Fries

It's been a long time since I did a MeMe

Wed, 25 Apr 2007 19:14:26 GMT

The Part of You That No One Sees

You are compassionate, caring, and soothing.
You like other people to depend on you...
In fact, you don't feel right unless you are helping someone out.

Underneath it all, you feel the burden of everyone's problems.
Without your guidance, you fear that many people's worlds would fall apart.
You like to feel in charge, even if it brings you a lot of stress.

What's the Part of You That No One Sees?

One Year Older, None the Wiser

Sun, 18 Mar 2007 15:35:06 GMT

I am officially 26 years and 3 days old. But I don't feel 26 (after all the stress, many commented I look that age or even older though). Maybe my soul is still stuck somewhere in the past... exactly where, I'm not too sure.

Just to sum up what I did the past few days,

- dyed my hair
- bought a drum set
- signed up for basic theory (finally!!!!! Been putting it off for far too long)
- drank till I puked and had a really really bad hang over (I mean my head was spinning at 4pm the next day)
- stood on a chair (i'm like 6'2 and they made me stand on a chair?) and was made to blow out candles at that ridiculous height
- signed everything on the citibank platinum visa card which I applied for and got just 2 days before my birthday (if you know me, you would know its totally unlike me - I'd usually use my debit card). I'm so going to get a shock when I see the bill next month.

See, isn't that what teenagers do?

I lost happiness the day I lost you

Thu, 15 Feb 2007 13:58:18 GMT

Today would have been our 3rd year anniversary. But you broke up with me 3 months and 20 days ago.
I have not updated this journal for the longest time and I doubt you will even read this.

But I lost happiness the day I lost you...
and my heart died the day I found out you were with someone else.

It's finally over!

Wed, 19 Apr 2006 05:12:11 GMT

I just finished my HYP poster presentation. One year of hard work.. and only one hour to show it off. I hope I did a good job. For those who are interested, my research was actually on blogging (Yes I spent the last one year conducting research on blogs!). I will upload my findings when I have received confirmation of my results. Those who wish to increase blog traffic will find my research very useful.

I hope the evaluators see the value in my research too.

Girls have dirty minds...

Sat, 11 Mar 2006 02:06:01 GMT

The following conversation is proof that girls have dirty minds.

Me: I can't believe that I failed my SBJ by just a few centimeters.
Friend (Girl): Your WHAT??
Me: Standing Board Jump.
Friend (Girl): STANDARD BLOW JOB???
Me: STANDING BOARD JUMP!!
Friend (Girl): *sheepishly* Oh...
Me: *faints*

Disclaimer: I am 100% heterosexual. If you need proof.. *grins*

What a wonderful thought...

Tue, 22 Nov 2005 05:58:15 GMT

It's been quite a while. I haven't logged in for what, 2 months? And the first thing that catches my eye after logging in is "My LJ". LoL..

Anyway examinations do things to your imagination. I have 2 papers left and yesterday while I was studying for CS4254 aka Project Management aka Killer Module, a silly thought found its way into my head. I was thinking of the show "Tru Calling" and how Tru always manages to remember every single thing when she re-lives her days.

I was just thinking "What if I had the power to re-live days too?" Then I can be out partying until the day of my paper. When that day comes, I will go unprepared to the examination hall and spend the 2 hours intended for doing the paper memorizing the questions. Then I will ask my friend to say "Help Me!" and relive the day again - Only this time, I will spend the time prior to the paper finding answers to the questions in the paper I was going to sit for. If I didn't have time to finish studying, I will relive the day again and again until I am done.

What a wonderful thought...

Just for Fun!

Fri, 06 May 2005 07:28:44 GMT

1. Leave me a comment saying, "Interview me".
2. I will ask you five questions of my choice, which you will answer here.
3. You will update your LJ with the answers to the questions.
4. You will repeat this in your LJ.

The following are naughty questions posed to me by </a></b></a>i_believe:

1) Why contradick?
2) French fries or potato chips? (Kinda obvious*grin*) Ok, Why?
3) What do you do for a living?
4) If you only have a day left on this earth, what will you do for that 24 hours?
5) Who would you consider a phenomenon figure of this century?

And my earnest replies:

1) At least 2 reasons - a) It's a pun on the word Contradict. Don't we contradict ourselves all the time? Changed the t to k to let the smart observer know my gender at first glance. b) Contra: In contrast or opposition to; against. Dick: Jerk. Put those 2 together and what do you get?

2) Fries! But I will take my cousin (potato chips) anytime too! The reason? I'll have to shoot you if you found out! Nah just kidding.. It's a long story. I'm actually working on my biography at the moment.. Stopped at chapter 3 but abit lazy to continue. Drop me your msn and I'll consider sending you the 3 complete chapters. The part about Why Fries? can be found in chapter 2..

3) I inhale semi-polluted air and exhale fresh clean carbon monoxide + other by-products everyday. That's what I do to keep myself alive! But I'm sure you didn't mean for me to answer the question that way =P. Well Seriously, I'm a full time student from the School Of Computing, National University of Slackers, majoring in Information Systems and Minoring in Technopreneurship. I am also a freelance journalist (Don't you find it ironic that I am the one getting interviewed now?), writing on the intricacies of pubs and clubs for an almost defunct online magazine. A writer, a poet and an aspiring entrepreneur - That's me.

4) Are you sure you want to know?? *evil thoughts* LoL.. nah.. just kidding =P

5) Kurt Cobain (1967-1994). Definitely Kurt Cobain! I am not advocating drugs *Insert Propaganda: Kids, stay away from Drugs!* but I truly think he's an extraordinary artiste who touched the lives of many with songs that we can all relate to. He inadvertently kicked off the grunge revolution and the trend of wearing jeans with holes at the knees. Many of today's music is still being influenced by that of his band, Nirvana. His legacy lives on in the hearts and lives of those who have heard and who can relate to his music. I love the lyrics in his songs because not only are they so real, they carry meanings far deeper than what they convey on the surface. Pure ingenuity.

Girls Demystified!

Wed, 27 Apr 2005 18:12:46 GMT

I was studying in the library today with a friend and we were chatting about why girls do the things they do and I think I have got them figured out (or so I think).

Correct me if I'm wrong.

1) Girls want contradictory things. They want a successful man who will treat them like princesses. What they fail to understand is that there are always trade-offs for everything. To be successful, a man has to work hard and spend more time in his career. The more time he spends on his career, the less time he has for her. Girls however want to have it both ways, thus giving the guys a really hard time.

2) Girls don't know what they want. Yes, I can say that this is almost a certainty. They make guys go round and round in circles because in their minds things are always going like that. They are not sure what they really want so they can never get what they are never sure of wanting.

3) Girls like jerks. They run to nice guys for comfort and jerks for "love". Their favorite line is "All guys are jerks/bastards!" and this is ironic because guess who they always run to to complain?

4) Girls want to feel secure. And guess who they run to for "security"?

5) Inside every girl lies a drama queen. A drama queen who thinks everything is wrong when nothing truly is. That explains why you hear thin girls complaining endlessly that they are fat. I actually dared some of those thin girls who tell me they are fat to go tell what they told me to real FAT people. Leaves much to our imagination what's gonna happen.

6) Never step on a girl's tail whether purposely or otherwise. The consequences - you wouldn't wanna know.

7) Girls are petty. They can remember something wrong you did to them 20 years ago - like teasing that they are fat (By the way that is the most sensitive word in their dictionaries) - and will make you pay dearly for it.

8) There's a saying that goes "With love you no longer need bread and butter". This saying, if ever true, is no longer true in today's context. Without money, you can forget about "love".

Disclaimer: This is not a girls-bashing post. Just trying to see how true these observations are. Feel free to rebuke!

On the side note, girls like Linda Liao never seem to have a problem with men.

Grouping Drama

Mon, 26 Jul 2004 09:57:38 GMT

Just not too long ago, I was frantically searching for a group to do CS3214, a big-scale project for my course. This guy called Steven was supposed to form a group with me but he withdrew because apparently this incredible business opportunity came along and he couldn't resist the temptation of putting his studies on hold to concentrate fully on his start-up. The group that we were supposed to form disintegrated and I was put in the unpromising position of looking for a new group.

Coincidentally, I heard from a friend H that there was another group (Let's just call it Group C) that was looking for people. They had the former approach me to see whether I was interested. I couldn't confirm with them yet because I was still on the lookout and so I told that group "no".

After desperately emailing some people and getting replies such as "I don't need to take that module", "I'm sorry, my group is full" and "We are only looking for foreigners", I decided to tell the group that last approached me (Group C) that I would do the project with them.

You would think that the drama ends here. I did. But that was when things started to happen the way it does in one of those mediacorp television series. Steven suddenly called me after I said yes to Group C and said that there was some problems with his start-up and his application for suspending his studies and that it would be best for him to complete his studies first. He wanted me back in the team.

After confirming that he would not play me out again, I told Group C about the new development and seek their understanding in this issue. Afterall, HM, a friend from group C had told me that she was not too sure whether I could join group C as there may be a China guy who is a friend of one of the members (Y) in that group that may be joining. If he joins, then I would be out. What an unfavorable position I was put in!

Finally HM said she would give me some time to settle the matter. Group C itself needed to check with Y whether his China friend is joining. The problem was that Y was in China and he did not reply to the emails they had sent him. I had to wait until Y came back before I can know whether I was in Group C or not. Steven's side on the other hand had major problems itself. We couldn't persuade the original members of the group we had in mind to come back to the group. They had either found themselves new groups or were not interested to take the module anymore.

Steven told me he would have to confirm with me again too. Either both of us wait for a 3 person group to join or we each find individual groups. Just then, HM called me urgently while I was at the Naxx Era meeting and asked me to give Group C a confirmation immediately. She said that Y will only ask his friend if I did not want to join their group. I called Steven and he told me it was up to me. The fact of the matter is that it would be easier for him to find a 4 person group to join than to wait for a 3 person group to come along. Anyway he was more interested in his start-up than his studies now and he told me he can't promise that he could commit very much to the project.

So I made up my mind.

I told HM that I would join Group C. She said the decision must be final. I told her it had to be, since I was sick of being played out again. Everything should go smoothly from now on right? Wrong!

Just today alone I entertained calls from 4 different groups to join their groups! Wtf! Where were they when I was looking for a group? Now instead of being starved, I was actually spoiled for choice! The temptation was great but I told myself that I had already made a promise to HM so I would keep it and I had to reject the 4 groups. However I did do a good thing in trying to pull 2 groups together.

I don't really know why I am being head-hunted now. It is probably because of the ad I posted in BBS a while ago. But boy do people take bloody long to respond! Then they end up blaming me for finding a group so soon! =x Anyway just so everyone knows, I have no fucking idea how to develop a system with J2EE! And I am currently busy with writing articles for the online magazine. I told HM to understand that my level of commitment would not be 100% but of course I will do my work like everyone else. Let's just hope that everything will turn out fine this semester. I have enough drama trying to find a group..

Durians + Alcohol won't kill

Thu, 03 Jun 2004 07:16:44 GMT

I should know. I tried it yesterday.

The hangover is really bad though. My head's spinning and pounding, at the same time. I feel like vomitting but I can't even though I have tried to. The only thing I seem to be able to get out from my system is phlegm. Words can't adequately put justice to the physical torment I'm in now. This is one of the worst hangovers I had, well actually you can say it's the first if I don't remember wrongly. I usually don't have any hangovers at all - I'm the type who loses 'High' easily and quickly. I am beginning to wonder whether the extremely terrible hangover could be due to the durians I had a few hours before I took the corona extra, e33s and long island tea.

Don't worry people, I wasn't trying to kill myself. If I were, there would surely be other better and painless ways right? Not that I'm thinking of any now. Haha okay I'm beginning to sound mental already. Anyway I didn't intentionally go eat durians just before I go clubbing. It just happened. And the durians were so good too. The temptation was just too great. Well I survived to tell about it didn't I? So it can't be all that bad.

Enough about the durians. Moving on to more interesting stuff, I saw </a></b></a>alyssaa's friends- tammy and the butch from her class - at the tickets counter at zouk yesterday. I was looking at tammy and giving her the "Hey I know you from somewhere.. *scratches head* oh yeah you are the girl who always appear in the pictures in alyssaa's lj" look. She just smiled, most likely not being able to decipher that look and I guess she must have thought that I was checking her out or something. Hehe.. Anyway I was looking out to see whether alyssaa was there but I didn't manage to see her. Tammy looks exactly like how she looks in the pics so I guess alyssaa should look the same too, though it's always interesting to see your lj friends in real life, up front and personal. I doubt alyssaa would have the slightest clue who I am though since she has never seen me before. Whatever the case, I thought they only go to zouk on fridays and not on mambo jumbo night, but then again it was a public holiday so.. =P

Zouk was packed yesterday. The music sucked though until maybe around 1+ when the DJ finally started to play some decent songs. I was very high yesterday. Was practically dancing while holding a different drink throughout the night while I was at the steps of the dancefloor. Oh ya.. about the stupid DJ.. He didn't play a single Kylie song while I was there! *curses* I stayed until 2 so he could have played them after I left.. I don't know.. but still.. STUPID DJ! haha..

Ok can't take this anymore.. won't be able to stay coherent..

How I ended up blond..

Sun, 25 Apr 2004 04:00:15 GMT

Girl: Will you die for me?
Fries: Yes I will dye for you..

pissed

Sat, 27 Mar 2004 05:21:34 GMT

How would you feel if you wrote a beautiful poem and you posted it online and people used that poem and either told or gave everyone else the impression that THEY were the one who wrote it?

I don't need any comments that even remotely suggests that it is my fault for posting my work online. What is posted online ISN'T public property (I have studied Intellectual Properties and Copyrights before). If you want to use another person's work, you have to get permission from him/her and give him/her due recognition and credit. You are not supposed to steal his/her work and say that it is yours.

That is infringement of copyright and it is possible for legal actions to be taken against you. For a better understanding of copyrights, click here

A day is just a day..

Sat, 03 Jan 2004 09:45:20 GMT

I think what makes any single day special is the significance that people attach to it and the effort they make to keep it that way.

Letting the right bus go..

Thu, 04 Dec 2003 20:31:56 GMT

I missed my bus today.

There was no frantic chasing, no dramatic shouting, no scene whatsoever at all.

In fact, you wouldn't believe how I just let the bus go.

I didn't realise that I was the only one left at the bus stop. There was no bus in sight and I just glanced across the road for a moment, thinking of ideas for an article I was due to complete by tomorrow. Just then, as I turned back, I saw a bus speeding past my bus stop. I managed to catch the bus number from the plate fixed at the back of the bus - 198 - the only bus from that bus stop that I could take.

As I watched the bus speeding into the distance, a feeling of foolishness overpowered me. It was only then did I realise that there was no one else around. I had waited 15 minutes for a bus with a frequency of 15-20 minutes and it didn't stop because the only person at the bus stop didn't flag it and nobody on that bus was alighting at that stop. What were the odds?

Apparently it was 100% at that particular moment.

And just then, as the bus faded from my sight and merged into the busy traffic at the expressway, a thought came over me.

Life is exactly like that. We wait for opportunities to come our way much as the same way we wait for the right bus to bring us to our destinations. However it takes just a momental lapse in concentration or a little distraction for the opportunities to slip us by not unlike the same way we miss the right bus because we were looking elsewhere for just 2 seconds.

And it probably will be a good analogy for relationships as well. Looking for love is a little similar to waiting for a particular bus. Like the bus that left me feeling foolish, sometimes, the right person may have entered our lives but we may not be aware of it until he/she leaves because we are not paying enough attention or because we have other priorities.

Sometimes, we need to chase a bus because it is leaving and we want to get on it. If we are lucky and the bus driver notices us and is kind enough, he/she will stop and let us board. However, if the chase really started too late or if the bus driver did not notice us or he/she did but pretended not to, we will end up with cold stares from strangers who see us fools chasing after a bus that had no intention to stop for us.

And sometimes, like the way we are blinded by love, we develop astigmatism and board the wrong bus. Those who realize their mistake early get off the bus at once and face only the embarrassment of that moment. Those who do not realize their mistake until it is too late, i.e. until the bus has gone off course from their destination, suffer from not only embarrassment and shame but may become lost for a while and be faced with the hassle of planning how they can move on from the off-course track.

In the real world, I eventually managed to board another 198 which came 15 minutes after the first one left. In the world of analogy however, I am still stuck in an off-course track looking for the right bus to bring me home...

Why are we here?

Sat, 22 Nov 2003 22:08:08 GMT

It's 5am and I am still wide awake. Too many things have been going through my head recently. So many that I am actually beginning to feel depressed again. I just said goodbye to my mum who just went to work and strangely enough she didn't scold me for being awake at what some people will call an "unearthly hour". Maybe she's just used to this weird son of hers.

Or maybe she thinks I'm studying for my exams.

Well I am not. Yes, I still have another paper to go this coming thursday but I seem to have already entered into the stage whereby I didn't care how I do for the exams anymore. It's scary but it's true. Somehow nothing matters anymore. And somehow everything does. Am I contradicting myself? Well life is just pure irony in itself isn't it? Without life there could never be death and life and death are but direct opposites. How can I contradict myself in a world of contradictions?

I guess all of us have thought about this question at some point in our childhood - "What are we doing here?" Those who fail to stop thinking about this question become philosophers and try to persuade everyone else who are too busy conforming to the norms of social living conditions to think about it again. Then there are those who try to explain it - The scientists - who formulate all sorts of theories about how we came about hoping that somehow if we knew the answer to this question, we may perhaps have an intuitive inference for the one in discussion now.

Then there are those who turn to religion for the answers. And I can tell you you can't get any logical answers there. Somehow I just don't believe in religions. When you ask tough questions about life which no one can give a definite answer to, religion always turn it into a reason for you to join them and be part of the millions who have given up seeking for the answers and have chosen to take the easy way out and just use "god" to explain all the phenomena we see. When you ask "Why are things like that?", you will probably get an answer like "Oh because 'God' intended it to be so". Well if everyone just sat there and do nothing and nobody bothers to find the REAL answers to the basic questions, we will still think that rain and lightning came from the Greek 'gods'.

It's funny how we have the ability to think which allows us to make conclusions and rebuttals to others' conclusions if they so happen to be different from our own. It also amazes me how scientists manage to come up with things that we have taken for granted.. such as the speed of light. I mean how on earth did they manage to measure the speed of light IF the only thing that can match the speed of light IS the speed of light. How did they come up with those formulas which link everything to everything else?

These are all fascinating questions which almost everyone has taken for granted and stopped asking. Because we have all been thrown into busy lives and we worry over trivial things instead of the BIG picture. Does it matter whether we know the big picture or not? Well most people don't seem to care. As long as they have their houses, their cars, their careers, their spouses, their kids, their valuables, they consider it a life well-lived. But is our purpose here just that? Is our existance just mere meaningless cycles of life, reproduction and death?

No I have been watching too much of "The matrix" trilogy or anything like that. In fact I have only watched part 1. I have just been thinking alot. It doesn't take a movie to make you think. Perhaps it's just things that happen around you for which you find no logical explanation for and for which the coincidences ard ironies fascinate you to no end.

Speaking of end.. The time is 6am now. But does it really matter? Isn't time just something that men invented to keep track of our busy little, insignificant, clueless and perhaps meaningless lives?

Lost..

Wed, 29 Oct 2003 08:19:25 GMT

I am lost.. like a blur sotong in a maze. All I see around me are walls and dead ends. I don't even know what my next move should be..

I have been forced to think hard about my future. Am I in the right course? What do I wanna do when I graduate? I have no idea at this point..

About 1/3 of my life has already passed me by.. (assuming that I'm fortunate/unfortunate enough to live till 60+) It is perhaps time to seriously consider my options..

I am currently majoring in Information Systems which is a 4 years honours program offered by the School Of Computing. After taking the majority of the core modules, I begin to question whether my interest actually lies in computing.

I have 2 choices. Stick with the current route I am taking or switch to a 3 years Biz focus course.

Both have serious implications of course.

If I stick with my current major.. I have to graduate with at least a 2nd upper honours degree because I have found out from a friend that anything less than a 2nd upper honours will not actually be recognized in the working world. Of course if I graduate with a 2nd lower, I may still gain in terms of the extra one year of knowledge but that is about all.

To remain in my current stream, I will have to sacrifice alot of things.. mainly time.. countless nights of going without sleep, put up with a lot of stress and anxiety of having to maintain an average B+ grade throughout my NUS life.. etc.. Also I will have another year of tuition fee to pay off when I graduate and I will graduate 1 year later than my peers who are doing a 3 year course, resulting in 1 year's worth of lost revenue (assuming I can be gainfully employed the moment I graduate). If I do not consider the 1 year loss of revenue, I will still have to worry about paying off my tuition fee loan of $4640*4 + $2000 (laptop loan) = $20560..

If I switch to a 3 year bachelor of computing (Business focus) degree, it will be hard to find a job related to computing when I graduate as employers are still looking for 2nd upper honours graduates. On the up side, I will only have to worry about paying off $4640*3 + $2000 = $15920 and I will graduate and join the work force one year earlier.

But the thing I am thinking about now is.. will I even be doing a job related to computing when I graduate? Afterall, writing is still my number 1 passion.

I guess I am going to have a hard time over this. I don't mind if any of you can leave some constructive comments..

Love vs bread & butter

Tue, 21 Oct 2003 13:48:48 GMT

I was chatting with a close friend about 2 or 3 nights ago on icq and she raised the topic that she was at a point whereby love was not enough anymore. She told me that she has to be practical and see that love cannot buy bread and butter.. only money can.

I, on the other hand, told her that I was at the point of not having enough love and it would probably take me a long time, if ever, to advance to the point of thinking that love itself was simply not enough. I told her further that if I had a girlfriend and I was broke, we could do simple things like holding hands, taking strolls through the park, looking at the stars, or even just spending our time watching tv in each others' arms. I guess I just strongly feel that the best and the simplest things in life are free..

She was quick to note that I was one of the more idealistic friends she had and she was practically surrounded by very practical people. Perhaps its in our star signs.. She a practical virgoan , me an idealistic piscean. She labelled me an optimistic diehard romantic and the funny thing was that she was chatting with another guy simultaneously but whom shared the same sentiments as her - that love was not enough. And it intrigued her to no end that our views were so different and our arguments more so.

Oh another interesting thing to note.. month wise, we are born exactly 6 months apart.. so we are born in the same relative interval for our star signs.. That could explain our almost similar degree of standard deviations towards the extremes of idealism and practicality.

We did agree on some things though. Money can't buy everything and perhaps it will be best to achieve a balance between the two extremes..

And it might only take true love for her and bankruptcy for me to change our mindsets.

Don't call me boy boy!

Wed, 01 Oct 2003 12:54:50 GMT

There's a big difference between being called boy and boy boy.

Boy is an endearing term typically used by close friends to acknowledge your presence, as a greeting or to give you support. Common usage includes "Hey boy", "Take care boy" and "You go boy!". Boy boy, on the other hand, is a term that your grandmother normally use to beckon you over and give you a pat on your head because she thinks that no matter whether you are 2 or 20, you are still a baby... even if you have convinced her that you can spell "ecnecseloda" backwards.

Why am I so particular about these two terms? Well it's because I cut my hair recently and a couple of people commented that I look like a boy boy -__-"

$300 for a hole

Thu, 25 Sep 2003 11:54:48 GMT

That's what my family paid today.

All for a stupid hole.

This is what happened. Today is my father's off day. So he was doing maintenance work around the house. He was trying to unclog the drain in the kitchen bathroom when part of the concrete that was beneath the hole gave way.

The resultant hole was big enough so that water could flow from our bathroom into the bathroom of our neighbours below. Obviously the neighbours were furious. They argued with my father for an hour. My father suggested that they call HDB to come down and take a look. The neighbours didn't want to. They got this guy from a nearby plumbing shop who quoted in excess of $1000 for the repairs.

Downright daylight robbery I tell you! My father could gauge from the extent of the damage that it was hardly near the price that the plumber quoted. We figured that it was a conspiracy by the neighbour and the plumber to rip us off. I am not saying that without any basis. You see, my neighbour was a pirated VCD seller. That says a lot about his character. He got arrested before and was fined quite heavily. I don't know whether he still engage in such illegal activities now but judging from the response we got when my father suggested calling HDB, it is obvious that he didn't want any government officers anywhere near his flat.

And to think that a hole is going to cost us more than $1000? I guess even a 3 year old kid can figure out that there was something fishy going on. My father refused to let that plumber do the repairs. He argued with the neighbours for another hour. They finally came to a compromise. My father will pay for all the repairs but he will find another person to do it.

We found a repair man through the papers who quoted $100++ through the phone. When the repair man came down though, he said that it would cost about $200+ but that was still way below the $1000++ that the plumber that my neighbour found quoted. We decided to accept this more reasonable price and let the repair man do the work.

The repair man then said that they might have to do something to the neighbour's other bathroom too. But that had nothing to do with the hole! It was just that their pipes were old anyway and it would be better to change them. It would cost $300 to do both bathrooms. In the end my father paid for those services too even though we didn't really need to.

The neighbours were grinning. But of course they should be! They got new pipes for both their bathrooms and they didn't pay a dime. We were obliged to only pay for services related to the hole but for the sake of harmony and peace and out of good will, we did their other bathroom for free.

So much drama because of a stupid hole.

Are you all right?

Mon, 22 Sep 2003 10:13:59 GMT

Someone asked me this question during lecture today.
"Huh?", I shot back a "What do you mean?" look.
"You look really shagged!"
"Oh..."

I am indeed very tired but I didn't realise that it showed. I have been really busy these days. Midterms are around the corner and I have so many commitments. I gave up studying for all my modules last week to train intensively with my Scrabble team. Curious passer-bys looked bewildered when they saw me with a scrabble set discussing strategies with some of my players in the science canteen a few hours before the competition.

My efforts paid off though. We beat Science 3-2 and Arts 5-0 in the Inter Faculty Games (Scrabble) last friday. I guess many people anticipated that we will lose to Arts. But as captain, I have sworn
that I will prove to everyone that Scrabble is not merely a word game; it is a game that requires alot of thinking and I was confident that even though Arts may have the advantage in terms of vocabulary, we could beat them strategically. We did. My team was so excited and I was elated.

Even though we won by 5-0, that was not to say that the games were easy. My Arts opponent was very good. He scored 39 points for his second move and I was put on high alert. We kept blocking each other's moves such that at the end of the game, we only utilized less than half the board because the other half was completely blocked and there was no way to form any words there. Towards the end of the game, he made a lot of words which I knew did not exist, but I didn't challenge those words as time was running short. This was a strategic move on his side because at that point of time, I was trailing and if I had called for challege, his word would have been revoked but challenges take some time to process and the game was to be stopped at a specific time. I told myself I would not resort to such strategies to win the game. I continued placing legitimate words on the limited space available.

In the end, I won the match 330-261 because he had a 50 point penalty for exceeding the time limit (Each player has 25min for the whole game). If he had not exceeded his time, the score would have been 330-313 which would have reflected how close our match was. I was really nervous when tabulating the scores. When my calculator read 330 and my opponent told me his score was 261, I was so relieved and so excited. I was almost smiling uncontrollably when I found out that my team mates had all beaten their opponents.

However I have already told my players not to be too complacent. We will be playing for two more weeks at least and the faculties we will be facing are very strong opponents. I am especially worried about playing off with USP (University Scholars Program). I think it is quite unfair for USP to be considered a faculty because the university scholars are the cream of the crop and they come from all the different faculties. Before we left, we found out that USP had beaten another faculty 5-0 too. They seemed to be the strongest team in the tournament.

I am also worried about going against Biz Ad as they are seeded number 2 in the tournament and also against law because those guys have mega memories. But I love challenges too and the high that you get from beating a strong opponent is something that cannot be adequately expressed in words.

I hope to lead the SoC team to at least the top 3 positions in the tournament. I am faced with some problems now though because one of the players in my main team has other commitments (projects) and he may not be able to play for me this friday. That literally translates to me having to retrain intensively with my reserves this week on top of the training with my main players. I hope we don't lose out because of this.

Besides scrabble, I have cleared both interviews and now I am part of the editorial team for both SCC (Soc Corporate Communications) and Comp Club. I foresee really busy weeks ahead. I hope that in light of all these new responsibilities, I will learn to manage my time better and emerge stronger and more ready to take on the world.
So watch out world, move aside superman, here I come!

The sadness within..

Fri, 12 Sep 2003 17:52:54 GMT

Sometimes in life, you have to make the toughest decisions. But if it's for the best, I guess it's better to have made them.

Opportunities knock thrice at one time

Thu, 11 Sep 2003 04:24:35 GMT

I love writing. I love words. I love the way that when you put the same words in a different order, you can express yourself in a different manner. I love to play around with words, like they were lego blocks and I am only limited by my imagination and creativity and the number, types and colours of lego blocks I have.

I love to write metaphorically. I love to make people think with my works. I love to hide 2 or more meanings into a sentence so that each time someone reads something I write, they get a different perspective and depth into what I am or what they think I am trying to convey.

Words give me power. The rich can have their money. The successful can have their status. I just need my words. Whoever said that "Sticks and stones can hurt my bones but words can never hurt me" obviously has a wicked sense of humour. Try insulting a serial killer, see what happens. In case I don't see you again and that probability is almost 1 if you really try taunting a criminal, it was nice knowing you, ya?

Anyway I have always wanted to write for a magazine or an organization of some sort. Guess what? Now is the time! Recently, I have been approached by the media and publications head for my faculty club to write interesting articles for their newsletters. I have also applied for a journalist/free-lance journalist position in a student associates program which has the responsibility to promote and publicize my faculty to JCs/Polys and Corporates. I was really nervous during the interview (Yes there was an interview and it was damn scary!) for the latter though, so I am not too sure if I can get in. However, I hope they can understand and try to base their decision on my ability to write rather than on my interview.

The last part is probably the icing on my large, delicious chocolatey rocher cake. I will be leading the SoC scrabble team for the Inter-Faculty Games. I get to play with letters and words again.. literally this time.

My first crush..

Sun, 07 Sep 2003 06:56:16 GMT

I used to be really shy.

I mean REALLY REALLY shy. I remember my first crush like it was only yesterday. Her name is Sharon. We were only seven. I guess TV has a big effect on a growing child. Perhaps it was the happy endings in the fairy-tale type of cartoons I watched. Perhaps it was the nice warm fuzzy feeling I got from watching soapy romance serials on the then SBC 8. Whatever it was, at the age where other boys detested girls and thought they were yucky and would rather play with other boys, I thought girls were special and there was one whom I felt was way more special than the rest.

I guess I'm not very good at hiding my feelings. Maybe it was the way she caught me looking at her. Maybe it was the nervousness that was obvious to the both of us every time I talked to her. Whichever the case, being the smart girl that she was, she soon figured that she was special in my eyes.

I remember that even then, I already possessed a gift- I was able to express myself much clearer and better than most people with written words. And probably because of my shyness, I got my messages across more effectively with pencil and paper than through vibrations of the air. I recall that I actually wrote her some sort of a love letter. Yes, my very first love letter.. at age 7. I think it was only about a paragraph long.. written with simple words.. words that I had been taught till that particular point of time (which wasn't many), to tell her I like her.

Sharon never did see that letter though.

Instead my mom actually found it and was questioning me about it and I told her a white lie that it was just a game that I was playing with my cousins and quickly brushed it off. In fact, it was no game. To me, it was as serious as it could ever be.

I am sure that you could already anticipate that there was no happy ending to this tale. What actually happened was that one day, Sharon actually approached me with a friend. Flashing that irresistible smile of hers, she asked me a simple question... "Do you like me?"

I was taken aback. I guess I didn't expect her to be so direct. I guess I wasn't prepared. I must have turned bright red... probably just a little short of the colour of the red markers on the teacher's desk. I wanted so badly to say yes but my innate shyness overpowered me and the yes I was supposed to say turned to a no.

She never spoke to me ever again after that.

Even till today, all I can do is ask "What if?" What if I said yes? How would things have turned out? Maybe we could have been childhood sweethearts.. or maybe she could have broken my heart. But I never knew.. because I didn't say how I really felt. Because I couldn't overcome my shyness.

All our lives, we ask ourselves "What if?" only too often. Perhaps about 80% of those "What if?"s in my life can be attributed to that innate shyness. But I can safely say that I have been doing my best to try to overcome it. People don't quite understand how hard it is for naturally shy ppl to do simple things like asking someone out. It is a feeling that no words can do justice to.

So next time, if an innately shy person asks you out, do say yes. If things don't go well, the only thing that you can lose is a few hours of your life and I am quite sure most people waste more hours stoning. On the contrary, things might just work out and you will be one of those lucky people who see a side of that person that few people get the chance to see. Either way, you would have gotten to know the person a little better and allow him/her to get to know you a little better as well. And that's not such a bad thing issit? At least the decisions both of you make later on is a reflection of what you know about each other rather than what you think you know.

And if a girl I happen to like asks me whether I like her again, I will shoot myself if I say no again.

The (mis)adventures of Fries ('Live' on livejournal)

Mon, 01 Sep 2003 11:42:44 GMT

It has been a terribly boring three weeks since school restarted (Except maybe "the cute girl waving at me" incident). Wow time really flies.. This is already the start of week 4. In another 2 months and 26 days, I will once again be free from the National University of Stress.

But right now, things are heating up and I am beginning to feel the effects of the stress slowly building up again since the last full-blown climax (aka Exams) four months ago. Tutorials are working their evil roots into my leisure time and forcing me into my second week of fustration and confusion. Lectures are going way too fast so much so that even the most potent sweets can't save me from the hypnotic effects of their swift and deadly knock-out punches..

I seriously need to squeeze a ball soon..

A stress ball that is...

On the bright side, if things go the way they should, I would be going for some outings soon and perhaps, just perhaps I might be able to release some of that built up stress into the unsuspecting Singapore environment which is already almost fully saturated to notice the rise in tension caused by my release.

I am thinking of going to some beach to shout into the waves just like they do in the movies. But if I do that alone, it will look dumb.. so I was thinking of maybe finding a daring soul who need to release some pent up fustration to go with me. Any takers?

Well for those other lucky souls out there, stay tuned for the (mis)adventures of fries as they unfold.. stay tuned cos they will be coming to a browser near you soon..

A cute girl waved at me today..

Mon, 25 Aug 2003 14:49:45 GMT

but I had absolutely no idea who she was!

Okay.. this was what happened...

After successfully charming a french lecturer to let me switch to a more favourable class in which I knew at least 60% of the people, I managed to get my ideal timetable. Finally! After stressing over it for days!

I decided to celebrate by treating myself to a good meal at the biz ad canteen - Roasted Honey Chicken with Pasta.. *yummy* As I was making my way back to my seat, this cute girl caught my attention and for a brief moment, our eyes made contact. Then the strangest thing happened. She started waving to me with a look of recognition in her eyes.

I must have looked like a fool to her because I just gave her a really really blank look. I got my mind to run at full speed in that one second, going through the images of everyone I have ever seen before in my head and I couldn't find an image that remotely resembles that girl.

Then I did what most guys wouldn't do.. I carried on walking.

But my brain didn't stop thinking. Who was she? You mean, I actually know a cute girl like that.. How can I not remember? Hmmm.. did she wave at someone else? But there wasn't any one behind me or beside me for that matter.. Did she mistook me for someone else? But I didn't have such a common face.. I think.. Was she one of my LJ friends I have never seen before? But how could she know how I looked like.. My user pic is way too blur for anyone who didn't know me personally to figure out..

I still can't stop thinking..

And the other day, something similar happened at the Science canteen. A guy waved at me and I don't really recognise him at all.. I waved back though because there was a higher possibility that I know that guy rather than the girl as my faculty is near science but way way off from biz ad..

Maybe I'm getting senile..