It's my birthday! haha..

Today is my lunar birthday.. 2nd month and 16 days on the lunar calendar.. I actually got 4 birth dates.. becos I am born on 5th Apr 1985 and on that day, it was also Good Friday and Qing Ming..

so Good Friday is also my birthday.. haha.. and it was 2 days ago.. Qing Ming always fall on my birthday but this year it's different.. the leap year has caused it to fall on 4th April instead.. haha..

anyway.. having so many birth dates also no point becos never celebrate.. and I think even on real my birthday this year also not much celebration bah.. It falls on a Sat so maybe just a meal with my parents bah.. as usual..

I am restless..

my prof says I am confusing, I am restless and have no confidence..

becos I was very hungry, tired from lack of sleep and really lacked of self-confidence..

I felt like crying at that time.. I was controlling my emotions.. I felt my voice breaking when I speak but I control it.. that's what I am good in.. hiding my emotions, pretending to be happy.. to be strong.. but I am not.. I am not good in hiding.. if not why he feels I am restless.. and lack of confidence.. so confusing right..

I threw my temper when somebody snatch the fluorescence spectrometer from me.. of course I didn't scold her.. I stomped away to cool down and come back when I am more calm..

I threw my temper at my mum when she repeated asked me to do chem related jobs.. I have told her repeatedly that I don't want to do research already.. can't she listen..

I am stressed from my fyp, projects.. I have no time.. who can help me? only myself..

Helped out at the NUS openhouse..

it was last sun.. actually does not need to go in the end but wei kit called me too late lor.. I am already there.. anyway.. I feel like voluntering to help lah.. I did duty at the faculty booth so helped to answer academic questions from the wishing-to-come-sci-fac-students.. we are not selling sci fac.. so when they come to the booth then we approache them..

anyway, why I actually do not have to go? becos the "business" is actually not very good in the morning.. not many ppl.. the crowd only came in after 12pm.. I heard the "businees" was better on sat.. so many that you can't handle.. maybe Singaporeans are just very kiasu bah.. so all went on sat.. and sun ppl may go church bah.. but I must say compared to last few years'.. this year is really quite bad.. NUS not attractive anymore?

Life sciences is still the most popular course bah.. many ppl ask about life sciences.. maths and chem have but not so many.. I thought life sci not so popular liao.. but apparently, it still is..

ppl on duty at the fac booth will have free meal coupon for food $3 and less.. and also a drink coupon.. but those at the club booth don't have.. why so stingy.. they already save a lot from the pay of the students liao lor.. should give some welfare mah.. other fac pay their students per hour lor.. we are student helpers but doesn't mean we should do so much.. okay.. the deans' office gave funding to sci club but still need to think of students' welfare mah..

and why can't we promote scamp at the fac booth? don't understand the logic..

Glasshouse's fish & co.

Was there yesterday with my holland V gang.. haha..

A new venue for gathering but found that it is not very suitable for eat and talk talk.. there is live performance which is so loud.. so difficult to hear what one another was saying.. also have to talk loudly.. the service also quite bad.. the waitress is forgetful and slow..

Ate quite full.. shared a seafood platter for two.. my friends can't really finish their fish.. haha.. I tried out my new camera yesterday.. maybe it is the first time I using so not very used to its functions and flash so the photos taken I am not very satisfied.. a bit like floating.. a bit blur..

taken with flash on.. background is dark..
taken with slow flash..
those at the gathering.. Jiahui not there.. becos busy with project.. but why am I there?

me with my raspberry blackcurrant at starbuck.. we went there after dinner.. becos it is too difficult to talk at fish & co.

A luxurious buy..

Went to the IT show 2008 yesterday after sch with yihui and jas.. have planned to buy a new camera.. actually have planned it for quite a long time.. last year at the IT show, I have wanted to buy a camera but my parents don't allow and I am not brave enough to go against them.. this time.. I don't care.. I just want to buy.. anyway I am buying with my own savings mah..

went to the different camera booths to try out the camera.. I must try out before I can decide whether worth buying or not.. among all the brands, I sort of like canon, casio and ricoh.. my criteria of choosing camera are: not too ex which is not over $500, the LCD screen must be clear, not pixellated, the flash must be good, megapixels at least 8, the zoom must be good too..

I feel canon is a good brand but their cam price quite steep and the zoom function not so good.. only 3x.. Casio has some special function like detecting smiles and auto phototaking.. and it is very slim but its zooming also not so good.. so I decided to buy Ricoh.. Ricoh is not a very popular brand which is becos their publicity is not as big as sony, canon.. it's a japanese brand.. and my house already has 2 Ricoh camera.. one old film camera and the 3.2 megapixel cam that I have used for 4 years.. my this old digital cam is not bad but I really tired of changing AA batteries every few hours and the not so clear photo taken during concerts becos of the low megapixel and low zooming.. so I want to buy a new one that used Li ion battery and has high zooming.. so I chose Ricoh R8..
it is 10 megapixel, has 7.1x optical zoom which is the best zooming function that I have seen in the whole IT fair.. and I really like how the screen looks.. so clear.. therefore I decided to buy it.. even though it is over my budget, $599.. now think of it.. it's a bit ex.. but I really satisfied with my buy, hope it last long.. haha.. it also looks special, looks retro.. like the old kind of camera.. coming with it are some free gifts like 4GB SD, cleaning kit, a 10x binoculars, 2 batteries, a screen protector,

throughout the whole look around in the fair, my friends just follows me walking here and there.. they didn't buy anything lor.. really want to thank them for accompanying me.. haha..

after that, we watched a midnight show.. the waterhorse.. the young Noch Ness monster is quite funny.. so animated.. especially when it is chased around by the bulldog.. it don't looks like a monster but an animal pet.. this movie is not only about Noch Ness, it has another agenda which is anti-war.. the war that causes many deaths and took ppl's close ones away.. bringing sadness to not only adults but also children.. the impact to them is greater.. but I must say the ending is quite boring.. something you will have expected and seen somewhere else..

Thank you..

Front
Back

To those who have voted for this design, thank you! I am really very happy that there are ppl who appreciate my design.. never know that my design will be popular.. never know I can do something that ppl will like.. now just a step away from having it appear on the t-shirt.. even if it does not appear on the tee, I will still be happy.. but will also be a bit sad that it didn't.. becos I can't get the prize.. and can't see the faculty wears it during rag..

My mum has said that I have chosen the wrong course of study.. I should have chosen designing since I have interest in it.. but it's too late to think that way le..

it's not reverse psychology, it's the truth

it's difficult to maintain second upper..

yes it is.. I received a scary and shocking email on Wed.. yes.. it has made me scared and shocked.. the level coordinator gave us an indication of how well we do for the progress report presentation..
and I got 1.....

This is the email:

Dear all,

we have opened the gradebook with three marks for indication for your performance in the oral progress report:

1 - needs definitely improvement

2 - can do better

3 - above average

Please remember, this does not constitue a mark or grade , but is an idication of the impression of the examiners. Please sit down together with your supervisor and discuss how to improve your presentation and work as necessary.

As a general rule be reminded of the points raised in our last meeting, where problems in four areas were discussed.

Understanding:

1) Lack of understanding of project;

2) Lack of understanding of chemistry of project;

3) Lacking overview of the specific domain of the project (e.g. an analytical chemists didn’t know anything in this field but his specific technique)

Data

1) Lack of error bars and clear data presentation (despite the orientation week talks)

2) Lack of logical argumentation in the project (controls missing, rationale of the experiment not clear)

Presentation (presentation was almost never a problem, the students are doing fine)

1) Lack of presentation of chemical basis for a project when the project is more generally formulated, especially in FST related projects. Lack of statement of a clear scientific question to be answered (see visiting professors comments).

Questioning:

Some students could clearly answer fewer questions than others and that is directly related to the points under understanding.

I never expect to do so badly.. and don't know why I did badly.. that's is the scary part.. after thinking for some time, I sort of know why I did badly.. the examiner must have feel that I have lack of understanding of the chemistry of the project, lack of overview of the specific domain of the project as I am unable to answer one of their questions..

that day, I really feels like being awaken by the noisy alarm clock that I have at home.. it's scary.. and I feel all the different emotions that day.. shock, scared, sad, anger and worry.. feel so sick.. what can I do? nothing else but write a good report and do well in the next presentation.. with the help of my sup..

If you have hp, you will have received this

"Please call 999 immediately if you see Mas Selamat bin Kastari. He is short (1.58m tall) and limps on his left leg. Thank you."

What will you do if you see these details? Maybe when a Malay guy walks past you, you will take another glance of him or you may not even care.. this "dangerous" figure will not be so daring to walk on the street bah.. and he don't even have distinct features.. even his limp is also not obvious.. only obvious when he is running.. haha.. I think the police will be very busy handling all the wrong reports of spotting him and pranks..

it has been so many days but he is still not found.. all the additional details of him that the police released later don't help at all.. it's all too late.. maybe he already escaped out of Singapore within the 4 hours of "no news".. "no need to inform the public" becos the police don't see the need to.. they are just so confident that they can handle it or they are too complacent like MM Lee said..

although everything seems to have quieten down, the patrol and search are still on-going and everyone still has the question mark in their mind that need to be answer..

Meet up every alternate days.. peer pleasure..

this mid-term break is really like a holiday for me.. I met up with jas and yihui every alternate day lor.. See.. the inertia to study and do project is really very great.. haha..

Mon.. we had dinner together at Holland V.. ate at a western restaurant called Breko.. the main course is really large serving.. can't really finish.. but we helped each other to finish it.. then we went walking around before having dessert at coffee club.. we ate muddy mud pie.. muddy mud pie again? yah.. seems like most of my friends like that..
Yihui really enjoyed eating the muddy mud pie..

Wed.. met up to eat at Mache.. I ate crep and drank my favourite mushroom soup.. the thick and creamy soup.. but it's a bit cold lor.. not hot at all.. after that we ate dessert.. haha.. can't do without dessert lor.. we invented this logic.. since we are all "cows", we have a separate stomach for dessert so no matter how full we are, we still can eat dessert.. can't do without it.. haha.. since it's wed, it's ladies night and so we went st james powerhouse.. there's 5 free drinks leh.. we only used 11 coupons, the rest we gave to one lucky lady.. haha..

I got to try many different housepours and mixers, bourbon coke, whisky coke, brandy green tea, rum green tea, cranberry vodka, tequila ginger, tequila tonic, gin tonic.. rum is not nice.. tequila is really really yucky.. I still like whisky but they don't like.. yihui loves cranberry vodka.. although I ordered 4 drinks, I drank less than that lor.. becos we played this finger guessing game.. if got the number, the person next to you have to drink a mouth.. and if it is 15 (3 of us) or none, then the person has to drink half a cup.. haha.. I always guess it correctly and so jas or yihui has to drink.. even half a cup.. jas kana a few times lor.. so actually she don't want to drink so much de.. but end up drinking the most. and yihui too.. haha.. I don't mind drinking but end up drinking the least. haha.. we left when more ppl started streaming in.. becos? we have lab the next day.. haha..

Fri.. didn't go lab.. went to career fair.. which has nothing much to see.. gave my resume to Marina Bay Sands.. don't know got use or not.. becos don't have the relevant cert and experience.. but really interested in events management.. then I met them to go travel fair at expo.. becos we are planning our grad trip to taiwan! so excited! We asked the travel agencies for their group and free and easy tour packages.. but talking to the taiwan tourism board ppl.. so excited to plan it and go ourselves instead lor.. but still not confirmed yet. need to check out the price first..

After visiting the travel fair, we went to eat at Malan Lamian at expo there.. the xiao long bao and dumplings are nice.. the xiao long bao really got the soup wrapped in the skin.. that will burst out if you are not clever enough.. although we are very full with our dinner, we still went for dessert at the airport.. swenson's topless 5.. haha.. we really know how to enjoy life..

yesterday.. no meet up with yihui and jas.. but I went to zouk for the tq band final.. this time round, there are more gal members in the bands.. something interesting.. and the bands are also less noisy than last year.. and fewer than last year.. so ended quite early.. the winner is called freeloader.. more jazz type.. I really like the second band peer pleasure.. maybe the female lead singer got the x factor.. the attractive factor that makes you enjoy their songs.. I also drank quite a lot.. becos of the free coupons.. haha.. then first time going home on night rider..
Happy time at zouk!

Juno is not a kid show..

some ppl told me that they don't want to watch it becos it is a movie about teenagers for kids.. not for us to watch.. I then don't believe.. it was nominated for best director, best actress and best original screenplay so I don't think it is just an ordinary movie.. and it is not.. I watched it yesterday..

it is a comedy but not totally so.. this movie has meanings.. the main character Juno is a sharp -tongued gal who is only 16 years old but already can handle her unplanned pregnancy maturely.. as she is from a broken family, she has hoped her baby will be adopted by a good loving parents.. people who will love him.. she is brave in facing all the stares of ppl at her tummy.. she is also brave in speaking her mind.. she is no ordinary teenager..

there are many laughs in the movie but there are also emotional scenes.. the scenes of love.. the love for baby.. the love blossomed between juno and paulie.. the family love..

the soundtrack is really good.. and the songs really goes with the movie.. and the lyrics are cute too.. so intelligently written.. you should go and listen to them..

the last song "Anyone Else But You" is sang by both lead characters.. it is recorded at the street where the scene is shot.. they are not professional singers but they sounds so natural and real.. and it ended with a kiss.. so sweet..