcorn and soda combo? That's the saturated fat of a stick of butter and the calories of two sticks of butter," said CSPI senior nutritionist Jayne Hurley in a statement.

"You might think you're getting Bambi, but you're really getting Godzilla."

She said even sharing a small portion of popcorn between two people would mean consuming a day's worth of saturated fat, the kind that clogs arteries and is linked to heart disease.

Hurley said every tablespoon of "buttery" oil topping adds another 130 calories according to the study published in Nutrition Action Healthletter.

"Asking for topping is like asking for oil on French fries or potato chips," she added.

(Writing by Belinda Goldsmith, Editing by Miral Fahmy)

***

I am so absolutely mortified and annoyed at GV for giving us a free popcorn combo yesterday. I don't think i'll ever eat popcorn in a very long time.

***

Haha. Merry Christmas by the way! =D

P.S. Chipmunks 2 was very nice, minus the mortifying popcorn!! =)

Was that my imagination?

2009-12-17T21:02:00.003+08:00

I think I have 11 hypotheses.
That's about less than 2.5pages per hypothesis to spare. Hahaaha helppppp.

I just got myself a job offer.
But the contract terms are rather shingz and the job scope is pretty boomz to me. I have under 1.5 weeks to think about my next 2 years. Shingzzzzzz!

My lovely's coming back in four days time already!!
:) :) :) *happy happy happy!!*

The Missing Lovely!

2009-12-14T23:08:00.006+08:00

Yesterday was 2nd Anniversary with Lovely!! ^^

Haha.. It was just a simple day for us, although I still had lots lots LOTS of fun!! =D It certainly wasn't those dressed-up-to-glam type of day. In fact, it was the most unglamly dressed anniversary for us! Ok, granted that it was only the 2nd anniversary we ever celebrated. Hahaha!

The point was, we were unglam coz we decided to go CYCLING!! Wahaha.. we wanted to do that for very long already, so thought might as well go on our anniversary lor. Lol. Yea, so we went to ECP early in the morning and cycled for a bit before heading down to Katong for lunch.

Even lunch was simple! Hehe. We just chose somewhere we both wanted to eat, and haven't been for some time already, which was Old Hong Kong!!!!! Yay. Happyness! :) :)

After hanging around abit after lunch, we caught a movie (as always, on special or non-special days..haha).. The Princess and the Frog! Haha, actually it was me who wanted to watch la. But Lovely enjoyed the movie too! :p The story was alright, but songs weren't very good though. Haha. It was quite amusing.. a very deviant Disney story...the princess kissed the frog prince, and turned into a frog herself!! Wahahaa fainted.

Lol. Ripped this pic off the Disney website.. look at how the frog prince is puckering its lips! LOL. So cute! Haha. And the book on the table at the back, is actually showing the classic tale about The Frog Prince! :) Hahaa. It's quite a can watch movie la! =)

Anyway, we headed back to Lovely's home after that, so that he can pack his luggage for Taiwan trip! :)

SADDED. Lovely went off to Taiwan for his grad trip today morning liao.. =( Ok la, it's one week only. Haha. But then..it's only Day 1!! =X

Hai.

Yes, I should get started on my report.. BAH!

Oh, anyway, anniversary photos are with Lovely, who hoppped off to Taiwan before sending them to me. Hahaa. So I don't think i'll be hardworking enough to upload them by the time he comes back. Lol.

Anyway, shall show off part of my present for him! Hehe :p

Let's do a comparison! Aha..

This was last year's present...
A handmade photo album! :)

And..this is this year's present!!

Wahahaa... looks so similar right!!? =D The second one is the cover page of a calendar I designed for him la.. Haha. I don't have a photo of it now..but that's the cover page I sent in for printing lor. Lol.

Ok, shall stop my crapping. Hahaa.

Once again, Happy 2nd Anniversary, Lovely! :) I had lots of fun yesterday! Yay!! :) Love ya, and have a safe trip! :) :)

Life After Exams

2009-12-09T02:20:00.005+08:00

is boring, no?

Haha.

Haven't been blogging coz I'm either too busy doing something else, or too entertained to come online, or when I'm online I have better things to do. Hahaha. Too much of the little black rectangle for entertainment during exams, so it's a no-no to go near it again after exams!

I've been the same old self pre-exams, except slightly more time to slack and catch up with peeps :) Other than that, everything's pretty much the same especially GP, which i've concluded is a continuous variable. Certainly not dichotomous; not as if you can split it into 1-Do, 0-Don't do. Whatever, think i'm just angsty/bored.

Haha. GP never fails to make me feel angsty huh.

Ok, I wanna go back to my book. Second book after exams already! Whee.

Yea, I'm supposed to be writing, and not reading. But it's my long overdue breaaaaaak!! Hahaha. Need some substance proper nice reading before I get banished back to the lala land of journal articles.

Wheeee! Long Beach, Crystal Jade, Ah Chew, Lovely! Can't get enough of catching up with peeps! :) :)

Haha, this post should have been titled Random. Except it would have been Random (again, again and again).

Last Christmas, I gave you my heart!

2009-12-02T09:29:00.004+08:00

WHEEE. Love this photo! =D

Haha, didn't want to post this under "2/3 badness" lol.

Last xmas take de photo! But they only uploaded it this week -_-'''
WOOHOOOOOOOO. I can still recall the yummy hammie!! ^^ PONYO WANTS TO EAT HAMMIEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE.

Hahaha ok I really should stop being kuku and study.

BYE!!!

2/3 badness over!

2009-12-02T09:17:00.002+08:00

1/3 worth of very badness left!

WHY WHY WHY????

All the papers this year so sucky! Ok, actually it has a mad semester to start with lah. Especially F, right?

But everybody totally died on Monday for CP!! I didn't finish my paper. EEEEEEEEK. First time in 4 years never finish core paper lah. Can freak out. Am so not going to use my S/U next sem anymore, now I need them to pull up my this sem grades!! =( Back to CP... Julyn Ng said she see my handwriting very ugly -_-''' write until hand numb going to cannot move liao how to write nice nice!! Hahahaa.. Ok, excuses. Yah, I think CY (not your bf, jul haha) is madddddddd!!!!!!!! She so gungho, why don't she try doing the paper herself!! SIAO DE.

Ok, i'm ranting. Hahaha

Anyways, Spanish was quite bad as well! Haha.. I got do past year paper leh! But they so evil, last year de fill-in-the-blanks, this year set as must answer in sentences de!! -.- WIN LIAO. Hahaa. And even the question also set until very cheem! Everybody don't know what the question meant.. how to answer question like that =X Ahhh well.

Ultimate badness is upcoming on Friday. Don't know how to prepare for the mess.

I WANT SEAFOOD!!!

Hahaa.. I'm just waiting for the seafood hour to come, not paying attention to what comes in between. wuhahaha.

Ok, you can tell how deluded/depressed i'm becoming. Lol.

Should do more masks to destress!!

Thou shalt not be alone.

2009-11-29T12:21:00.001+08:00

Case Formulation!

2009-11-29T00:41:00.003+08:00

OMG this is like the hardest-to-study-for exams ever!! o_O

Not only not enough time, the content is so turn-off. Let's not talk about F, we all know how bad that is... but I never expect CP to be so bad!!!!

The notes are super sampat lah! Can throw 3-4 textbook chapters into one set of lecture notes, and each textbook chapter is at least 30 pages, but only occupies 4-5 slides in the lecture notes. Why? Coz the lecturer super smart lor; put ALL the headlines of the textbook into the notes. What the fish leh. I feel so demoralized making notes that I finally gave up tonight!! It's like so much notes to make for each chapter, and after so long, I'm still at the same set of lecture notes!!! -_-'''

Doesn't help that the textbook can repeat the same words over and over again for 14 chapters. How to remember like that, it's like gestalt psychology/fuzzy memory leh! -.-

Pardon me for being grumpy. I tried so hard to study, and ended up taking so long and having to skip a fabulous gathering I so wanted to go, and have to study all that crap which I can't even take in! =(

SO. Since it's not very productive, I shall do case formulation to aid my learning! Hahaha. Happened to see this TV program on Channel 8 last night. It's those more documentary type of show I think, didn't catch the program name =X

Anyway, they featured/interviewed this actual person who has Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD). So I shall try to do a case formulation with the 20 minutes worth of information I got from that program! Hahaha.

DISCLAIMER: Doing this purely out of fun, please take it with a pinch of salt!

Presenting Problems:
Lady in her 50s who has had OCD for 20 years. Has cleaning compulsions that seriously disrrupts her daily functioning. Cleans her house repeatedly and thoroughly, especially when objects come into contact with the door/floor/furniture/walls/etc... Loses sleep often thinking about things she have not cleaned, then gets up in the middle of the night to clean them.

She especially hates advertisors stuffing flyers at her door. It upsets her and makes her clean repeatedly everytime she sees a flyer being stuffed at the door. Even when she warned the flyers-distributor not to stuff flyers at her door, they still do it repeatedly, and she got into a quarrel with them as a result, which turned into a court case.

As such, she uses at least 15 big boxes of cleaning detergent every month, and her utilities bill works out to over a thousand dollars monthly because of the amount of water used for cleaning. Her hands/skin has become so worn from all the scrubbing and cleaning, to the extent that her fingerprints are no longer visible. She has not gone out of her house for a long period of time, for fear of contamination. Did not allow reporters to go into her house either for fear of them contaminating her house. Appears to stay alone although she has a husband and children.

She has seen up to 3 psychiatrists/psychologists previously, but stopped treatment for some years already because she feels that it didn't helping.

Precipitating Factors:
20 years back, after she gave birth to her youngest daughter, she started to take charge of all the household chores at home, from cooking to cleaning. Whenever she hung out her clothes to dry, the neighbours upstairs would throw down cigarette butts or ash and this dirtied her clothes. Upset with this, she confronted her neighbours, who denied this and claimed that they do not smoke. She started to hang her clothes along the corridor instead. However, kids who ran along the corridor would knock down the clothes onto the floor, and this dirtied the clothes as well. From then on, she started displaying symptoms of OCD, from being very particular about cleanliness, to showing signs of anxiety, distress and cleaning compulsions.

In the recent years, her condition has worsened after more advertisors started to stuff more and more flyers at her door. Despite the warning signs she put up not to stuff newspapers and flyers at the door, her signs were ignored. This causes great distress in her, and increases her cleaning compulsions. It was also from that point of time that she stopped going out of the house.

Predisposing Factors:
Causes are not elaborated upon/unknown here. It seems that she was already particular about cleanliness previously. It is also possible that the delivery of her youngest daughter has caused some hormonal changes or chemical imbalances that increased her susceptibility of getting OCD, which was then triggered by the incident of her clothes getting contaminated by the neighbours.

Perpetuating Factors:
As long as advertisors continue stuffing flyers at her door, her illness will likely continue to cripple her. Also, her unwillingness to step out of the house will possibly increase her fear of contamination overtime, and worsen her compulsions. Furthermore, without stepping out of her house first, she is unable to seek therapy.

Moreover, her unwillingness to continue treatment greatly perpetuates her illness, as there is hardly any chance of improvement without continuing treatment.

Prognosis:
The long period of illness may significantly lower the chances of recovery.

However, when interviewed, it seems that her family is actually supportive of her going for treatment. Her husband has been footing the utilities bill and is having a hard time with them. She expresses great desire to attend her daughter's upcoming polytechnic graduation ceremony, but insists that she is unable to step out of the house. Both she and her family expresses longings of reunion and "normal" family outings. If her family is able to encourage her to return to treatment, there might be a chance of recovery.

***
I seriously felt very sad for her when I was watching the program! =X

Ok, that's all! I shouldn't be online for so long!! Hahaa. Tchao!

Elmo and Andrea Bocelli

2009-11-26T20:29:00.001+08:00

This is what ernie tried to hum himself to sleep with.

Hahahaa that's not a very smart to do leh.

Those were the days...

2009-11-26T09:25:00.003+08:00

I miss studying with the different groups of people at different places during different phases of life in uni!!

Roomie - Room/Hall 6 Reading Room

Bobo & Stephie - LWN! (I rmb there was once after LWN closed, and we went to continue studying at the benches until like 1 or 2am? I walked so fast back to Hall 6 after that!! Lol)

Xian, Jul, Stephie, Qi, Ah Gong + guest-starring SS, CY, Daniel, & MY LOVELY!! - LWN + TREX!! (we had to squeeze so many people in so little tables, and wake up damn early to chop table! lol. And this includes breakfast @ Da Ge's, and the fateful zhi char day when I jeered at the HAHAHA! laughing therapy, fall and sprained my ankle -.-''')

Lovely! - Room/TREX/Lab? ^^

Lalala~ I need my caffeine! Hahaha. Tchao!

BB Mushy!

2009-11-25T00:51:00.004+08:00

And so the new BB cream finally arrived in the snail today!

Skin Food Mushroom BB Cream SPF 20 PA

WHEE! ^^

To expand my love of edible mushrooms to applicable mushrooms, I've decided to personify my mushroom bb cream. It's gonna get a name; and the name shall be...

MUSHY.

Wahahah!

Mushy The BB Cream. In short but concise terms, it's BB Mushy!

WOOHOOOOOO!

...

You can tell what reading Family notes drives me into...

Vmailphobic

2009-11-22T14:10:00.003+08:00

I've got the Vmailphobia!

Have you?

Replace your bad memories with new sweet ones :)

2009-11-19T20:12:00.007+08:00

In an attempt to look for pretty note paper to scribble a note for some friends, I overturned my whole drawer, which was cluttered with letters, postcards, and notes. Out of the mugging boredom, I decided to take a peek at the not-too-ancient writings :)

I probably never mentioned this before, but I have a thing for handwritten/handmade notes and cards! Hehe. Although few people send letter by snail mail nowadays as compared to when I was in secondary school, receiving those handwritten/handmade cards (don't have to be snail-mailed la haha) still makes me happy! :) I think they are somewhat more lasting than electronic greetings via emails, Facebook, sms, etc... (Although I don't deny falling prey to posting electronic greetings more too nowadays haha oops) I'll definitely keep my paper greetings and letters!! :) :) Can't say the same about electronic greetings though.. Haha.

Not that I don't cherish such greetings.. In fact, when I was in JC, I used to print out any touching/meaningful emails or greetings that I received, or any me-directed blog entries, and store them carefully with the rest of the handwritten letters. But I guess it just got tiring after awhile, and there either wasn't enough ink or time. I do try to keep my best to store them nicely in the Inbox or save them in a certain folder or something. But technology, being more likely to err than human, tend to wipe them off when the computer crashes or the Inbox is full. I mean, if there was a fire (touchwood), I could just grab my drawer and run out of the house. But if the computer crashes or The Darn Phone gets sent to SE Repair Centre countless times, I can't keep telling it to save my precious momentos, yea?

Haha. Anyways, that was besides the point!

... On top of the pile were mostly notes and cards from my lovely! Without setting a new world record, reading them brings a half-grin half-smile yet again =D Close to two years of memories may not seem alot to many, but to me, its sufficient to last and keep me going for a lifetime :)

There was a handmade card from my beloved cousin too. I remembered being very touched to receive it coz I knew she put in a lot of effort making it! :) She was P6 then, and it was really like those cards we made in primary school art class! Hehe. So sweet of her. I remembering telling deardear how happy I was, and how handmade cards always touched me. And he asked "so if I had made you a card when I was wooing you, no matter how ugly it were, you would have been touched?" -.- Hahaha. Sadly, the answer is yes. Perhaps I should have waited for it to happen huh =P

And then further down the pile were cards and notes from the different manics and xian&SS's trademark birthday cards which always made me want to laugh at their disparity. She'll fill up the whole card with some story promoting how important she is, and sometimes me (haha), then He, the infamous Man of Few Words, would take up one tiny little corner, "Happy Birthday to you!" and sign his huge signature. Hahaha. And there were other notes from the manics too, mostly in different shades of pink. I seriously think they are the clique that super overly endorse my pinkiness. Hahaha.

There were some notes from the dans too, mostly yuyu deadear :) :) and Jess's handmade notorious card/bookmark(?) (fortunately not the lifetime membership ones wahaha). Haha. On an out-of-point side note, Jess, your glass test-tube of grapeseeds is still perched precariously on the top of my book shelf hahaa.

Then there was a somewhat crumpled Lego plastic bag, which I kind of hesitated to open. Those were the writings received in the bad bad period of life. I had threw most of the Y-related stuff away or returned them to him at that time (Yea, I'm the kind who needs a clean refreshing restart to heal, and without any physical reminders). But I didn't want to forget the emotional support I received which really pulled me up, so I kept those writings from my beloved friends, all tucked into a plastic bag. Ernie, remember the OK pen postcard? Hahaha. And there was one from Bert too, which I had to laugh at his erm, handwriting =X Oops. Hard to decipher leh~ Hahaa.

Then there were two letters from gaigai too... which I recall almost wanting to throw them away too in hurt and anger. But I had held them above the rubbish chute for awhile after throwing the Y-stuff down, and eventually still brought them back home in tears. Of course I ain't a saint, so I squashed them into the Lego plastic bag together with the cards, and tucked them away without looking anymore. Almost four years later, I'm reading them again, and realised how much you had really treasured our friendship despite the ugly incident. I guess it took a fair amount of courage for you to do that too, and worse still, having it all ended up in a mess. Not that I'm in greater approval now of what you two did, but I'm at least able to view our friendship not so tangled amidst that incident anymore. More importantly, I think we have both grown from four years ago, and seen and experienced better things and better people. I daresay we're both happier than the sorry state four years ago, right? :) Girl, it's not the end yet, the right happiness will drop by you at the right time! :) :)

And I can only say, who would have thought so much have changed since that fateful night? I went to bed in tears, hating Y for having ruined my life and my happiness. I swore that I'd be strong and I'd be happier than you. I don't know how much of it has been fulfilled now, but it doesn't matter to me anymore. More than often, I've looked back and been thankful. Yes, thankful. Thankful for an ending to the relationship that looking back, had really no chance of working out. But I'm thankful it ended, albeit very badly, and allowed me a real go at real happiness. I not only found a new bestie :) :) but I also saw my real true friends, and finally found the one that I want to spend my life with. I've grown up too and matured, and learnt how to better deal with a relationship as well. I've learnt too that the dissolution may for all, wasn't entirely your fault as I used to so firmly believe; there were just so many value differences and character mismatch between us, though I still think I rock! Hahaha. -_-'''

I've replaced my bad memories with new, sweet ones. Thank you, my dear friends for the immense support through these years... The lucky blur girl has finally found her happiness to last! :) :)

It takes time, but we can stop crying from the hurt. According to Meimei (2009), Good things fall apart so better things can fall together! :) The hurt will fade one day, and we'll all emerge happier and wiser than before.

Replace your bad memories with new sweet ones too! =)

Super horrifying leadup to PTSD

2009-11-19T00:08:00.002+08:00

Five men deny raping 17—year—old girl

SINGAPORE: What was supposed to be a supper date turned into an ordeal for a 17—year—old girl, who was allegedly gang—raped by five young men.

The girl, now 18, had agreed to have a meal with a man called "Jonathan" in December last year. Instead, she was taken to a flat in Woodlands, where the men took turns to rape and sexually assault her.

The accused — Muhammad Shafie bin Ahmad Abdullah, 19; Mohd Sadruddin bin Azman, 19; Lim Boon Tai, 20; Rishi Mohan, 17; and Mohamed Firdaus bin Roslan, 18 — have denied the charges and are likely to testify that the sex was consensual.

Shafie and Lim were full—time National Servicemen at the time of the offence, while Sadruddin and Firdaus were then waiting for their O—level results. Rishi, a Malaysian citizen, was a student at the Institute of Technical Education.

The morning after the alleged crime, the girl’s boyfriend called the police after she told him what happened. Four days later, the men were arrested.

In his opening statement, deputy public prosecutor Gordon Oh said on the evening of Dec 25 last year, the victim was on a bus to Woodlands bus interchange and on the way home, when a man calling himself "Jonathan" rang her and asked to have supper with her.

"Jonathan" did not turn up. Instead, a friend of the girl — who is one of the accused — arrived in a taxi to pick her up from Woodlands MRT station.

He brought her to a flat in Woodlands, where she was introduced to the other men. There, Lim introduced himself as Jonathan.

The victim joined four of the accused men in a card game where the loser had to drink a soft drink mixed with vodka.

She had more than five disposable plastic cups of the cocktail, Mr Oh said.

During another game, the victim — whose head was spinning from the alcohol by that point — refused to kiss Lim as a forfeit.

The games ended when someone knocked on the flat’s door. Thinking it was Shafie’s parents returning home, the group suggested that the victim and Lim hide in a room together.

In the room, Lim allegedly pushed the girl onto a mattress and made sexual advances. She resisted but with her head feeling heavy, gave in to him.

Later, while she was resting in Shafie’s room, the men allegedly entered, stripped her and took turns raping and sexually assaulting her.

Two psychiatrists will testify that the girl now suffers from post—traumatic stress disorder and has depressive symptoms, said Mr Oh.

In court on Tuesday, the men — three of them bespectacled — sat in the cramped dock. Few of their family members appeared to be in court, but they seemed relaxed and were seen smiling and talking to each other.

The trial continues on Wednesday.

[Taken from Yahoo News
http://sg.news.yahoo.com/cna/20091118/tap-913-five-men-deny-raping-17-year-old-231650b.html]

This is like so uber terrifying! And the five guys are so super bastard!! Don't know what to comment about the girl though... Why did she even go/go get drunk at their house!! Ok, I should not make negative internal attribution about the victim......

Seriously, I can't imagine how long she'll take to recover. Really super suay.. And those five guys are really super super super bastard, still happily denying!! =( I hope they get charged!! If they go scott-free, the girl will seriously be even more depressed lah.

Omg omg. I can't believe such a thing happened to such a young girl, really very poor thing.

Hai. Ugly ugly world.

Data Camp -- The Prelude to Data Party

2009-11-18T17:46:00.010+08:00

Yes, we've been very busy managing our GP data. Thanks to the upcoming Data Party that V decided to throw on 5th December (which is the Saturday right after our last paper ends on Friday).

Apparently, V's schema of parties is very different from ours. When xian asked her whether the party will be at night, she was shocked. And when jan and i asked her what time would it be, she said probably 9am to 5pm. ................ Does that sounds like party time to anybody here? *ahems* Later she decided perhaps 9am to 1pm would be enough. Ok, not like it sounds more exciting, but I guess it beats spending the first Saturday after exams in school for the entire day. To make myself feel better, I shall pretend I found a part-time Saturday volunteer thingy right after my paper.

On the "brighter" side, perhaps her only more "normal" schema of party was reflected in her statement "Don't worry. There will be food provided."

Can't say we're too excited about that though.

...

ANYWAYS,

Jan (my GP group mate) and I decided to run our data in one shot, so that we can settle down properly to study for our exams after that. We started on Monday morning (keying in some misc. data and compiling stuff here and there) and still couldn't get started on hypotheses by 10pm. So we decided to hold a 2-day 1-night Data Camp on Tuesday to prep ourselves for the horrifying Data Party ahead.

You can think of it as a leadership training camp before an FOC, or if you're slightly more optimistic, it's like going for FOC before D&D party.

The point was, we chiong-ed everything at Jan's house from ard 10am to 2am, became very seh, and went to bed, but couldn't sleep. So it turned into a girly kind of slumber party, when we started chatting and sharing secrets. Hahaha. We finally decided to try harder to sleep at 3am. But we snoozed our 7am alarm for about 10 times before finally waking up at 8am. Haha.

Anyways, we finished most of it (with some question marks which all the profs happened to be on leave to solve for us -.-) finally, and break camp before noon. Then we started trying very hard to take self-timer photos with our Ting & En (2009) products, but it was a disaster; apparently we both weren't very good camera gurus.

Hahah. Ah wells. At least we can put some stuff aside now until 4th December. And Data Camp wasn't too bad although it fried our brains! :)

Jiayou for exams, people!! 16 days to freedom!!! =D

Meanwhile, I am gonna drown myself in caffeine to make up for the precious time lost to GP...

Gimme a chance to mug!

2009-11-14T22:00:00.004+08:00

Yes, I want to mug.

Usually, by this time of the semester, I would have settled down from all the crazy assignments and project deadlines, and found my inner peace in mugging. But not for this semester!

Exams are supposed to be officially starting next week, with the exception that I happened to be lucky enough to have my papers starting 2 weeks later. But i'm still up to the neck with so many things to do that I can't mug!!

Finally finished the last 2 f* reports (f* is the mod name, not a swear word!) today morning, and had to rush to continue the humongous amount of data entry! Humongous meaning there's a total of 60 participants' data to enter, and each participant has 20pages worth of data O_O even after splitting half-half with my groupmate, we still have to key in 600 pages worth of data each by tomorrow night.

After which we have to run data analysis and do presentation slides!! *strangles self*

When can I start mugging for my papers like that! =(

Sigh.

***

Anyway, I was bored of data entry, and so uploaded this photo!

:)

It was our last day of Spanish Level 2 on Thursday! As usual, the last day ended with the oral exams, where everybody more or less did well! (according to our teacher lol. but i think she's just very nice).. Anyway, this year's class wasn't as close as my Level 1 class i think.. heh. But still, a few of us (the ones that I'm usually closer to and hang out with in class heh) still managed to stay back after class to take a photo with Arantxa! :) :) She's the same teacher as my Level 1 class, and very very niceeeeeeeeeeeee!! :) Hehe.

I still wanna take Level 3 next semester! But the timeslot she told us she'll be teaching..sounds like the timeslot Forensic Psych will usually be on =( =( So I might have to go for the other teacher's slot instead.. Bah! Ok, I heard she's very nice also la, but just that I'm used to this teacher for 2 levels liao. Anyway, if I take Forensic Psych and Spanish Level 3, that makes my classes on 3 evenings!!! o_O And if I take French Level 4 too, is that going to make my classes like 5 evenings???

GOODNESS!!!

Maybe I can start praying hard that they decide to change the Forensic Psych timing earlier, and French Level 4 will not be so late...

BAHHHHHHHHHH!

I don't want to be the first Psych Yr 4 in history to have 5-day week in her final sem!! x_x

***

Ok ok, I shall stop worrying about next sem, when I don't even get to study for this sem's exams -.-''

Back to goddamn data entry! *POUTS*

久石讓 Joe Hisaishi Asia Dream Song

2009-11-14T10:57:00.001+08:00

This song is SUPERB too! :D

While writing my final family report, I finally found something that makes the writing less painful! =X

久石讓 Joe hisaishi Live - One Summer's Day (from Spirited Away)

2009-11-14T10:48:00.001+08:00

Beautiful song :)

I wanna watch Spirited Away again!!

Happy 23 Months! =)

2009-11-13T22:05:00.004+08:00

It's the 2-Years-Minus-ONE-Month-niversary!! ^^

As usual, we don't really celebrate.. =X hahaa.. especially exams nearing no time ma~ hahaa. Anyway, every month is a special month to us because it's +1 more month spent together out of the many many more months to go! =) Hehe.

Oh well, although we don't celebrate, it's a happy and cheery day! :) :) Yay! I love my lovely!! =X

Sometimes I think back, and I wonder what would I be like now if this relationship never started. Yes, I would definitely still be surviving, and blowing my trumpet about being a strong girl..

But I guess the empty hole in me would never have been fully filled, and my doubts and mistrust in relationships would never have cleared.

So the Prince Charming came and swept and dusted away all that hesitance and inconfidence I had in relationships. And he dusted it all away with such strong conviction, that I could never have doubted him =) In fact, he did more than swept my fears away, he changed me and made me believe in myself in a way I never used to! And he stayed by me unfaltering through all those hard times =)

Everything I said may sound clichéd and silly, and perfectly expected. But I still think it's not everyday I see such a perfect/ideal boyfriend who's so nice to their girlfriend! :p hehee. 老陈卖瓜,自卖自夸! :D

Ok la, I just wanted to show off my lovely ma! Got abit carried away.. =X

Happy 23 months, lovely! I love you! :) :)

The Top 3 Scariest Emails of the Semester!

2009-11-12T13:39:00.003+08:00

NTU is famous for scaring students, three times a year.

1st Attempt
Dear Students,

The Exam Welfare Package is here again! Fabulous free goodies up for grabs and more study areas for all!

2nd Attempt
Dear Student,

Please check out your exam venues and seating arrangements.

3rd Attempt
Dear Student,

Good news for your examinations! We are pleased to inform you that the frequency of the internal shuttle bus will be increased during the exam period for your convenience!

....

Talk about 笑里藏刀...

Random (again)

2009-11-08T16:46:00.004+08:00

Just felt like I haven't been blogging for some time, yet I do not know what I should blog about =X

GP studies' finally all over~ thanks to all who helped out by participating and The One who went to be the non-existent experimenter (and scolds me for not giving her credit for it haha). Although it's the end of the 101st nightmare, the 1001st nightmare would be coming up soon: the theme is
Data Analysis Party with food provided *rolls eyes*

I've gotta start thinking about how i'm gonna run a million and one data analyses while mugging for my papers at the same time. Not to mention feeling disgruntled about the delayed holidays =[

This special December marks the end of my Lovely's university life! Well, half of it..He can still eat another half a year's worth of student meals! =P But no cheating with the mugging together til late night and having a cushion on my way home =( =( I'm so gonna miss going to and fro school together with my lovely, and having him there for me in an instant when i'm upset =[

Together, we say bye bye to my beloved Qiqi & Bobo of the manics! *pouts* I can't believe we were all Year 1 together then, but they're saying byebye and stepping out of school first! I feel somewhat sad at the thought of that.. We're already having so few lessons together, and now one less person buys kopi (yuanyang!) tgt with me, and yet another less ding dong and whines tgt with me (haha no denying hor!)!! Alas, that's life and we just have to move on I guess =( All the best to them, and for the job-hunting! Please continue turning up for birthday gatherings! hehe. We've gotta take the classic 9 ppl sitting in 2 rows and all peeking over the person-in-front's head photo!

Classic eh? That's the very first one! hahaa

***

On the less emo side, the holidays are finally coming!! =) =)

Anniversary(!!), birthday gatherings, kbox, chalet, and more gatherings!! :D

2009-10-31T23:59:00.001+08:00

On a side note, I finally sneaked out for half an hour today to buy a new mouse! Like, FINALLY! I've been surviving without a mouse for almost 2 weeks and it's so sad to return home to no nice mousie to use! =X

And i'm so proud of my new loot..

I have a PINK mouse now!!!!!!!!!!!!!

*pinkie waves happily to her new friends!*

YAY! My lappie is 100% Fujitsu now! Hahahaa...

---
Ermm, had to break free of all that stress and be bimbotic for awhile *ahems*
back to the stupid family report!

Darn the GP, it better be worth it!

2009-10-31T23:38:00.002+08:00

I'm feeling all unsettled over my GP (aka FYP)! =(

There's so much stuff to be done, and I can't ignore the work waiting for me for my other modules either! So i'm trying to push back my GP until my other work gets done, so that I can concentrate proper on my GP and chiong until I die. Coz it's almost a zero probability doing other work only after i'm done with my GP, coz by then i'll be 1/2 dead already, and won't bother chionging until I die! -.-

Anyways, it's still very disturbing! I can hardly concentrate on my other work! There's a nagging voice inside my head that keeps telling me, "why are you not doing your GP!??"

Shucks like shucking shucks man!!

Because of GP, I slept like 3 hours only for 3 consecutive days (Miss See claims that she has been sleeping for 2-4hours only for what, 3 weeks?? *salutes her!*). I'm ageing and my body can't take it! If i hadn't slept for 9 hours last night to pay my sleep debt, I would have seriously fallen sick already! o_O

I am SO not going to succumb to that voice man! I don't want my other modules to die! HELPPPPPPPP!!!

Stupid GP, better be worth all this nonsense! *rawrrr*

Distraction is bad...

2009-10-29T07:16:00.002+08:00

especially at the wrong time.

Reading that entry reminded me of 5 months ago =(
This year just ain't a good year, but it's coming to an end! A new year is always gonna be a better year, right?

*FOCUS!!!* español!!

A day in life!

2009-10-26T20:00:00.003+08:00

It's one of those days in life where everything goes smoothly if you don't look at the big picture.

- lesson was boring, until 2.5 hours later a friend doing the presentation made THE ultimate reply of the year to the prof, and I finally got entertained for the last 1/2 hour.

- ethics approval for GP (aka FYP) was ~~finally~~FINALLY signed and approved.

- RP also approved less than an hour later by a very nice successor of M, who's also called M.

- the person whom I ordered masks from delivered the masks right to my doorstep!

- a very nice friend by the name of qiqi offered to collect masks for us so we don't need to pay the eye-boggling postage fee!

- several nice friends agreed to participate in my very mafan study!

And when we zoom out to the very BIG picture...

- clinical's report due on thursday and i'm only half done.
- spanish test's on thursday as well, which i haven't studied for, and makes me wanna freak out, coz i always study for my language tests wayyy beforehand.
- there's another report due next monday, which i know nuts about what to write.
- i'm supposed to prepare my spanish oral story by next monday as well.
- and there's another report due next next monday.
- GP study looks like it's gonna take up zzz.. hours of my hectic-enough life.
- spanish listening test next next tuesday.
- spanish oral next next thursday.

Moral of the story? Don't be too far-sighted. Be grateful for the little things in your daily life :) It's not as easy as you think to come across an entirely smooth sailing day! =)

Are you a carrot, an egg, or a coffee bean?

2009-10-25T21:09:00.002+08:00

Thought this was very meaningful! =)

***

A young woman went to her mother and told her about her life and how things were so hard for her. She did not know how she was going to make it and wanted to give up. She was tired of fighting and struggling. It seemed as one problem was solved, a new one arose.

Her mother took her to the kitchen. She filled three pots with water and placed each on a high fire. Soon the pots came to boil. In the first she placed carrots, in the second she placed eggs, and in the last she placed ground coffee beans… She let them sit and boil; without saying a word.

In about twenty minutes she turned off the burners. She fished the carrots out and placed them in a bowl. She pulled the eggs out and placed them in a bowl. Then she ladled the coffee out and placed it in a bowl. Turning to her daughter, she asked, ’ Tell me what you see’.

‘Carrots, eggs, and coffee,’ she replied…

Her mother brought her closer and asked her to feel the carrots. She did and noted that they were soft.. the mother then asked the daughter to take an egg and break it. After pulling off the shell, she observed the hard boiled egg.

Finally, the mother asked the daughter to sip the coffee. The daughter smiled as she tasted its rich aroma. The daughter then asked, ‘What does it mean, mother?’

Her mother explained that each of these objects had faced the same adversity: boiling water. Each reacted differently. The carrot went in strong, hard, and unrelenting. However, after being subjected to the boiling water, it softened and became weak.The egg had been fragile. Its thin outer shell had protected its liquid interior, but after sitting through the boiling water, its inside became hardened.The ground coffee beans were unique, how ever. After they were in the boiling water, they had changed the water.

‘Which are you?’ she asked her daughter. ‘When adversity knocks on your door, how do you respond? Are you a carrot, an egg or a coffee bean?

Think of this: Which am I? Am I the carrot that seems strong, but with pain and adversity do I wilt and become soft and lose my strength?

Am I the egg that starts with a malleable heart, but changes with the heat? Did I have a fluid spirit, but after a death, a breakup, a financial hardship or some other trial, have I become hardened and stiff? Does my shell look the same, but on the inside am I bitter and tough with a stiff spirit and hardened heart?

Or am I like the coffee bean? The bean actually changes the hot water, the very circumstance that brings the pain. When the water gets hot, it releases the fragrance and flavor. If you are like the bean, when things are at their worst, you get better and change the situation around you.

When the hour is the darkest and trials are their greatest do you elevate yourself to another level? How do you handle adversity? Are you a carrot, an egg or a coffee bean?

***

=) My evolutionary basis for loving coffee!! Hahaha..

The Shan + Rozz Show: EP9 - The Boomz Girl

2009-10-24T22:47:00.003+08:00

I've decided to take back whatever i've defended her for.

She is so totally SHING-Z.

o_O

But come to think of it, I still feel a bit sad for her. She's only 19. The sort of age people can be still quite immature and think or say stupid stuff. I mean, we've been there done that, and looked back and felt stupid about something we did when we were younger. But at least all who knows that are your family and/or maybe close friends.

If I think about a few stupid things i've done previously, and imagine them being broadcasted on TV last time. I think I'll be so dui and embarrassed like shit now.

But if she still goes to meet her mother-in-law in that 10 years down the road, then I really have nothing to say...

World's best marriage proposal, ever.

2009-10-20T01:09:00.001+08:00

Super stunner!! hahahaha

OverBOOMZ-ed!

2009-10-14T21:37:00.003+08:00

[Pictures taken from omy.sg]

I'm not exactly a fan of her, neither do I deny having laughed at the joke when I first saw it, but....

Don't you think we should just cut her some slack?

As the clichéd goes, "All humans err". And as Ting (2009) goes "Pageant queens are humans too". If any other Tom, Dick or Harry had said BOOMZ on national tv, would you have laughed at it for months? No, people will just "HAHA. DOTS!!", and move on with their lives. Albeit falling short of expectations of a beauty queen, it's over, and... TIME TO MOVE ON, no??

For goodness sake! All that criticism about her, and then you turn around and make a joke out of her! Does that make you a better person than what you've criticised her about?

Why don't YOU go infront of national tv as well, and see for yourself what smartass sentences you can come up with without even stuttering!

*rolls eyes*

What is wrong with Singaporeans man!

I wanna be a schoolgirl forever!

2009-10-12T20:14:00.003+08:00

How many more boring, sleepy, unbearable lessons to the final step out of that exam hall?

How many cups of coffee and packets of food left to keep you awake and full through endless lessons and project meetings?

How many more times getting away by laughing off a mistake or stutter during a presentation?

How many more hours of being sandwiched between people (or smelly monsters) at the bus stops and on the bus?

How many more hours of sleep sacrificed to get that assignment done and get to the school early with my cushion beside me?

How many more mad, laughing, giggly days to the gloomy turbulent world out there?

Happy 22nd Birthday, Hueyhui! =)

2009-10-11T17:56:00.007+08:00

Link to photo album:
http://picasaweb.google.com/sotongting/HueyhuiS22ndBirthdayMSWaraku?feat=directlink

Hueyhui's birthday celebration @ MS Waraku on Friday.. haha.

The very failed attempt to surprise her. Poor Jiaying tried so hard, only to be spoiled by many people. Tsk tsk!

You will also see the result of Julyn, resident cakecutter and photographer, not turning up for gatherings:

1) Mango cake flipped 180degrees to become chocolate cake.
2) No group photos; only shots of the birthday girl.
3) No food photos either.
4) Delayed uploads, and none on Facebook.

Hahaha..

Happy belated birthday, fairy godmother!! =)

The Killing.

2009-10-09T16:32:00.003+08:00

The Boyfriend ordered a chicken chop and I ordered a grilled fish. I started looking around while we waited for the food. I noticed the halal sign, and...

Me: Hey the stall is halal leh. Actually what's the difference between halal chicken and the non-halal chicken ar? I heard they perform some ritual before they kill the chicken is it?

The BF: No la, it's just the way they slaughter the chicken. They'll slit the throat and just let the blood drip until it dies lor.

Me: *winces* errrr, okayyyy. Eh, abit weird to be discussing how the chicken we'll be eating later died leh. *pauses* Eh, actually it's ok lah! You're the one eating chicken ma, i'm eating fish!! Hahahaaa *grins happily*

The BF: Oh, you know how the fish is killed or not, even more cruel leh!!

Me: Huh?? Er, no, I don't want to know, don't tell me now...

The BF: No, you must listen. It's really very cruel...

Me: .....

The BF: They drowned the fish to death...

????

Random

2009-10-06T23:45:00.000+08:00

I am so into oldies now!! =X