Work-of-the-Day

I worked again today! Hmm.. Work is quite fun. I feel like a tape recorder though. I have to keep repeating the same thing over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over.

Work-of-the-Day

I had work today with the usual M&M people. The event was the SPH Children's Carnival at EXPO Hall 4. Our station was Watch Eat!, the cookie baking station.

On leave..

Jaime's on leave these few days. She'll be back to update soon (latest: 4th Oct 2006).

Trip-of-the-Day

We had a good breakfast at the hotel in the morning! It was a standard breakfast buffet. I haven't eaten such a BIG breakfast for a long time.

After breakfast, we headed to Cerebos Malaysia Sdn Bhd. Wonder what they manufacture? It's Brand's Essence of Chicken! We got a look at how they packaged the item. It was really interesting! They could fold a box from a flat cardboard in a fraction of a second! We were given refreshments (Bee Hoon, Curry Chicken, Curry Puff, Vegetable & Orange Cordial). Anyway, I was one of the 3 winners of the lucky draw, winning myself a 6-pack Brand's Essence of Chicken with Lingzhi.

We headed for lunch at a seafood restaurant. There was so much food that we could not finish it! We were face to face with a spider crab. It was like half a metre wide! HUGE.

In the afternoon, we visited Malaysia Milk Sdn Bhd. Cows? Nah. They specialize in cultured milk, that is, VITAGEN!!! They make other products like Peel Fresh and Marigold products.

In the evening, we had dinner at another seafood restaurant (Yong Peng). The food was great but the air conditioning was extremely cold. After that, we had a long journey back to Singapore. On the way back, some of us were sabotaged and had to sing a song! For me, we sang At the Beginning.

Just to mention, along the highway, we saw cows and horses! They were only separated from us by a single fence and were roaming by themselves. My friends saw a truckload of camels too! However, I was sleeping and missed the action.

Anyway, here's what I brought back from Malaysia:

1. Brand's Essence of Chicken (Lingzhi - 6 bottles, Tangkwei - 1 bottle, American Ginseng - 1 bottle)
2. Hair Net
3. Ear Plugs
4. The Federal Matchbox
5. Pen
6. Sunglasses
7. Snowskin Mooncakes
8. Vitagen

Trip-of-the-Day

Today, we had a FST trip to Malaysia. It was subsidized through the fund raising efforts of our FST staff (not NUS)! (*touched*)

In all the factories, we had to wear a hair net, labcoats and shoe covers! We looked weird!

We stopped over in Johor Bahru to visit Kerry Ingredients. The company is an MNC and has branches all over the world. The factory visit was very detailed and I learnt so much more about the factory processes as well as the science behind food manufacture.

We bought lunch at Yong Peng and ate on the way to our next destination, Malaysia Palm Oil Board (in Selangor) where we learnt about the uses of palm oil and margarine manufacture.

After that, we headed for The Federal where we checked in. We headed for dinner at Jln Alor (I think that's the name) where we enjoyed roadside food. In the evening, we went for shopping in the heart of Kuala Lumpur.

Challenge-of-the-Day

Man!!! LSM2201 Open Lab planning is damn difficult (maybe it's just me)! I'm so confused! I give up. I'm waiting to see what my group members get! I've been working on it (excluding research time) from 730am to 340pm. That's like 8h. No break (not even for lunch). Going for lunch now. BYE.

I'm back from lunch! Here's lunch (ham, potatoes & vegetables)!

P.S. Does anyone have the lactate dehydrogenase purification protocol? SEND ME!!!

Happy Birthday MJ!!!

Song-of-the-Day

And the song of the day is...

*drumroll*

Fly by Hillary Duff

HTML-of-the-Day

Do you see the changes in my blog?! There are 10 differences!

1. Title - colour
2. Heading - colour
3. Visited links - colour
4. Unvisited links - colour
5. Mouse over links - font size
6. Mouse over links - highlighting
7. Mouse over links - italics
8. Mouse over images - highlight
9. Marquee
10. Counter

By the way, there's a new shopping centre near my place at Jln Kayu! Fernvale Point! It's currently open with Koufu food court (24 hours).

Met Rebeck's this afternoon. We went to the airport! So fun! After that, we watched S'pore Idol with Venessa at her place.

I made 3 tshirt designs today!

Work-of-the-Day

In the morning, I went to Geylang Bahru to collect the AWC membership cards.

After that, it was schoolwork the entire day!

• FST Lab Report - Ash Determination
• FST Group Project Research/Summary
• LSM2201 Ultracentrifugation Assignment

Excitement in the Monotony.

Run-of-the-Day

We finished our FST practical the fastest again! My lab partner, Chewy, is zai! I love FST practicals. FUN.

After school, I went for a run at MacRitchie. I love the place. The sound of the ground beneath my feet, my breathing and all nature that surrounds me. I love the feeling. I get so distracted with my thoughts that I just keep accelerating without notice. I ran about 6km in about 35min. That's about 6min/km. Far from the past, but acceptable.

After that, I met up with rZ for dinner at the usual place (Ah Seah's Eating House) for Teochew porridge and cheng tng. We talked at the stadium after dinner - our usual hangout. Haha.

Jansen and Pat came over just now!

To all people with ailments (food poisoning, sprained ankle, cough, blocked nose and sore throat): Take care man! Everyone's getting sick these days!

Lab-of-the-Day

Well, not exactly lab. That's what they call Geography tutorial classes. Anyway, pQ, Yinteng and I did group work today! It was so fun! We were equipped with a hydrographic chart and a tide table. Our task was to plan for an outdoor adventure camp for a group of students. We had to select sites for a floating clubhouse and campsite. We also had to plan the dates, times and routes for canoeing and intertidal walks (to see coral reefs)!

Pssst... pQ takes sweets from strangers!!! Tsk tsk. (I also took a sweet. Peer pressure. Nice sweet!)

Duty-of-the-Day

FST Lab Report was a drag.

Prayer buddy session was a fine start.

LSM2201 Lab was a waiting game.

AWC Duty was hectically pleasant.

This marks the end of my 19-hour work day.

5am to midnight.

Mouse-of-the-Day

We caught a mouse! I didn't know we had a mouse around until one of my bananas got stolen! So.. we set the trap and... that's the mouse. (C'mon, don't squirm. People keep mice and hamsters as pets. They're all related.)

In the evening, Venessa, Rebecca and I watched Singapore Dreaming. The show is stressful! It's all about the $$$!!! It was quite a nice movie.

Test-of-the-Day

I had a CM2161 quiz today. It's worth 6% and there's 5 of them (Total = 30%). Today was Quiz 2. Congratulations Jaime, you've completed 41.67% of the quiz, giving you a probability of 0 for passing this quiz. There wasn't enough time. I don't recall any of my friends being able to complete it. I atempted 100% of it. If only there were method marks. We are only asked to put down the final answer and no marks would be awarded for any calculations. I knew how to do the questions, but there simply isn't enough time.

Time.. that's always the issue, isn't it?

"But if we don't take time, then where will we get time?"

Great song: Chasing Cars by Snow Patrol.

P.S. Forgive my complaints. I'm full of them these days.

Shopping-of-the-Day

Shopping? For a birthday present that is! So... It doesn't really constitute shopping, especially when Sandra and I are tasked to do it.

Anyway, here's lunch! It's Oodles - Sesame and Pandan flavoured, cooked with chicken stock cubes, worcestershire sauce, carrots, celery and egg. That's all the ingredients I could find at home. I feel like an ovo-vegetarian (at least at lunch)!

Microfilm-of-the-Day

I went to the library to check out old newspapers immortalized on microfilm. I finally learned how to use a microfilm reader and figured out how it works. I've always watched people use it in movies and wondered how it worked.

In the afternoon, I had a final meeting for CSS Science FCG Committee for handing over!

He - Part 5

He sits and stares into oblivion. Nothing has really changed, has it? The truth is - everything changes. “Forever” comes and goes. There is no definite. Lives are ever-dynamic. At some point in time, he realized he was in a standstill while the lives of others remained dynamic. He got left behind. Things were never in his control. He wanted to be in control. He was used to regularity, repetition. With that, he felt in control. He soon lost these and he too was lost. He had to adapt. He had to change. He hated this sense of unfamiliarity. He hated ambiguity. He hated change when it happened. Before change, he longed for change. Thus, he was confused. Was he to embrace this change or was he to be indifferent? With each confusion, he seeks out familiar territory. He thought he could retreat back to where he was. But how could he? So much has changed. Conversations have changed. Each sentence and response had to be carefully contemplated before broadcast. He lost his usual channel. But that was ok. That itself had seemed familiar to him at some point in his life.

Perhaps his thoughts on idealism and his belief in himself that he could live up to it have finally turned their backs on him. He takes a situation, makes a prediction and waits for his prediction to come through, always thinking of the worst that could happen, yet hoping for the best. Call him a pessimist. He’s learning to cope with reality since there’s a high probability that his pessimistic predictions come through. It’s a safe bet playing on the principal that the higher you are, the longer the journey down. Having a low expectation allowed him to fall slightly each time, letting him accustom to the imperfections of this world rather than falling a long way down and being unable to get up.

He wants to blame someone, hurt someone, but he knows he has to learn sacrifice and unconditional kindness. So with each opportunity, he lets it slide. He hurts them anyway. This was unintentional at the later stage of course. What is done cannot be taken back. Words exchanged cannot be retracted. If he didn’t mean something, why would he have said it in the first place? The best he could do was to offer an explanation for his behaviour, implying that what he did in the first place had no weight.

He meant no harm. Initially, he was just furious. Being furious, he felt the need to hurt someone. When rationality spoke to him, she got through to him and he knew he never meant any harm.

The only person he blamed was himself. He “needed” too much. He was furious at the way he felt. He was furious at the attention he required. He was furious that he was on the brink of obsession. He was furious that his neediness had blended with selfishness. He was furious at his sudden lack of independence. He was furious, just furious.

There were many other things going through his mind. If they were to be contained here, the entire internet could not even begin to contain his thoughts.

Evening-of-the-Day

In the evening, rZ and I went to Junction 8. We spent the time talking (as usual). Today, we went to Coffee Bean - just like old times.

rZ: Take care of that ankle!

For sprained ankles, use RICE:

• Rest
• Ice
• Compress
• Elevate

Course-of-the-Day

In the afternoon, I was studying at MD5 as usual. A bunch of guys plopped down at the table beside me. One of them had a guitar and they started singing "I Wanna Grow Old With You". Lovely song and their voices were not bad as well (they were recording). Although I usually prefer the quiet surroundings, I realized it was nice to listen to some music as well.

In the evening, we had a second Basic Course for air weapons. I met some rather friendly people. They even asked for my name.

Ok, what's with asking for your name right? I think it's nice of people to WANT to know your name. It's like it matters to them. One thing I learnt back at The Ritz was to address each and every person by name (whether guest, colleague or whoever). When someone knows your name and addresses you by it, the feeling is different altogether. There is a greater personal touch to it I guess, and sincerity as well.

Fruit-of-the-Day

This is a banana. Not just any banana. This banana has been groomed from a garden of Seletar Camp. This banana was green. This banana is now ripe and sweet. I'm proud of this banana since it came from my garden (bet you didn't know I had a banana tree)!

pQ and I are full of lactic acid. A sign of old age and lack of excercise.

Indra: Delivery for YOU. HAHAHA.

Sport-of-the-Day

I went for Touch Rugby training in NUS. It was really confusing and stressful. It uses too much of my brain and forces me to multi-task. Definitely not a sport to excel in for me. When I went back to school this semester, I felt stupid. Today, I felt more stupid than I ever had in my life. The game is too complex for my PUNY brain! Well, at least I got some sun and some excercise.

After that, I went for dinner with rZ at Holland Village. It's been such a long time since we met up like that! I saw Hadec, Tianci and gang. I also met Xinghong at the laksa stall.

rZ: Sorry that I forgot to reply to your comment! But.. Why is pQ a parasite in Jap Studies??? I mean I thought she was a parasite only to us!

Tidying-of-the-Day

In the morning, I re-organized my school stuff into a smaller set of files. I was getting confused with having 7 files. Now, I've packed them into 3 files with dividers!

Shoot-of-the-Day

I had a monthly shoot at Home Team NS this morning. My Model 100 was spoilt and I had to change it to a Model 65. My goodness. The gun really makes a difference. I shot 306/400. Personal worst?

I was simply amused by the weapons! They were all spoilt! Model 100: the catch is spoilt. Model 65: the sight can't be adjusted accurately. When I adjusted it, the entire screw came off and the whole rear sight came off position!!! I was almost done with my sighting and had to re-sight. Andrew, QL and CY all had problems with their guns as well. Hilarious!

Concert-of-the-Day

In the evening, bex and I watched Shut Up & Dance by NUS Dance Blast! The performance was great (i.e. entertaining)!

If I were...

If I were a ghost, I wouldn’t want to spend my time wandering around the Earth for eternity. The objective would be to cross over to the other side. I would do everything with the intention of getting to the other side. The phase that I am in would be temporary and thus transitional. I would not be seeking to make my stay on Earth as a ghost more comfortable by (maybe) finding a nice spot to haunt.

If I were shipwrecked and alone on an island, my goal would be to try to return home, to where my family and friends are. While gathering wood to try to build a watercraft to escape the island, I also decide to build a shelter for myself. I am such a perfectionist that I decide to build a fanciful shelter. Day by day, I seek out materials to better my temporary “home” and lose sight of the goal (to return home) and is totally distracted from building my watercraft (the way to get home). What I have done is to make my transitional phase (the island) more comfortable while losing sight of the ultimate goal. At the end of the day, if I finally get down to building my watercraft, I would have to leave my fanciful shelter behind and my hard work of building it would have meant nothing. I may however try my best to cling on to my life at the island and try to postpone leaving the island. But any logical man would tell me that that would be silly since I would feel incomplete without your family and friends.

Now, my life on Earth as a person is temporary as well. The goal is to have eternal happiness. I too should focus solely on that. The way is love. Love is such a beautiful gift bestowed upon us. We seldom ask others “Why are you happy?” Perhaps the answer to that is love. It is such a wonderful thing to love others (family, friends, acquaintances and strangers) and even a greater thing to see them sincerely smile because of your action. It rewards with such a wonderful feeling yet it remains challenging. I get distracted from my goal (and loving others) by trying to seek other self-interests leading away from my original goal. These distractions include an obsession with academics, money, career, leisure and decadent lifestyles. Let’s say I have a fancy career, lots of cash, spouse and kids. At the end of the day, my goal was probably to build a comfortable place for a transitional phase. If my goal was to feel at home on Earth, I would have accomplished it and I would try to cling on to my dear temporary life and eventually will have to give it up in dying. Wouldn’t that be silly? Why the attachment to the temporal? Set your sights on the ultimate goal.

Dinner-of-the-Day

Jimmy treat the air pistol team to Sakura at Clementi Woods this evening! Thanks again Jimmy!!! T'was a happy buffet with 2 storeys of food to consume. Excellent. It was quite fun!

Anyway, 2 campus crusaders came over to talk to me in school. I was studying. I turned them down on a discussion about religion because of the following reasons:

1. I was studying halfway and I wanted to complete my set of notes before lab started.
2. I was too tired to start a debate in which there would be no 2-way communication.
3. There wasn't enough time. All my discussions about religion are rather lengthy. My last discussion was more than an hour long standing up.
4. I wasn't in the correct frame of mind to talk about God.

Maybe next time.

Dinner-of-the-Day

After school, pQ and I went for dinner at AMK S11. It's been a while since we last went there to eat. We were supposed to meet Ling Ling as well but her phone battery died and she was uncontactable! (Use payphones!!! They work just as well!)

Commissioning-of-the-Day

Back on the road again...

In the morning, I had LSM2201 test. I packed my whole stack of notes but forgot to bring them. As a result, I could not revise for the test. Jaime is so smart. I don't know what's wrong with her this semester. It's her first time (in her life) that she's ever forgot to bring her notes along.

In the evening, there was CSS Science and Bizad Commissioning Mass. We've handed over to the next committee!

Enemy-of-the-Day

Our new SSA2215 (Biophysical Environment of Singapore) lecturer is FUNNY!

Dear How pQ,

Without me in your life, you would have died 8 years ago. Just for today alone, you have proven yourself to be a fei4 ren2.

You need me to:

1. Supply food to you (energy bar, pandan bread)
2. Help you to buy food (Mashed potato) - you bluffed me that it was $1 when it was $1.10
3. Copy notes for you during lecture while u SLEEP
4. Lending you my mobile phone (SE T610)
5. Letting you make calls/sms with my phone (SE K500i) and my SIM card
6. Drive you to Dhoby Ghaut
7. Answering a call for YOU while I was mugging (some guy called me and asked for Pei Pei!!!) Excuse me, since when did we share the same hp number?
8. Do many many more tasks

Thanks for your "independency".

Arch-enemy 4-eva,

Jaime

Movie-of-the-Day

I watched 'The Devil Wears Prada' this evening. It was a great movie!!!

The service at TCC at Cineleisure is excellent. Well done guys!

Discernment-of-the-Day

There was CSS ScienceFCG Discernment today! The sessions went well I guess.

In the evening, drove to Esplanade to help with Trash. We (Rebeck's, Venessa and ME) watched the play as well. At least I could understand quite a bit of it. It was in mandarin!

We went to Casuarina to eat supper. The service has deteriorated and so has the food quality.

Work-of-the-Day

I went down to NUS to reclaim logistics used at the Sports Bazaar.

I've been doing schoolwork all day and probably all night.

I just realized I forgot to eat lunch. Well done.

My pirate (given by Qingling)!

In the evening, pQ, ling ling and I went to eat Teochew porridge at Yishun 81 coffeeshop! When I came home, it was just in in time to go for dinner (part 2) at a western food place at Punggol Park with Jansen, Pat and my father! I drank Lychee Martini! I finally got to try it. The alcohol content was pretty high.

Anyway, I ate 2 dinners to compensate for missing lunch!

Drama-of-the-Day

In the morning, I had CM2161 lab. The lab was a test of patience. We had to keep waiting and poking bubbles!

In the afternoon, I drove to MacRitchie after AWC training. NDU (Naval Diving Unit) was having their cross country. I had no idea! Coincidence man. I saw Hua San and he called Andrew over. His hair is longer now! I think he came in top 10. Not bad...

Reminder: Jaime must run with Andrew SOON.

In the evening, we helped out at a Dramabox play at Esplanade.