Happy Birthday to Brian

Happy 19th Birthday to you.
Sorry I didn't wish you on the day itself but as you could have guessed, I've been really busy.
All the best to you and to finding yourself a girlfriend soon!!!
Will meet up when I get back ok?
In the meantime, sorry if I don't have time to chat with you online...paiseh...

End of the Week

Oh yesssssss!!!!! I've finished and printed out my report! Now all I need to do it slot it into the submission box tomorrow and this report is over and done. I actually feel quite good about myself; despite the lack of sleep and stuff. Although I didn't put my nose to the grind and work every single minute I had, I still managed to complete this assignment early (ie. not last minute where I'm still rushing the report on the due day) and could wake up 1 hour early to eat breakfast and prepare lunch for the day. Not bad at all...I feel quite accomplished and satisfied with myself.

I need something to help me unwind after this busy week. Watching movies and shows just don't seem to do it for me anymore. I'm craving for games, games, games...my hands are itching and I can't stop thinking about them. Hahhaa...now I sound like an addict which is so wrong when I haven't touched any online games since I got here and these days I just play Bejewelled.

It's strange how the smallest things can lighten up your mood and put a smile on your face. I feel guilty yet happy at the same time because it's not supposed to be a good thing at all. In fact, I know they are actually suffering because of it.

I think I'll go and read my book now. It's late and I should get to sleep ASAP. Time to start catching up on all the hours I missed out on (even though I know that this doesn't compensate for the lost sleep at all).

Happy 21st Birthday

Hey Ming this post is totally dedicated to you!!

Happy 21st and I hope the guys don't treat you too badly...maybe you'll enjoy what they plan to do to you??

Anyway, I can't wait to get back and then we can play tennis and explore all the good food in S'pore together.

(Ming is the one who "inspired" me to start this blog and he's also my oldest, still-in-contact friend!!!)

Drowning

I'm drowning in my schoolwork. I have to be in the lab from 10 am to 5 pm from Tuesday to Friday and I have a report due on Friday. It's tough trying to find time to read all the journals when I am already mentally exhausted from the lab sessions. Seriously, this week is even busier than my usual timetable. So much for taking DNA & Protein Tech! I am looking forward to Saturday because it is an end to my hectic week and I would have submitted my report. Plus we (my housemates and I) are supposed to go to West End market which is somewhere I haven't been before.

I'm suffering from lack of sleep. I take 2-3 hour naps once I get back from the lab and then stay awake until 5-6 am doing my report before I try to sleep until 9 am. This is horrible and I'm always in a bad mood when I get down to the lab. I can actually feel my short-temperedness coming out and I get irritated by every small little thing. I try so hard to control myself from snapping at people in the morning, especially my housemates and my poor lab partner because I don't want to say anything I'll regret. Also, I know my annoyance is so ridiculous because the normal me would never be affected by those small little things...so this is what happens when people don't get enough sleep. No wonder there are so many grouchy and grumpy women in the workplace.

Seriously, I have high hopes for this report. I really did put in lots of effort for this, reading about 30 scientific journals and trying to figure out what the hell these researchers are talking about. It's no easy task and I hate looking at tables and graphs to interpretate the results, especially when they are explaining some process that I have no knowledge of. Damn I need to lower my expectations. It's always the most sucky feeling when you get a bad grade for something you worked your ass off for....I mean...look at the amount of sleep hours I sacrificed for this assignment - sleep happens to be one of the most important things in my life ok!!!

Time to Sleep Now...

It's currently 10.5 degrees but I don't feel as cold as I thought I would. I guess I'm getting used to the cold. Strange though, the weather should be getting warmer now that it's spring. I am thankful for the cold weather anyway. Now I can show off to my family and friends because I've got "free aircon" here while they're all sweating like mad back home. The weather has been very temperamental these days too. The afternoons are hot; the skies get grey and overcast in a matter of minutes; sudden heavy downpours which make me smile and snuggle deeper under my quilt; gusty winds which rock the trees outside my window and make me wonder if they will be uprooted. At least it's peaceful now but soon I'll be hearing the chirping of birds once the sun rises. Once again, I'm going to bed when the sun comes out. Stupid sleeping pattern and yet I find it so hard to change. Well, at least my report's almost done. I just need a few touch-ups later and then go down to the lab to finish up the gel electrophoresis before submission. I reckon I can get everything settled before lunch on Monday if I can wake up early. I was hoping I could go down to the city after submission. I've been wanting to cut my hair and Monday seems like a good day. I'll be busy doing practicals from Tuesday to Friday, 10 am to 5 pm next week. Yes...better finish this report quick. I have another one due on Friday.

The Road Not Taken

We often think back about the paths we took and the choices we made. This poem tells it all. I studied it during my secondary school days and it is one of the few poems I actually liked and remembered.

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,

And sorry I could not travel both

And be one traveler, long I stood

And looked down one as far as I could

To where it bent in the undergrowth;

Then took the other, as just as fair

And having perhaps the better claim,

Because it was grassy and wanted wear;

Though as for that, the passing there

Had worn them really about the same,

And both that morning equally lay

In leaves no step had trodden black

Oh, I kept the first for another day!

Yet knowing how way leads on to way,

I doubted if I should ever come back.

I shall be telling this with a sigh

Somewhere ages and ages hence:

two roads diverged in a wood, and I --

I took the one less traveled by,

And that has made all the difference.

By Robert Frost

Photos from the Chinatown Trip

The words say it all. I don't need to add in anymore explanations plus I'm lazy. Thanks to Mil for putting in the cute titles!

Brando

Ok I've got some pictures of my new dog. The name is Brando. Don't ask me how they named him, I think the previous owner gave him the name. I saw him quite some time ago. He was really friendly and inquisitive and he stepped on my foot!! Hahaha...lucky he wasn't that heavy then. The pictures aren't very good but I'll definitely get better ones when I go back...heh heh...

I got up nice and early just to watch the women's finals at the US Open. Kim Clijsters vs Mary Pierce. Kim is my favourite female tennis player so I was there to support her all the way. I was really glad she won and even thrashed Mary Pierce in straight sets. Woohoo...!!! This is great, especially after all Kim's injuries and stuff. It's her 1st Grand Slam title and hopefully, there'll be more. Tomorrow, Roger Federer vs Andre Agassi. My money's all on Federer...hahha...he's sure to win though I hope Agassi will give him a hard fight.

Work and Play

My reports are never-ending and I won't have peace until the semester ends. I have 3 reports due in a week and 2 are on the same day. How unfair is this? They really need to space out the deadlines. If I get another assignment on Monday, that will leave me with 4 reports due. I should really be panicking about my work but strangely, I'm not. It's frustruting that I want to sit down to down my work but I can't because I don't know how to and where to start. The marketing report is the worst. How can they expect me to do a marketing report when I have no knowledge of business and they only gave us 1 lecture on this? I wish I had someone to help me but it seems that either my business friends have not learnt about this or they have returned all the knowledge to their lecturers. So much for the stupid NS; it has brainwashed my friends and all they remember now are army stuff.

I should have stayed home like a good girl and worked on my reports all day but I went out. Yup, I already made a date a week ago to go to Chinatown with Mil and Steph. I don't regret going. We had so much fun. Of course, I kind of splurged a little today after not being able to buy nice things for myself for so long. We had lunch at a Korean place and the food was good. I couldn't finish my raw beef rice but the kimchi and Steph's pork was nice. Then we headed to Big W where I bought shampoo and conditioner (again!) and then bought a pair of sunglasses! Steph saw this shop which was having a sale. 2 pairs for $20 so we got 1 pair each. Well, Steph had lost her sunglasses recently so she wanted a new pair to replace the missing one and I decided to get 1 for myself. My 1st pair of sunglasses and they are BLUE!!!

We finally made our way to Chinatown and met Crystal who was going there too. Hmm...we bought our groceries at Yuen's, although it's very annoying that they don't have stock for so many things. It's irritating when you want to get something but it isn't there. They have not had the black pepper sauce for at least 2 months now and I was also looking for the canned pork ribs and almond jelly powder. Everything also don't have!!! At least I bought lots of meat to stock up for the coming month. Then Steph brought us to this mall where they sold cheap fruits and veggies. I always passed by that place but never bothered to explore the inside. If not for wanting to come back early and carrying so many heavy things, I might have wanted to shop around a little more. Anyway I bought the wall hooks for my room (to hang my keys just beside the door so that I won't forget to bring them out anymore) and Steph bought a pretty pink and purple box for *ahem*.

We caught the bus back to the city and decided to stop by the Taiwan food shop for some bubble tea. Mil and Steph hadn't been there so I brought them down the ulu alley and we enjoyed our bubble tea. It was a little pricey but the pearls were nice and we sat there chewing like cows and chatting.

Once we were back home, we stored away our food and Mil came up to give Steph a neck and shoulder massage. We ended up sitting in the living room and chatting for like 2 hours. Hahaha...it's nice to find friends where you can talk about everything. We don't have to hide anything and the conversation is extremely varied. Digression is the factor for our long chats. It's also nice to hear different opinions and interesting stories about each other. At least I know that there are others who do stupid things as well and have weird parents (weird to us, that is).

It's time to get back to my work but I wanna catch the finals of the US Open later at 2 am. I haven't been keeping track of this championship. I wonder who made it to the finals...guess I'll know in a few more minutes.

My new sunglasses!!!

Blue blue blue

The Last Vampire

Christopher Pike

I loved the series back in secondary school. I have all 6 books at home, that is, as long as my mum didn't do anything to them while I'm here. I hope not...I will still want to read them again when I get back. I remember one part where Sita (the main character) was being told a story (or was it a dream?). There was a queen who had a dream one night. She could not figure out what the dream was trying to tell her so she decided to send for a woman who was known to be "unique". I think she could forsee the future and made a prophecy or something. This woman came to the queen's court and listened to the queen described the dream. In her dream, the queen was standing on a hill when a man came up to her and pointed, with the index finger. OK so this is the summarized version because I cannot fully remember all the details. Anyway, the woman thought for a while and she explained what she understood from the dream. By pointing with your index finger, as queen, you were "judging" a person. But at the same time, you would have the other 4 fingers pointing back at yourself. Hence, the man in the dream was telling the queen to be a good ruler and to judge herself before she judged others. Interesting isn't it? I'd never thought of this before I read the book.

The series also talks about God. It says that there is only 1 God and the God in every religion is actually the same. From Jesus to Vishnu. Interesting point of view. I've never believed in God but I think if I did, I would agree with the book. It just seems strange to have a different God for every single religion or belief. Just look at the Chinese gods we have. Already there are a number of different ones, from the Goddess of Mercy to Tua Pek Gong. It makes sense that there is only 1 God who exists and is worshipped in different forms. Of course, I'm sure many people will not agree. Too bad...it's not like you have to take my point of view anyway...heh heh...We each have our own faith and beliefs; I respect that.

Paintball

Paintballing with the Singapore Society was...interesting. I suppose I would have had much more fun if I had gone with my own group of friends but since the society was providing transport and more ammo than if you went on your own, we signed up. It was a really last minute decision and we were to lucky to even get places. About 40 odd people went and it was a typical Singaporean group. Unfortunately the organizational skills of the committee were very lacking. The bus was late for an hour and we were left waiting in the sun (nowhere to sit), half-asleep and baking. The president didn't have the bus driver's number and hence was unable to contact him. They called the group together and announced that they would hire maxi-cabs to cart us off to the place. Hello, cabs are damn expensive here and the place was pretty far; I think it was about 45 minutes drive from the school. 1 maxi-cab could only take about 8 people so they would need like 9 cabs. This could come up to a few hundred dollars worth of cab fee and they even had to ask the group if they could borrow some spare cash after collect $35 from each participant, saying that they would definitely reimburse us. Come on, how does it look for the president to be begging for money from the people?? They could have just gone to the ATM or something and use THEIR OWN MONEY!!! Things like money problems shouldn't be revealed to the members; it reflects badly on you.

Fortunately the bus came but it meant that we were late for the paintballing. I think we were booked for the 9 am-12 pm spot but we only arrived at 9.15 am or so. Plus, the bus driver had stopped us outside the place (it's super ulu and looks like a forest) and we had to walk in and it took us about another 15 mins because it was really far in and the slopes leading in were just killer 70 degrees hills!

We had to queue up to get our attire and number tags. We were already late so the "president" was like rushing us to put on the gear quickly and she didn't put it in a nice way. She was like, "Come on guys, hurry up and listen to the guide. We're already late". Yah, as if I didn't know we were late and as if it was our fault that the bus driver didn't come on time and we couldn't contact the bus driver and also, we had to climb the stupid hills coming into the place. I was really annoyed with her lousy attitude and I never really liked her anyway. This event really showed her true colours.

Going into the terrain, the guide/referee talked really fast and I could hardly catch her explanation of the rules in the game. Apparently, different terrains had different objectives and rules. Oh well, I was there just to shoot people so I didn't really care. The gun was awkward and heavy. It didn't always fire in a straight line so aiming was hard. The terrain was hilly and running up the slopes with my short legs was really challenging. At least I had some fun shooting and yes, I did hit some people. Got hit quite a lot too and it was quite shocking to realise how painful getting hit can be. You get a bruise almost immediately and I had 2 very ugly bruises on my arms.

Running, crouching, crawling, hiding, shouting, surrendering....all part of the game.

Once we put on the helmets, we were all alike except for our shoes and number tags. It was almost impossible to recognise the person beside you. We could only tell who were in the same team by the helmets (ribboned or not). Most of the time I didn't know who I was talking to and I had to keep asking, "Ni shi shuai??". My friend was the best. He told me he had spent quite a lot of time talking to this girl next to him thinking she was me when it was someone else all along.

The referee stopped our games promptly at 12 pm. We had to leave the terrain even though most of us still had plenty of ammo left. We changed, got our valuables back from the office, drank and snacked. I thought we could go home soon because I was exhausted from all the running and sweating and I had slept late because I had been reading Harry Potter. Well, well, well, the bus only came at 1 pm, which meant that we had to sit there, rotting and stinking, not to mention, enduring the second-hand smoke coming from all the chimneys there. I was actually quite surprised to find so many guys smoke. Worst of all, we had no proper food and watching the ang mohs enjoying their pizza was just...horrible. It was obvious that our group had not planned for this event properly. I still don't understand why they had to ask the bus to come at 1 pm when they should have known we would end by 12 pm. At least the bus drove in to pick us up but when it reached the 70 degrees hill, the bus could not drive up and we all had to alight and walk to the top of the hill. Good experience or not? You tell me.....

I can't stand the president even more after this event...

The dryer ate my $2 and David was sooooo unhelpful about it, which makes me even more pissed. I shall refrain from talking to David as much as possible. I'd rather call Marie or Judy instead. At least they are nice and friendly.

The 5 Senses - Continuation

Ronan Keating

1. Last Goodbye
2. I Hope You Dance
3. If Tomorrow Never Comes
4. The Way You Make Me Feel
5. Last Thing On My Mind (with Leanne Rimes)

Ok I used to like Boyzone but when they split up and Ronan Keating went solo, I wasn't too impressed. I mean, he was singing pop songs like Lovin' Each Day and Life is a Rollarcoaster. I think these songs were so not his type. I preferred it when he sung ballads and his voice was more suited to these instead of those hip pop songs. So, when I saw his concert on AXN 1 night, I was totally surprised. He had new songs!! And they were ballads!!! I remember the 1st song I heard him sing was Last Goodbye and immediately, I was in love with him again. Haha, I went and downloaded his latest songs straight away and have never stopped liking them. Sigh...I remember those days when I would put Last Goodbye on repeat and just listen while I was playing my computer game. There's just something magical and romantic about his voice....hee hee hee.....If you haven't heard any of these songs, please please please go and check them out!!! You can ask me for the songs if you want; I'll send them to you....hahhaahha....promoting him right now....

Gaming for Dummies

Check out this site if you are a gaming moron...it's also just for laughs...haha...


http://www.gamespy.com/articles/633/633817p1.html

Thanks to Brian for the site.