i love the mountains, i love the clear blue sky, i love the oceans, i love when planes fly by!!

If

2010-03-09T09:09:00.000-08:00

If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you;
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
But make allowance for their doubting too;
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or, being lied about, don't deal in lies,
Or, being hated, don't give way to hating,
And yet don't look too good, nor talk too wise;

If you can dream - and not make dreams your master;
If you can think - and not make thoughts your aim;
If you can meet with triumph and disaster
And treat those two imposters just the same;
If you can bear to hear the truth you've spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to broken,
And stoop and build 'em up with wornout tools;

If you can make one heap of all your winnings
And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings
And never breath a word about your loss;
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
Except the Will which says to them: "Hold on";

If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
Or walk with kings - nor lose the common touch;
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you;
If all men count with you, but none too much;
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds' worth of distance run -
Yours is the Earth and everything that's in it,
And - which is more - you'll be a Man my son!

Rudyard Kipling

Think Before I Speak

2010-03-04T10:02:00.000-08:00

I said something mean today.

*Inhale, Exhale*

I guess i don't want to talk about it afterall. I'm too ashamed to.

If you can think of someone you wouldn't want to hear you say what you're about to say, you probably shouldn't say it. - A wise and enlightened person

T: Is it true?
H: Does it help?
I: Is it inspiring?
N: Is it necessary?
K: Is it kind? - http://blogs.rediff.com/lovelyviews/2009/01/09/think-before-you-speak/

莫名其妙

2010-02-19T08:50:00.000-08:00

I don't know why, but i've been feeling very happy lately. As in, i've always been a very happy and optimistic person, but this is different. The usual happy's a "everything's gonna be okay! (:" and "*singing* life is beautiful, life is beautiful to me!" kind of happy. It's just something that exists deep within me and i don't show it in any way. Lately though, i've been experiencing a happiness that bubbles up from the depths of my being. It makes me want to laugh and dance and break into song. Haha. SEE?!! I wonder if fyp (or the lack of it) is driving me nuts. Limi and august met cat cat today. Limi was told to rewrite a huge chunk of his report. I'm meeting her on monday. *Crossing my fingers* Oh well, we'll see. (:

Happy New Year!!!

2010-02-14T05:10:00.000-08:00

RROOOOOOOOAAAARRR!!!

Haha it's the year of the tiger this year, my year!!! And i'm very excited about it!!! (: I know this means that i'm 24 and that i 犯太岁, so must 处处小心, but heyyy this only happens once every 12 years, so let's just enjoy ourselves and have a good year okay? (:

And because it's also valentine's day today,

十年生死两茫茫，不思量，自难忘。
千里孤坟，无处话凄凉。
纵使相逢应不识，尘满面，鬓如霜。
夜来幽梦忽还乡，小轩窗，正梳妆。
相顾无言，惟有泪千行。
料得年年肠断处，明月夜，短松冈。

苏东坡的江城子。I like. (: Happy Valentine's Day everybody! (:

一人で

2010-02-12T01:45:00.000-08:00

でも寂しくないよ! (:

Papa, Mummy, Dua Yi, Kor and Chang have just left for Australia. Their plane should be taking off right about now. Bye bye! *Waving* (:

Yupp, i'm home alone this CNY. And nope, i'm not upset about it. (: I'm okay with being alone. In fact, i like being alone. Not all the time of course, but i feel time alone with myself is important because it gives me space to think, to reflect and to put things in perspective. (:

よし! I'm going off now, to do FYP. %$#*&%^$&*!!! Chang, don't forget to supervise Mummy when she's packing to come home. If there's not enough space in the luggage, dump the sea salt and BRING HOME THE WINE!!! Remember, THE WINE, NOT the sea salt. Got it?

じゃ、気をつけて、楽しんできてね! また来週! (:

《青玉案.元夕》

2010-02-10T10:01:00.000-08:00

辛弃疾

东风夜放花千树，
更吹落，星如雨。
宝马雕车香满路。
凤箫声动，玉壶光转，
一夜鱼龙舞。

蛾儿雪柳黄金缕，
笑语盈盈暗香去。
众里寻他千百度，
蓦然回首，那人却在，
灯火阑珊处。

Once, a girl guide went to camp...

2010-02-09T08:10:00.000-08:00

Recently, i've had various little friends coming over to visit me. First, the baby lizard that ran on my bed AND bolster (ROOOAAAARRR!!!). Then, perhaps due to the awesome weather, little flying creatures. And last night, a huge wasp that flew into my fan. ):

They remind me of a song we used to sing in Guides. (: It goes like this...

Once, a girl guide went to camp, went to camp,
Went to bed without her lamp, without her lamp,
Then she saw a spider on her bed,
This is what the girl guide said, girl guide said,
"Spider, spider, go away, go away,
You must never never stay, never stay,
Remember what our guider said,
No two persons in one bed, in one bed.".

Once a girl guide went to camp, went to camp,
Went to bed without her lamp, without her lamp,
Then she saw a cockroach on her bed,
This is what the girl guide said, girl guide said,
"Cockroach, cockroach, go away, go away,
You must never never stay, never stay,
Remember what our guider said,
No two persons in one bed, in one bed.".

Once a girl guide went to camp, went to camp,
Went to bed without her lamp, without her lamp,
Then she saw a BOY SCOUT on her bed,
This is what the girl guide said, girl guide said,
"Boy scout, boy scout, YOU MUST STAY, you must stay,
NEVER NEVER GO AWAY, go away,
Remember what our guider said,
SQUEEZE TWO PERSONS IN ONE BED, in one bed.". (:

LOL. (:

The Trouble With Bangs

2010-02-07T06:48:00.000-08:00

The trouble with having bangs is that...

1) You've got to comb your hair. And i haven't combed my hair since primary 6. I've started combing it again though. I think i deserve an A+ for effort.

2) You've got to blow your hair. For someone who doesn't even comb her hair, this is a foreign concept. *Shaking my head*

3) If the wind speed and direction are not right, you'll get centre-parted bangs. *Wolf-whistling* Pretty pretty!!

This has got to be my most controversial haircut ever. Most girls tell me that my bangs are very 成功 and that i should keep this hairstyle because it suits me. Most guys however, think that i look really funny. Comments include, "What were you thinking?!!", "It was an accident. Right?" and "HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!". Even Tan Shi Wei, who's currently botak and therefore has the least rights to comment about other people's hairstyles had lots to say about mine. I like my bangs though! (:

大好きだ！

2010-02-04T07:13:00.000-08:00

昨夜、私は楽しい夢を見た。夢の中にパパは私に「ジアインちゃん、どうして最近カヤキングに行かないの？」と聞いた。「ママは私がカヤキングに行くのは嫌いだから。」私が答えた。「そんな事ないよ！好きだったら、行ってもいいよ！」ママは言った。私は夢中で喜んでいた。(:

でも、それは夢だった。夢だけだった。じつはママも医者も「肌を太陽にさらしてはいけないで。」や「カヤキングを止めて。」と言った。私もきれいな肌がほしいだ。私もきれいになりたいよ。でも、アウトドアスポーツが大好きだ。海が大好きだ。カヤキングが一番好きだ。だから、止めたくない。止めたくないよ！

我慢します！

2010-01-29T09:38:00.000-08:00

最近、医者へ行きました。面皰を治すことがほしいですから。今、薬を使って顔が痛いです。 ): でも、面皰を治すために私は我慢します。はい、頑張って！できますよ！

Kids rock!

2010-01-27T08:21:00.000-08:00

2010-01-25T20:47:00.000-08:00

Watching Lang Lang play makes me happy because he looks like he's thoroughly enjoying himself and having so much fun... (:

To see the world...

2010-01-24T08:11:00.000-08:00

To see a world in a grain of sand,
And a heaven in a wild flower,
Hold infinity in the palm of your hand,
And eternity in an hour.

Of Proposals and HDB Flats

2010-01-23T04:03:00.000-08:00

I've reached that stage of life where my friends are getting proposed to and buying HDB flats with their boyfriends. I know i shouldn't be too surprised because we're afterall almost a quarter of a century old. Young, i mean. And getting married is a natural progression from falling in love, for most. But i can't help but be bewildered whenever i find out that another one of my friends has made the biggest commitment of her life. My eyes widen of their own accord. To me, these people do not belong in the world of HDB flats. They belong in the world of kayaking and trekking trips, of lazy afternoons in school. The only times HDB flats popped up in our conversations then were when we had to pack bottles of water into our bags and run up and down the stairs in the nearby %^#&$^$*&$#ly tall AMK flats in preparation for trekking trips. Can somebody tell me, when and how did we arrive here?? *Eyes widening of their own accord again*

Bewilderment aside, i'm very happy and excited for the girls. (: Aivy, ah soh, grong, jing, pei shan... (: A couple of years ago, i dreamt about jing's wedding. Jug and i had a huge argument right before the wedding dinner because i had wanted to wear shorts and jug insisted that i had to wear a dress. I told her that jing wouldn't care what i wore as long as i was there, but jug blocked the door and refused to let me out of the hotel room. Haha but that was just a dream. In real life, i know that it's inappropriate to wear shorts to a wedding unless the theme states otherwise. So don't worry, i promise to be dressed appropriately for your weddings! (:

Looking forward, babes! (:

子曰：

2010-01-20T06:56:00.000-08:00

不患人之不己知，患不知人也。

Smile, JY...

2009-12-29T08:14:00.000-08:00

I think i won't be getting a 2nd upper class honours degree.. 'I think' because i refuse to calculate whether it's still mathematically possible for me to make that last .2 points leap.. I don't want to know whether it's possible or not because if i find out that it's not possible, i might slack off.. And i don't want to slack off.. I want to continue trying.. Even if it's not possible..

It's Christmas!

2009-12-25T07:12:00.000-08:00

Thank you for lighting up my life! (: Merry christmas! (:

一人做事一人当

2009-12-18T00:18:00.001-08:00

Heard something really funny today...

一人做事一人当。
小叮做事小叮当！

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!

良く分かりました。

2009-12-15T06:33:00.000-08:00

今年、私は二十三歳です。大学の四年生です。来年の七月に大学を卒業します。大人になりました。今まで、家族はいつも私を支持します。ですから、わがままな私は自由な人生を生きられます。自由に夢を追うことができます。高校を卒業するとき、'A' Levels 試験でよくない成績を取ったので、心理学を勉強することができませんでした。大学は「土木工学を勉強しなさい」と言いました。でも、私は大学の申し出を断りました。どうしても心理学者にならなければなりませんから、'A' Levels 試験を復受けました。両親は私がしからずに、私の学費を払って、「頑張りなさい！」と言いました。私は今もしたいことをして、したくないことをしません。でも最近、いろいろなことをちゃんと考えました。両親は稼ぐことが大変です。私は毎日遊んで、ぜんぜん頑張りません。「私は何をしていますか？」と思いました。両親は年を取っているから、一所懸命働くのをやめ、人生を楽しみは始める時期です。今は私が頑張る番です。ですから、これから、一所懸命頑張る人生を生きたいです。他人のことをもっと思いやり人生を生きたいです。

Glory Glory Man United!!!

2009-12-13T01:35:00.000-08:00

I. WANT. TO. GO. TO. OLD. TRAFFORD. TO. WATCH. MAN. U. PLAY!!!

パン屋

2009-12-09T04:51:00.000-08:00

I love walking into bakeries... The smell of freshly baked bread makes me happy... (:

Hello, hello where are you?

2009-12-08T05:33:00.000-08:00

I packed my room!!! (: Mummy's very happy about it. She walked in after i was done and said, "I'm so impressed!!!". I've come to the realisation though, that 人是永远不会知足的。Cos after she said that she was very happy with the state of my room, she walked over to the piano and said, "You didn't clean your piano right? Clean it later huh... It's very important to keep the piano clean and free of dust you know...". -.-

Ma thinks that i'm always misplacing my things because my room's so messy. I think that regardless of whether my room's neat or messy, i'd still not be able to find my things. For example, my ezlink card's always in the front pocket of my bag, but once, just as i was about to go out, i realised that i didn't know where my ezlink card was. I was in a hurry, so i asked Chang to search for it with me. We looked high and low and ransacked my room and my bag several times but still couldn't find it. Suddenly, whilst checking to see if the card had slipped in between the sofa cushions, Chang asked me, "Jie, what's that you're holding in your hand?". EHHHHH!!! MAGIC!!! It was my ezlink card lehz!!! I was holding my ezlink card the whole time we were looking for it!!!

And another time, after buying some art and craft stuff from a shop in Ang Mo Kio, i received a call from Simin. So i was talking to her on my handphone and checking to see if i'd left anything behind when i went into panic mode and said, "Oh no, i think i left my phone in the shop!!! I'll talk to you when i get back to hall okay?? I need to go back to the shop to look for my phone!!!". And Simin got really puzzled and asked, "But JY, if your phone's in the shop, how're you talking to me?". And i was like, "Ehhh, yahz horhz...".

Mama used to wonder why i'm so forgetful, "Aiyohz, li si tao seh nang lehz, zou ni oi ah neh bo tao nao?". Huh Mama, wa ma si mng zai lehz. Some time ago, i thought of a way to counter my scatterbrain. Because my handphone, wallet and water bottle are the most used items in my bag, i'll check to see that there're there before i leave a certain place. Soon however, i discovered a loophole in this system. I forget to check.

Sometimes, i really wish that i can call my things. Or use Harry Potter's accio spell to summon them. Like when i can't find my handphone, i can use somebody else's phone to call myself and my phone would ring and i'd know where it is. How convenient is it to be able to call your keys or ezlink card and find out where they are instead of having to look for them??

Damned Scared

2009-11-30T21:47:00.001-08:00

It's less than 24 hours to my Trauma Psych paper and i'm damned scared. *hyperventilating* ROOOAAARRR!!!

*standing in boxing stance and jumping around the room*

*pushing the side of my nose twice, with my thumb*

*运ing all the 气 from the depths of my being and singing* 三分天注定咚咚七分靠打拼咚咚爱拼才会赢 HAAAAAA!!!

Yaaaayyy!!! (:

好感动

2009-11-28T08:43:00.000-08:00

THANK YOU!!!

2009-11-22T04:52:00.000-08:00

Daddy, Mummy, for all the things that i've not said thank you for, THANK YOU!!!

THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU!!!

So do i get to inherit the family heirlooms now?

Haha kidding larhz. Chang was asking Mummy about her jade bangle during dinner just now and Mummy said that it was a gift from Ah Ma. Then Chang said that he remembered that Mummy had another jade bangle that she used to wear and Mummy said that she broke that one. So Chang asked, "Huh? Then what if you break this one?" and Mummy said, "Break this one also never mind what" and i said, "What never mind?!! You're going to give this to me some day right?!! If you break it, then how are you going to give it to me?!!". And Chang said (!!!), "No, that's going to my future wife". WHAT?!! His rationale is that since it was given to Mummy by Ah Ma and Ah Ma's Mummy's mother-in-law, therefore Mummy should give it to her daughter-in-law and not her daughter. Then Chang asked Daddy, "What did Ah Gong and Ah Ma give you when you got married?" and Daddy said, "Love". And i said, "So Chang's wife gets the jade bangle and i get love?!!" and Chang snorted with laughter.

Fast forward to the end of dinner. I said, "THANK YOU MUMMY!!!" cos Mummy was complaining that we never thank her and Chang said, "You thank Mummy, but my wife's still getting the bangle and you're still getting love". -.-

CHUA SAI!!!

2009-10-21T20:52:00.000-07:00

Is this picture for real?? If i were the bloke in the kayak, i'd be scared shitless larhz!!! About a month ago, whilst on a round-Coney kayaking trip, i felt something knock the hull of my kayak twice when we were resting at Pasir Ris. The first 'gong', i thought, "What's that? Aiyahz nothing larhz, must have been me shifting around too much in my kayak". The second 'gong', i was peering into the water to check out what hit my kayak when "SALT WATER CROCODILES HAVE BEEN SIGHTED IN PASIR RIS" leaped into my mind. I paddled far far away from that spot as quickly as my short arms could manage.

Call me hum ji, but sharks and crocodiles are no joke okay. If that shark up there were to swipe the kayak with its great big tail, the kayak would most likely capsize. And that's why it's important to know how to roll. But then again, shark attacks are few and far between and rarely unprovoked. Humans are usually not on sharks' menus because we're not fatty enough for their liking. If they do attack, it's because they're curious about the odd figure that's encroaching on their territory or because they think that the human in question looks like one of their usual preys (seals, for example). *Snort* Good excuse to attack somebody, if you ask me. Oh, i didn't know, i thought it was a seal! *Innocent, angelic look*

Crocodiles on the other hand, are a different matter altogether. They don't even pretend that that it was a case of mistaken identity. Crocodiles will bo dai bo ji come and attack you! And they're not like sharks, they don't take a bite out of their victim and wait for their victim to expire before returning to feed. Crocodiles drag you into the water and thrash you around and before you know it, you're gone. I know, some people may say, “长痛不如短痛”, but in the case of a shark attack, at least there is a possibility of getting help whilst the shark is waiting for you to die.

So anyway, (: I'm so bad at ending stuff! I never know how to do it properly. Essays, conversations, emails... Haha okay, bye bye. If i don't get back to my trauma psych notes now, i'll die in 2 weeks' time.

2009-10-21T06:54:00.000-07:00

Would I? I'm not sure...

Goldin Universe

2009-10-07T06:55:00.000-07:00

It's been a long time since i last did a personality assessment. I stopped because i realized that the 'OH MY GOODNESS THIS REALLY DESCRIBES ME!!!' feeling i got was a result of profiles that were so general that they could have been describing anybody. However, out of curiosity because Annabel and Shikz tried it and said that it's really accurate, i did one just now. (:

And this is what it says about me:

You are always alert and keenly observant. You are not truly satisfied with your everyday status and you are seeking fresh avenues which can give you the opportunity to prove your worth. You feel that there are still many barriers that stand between you and recognition - but one by one you will overcome them. Your tenacity is your one good point - like an English Bulldog, once you take the bite, you will seldom let go.

Always anxious to accept the role of the leader, as indeed you often work well with people - but try to stay out of the limelight. You'd like a life of ease with no one to rock the boat and someone who understands you is so important in your life.

There are times of everyone's life when 'compromise' is the name of the game and this is the time, so you have no alternative but to forgo some pleasures for the time being. You are capable of achieving satisfaction through physical activity.

You are frustrated and stressed. You appreciate the finer things in life but at all times you appear to stay aloof, critical of everything and everyone about you. You will not be carried away by your emotions and you refuse to trust anyone or any situation unless genuineness and integrity can be absolutely vouched for. Therefore, you keep a strict and watchful control on your feelings as you must know exactly where you stand at all times. You demand complete sincerity as a protection against your own tendency to be too trusting.

Matters are not all that they would appear to be and you are critical of the existing conditions which you feel are confused and disorganised. You are therefore looking for a modus operendi which will simplify the situation so that you will be able to see the 'trees in the woods'.

I have doubts about the accuracy of this report although some parts of it are true because all i had to do was pick out colours in order of preference and how can anybody know who i am simply by looking at colours that i feel 'in harmony with' when i can't even say that i know myself entirely and i've been me for all my life!!

The human personality is complicated and cannot be unveiled by the simple act of choosing colours, RIGHT? Okay, apparently not. According to 'renowned psychologists' Dr. Max Luscher and Dr. Theo Gimbel, people invariably choose colors for their direct association with their current physical state and psychological needs.

HMMMM!! Very interesting. What do you think? True? Or just another general profile? This is the address by the way, if you want to try it yourself: www.goldinuniverse.com.

Good night, sweet dreams!! (:

永远这样会完蛋！

2009-10-04T08:30:00.001-07:00

抠牙齿书没背晚回家
人人多少都有些坏习惯
今天这样明天一样怎么办
我总不能永远这样会完蛋

下定决心把缺点打倒
不怕跌倒信心最重要
我们都是这样长大
稍息立正站好!

霹雳啪啦呼噜哗啦铅笔找不到
铿铿锵锵乒乒乓乓上课又迟到
呜吗吗呼呼哈哈做事不能一团糟
稍息立正站好

霹雳啪啦呼噜哗啦这次会更好
铿铿锵锵乒乒乓乓人小志气高
呜吗吗呼呼哈哈临时抱不到佛脚

Sounds exactly like me! I'm ashamed to say that i TOTALLY identify with this song.. ): 我真的总不能永远这样。林佳音，打起精神来，下定决心，把缺点打倒！不怕跌倒，人小志气高，这次会更好！

Looking for a path that leads to the rainbow...

2009-09-21T21:38:00.000-07:00

Caress on the ocean
Carrying the bird so light
That returns from snow covered lands
The passing breeze of winter
Your echo draws away into the distance
(There are) castles in Spain
(So) change course, turn around and spread your wings
Into the grey dawn of the rising sun
Find a path towards the rainbow
and spring will reveal itself

Caress on the ocean
Put down the bird so light
On the stone of the submerged island
The passing breeze of winter
At last your breath draws away
far into the mountains
Change course, turn around, unfurl your wings
Into the grey dawn of the rising sun
Find a path towards the rainbow
The spring will reveal itself
Peace on the ocean

I Should Be Studying

2009-04-16T05:23:00.000-07:00

Look at the picture labelled 'Parasites among RBC', people. Don't you think those curly things look like snakes?? And the red blood cells they're swimming in, don't you think they bear an uncanny resemblance to the yummy Hakka dish, 算盘子?? Snakes wriggling around in a plateful of 算盘子, YUUUUUUCCCCKKKSSS!!!

And this. Ferrero Rocher. Chocolate and peanut outer casing with a juicy slug wrapped around the delectable chocolate ball inside. Oh maaaannn, i'm never gonna look at 算盘子 and Ferrero Rocher in the same light again.

MY FIRST PAPER!!!

2009-04-09T09:28:00.000-07:00

I submitted my first full report today!!! Full because the reports we wrote prior to this were all group assignments. Individual assignments were mostly either literature reviews or only the discussion sections of the reports. Can you all see the ji cheem looking equation and the ji cool numbers and symbols in the brackets?!! It's stats!!! And i wrote it!!! OMG OMG *jumping around with excitement*!!! Okay actually, i cheated a bit. I replaced the figures and variables in the report we wrote for our stats course last year with the ones i generated this year and rephrased some stuff. And i asked limi a gazillion questions about which numbers from the spss tables go into which brackets. BUT STILL!!! I've never written a results section on my own before!!! And the title of my paper's "Assessing the Relationship Between Life Satisfaction and Self-Esteem of University Students in Singapore: An Exploratory Study". Like how cool does that sound larhz!!! Okay okay, i know it's super no life to be so excited about a piece of schoolwork, but i'm really super excited about this. The writing process was torturous but the sense of satisfaction i got when the report was finally completed was incredible. I know this sounds really lame, but when i held the report in my hands, it was like, this is the result of my effort!!! 8 hours of sleep in 3 days, the endless frustration over not being able to explain the relevance of the lit review to the present study, the despair i felt when i couldn't make sense of the stats and the nagging feeling of insecurity over whether the results were discussed adequately. OMC, si kuan, kin, sidney, tommy, song loo, roderick, jian long, thongs' roomie, erics chia and wee, liting, juay tee, willy, uncle teo, jiadi, dawn, bel, zhenhao, jiaying, jemmy, weijie, yinglan, sirong, huiping, ervin and i'm sorry if i've left anybody else's name out, you all contributed to this paper!!! Remember the longass questionnaire you all did?? Thank you so much for your help!!! =)

Trivial Stuff That Made Me Laugh Today

2009-04-05T07:11:00.001-07:00

Chang's still in Germany. I miss him larhz, that sor zai. You'll never know how entertaining somebody is until he goes away for a while. Anyway, i suddenly thought of some stuff today that made me laugh.

1) When i was first taught the pledge, the big, bombastic words like 'democracy' and 'prosperity' meant nothing to me. They were so hard to remember, but i had to memorize the pledge, so i started associating the big words with food items. I can't remember what food item went with what big word anymore, but i remember very clearly that lemon pie was somewhere in the pledge. And i loved saying that part of the pledge cos of the lemon pie. *Drools*

2) On the first day of primary school, Sr. Angela told us that there was a tuckshop in school that we could have our meals in. I heard 'tart shop' and i was super duper wuper happy and excited cos I love tarts. I thought that going to school was the best thing on earth cos then, i could eat tarts everyday!!! After the orientation programme, i made Mummy bring me to the 'tart shop'. Imagine my utter bewilderment when i saw so many shops, but none of which sold tarts. I asked Mummy where the 'tart shop' was and she said that the entire place was called a 'tuckshop'. So i asked her which shop, specifically, sold tarts and she she said that none did. So i questioned why it was called a 'tart shop' if it didn't sell tarts and Mummy said, "Oh, it's TUCKshop dear, not TART shop". My little primary one heart was so heavy with disappointment that it sank to the bottom of the sea.

3) Chang's england was ji powderful when he was young. In Teochew, 'egg' is 'neng2'. Once, Pa pointed at a picture of an egg and asked Chang what that was. Chang said, '"Neng3'" And another time, when we were playing Monopoly, Chang announced super proudly and confidently that he wanted to buy the title deed for Bondi (pronounced bond-eye) Road. We were playing Singapore Monopoly, not Australia Monopoly, so i was like, "Where got Bondi??!!". Chang was super indignant as he pointed to BRADDELL Road and said, "THERE!!! BONDI!!!" and i was like, "WHERE IS THE BOND?!! YOU TELL ME!!! WHICH PART OF B-R-A-D-D-E-L-L IS PRONOUNCED BOND??!!".

That's all!! (: Time to start working on my lab report again. *GROANS!!!* OH!!! AIR SUPPLY'S COMING!!! *BEAMS!!!* (:

2009-03-16T03:17:00.000-07:00

Saw this on Angela Jie Jie, Sharon Jie Jie and Jie Jie's blog... I thought it was very inspiring... =)

ROOOAAARRR!!!

2008-10-22T01:21:00.000-07:00

I failed my stats quiz. It's my first time failing a quiz in NTU. I've never felt so ashamed of an answer script in my life. It was pathetic and i'm very angry with myself. There should be no reason why i can't do stats. ROOOAAARRR!!! That's it. Enough is enough. I will stop complaining about how tough it is and how my brain was never made for stats in the first place. I chose to do this module knowing that it wasn't going to be easy. I chose to do it despite knowing that stats was never my forte. And i will take responsibility for my decision. The reason why i decided to do stats was because i felt that it would be useful for fyp and for graduate studies. And if i were to know nothing about stats at the end of this course, it'd be my fault for not having made more effort to understand it and to learn it well. And i'd also be a fool for having wasted 1 semester of my time and for not remembering the reason why i chose to do stats in the first place. I will not allow this to happen. Watch it, stats, i'm going to beat you.

The Serenity Prayer

2008-10-20T23:59:00.000-07:00

God, grant me the Serenity
To accept the things I cannot change,
Courage to change the things I can,
And the Wisdom to know the difference.

ﾊﾟﾊﾟ､ﾏﾏ､おば、お帰りなさい！

2008-10-19T19:30:00.000-07:00

Papa, Mummy and Dua Yi came home on Saturday. =) It was a big, mad, rush because my Japanese class ended at 2035 and their estimated time of arrival was 2103. So i rushed home after Jap, grabbed the car, and zoomed to the airport with Chang. We nearly ended up in Bedok though cos there's this portion of the road whereby you have to keep to the 1st and 2nd lanes in order to go to the airport and i didn't know about that. So i was happily driving in the 3rd lane when Chang asked if i should move into the 2nd lane cos it seemed like the 3rd lane was an exit lane. And i said, "Errrmmm i think this lane should be fine. They don't usually designate 2 lanes for exiting. The 2nd last lane usually has the option of exiting or... OH SHIT!!!" 'OH SHIT!!!' marks the time i saw 'BEDOK' printed on the ground. Fortunately, there was this huge vehicle travelling super slowly on the lane that i was supposed to be in. So i sped up and overtook him. Thank you, Mr Huge Vehicle Driver, for being there at that time. If it had been a line of fast moving cars, we'd most probably have ended up in Bedok.

Kor called when we were in the carpark. He asked us to hurry up cos they were collecting their luggages and nobody wanted to hold their 'WELCOME HOME!' board. There, that's the board at the bottom. You know, sometimes, at the airport, you'll see people holding pieces of paper with the visiting guests' names and flight numbers written on them? Yahz, same idea. I wanted to put their flight number on the board too, but they were flying SQ and i don't like to write 'S'. Everybody thinks that the board's very stupid larhz. Chang said, "Like as if they've been gone for a year or something". But i forced him to make the board with me anyway. =)

Papa, Mummy, Dua Yi, welcome home!! =)

The board's how cool can.

All of us minus Kor cos he was the photographer.

All of us plus Kor. Nope, Mummy's adopted son Joby didn't take the picture for us. Some kind soul standing near us did.

This marks the end of 2 weeks of accident-free driving. Yaaaayyy!!! =) I'd like to present the best passenger award to Chang. Thanks bro, for being my signboard reader and for remaining so calm, cool and collected throughout my kancheong episodes. It's very comforting to have a reassuring passenger, you know. When i thought that i'd exited wrongly, he said, "Nvm, it's okay, we can have lunch at yio chu kang instead and then find our way home". The perfect epitome of cool. =) Anyways, i'm really happy that Papa and Mummy are home. =)

Stats and Dreaming

2008-10-08T05:23:00.000-07:00

I nearly died of stress during stats tutorial today. Ringo was teaching us how to generate a graph for mean vocab size vs age by gender when my mind wandered for 2 seconds and during that brief moment, I got hopelessly lost in the world of SPSS. Apparently, we were supposed to click 'multiple' under 'line charts' in order to generate 2 lines, but because I was dreaming when Ringo mentioned that, I hurriedly clicked 'simple' when I returned to earth, thinking that the method used to generate the graph in the previous question could be applied to the current one as well. But I was wrong. So kind Zhan Zhi tried to get me back onto the right track quietly cos Ringo doesn't tolerate noise in his classes. I was hoping with all my might that I'd somehow miraculously click the right thing cos I couldn't quite understand what Zhan Zhi was discreetly pointing at and whispering about. But before I could figure it out, Ringo realized that there was a lost sheep in his class and walked towards me. I nearly died of fright. Then he stood behind me and started to instruct me about how to generate those 2 lines. Rumour has it that Ringo hacked into his own SPSS and changed certain specifications to suit his purposes. He's brilliant. We call him the stats god. During the break before stats, Vanessa was just telling us about how our seniors didn't dare to ask Ringo questions more than once cos he doesn't like to repeat himself. With that in mind, I was so stressed out that I could really empathize with the rats in the sleep deprivation study. In that experiment, rats were placed in a device that would dump them into the water if they fell asleep. The researchers were trying to study the effects of sleep deprivation. Results showed that the rats who were sleep deprived lost alot of weight and died much earlier than the rats who could sleep in peace. The researchers claimed to have taken measures to control for the effects of stress, but I personally believe that stress played a huge role in the rats' death. Can you imagine the psychological turmoil associated with having to worry about being ponded every time you fall asleep? And then!! Towards the end of the lesson, when I was trying to generate a graph using excel, he came and stood behind me and told me what to click again!! I wasn't dreaming this time, I promise!! Zhan Zhi said, "Wahz, the stats god personally tutored you twice lehz!!" Dude, you know how stressful it was?!! So anyway, I've concluded that it's a fatal mistake to dream during stats. My bad. =( I'll not dream in stats class next time.

2008-10-06T05:44:00.000-07:00

Something I found very meaninful. =)

Adrian Tan is a litigation lawyer at one of Singapore’s top law firms. This is his speech at NTU’s convocation ceremony this year.

Life and How to Survive It

I must say thank you to the faculty and staff of the Wee Kim Wee School of Communication and Information for inviting me to give your convocation address. It’s a wonderful honour and a privilege for me to speak here for ten minutes without fear of contradiction, defamation or retaliation. I say this as a Singaporean and more so as a husband.

My wife is a wonderful person and perfect in every way except one. She is the editor of a magazine. She corrects people for a living. She has honed her expert skills over a quarter of a century, mostly by practising at home during conversations between her and me.

On the other hand, I am a litigator. Essentially, I spend my day telling people how wrong they are. I make my living being disagreeable.

Nevertheless, there is perfect harmony in our matrimonial home. That is because when an editor and a litigator have an argument, the one who triumphs is always the wife.

And so I want to start by giving one piece of advice to the men: when you’ve already won her heart, you don’t need to win every argument.

Marriage is considered one milestone of life. Some of you may already be married. Some of you may never be married. Some of you will be married. Some of you will enjoy the experience so much, you will be married many, many times. Good for you.

The next big milestone in your life is today: your graduation. The end of education. You’re done learning.

You’ve probably been told the big lie that ‘Learning is a lifelong process’ and that therefore you will continue studying and taking masters’ degrees and doctorates and professorships and so on. You know the sort of people who tell you that? Teachers. Don’t you think there is some measure of conflict of interest? They are in the business of learning, after all. Where would they be without you? They need you to be repeat customers.

The good news is that they’re wrong.

The bad news is that you don’t need further education because your entire life is over. It is gone. That may come as a shock to some of you. You’re in your teens or early twenties. People may tell you that you will live to be 70, 80, 90 years old. That is your life expectancy.

I love that term: life expectancy. We all understand the term to mean the average life span of a group of people. But I’m here to talk about a bigger idea, which is what you expect from your life.

You may be very happy to know that Singapore is currently ranked as the country with the third highest life expectancy. We are behind Andorra and Japan, and tied with San Marino. It seems quite clear why people in those countries, and ours, live so long. We share one thing in common: our football teams are all hopeless. There’s very little danger of any of our citizens having their pulses raised by watching us play in the World Cup. Spectators are more likely to be lulled into a gentle and restful nap.

Singaporeans have a life expectancy of 81.8 years. Singapore men live to an average of 79.21 years, while Singapore women live more than five years longer, probably to take into account the additional time they need to spend in the bathroom.

So here you are, in your twenties, thinking that you’ll have another 40 years to go. Four decades in which to live long and prosper.

Bad news. Read the papers. There are people dropping dead when they’re 50, 40, 30 years old. Or quite possibly just after finishing their convocation. They would be very disappointed that they didn’t meet their life expectancy.

I’m here to tell you this. Forget about your life expectancy.

After all, it’s calculated based on an average. And you never, ever want to expect being average.

Revisit those expectations. You might be looking forward to working, falling in love, marrying, raising a family. You are told that, as graduates, you should expect to find a job paying so much, where your hours are so much, where your responsibilities are so much.

That is what is expected of you. And if you live up to it, it will be an awful waste.

If you expect that, you will be limiting yourself. You will be living your life according to boundaries set by average people. I have nothing against average people. But no one should aspire to be them. And you don’t need years of education by the best minds in Singapore to prepare you to be average.

What you should prepare for is mess. Life's a mess. You are not entitled to expect anything from it. Life is not fair. Everything does not balance out in the end. Life happens, and you have no control over it. Good and bad things happen to you day by day, hour by hour, moment by moment. Your degree is a poor armour against fate.

Don’t expect anything. Erase all life expectancies. Just live. Your life is over as of today. At this point in time, you have grown as tall as you will ever be, you are physically the fittest you will ever be in your entire life and you are probably looking the best that you will ever look. This is as good as it gets. It is all downhill from here. Or up. No one knows.

What does this mean for you? It is good that your life is over.

Since your life is over, you are free. Let me tell you the many wonderful things that you can do when you are free.

The most important is this: do not work.

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

Work kills. The Japanese have a term ‘Karoshi’, which means death from overwork. That’s the most dramatic form of how work can kill. But it can also kill you in more subtle ways. If you work, then day by day, bit by bit, your soul is chipped away, disintegrating until there’s nothing left. A rock has been ground into sand and dust.

There’s a common misconception that work is necessary. You will meet people working at miserable jobs. They tell you they are ‘making a living’. No, they’re not. They’re dying, frittering away their fast-extinguishing lives doing things which are, at best, meaningless and, at worst, harmful.

People will tell you that work ennobles you, that work lends you a certain dignity. Work makes you free. The slogan ‘Arbeit macht frei’ was placed at the entrances to a number of Nazi concentration camps. Utter nonsense.

Do not waste the vast majority of your life doing something you hate so that you can spend the small remainder sliver of your life in modest comfort. You may never reach that end anyway.

Resist the temptation to get a job. Instead, play. Find something you enjoy doing. Do it. Over and over again. You will become good at it for two reasons: you like it, and you do it often. Soon, that will have value in itself.

I like arguing, and I love language. So, I became a litigator. I enjoy it and I would do it for free. If I didn’t do that, I would’ve been in some other type of work that still involved writing fiction – probably a sports journalist.

So what should you do? You will find your own niche. I don’t imagine you will need to look very hard. By this time in your life, you will have a very good idea of what you will want to do. In fact, I’ll go further and say the ideal situation would be that you will not be able to stop yourself pursuing your passions. By this time you should know what your obsessions are. If you enjoy showing off your knowledge and feeling superior, you might become a teacher.

Find that pursuit that will energise you, consume you, become an obsession. Each day, you must rise with a restless enthusiasm. If you don’t, you are working.

Most of you will end up in activities which involve communication. To those of you I have a second message: be wary of the truth. I’m not asking you to speak it, or write it, for there are times when it is dangerous or impossible to do those things. The truth has a great capacity to offend and injure, and you will find that the closer you are to someone, the more care you must take to disguise or even conceal the truth. Often, there is great virtue in being evasive, or equivocating. There is also great skill. Any child can blurt out the truth, without thought to the consequences. It takes great maturity to appreciate the value of silence.

In order to be wary of the truth, you must first know it. That requires great frankness to yourself. Never fool the person in the mirror.

I have told you that your life is over, that you should not work, and that you should avoid telling the truth. I now say this to you: be hated.

It’s not as easy as it sounds. Do you know anyone who hates you? Yet every great figure who has contributed to the human race has been hated, not just by one person, but often by a great many. That hatred is so strong it has caused those great figures to be shunned, abused, murdered and in one famous instance, nailed to a cross.

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

The other side of the coin is this: fall in love.

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

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

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

Loving someone is therefore very important, and it is also important to choose the right person. Despite popular culture, love doesn’t happen by chance, at first sight, across a crowded dance floor. It grows slowly, sinking roots first before branching and blossoming. It is not a silly weed, but a mighty tree that weathers every storm.

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

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

Finally, you will find that there is no half-measure when it comes to loving someone. You either don’t, or you do with every cell in your body, completely and utterly, without reservation or apology. It consumes you, and you are reborn, all the better for it.

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

You’re going to have a busy life. Thank goodness there’s no life expectancy.

Boo!!!

2008-10-06T05:05:00.000-07:00

Boo!! Having fun? We studied Australian English during Linguistics tutorial today!! Tell you all a joke about Australian English. One day during the war, at the warfront, a British senior officer approached an Australian junior officer...
British officer: Young man, did you come here to die?
Australian officer: No sir, I came here yesterday.
Hahaha!! Okay, I'd better stop kidding around and get some work done. I've got 10 chapters to read for a quiz this thursday, a report due next tuesday, and 2 projects due the week after that. Enjoy yourselves up north!! =)

G'day Mates!!!

2008-10-05T06:22:00.000-07:00

Hi Daddy!! Hi Mummy!! Hi Dua Yi!! Hi Jie Jie!! Hi Angie Jie Jie!! Hi Prinze!! Sorry Prinze, for forgetting to say hi to you yesterday. =( Kor just sent Chang and I back to camp and hall. Thank you Dua Yi, for dinner!! The buffet at Marriot was awesome!! Mummy, you would have loved the bread. Pa, are you enjoying the BBQ lamb?!! OH SHUCKS, I FORGOT TO EAT THE CHEESE!! DAMN!! And it looked so yummy. =( Just in case you were wondering, Pa, Nissan-san's alive and well. No injuries whatsoever. =D Chang was a wonderful passenger. He looked out for signboards for me and didn't exhibit any signs of kancheongness when I was driving. Thanks dude!! =) I gotta go and do my assignments now. Have fun, folks!! *Waving*

To My Favourite People Down Under

2008-10-04T05:40:00.001-07:00

Hi Daddy!! Hi Mummy!! Hi Dua Yi!! Hi Jie Jie!! Hi Angie Jie Jie!! How was your flight? Bet Mummy couldn't sleep and thought that it was horrid. =P Chang, Nissan-san and I arrived home alive from the airport last night. I just followed Kor Kor all the way. There was a moment of panic when the cashcard reader kept saying "ERR" cos I inserted the card in upside down. But don't worry, we got that sorted out pretty quickly. And yes, I locked the doors, turned off the headlights, kept the cashcard and didn't leave any valuables in the car. Are you all BBQing now? *Drools* Yuuuuuuuummmms!! Chang said that you all called this morning, after viewing Jie Jie's potential new house. How? Nice? We had dinner a while ago. Chang had pasta. I ate oats with yoghurt. He's maple syruping now and I'm planning to read abit and then hit the sack. Skype us when you all are free kay? Oyasuminasai!! =)

HEEELLLOOO HOLIDAYS!!!

2008-04-30T08:04:00.000-07:00

It's over, wheeeee!!! =D We had Linguistics and Evo Psych today. I thought Evo Psych was bad enough but Linguistics was even worse. I smoked so much that I thought that I'd set off the smoke detectors. And I didn't state the steps leading to the implicatures!!! 10 marks, TEN MARKS!!! Okay, forget it, it's over. O-v-e-r. Over. TEN MARKS!!! ROOOAAAARRR!!!

Exams stress the hell out of me. Whenever I complain about exams, Mummy will say, "Huh? You take exams so many times already, still like that arhz?". Like that meaning, can't eat, can't sleep and diarrhoea. It's not that I don't get hungry. I do, but the moment the food enters my mouth, I feel like throwing up. And it's not that I don't feel sleepy. I do, but I can't sleep. I don't know why, but I just can't fall asleep. And when I finally manage to fall asleep, I'll start having really weird dreams. During 'A' levels, I dreamt that this huge lambda (you know, the Maths lambda, theta's friend) with arms and legs was chasing me. And there were a lot of people standing around, watching and shouting. And 2 sems ago, I dreamt about my Developmental Psych textbook. The pages of the book would flip on their own and there was this invisible lady who was reading the book to me. Oh my goodness, like enough already!!! The reason I went to sleep was because I'd had enough of the book and there it was, right there in my dreams. And no mater how hard I try, I can't get more than 3 hours of uninterrupted sleep. After 3 hours, I'll start waking up automatically every hour. It's really frustrating cos I really want to sleep, and I know I need the sleep, and yet I can't. Haha but it's over, for now. Bye bye nausea, bye bye wakefulness, bye bye diarrhoea, hello zz monster, hello food glorious food, HEELLLOOO HOLIDAYS!!! =D

Before I forget. Some clips which inspired me during the exams. =)

Oyasuminasai, everybody. =)

Happy April Fool's!!!

2008-04-01T08:17:00.000-07:00

This morning, after coming back from the pool, I received a msg from Limi...
Limi: Biopsych presentation and report results out!!!
Me: *Logging into edventure IMMEDIATELY and checking all the usual spots which our profs upload our results to*
There was no sign of our results and I thought that edventure was slow as usual, so...
Me: *Refreshing the page and checking all the usual spots again*
Still no results, so...
Me: *Refreshes the page AGAIN and clicks on EVERYTHING clickable*
But still no results!!! So I msged Limi...
Me: Where??
Limi: Check your ntu mail.
Me: *Checks ntu mail*
Ntu mail: Happy April Fool's Day!!! -Limi

And then, in the afternoon, as I was writing my cultural psych literature review and fighting the zz monster at the same time, Chang msged me...
Chang: Man U sold ronaldo!!!
Me: WHAT THE *TOOOOT* TO WHOM??!!
Chang: Haha okay larhz, I'll let you study in peace... Happy April Fool's Day!!! Lol =P

Hahaha!!! Wah lao ehz, nobody tells these kinda jokes one larhz!!! Chang's especially... I super tio chua and nearly laoed ceh sai larhz!!! LOL =P

Hello hello!!!

2008-03-30T18:09:00.000-07:00

*Singing* Hello hello hello hello hello hello how are you?? Hello hello hello hello hello hello how are you?? Thank you thank you I am fine and hope that you are too!! Lalalalalalalalalalalala LA LA!! =D Haha I have so much to blog about but not enough time to do it. And when I finally have a bit of time to spare, the blogging mood's gone and I find myself jumping into bed instead. =D Anyways, the latest scoop's that I've sorted out some really perplexing stuff and am VERY VERY happy. =DDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDD Now, all I have to do is figure my profs and textbook authors out and I'll be the happiest girl in the world. Exam's in 16 days ROOOOAAARRR!! Haha to all mugger toads and mugger toad wannabes out there, ALL THE BEST!! Looking forward to Camp Watah"o!! =D

The Mom's Overture

2008-03-18T18:28:00.001-07:00

To all mummies out there... Sounds familiar? Haha don't worry, it sounds familiar to us too. =D

Updates, finally.

2008-03-02T05:38:00.000-08:00

Hello everybody!!! おひさしぶりですね! Sorry for not updating sooner, but I've been really busy with mid-term quizzes, projects, OMC stuff and the annual canoeing expedition. Anyways!!! 2 saturdays ago, I took Westgrove Primary School for a KOP at Jurong Lake. Some of the sit-on-tops at Jurong Lake are placed on the ground and as a result, all sorts of creepy crawlies hide in them. I was teaching the kids how to paddle in the lake when all of a sudden, this lizard came running towards me. I tried to sweep it away using my paddle, but it ran under my paddle and into my shorts. I started screaming softly (yes, that's possible if you have a group of kids looking at you and you know that you're not supposed to lose your cool in front of them) before I remembered that I shouldn't even have been screaming in the first place. So I quickly knelt on the kayak and shook my shorts. The lizard fell out and ran off the kayak (or so I thought). I pretended that I wasn't affected by the &^#%&@ lizard and continued teaching the kids. Just as I was getting over the shock of having a lizard in my shorts, the lizard appeared from the side of my kayak AND RAN INTO MY SHORTS AGAIN!!! Oh my goodness, got so suay not?!! This time, I was damned cool though. I immediately shook the lizard out of my shorts and chased it off my kayak with the paddle. And this time, I made sure that the lizard was OFF my kayak and not hiding somewhere. Meanwhile, the kids were excitedly telling their friends who wandered into the area, "Cher got lizard in her kayak!!! Cher got lizard in her kayak!!!" I'm just thankful that none of them panicked or started worrying excessively about having lizards in their kayaks too.

Happy New Year Again!!!

2008-02-09T21:51:00.000-08:00

Today is the last day of the CNY hols. Come tomorrow, the battle with projects, presentations, assignments, boring lectures, endless readings and mid-term quizzes will start again. SIANZ!!! Chang booked in last night and I'm missing him already. It's just no fun without Baka-kun around. This week, they'll be field camping and Chang messaged last night to ask us to pray for good weather. He also said that he can't bring his wet wipes and lozenges along cos they're contraband items. Why're wet wipes and lozenges contraband items? Anyway, I've got a new year resolution!!! This year, I want to be more caring. If I lose sight of my goal along the way, please kick me in the right direction kay? Happy new year, everybody!!! =)

I won't go down with this ship. And I won't put my hands up and surrender.

2008-01-21T17:58:00.000-08:00

We were supposed to have an Evo Psych quiz last Thursday, but Dr. Gumert postponed it. As a result, the quiz now falls on the day that I'm supposed to leave for Ramunia. I asked Dr. Gumert after tutorial last Thursday whether it'd be possible for me to take the quiz earlier, and he said, "Oh yes, definitely. I don't know whether the quiz would be out by Wednesday though. But if it isn't out by then, you can take it the following Monday. No problem at all." I was so happy I wanted to hug everybody in the tutorial room. On Sunday night, I received an email from him that read, "Dear Jia Yin, I have already had several people ask me this, so it looks like I am going to have to draw a line. This is supposed to be a short 10 minute quiz and not something that is going to lead to me giving hours of make-up to the dozen + students that don't come to the quiz. You are required to attend every class. You are welcome not to attend, but you will miss whatever occurs on those days and lose credit for not attending. I cannot give make-ups for short quizzes (unless an act of God restricts you from coming to class - i.e. Accident, hospitalization, etc.)." ROAR!!! I don't have the right to roar actually. Having to miss the quiz is my fault entirely. I made the decision to postpone the trip, so I'll have to live with the consequences. There're 5 more quizzes to go, and if I pay close attention to the videos and study very hard, I'd still be able to score 25/30. =) When I come home from Ramunia, I'm going to have to rethink my priorities. For now, FIGHT-OH, OH!!!

Swimming!!!

2008-01-20T20:13:00.000-08:00

The weekend passed in a flurry of activity. I came back on Saturday morning for IH Track, only to find out that we had enough runners. So I spent the morning standing by the track timekeeping (is there such a word?). That suited me fine, cos I didn't want to run in the first place. What pissed me off was that by the time track ended, it was too late for me to go home for lunch with Daddy, Mummy and Mama. I really wanted to spend some time with them last weekend, cos this weekend, I'll be in Ramunia and weekdays are out cos I'm in hall. If our dearest track captain had done a better job of ensuring that we had enough runners for the day, Sidney wouldn't have had to come knock knock knocking on our door to ask Shikki and me to run for the finals on Thursday night. 2 people who haven't ran for the longest time ever, 2 days before the event. And I would have been able to spend some time with Daddy, Mummy and Mama over the weekend. You make your problem other people's problem. You good. You wait. I'm all ready to kick ass during AGM.

Sunday was IH Swimming. We won 3 events, came in second for 1 and got disqualified from 1. Overall, we were second. Hall 7 won us by a point. I think we were amazing because we lost by only a point despite being 1 event down. =) It isn't reaching the summit, but the journey that matters. And I've enjoyed every second of this journey. =) Training to be swimmers, fight for our hall, once in our lives, 6 months of our time, have you ever wondered why must we swim, cos we love our hall, and we want to win, want to win, YAH!!! =P

Us. =)

The girls.

The guys.

The noisy Joel who niamed Val, Shikki and me into swimming.

Haha siao one!

Decisions, decisions.

2008-01-14T19:58:00.000-08:00

Val, Shikky and me went swimming this morning. We swam for about half an hour and decided to practice plunging after that. It was painful at first (as usual), but the more we plunged, the better we got! =) Today was also the first time we tried plunging from the raised things by the sides of the pool. Jumping from that thing felt like flying and it was fun! =)

I'm in a huge dilemma now. I'm supposed to go for my refresher course in Ramunia from 19 - 21 Jan. The problem is that Swimming IH is on 20 Jan. The 4star people will be taking their course from 24 - 27 Jan (Thurs - Sun) and I can arrange to attend my refresher with them, but if I do that, I'd only be able to arrive on Friday night because I have lessons on Thursday and Friday. And that means that I'd only be able to kayak for 1.5 days as compared to 3 days if I attend the earlier course. Also, Meng Teck pointed out that it wouldn't be very safe for me to travel to Ramunia alone at night. And I wouldn't be able to attend the course with Ivy, Myra and Yee Han! =(

On the other hand, it'd be nice to attend Swimming IH. Even if I don't get to swim, I'd be happy cheering for the team. It's amazing, how some of the swimmers can clear 1/3 of the pool with just the plunge. Somebody asked me whether my attendance would make any difference to the results. Not much, I think. But at least I'd know that I'd tried my best. Decisions, decisions. Joyce is on leave, so I have the rest of today to think about this. *ROAR!!!*

Happy Belated Birthday, Jingjin!!!

2008-01-14T07:10:00.000-08:00

Happy birthday to you, happy birthday to you, happy birthday dear Jingjin, happy birthday to yooouuu!!! I'm sorry babe, for forgetting all about it. =(

Please bring back my Phony to me!!!

2008-01-12T07:58:00.000-08:00

We attended a forum on Singapore's bid to host the 2010 Youth Olympic Games at the National Library today. It was a bit too long, but I liked the way they facilitated the programme. Unlike most forums, we didn't have to stick strictly to the agenda and we were allowed to choose our own topics of discussion. Most importantly, they allowed us to choose our own group members and didn't try to separate us so that 'we could interact with others and make more friends'. We formed a group with trainers from Kallang and Pasir Ris and discussed about how to involve more people in sea sports. After the discussion, we left for lunch at a coffeeshop opposite Parco that sells Yu Kee (友记)Duck Rice. It was there that I lost my phone and ezylink card. I'm sure my phone was still with me when we were at the coffeeshop cos I called Sam and Mummy whilst waiting for our food to arrive. After our meal, the coffeeshop uncle asked us to leave (not very nicely) because he needed the tables we were seated at for his other customers who were queueing up. I realized that my phone was missing 2-3 minutes after we left the coffeeshop, but when I ran back to look for it, it was gone. Elaine and I are absolutely sure that there was nothing on the tables when we left, and there was no sign of my phone pouch on the ground either. So I borrowed Janice's phone to call my phone, but whoever had taken my phone had already switched it off. Elaine said that if the person had turned off the phone, it meant that he/she had no intentions of returning it. And the coffeeshop uncle made things worse by scolding me when I asked him whether anybody had found my phone. 你的电话是不是在这边掉的我哪里知道啊! 可能是你走来的时候掉了，然后你讲是在我们这边不见掉的，我也不知道! 你用你的头脑去好好想到底是在哪里掉的! I promise NEVER to eat at Bugis Yu Kee's ever again! And I hope whoever took my pouch didn't buy 6 McDonald's meals and clear out the money in my card!

As a result of losing my ezylink card, I had to travel home using a standard ticket. And when I reached Kadaloor, the gate refused to let me out because it claimed that I had underpaid. So I buzzed the people at the control station and they asked me to go to the ticketing machine on the left to await further instructions. Just as I was leaving the intercom, this woman came running towards me and shouted, "WAIT, I NEED TO TALK TO THE SMRT STAFF AS WELL!!!". I thought she was quite strange because she could have pressed the button again instead of shouting so loudly. She was instructed to wait at the same ticketing machine as me and when the SMRT officer came on that intercom, he asked me to let the lady go first. So i stepped aside for her to stand in front of the machine, but she made no move to stand closer to it. And when the officer asked her what the gate said when she tapped her ezylink card against the cardreader, she told him to speak louder because she couldn't hear him. I was in a hurry to go home for dinner with Daddy, Mummy and Mama, so i suggested that she stood closer to the intercom. She moved about a millimetre. The rest of the story, I'll explain using dialogue.

SMRT Officer: Ma'am, please press OK.

Lady: Where's the OK?

Officer: On the screen.

Lady: Where? Where? I can't see it.

Me: *Reaches out to the screen and presses OK*

Officer: OK, now please place your card on the reader.

Lady: *Holds her card in its ziplock bag above the reader*

Officer: Ma'am, you've got to remove the card from the bag.

Lady: *Removes the card from its bag and holds it above the reader*

Officer: The reader can't read your card. So please place it ON the reader.

At this point, I thought that the lady couldn't understand English very well. So I decided to be the translator.

Me: 你的card要放下去，不然那个reader cannot read你的card。

Lady: 我怕肮脏！我不要放下去！

Officer: If you don't want to put it down, please hold the card nearer to the reader and don't move it until we tell you to do so.

Me: *Presses OK every time the Officer says to do so*

After many failed attempts to read her card because the lady kept moving her hand, the officer said that he couldn't help her unless she put the card down. I was beginning to suspect that she had a phobia of dirt and an obsessive-compulsive disorder.

Lady: *Agitatedly* Can't you just let me out through the gate at the side?!! I have a funeral to attend and I'm running very late!!! Can't you just open the gate and let me out?!!

Officer: How then are we going to charge you for the journey, Ma'am?

Lady: That is not my problem!!! That is your problem!!!

Officer: You wait there. I'll send my colleague over to help you. The other lady please.

I got my card cleared and went out to pay for the extra cost incurred by taking the LRT instead of getting out at Punggol Interchange.

Lady: Hello, excuse me, can you please help me to press the intercom button? I want to speak to the officer again.

Me: *Presses intercom button*

Lady: Is your colleague coming yet?!! I need to attend a funeral!!!

Officer: He'll be there in 5 minutes.

Lady: 5 minutes?!! I need to go now!!! And I don't want to wait alone!!! What if something happens?!!

Officer: We have CCTV, Ma'am. We can see you from here.

Lady: I don't want to wait alone.

Me: I'll wait with you.

So the officer goes off, and the lady continues looking agitated and panicky.

Lady: I don't want to waste your time. You don't have to wait with me.

Me: OH!!! 我知道！我知道！如果放tissue paper在那个reader上面你会不会安心一点？我有新的tissue paper，没有开过的！

Lady: 幸好你提醒我！*Takes wet wipes out of her bag and hands them over to me*

Me: *Wipes reader and presses the intercom button for her to speak to the officer again*

Lady: I'm willing to put the card down now. What should I do?

Officer: Okay, put the card down and the other lady, please press OK.

Lady: *Holds the card ABOVE the reader*

Me: *Presses OK and faints*

Officer: What do you see?

Lady: *Keeps quiet*

Me: Problem with card. Overstayed blah blah blah.

Officer: Okay, keep the card there!!! That's the right screen!!! Now press OK.

Lady: *Moves card*

Me: Can we try again please? She moved the card.

Officer: What do you see?

Me: The overstayed screen!!! Press OK right?!! *Lady moves her hand again* I'm sorry, can we try again please?!!

Officer: OK.

Me: 不要动！*Presses OK when the overstayed screen appears* Now it says, 'pay using cash, deduct from card etc.

Officer: Deduct from card.

Me: 不要动，不要动。Okay, done!!! YAY!!!

I'd never spent such a long time in Kadaloor station before. As we were walking towards the lift, the lady showed me her hands and told me that she had to be clean at all times. Her hands were red and raw from washing them too vigorously and frequently. And as we talked, she was wiping her hands with wet wipes. When she threw her wet wipes away, she stood very far away from the dustbin and flung them in, like as if the dustbin had a bubble of dirt and germs around it. And as she did that, she had a look of disgust on her face. We studied abnormal behaviour in school last semester and I don't know how to describe this, but the case studies we read felt different from a real-life situation. Suddenly, the disorder seemed a lot more serious. Okay, I've rambled on enough. All in all, it was an interesting day. =)

Happy Birthday, Wei Chong!!!

2008-01-09T07:35:00.001-08:00

Almost forgot to post this. Happy birthday to you, happy birthday to you, happy birthday dear Coco, happy birthday to yoooouuu!!! =)

Where Boys Become Men

2008-01-09T03:29:00.000-08:00

Today, the Singapore Armed Forces took my trusty dishwashing buddy cum brother away. Due to the fact that Chang's role as a Son of Singapore is more important than his role as the Brother of JY, Daddy, Mummy and me went to Tekong this morning to send Chang off. Jonathan was the only other person Chang knew who was supposed to report at the same time as him. So we met Jonathan and his family at Pasir Ris Interchange and set off for Tekong together.

Chang and Jon in the bus on the way to the jetty.

The headrest cover of the seat in the Penguin boat which took us to Tekong. When Daddy saw the boat, he said, "Wahz, like the boats that bring you to Bintan for holiday." During Daddy's time, they travelled to Tekong on tugboats.

Us in the boat. No vomit bags were provided. Luckily, the boat ride was only about 15 minutes.

When we arrived in Tekong, the 'enlistees' were supposed to go up the stairs to somewhere, whilst the 'parents and loved ones' boarded a bus that brought us on a tour of BMTC. We saw the cookhouses, bunk, toilet, rec room, medical centre, parade square, swimming pool and SOC. The SOC and IMT (Individual Marksmanship Training) looked really fun!!! And as we were walking from place to place, there were soldiers marching and singing my favourite purple light!!! I know the guys would definitely beg to differ, but 2 years of camping and trekking sounds like great fun!!! =) Okay, minus the regimentation.

After the tour, we attended a short lecture on the equipment issued and meals provided. Looking at the green packets reminded me of the yummy green bean barley and something chestnut that YH brought along for trekking trips. The parents were an enthusiastic lot. They asked a lot of questions, examined the equipment, and scrutinized the menus. I was slacking in one corner, and before I knew it, we had to leave for the oath taking ceremony, so this is the only picture I managed to take before they ushered us out.

When we entered the LT, the guys were already seated. All of them were sitting up straight and staring ahead, with their fists clenched and on their laps. I forgot to mention that as we were queuing to board the Tekong bus, the enlistees were made to tuck in their shirts. First signs of regimentation. I don't have any pictures of the swearing in, but this time, it wasn't my fault. I wasn't slacking. The emcee said that we were not allowed to take pictures in order to preserve the solemnity of the ceremony. I liked the video clip, 'Army Experience'. I thought it was very inspiring, but when I told Chang that, he said that it's all a facade. The oath taking was another inspiring moment. "WITH MY LIFE!!!" This doesn't mean much, does it? I'm sorry, but this is all I can remember of the oath. We'll have to wait for Chang to come home and recite the rest. There was this guy who was sleeping throughout the CO's speech and the video clip. His friendly neighbour woke him up after the clip, but he just went right back to sleep. Chia Yee Han, your protege!!!

Daddy, Mummy and Chang at the cookhouse. Lunch was chicken rice, vegetables, dao gua, soup, orange and fruit punch. It was nice, you know. After lunch, we said Bye Bye!!! to Chang. I was wondering whether anybody would know if i hid in some corner of BMTC and did not leave Tekong. Afterall, Tekong is so huge. My question was answered at the ferry terminal, where we had to tap our ICs on the machine before it would let us out. I had conveniently forgotten that we had to tap to come in too. Like as if the military would overlook something as simple as that. *Snort*

Chang just called. He's fine, but botak now. He doesn't know anybody in his bunk, and hasn't made any friends yet. But he figures that they'd get to know each other really soon. Oh, I forgot to mention that Jon and Chang are in different companies. Apparently, they split up the guys who reported at 1030 into 2 companies. Some of them joined the guys who reported at 0830 in Orion whilst the others stayed in Leopard. That's all the updates for now cos Recruit Lim had to go and rinse his shirt before lights off. =P

Purple light, in the valley, this is where I want to be, with my 3 close companions, with my rifle and my buddy and me!!! =)

Can't Smile Without You

2008-01-03T08:09:00.000-08:00

You know I can't smile without you
I can't smile without you
I can't laugh and I can't sing
I'm finding it hard to do anything
You see I feel sad when you're sad
I feel glad when you're glad
If you only knew what I'm going through
I just can't smile without you

Happy New Year!!!

2008-01-02T02:23:00.000-08:00

Hello World!!! Happy New Year!!! Something really embarrassing happened yesterday. I drove to Punggol Plaza with Chang to return some dvds and as we were exiting the carpark, I stopped the car too far away from the cashcard reader machine thingy. As a result, I had to come out of the car to slot the cashcard into the machine. And I was so relieved to get back into the car that I started putting on the seatbelt with my shaky hands and happily forgot that the pole thingy was up and waiting for me to drive past. Does that thing operate using a timer, or does it have a sensor?!! Cos Chang very kancheongly said, "Quick jie, just drive!!! Stop, stop worrying about the seatbelt already!!! Just drive!!! The thing's gonna come down on us!!! You can belt up later!!!" And that got me really kancheong. Fortunately, the pole was really patient and waited for us to drive past before coming down. If it had fallen on us, boy would I have had the happiest new year ever. Noob right? *Covering my face with my hands* I'll bet all the people in the cars behind us were laughing their heads off at me!!! Oh, but they were really nice and patient though. Nobody honked at us whilst I was doing all that noob stuff. Thank you, friendly ulu punggolians!!! =)

Quote Of The Day

2007-11-12T14:40:00.000-08:00

This is how my mum describes me:
When the going gets tough, the tough goes to sleep. LOL. =P

My Nightmare

2007-11-06T16:53:00.000-08:00

Last night, I dreamt that Mummy died of cancer. The doctors said that she wouldn't make it and told us to be prepared for the worst. In my dream, I was playing with my cousins in the hospital's playroom when I received a call from my dad asking all of us to go to Mummy's room. All my relatives were there when we arrived. Daddy asked Chang and me to say our goodbyes. Mummy looked weak, but she was all smiles and very positive, as usual. I ran to her and started crying. I reminded her that she still owed me a Tian Jin Guan treat and that she wasn't allowed to go until she fulfilled her promise. Mummy laughed and said, "Don't make it sound like as if we'll never meet again. I'll treat you when I meet you next time kay?" I cried even harder. And then I woke up.

It was 0645 and pouring outside. I kept telling myself that it was just a dream, but everything seemed so real that I couldn't help but feel scared. I started crying and I couldn't stop. I wanted to hear my mum's voice to assuage my fear. But I knew that if I called her, crying, so early in the morning, she would most probably die of not cancer, but heart attack. So I tried to go back to sleep, but I couldn't. Finally, I succumbed to temptation and picked up the phone. When Mummy answered the call and heard me crying, she panicked. "What happened?!!", she shouted. I told her my dream and she assured me that she was fine and asked me to go back to sleep.

Everything seemed so real in my dream. Daddy, Mummy, Chang, Dua Yi all behaved like they would have in real life. There were so many things that I wanted to tell Mummy. And so many things that I wanted to say sorry for. So many things that I wanted to do with Mummy and so many things that I regretted doing.

I've learnt my lesson. From now on, I'm going to live today like there's no tomorrow. I'm not going to do things that I'll regret and try to assuage my guilt by telling myself that I won't do it again or that I'll apologize tomorrow.

This, http://parentswish.com/site02/big.html, is a beautiful clip. And Daddy, Mummy, I love you too. =)

Behind Closed Doors

2007-10-30T17:26:00.000-07:00

A peek into the days of our lives...

Introducing the crazy girls next door.

This was supposed to be a cool shot. Until Shiqi laughed.

After much strategizing, we decided that the probability of our bursting out into laughter was smaller if we posed just before the camera clicked. Shiqi proved us wrong. Shitty!!! =P

Honesty, Courtesy, Perseverance being Cedar's motto, we decided to try again. This time, it was Bel's turn to succumb to the Ha Ha Monster. In fact, she laughed right out of the picture. Sorry Val! Oh, I forgot to mention that we were supposed to look like we're taking a class photo, with Valerie as the form teacher. She certainly looks the part of the prim and proper teacher irritated with the bunch of hysterical idiots in the background, doesn't she? And she had the right to actually, given that she was the only one who fought valiantly and triumphed over the evil Ha Ha.

To the editors of The Nanyang Chronicle, WELL DONE!!! Val was so absorbed in the paper that she didn't even realize that Bel was posing behind her!

And finally, a word of encouragement to all my young friends who're currently sitting for their 'A's. Hall 2 is waiting to extend a warm welcome to all AJCians. Our blinds are even colour coordinated with AJ's school colours. Nope, your eyes are not playing tricks on you. The blinds are the same shades of blue and yellow as our PE tee. You wouldn't even have noticed that Bel and Val are standing in front of the blinds if you hadn't peered closely at the picture, right? =P

The Love of My Life

2007-10-24T00:43:00.000-07:00

I am happiest when I am kayaking. As the boat glides across the surface of the gray-green sea, with the sun's rays beating mercilessly down my back, all my troubles seem to be carried away by the gentle breeze that tousles my sun-streaked hair. When I picked up kayaking 4 years ago, my mum tried to stop me. She felt that the long hours in the sun ruined my hair and complexion (which I admit is true). For a period of time, friday nights at home felt like the National Debating Championships as Mummy and I presented our arguments about why I should or should not be allowed to go kayaking that weekend. Although I always emerged the winner of those debates, it made me guilty to know that I had upset my mother. I would promise myself that that would be my last time kayaking, but I never kept those promises. After a while, my mum relented. Nowadays, she still tries to convince me that indoor sports like squash and table tennis beat kayaking hands down, and I'm always amused by our roundabout conversations that start with, "you know, somebody just died falling off ________ whilst participating in 1 those dangerous sports", closely followed by, "I think, you don't go kayaking anymore larhz kay?". Nice try, Mum! =P

Whilst we're on the subject of kayaking, I'd like to say a huge THANK YOU!!! to Chia Yee Han. Mr Stuntman Chia is my best kayaking buddy. He can hold his breath for crazily long periods of time. And it's fortunate that he's able to do that, cos otherwise my lousy eskimo bow rescue and kayak flipping skills would have drowned him ten times over. I've lost count of the number of times he has capsized so that I can practice eskimo bow rescue and although he always has to wait for an insanely long period of time underwater for me to come and rescue him, he has never complained. And even when he comes up sputtering, he'll insist that he's fine. =P Thanks huh, brudder. =)

My Favourite Ulu Punggolians

2007-10-11T01:59:00.001-07:00

Hello everybody! I am Jia Yin, also known as jy lim, also known as jy, also known as 臭臭. I was jy lim in Cedar and jy in AJ, so by rights, i should be j in NTU right? But thanks to 超臭, I am now 臭臭. *Rolling my eyes* The smellier calling the smelly smelliest! My parents would be so upset to know that my lovely name has been replaced by this smelly one. Speaking of my parents, let me introduce you to my dad.

His name is Cyclops Lim and he has the coolest sense of humour ever. One day, shortly after Shinzo Abe was appointed PM of Japan...
Daddy: Do you know what's Shinzo Abe's surname in Chinese?
Me: I don't know. Ya Bei?
Daddy: Nope! It's Ma. Cos he's Ah Beh.
Hahahahaha! I think I'm the only one who finds this funny though. Cos most people just stared at me when I told them this joke.

And this here is my Ah Bu. Chang and I called Mummy that for a while when we were younger and she hated it. Chang has a long list of names for Mummy and come to think of it, she doesn't like any of them. Examples include Lao Niang (I'm very lao mehz?!!) and Da Ma (Excuse me, but you only have ONE ma...). Ah Bu possesses the amazing ability of being able to get high on air.

Baka, konbanwa! Chang gets irritated whenever I speak to him using my broken Japanese. His usual responses are, "What?!!" and "Whatever!". One day, i was throwing random Japanese words at him, when I suddenly decided to shout "BAKA!". He looked at me in a really exasperated manner and shouted back, "WHAT?!!". I nearly died laughing. Thank you Chang, for always being so sweet tempered and accomodating. For putting up with my nonsense and for not fighting with me when I lose my temper. Suki da yo! =)