Drive

My Aunt and granny went to Turkey yesterday. And I strongly believe that I saw Maj Ben Looi at the airport with his wife. I think they are going to Istanbul as well. Since I saw them checking in along the same row as my aunt.

Since my aunt isn't in town, she left her car to me. And I brought my mum, uncle, aunt in law on a trip to NUS. Haha.

The primary aim of the trip was to familiarize myself on how to drive to campus. And showing them the campus was secondary. But it was a fruitful trip since everyone was happy and I finally know how to drive to school, after getting lost in my previous attempt.

Extremely tired, but I can't get to sleep. I'm having insomia! =/

Might as well use this time to do some revision for my upcoming Econs and Stats papers.

2 more.

I've outdone myself today.

I wrote 17 pages for my Nation-Building exam.

(Hopefully content is positively correlated to grades.)

Now my wrist hurts, haha.


Sadly, my 2nd Philo essay wasnt as well done as my first one. But I'm quite alright with the final paper, hopefully my interpretation of things are good. =)

810?

Guess everyone is in 810 after all.

Abit of mixed feelings being posted there.

I'm sure you guys know what I mean.


Currently reading: Defending the Lion City.
(What a coincidence.)

Place or Nation?

If I choose to become a member of a nation because it gives me a good job and lifestyle, I am really interested in that nation only as a place, and it makes sense if one day I leave it for another place which can offer me superior conditions and opportunities.

It is when I stick around when a place cannot guarantee me a good life, or I am concerned about the welfare of others in that place, and try to improve things even at a risk to my own good life (say, I join the political opposition), that I can say I am of the nation, and not just the place.

(Lim, Linda. 2006. "Singapore:Place or Nation?" The Straits Times, June 19th)

Linda Lim is a Professor of strategy at the Stephen M.Ross School of Business and director of the Centre for South-east Asian studies, University of Michigan.

Library

NUS Central library is increasingly becoming less conducive for revision to take place.

1 down

Yeap, it has finally come to this day.

The start of the exams. As usual I could not sleep last night. I dont know if it is because I am to nervous or is it due to my bio clock being screwed up because over the past week I've been sleeping past 2am.

But all that is over because I've finished my soci paper. Its not very difficult if well studied and read. But Murphy is not on my side again as those topics which I paid more attention to didnt come out as questions. But luckily, last minute reading while commuting to school was pretty helpful.

Generally I'm quite pleased.

4 more to go.

Personality time

Kaiwei took the free ColorQuiz.com personality test! "Has a powerful drive towards sensuousness...." Click here to read the rest of the results.

The Phantom of the Opera

Today was a nice day out!

Pretty enjoyable, although if it were after my exams I would have enjoyed it several times more. But still, its a nice day out!

Met Na at Yishun and made our way to the Esplanade, since we were early, we had a little snack along the way at the Mini Coffeeshop at the Citylink Mall. After that, we went for a little walk inside the Esplanade Mall before entering the theatre.

Just looking at the theatre from the door was quite exciting for both of us, since we've never been to such a setting before. The horseshoe shaped theatre is a great sight and experience for me. The seats arent all that comfy, I would gladly say a GV seat is much better as compared to a seat in the theatre.

Us in the theatre

The musical started pretty on time and without much introduction. Here I must pay tribute to Zhongwei for telling me part of the storyline back during last sem. Therefore I managed to catch most of what the play was about. Although I do not consider myself a very artistic person nor am I someone who really appreciates the fine arts and musicals, this experience was simply sensational.

The singing, dancing, music, acting were gorgeous beyond words. A beautiful concoction and it has seriously helped developed my interest in musicals.

Our favourite scene was the part at the lake where the Phantom and Christine are on a boat.

During the interval, we went to the foyer to buy some souvenirs, I got a program guide while Na got a brooch.

Tickets, brooch, brochure, program guide.

After the end of the show, we left and got someone to help us take a picture at the poster outside the theatre. (I think I look abit cock.)

Poster outside the theatre

So after the whole thing we went to buy Na's pants and meet her Miss B to get her textbook. Following that, we decided to check the donut shop out and to our horror, the queue was about twice as long as the last time we came. =/ We gave it a miss yet again, and went for dinner at Sakae and we had sushi, temaki, chawamushi etc plus the paper steamboat thing which was quite a hit. The soup was clear and light - very appetizing.

Left for Marina Square after that. We didnt do much there besides roaming around and Na getting herself a pretty chain from Diva. After that, we shared a creme brulee espresso chiller at Gloria Jeans. A pretty good recommendation by Na! =)

Went home after that.

Guilty guilty guilty!
Haha, exams on monday and I didnt study today. =/ Nevermind, I'm good and I can overcome the odds. *flex

Phantom.

I'm pretty excited about tomorrow.

I'm going to watch The Phantom of the Opera with Na!

This will be the first time I go into the Esplanade Theatre and my first time watching a musical as well.

Excitement is hard to contain.

But excitements aside, exams are just round the corner. I just have this feeling I'm not well prepared enough. =/

Reunion.

Had a mini la kopi/ supper session with some of the guys from Charlie - Ben, Tingneng, Weihao, Shanni, John.

Its nice to have a reunion like that once in awhile especially since it has been more than a year since I met most of them.
We even had a talk on WoW, its making me want to start Wowing all over again. =/

Drinks were free, courtesy of the uncle at S11.

Sometimes, I really have this feeling that, life is damn tough in Singapore. But nonetheless, everybody is too absorbed in this capitalist system and finding it difficult to get out of it. Especially once you get married and bought your own flat, you are constantly bugged down by bill paying, pay off your house. This makes the majority of Singaporeans asset rich and cash poor, and many have barely enough left to save for their retirement. Who knows, our next retirement age witll be 75.

Extractions from my philo text with regards to old age.

It started with Socrates asking Cephalus about what is life like to be old.

Cephalus then recalls from his meetings with his other aged friends that how they long for the pleasure of youth and reminisce about sex, drinking and feasting like everyone else.

He then added the following.

A poet named Sophocles was asked, "How's your sex life - can you still make love to a woman?"

His reply," Be quiet, I'm glad to be done with all that. I'm like a slave who has escaped from a crazy brutal master."

Then followed by this.

Old age certainly seems to bring tranquility and freedom, when the fierce passions relax their grip on us, then, we escape the clutches not just of one crazy master but a whole gang of them.
All these complaints are due to one cause - not old age, but a man's character. If a man is calm and happy, he wont mind the weight of old age on his shoulders. If he isn't, both age and youth alike will be unbearable.

Monday night.

Na was nice to drop by over to accompany me during her elongated lunch break. She brought her lunch to share with me as well. =)

We met up as planned in the evening for tomatoing, dinner and paper shopping! Went to the Red Tomatoes shop to exchange something and we went to the Sumo House - Cheapest japanese food in Singapore.

I had a Chicken Teriyaki Bento while Na had a Salmon Teriyaki Bento. But the standard of the food is just simply okay? I cannot find a good word to describe it, but for its price, you cannot complain. They even had free flow of green tea that smell like green tea but taste like plain water. What more can you ask for? But of course, the Jap food back in Techno Edge and The Deck are so much better.

Next we made our way to PS, so that she could visit her favourite shop there - Made with love. Its the paper shop that sells alot of paper and accessories for people to make cards and scrapbooks. And guess who we say there?

Its Joanne Peh. We didnt know its her until I noticed a few people staring over in my direction. Then I realised, the person that I "rubbed shoulders" with is Joanne Peh. She is really darn tall and attractive by my standards.

After that we went Carrefour before heading home. After I alighted from the train, I saw Ben Huang from Charlie and realised that he has an ICT this June at PLC for a 84mm refresher course. And he is going to go RT because he is lazy to train for his IPPT. Haha.

And most importantly, revision is bad. Not going according to plan.

Reading week.

I love the reading week for the fact that I get to read my stuff all over again.

Thats because I love reading.

And through reading, I get to see interesting quotes and learn new words that I can deposit in my Vocab bank.


Something I saw from my Sociology Text (Sociology: Your Compass for a New World):

Globalization is a schoolboy in Bombay, India, listening to Bob Marley on his MP3 player as he rushes to slip into his Levis, wolf down a bowl of Kellogg's Basmati Flakes, and say goodbye to his parents in Hindi because he's late for his English language school.
(Brym and Lie, 2007)

Any sweat?

I've always been curious why I perspire much more than normal people.

Now that I've just finished a good run, I suddenly remembered my ever present concern over my excessive perspiration.

So I wiked it. And this is what I've found:

However, anxiety can
exacerbate the situation for many sufferers. A common complaint of patients is
that they get nervous because they sweat, then sweat more because they are
nervous.

Hyperhidrosis can either be generalized or localized to specific parts
of the body. Hands, feet, axillae, and the
groin area are among the most active regions of perspiration due to the
relatively high concentration of sweat glands; however, any part of the body may
be affected. Primary hyperhidrosis is found to start during adolescence or even
before, and interestingly, seems to be inherited as an autosomal
dominant genetic trait.

(Retrieved on 14/04/07 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hyperthermia)

Exactly what I am going through. Especially the nervous part.

And the sad thing is, there is no cure for it, just treatment, and often the side effect of treatment is anhidrosis.

Given my rare talent of emitting so much heat when I work out, If I suffer the lack of sweat, I'll probably suffer from hyperthermia. So I guess I have to live with sweating.

Any sweat?

Alot alot of sweat.

At this point in time, I am still radiating heat. Haha.

Our New Love

I'm a bitch.

I'm in a bitchy mood today, probably because I am feeling sticky due to the excessive pespiration due to nothing in particular.

So I shall bitch about a couple of stuff.

Firstly, school stuff.
An Email from my Philosophy Lecturer, Associate Prof John Holbo:

Dear PH1101EGEM1004 students,

This is a bit late, I realize, but it has come to my attention that a number of students have not submitted their blog posts with their second papers.
..........
......
Turning it in is easy. Just print out in a clear enough format to be readable by your tutor. Cut&paste off the blogs.
.......
And do it today. (Yesterday, if possible.) We have to submit this stuff soon.

Its a pretty simple instruction that was iterated like more than 10 times? Lectures, module blogs, tutorials.

Why cant NUS undergrads follow such simple instructions?

I think my Prof is being too nice.


Next thing is regarding my economics make up lecture.
There is this guy seated behind me, which happens to be from my tutorial group as well. He whines and whines and whines and whines and whines that today's lecture was a waste of time throughout the lecture. And he just keeps talking/'xianing' to the girl beside him.

Maybe you are damn smart. But if you want to whine and flirt, please leave the lecture theatre. No one begged you to stay for the lecture. And what more, you are fucking disgusting looking and I think my test results were double of yours.


Secondly, I've been observing this for a long time, when people board the bus, 4 of 10 pounce on to their seats like predators to prey, creating such an impact onto the seat that could virtually knock out a human if they were to use such force on them.

Sooner or later, these seats are going to break, its not built to resist that kind of impact.

Third, events on the train.
When I was enroute to school this afternoon, there was this family of 2 school going kids together their father. Its probably after school and they are going home, what I could not stand is that, the kids are playing with each other, pushing each other, knocking into every other person, running around the carriage.

I'm fine with it that the father did not stop or reprimanded them, but he played with them.


As my train arrived at Jurong East Interchange while going home, we walked towards the train on the middle track. Theres an old man walking in front of me, so I could not walk fast. But there is this constant pushing coming from the back. And when I turned back , I realised the culprit that kept pushing me was a man in his early 30s, dressed up in business shirt and wearing a tie. He was rushing and rushing to catch that seat that was calling out to him.


Hello??!! What's wrong with people these days.

Maybe its just me.

A quickie.

Just a quick blog before I head for school for a make up Economics lecture.

I'm impressed with what our PM is doing, by donating his next 5 years pay increment to charity. As what Qy said, as a leader it is very good for him to lead by example.

But we Singaporeans, being not exactly the nicest people in the world probably have other opinions. Some might say, its just a ploy(the whole pay increment thing + the donation) created to display his benevolence; while some might expect other ministers to follow suit.

But on the whole, I am glad that we have a capable government then and now. I hope our government will always be as capable if not better.

And to let monetary rewards be the main driving force for people to stand up and lead Singapore, is not the best way to do things. Because these people would just leave IF Singapore ever suffers a declining economy.

But we still need to compensate these willing parties their opportunity costs of not being a leader in our government. As long as the wage level moves together with the economy, I do not see a problem. But a growing Gini coefficient is not a good thing though.

In my point of view of the politics in Singapore, our ruling party has accumulated alot of surpluses in terms of political legitimacy since independence. But over the recent years, policies implemented have not been well taken by the masses. In my opinion, it is crucial for them to rethink some policies that will be popular with the masses. Perhaps being more sensitive towards timing of policies implementation. Because I am sure, the GST hike and Top Civil Servant pay rise have dealt a sever blow towards their political legitimacy and popularity.

Off to school. Damn, it looks dark and stormy.

Taiwan's plug

Taiwan's Plug

UEFA Champions League

UEFA European Champions League

4/4/07
As Roma 2 - Manchester United 1

10/4/07
Manchester United 7 - As Roma 1

Aggregate: Man Utd 8 - As Roma 3


My red devils are simply too hot to handle.

With both, Chelsea and Manchester United through to the semis, and Liverpool most likely through unless they get a freak 4-0 lost at Anfield. It has been awhile since 3 English Clubs made it to the semis.

Dreams?

Quoting Qiyang: "i pointed out to ben the mercedes slk n BMW 6 series parking in the carpark.."

I know its lame, but it sounds as if he was addressing the mercedes as ben. (Mercedes Benz)
ie, Ben the mercedes, Bob the builder? Haha

Another quote:
"dun noe if my thinking is right..to all, pls feel free to comment...cos need someone to correct me jus in case my thinking is wrong n i din realise it."

Since you've requested, I'll give you my 2 cents worth.

To Qiyang:

It is good of you to aim high, just like I always tell people to aim for the unreachable.
Because, if your aim fails you, you most likely wont be too far off from the mark. And if you ever reach the unreachable, you've accomplished quite a feat. (I've heard numerous variations of this from alot of different people.)

To me, life has simple meaning. Live yours to the fullest, because you only live once. If you don't fight for what you desire, life for you is just being a single nut or a bolt in this huge capitalist machinery.

To appreciate your self worth is very important. If you don't even believe in yourself, you will never be able to convince people to believe in you. To benchmark your personal worth with income is very logical in comtemporary society. Even the Singapore government realises the need to use monetary rewards to entice capable people to lead the country. Thus this illustrates a very strong and positive correlation between capability and income.

In my opinion, dreams are vital as you progress on in life. While some people claims that dreams make you despair, because you won't ever meet them if you set too high a target.

I choose to believe that, if I don't make it, so be it. Life goes on. I won't keep dragging my feet for 5 years. Look on the bright side, at least you've tried your best, what more, its a dream. The dreams you have at night are most often unrealistic as well.

I think having dreams/setting aims is alot like navigation exercises. They give you a guide line to follow, similar to us plotting our way to the target destination. If the vegetation is too thick to proceed? Make a detour and try to get to the same check point. Lost your way? Back track and find a prominent feature and proceed on from there. If it still does not work out, we can always skip to the next check point or try until ENDEX.

I have many different dreams at the various points of my life.

At this point in time,
I want to get a Ph.D in Economics.
I hope to work in the International Monetary Fund (IMF)/ World Bank and do my best in reducing the rising income disparity and increasing poverty in the world.
I dream about being a Nobel Laureate in Economics.
Being awarded an Honour from the Order of the British Empire (OBE). KBE/GBE in particular if I ever get a chance to serve in Britain.

Dreams like that may sound so distant, and they can probably happen only at a probability of 0.00000000000000000000000000000000000000000001%

But nevertheless, I dare to dream. Do you?

Just some numbers.

"We don't want people to join us because of the pay. But neither do we want people not join us because of the pay." - Minister-In-Charge of the Civil Service Teo Chee Hean.


It takes about 44 years for my parents collectively to earn what a minister earn in a year.
It takes about 88 years for my mother/dad to earn what a minister earn in a year.

It takes my parents collectively 88 years to earn what the Prime minister earns in a year.
It takes my mother/dad 176 years to earn what the Prime minister earns in a year.

I wonder how many years I have to work upon graduation if I benchmark my annual income with that of the top personnels serving in the Public Service?

Packing

I've got a splitting headache, I've no idea why I have such frequent headaches recently.

Thus, I've decided to pack my stuff instead of trying to make my head feel worse by cramming shitload of info into it.

One thing that still amazes me up till now is that, no matter how many 3 bins of junk I throw away/give away every few months, I still do not see my stuff decreasing when I don't buy anything.

But I did find 1 personal antique!
Brace yourself people......
.....
....
...
..
.

Presenting to you, my 1 and only ever console game.

The gameboy!!!!!

Still remember I was that cool kid in block with the Gameboy! Looking at it brings back nostalgic memories.
Haha... I think I'll just keep it so that I can show my kids what I play with when I was a little boy.

Fun fun fun...

I woke up feeling the sun's ray shining warmly on me.
With such a sunny weather it simply brightens up my day.

Happily I had my breakfast and got ready to meet Na to go to the beach!

As usual, we met at YCK mrt to take 76 all the way to East Coast Park. She lost her shades on the bus. But luckily it wasnt very expensive, but its alright, we can always buy another pair for her.

Had lunch at the "usual place" before we made our way to the beach. It was still bright and sunny while we were lunching. Upon our arrival, the sky became gloomy and gradually it started raining. So did my mood.

But at least we managed to take a pic of our footprints!

Big foot + Small foot = Happy Feet?

After that, we had a large Mochachino at Mc Cafe while I tried reading my Reason & Persuasion text while Na tried to do some cross stitching.

The sun never came back.



We made our way to the Cheesecake Cafe at 685 Siglap Road at about 5pm.

Just 1 word.
Mesmerising.

Part of the deco in the Cafe.

The ambience is very nice. Very romantic as well.
I dont usually enjoy cheese cakes alot, but the cheese cakes there are heavenly. We had a Peach Jelly Cheese cake and a Vanilla Chocolate Chip Cheese Cake.

Vanilla Chocolate Chip Cheese Cake.

After that, we made our way to Parkway Parade.
It has really been awhile since I've been there. If I remember correctly, the last time I've been there was when I was between 10 to 12? My uncle used to bring me there to play when I stayed over at his house at Pasir Ris then.

It has changed alot, very modern and it appears to have almost everything you need. Nice place to hang out in, think we've yet to finish exploring the place.

Ulcer behind my upper lip is disgustingly pain.
Something funny happened, I was eating a sour orange, so sour, that I swallowed the seed by mistake instead of the orange.

I foresee an orange tree growing out of my tummy!

Blame here blame there blame everywhere.

Fan trouble in European Champions League matches.

Italian politicians blames English.
- Blames Man Utd board for telling fans to avoid hot spots in Rome. (That apparently sparked off tensions. ) Seriously, I don't quite see a very OBVIOUS link.
- Englishmen drink too much. They get violent when they are drunk. (Who doesnt?)

English blames police.
-Italian police said to be too violent with dealing with English fans and still continued to club the fan even as he laid on the floor unconscious.

__________________________________________

For heaven's sake, this is a football match. A SPORT.

We are not in a fucking boxing game. Nor are we in Parliament.

Where the hell is sportmanship?

I've got the solutions to this problem.


1)
Impose laws to make all football matches played under close doors.
-Good mah, clubs cannot earn revenue from ticketing, then they wont be so rich, then reduce the disadvantages bet. top clubs and the bottem clubs.

2)
Since football violence usually occurs bet. English and Italian teams, ban both country's clubs from UEFA Champions League.
-Simple right?

3)
Make fans apply for License to go to stadiums,
They must be
- checked for mental problems,
- aggression/ violent behaviour
- have a demerit point system (once you commit an offence, you get demerit points and when all your points are deducted, you are banned from matches for 3 years, before can apply again.)
- prohibit fans from drinking, if you are a fan, don't drink.

4)
Ban alcohol.

Altruism?

Saw this link from Ed's blog.

http://theonlinecitizen.com/2007/04/05/be-mindful-of-the-affective-gap/

What Catherine Lim has written is exactly the feeling that I've been wanting to express.
I couldn't have said it better myself.

But there's one striking point that I have resigned to:
We Singaporeans are bred to be pragmatic, success-driven, and we desire material well-being in this meritocracy.

The higher up you are on this ladder of merit, the more you expect to get out of it.

What I see is that, altruism is hardly alive in contemporary Singapore.

Lets face it, we aint living in a utopia. Everyone here is pretty much pragmatic and individualistic.

Deadlines....

With the end of my Nation-building CA2, it marks the end of all my tests and deadlines to meet.

What lies ahead is the Exams and the R&R after it.

As of now, I've been exceptionally happy with my results so far in my term tests and papers. If this keeps up right to the exams, I'll be a very happy man. And it will mean I am 1 step closer to both my short and long term goals.


But the better I do now, the more pressure I have on myself in the final exams.

Recollections

All of a sudden, while I was on my way to school.

I just had this feeling.

I miss my Charlie Plt 9 boys.


Guokai
Kim Guo
Stephen
Kum Siong
Rizuan
Khaliff
Rashidi

Joshua
Naz
Mizan
Hairul
Sara
Jeffery
Panny

Thoman
Ghan
Kang wei
Kenneth
James
Fazli
Iman
Arjuna
Wen Guang

Zee Keong
Asri
William
Nicholas
Kelvin
Kenny
Chandru
Jeremy
Firdaus

Coercion? Or Threat?

Online Feedback Exercise.


Point Number 4.

Graduate students, Dentistry, Law and Medicine undergraduate students who do not participate in the feedback exercise will only be able to access their results via the internet five days after the release of the examination results.


Although it doesn't affect me, it doesn't seem very nice.

Slope.

Finally had the chance to see the evening sun.

Went for a run.

Just 1 comment, the slope outside St. Nicholas is pretty darn steep.

While forcing myself to overcome it, I cant help but recall, the slope outside Delta Wing.
S.Sgt Philip, LTA Tiger and Sam will make sure those who didnt get Gold, do their slope runs every morning. Haha.

And I've finished my Philosophy Paper! Boo Yeah