Bits and pieces of MY LIFE

Have you ever had omens? Signs that either point to something ominous and you know that something really bad is gonna hit you hard and hit you fast? Yeah… That’s the feeling that I’m talking about, the inevitable fate of feeling bored and lousy on a Monday morning. My first week back in Singa Land and the signs are popping up, like popcorns in a popcorn machine.

1) The Tongue-Twister Lecturer:

This Lecturer’s pronunciation is so unintelligible, that speculations are rising among the students that he is the missing caveman. NUSSU together with the Singaporean National Museum, recently tried to hunt down a Neanderthal wax-model that was reported missing. Apparently, due to some unknown influence from the latest Ben Stiller movie, the model is sighted walking and alive in NUS compound.

Neanderthal do not have well-developed hypoglossal canal (??), and hence they talk in a succession of grunts and gargle’s which is similar to English. The difference is that they tend to glue their words together to form a tight-knit string which only their kind understands. There is also a tendency for them to add a "rait?" or "hwait?" to end their sentence, claimed by anthropologist to be a form of primitive method for asking a question.

*Still trying to get him on film for research work, but recent findings show that they may get violent if provoked, hence the apprehension*

2)The Innocently-Perverted Lecturer:

This is the most serious case of acting innocence while being perverted, even worse than the "innocent boy" that i know back in KL. Anyone who studies chemistry knows that electropostive elements tend to lose electrons, while the electronegative elements tend to accept electrons. Materials Engineers explain things differently though.

Apparently the atoms lose electrons or accept electrons to become "happy". We often have the common misconception that atoms tend to form the stable octet electronic configuration for stability reasons, but that is not the case. It seems that materials engineers have manage to interview the inert gases, and they found out that the octet gives an atom "pleasure".

See two atoms in action, quoted from a lecture:

Atom 1: I don’t want this (electron) because I’m not happy.

Atom 2: Give it to me! Give it to me!

Atom 1: You really want it? I don’t want it! I don’t want it!

Atom 2: Give it to me! Give it to me!

Atom 1: Yeah, I’ll give it to you!

Atom 2: Ooo…Yeah…

Atom 1 and Atom 2 then comes together "happily" and bonds "strongly".      

*This whole excerpt is quoted from a lecture. For further enquiries about this latest findings, do not question me, but grab hold of your nearest materials engineer and ask him*

So you see, the signs are all there. With one lecturer who speaks Neanderthalish while another who associates chemical bonding with sexual gratification "happiness", one can now see how "interesting" this semester is gonna be. =.=" To make things wackier, all we need now is to bring a Martian into the picture.

Yayy! It’s weekends again! Next week is the reading week where erm… as the name implies we have to read and revise for our exams? <– But who does these things nowadays anyway So as I was saying, today is my last day, so I had my last tutorial class with Good Old Dr. Don (GODD). And God was I surprise that the take away lesson from this module ultimately is not the writing skills that I have obtained <– (This is subject to further scrutiny), but the lessons of life that GODD gave me… So here is briefly what he said, and I thought that this is worthy to share with all of you (though if you think this is just ramblings, then stop reading) …

The Official Take-Away Lessons from GODD:

1. He said that education in a university is different from secondary education. Secondary education is meant to feed students with up-to-date information about what is going on in the world, so that they can accept it and internalize it. On the other hand, University education is about providing students with information, and hope that they will not simply accept that and go on with their lives, but in turn they can contribute something new knowledge to the world. Now this is a vision or idealization that commands serious respect. I mean, I can now contribute something to the world, isn’t that nice ?

* Mann Ern, lust.c program’s production is now justified. Even though it may screw up the world, but at least it is something new. We shall procedd with the project as soon as we have time. Pure pleasure is for the sake of humanity !!! *

2. He said that it’s OK to know absolutely nothing about what you wanna do in the future, whether you wanna change to Science, Arts, Engineering, Medicine, Law, Biz whatever other fac or school, because life is about taking risks, and if you don’t like the faculty that you are in, then you might as well swap, coz 4 or 5  years is a long… long… long… long… time. And university is about making mistakes, not about getting the right answers. It’s always better to make your mistakes here and realize them, then to make mistakes when you are working in the outside. In short, we should change faculties on a semesterly basis and see which one suits us best, and then stick to it =.=" If not satisfied, repeat the cycle until you finish 5 years in university, rinse wash and repeat… Maybe they will give you a double degree: Bachelor of Indecisiveness & Bachelor of Jack-Af-All-Trades

3. OK, this guy actually dropped out of High School back in the 70’s. =.=" He claims that during the 70’s, school was all about fights between the whites and the blacks, the blacks and the hispanics and so he did not see the point of attending school and hence dropped out. (erm… and so he claims, who knows for sure?  O.o) But anyways, he went out to work as a bartender, car washer, furniture moving man etc, thinking that the real world is the perfect teacher, but ultimately he realized that he was wrong. He couldn’t wake up having no knowledge of anything in the world except car washing and furniture moving, he couldn’t stand the idea of not even knowing how a lightbulb worked (I can live with that >.<") . And having slacking for like a long time, he went back to school, and ultimately got himself :-

a) A Bachelors degree in Philosophy

b) A Masters degree in Linguistics

c) A Ph.D in Biosemiotics and Neuroscience

OMG… O.o!! dunno what’s the lesson here though? Maybe we should all just drop out of whatever education we are having now (University, STPM, A-LEVELS OR EVEN SPM) and start thinking of working for DBKL or Indah Water… I’m not sure if we would be happier, but DBKL and Indah Water will most certainly be…

4) This point seriously made it worthwhile for me to not ponteng his last class. UNIVERSITY IS NOT ABOUT GRADES ANYMORE, GETTING GOOD GRADES WON’T GIVE YOU A BETTER JOB, NOR WILL IT GUARANTEE THAT YOU WILL GET ONE !!! THOUGH IRONICALLY, THAT DOESN’T MEAN YOU DON’T HAVE TO WORK LIKE A DOG, CAUSE IF YOU WALK OUT OF UNIVERSITY LEARNING ABSOLUTELY NOTHING, THEN YOU WOULD HAVE DONE BETTER WORKING AS A BARTENDER !!!  — Not exactly what he said, but the idea is there — Which brings to mind about what we wanna obtain from tertiery education. Knowledge ? Grades ? Wife ? Husband ? Friends ? Or Nothing At All ? What say you ?

* Though while I’m saying this, I’m still trying hard not to punch myself for failure to find that freaking bug in my programming practical exam, Damn… have to chant this mantra "Grades are not important… Grades are not important…" , Hey, I feel a song coming from this !!!! *

5. We are old enough to take control of our life now. We should not live on the expectations of the other, but on our own expectations. There are no right or wrong choices, but only good or bad ones. So he said that if our parents are stopping us from pursuing the course that we want to, then we would have to ask ourselves, do we really wanna do this ? We are old enough to make our own judgment, carry it out, and be held responsible for it. No more "Here fuzzy wuzzy, you wanna have a candy ? Aww… Mommy’s gonna make you a nice wobbly jelly, topped with a cherry ! "

Lastly he said that we have to get a life, coz nobody can live it for you. <– Which can be literally translated into –> If going to university makes you feel that you have no life, then drop out, go work as a bartender, come back again in 2 or 3 years, and you can then celebrate a TRIPLE DEGREE FIESTA !!! Do call me if you happen to follow this advice and manage to get three degrees, coz I seriously need to get a life  >.<"            

The NUS University Life-guard Corps had an introductory beach training yesterday, and having nothing to do on Saturdays (not exactly nothing to do actually coz I’ve loads of tutorials and stuff to work on =.=") I joined them for this intro training. Chua, I give you every right to be jealous, coz back when we were training in sec shool, we didn’t have this opportunity

All I can say about this training is that it sums up to three words… ROX!!!! TOTALLY OWNAGE!!!!

We had the chance to learn how to use the rescue surf, and also how to mount and dismount from a surf board when in the middle of the sea, and also how to use a torpedo tube (it is kinda like something you see in baywatch, where the rescuer slings a float on and swims to the victim and let her cling to it, swimming back while pulling her) … Totally Cool… And the best part is that we all had FUN!!!!

But it made me miss Redang all the more YL & GL & ML, Redang is by far the best beach that I’ve been to so far… That aside, I forgot to put sunblock so I’m having some sunburns. (Actually I’m trying very hard to ignore the pain in my muscles to write this blog, so do appreciate it =P)

Sun, sea, sand & GALS… The idea of being a Baywatch member does seems alluring… Duncha think??? ;-) 

Good heavens the concert is over… Phew… It was a tough job to handle. The concert was fantastic and it was held at LT 13 (at the Arts and Social Science Faculty) The main ensemble featured 3 songs all together… and the best part was the finale (obviously the best always comes last… more of a surprise element!!!)

The concert titled ‘Spirits of the Guitar’ was a campus concert featuring the NUS Guitar Ensemble (GENUS), organized by the CFA (Center for Arts) and Exxonmobil campus concerts crew on 4th October 2006. Special thanks to those who came to watch the concert (Mann Ern, Collin, Alison & co. and also Chris and his gang of Indonesian friends… ) and to those who did not get to see it, then that’s too bad….

But nevertheless, there will be another performance next year, but the only problem is - you will have to pay to watch it in March 2007. Coz the one next year will be held in UCC and it will be a very very very very…. GRAND EVENT!!! So be sure to keep your eyes open…

A note of consolation to those who missed the October concert, there will be a video recording of the concert… but I don’t know when it will be up, so you guys will just have to wait. And do drop me a comment if you wanna have the video, I’ll send it to you ASAP!!!

*This concert is certainly a success. And I had a very good time during the concert, and the best part is… I did not screw up my TRIO PERFORMANCE!!! Yes people… THERE IS A TRIO PERFORMANCE BY ME AND TWO OTHER MEMBERS!!! Just glad that nerves did not get to me on that day…;-) *

OK, Ladies and Gentlemen, so here goes the stereotypical speech for Oscar Winners…

Ahem… Lights PLS… Good, All Sound systems ok???? Great… Now I would like to thank my parents and my family members for giving me a FANTASTIC BDAY CAKE and also a FABULOUSLY SCRUMPTUOS DINNER…

Frenz who also wished me HAPPY BDAY but before the strike of 12… (Haih, slightly disappointed with your performance but still consider good by layman’s standards =.=” LOL) Syimah, Jia Hun…(OK boss, u called la, so I give u some credit la

Also special thanks go to people who messaged me at the strike of 12 (CAT etc)… And also 2 very special gals who IM me right on the mark as well (YL, GL)… oooppps… One more… Eevon… Almost forgotten !!!!

And also to Lai for giving me free lunch (Muakakaka, this is what I like about Bdays… Free Food!!!) And also Reborn for calling me… (Haih… Long time nvr talk to her liao, so nvr expected it) And also the rest of the gang who wished me Happy Bday… esp those who sent me testimonials (some of them are lost, for God knows what reason, I approved them HONESTLY), and Mann Ern (who proposed a very lame excuse of not having my Malaysian number and therefore wishing me late O.o”) and Jing Yi as well (all the way from Sabah, this is the part where the Oscar winner starts crying T_T), and Loo who gave me a msg directly before the clock striked 12 to 27th Sept.

One more gal, Mei May… He he… how can i forget you for sending me the wonderful e-card!!!

Some people worth mentioning are the Frenz in Asiatic Development Berhad… Haih… Sorry ar, nx time I shud come at lunch time, then you all can treat me to lunch… (The Oscar Winner is almost at a lost for words now… Gulps…)

OK, this last one is really special (at least to me, must save the best for the last), AL… Thank you… *Muacks* (Calling me at midnite… rite on time as usual… Nvr let me down la u)

Hehe… Thank you everyone… The curtains begin to draw… The Oscar Winner has to leave and go attend to interviews and reporters now… Sorry if I were to leave out anyone else…

Ok, to all of you dog lovers out there, a week ago, my dog, Lucky (Who happens to be a very…. very…. very…. senior citizen) was diagnosed with cervical cancer… (Why am I not surprised? =.=”) Her stomach bulged out, and she hadn’t had meals for days, she looks haggard. In short, nothing good can be said about her condition (Not sure bout her still having stamina to chase the postman or not thought, sis, you enlighten me?) . Before that, she hadn’t been feeling well for quite some time, so my parents brought her to the vet.

X-ray shows that there is this large tumor in her cervix, which is not a pretty sight I can assure you. So… The vet gave a conclusion that she needs to undergo a major surgery (administered with general anaesthesia) and at her age, undergoing such major surgery would be equivalent to taking a very high risk. (Goodbye to kawaii, furry, fluffy doggy… *sobs* T_T)

But nevertheless, we thought that it would still be best for her to undergo the surgery, coz even if she don’t, she’ll still end up dying from cancer. (Which is even worse I suppose, NO ?) Alas… she SURVIVED!!! O.o” So now, she is up, alive and kicking hard…

After this experience, I feel really sorry for that old lady… Haih… After all, she did play a part in saving my life once… Maybe I should treat her better when I go back to KL? (eg. Not using dog food to taunt her and make her do circus trick, Not disturb her afternoon slumber by blasting the TV, Not to pull her ears, tail, limbs etc when she is sleeping, Not to pinch her muzzle when she annoys me, Not kicking her once in awhile when I feel like it… )

*OK the last part about kicking her was a joke gals, don’t flame me for it!!!* Anyways, do feel slightly happier to see her kicking again… Dun wanna go home and see her in her grave… *sobs sobs*

Aaaahhh… Good old Rene Descarte (1596-1650), Philospher of the Mind, Father of the Cartesian Coordinates, Rather impressive good looks ( Ahem…this is a subjective point of view… do not flame me ), and most IMPORTANTLY, HE IS RESPONSIBLE FOR RUINING MY WEEKEND… =.="

Ok, so here’s the deal… I am suppose to read the whole chunk of text on Descarte’s arguments about mind, god, brain, illusions, evil geniuses etc… and then try to swallow it, digest it, process it as well as possible, and then reorganize it, pick a single contradiction or puzzle in his arguments, and make a big Fuss about it By writing a 1000 words length Academic Essay ( Not just any essay, it’s Academic Essay… which are used by scientists and philosophers to publish journals on their thesis O.o")

Ok, so you may think that’s no big deal, right? Then have a look at what His Text look like http://www.iep.utm.edu/d/descarte.htm . I can see my weekend going up in smokes already… Seriously, I’ll be pondering about things like:

(1) What is Mind?

(2) What is Self?

(3) What is the Truth if all things around us are False?

(4) So there is a God, and he is not the deceiver, Then who is?

(5) WTF is wrong with Descarte, is he a psycho or something?

Haih… Gone case, man… 1000 length essay on something that is a contradiction, and the worse part is, I MUST POINT OUT SOMETHING THAT THE PROF DID NOT NOTICE IN THE TEXT!!! HE HAD BEEN TEACHING THAT MATERIAL FOR YEARS… HOW AM I SUPPOSE TO GET AWAY WITH THAT???!!!

Maybe I should use the other texts… which are Plato’s, Socrates’ and Churchland’s ( WTF? All of them are philosophers? >.< ) Goodbye Friday… Sayonara Saturday… And Ta ta to Sunday… T_T

The Most Fantastic Thing about NUS — the diversity of accents that you can have a chance to experience. Some of them are confusing *to quote an example from my Ngu Yen friend from my previous post*, some of them are intriguing *Ever tried talking to a Pakistani, Bangladeshi, a Sri Lankan and a Singaporean together at once? Man, takes some time to switch your brain into different modes before you can comprehend them =.=” * , sometimes you have to understand them in pieces *as examplified by my chinese friend, "err… how…your… lecture…?" *, and last but not least, sometimes… You just find that one accent that turns you on… makes you wanna go Wooonoooo…^^ coz it is so sexy and cute that you just can’t resist posting about it… *And the one in question here is not a GAL’s btw…*

Yesterday, i attended my Electrical Engineer lectures as usual… ( As usual the Lecture Theatre is BLOODY COLD =.=” ) I was almost falling asleep as the lecturer goes through the boring stuff of circuits and networks… when all of a sudden He thrown in this phrase… * Thou Shalt Not *… And my eyes popped wide open and went WTF? Nobody ever uses that phrase nowadays… And the problem is after saying that he did not even flinch or twitch, just like he uses that in his everyday phrase * Now that is way AWESOME!!! Thumbs up!!!! o.O” *

If I’m not mistaken, he is a Prof from Hong Kong, and it has been known that his accent ( I think it is some kinda distorted American accent, but What The Heck… who cares if it is distorted, as long as it ROX!!! ) is so sexy… that it drives people to insanity!!!! *Sigh… If I only had that kinda accent… * The phrase "Thou Shalt Not" bring back many memories, like the 1st time I heard of it in TEN COMMANDMENTS, LOTR… Aah… The problem is not everyone can say it with the Ooomph that is required to exert it, for example, if you were to say it like "tau shat nut" then it would sound like garbage, or "thou shalt not" then the power is absent, but if you go "THOU SHALT NOT" like what my beloved prof did… then everyone in class would be jolted awake!!!

Haih… very nostalgic phrase indeed for me… very ingenius way of playing with the Language… and to quote a phrase from DOTA… My Professor is GODLIKE!!!!

The other day, I was just talking to this Pakistani Gal (Saara) living in PGP, and I casually asked her if she can cook… And she said that she could ( Haha… me asking her was no coincidence coz i already knew she CAN COOK!!! ) And after saying that, all of you guys who know me well should know what the next request will be… right? ( Come on, I am REALLY tired of eating out everyday and the food in PGP really SUX TO THE MAX… )

So, I kindly requested to have a first hand chance to taste her cooking… and to my surprise… SHE SAID YES!!! >.<" ( The answer came as a surprise though coz I thought that she would shy away and turn me down or something like that ) What else can I say? My charm extends across International Borders and Culture… Damn, I HATE MYSELF FOR BEING SO GOOD!!!! XD

But I digress, so I went with her to shop in the morning for the ingredients and Wahlao… She can really shop!!! I paid for the groceries though coz after all, she’s the host and I can’t make her pay for the ingredients as well, after she so kindly invited me over for lunch… Just plain unethical if I were to do that…

I called along another Malaysian friend ( Kong Jien… Gals, if u wanna know this guy, just nudge me… Coz He is Hot!!!! ) and we both helped her to cut up the vegetables and prepare the stuff… Bla bla bla… ( I shall skip this part to save our embarrassment for we both kena kutuk kao kao from Saara for cutting up the veggies like ^!#$% ) Anyways, the dish is called… Erm… I forgot… nvm… ( Sigh… The worst thing is I don’t have my camera with me… Or else I could’ve showed you guys how nice the dish was… Haihz… )

The aroma was just tantalizing, I think she added some sort of Pakistani masala into the curry… OMG… My mouth just waters whenever I think about it. Her cooking is way better than mine the day before ( I cooked with a senior, Ruzhi a day before this happened, and HONESTLY…  I didn’t think my cooking was that good, but my senior said it ROCKED!!! ^^ To the skeptics, please visit nus2ndyear.blogspot.com that’s my Ruzhi’s blog!!!) After the meal, me and Kong Jien was like… WTF… That was really GOOD!!! And I suggested that I come by every weekend for meals >.<” ( To which she gave the WTF look and the I-knew-It smile… but she gave her assent provided that we buy the ingredients… Which to me is a pretty darn good deal!!! )

Really missing some home-cooked food T_T. Next target will be French food… Haha… Then maybe Bangladeshi food… Man… Exchange Students are the BEST!!!

Ok, so here is how the story goes… There is this guy from my cluster… A Ngu Yen guy (means Vietnamese…dun ask me why they call them that =.=” — Maybe coz Ngu Yen is the most common surname in Vietnam? Or izzit coz Ngu Yen sounds cool?). Man…. I do wish we had one for Malaysians… Maybe Ahmad Guy or Mohammad Guy, anyone?

But I digress, anyways… this Ngu Yen dude, when I talk to him for the 1st time, I couldn’t make out head or tail of WTF he was saying. Then I ask him to repeat himself… OK, so maybe my English is not that good after all (which I doubt is the case here) and I had to make him say it again. Then I found out that he was trying to say Hello!!! So I had to be a nice guy and say Hello to him. And I ask him wat’s his name, and he pronounced something like TTTTTT….IIIIIGGGGG….HHHHH….. (Why the hell was he stammering? Never seen a Malaysian tigh before? Or was there something invi behind my back? OMG O.o”)

So I kindly asked him for his name again, and then he muttered Tai… Ok, not too bad, got it on second attempt. Then he asked for my name. Then I said Zi-Xiang with the Queen’s English accent. That was when I thought all would have gone well, when he read it as zhi chang. So I repeated over, and over, and over again until the situation went pretty awkward (actually a stunned silence for 2 minutes to be exact). Then I could see that he was sweating… so i just said good night to him to ”unfreeze" the situation. (BTW, until today, whenever he sees me he just smiles and waves in a peculiar "aqua" manner, the type of wave which gives you second thoughts of waving back)

Ok, so it’s a known fact that vietnamese’s English is worse than PRC’s, period. But that’s not all, last night I went to do laundry together with another Malaysian cluster mate. We brought our guitars down and wanted to do a duet serenade under the moonlight to attract the attention of some chicks in the surrounding blocks (Gals just love Guitar Romeo’s, don’t they Guess wat I saw when I passed by the TV room? Tai was sleeping on the sofa, curled up into a ball. OMG, that’s the bloody common room for @!#$% sakes. (luckily he wasn’t drooling) Sheesh, that spoiled our mood for love instantly. (No seranade for the Night Ppl) We ended up playing some random songs and exchange some ideas and songs and techniques. Then all of a sudden, he woke up!!! He walked into our room and waved that freakin scary gay wave and smile at us… (ish ish… I think it has become an impulsive thing with him whenever he sees me)

Ok, nvm, so he ruined my night. Next morning, Aaahhh…. fresh air…. nice day… stroll to the kitchen…. only to see him sleeping on the kitchen chairs!!!! WTF? #$%@!^&*@#$!….. He must be a sleep walker or something…. (but he is a bloody good one at that, coz he managed to turn on the fan throughout the night O.o”) I begin to suspect that there’s something wrong with his room, or he is missing his Ngu Yen bed back in Ngu Yen city so much that it has messed up his Ngu Yen brains and became a Ngu Yen psycho? (OMG!!! Ngu Yen rulez!!!!>.<) But I do pity him, sometimes, being a compassionate person and all…. ( Yeah, rite…. =.=”)

But anyways, he is a nice guy after all… so far hasn’t given me any problems yet, coz me and him the best conversation we had was like

Me: Hello

Ngu Yen: HHHHH….EEEEE….LLLLLLLL….OOOOO

Me: Erm… How’s your day?

Ngu Yen: ………….

Me: Never mind. What course are you studying?

Ngu Yen: !@#$%!$#!%!$@!#$@!$@! ( totally not discernable, could have been bastard or diu or something bad )

Me: Sorry, couldn’t get you.

Ngu Yen: !@#$%!@$#!%%%^@!$#@ ( really sounds pissed off right now )

Me: Ok, then. Bye!!!!

Ngu Yen: Bu……..B….a….i!!!!

Feels like I’m talking to an old gramaphone right? But not all Ngu Yen’s are like that. I have another one who is one of my very good friends. So until now, miscommunication continues, life goes on, shit happens, and the Ngu Yen still continues to talk jibberish……