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...

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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!