Management exam today ..

I love papers for which you can wax lyrical about nothing in particular even if you're not really sure what you're talking about. Sigh. Why do I have to take maths.

Anyway, here's a gentle reminder from the kind folks in NUS.

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Studying Shaun Style

Sleepamaniac

I've been making the most out of my days; in terms of waking hours that is. I am an expert at operating on 2 hours of night-sleep, and 1 hour naps. Not that the things I do when I'm awake are particularly productive though =)

When there are maggots in your eyes, everything you see seems to be decaying. This is a morbid version of the theory that when you're spiritually dry, you're overly critical of everything related to God, Christianity and the church. I went to Lighthouse Evangelism in Tampines last sunday, and well, I notice the same old things; pretentiousness being one of them.

This time it was the emcee, who spoke with the air of someone mightily bored with his job, complete with the throwing back of his head and a soft, lazy drawl even when he was "welcoming" newcomers to the church. Makes one want to sock him in the face. He leads prayer as if he was God's superior, and prays with his eyes wide open, arranging his notes, and once again throwing his damn head back. How did I know that? Well, I kept my eyes open as well, and glared at him. Maggots in the eyes.

The sermon, on the other hand, was good. It was about how "faith, without works, is dead." The pastor was extremely long winded, but he got his message across, and it was a good one. It was disconcerting though, going to church, and listening to a sermon through a 'live' video-cast. The reason for that was that Lighthouse has a branch in woodlands and I suppose the poor pastor speaks at a different branch each Sunday.

I don't agree with Lighthouse's policy of miracle healing either. When Jesus, or his disciples healed, it was always instantaneous. Or at least it happened within the hour. Like get up and walk, and the lame walked. Spit into the eyes, rub, open, see something, close, open, see a little clearer, close, open, close, open, there you go, perfect eyesight. Lighthouse, on the other hand, says, you pray, see a doctor, eat your meds, grab some rest, and gradually you get well. It's a miracle. To be fair of course, some of the healed had been doing everything possible in their efforts to get well but to no avail - until they got prayed for, and miraculously recovered. I'm in no place to question how God work. So, I won't.

I used to think I was pretty smart, then I entered NUS and my perceptions got rudely challenged. I used to think I make a decent boyfriend, then I started dating Sheena. Ah well, we all learn.

My favorite cousin =), and her birthday's coming.

BBQ in the heartlands

24-hour Shop and Save, $9.90 BBQ pit from Carrefour, decade-old Jack Daniels, one Nissan sunny, and four sporting folks at 2am.

Not much photo documentation though, save for one :


I have pics of Sheena, but she'll probably murder me for posting them up =D

Picasso as cousin-in-law

I can DI too

President Ong

Check this out.

Unions? In Singapore

Honestly, in all my ignorance, I thought the only union in Singapore was the NTUC. Then, I came across this article where several other unions were mentioned. Maybe I was wrong. But then again, the website of NTUC those unions under its umbrella, so I guess I'm right after all. Ok, I know I'm not making much sense, but it's late. Forgive me.

Anyway, the article I was reading talks about "unionists" asking for a raise in wages "in light of economic growth." I couldn't help but wonder if this is all part of the plan to program the minds of Singaporeans to think that our economy is doing well, everybody is getting rich, so a raise in GST wouldn't matter. And, being the nice people they are, our government will lessen the pain by raising it to 6% first, and giving out cash packages to "cushion" the impact of the raise.

This is the link for the GST increase article.

"In Parliament yesterday, MP for Aljunied GRC Cynthia Phua questioned the timing of the GST hike, citing the plight of many workers earning $1,500 or less who are still struggling to make ends meet."

I wonder if this is an attempt to show the voters in Aljunied GRC(which extends to even Hougang) that their PAP MP is doing her job, and that there is no need to vote for opposition candidates. Of course, one must consider that when it comes to the actual voting in parliament, PAP MPs have to vote in line with the party's wishes. Party Whip.

I need to mug....

Someone(not me, i just took the photo) in Borders has a warped sense of humor. Our deeply respected MM Lee looks like a nice old man on the covers. Don't shoot me, I think he's brilliant! Really!

Bittersweet Symphony

I fell really ill on Monday. Started out feeling tired in the morning's lecture that I spent nodding off like a drunken sailor. Had laksa in the arts canteen for lunch and made my way to lab where I felt really, really, ill. Nauseous and feverish. Got back to hall after that and just collapsed on my bed.

Couldn't really sleep though, cause every time I turned I felt like puking. I knew that puking wouldn't work cause I tried to puke in the toilet during lab and nothing came out, so I just waited for the feeling to pass, and grab some shut eye.

Japheth told Sheena I was sick, and she arrived with watercress soup, lotus root soup, rice, panadol, and this vaguely familiar chinese herbal drink that my grandmother used to boil when I had fever.

The events that followed include her bringing me to the doctor, bringing me back, tucking me in, holding me up while I convulsed over the sink and puked my guts out, and massaging my legs when for some unknown reason they started aching.

I felt better after the major vomitting though, and started feeling hungry. This was what Sheena bought back from geylang.

Oh and there's fan choy too, but it's hidden behind the styrofoam box.

To top it off, she accomplished all that with only 1 hour of sleep the previous night. Yep...and this is why, Sheena's the world #1 girl friend =)

First pass.

I finally passed a paper in NUS. And it's political science. On a sadder note, I had a computing paper yesterday morning, which I think I will fail again. =(

Got an A for political science though :)

Imagine

Imagine there's no Heaven
It's easy if you try
No hell below us
Above us only sky
Imagine all the people
Living for today
- John Lenon "Imagine"



Yes, I think I can imagine that, and it can be summed up in one word - Chaos. Or Anarchy.

I-H-S-P

Stupid people. There's a female paul-twohill sitting in front of me right now in political science lecture and I don't think she's terribly bright.

Those of you who know how lecture theaters are designed will be familiar with the terracing; meaning that each row of seats is on a different level. Now, if you were to bring a drink into the theater, you would be smart to put it behind your seat, against the wall, instead of behind your seat, ON the next level, one foot away from the feet of the person sitting above you.

Coupled with the fact that the person(ie. Me) is using a laptop whose screen blocks my vision makes for a very probable "oops! i'm sorry!" scenario. That hasn't happened yet, but I have to be careful about where I swing my legs, and that's irritating.

And she's not even cute.

Massage and Food

Went for a thai massage today at Qi-Mantra, courtesy of Sheena. Gosh, it cost $115 per person for one and a half hour of massage! I mentally did my sums, converting the sgd to yuan and I realised that I could go for 10 hours of food and body massage in Shanghai with that amount of money! So, thanks babe =) I owe you one. Treat you in Shanghai k? *grin*

Had supper after that in Geylang with Daryl, Jianming, and surprise, surprise, Sheena again. Now they call me the "Pit" and Sheena "Bottomless"; meaning I eat a hell lot and Sheena a hell lot more. Supped at 126 Dim sum again where we had 2 baskets of char siew pau and plenty of other goodies. (pardon my lousy English, it's really late.)

Tao huey after that accompanied with plenty of lame jokes and an awesome magic trick by Jianming.

Great night, great company, great food. What more can a guy ask more? Ah, maybe superb mathematical abilities and expert knowledge in JSF.

Climbaprix

Open Men - 3rd climber

Well, the competition's over. The stress, and adrenaline, the pressure, the pain in the fingers, the flash pumps .. all back. The bittersweet feeling of competitions, with your friends cheering you on as you face the wall and acknowledge tiles that you know will make you pay for even thinking of touching them. Routes that seem impossible, and muscles that scream in agony. Ah, a bouldering competition.

Route A flash-pumped me. Crimper, after crimper, after crimper. I couldn't even reach the bonus that I later learned that almost everybody got.

Route B looked do-able, but it was pumpy again, and my already pumped forearms gave way. I had my legs exactly where they were supposed to be, and my left hand was holding on to the tile at the precise location where everybody else did, and yet, when I launched for the bonus with my right hand, I fell. Weak.

Route C had a big fat slopper as a starting hold and a small little foothold for the left foot. I molested the tile a little as I tried to figure out how to start. Sit start? Nope. Stand start? Weird too. Almost a minute went by before I gave up and tried a do-or-die sit start. I made it. Got up, grabbed a nice vertical pincher with my left hand, and brought my right left up to the starting slopper. Rested my weight nice and easy on the right leg, and reached out with my right hand for a yellow crescent sloppy pinch. Nice. Bring left leg up to the 2nd tile, and sit towards the left while my left hand reached out gingerly for the huge bonus on the other side of a protruding triangular feature. Got a firm hold of it, swung upwards to a sloper on the top of the triangle, hauled my body up, rested my right leg on the crescent, hopped for the top boxed out part of the ledge. And I'm done. Flash.

Route D. Sigh. Totally pumped out by then. Didn't even make the bonus.

Anyway thanks to my miraculous flash, I managed a semi-respectable 11th placing out of 24 in the men's open. NUS, NYP, SP and ITE were represented.

The climbing walls. See the triangle the left of the picture? That's Route C. And guys, don't the walls look different from the last time we were there? So much more power now.
Results. Many strong climbers didn't do as well as they were supposed to..

Supper at Chatterbox. The chicken rice tastes as good as five-star chicken rice or the chicken rice stall at far east plaza. Nice, quiet place though.

Climb Harder

I have a bouldering competition in two hours at Singapore Polytechnic. Climbaprix, an invitation only competition open to school climbers. Not sure if the JCs are invited, but I guess the university and polytechnic climbers will all be there. I climbed only once this week; Monday. Rest of the time? Too busy studying, or trying to study.

Had a political science test on Thursday that was worth 30% of the total grade. It's crazy, not writing a single paper on any political science topic and suddenly asked to do a test in 45mins involving page long essays. I did the best I could, wrote non-stop till my wrist ached, and answered all the questions to the best of my ability. If I still fail, I should probably start looking for a job and get my ass out of NUS.

Climb, climb harder. Work, work smarter.

Just started learning MIPS assembly language, the only programming I will be doing this semester. If I screw this up too .. well .. refer to above about getting out of school.

Broke! What's a license without a car? It's like having the liberty to own property without possessing the material means to acquire one. That's Marx's criticism of Liberalism. =D