Life is....

Life is....a rush to somewhr....

2006-09-23T23:54:00.000+08:00

Hiew......thanks to sch & work & lotsa laziness, the blog was 'suspended' for a couple of wks...here's a rundown.

The execution of the NUS SCAPE(Singapore Centre of Applied & Policy Economics) - IMF (International Monetary Fund) Workshop in NUS was rather successful. Although it sounds damn impressive, it's nothing much, really. Haha. Just some coordination thingy. Although i must admit that it had pretty much eat into my own time. Liaising, compiling list and tracking of people movement can be rather heavy in terms of workload. Oh, and those big shots like personnel from the World Bank, IMF, certain universities (one from Waseda Uni, should have asked him to recommend me a place for an exchange programme there! haha) & some from the 'traditional' participants from Government ministries like Ministry of Trade and Finance, Monetary Authority of Singapore and some graduate students, are rather nice people too.

All the same, it's a nice experience. Although I only managed to 'kapo' one conference book in the end...haha. Being rather bogged down by workload and helping out in the event also means that I didn't get much chance to attend the talks they were conducting. But I did attend a small part of the talk on this topic on Job loses to China/India--with a rather controversial conclusion that the statement was not really truth with the reasoning of High value jobs created in place of low value jobs lost. Nice view from a credible speaker and was not perceived upon in public. Of course, the talks are mainly 'profound' from an undergraduate's point of view, but all the same, it's rather mind-provocative.

Oh, and the delegates eat the entire day!!! Man, talks starting at 8am with morning break at 10 plus, lunch at 12 plus, afternoon break at 3-4 plus, then dinner....that's like 4 meals a day not counting breakfast!! of course, as helpers, i benefit from that too. Although I must say that it is quite a disappointment to serve those 'normal dishes' for those tea breaks.....so unlikely for guests from those important organisations. But anyway, I had dinner at this Al Dente--an italian restaurant thanks to the delegates...haha. Not that i think that the food is fantastic..it's normal only at best. Maybe the only perks were those free flow of wines and beer and fruit punch and orange juice. It's a pity I did not drink much wine (since the next day I still have to get up early for the workshop). Else, it would have been more worthwhile. Now, what a nice life academics seems to have....research in your field of interest, attend some talks and workshops, give some speech and try to convince other academics to accept your findings, and then it's eat, eat and EAT!! And at the same time being paid a nice salary. Now i'm seriously contemplating to be an academic in future....but that comes with brains...hmm..haha.

Oh, did I mention that we get paid to help out? It's such a pleasant surprise. Although the amount wasn't much. But all the same, it is a rather nice gesture. And this extra allowance can go finance my dinner with des when he return back from france as well as some nice books and a hair cut for myself.

Ok, back to school work. Just had my history and japanese mid term tests. History is lotsa lotsa readings and even after the paper, going by the sheer number of brainy students around, I start to worry being placed in the lower 20% percentile of the bell curve....and oh ya, japanese. The standard of the test exceeded my expectations. Man, i think i need to pull up my socks. Months of apathy and not being serious in doing up my assignments committing stupid mistakes have been costing me points being deducted....I didn't realise that all the assignments count into the total grades...damn...i might not get my As after all...

Recess wk just started. But it's no holidays or relaxation for me. Still have to finish up a 1500 words history essay--not that 1500 words is a lot but it's the contents...have to read through many books to get the contents... and an Astronomical essay--thinking whether or not to declare S/U....seems to me a nice module to get As....but well...it may backfire also..... as well as a japanese project on bringing japanese kids around NUS, introduce the food to them, and doing up of a phamplet in japanese--total lameness but no choice...

Moreover, no sch = more time spent on work. No difference. But the only advantage may be I have more time to do up my monthly closing report. This month is a nightmare with draggings and backlogs of the monthly reports. I was appreciative of the help my colleagues had given me as well as being a bit apologetic that my commitment at school had cost them more inconveniences and extra work....

Just had a cycling trip to Ubin with my Econs club members. Sort of a bonding activity. N crap, I have yet to finalise my sub com....and another project with Radio Pulze.....argh..i'm tired to the brim....tuesday ktv and movie with ENS members again. Looking forward to relax a day with them...

Life is....a rush to nowhere

2006-08-30T23:11:00.000+08:00

Haiz...the wk is finally coming to an end, been pretty rushing all day long. Let me vent a bit of frustration here--ARGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!! okok. haha. Summary of schedule for this wk:

Mon - rush to sch in the morning, go back to work at bugis gateway building in the afternoon for ard 2 hrs plus 2 hrs travelling to and fro, rush back to sch to attend lectures again, rush back to office to do some stuff in the evening, rush to airport to send off a friend, Ford, known through my German class. Reach home only by 11 plus. Shagged.

Tue - Rush to sch in the morning, go back to work again in the afternoon, rush back to sch again that ends at 8pm, went home with almost zero appetite, prepare for next day lessons n fretting out that i know nuts about preparation for japanese lessons. Regretfully, being overconfidence, i wrote quite a lot of mistakes in my first japanese quiz today. I din even know we had a quiz and which chapter to read through...drats....but make it up for all the speech participation. Being the express shinkansen speed i normally tok, i attract glares from ppl thinking wat the hell am I doin in their 'elementary class', whether i'm tryin to 'spoil' mkt......pls lor, my foundation was rather unstable after so many yrs of not touching the subject....i hate it when ppl treat me like God in this language, it only works to my disadvantage by embarressing myself....i'm like anyone in sch, 都是莘莘學子喔. 真所謂無風不起浪,懷有心機者還是遠離我.

Wed - which is, today, rush to sch for lesson at 8.30am...damn early, must left the house by 7 latest, 4 hrs straight of lectures (Man, econometrics is confusing...) then it's off to the lib to do up my japanese homework, read the papers, rush for japanese tutorials again (n again, someone 'complains' to me why i'm doing elementary class with them after i opened my mouth...com'on, i can't control the way i tok....). Realise tat there's no econometrics tutorials this wk, i rush off again back to office n work till 7.30pm. No choice le, well, there's so much backlog, n although i'm working full day tmr, it's month closing. N there's hell lotsa stuff to do for month closing with constant pressure from Belgium/USA to demand for the month end report in the soonest time possible. Crap, whenever there's any issue i brought up to them, they took ages to reply, n yet they wan super response from me. What the...discrimination?

Thur - work full day, thinking goin for a haircut

Fri - Study, no time to go back to work coz need to attend some seminar/tok thingy, then dinner with Econs society at suntec.

Sat - Most likely rush to office in the morning to finish up watever i need to, then back to sch again for welcome session by my another cca. The joining my bmt frens for dinner.

Hmm...so much for my 'typical' wk, n i have not yet factored in the upcoming term papers, mid term tests, assignments to be done....dudez. I guess it's tiring just by reading thru wat i've written. For a couple of hrs, i'm in sch. In the next couple of hrs, i'm at work. n the next cud be sch again....i've developed a peculiar dependency on Bus 10 which brings me to n fro bugis n kent ridge...haha.

Hahaa. Ppl said i'm nutz, well, maybe i am. Just trying to do things i wanted to. Things tat i've nvr appreciate in poly n things deprived once u step into the working society....One only goes through life once, if i'm not gonna do it now, then when? But i do take note not to over burn myself.

Oh, there's some realllly eccccccccentric ppl in lectures too. Just got the fright of my life when i attended my history lecture on mon n this guy tat seats 2 seats away starting mumbling n teaching/toking (watever, he was making lotsa noise) when the lecture was ongoin.....n from time to time, he'll mention something 'out of the scope' in the middle of the lecture like asking the lecturer to elaborate more on ABC of the period XXX of Blah blah blah, which by the way, i have absolutely no idea whr he read tat from. It wasn't even in the textbook. But then, goin by the way the lecturer answered him, i guess he was correct. Man, he reads history like story books?

Oh my gosh, such ppl actually exists in uni...i think he's mad, over studied or sumthin...his actions n the way he toks just doesn't seem normal....oh well, gonna avoid seating tat row in future lectures. Dun wanna embarress myself when he attracts glares around the entire room.

Life is....Chasing after butterflies

2006-08-26T00:29:00.000+08:00

Ok ok, had quite an eventful nite today. Well, apparently, a butterfly was spotted today with Wilfred n Ah Boon, frens i'd known in the army. Haha. Dunno wat i'm toking about? let me illustrate further.

Apparently, singapore gals are getting more n more daring. Just when we were dilly dallying in orchard, ah boon suggested that since we have nuthin better to do, why dun we just walked from orchard to douby ghaut as a little exercise. Well, we pretty much din object since we are game for anythin. Just then, our 'prized' butterfly appears.

There's this couple, who are apparently quite young, walking in front of us as we are making our way to doubt ghaut. N tat gal...man, she's wearing this super mini skirt tat basically only covers her...erm, sad to say, rather 'flat' butt....but a little bit perky nonetheless. Of which the skirt is dangling dangerously towards south with every step she makes. In fact, it's so dangerously low we wonder whether she wud make it to her watever destination she is going to with her bf without risking her skirt coming off completely. N i think she doesn't knows how dangerously low her skirt is. She keeps adjusting tat skirt of hers, which is, in my opinion, rather useless since the skirt just keeps heading downwards. Oh, we're hot n sweating when we are 'stalking her' towards douby ghaut. The weather is to be blamed, but maybe not entirely. haha.

N there u have a big crowd behind her, including us the 3 musketters 'stalking' the couple 'feasting' our eyes on tat little show tat gal has so 'generously' performed. Are cleavages no longer the IN thing but additional 'lines of desire' like butt cracks? i dunno. haha but it's no bad news for us guys anyway. Sometimes i wonder how can tat guy tolerate his gf donning such skimpy clothes....i'll nvr agree if i'm the one in the relationship. Conservatism rulez!

As for the butterfly thingy, well......i had the chance to get so close behind tat basically tat little cloth no longer provide much protection, n almost everythin was put in sight. There's this little tatoo just above her butt line (or watever u call it), which resembles a butterfly. Of course, i cudn't see quite properly since technically speaking, i'm short sighted n it's in the nite with dim lights...haha. but i reckoned i saw this little cloth n her butterfly tatoo thus concluding tat she wore a G-string.

Wilfred disgree though. He thinks it's not a butterfly n she's not wearing anythin inside. Well, since he's like this 184 cm tall n wears glasses n he is tall enough to notice tat gal is wearing super short skirts n is the one tat alerted me n ah boon, i gave him the benefit of doubt. Man, can i pray for a height like his? it's extremely useful. hahaa.

ok ok it's not really pornographic or anythin but well, how more can i self censore in writing this event out well?

So the topic on gal's mentality nowadays. Is it on purpose tat they wanna show their bodies to public? wat is the motivation? vainity? or just pure naughtily new modern stylish? i cudn't really understand. Think i'm degenerating into a Ojiisan....getting more n more conservative by the day. Even in sch, i'm wearing polo T everyday...arghhh help, i'm turning into an old man.....

それに，今日は日本語モードルの加藤先生に火曜日のクラスを月曜に変更することをお願いした。でも結局は駄目だ．．．失望な．．．火曜は八時までと水曜は朝八時始まって．．．大変だね．．．火曜のクラスには五人だらけいるし．．．そんな少ない人々も授業は行えたのかい？疲れたぜ．．．来週月曜に静岡ホームスーテーポログラムをアプリケーションする事つもりがある．．．

Life is....CORS sucks...but at least it is done for

2006-08-22T21:09:00.000+08:00

haiz....finally gotten my Econometrics tutorial...guess what? it is on Wed (which supposedly starts from 8am to 4pm) from 5-6....meaning wed is now 8am - 6pm with 1 hr break in btw....actualli 2 hrs coz i overlook one tutorial is onli 1 hr....still, it is rather horrendous that i have to study from 8-6pm.....Tue ends at 8pm.....meaning from Tue to Wed i only have 12 hrs in between of which comprises of 1.5 hr to go home n 3 hr of wash up & self study & surfing net + 5 hrs of slp + 1 hr to washup and preparation for sch + 1.5 hr to go to sch from home.....then Thurs i'll be working full day (the consequences of squeezing into a 4 day wk of which tue & fri is pretty much half day with the morning half to be spent at work n the afternoon half to evening at sch)

cannot cannot....i'll drive myself to my grave...must think of a way to appeal for my Tue 6-8pm tutorial (which is jap btw) to be shifted to more empty slots. pray for me!!

Anyway, today i had an interesting lecture on history (currently of India n China b4 the 1500s). Prof Mark is an extremely engaging and interesting lecturer...a first n the best among all lecturers in fact. In comparison to my sec history teacher tat never fails to cast his sleeping potion among students, Prof Mark is almost God-sent. All history teachers shud be trained by him before being allowed to teach students subjects as boring as history. Right now, i'm ready to holian my newly learned knowledge of the Qing/Ming/Song/Tang Dynasty and Asoka n Akbar of Mughal India to my frens...wahaha.....but the lecture is rather vague....i mean, covering 4500 yrs of history of India n China within 2 hrs ....it's sooo summarized and scattered it's hard to make the link....couldn't imagine what kinda questions will be asked in exams.....imperialism? globalisation? modern colonisation? dudez...these are deep stuff..n it's onli introductory to history....

No way i'm gonna major in history. Econs is the way to go although it can be rather dry....tmr lecture on econometrics wud be a drag...My prof Dr lee is almost mumblin to himself.....imagine mumbling on sumthin mathematical n confusing as econometrics...i vow to 'chop' the 3rd row from the front....hmm...not tat anyone fancy seating so near anyway.

Ok, in attempt to understand what he will be saying tmr, mugging is a prerequsite. now i understands y uni students mug so much as compared to poly....it's realli heavier workload n almost everythin needs to be found out urself....if u say sec/jc life is spoonfeeding n poly is more independent learning, then i say uni is throwing u a list to find ur own bowls n spoons.

Drats...it's onli wk 2 and onli yr 1....how do i persevere on for the next 3-4 yrs....

Oh btw, I GOTTEN A NEW LCD!!! Damn happy. well, my Dell laptop was kinda flickering for half a second recently, n i wrote an email to Dell. They are kind enough to send an engineer to change my entire LCD screen! Without a single cent!! cos still got 20 odd days to end of warranty...haha who says Dell has lousy customer service n their products sucks? i attest to that! it's cheap n good! haha. well, i'm praising them while my laptop last...haha. wasn't realli planning to buy a new one although fujitsu looks nice to me.....student now...must save money for sch fees...sob sob

Life is....CORS sucks....

2006-08-21T21:49:00.001+08:00

F**K F**K F**K F**K F**K F**K F**K F**K F**K F**KF**K F**KF**K F**K
F**K F**K F**K F**K F**K F**K F**K F**K F**K F**KF**K F**KF**K F**K
F**K F**K F**K F**K F**K F**K F**K F**K F**K F**KF**K F**KF**K F**K
F**K F**K F**K F**K F**K F**K F**K F**K F**K F**KF**K F**KF**K F**K
F**K F**K F**K F**K F**K F**K F**K F**K F**K F**KF**K F**KF**K F**K

ok i'm extremely upset....i am denied all my preferences for my Econometrics tutorial class and i couldn't get any tutorials to fill up the 4 hrs break between 12 to 4 on mondays....think i'll go back to work for that 2 hrs (plus minus 45min to 1 hr travelling to n fro workplace in bugis...sianz. Then comes another bomber, Tue ends at 8pm & My Wed schedule stretches from 8am to 4pm NON STOP!! ARGHHHHHH GOD HELP ME!!! think i have to survive on bread on tat day......all for the sake of keeping my thursday free so that i can work.......#@*&a#T&;@#@$^$%;$*&%#*&%....i think i'll be extremely tired....Sat will be sacroscant from now onwards. Reserved only for sleeping and studying....nothin else...but if a chiobu ask me out, then that's another matter...haha

Life is....Starts....

2006-08-21T20:35:00.000+08:00

Hmm...i nvr realise that I wud be so boliao as to set up my own blog...anyway, it marks a new chapter of my life.

Being a poly grad, n proud to be one in fact, i am grateful that God allows me a second chance to continue my studies in a local uni. All the denied applications last yr seems to be planned for. After all, if not for the rejection, would I not have jumped jobs 4 times and 4th being so generous and flexible that i am allowed to work flexi hours while pursuing full time studies at NUS?? That would mean that upon graduation, i would have not only earn my degree but 4 extra yrs of precious working experience as well! Add it into my current 2 yrs means i have 6 yrs of working experience! That would up my bargainning chips when i source for jobs when i graduate...even though to graduate at 27 yrs old do make me feel old....

Although i din get my preferred course in Business, Economics is the next better choice. Who knows, maybe that is one of God's plan for me too. But i do feel a little bit resentful tat the other 2 unis rejected me...ironic & ignorant as i deem myself to be, i've always thought that NUS is not so 'forgivin'...but they offered me the 2nd chance. I'm grateful. Serious. And i promise i'll inject some substance into the school, armed with my 2 yrs of working network & contacts.

Ok, before someone who happen to read thru all these are thinking that i am one religious guy, no, i'm not, i'm in fact sinfully unreligious. i mean, i dun go to churches although i proclaim to be a christian. And my excuse would be i'm still looking for the right church (dun stone me, i'm glad i'm not born in middle east n subject to some stringent syriah laws or sumthin).

Anyway, so much for introduction. The 2nd wk of sch just started. No friends yet. But, nvm. Join more CCAS lor. I just express interest to join Astronomy Club, Rovers Club, Economic Society, Deejay radio, Japanese Studies Club, Investment Club, Christian Crusade....gosh, i think i'm committing suicide. Moreover, i need to work...think have to sacrifice some hours of slp n watching drama n...blogging? haha.

Tutorial balloting at the moment & i pray that I can get all the preferred time slots....coz i just realise that I overlook that i have 2 lectures for one of my GEM module (Understanding the Universe)....all the while thinkin i only have to attend one....crap, meaning i had missed one lecture last wk n not knowing it!! interesting module though.....hope my tutorials dun clash with tat 'additional' lecture.....

Japanese 3 is boring....yawn...guess i overestimate their modules....yawn...think that'll be a breeze for me....not getting an A would not do myself justice.....aimin for exchange programmes to Japan!! oh, attended this talk by this Sapporo Mayor Ueda San....some promo for sapporo (in case someone dun know, sapporo is the capital of hokkaido, japan) thingy....boring shit...but at least it helps me spend 2 hours out of my 4 hours break today (which is crap, hope i can get a tutorial in btw).

Tomorrow still has history....have not read chapter 11 out of the required readings Chapter 7,10,11.....sianz...my brain is rather rusty after not touching the books since 2001....that's half a decade!!! but still...i have to force myself......

Econs n Econometrics are still ok...at least for now...pray i can build good rapport with the profs and earn some pts from there...haha.