stupid me

i just did something really stupid ytd...i used my hand to try and stop my bike (and me) which were going down a slope too fast. of course i ended up with a pretty deep laceration on my right hand (in the fleshy and webby part between my thumb and forefinger), so here's what happened:

i really wanted to practise some cycling before i go back bcos i probably need to cycle to school quite often in the future, so i jumped at the suggestion of a night cycling trip with smsa ppl! unfortunately it just rained so it was wet and slippery, and i haven't cycled for quite a while, and i suck at controlling the bike when i'm going slowly :(

plus i was tired from going out almost every night, so i guess i wasn't in full form to think clearly, so when they wanted to cycle from pasir ris to changi village, i was like ok! unfortunately that trail is a lot harder and dangerous than the flat stuff at ecp!! should have just stuck to cycling in ecp :/

then when we got to this sharp turn i slowed down quite a bit but i didn't notice the slope after. when i finally saw it i was like ah whatever i'm slow enough now to make it. too late did i realise that the slope was steeper than i thought, and i turned right too much so my bike went into the green railing on the right. i couldn't reach my right bike handle and my right hand couldn't do anything, so in my panic i did the first thing that came to mind: grab the railing and stop!!

if i were a pro-er biker, i would simply turn with my left hand to get back to center then brake with my right hand, but since i was panicking about my bike handle going through on the railing on the right (and obviously i couldn't brake with my right brake), i simply reached out my hand to the railing to stop the bike and me from moving. it didn't work for a second so i grabbed again harder.

of course my hand hit the vertical part of the railing and bike + me stopped. i felt pain but didn't think much about it, thinking it was just a bruise. the bike front handle turned backwards, so after checking the bike was ok, i turned it round and moved it center before cycling on. then i noticed my entire right hand was covered in bright red. for a moment i was surprised and wondering where this came from. then my 2nd thought was that i need to clean up quickly so that i was not slowing the rest down.

unfortunately, it was a pretty deep laceration and was bleeding profusely (yes i actually have the occasion to use this phrase on myself T.T...) and i was like wow how could blood look so bright and red! it's just like tomato sauce, and to think i always thought using ketchup as fake blood was totally off!

anw i was so fortunate to be with a bunch of awesome ppl! all the other ppl were so worried and thanks jh for having plenty of wet wipes, tissues and hand sanitizer on hand! thanks h.e. for helping me wash and cleanup the blood (both on my hand and the bike), and for putting my plaster on! ( thank goodness i always bring plasters along, in case of blisters or injuries ^^)

anyhow i was really scared by the blood, bcos i was nv comfortable with it and i always felt some fear esp with large amts of blood (from myself no less!). that's why i could nv be a doctor haha. aaand i totally dirtied my favorite white shorts with blood from my hand and the bike, so it looked like i just had a leak from a period (obviously not the case) and/or had been attacked by someone with a knife.

thanks j and yl for cycling all the way back to return the bikes and then drive over, and thanks yl especially for giving up his cycling and driving me to see the doctor, accompanying me the entire time, then sending me home!!

i felt really lucky and touched and happy, really glad that i had someone to tide me over the pain and blood. i nv really liked the doctor's, that's why. anw the doctor was literally digging in my wound with alcohol to clean it out (PAINNNN) for at least 3 changes of cotton swabs, then he said i needed 2 stitches.

my eyes literally popped out of my head! i knew it was a worse cut than i've had b4 (excepting the one i sustained at 2 that i totally don't rmb), but stitches mean baaad. and painnn. and more trouble after!

luckily (or not?) the doctor didn't have anymore local anesthesia  so we made do with skin glue to glue both edges of the wound together. the cut was pretty deep and gaping open with blood coming out, so it definitely needed to be closed up. i wonder how the doctor could do all this so calmly T.T

anw here's a picture of it after glue (it looks sooo much better glued up!):

the wound goes round to the other side between the thumb and 2nd finger, so it's painful and awkward for me to use my right hand now. sniffs. i also got a tetanus jab and antibiotics in case of infection, so the price tag got really high for all these :( esp the glue costs $80! and it was a 24-hour clinic (bcos it was 10+ by then and most clinics close 9 or 10pm) so the consultation fees increase at night-time to $40 T.T

anyhow i conclude doctors really can earn a lot, so it's well worth the time and money spent studying medicine...

hmm hence i am typing and texting with my left hand now, which were things i could always do but just slower than usual. though trying to brush teeth, use utensils and write with my left hand prove to be a lot more difficult. hopefully no writing is required of me until i can write decently with my right...

till then, let's hope it heals fast and leaves no scars! and i will definitely brake my way down any slope in the future, and stick to cycling at ecp...

NDP theme song 2013

here's the new NDP  theme song for this year:


it’s very different from the previous few NDP theme songs which were slow/emo, i guess that is necessary for such a large group singing. this time the song is special because it is being sung by 68 singaporeans from all ages and all walks of life, so it is a really down-to-earth thing and reaches out to the heartlands. the song is really upbeat and and fun, and can be sung by both the young and old. it's also pretty catchy the more you listen to it.

However it sounds pretty rowdy/disorganized in some ways, I feel they should have organized the choir better if possible. The singing is pretty spaced out and not united in some parts, and the music should be better produced! the drums sound too noisy, and make the song sound kindof cheapskate and stuff...

I think they should hire someone like Dr Mark Wilson from berkeley’s gospel chorus, who can make a bunch of strangers who can sing ok to a harmonious group that can sing wonderfully! i really enjoyed my experience singing gospel chorus with him, he's able to bring the best out of each of us and make us one voice.

I believe the singing in the NDP song was also slightly off from the drum beat, it sounds like the choir was singing too fast (by half a beat?) at the beginning of each verse. This makes it sound childish and not very professional or NDP-like :/

oh well, it's a good change to have lively and catchy music rather than just the usual slow emo patriotic songs, and anyone can just join in with the easy-to-catch lyrics and melody. It’s a song everyone can sing, which I guess was the aim of the song...

birthday girl

yes my birthday just passed! this year i'm very lucky to have not just one, or two, but three birthday surprises!!! all very successful ones too!

i'm really happy about getting these birthday surprises! the first one was very early on, just meeting up with friends close to another friend's birthday last month, then turned out two of the friends bought us a cake to share! really unexpected bcos it wasn't either of our birthdays yet, but they wanted to celebrate before they left the country. sooo at the end of the meal the waitress just brought it out all lit up and i thought it's for my friend who has her birthday first, so we sang it for her. ended up it was for me too hahaha! so happy! the cake was a pandan/kaya cake with cream and chocolate and stuff, from bread talk. not bad, it's pretty innovative xD

then my 2nd birthday surprise was really truly a HUGE surprise. i planned a birthday surprise with the rest for a friend's birthday during a karaoke session at 10 dollar club, so we pulled it off successfully, bringing in the cake and all that in the middle of the session. then another hour later one of them went outside and i was wondering why he took so long at the toilet. turned out he was lighting candles and bringing in MY CAKE! so we got two cakes that time, and the other friends actually planned my birthday surprise on top of the one i was planning for my friend!! so sneaky, they hijack another person's birthday to do this for me lol!!! but it's really the best surprise ever, bcos i was so occupied with planning one for my friend that i never once thought that i would get one too! i got a chocolate cake from prima deli, it was nice but pretty chocolatey.

then the third one was just ytd, had a meal with juniors and then one of them said she has to go do something. then the rest were like she's just being shy, she always says this when she needs to pass motion xD i was doubting their words, and wondering why they were teasing her like this, then she came back very quickly. turned out she went to tell the waiter to bring out the cake, and when the cake came i thought it wasn't for my table, bcos the juniors aren't that close to me, plus my birthday was one day past. then the waiter came over and i was really surprised! i got a chocolate cake with lots of fruits on top from some neighbourhood bakery in eunos hahaha. very rich chocolate...

hmm on my birthday itself i got a small piece of strawberry shortcake from four leaves from an intern friend at bosch. it's so nice of her, bcos we're not that close and she didn't have to get me a cake. but i was really happy, and it's my favorite birthday cake flavor i've had so far hahaha! it's got strawberry in every layer and esp in the bottom! so nice to have fruits ^^

it's really cool that i had so many birthday cakes in the past two months, and i believe this is my most celebrated birthday ever. also had more than 120 birthday wishes (both fb and in person/text) this time, so i'm pretty happy. feeling really loved this year :)

i've had a really busy birthday week, been going out every night and still have to work everyday. also made many new friends, so i'm really tired out by now. so glad it's finally the weekend! i can sleep in tmr hee ^^

hmm for my birthday, i'm wishing for love, health and peace for friends and family. hope they will come true :)

review about a book

hello! i've been on a book-reading spree ever since i came back for the summer. i realise that having a kindle fire kind of does that to you, and my book-reading habits from sec school days are all rushing back: i cannot stand waiting helplessly for buses and trains with nothing to do, so i used to bring a book around all the time so i could read while i wait. now i have a kindle fire, so i just load all my e-books on it and i can read on and on and on, and when i finish a book i can move straight on to the next xD

i am also reading a lot of YA novels nowadays, a lot easier on the mind and very fast to read haha. my friend recommended me john green's books, so i have been reading a lot of his books, though they are all similar in how they try to be inspiring to teenagers and encourage them to not be suicidal, and to see beyond themselves and see the bigger picture of a bright future ahead.

and what with the new social site goodreads.com, i have become pretty active in the reviewing books and finding books to read thing. here's a review i just did on a john green book i just read, an abundance of katherines. all that i want to say about it is essentially here haha:

Of all the John Green books I have read, I find this book the least inspiring and least “deep” in meaning, but it has characters that I can relate to the most. Colin and Hassan are definitely my favourite John Green protagonist characters thus far.

Ok so here’s what I liked about the book: I like the main character Colin and the way he thinks. I can totally relate to all his quirks, how he thinks and how he is semi-socially awkward. I think I am a little like him myself, liking to spout random bits of trivia that others may or may not find interesting, and making all kinds of connections that only I find interesting but others don’t. Fortunately, my friends are a lot more forgiving and humour me by pretending these things are interesting, so I’m not a social pariah (yet).

I especially like Hassan and his wittiness. His way of expressing friendship and interacting with Colin never fails to make me laugh (or at least smile), and I believe that is how guys their age really hang out and have fun. I also like the anagrams and the math theorem (which is something I have attempted doing for random other scenarios before, but usually I give up after 5 minutes just because I’m not so OCD about math). I also love the footnotes, snide comments and the horribly long sentences Colin used to describe each Katherine encounter in his story at the end (as you can probably tell from my excessive use of long run-on sentences in this review).

However (yes there’s always a however), I got annoyed with Colin’s whining and wallowing in misery about how he always gets dumped, then his single-mindedness in not getting dumped and trying to make himself matter. Clearly he does not understand the real problem are his insecurities and how just by thinking he is a failure, he is making himself one! I find him ungrateful and unappreciative of what he has: he is a very smart guy with great memory who has won so many competitions and has had 19 Katherines liking him (which must say something about his attractiveness and stuff). Seriously, being able to date 19 girls is a feat in itself, and all by the age of 18! (or probably 17, since he went to school a year early…)

Then again, this is a common insecurity of teenagers, and I too have gone through that phase of thinking myself a failure when I have much to be grateful for. It is only because I have grown up and gotten past all this that I was getting frustrated with Colin. Fortunately, Colin realizes it at the end of the book – that he matters to people who care about him, and that he does not always have to strive towards being a genius when he has a lot more to offer as himself. He sure has a lot to be grateful for; he has loving parents,  great friends and a bright future ahead.

Ok sorry about that, enough of the rant. Just because I like to whine in real life doesn’t mean I have to like reading about other people whine right? This book would probably annoy adults to no end, but might be intriguing enough for teenagers who are going through similar problems to those that the characters are going through. Either way, this book gets 4 stars because I love the characters to death, I love the way John Green wrote this book and I love the story, but just don’t like the excessive whining and dragginess of it all.

so...while writing this, i just treated it as writing a blog post about the book. i guess that's what i would have done before goodreads and facebook and all that came along. the many social media sites of today huh. but i still want to keep some of my thoughts here, especially this review that i find especially witty. just so that years down the road i will remember that OH YEAH i actually read john green, and this was how i felt! and make sure i don't make the same mistake of re-reading a book i thought i haven't read before (i just did that for sarah dessen, i read 'the truth about forever' thinking i haven't read it before, when it turns out i have and everything in the book just felt like deja vu haha).

psi 290

it's been a while since i got to experience haze in sg...this summer it's especially bad. the psi reading just went up to 290, which is a really unhealthy level (anything more than 100 is bad, more than 200 is unhealthy!)

the shocking thing is hearing my mum vehemently cursing the people who are causing the haze, and actually wanting them all to go and die. like that would solve the problem..the haze is already here to stay, and it's not just any one person's fault. let's just hope for some wind and rain, so the psi reading goes down...

and that the governments actually do something about this negative externality! like trying to tackle the root cause of the fires (slash and burn to clear land for agriculture and commercial purposes), and fine the companies in charge or something. make them improve their technology for land-clearing so they stop harming the people there and all around too!

i totally forgot about this haze thing (since it was nv that serious), and i really never thought much about it until this year. interestingly, people were like telling me are you glad to be back in sg, i would probably be happier in the us without this haze and all that. i was really shocked to hear that, it never crossed my mind though it's probably true in terms of the timing i'm back. but i really don't feel that upset, after all i'm back for my family, not so much about the air quality.

of course, it's bad that there's this haze, and i sincerely hope everyone's going to be fine and not suffer any lung problems or coughs bcos of this...i recall a reading from the archeology class i'm doing on coursera right now. there was this body (the ice man i think?) they were analyzing from hundreds/thousands of years back or something, and they found that his lungs were blackened from smoke, so probably back in those days they cooked food around fires all the time.

i was just wondering if the haze would do the same to us all, blackening our lungs bit by bit? or maybe i'm just exaggerating haha, but i'm just reminded of that reading.

ohh and i got so pissed off when the guy walking in front of me today was smoking a cigarette! like the haze wasn't bad enough, he had to smoke in front of me and argh. i just sped up and overtook him so i don't have to be taking in his second hand smoke...but because of that i think i breathed harder and took in more dust particles lol. i guess i should learnt to be more patient somehow...

WebRep

Overall rating

This site has no rating

(not enough votes)

odd flight from sf to tokyo

not sure i want to take united again...i meet the oddest people on such flights!

on the 11hour+ flight from san francisco to tokyo on the way home, i encountered this mixed-race couple in their 50s, one black guy and white woman. i found them really interesting, they speak with some kindof southern accent, the lady sounded a little irritating with the drawl, just like in the movies.

the moment they discovered alcohol was free on the flight, they ordered at least 6 rounds of alcohol: two rounds of champagne, one round each of red wine, white wine, and several rounds of beer...i was surprised the flight attendants were so patient and kept bringing them bottle after bottle of wine and beer, just because they ask for it. isn't there some kind of limit so they won't get too drunk and get into trouble?

i was seated in the aisle, but they kept getting out of their seats and back in for restroom break (that's for drinking so much alcohol), for stretching, for walking around. the worst part is, they don't go together, they just take turns getting out and then getting back in!!

i was trying to sleep during the flight too, and i notice that i wake every hour on the dot because they need to get out, so in the end i was getting irritated. argh for sitting in the aisle.

not only that, they also get out to take stuff from the overhead compartment, and then need to spend ages packing their things WHILE in their seats, and elbow me constantly while i was sitting there erhem. i realised that i was squished to like 2/3 of my seat alrd, bcos the guy was like putting his arm all the way at my seat armrest, then i have to sleep slanted towards the aisle. sigh la. squished and not happy.

moreoever, they brought some dvd player and various dvds to watch, but they both wanted to watch (and they brought headphones, so only one person could listen at a time), so they plugged it out and watched the movie OUT LOUD, totally disturbing everyone la! fortunately there was no charger and their thing ran out of batt so they stopped. then the wife was so fidgety all the time, and so whiney at her age! she was whining about how the flight is 24 hours and it's taking forever and they have nothing to do, while the husband is saying they should just sleep and keep it down. of course the flight was only 11 hours but dunno why they thought it was 24 hours. anyway.

then they started arguing and kept getting louder and louder. the wife then kept chanting "sleep. sleep. sleep. sleep." while staring at him, then he got pissed and started scolding her for making a fuss and yelled at her to keep it down. oh what an irony, he was the one making the most noise by yelling actually. i gave up trying to sleep and started reading my book every time they started talking. it always ends up in an argument which ends with some alcohol and kisses and "honey". argh what an interesting yet irritating couple dynamics!!

of course they had no idea how to operate the lights and volume buttons and service buttons so i taught them. then they discovered that they could listen to music on the flight so they started to listen and humming, and singing, and just club dancing in their seats. like wth??? first time i saw people dancing to their music while seated! omg it made my seat shake all the time so i just ignored it and pretended like it was turbulence, but apparently they were kicking or moving the seats in front so the people in front, who were trying to sleep too, turned around and told them off a few times.

the wife also liked to open the windows whenever she liked/whenever she was bored, and start applauding. i have no idea why she was clapping, maybe it's bcos she saw nice clouds or something? or maybe it's the alcohol anw, but it just blinds everyone who was sleeping. argh i guess i'm just feeling irritated that my sleep kept getting interrupted by the two of them, esp since it's alrd quite hard for me to fall asleep when it's daytime in the us.

i thought sitting in the aisle should be a good experience since most ppl get out like twice in the whole flight, but this couple got out at least 10 times argh. they're like a completely clueless couple and definitely did not seem like a couple in their 50s. they felt like they had the right to make noise and disturb others without worry about other people...this was the most eventful but irritating flight i've ever had, and i sincerely hope i don't have such an experience again.

almost became a murderer

back from a trip to alaska...i had a truly great shock of my life on my drive up to denali national park.

i was driving on the highway at a pretty high speed when suddenly a moose strolled so nonchalantly across the highway. when i saw it, it was already in the middle of the road and i slowed down and swerved round it to give it more space. luckily it didn't charge, if not it could run very fast and get hit. 

our car probably would suffer some damage and injury too, the moose was a full-grown male with antlers and all. it takes up like 1.5 lanes on the highway and was really tall, like a horse! i remember very clearly seeing its big eyes staring at me while leisurely walking on across the road. 

this was the first time i got a close up look at moose, and i really got a heart attack from it! luckily i didn't crash into it...now i know better to scan further ahead on the highway to avoid roadkills >.>

there were really so many moose in alaska though. when i first touched down, on the way from the airport to the hostel, i saw a dead moose in the middle of the highway. some guy was standing in front of it and waving traffic around it, which is really dangerous for that guy since it was darkening and difficult for people to see. the taxi driver said it was a baby moose, even though it's pretty big and took up the entire lane. i was shocked to see such blatant roadkills in the middle of the road, but turns out it is a very common occurrence as they cross the roads all the time without care for cars.

in denali national park, when we were driving through on the park road, we also saw a baby moose trying to cross the road. we stopped and took some pictures of it, but it got nervous or something and turned back to graze on the grass. then we realised it's a baby moose so the mummy must be nearby, and lo and behold! the mummy moose was to our right. we all got shocked and quickly moved up a little, bcos i think we were making the mummy nervous, and she might want to charge at us!

on the chester park trail around downtown anchorage too, we saw a baby moose crossing right in front of us, except this time we're on foot and out in the open. fortunately it just ignored us and went for the grass. we couldn't find the mummy though, we just took some pictures and quickly walked by.

haha exciting tales in alaska. seems like it is a place full of wildlife and nature stuff, and hunting/gun use is very common and even necessary. a typical weekend consists of a family going fishing, or a father bringing his son to go hunting. 1 in 60 alaskans are also pilots, more than 6 times the average in the US! this is because alaska is much more accessible by plane than by car or anything else haha, and they can go fly somewhere to fish or hunt before returning. they are not allowed to hunt caribou within 24 hours of flying though, probably because it is too easy to kill wildlife while in the air, so people have to camp somewhere for 24 hours and hike to hunt animals.

i think it's a nice and relaxing/fun way of spending time here, but this is too much killing and meat for my liking. i prefer a city life, with veggie and no hunting/killing involved >.> seems like i'm all soft and like a typical city girl haha. oh well i'm fine with that, not cut out to be on survivor or lost anyway!

saying goodbye to undergrad life

yay last final of my undergrad life is finally over!! i'm so excited for graduation haha. i feel pretty sad about leaving berkeley though...it just hit me how wonderful it really is. just walking along the streets, there are so many different kinds of delicious food and cuisines that i didn't take enough advantage of - japanese, thai, korean, chinese, taiwanese, mexican, italian, western, greek, Mediterranean, and even has boba and my favourite froyo places. of course the boba can't compare to koi, and pinkberry is far away in SF (anywhere outside of 15 min of berkeley is considered far lol)...

the weather is also awesome. of course there are times when it's just foggy and cold and rainy and miserable, but this year has been great. barely any rain season this year, with some slight drizzles. finals week is beautiful and sunny out everyday, with the appropriate breezes to keep it cool and comfy all the time. sigh i sure will miss this nice weather...

with graduation, my parents will be coming over and i can bring them around berkeley and bay area! so fun haha. i'll then go to alaska for my graduation trip, and then returning home for an internship. of course, there's still more school to look forward to come fall, as i'll be embarking on my grad school life. hehe i'm excited to meet new people and learn more things, and delay a sad working career life  (and possibly find a rich and dashing boyfriend along the way).

on a side note before i forget, here are some memories i have of my wine-tasting decal and cantonese decal this semester. They were definitely the most fun classes I've done in a while (other than the Gospel chorus class, which was amazingly fun), and they definitely made my final semester more enjoyable and memorable haha.

Wine-Tasting History & Culture of Wine Decal

Got to bring home these two wine glasses at the end of the decal. we're supposed to just take one home each, but there were extras so i took another one. one smaller one for white wines (better for concentrating the smells), and a bigger one for red wines (better in terms of surface area and aerating the wine)

now i have legit wine glasses for drinking wines :)

the argentina wine i bought at trader joe's for an assignment. really refreshing and crisp, like a bright lemonade on a hot summer day

Cantonese Intermediate Decal

Here's the video of the final skit my group of four people did. I'm really proud of it because it's simply hilarious, and it was so much fun making the video. sorry for the amateurish acting and editing, i did it over like a few days, and video editing plus subtitles took over 20 hours for me. the acting was also filmed on two days, around over 6 hours, + writing the script took around 2 or 3 hours too. quite a bit of time-commitment for a pass/not pass class, but definitely fun!

happy for now

i feel really happy right now...just got back my business & ethics paper and i got an A for it! The comments were really good too, saying good structure, good research and that it's professional!

it's been a while since i last wrote a paper, and i have never written a research paper for a humanities class before. i've also heard bad stuff about how the paper really screwed up their grades, so i put in quite a bit of effort in it to make good arguments with a lot of research and stuff. i'm really happy that the graders like it after all!

u know with papers, it's always so hard to gauge and guess if people would like it. it's so subjective, and there were no drafts allowed for this paper. it was a one-off 10-page paper worth 35% of our grade, so i was really worried about whether the grader would like it. glad that it turned out well ^^

this really made my day, and now i'm all ready to chiong for the last final tomorrow :)

here's a song i didn't think much of at first, until i realised how impressive jess lee's vocals are, to sing so high so beautifully. and i got really freaked out by the mv, even though i know it's fake i couldn't imagine how the mv leading lady managed to endure all that!!!! >.>

the first white hair of my life

just discovered the first white hair of my life! it's pretty long too, must have been there for quite a while...i wonder when/how it came to be?

maybe it's from the the many stresses of college life/finals...

or maybe i'm really getting old T.T

here's a picture to commemorate the moment (in case it drops off/i can't find it anymore)

interesting thing i found out about my hair: it looks really brown under the sun or under light! (and nope i didn't dye it before...)

first white hair

a belated mother's day

i shouldn't be here...i should be studying for finals. it's my last 3 finals of my undergraduate life (yepp my final finals hehe),  but somehow i'm procrastinating and not wanting to study T.T

my parents are currently on a plane, embarking on an 18hour+ flight to the US. they will be spending a few days in the east coast with my brother, and they're going to toronto and going to visit the niagara falls, before flying over to the west coast for my graduation. i'm really excited for them to come, and i can show them my life here and how i have spent my past 3 years on my own. i'm also really excited for graduation and just relaxing/having fun...i'll be bound to a 3.5 month internship this summer, which will suck up my entire vacation at home >.>

anyway back to the main point of this post. it was mother's day yesterday, but i didn't get to wish my mum a happy mother's day personally. i was too busy studying and during a quick skype IM my dad was just saying oh you should study and let's not disturb you today. i didn't think twice about it, and i told my dad to wish my mum happy mother's day on my behalf.

this morning when i woke up, suddenly i was afraid i wouldn't get to say it to my mum, especially since she was going to board the plane to the US today. if anything happened to her, i know i will regret this to death, so i called her up just now and wished her a belated happy's mother day. she was really happy to talk to me and see me (we were doing a video call), and i was really happy too. now i feel recharged and ready to study for finals! (erhem i mean after finishing this blog post lol)

at least it's one thing off my mind for now, and i really wish that my parents have a great time for the week ahead. can't wait to see them, and can't wait for my finals to be over on wednesday! ok just 3 more days of mugging...i see the light at the end of the tunnel! gambatte!!!

Doing the Briggs-Myers personality test again

Hello!

It's been a looong while since I last posted here...but today I just did a Briggs-Myers personality test online (no thanks to my roommates). And guess what? my results are the same as before I came to university in J1 or J2!

I got INFJ, for more details click here (opens in new window).

When I first took the test in Sec 3, I got the same result of INFJ, but my Introvertedness was a lot higher, like 50+% preference over Extrovertedness. Interestingly in JC when I took the test again, I got INFJ but with a lower Introvertedness preference of around 22%. Now that I'm taking it again, I got a 22% preference of Introvertedness over Extrovertedness, so seems like I didn't exactly change that much on that aspect :)

I guess my personality is kind of fixed around INFJ for now, maybe after I start work things will change. Either way, I'm glad that I still got INFJ, so I don't need to bother remembering what my 2nd personality result is!

Some famous ppl who are also INFJ:
Mother Teresa (righttt....), Nicole Kidman!, Shirley Temple, etc

Suitable Career paths:
Literature & Writing, Humanities, Graphics Design, Archaeology, Anthropology, Social Services, Psychology, Counseling, Religious Education...

lol I'm supposed to be great at being an activist and matyr and all that, which totally doesn't fit me. Hmm...I guess it's too late to change career directions, but the only one I ever considered up there was Psychology.

If you guys are interested in doing the test to see what's your personality like, try it out here!

L.E.A.F. - Project E-Du-Waste

Since last September, I founded a project together with another 3 Singaporeans at Berkeley and participated in a grant-funding competition called Big Ideas @ Berkeley, which awards prize money to fund innovative ideas. We are now entering a video contest for a People's Choice Award as part of the competition, and winning the Award is based on purely YOUR votes, so every vote counts! Please vote for our video and help us pass the video link on to your friends. You can help us make this happen!

Click here to vote. (You'll need a Facebook account, and you need to allow access to the Contests app). Thank you very much!

Here's more information about our project and what we do:
L.E.A.F. (Leverage Environmental Education, Act for Future Generations) is founded to provide an innovative approach to address environmental issues that are not being addressed effectively. To achieve a long-term and effective impact, our team is focusing on education of children most affected by poverty caused by these environmental issues. We propose an initial approach in the form of an experiential camp. According to the performance of the camp and the response we receive from schools and students, the educational model can be delivered in other forms and incorporated in school curricula in the future.

LEAF’s educational model emphasizes the teaching of soft skills essential in the 21st Century through interactive methods. By providing hands-on and innovative lessons across disciplines like Art, Science and English, our team aims to raise students’ awareness of multiple perspectives to problems, and consequently to equip them with the ability to develop different viewpoints to any single issue. Students can develop better teamwork, communication and critical thinking skills, which allows them to assess and more effectively address the environmental problems and poverty around them. Eventually, our team aims to enable the students to higher education and better employment, helping them escape the poverty cycle.

Developed countries like the US, Europe and Japan have been continuously dumping E-waste to various parts of developing countries, thus straining the sustainability of the local environment and health of their residents. It is a severe poverty issue because E-waste recycling is usually carried out by poverty-stricken and socially marginalized groups who are forced to rummage through and handpick waste for survival. Thus L.E.A.F's first project E-Du-Waste targets Guiyu, China, which is the largest dumping ground of E-waste in the world. Current efforts to address this issue have been ineffective due to economic incentives associated with the thriving E-waste industry, and poor legislative enforcement in China.

Our team currently focuses on educating middle school students in Guiyu. In collaboration with environmental groups in Chinese universities and UC Berkeley students, we will organize a 5-day educational camp for each targeted school to equip the local students with critical thinking skills and insights on environmental issues. The camp comprises interactive education in the disciplines of English, Art, Film and Science, facilitated by college student volunteers in the relevant majors. At the end of the camp, participants will present their work to the public. Our team may produce publicity material based on the camp and make it available to E-waste recycling centers to raise public awareness.

The students, inspired by their interaction with the university students from China and the US, can be motivated to seek higher education and avoid harmful E-waste recycling jobs in the future. Based on our experience gained from the educational camp in Guiyu, we can further improve this model in the future to impact a larger audience more effectively. Our educational model can potentially be used by other advocate groups that are addressing similar politically sensitive issues. Please vote for our video and support us in our project!

whyyy

i can't believe i just rejected a research project. what in the world am i thinking??? so many students out there would die to have the offer for the project T.T it's under such a prestigious professor and at the cool science labs of lawrence berkeley labs, and it's on superconductors and has real-world applications! sigh.

i'm hoping to get another research project though, and this one i got offered would take up too much of my time and i have to travel up the hills to the labs, which would be really time consuming too. i don't really want to compromise my studies, especially since i'm alrd overloading and taking really hard classes that can only get harder from here on, and i still want to do tutoring and a lot of other stuff, and apply for internships and go for career fairs etc.

i feel really bad though, the scientist spent quite some time explaining the projects and bringing me around the labs. if only i had more time for me to decide, if he gave me till next week for me to confirm whether i got the other project, i would say yes. T.T

though he would be better off with another student who can commit more time and effort. T.T sigh. why i like that.

soprano

can't wait to watch this! i love the hunger games trilogy, if you haven't read it alrd you should! especially before the movie comes out hee, hopefully it won't be a letdown the way movies that come from books tend to be...


so far the trailer looks kindof different from my expectations, the setting looks a lot more modern than i imagined, but the entire cast looks better than i imagined so that's great haha. hair colours and eye colours are all right so i'm happy haha.

i got into gospel chorus class! it's a singing class that involves sightsinging and gospel music, and we get to perform on stage quite a few times as part of our grade! it required auditions and i was kindof sick and i thought i wouldn't get in because they had to cut more than 100 people from the auditions, but i made it! my singing wasn't as bad as i thought xD

anddddd i discovered i'm actually a soprano! soprano sounds so cool, like prima donna and first lady xD i got allocated to soprano 2, and i was like whoa. i always thought i was an alto xD seems like i can sing both! lalala i'm really excited about this class, first time i'm doing singing in a more formal setting, hope i'll get to learn a lot about gospel music and singing properly! it's been a while since i've done music, so hopefully i'm not -too- rusty, especially in reading music and stuff.

also, i was very touched by this song by demi lovato, "Skyscraper". Her singing style is so different in here, i could feel the pain in her voice and all that she had to go through to sing like that...my respect for her increased a thousandfold. i think she had an eating disorder and depression because of the pressure to look good in front of the camera. she has an awesome voice and i think she should focus on that instead though.

finals are finally over!

yay for the end of finals! can sing 解脱 now hahaha...

my math final was horrible T.T i hope i did ok enough to still get an A in the class...i got back my astro final though, i did super well so i'm like stunned. i didn't do that great on midterm 1, like the average was super high but my score was only around average T.T, then i did better on midterm 2, almost fullmarks (because of bonus question, it adds a lot like 4 marks if you get it right), then this time i got more than full marks! (because of bonus question again lol, it added 6 marks).

i'm super surprised, considering the exams only got harder, like midterm 2 was harder than midterm 1, then final was the hardest, but oddly i got higher and higher scores. oh well. i'm glad though. i liked that class, it would be a pity to mar any happy memories of it with an ugly grade T.T

as for physics...either A- or A hopefully. as for com lit and lgbt, i wonder...i'm hoping for lenient marking of my papers...i am really bad at writing papers. but at least i'm done with papers for the rest of my college life! woohoo!

all right, time to pack my notes and everything, and i'll be flying off to east coast for vacation in two days! hee.

music

anyway, it's my finals in like two days but i'm still stuck on youtube watching random music videos lol. i finally found out why people loved listening to english songs and all that. their voices are really good. however, their styles...too sexy, too trashy or too rocker/punk, but their voices are still really good. i can't imagine why they have to show off cleavage and dress skimpily in their mvs or even in their everyday lives...what a ploy to attract male buy-in. tsk tsk.

hmm so i guess that's the difference between asian singers and western singers. i guess i still prefer asian music, 比较单纯. i'll still add in some of the nicer english songs into my playlist though haha.

over a month ago i found out hebe has a new album, but i don't quite like most of the songs, not really my type of music. however, her one song 还是要幸福 made up for all of that! i was so amazed by the song, the lyrics are so touching and the music so 催泪...i guess it's the perfect song to sing when people break up >.>

田馥甄 - 还是要幸福

不确定就别亲吻
感情很容易毁了一个人
一个人若不够狠
爱淡了不离不弃多残忍

你留下来的垃圾
我一天一天总会丢完的
我甚至真心真意的祝福
永恒在你的身上先发生

你还是要幸福
你千万不要在招惹别人哭
所有错误从我这里落幕
别跟着我 铭心 刻骨

你还是要幸福
我才能确定我还得很清楚
确定自己再也不会占据你的篇幅
明天 开始 这一切都结束

还我钥匙的备份
我觉得再见可以很单纯
我甚至真心真意的祝福
永恒在你的身上先发生

你还是要幸福
你千万不要在招惹别人哭
所有错误从我这里落幕
别跟着我 铭心 刻骨

你还是要幸福
我才能确定我还得很清楚
确定自己再也不会占据你的篇幅
明天 开始 这一切都结束

你还是要幸福
你千万不要在招惹别人哭
所有错误从我这里落幕
别跟着我 铭心 刻骨

你如果很幸福
半夜的简讯我就不需回复
因为你的悲喜已经有了 容身之处
我也 能有
最纯粹的孤独 最孤独 的 孤独

good mood!

yay i finaled in a case competition (first final!) and i placed 3rd! isn't that amazing? and i didn't even put in half as much time/effort as i did last time...it was mostly the other two's hard work and ideas. i think ideas make a whole lot of difference between placing and not placing. also, i gained myself 250/3 = $83.33! not bad not bad haha.
Also, i got full marks for my 2nd keyword paper! that's amazingly crazy, because i suck at writing papers, but today is a good day after all. It started out horrible, but now it's great and i'm happy.
almost time for finals. almost time for iabc deliverable. last push/chionging and i'll be done! ^^

eventful week

This was a really eventful week.
I had 3 midterms in a 4-day week, and on the first day of my midterm, my laptop died. like right when i was going to study on my laptop for the midterm, i couldn't access all the materials in my com. T.T
then for the next two days i wasted quite a lot of time figuring out how to access all my online studying materials, troubleshoot the com, sending it for repair and all. in the end i just bought a new macbook pro yesterday, so here i am blogging.
Then we rented a zip car to drive to daly city on veteran's day, which is about 40 min away by car. we had a great buffet dinner, and i drove on the us highway proper for the first time! (the previous time was by accident so not counted lol)
then we went to target for grocery shopping and stuff, but when we're leaving, the zip car died. like engine couldn't start, cannot turn steering wheel, and the car just kept reversing out of the lot. in the end i parked the car, but it was stuck half-inside half-outside the lot, and imagine how scary that is, bcos cars can drive by and crash into our car! it was rainy and darkening some more!
luckily, our car was bright red so it was fine, and we're in the parking lot so cars drive slowly anyway. sigh. in the end we had to wait over 2 hours for the zip car roadside crew to come. they promised 30min to 60min wait, but the original crew truck broke down, so they had to call another repair company to come, so we ended up waiting miserably in the car. even though we're at emeryville, the shopping area, it was raining heavily and we couldn't lock the car, so we just decided to wait in the car T.T
in the end we spent quite an interesting time on the car lol.
yeah so here concludes my miserable week. i think my hands are accursed this week - whatever i touch seems to breakdown. first the laptop, then the car. T.T what was supposed to be a celebration/fun-filled weekend turned out to be a lot of time wasted :/

daylight savings and brownies

yay i'll be gaining one hour of time tomorrow! i'm not going to use it for sleep, but for studying for my midterms! ^^

November 6 is officially the greatest day of the year because as Daylight Saving Time ends, we actually gain an hour -- and who doesn't need more time?

luckily my roommate told me about it, if not i would have gone for everything an hour earlier than i needed to T.T

recently i find that i like baking and cooking quite a lot; mainly bcos i love eating xD it's great to make stuff i like to eat. also, baking/cooking doesn't require as much brainpower, and is a form of relaxation/recreation/enjoyment/fun for me. maybe even exercise, when i'm trying to mix a lot of stuff together, i exert more energy than i'll ever do sitting in front of a computer xD

most of all, i love the end-products! i baked some cookies last week, and then this week i wasn't planning to bake, but bcos my friend's birthday was coming up, i decided to bake for her birthday...

ghiradelli double chocolate brownies + random nuts i added + some secret ingredients i added xD

they taste great! hopefully she'll like it ^^

when someone gives up his seat for you

you know you're old when someone volunteers to give up his seat for you on the bus. haha nah the guy was giving it up to me only because i was carrying a lot of stuff, but no i didn't take it. he was way older than me and i didn't really need the seat, and now i remember NEVER to take 176 during peak hours. it's so hard to get on and i waited like 15 min for it T.T should have just taken the mrt and another bus bleh.

back in singapore for the summer. i have 3 main goals: learn swimming, practise driving and cooking. also, i have to look for sponsorships as the treasurer for smsa, and look for clients as director of consulting for iabc. furthermore, i have a lot of books i want to read, including the new jodi picoult book, the ender game series, case in point and the mckinsey book on team strategy. and i plan to watch a whole lot of drama including chuck, big bang theory, gossip girl, rainie's new show, some japanese dramas and anime.

and of course i have to catch up with all my friends and also incoming berkeley freshmen! haha seems like my summer is pretty packed already.
lastly, i want to spend more time with my family! so glad to take a break finally from all that studying xD

p.s. did you know hannah montana used video clips of berkeley campus as "stanford university"? how could they cheat young teenage kids like that! they'll be so disappointed to find out that stanford doesn't actually look like that!

the day (night) it kinda snowed in berkeley

It was the Friday night right before spring break in Berkeley . Most students have gone home for spring break, and they didn't know what they were missing out on.

It was pouring cats and dogs, and sometime during the night, it turned into a thunderstorm coupled with hail. Now while this was rare in Berkeley, it had happened before. A few hours later, we found out there was white stuff lining the grass and paths, ie. it was kinda snowing sometime during all that rain!!

Interestingly, this is supposed to be spring, but it's raining and is really cold, and it's more like winter weather than spring. why is it the seasons are always late in berkeley???

Snow lining the grass at my dorm.

Actually, the "snow" was more like "chunks of ice that came from hail", but still, it kinda looks like snow.

p.s. If you want to see more "snow" photos, go to my facebook page and look for the photo album with the same title as this blog post ^^

interesting videos

after going for the bcssa 春晚　cny celebrations concert, i discovered that berkeley has many talented ppl. first, there was a pretty good/sexy dance by the girls (i especially liked the girl-guy solo dance): right click, open new window here to watch

then there was the guys' very interesting dance (quite funny the way they're all dressed up in suit, tie and even sunshades, and they do stupid things! xD) right click, open new window here to watch

finally, my friend showed me last year's performance by the previous batch of guys, which i must admit, is really superb. they must have practised a wholeee lot! must watch this!! again, right click, open new window here to watch!

happy valentine's day/chinese new year!

first time seeing snow - 初めて雪を見た

first time seeing snow and experiencing subzero temperatures (in deg celsius)...it's thanksgiving weekend and i went to lake tahoe for a retreat with the smsa ppl!

i went on an early car with the pro snowboarders bcos grace wanted someone to go along with her on the early car so we can take advantage of fresh snow and snowboard an extra day. it was pretty miserable my first day of snowboarding, as i kept falling down and hurting myself all over, and bcos my muscles were aching so much i just couldn't get up anymore after falling down. it got harder and harder each time you fell.

it's awful, not mentioning scary when i kept sliding off the the edge and sides of the trail! i couldn't control where i was going at all, i couldn't brake or slow down or stop. and we were on the intermediate slopes (which was really scary and steep!), but it was easier to move than on the beginner slopes, which were way too flat for snowboards to even slide.

furthermore, all the other snowboarders are pro/have much more experience, so they zoomed off really quickly, leaving me behind to struggle my way down the slope all cold, hungry and tired :/ even grace has a knack for snowboarding and disappeared in a jiffy! T.T

my second day was much better though, bcos i discovered how to heel and brake and stop, and slowly leaf my way down the slope. i also learnt that if i'm too far to the side, either i leaf back to the middle, or if i fall, i just take off my board and walk to the middle. no use trying to start from the side bcos u'll only slide off the edge.

it wasn't as cold as i expected, mainly bcos the sun was out all the time on the slopes, so it's really quite warm. and as long as the wind isn't too strong, it's not really cold. anw on the first day, after a tiring day of snowboarding, we were greated with a scrumptuous feast for thanksgiving dinner! we had a caterer who cooked all the food, and we had turkey, pumpkin pie, apple pie, brownies, bread and cheese, mashed potatoes, leeks, and lots other foods. i've never had a thanksgiving dinner before, nor such a wondrous home-cooked western meal, so it was really wonderful to experience it. it made me miss home and think of mummy's cooking :/ anyhow we couldn't finish all the food (being asians haha), so we ate them over the next few days for lunch/breakfast etc.

amanda cooked soup using the turkey bones (which was pretty good and delicious!), while we cooked pasta and chinese noodles over the next few meals. we also made s'mores (yummy yum yum!!) with graham crackers, snowman-shaped marshmallows and hershey's chocolate hee. they also baked cookies which tasted great haha. i think i was really well-fed over the retreat xD luckily i did quite a bit of exercise in snowboarding, if not i'll feel so guilty about eating so much and not exercising!

on the 3rd day, we spent the whole day studying (i was reading the whole of my japanese textbook in preparation for oral interview). it was snowing heavily outside, like snowstorm but we wanted to play in the snow, so after a while we just went outside and had a snowfight! it's really fun throwing snow around and playing in it and rolling around!

it's like you don't care about getting wet or cold or anything anymore, bcos your gear is mostly waterproof and protects u from the wind and stuff. plus when it's snowing, the wind isn't as strong for some reason, so it wasn't really cold. after that we built a snow-woman! i made the head yay, even though the snow wasn't really wet enough to stick together properly, i squished and packed the snow until it formed some semblance of a ball, then rolled it around so it gets bigger and bigger and bigger! it's super hard to make a proper snowball though, definitely not as easy as it seems, and you must have a lot of time and patience.

in the end we succeeded, and we had an extra ball so we made a snow-baby that was so deformed we made it into a snow-chicken haha. we stuck a branch that looked like tail feathers on its "butt" xD

on the 4th day, we packed up and headed home. the snow chicken unfortunately didn't survive the snow-plough, and collapsed (or perhaps was eaten by the snow-woman hahaha). the snow-woman was perfectly fine, except that it was buried more deeply in the snow so it "grew" shorter haha. huan chin, who was originally shorter than our snow-woman, was then taller than the snow-woman by a lot! she was happy. xD

we didn't go to vacaville outlets to shop bcos we decided to go straight back to berkeley and study more, but in the end there was a heavy traffic jam so we were pretty delayed anyway. we stopped at in and out for lunch, which was really good. this time i ordered from the secret menu, ordering neapolitan milkshake (combi of vanilla, chocolate and strawberry) and animal fries (fries topped with thousand island dressing, onions and other stuff). they're really good!

ok that's pretty much all for lake tahoe trip. having fallen all over the ski slopes at heavenly resort, i experienced "near death" scares so many times that now, i truly appreciate my life. i could have been seriously injured or even killed tumbling down the slopes, or if someone had crashed into my head or my spine, or if i slipped off the edge of a cliff. life is really fragile, and we should appreciate what we have now.

snowboarding is seriously the most strenuous activity i've ever experienced, as it involves every single set of muscles imaginable, including your shoulders and back and butt muscles!! hence the other takeaway is a huge gain in strength of muscles, and the exercise i managed to do haha.

snowboarding's really scary, but i'd like to learn it the proper way and find out how to become better at it (eg. how to toe, how to curve, how to do garland and navigate harder slopes).

singlish and chinglish

i am missing singlish so much, i don't even remember how to speak it anymore...it's so hard to let yourself go and really speak singlish unless you have someone else to speak singlish to. i'm so used to speaking proper/american english!

anw i found the singlish wiki page and it's really hilarious how it's treated as a creole with proper terms and explanations for every single lahs and lors we make, even down to the pronunciation and tones! (eg. three = tree and then = den)

anw here are some funny chinglish signs that have obviously wrong translations in english.

This misspells "Lightning" and mistranslates "climb" with "climbing".

"the slippery are very crafty"!!!! xD

this is my favourite, i wonder who they are executing...

yes, we'll all slip but very carefully...

nostalgic memories...dedication and pass it on

haha for the lateral thinking puzzle in my previous post, the answer's already in the comments: the surgeon is the boy's mother! it plays on ppl's stereotypes in a way, bcos you tend to assume that grey-haired, bespectacled surgeons are male. if you're interested in more lateral thinking puzzles, check them out here

To blossom, qw & bhu: you'll find the lateral thinking puzzles we did at bhu's sleepover in there! and a whole lot of other ones too (that aren't all that nice) Enjoy! ^^

anyway, i was just telling wenyu the other day that i can rmb how to sing pass it on but i don't rmb the lyrics except the chorus. that's bcos they didn't really teach it, we only sang it like once in sec 1 at the batch initiation ceremony or something? but we sang dedication lots of times, so i rmbed it. however, for some reason, we both had mind-block just then and couldn't rmb how it starts!

after a search on google, i found the lyrics to these two songs! and now i know how to sing both of them, bcos i rmb the tunes alrd (: my favourite is still dedication haha. and i didn't realise how evangelistic pass it on really was o.O

here's to all my ex-rgs classmates, and hope it'll bring back fond memories...

Dedication

We have shared our morning days
And gone through all rainy nights
Even in the darkest of nights
Stars still light up our way

Tomorrow is a beautiful dream
A dream that will be fulfilled
Cross the bridge of rainbow
In search of the gold

For here we stand
Our dearest friend
Sincerely from our hearts we wish
May streams of sunlight
Shine like rays of hope
Hand in hand, we'll work and strive
For the best things in life

Pass it on

It only takes a spark
To get a fire going
And soon all those around
Can warm up in it's glowing

That's How it is with God's love
Once you experience it
You'll want(Yes you'll want)
To pass(to pass)
It on
(pass it on, pass it on, pass it pass it pass it on)

What a wonderous time is spring
When all the treees are budding
The birds begin to sing
the flowers start their blooming

That's How it is with God's love
Once you experience it
You'll want to sing
It's fresh like spring
You'll want(Yes you'll want)
To pass(to pass)
It on
(pass it on, pass it on, pass it pass it pass it on)

I wish for you my friend
This happiness that I've found
You can depend on Him
It matters not where you're bound
I'll shout it from the mountaintop (RAFFLES!)
I want the world to know
The lord of love has come to me
And I want(Yes I want)
To pass(to pass)
It on
(pass it on, pass it on, pass it pass it pass it on)

p.s. here's a youtube video of someone singing dedication, in case you forgot how the tune goes. i like the way she joins herself in shaking with the rattle thingy, and she shakes it with that look on her face throughout the video! hahaha super cute xD

lateral thinking puzzle 1

recently, i rmbed quite a few lateral thinking puzzles that people have shared with me, and i've been getting my roommate to guess at them. some of them are downright challenging and have super long backstories (eg. albatross sandwich one), while some are simply riddles with a play on words/conventional notions. here's an example that's not too difficult.

A boy and his father are injured in a car accident. Both are
taken to a hospital. The father dies at arrival, but the boy lives
and is taken to surgery. A grey-haired, bespectacled surgeon looks at
the boy and says, "I cannot operate on this boy -- he's my son."

try guessing and leave comments if you'd like. i'll reveal the answer the next time i blog xD

google and love from home!

went to google headquarters today for a tour. this was an event organised by iabc (business club i'm in, so cool right!) and yeah google is amazing. the campus (yes they call it a campus) is just like a university campus, except cooler and with free stuff everywhere and is pretty much a fun environment to work in. you can even live there but of course they won't encourage that huh. the campus holds over 12000 employees, which is why they can make use of economies of scale and provide many things for all the employees and create a conducive environment for innovation and work. (somehow this sounds like an advertisement for google. but yeah it's pretty fun to work there i guess)

my google name tag when i first entered. they've got an machine that prints your name tag immediately after you type your name in so it means lots and lots of people visit google everyday huh.

oh and it's googleween today, all the googlers are encouraged to dress up in costumes for halloween, so we did see quite a few cool costumes (and some downright hilarious). like we saw a guy dressed up as a cow (with pink ears), and a guy who dressed up as a failed american-idol-hopeful, down to the guitar and cowboy hat, and a guy also dressed up as obiwan from star wars! he had a real cool cloak and lightsaber that lights up and goes zingggg when it's lit! haha so fun right!

yeah so they've got bikes that are in google colours (blue, yellow, green, red) parked all over campus so you can just grab a bike and bike anywhere you want and leave them where you stop. each morning, the bikes are transported to places with high volume of traffic so ppl can use them haha. and they've got google shuttles to bring you to work and back, and they've got massage rooms, jacuzzi pools, beach volleyball court (like seriously, they brought in sand just to make a beach volleyball court. like how cool is that!!), playing areas, nap pods for you to take naps in, and stuff like that.

they also have this 150-rule, which means there must be food within 150 feet of any workspace so people can get food anytime they want. and the food is free! so there are like mini-kitchens all over the place, with shelves stocked with snacks and drinks and food, and there is only one vending machine selling food (ie. you must pay for it) which is priced specially according to the number of calories the food has i think. so this educates ppl about the no. of calories that's in the food!

and google also has what they call a google-15. haha when i first came to berkeley, they say we'll have freshman-15 since once you're here, you'll eat so much more that you gain 15 pounds. looks like when you go to google, you will also gain 15 more pounds (and turn into a fat pig) but they do have exercising facilities to encourage googlers to work out so yeah.

and there are a lot of random exhibits hanging around, photographs decorating the walls, and even some dinosaur skeleton structure (which i think is fake but oh well it's cool). oh and they also have laundry rooms, like googlers can do their laundry at work and get them sent for dry cleaning and stuff! and they also have free hair-cut services every friday i think. it's so that googlers don't need to worry about food, or domestic matters and can focus on being innovative and producing good quality work haha. on a sidenote, i really like the colourful decorations of google colours. i nv realised before, but google colours are happy colours!

eh and i got a package from home! mummy sent it and it's my first package from home so yeah, it's a momentous event. i'm happy and i feel loved ^^

love from home <3

p.s. i got to try "in and out" today. it's pretty good, and the menu is really simple. just hamburger and fries and milkshakes. except they also have a secret menu that i didn't know about until today so i'm going to try it next time i go there! apparently in and out can only be found in the west coast so ppl, if you ever come to the west coast, go try in and out!

happy halloween weekend everyone! and i'm going to spend my weekend studying and being a boring jane because i have two midterms next week so good luck to me!

IABC Fall Retreat 2010!

wow it's been a while since i last blogged! i guess i've been really busy with studying, mugging and with all the different student group and club activities. i joined iabc, a business club and i got into the consulting division. so i have to invest about 10 - 14 hours a week doing consulting work for our client. yeah this means essentially a class on its own haha, so even though im taking only 17 units, i've been REAL busy. and lacking in sleep. T.T

so yeah we went to half-moon bay for our iabc fall retreat, and lots of unforgettable things happened. in general i would say, the worst things that could have happened actually happened haha. it's what i would call 毕生难忘的经历 xD

before going for the retreat, im glad to say i finished my paper (yay finally) so i didn't have to worry about it over the retreat, and i had cookies and milk with my roommate! (pepperidge cookies <3) it was kindof to celebrate end of her midterms and end of my paper, so we exchanged the different cookies we had and had fun eating them hee.

anw it was raining when i left for the retreat, but it stopped by the time i reached the retreat house. the journey was ok and the retreat house was really nice and cosy! the first night, we watched king arthur and monty python, which was really random and bleh. it was pretty hilarious, but i don't like watching stuff with no real plot, at least not for one full-blown movie's length. it kindof reminds me of random funny youtube videos, all spliced together in a mish-mash of frames just to form a movie that has no linking theme except the recurring characters and hilarity.

i guess it's not my type of comedy.

so yeah we played some icebreakers and i did some studying and some consulting discussion, then went to sleep late. woke at 6.30am the next morning to go horseback riding which was really fun and interesting! except it's pretty expensive and it made my butt ache xD

the first bad thing that happened was that one of our drivers lost her car key. it most likely fell out of her pockets while she was on the horse, either when mounting or when galloping. so we all stayed back and helped to search for the key, but to no avail. we split into 3 teams, one searching the beach area, the other at the end of the trail, and my group was walking from the beginning of the trail till the beach. interestingly, i found out that bmw can unlock your car remotely! the driver called bmw et voila, bmw unlocked her car! it's a little scary to think about how thieves can unlock your car if they have your personal details, but at least they can't drive off with it. bmw couldn't start the car for her, only unlock the door.

anyhow, in the end she managed to get her parents to drive up from her home (an hour's drive away) with the spare car key. in the meantime, we were searching for the key along the trail which was littered with horse manure. i must say that i saw the most amount of manure in my life that single morning, and it really stinks haha.

i got kindof used to the smell though (and i prolly smelled like horse too), and i observed many different stages of manure, like freshly pooped ones which were really green and gooey (yep. twice, some horse pooped right in front of my horse's face, all while walking and splattering its own tail and legs with poo), and manure that were there for a while and has turned greyish. the poo looks like grass after it's dried up, which makes sense, since horses eat mostly grass and fibre-filled stuff. it is also interesting to note that horses don't seem to mind manure or pee so much - they bite each other's butt all the same.

so because of the lost key, we got the chance to walk along the trail and take pictures yay! cameras and electronic devices weren't allowed on horseback you see, probably to avoid having them from falling out of pockets and to prevent us from falling off the horse while trying to take pictures. it's also a great way for them to gain profit since we can only get photos of us on horses by buying the photos from them. it wasn't too bad though, we could split the cost among all of us so it wasn't too ex.

fortunately it didn't rain during the horse-riding activity. however, it started raining in the afternoon, and we couldn't go to the beaches to play (though we had more than enough view of the beach both on horseback and on foot haha). ppl who wanted to kayak couldn't kayak since it was raining :/ anyhow, the next activity was a trip to arata pumpkin farm where we went through a hay maze.

by the time we reached arata pumupkin farm, it was pitch dark. i have no idea why we actually decided to go to the hay maze at night. i think we were supposed to leave earlier but somehow it just got dragged out? anyhow we didn't have enough flashlights nor umbrellas, so we got wet, and we were slipping and squelching around in the mud trying to find our way out of a freaking maze in the dark. i just realised how stupid this is hahaha, i mean even if it were bright daylight, we'd still have trouble identifying where we're going and whether we've been to the place before in a maze, not to mention walking around in circles in the dark! i was way more focussed on not slipping on the mud, and minimising damage to my shoes and jeans (which didn't turn out all the clean anyway huh)

yeah so we got stuck in the maze for really long and we kept ending up at the entrance! after ending up at the entrance for the 4th time, we finally decided to give up and go out since we were all hungry. it felt awfully lousy though, because 12-year old kids could get through the maze in 5 minutes, and we spent 2 hours and were still stuck. we were supposed to go through 3 trapdoors before getting to the exit, but we couldn't get to the 1st trapdoor. we went by that first trapdoor once before, but for some reason we didn't think it would lead to the exit, but would lead back to the entrance instead. we should have just tried the trapdoor man!

well ever since we missed that chance, we never found the trapdoor again. and since it was all dark, we could not tell whether we have done this turn before or not, whether we have been to that spot before or not, and so we couldn't orientate ourselves at all. that must have been the worst strategy we ever had (ie. no strategy), no wonder we couldn't get out -.-"

yeah and after we got out, the exit was right next to the entrance! and as we were feeling really frustrated and pissed, we decided to go in through the exit to see where we went wrong. and yeah we found the 3rd trapdoor and the 2nd trapdoor yay, but we couldn't find the 1st trapdoor! we got lost in the maze again T.T so we just decided to give up for real and we walked out through one of the emergency exits haha.

ok so that was one bad thing, because i got all muddy and dirty, and my shoes were all dirtied and i had to wash everything. the mud wouldn't come off in the washing machine so i had to wash the mud off by hand too, so it's really bleh. and we all felt lousy for not being able to complete the maze sigh.

here's the next bad thing. as we're heading to the pumpkin farm , one of our cars slipped and rolled down the slope, denting the garage door. it was awfully loud and most likely attracted plenty of attention. now that's a big problem since we were supposed to be discreet and quiet. the landlord of the house we rented from thought that there were only 8 people, so we shouldn't attract unwanted attention when there were more than 8 of us there. so apparently neighbours saw the dented door and cars with college kids leaving, so they assumed it was a hit and run and panicked. they called the cops and blew the whole thing out of proportion.

we only found out about this after we came back from the pumpkin farm (all dirty and not too happy) haha. apparently the people who stayed behind in the house had an exciting evening too! yepp so police and fire brigade came and people who remained in the house panicked and started shoving all our sleeping bags and luggage into closets. but of course the police weren't interested in the number of ppl in the house, only whether there was a hit and run. bcos of the cops and all, the manager whom the landlord hired to take care of the house found out and got real mad that we damaged the garage door. she was going to come to the house the next morning.

now this meant that we had to depart earlier than originally planned so that the manager won't see that there were more of us than there should be. she prolly could guess that there were more than 8 of us though; the neighbours probably complained because they noticed that there were a lot of us or that we were making too much noise. ppl were really noisy even at 2+am when i was trying to sleep the night before!

well we were planning to use the story that most of us were just family friends visiting, and weren't going to stay overnight at the house. haha but it wouldn't work if the manager saw all the luggage and sleeping bags, especially if she saw us early in the morning, which means we most likely stayed over.

yeah so the worst that could happen actually happens huh. the next morning we woke at 6.30am and got ready to leave by 8. we had to stagger our departure timings so that not everyone would leave at once and cause suspicion, so the first group was getting ready to leave the house when alas! the landlord was right outside! and she brought the owner of the house along too!

that means all of us were trapped in the house and we couldn't go out and leave or anything. at this point in time, the entire atmosphere was what ycx would say "GG!" or what i'd say "we're screwed." yeah everyone hid in the bedrooms and turned off the lights, keeping quiet. we also shoved our luggage and all the extra shoes into closets. then our representative suggested that we hide in the bathroom and turn the shower on and pretend there's someone showering in there so they couldn't come in to check. i think it's a really brilliant idea for someone to think up when we're all in the panicky mood. iabc ppl really can think on their feet huh.

yeah so we stood around in the toilet for the longest time (or what felt like eternity. now i totally understand how it feels when they say that in the books i read!) we all lacked sleep (i slept like 2.5 hours, and the night before like 4.5 hours, and the night before like 5 hours?). it was also cold, rainy and gloomy, and it felt like we were waiting for something dreadful to happen. one could hardly think clearly or feel good then.

luckily for us, the landlord and owner didn't come into the house. they probably didn't want to bust us, but just wanted to check on the garage door and take pictures. they were negotiating with our representative and discussing about what happened and stuff. most likely we're paying for the replacement of the garage door and our deposit >.>

so yeah after that we were extremely relieved and glad they didn't come into the house, though it's kindof weird. why would they come so early in the morning (at 7+am!! which means they must wake at 6+am!!) if they didn't plan on catching us red-handed?? oh well i guess we should consider ourselves lucky, though we have been absolutely down on our luck in the series of unfortunate events that occurred at the retreat. we then decided to have the first car leave quickly so the next car could leave 10 min later and so on, while everyone cleaned up. it would be no good if the landlord and manager purposely waited for us to let our guard down before coming back to check >.>

overall, this retreat is one of the experiences of a lifetime i won't ever forget. it must be the most miserably exciting and interesting weekend i've ever spent in my life, the weekend where i experienced happiness, misery, anger, embarrassment, exhaustion, fear and excitement all at once. i felt like we were some kindof illegal immigrants/fugitives running around, parking cars far away, leaving in small groups at staggered intervals, sneaking around quietly...and i didn't manage to get a whole lot of work done! but at least i got to see quite a bit of half-moon bay haha.

it's also the first time i ever walked around getting lost in the dark, in the slippery and wet mud, all while being in the rain (except for ccal camp last year where it was pretty muddy, but at least it wasn't dark NOR was it raining). hmm seems like i've been living a really civilised and sheltered life all along in sg eh.

i probably can never get such an experience again in my life, esp not in sg haha! i guess im glad i have had this experience, so i can learn from it and also finally, so i can have an interesting weekend to blog about!

first trip to san francisco!

san francisco is actually quite near to berkeley, like 45 min away by train/30 min away by car (and is something like from boonlay to changi in sg!!) but since they're different cities, ppl tend to think it's really far away?

anw i went to san francisco with the stanford ppl, like pw and his sg friends etc, and we went to lots of places! it's good to have a car to drive around, it's super convenient!

first we went to sf chinatown and had dimsum ^^ but the famous bakery selling good egg tarts wasn't open so we didn't manage to get the egg tarts :/

then we went to fisherman's wharf at pier 39, and i bought some souvenirs for my friends and myself! we walked to ghiradelli's square and had earthquake icecream (which is nothing compared to swensen's as it had bananas and whipped cream galore), then i bought some chocolates! i gave some of them to my friends. the chocolates are really good actually, the dark chocolate and mint ones.

then we went to the golden gate bridge, and went to some nice viewing spots to take pictures. it was really windy at sf, esp by the bay/ocean so it got quite cold. unlike today, the weather suddenly turned hot and became like sg's weather! >.<

anw i digress. we then went to sausalito and looked at some spanish military outposts i think, and we took more pictures! then we went back to san fran and went to the cliff house (by the ocean again) and watched the sunset (awwww). it's my first sunset, bcos i nv got to really watch it in clear skies and without trees and stuff blocking (think ecp and changi beach park), and i always get distracted watching it (what with food, playing bridge or random talking with other ppl).

oh we went into a cave and walked around but it's just dark and sandy. uhh then we climbed around somemore and got a window seat at the cliff house and ate nice dinner! and kinda gave aimee an early birthday surprise haha.

then we went to the twin peaks and braved the freezing cold and strong winds up there, and attempted some pictures and a conversation with a local (who was totally used to the cold or something and wasn't shivering the way we were xD)

uh ya and we went to my dorms and i showed them my room! and yep they went back to stanford. haha quite a fruitful day and the only good thing i can say about the weather is that it wasn't cloudy and rainy (the way sg always is), but other than that, it's wayyy too cold!

i think it's bcos it's by the ocean and the bay, and the winds are really strong. usually berkeley's cold too, like morning and evening is foggy and gloomy and cold and windy, then once it's 12pm the clouds clear and there will be no clouds in the sky at all! like clear blue sky and the hot blinding sun. then there'll be some wind so it's quite cooling/warm at the same time (and makes it easy for us to sunburn). which is why i invested in a pair of sunglasses and cap so i can uhhh protect myself from the glare.

when in rome, do as romans do. when in cali, do as californians do! (:

i mean in sg, if you wear sunglasses or cap walking around, ppl will just think you're acting cool and/or rich! at cal, everyone dresses quite nicely and puts on makeup and wears sunglasses and caps etc like it's really normal, but oh well.

i had to abandon my singlish and convert my accent into american/british kind so that ppl can understand me, but it's really tiring to keep speaking that way. and there are so many asians here that it's not like usa! i can't tell whether they're abc or international students u know, bcos all of them speak american english! i can only tell when they speak with a china accent that they're most likely born and bred in china, not in usa.

oh yeah my roommate's an abc, and she can't speak mandarin, unfortunately ): i like to speak in mandarin here. it's easier for me bcos i don't need to fake an accent haha, and i like the way mandarin sounds? but not many ppl speak mandarin here so ):

language convergence is a necessary evil i guess, or no one will understand singlish!

in the states!

yay i'm at berkeley alrd. got my bank account and student card, and have loads of other things to settle...but so far it's quite ok. the campus is really quite hilly, and i've been doing more exercise walking up and down than i ever did the past few months in singapore!

i'll be moving into my dorms proper on the 19th, so till then i can't really buy a lot of things, bcos my luggages are overloaded with stuff alrd haha. the weather here's pretty chilly and cold for summer, like around 14 deg celsius? compared to sg, this place is totally like winter la T.T i must get used to the cold somehow >.>

but when the sun's out, it's quite nice and cool haha. the good thing here is that i don't can't perspire at all! ^^

i didn't sleep well the first night, kept waking every 1 or 2 hours. probably bcos it's afternoon sg time, so it was like taking short naps haha. then i woke at 4+am and couldn't sleep anymore, so i read my book until 6am and fell asleep (finally) since it was sg night time then, and then i slept well till 11+am! was still sleepy but of course cannot sleep somemore or i'll nv get adjusted T.T

last night was better, i slept around 12+am and woke around 7+am today! it's quite a feat considering i didn't wake through the night at all (: i'm happy hee.

international orientation's tmr! looking forward to meeting my fellow singaporean freshmen and other random ppl around ^^

end of internship

finally ended my internship, still have lots of things to keep and stuff. i feel a little sad bcos of all the nice interns and ppl im leaving behind, but im happy that i've finally ended work and can sleep in!

ok not really, i have lots of things on my to-do list b4 i go to usa - outings, sleepovers, tennis, books to read and dramas/anime to watch! (+ revise a level syllabus...)

how am i going to finish all that in a mere 3 weeks or less, plus the packing i need to do!?!?

gah nvm, i'll take things one day at a time. im still teaching tuition for this weekend and the next though, then the weekend after will be the one loaded with 2 sleepovers and one outing in between erhem. seems like no breaks for me any weekend at all T.T

anw i just wanted to share this with all of you, esp useful when you're going to work in the future (after uni?).

30 second Speech by Bryan Dyson (CEO of Coca Cola)

"Imagine life as a game in which you are juggling some five balls in the
air. You name them - Work, Family, Health, Friends and Spirit and you're
keeping all of these in the Air.

You will soon understand that Work is a rubber ball. If you drop it, it will
bounce back.

But the other four balls - Family, Health, Friends and Spirit - are made of
glass. If you drop one of these; they will be irrevocably scuffed, marked,
nicked, damaged or even shattered. They will never be the same. You must
understand that and strive for it."

Work efficiently during office hours and leave on time. Give the required time to your family, friends and have proper rest.

i think we are all guilty of this at one point or another, and even if we're not working now, it can still apply to all of us - just replace work with studies. esp with uni upon us all, we'll become busier than ever.

all the best and good luck to all of you then! ^^

a 19th birthday

i found out there's such a thing called shisha in singapore. it's kindof like smoking except there's different fruity flavours and stuff, and it's filtered through water, but research shows that it's worse than cigarettes. glad i didn't go along for the shisha >.>

thank you IDG interns, esp WK, "CC" (HAHA) and WL for organising the lunch and the nice ice cream cake and all! first time i celebrated my birthday in the work context, it's kindof unforgettable. through the lunch, i found out the real personalities of a few of you erhem.

got an ocbc supplementary card from my dad! hmm i should go apply for some debit card too, ocbc or posb better?

oh yeah thanks everyone for their birthday well wishes! am really happy and surprised that so many ppl rmbed/checked their facebook birthday reminders xD

the 19th birthday is a special one, as our 农历生日 coincides with our birthday on the gregorian calendar that day. in case you never noticed, this happens once every 19 years, so this is a very special day indeed.

i like my 农历生日 - 六月初六， 真容易记! ^^

i feel old already. but then again, constantly hanging around ppl who are older than me makes me feel super young xD at spring, im the youngest as everyone is either already in uni, or are already working haha. still, some of them thought i am some uni student, and even one thought i was a permanent staff! looks like i can pass off as some adult already (:

i feel old compared to all my juniors at rj though. i'm still receiving constant updates about jap club and astro club, but i'll be away in usa and won't be able to go attend all their fun events anymore, and then i won't know the juniors' juniors, then in just one year more and i won't know anyone in jap club and astro club at all! -horrified-

what to do then?