things i have done since joining mdis...

1) learn stuff i wanna learn about. duh. that's the main reason why i left engine behind anyway. but honestly, 2 modules into mass comm and i'm loving what i'm learning. everything just seems so relevant, and it has definitely opened my eyes and given me new perspectives on things.

2) become the de facto class rep. *sigh*. all because i decided to compile the class list. guess it's a sign for me to be proactive and step up a bit from that usual shy self. which leads into...

3) use my dictionary a heckuva lot more. yeah, i checked up the meaning of 'de facto' before i plugged it in to make sure the meaning was correct. all for the sake of accurate word usage.

4) meet a bunch of wildly contrasting, yet somehow similarly funky bunch of people. it's pretty funny ya know. so many different personalities, yet somehow, i just feel right at home. and despite the different cliques here and there, from the guys only group to the group of us at the back, i think we're all gelling together really nicely...

5) hear lotsa great and hillarious one-liners. hohoho. from omar's catch phrases ("easy peasey, lemon squeezy", "alritey mighty, aphrodite") to some of the really side-splitting unintentional utterings (mandy's "our promise is to deliver what we promised"... and to maintain family-friendliness, i shall refrain from typing out prassy's all-time classic line ;) ... and ivan's mah-pleh story. muahahaha.

6) start a winning eleven culture. doh. so much for studying after school...

7) playing 30-ball cutthroat. 6 guys, 1 pool table, 30 balls. all out sniping.

8) football sessions. got scared off by one really near lightning strike 1st time out and wore my heels off with 2 incredibly huge blisters thanks to wearing my field boots for the 1st time. 2nd time out, we got our heads handed to us by a bunch of vietnamese fellas. 3rd time out at the old SPE, totally burnt by the sun. read the post below, but that game was great... looking forward to the 4th one with omar joining us...

9) contra. up up down down left right left right a b start. or was it b a? doh. hillarity ensues as a bunch of 20+ year old guys start re-imagining themselves as 8, 9 year olds playing on the venerable NES, leaping around, blasting aliens and hurling expletives at the sudden, unexpected deaths that occur. i miss my NES...

10) playing badminton with ping pong paddles. i'm terrible with racquets as it is. and the scandal that has followed has yielded a good chuckle or two with conan's evil spinning. but yeah... badminpong or pingminton was one wacky experience.

11) and lastly (probably for now till i have new things to add/remember and cos my head hurts... >_<), taking photos in class on the last day of journo... here's to the next 2 years, people.

stay a while and listen...

listening. it is the core of human interaction and one of the most basic forms of respect and love we can ever show another human being. it is so engrained in the human psyche that we even have that innate ability to sense when someone really hasn't been listening to us. and despite knowing this, it's a very hard skill to put into regular practice, let alone master. it seems so simple to do, yet at the same time requires a termendous amount of effort on the listener's part.

i wonder if it's because we busy ourselves so much these days that it has been inculcated into us that we should focus and ignore all distractions until we're done with our current task at hand. relationships are at the core of everything in our lives. life would be meaningless if not for the people around us who we love. yet it's so difficult to find the time and space to actually accommodate them when we're pre-occupied with something. we simply cannot things down, even for a mere 5 minutes that could make all the difference in the other person's day.

if only we could all make that effort to just listen to one another...

kissed by the sun...

what a friday. ok, i might be wonderfully sunburnt, but street with the guys was pretty good. had one heckuva workout with my legs pushed to the physical limit, with 3 goals prodded into the back of the net for me (one stands out in particular where i stabbed a cross from the left into the top corner) and a pretty good lunch afterward at junction 8. and to think i almost pulled the plug on procedings just because it was raining over here. thank goodness that wasn't the case, and thanks guys for the great morning in the sun =)

had a really peaceful nap when i got back after playing with jillian for a while. there's no feeling like curling up on your bed after a morning's worth of industry, and then slipping off into slumberland for a good sleep. well, i got interupted here and there, but it just feels so good to laze about that i don't really care.

of course, the best interuption came for dinner. my aunt had a firehouse to claim so we all went to swensen's at the airport for dinner. had a mega burger, which, if you haven't had before, has bacon, ham, onions, cheese, lettuce, tomatoes, egg plant, zucchini (i think... anyway, being the carnivorous brat i am, i removed this and the egg plant from the mix) and one honkin' huge beef patty topped off with a sunny side up sandwiched between two bun halves. and yes, it is one ginormous burger. really ginormous. and heavy too. but it still went down anyway, and it basically capped off what had been one really good break from school.

and now, for the weekend!

kiwi...

this one starts pretty cute... but it's pretty sad and gets you thinking... hope you like it as much as i did...



thanks for the link yvonne =)

looking into the past...

going through all my old stuff on my blog has been pretty interesting... especially in the old lair. scrolling through my stuff and recounting how much has really gone by since i started recording my thoughts, emotions, opinions and stuff that i just found oh-so-cool in the past one and a half years. a period of time that has seen me work for the nkf, meet some great people, witness the almighty fall of the old board, experience the overwhelming stupidity and dark sides of people, the press and the government, see dad's photo in the papers (albeit for the wrong reasons...) and experience the feeling of grave injustice.

it also saw me go through 2 CSA orientation camps: once as a participant and once as a committee member, experience God's infinite love through the many wonderful people i've met, served and had fun with through the many CSA activities, serve in the 15th CSA exco with another God-sent bunch of people, feel the loss of handing my ministry over to someone else, forge some very strong friendships with people i can call my family away from home, sell calendars twice with the Franciscan friars, sponsor someone for RCIA and take on a new ministry in the form of lectoring at OLPS.

i also experienced a new beginning in the form of university life, realised my true passion for writing and language, struggled with engineering, discovered my complete ineptitude in maths when i couldn't understand it, found out about the wonders of studying under the influence of mocha, felt utter despair in the face of exams, fell in love and broke my heart twice, drank to and discovered my alcohol limits and made myself wish never to visit that point ever again, tried my hand at poetry, went through some pretty wild times in hall 9 with stan and minghong and the others, made one of the biggest decisions of my life and quit ntu and felt the pain of separation from a community that i couldn't bear to leave.

at the same time i experienced coming into a totally new learning environment, finally learning stuff i wanted to learn, meeting another bunch of new friends and having fun with them amidst the work, triggering a new phase of discovery and learning.

i've had great times with the 27th, david, my family. i've become an uncle to the sweetest, cutest and noisiest little baby girl in the world. i've learnt how to make apple cake, coffee cake and orange chiffon cake. i've experienced so many ups and just as many downs. it's incredible when you think about all that has happened in such a short period of time that it's mindboggling. looking back, in spite of the difficulties, i'm here where i am now. and i'm damn bloody happy at the moment. life's full of surprises, and i trust that it no matter what comes, it'll always be for the best.

c'est la vie.

a small added piece of furniture around the lair...

in case you haven't noticed that little orangey and yellowy box on the sidebar on entry, i'd like to point your attention to the right-hand side right about... now.

since posting comments is a hassle for people who hate verifying, i've decided to add the tag box after a few voices alerted me to it. since the thought has crossed my mind before, i guess it was about time i added something like that in, so here it is for everyone's use.

have fun tearing it up, but play nice please. =)

the great divide...

it's really sad when you watch the myth of sisyphus by tomas ochoa. it's so plain simple that islam is not much different from christianity and all the main religions, yet it has been villainized to such horrific proportions because of the actions of a few extremist idiots who have warped those teachings of love into teachings of hate. interviewing random people on the streets in marrakech in morroco and zurich in switzerland, ochoa asked these people two questions: the differences between islamic nations and the west and what were the last thoughts of a suicide bomber.

the biggest irony was that most of the muslims in marrakech simply condemned the suicide bombers for their wreckless and thoughtless actions which led to the killing of innocent people while the non-islamic people tried to emphatise with them and said it was their means of finding paradise. granted, the places where these attacks occur are extremely charged up and hostile environments, with war and strife occuring and tensions on knife edges with foreign troops "stationed" compared to morroco or switzerland who are not involved in the conflicts. but the fact remains that most muslims believe that their religion is one of love and peace. it is sad when religion becomes the scapegoat simply because some crazy islamic head of state says "it's us versus the jews and christians." it's irresponsible and wrong.

and even despite this, it is just as hard to blame these people as well when idiotic western presidents liken a war against terrorists to a crusade. honestly, i don't think dubya is even smart enough or religious enough to fully know what the word crusade meant. he probably thought it was a cool, macho, texan cowboy word to use. but when you deal with politics, you just can't afford to say something stupid and end up stirring up a hornets' nest even though you meant something else. it's just as irresponsible and wrong, and now hundreds of young men and women are dying in foreign lands that they don't even care much about because of these silly mistakes and insistence on fighting.

two great powers at conflict, with substantial grievances on both ends to at least justify the emotions that have been stirred. yet the corresponding actions that have taken place are so horrifically wrong. two wrongs simply don't make a right. yet untangling this sordid mess is going to take a massive amount of understanding and cooperation. generations of hatred and misunderstanding simply cannot be cleared up by one magic bullet to solve everyone's hurt. however, it is something we must strive toward, if peace is ever to prevail...

if only we all realised just how similar we all really are...

the best weekend i can remember in recent history...

i seriously cannot recall a weekend that has left me in as high spirits as this in a long, long while. saturday kickstarted things well, having read at Mass in the evening (though i made one little error...) after having a haircut, i went back home to witness united smack poor portsmouth senseless in a 3-0 hiding at old trafford for sir alex ferguson's 20th anniversary in charge at the united helm. an emphatic penalty from louis saha, an absolute missile of a free kick from cristiano ronaldo and a very precise and assured header from nemanja vidic nabbed the points for united, with a very reassuring and convincing performance from the rest of the united first xi. simply breathtaking and stunning.

this led to a really super sunday, which started out with a pretty good basketball game in the morning with the guys. was clowning around a bit, but i think had some decent moments. it was a great workout to boot. i won't forget myself dribbling past everyone whilst delivering commentary when challenged to by jem. absolutely hillarious.

the afternoon was highlighted by a visit to the singapore biennale exhibit at city hall with sarah. it was a very thought-provoking experience, with lots of questions and opinions springing forth from it, including one multimedia piece that reflected upon the last thoughts of a suicide bomber, which i wish to expound upon and explore in due time. a really enriching and fascinating four hours spent that has left me wanting more.

we headed over to chap's place for dinner because some relatives from china and canada were over. getting to see all the little cousins again was fun, but i decided to curb my socialising by lounging for a good period of time in my uncle's massage chair with red wine in hand as pictured above. relaxation and maximum shiokness baby!

and on the subject of alcohol, there was plenty in abundance. had a champagne to go with my red wine. and chocolate liquer!... mmmmm... simply delightful.

to wrap everything up, witnessing arsenal and chelsea both lose in london derbies just made everything all the more sweeter. it's once in a blue moon that chelski lose, and just seeing my team's most hated rival lose just added the finishing touches to a fantastic weekend. more importantly, united are now 3 points clear at the premiership summit, which sets us up with some room for the end-of-the-month clash with chelski at old trafford just nicely.

thanks to everyone who made it happen... it sure was a fantabulous weekend that'll remain in memory for a good while to come. ^_^

exam questions... pinched from oliver's blog.

Examination Questions

Instructions: Read each question carefully. Answer all questions.

Time limit: 2 hours.

Begin immediately.

Art: Given one eight-count box of crayons and three sheets of notebook paper, recreate the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel. Skin tones should be true to life.

Biology: Create life. Estimate the differences in subsequent human culture if this form of life had developed 500 million years earlier, paying special attention to its probable effects on the English Parliamentary System circa 1750. Prove your thesis.

Chemistry: You must identify a poison sample which you will find at your lab table. All necessary equipment has been provided. There are two beakers at your desk, one of which holds the antidote. If the wrong substance is used, it causes instant death. You may begin as soon as the professor injects you with a sample of the poison. (We feel this will give you an incentive to find the correct answer.)

Civil Engineering: This is a practical test of your design and building skills. With the boxes of toothpicks and glue present, build a platform that will support your weight when you and your platform are suspended over a vat of nitric acid.

Computer Science: Write a fifth-generation computer language. Using this language, write a computer program to finish the rest of this exam for you.

Economics: Develop a realistic plan for refinancing the national debt. Trace the possible effects of your plan in the following areas: Cubism, the Donatist Controversy and the Wave Theory of Light. Outline a method for preventing these effects. Criticize this method from all possible points of view. Point out the deficiencies in your point of view, as demonstrated in your answer to the last question.

Electrical Engineering: You will be placed in a nuclear reactor and given a partial copy of the electrical layout. The electrical system has been tampered with. You have seventeen minutes to find the problem and correct it before the reactor melts down.

Engineering: The disassembled parts of a high-powered rifle have been placed on your desk. You will also find an instruction manual, printed in Swahili. In 10 minutes, a hungry bengal tiger will be admitted to the room. Take whatever action you feel necessary. Be prepared to justify your decision.

History: Describe the history of religion from its origins to the present day, concentrate specifically but not exclusively, on its social, political, economic, religious, and philosophical impact on Europe, Asia, America and Africa. Demonstrate your understanding by creating your own religion and describing its likely impact on world affairs. Be brief, concise and specific.

Literature: Compose an epic poem based on the events of your own life in which you see and footnote allusions from T.S. Eliot, Keats, Chaucer, Dante, Norse mythology and the Marx brothers. Critique your poem with a full discussion of its metrics.

Mathematics: Derive the Euler-Cauchy equations using only set squares, protractor and compass. Discuss in detail the role these equations had on mathematical analysis in Europe during the 1800s.

Medicine: You have been provided with a razor blade, a piece of gauze, and a bottle of scotch. Remove your appendix. Do not suture until you work has been inspected. You have fifteen minutes.

Metaphysics: Describe in detail the probable nature of life after death. Test your hypothesis.

Music: Write a piano concerto. Orchestrate and perform it with flute and drum. You will find a piano under your seat.

Philosophy: Sketch the development of human thought. Estimate its significance. Compare with the development of any other kind of thought.

Psychology: Based on your knowledge of their works, evaluate the emotional stability, degree of adjustment, and repressed frustrations of each of the following: Adolf Hitler, Osama Bin Laden and George W Bush. Support your evaluation with quotations from each man's life, making appropriate references.

Physics: Explain the nature of matter. Include in your answer an evaluation of the impact of the development of mathematics on science.

Political Science: There is a red telephone on the desk beside you. Start World War III. Report at length on its socio-political effects if any.

Public Speaking: 2500 riot-crazed aborigines are storming the classroom. Calm them. You may use any ancient language except Latin or Greek.

Religion: Perform a miracle. Creativity will be judged.

Sociology: Estimate the sociological problems which might accompany the end of the world. Construct an experiment to test your theory.

Extra Credit: Define the universe, and give three examples.