Darren's Expired Blog

...

2007-10-14T14:12:00.000+08:00

Recalling my maternal grandmother's funeral...

-phone rings-

Receptionist: Hello good morning. This is Dr Tan's dental surgery. I'm calling regarding your dental appointment for this morning...

Darren: Hi. Yes. I left you a message yesterday saying that I will not be able to go this week as I will be at my grandmother's funeral. Sorry about that.

R: I see. I did not get that message.

D: Yes you did. You sent me a sms yesterday and I replied to it saying that I will be at my grandmother's funeral which I am currently at. I have it in my sent items right now.

R: No sir. Let me check if I received it.

D: Excuse me, as I said, I am at my grandmother's funeral right now and I think your checking does not matter at this point now, does it?

R: Ok sir. Would you like me to arrange another date for you?

D: Seriously, can we do this another time? Now's not a good time for me to talk about something like this.

R: Ok sir. How about I place you down for some time next month?

D: I am at my grandmother's funeral and am walking after her coffin this very moment. If you would please allow me some privacy, I do not wish to talk about something like this right now.

R: Ok sir. Thank you. Goodbye.

-end of phone call-

I think I need a change in dentist now... anyone has any good recommendations?

rumours

2007-09-18T01:34:00.000+08:00

yet again, friends have been telling me rumours that they've heard about me so far. i guess everyone has rumours about them floating around... part and parcel of life i suppose. just to set the records straight if any of you who have heard the rumours are ever interested:

Rumour 1: Darren created the scholarship for publicity reasons
Reply 1: False. It created more unwarranted publicity which I did not want. Friends have asked me to stop the scholarship now that it has achieved its "intended purpose". I have only reacted with disdain to their suggestion. The scholarship will continue because I believe in it.

Rumour 2: Darren joined ASoc mainly for career advancement reasons
Reply 2: False. If that were true, I would have joined Cognitare instead. I joined ASoc as, like the scholarhip, I believed in it.

Rumour 3: Darren has interviewed with (pick any of the following) CS / GS / ML / MS / DB / UBS / JPM IB depts
Reply 3: True / False. Yes I have interviewed with some of the above with the view of getting to know the market better

Rumour 4: Darren has been offered a position by (pick any of the following) CS / GS / ML / MS / DB / UBS / JPM IB depts
Reply 4: True / False. Yes I have been offered positions for the places I interviewed for

Rumour 5: Darren has left to join (pick any of the following) CS / GS / ML / MS / DB / UBS / JPM IB depts
Reply 5: False. No. I am thankful for the offers but am happy where I am.

hope that clears up matters for those who are interested in knowing the truth.

Whoa...

2007-07-09T00:10:00.000+08:00

Few weeks ago... someone told me her relative named their kid after me last year when news of the scholarship first broke out... even though they've never met me before... Scary to say the least. Sorry miss, but you chose the wrong person to name your kid after. haha :p

Toilet seat decision maker

2007-03-28T01:51:00.000+08:00

Recently, a close friend and I were discussing jokingly the age old question... whether it was an inherent obligation for all men to leave the seat down. She, being female, naturally felt that it was so. I believed that it's more of a case-by-case basis. ie: it might make more sense to leave the seat up in an all-male household.

So, just for laughs, I took a rare few minutes out of few pre-bed ritual to make this smashing toilet seat decision maker.

http://www.megaupload.com/?d=8ZOYOTNW

Enjoy. Erm. If there's anything to enjoy.

Feel free to spread it around if you so desire.

How stupid can you get?!

2007-02-23T01:26:00.000+08:00

It's 2am but I HAD to complain... so here's a quickie:

My brother just told me the following real life incident that happened in Copenhagen where he's on an exchange program (but of course, I paraphrase as always):

SMU exchange student to American-born Chinese (ABC) exchange student: Excuse me, would you like to work together on this project?

ABC exchange student to SMU exchange student: I'm sorry but i only want to form a group with native english speakers.

And the ABC girl knows that the SMU student is from Singapore.

Excuse me while I curse and swear... #)$*(&@)&#*($&@!!!!! As you can see, I've started cursing a lot as of late... bad habit. sigh.

Anyway, 2 things to you miss ABC girl...

1. Wake up your idea and get your head out of your stinking gutter you stuck up ****h /*****r / ******e. Singaporeans learn english as a first language. Even if you didn't know that, do not assume that a fellow chinese who is not coolio-Americano can't speak proper English. It is utterly surprising that someone from the same race could have gotten it oh so so so wrong about us.

2. You're on an exchange program in Denmark. Why in the bloody world should you be limiting yourself to ''native english'' speakers?! I understand that that is obviously the easier route... but doesn't that entirely defeat the purpose of going on an exchange program?!

Now that that's over and done with, a quick disclaimer, as is always necessary in a growingly litigious society.

The above passage was aimed at only one person and that is the aforementioned person. I know many americans who have been extremely friendly and open to new cultures, regardless of race and religion. It is unfortunately disappointing that this ABC girl does not seem to be one of them.

another short revival

2006-10-01T02:21:00.000+08:00

it's been a long time since i haven't had to think (much) about work. today's my first ever break since training. phew. it's really much appreciated! i wonder if the security guard at my work place is wondering why he didn't see me.

anyway, since i had some time.... someone suggested i blogged. and i thought hey why not seems like a good idea. then i realised i have no idea what to say. alamak.

not very smart huh?

oh ok. i know now. there's been something i've wanted to clarify for the longest time. and now that it has kinda died down i guess it would be a good time to talk about it.

the scholarship.

some of you might know about it. some of you might not. if you don't, then i rather you don't. it's not a big deal at all.

ok i' ve had questions about why and blah blah blah and that's fine. but there were two things i heard (not from the horses mouth of course) that really shocked me.

1. a friend suggested that it was done in order for me to win the school award that i was lucky enough to win.
2. a few friends suggested that it was done to further myself "politically" in the work place.

i wldnt be shocked if someone i didnt know mentioned it since they don't know who i am. but for people who call me a friend and to think of me that way.... well..... i don't know what to say.

in reference to part 1: the scholarship was formed long before there was ever any talk about the school award. i did it the first week i returned from my exchange when i suggested it to dean pang. and since its formation, the original plan was to have that scholarship announced during the accounting portion of commencement in its own individual ceremony instead of during the speech that i gave. it was only after the award was won that the plans changed. in fact, i never mentioned the scholarship once during my interview for the award. if you're wondering why i won the award, i can tell you it's partly because of luck, and partly because of the people around me. was it because of the scholarship? i believe the school is not so shallow as to have done, or even thought, that.

in reference to part 2: why would the scholarship further me in the workplace? that i simply don't understand. if anything, it has only brought about attention which i'm uncomfortable receiving. think about it. i'm new, i know absolutely nothing about the industry compared to all my colleagues.... something like this would definitely to some extent raise their expectations of me. in all honesty, it would have been better for me "politically" if this didn't hit the news at all. i was so glad i was away in training when the news first hit... who would have thought a second round would come when i got back. ah well.

question to you: must all kind actions be politically-motivated?

my apologies if i'm coming off naive but that's the way i feel about the whole thing.

i started something that i believe in. and having met the recipient... i am so much more encouraged to continue with the scholarship.

hui fang, i know you probably won't be reading this. but i hope you're having fun in barca!

the dead blog is resuscitated for a few seconds

2006-09-17T15:13:00.000+08:00

some of you have been asking where i disappeared to.

i've been working seven days a week and going back in the mornings every day since coming back from london training.

the only time i'm back before 12 is when i bring work back home to do.

bright side is i'm learning a lot and i'm really pushing myself out of my comfort zone... i've made a few mistakes at work... but i guess the best way to learn is to fail.

i know i'll come out of this stronger and wiser. already i've learnt so much... and yet there's so much more to learn.

thank god for supportive colleagues and friends and family and leonora.

for tomorrow! :)

Not Emeritus, but Expired

2006-05-30T21:04:00.000+08:00

Allow me to declare this blog EXPIRED! Nope... the days of Emeritus are over. From now onwards... the blog posts will be even RARER (is there such a word?) than they have already been this year. Under Emeritus, this blog churned out a grand total of 4 posts in about as many months. Now that it has expired... expect close to zero.

I finally received a call today asking me down to sign some employment papers tomorrow... the given starting date is coming monday... i hope to push it back a week as there are still things i need to settle (namely the SMU yearbook and video) but if i'm not successful... then it's goodbye world from Monday onwards.

From my understanding... the place that I'll be going to will be very tough and I'll probably be doing many 18 hours days... possibly if I'm lucky... Apparently 12 hours days at my new work place are a rare luxury. As such, blogging will be nigh impossible.

I do look forward to it though. It will be an interesting challenge and it will definitely pose many many new learning opportunities for me.

And at the very least... I will be nicely compensated. Thank god for that!

See you world! Goodbye!

update: i was able to push the start date 1 week. phew :) but still... ta ta world :D

funny gossips :S

2006-05-29T18:03:00.000+08:00

jackie chia shumin just told me she heard i'm working at jp morgan.

Eh.... sorry to disappoint ah.... but i'm still really truly unemployed. Haven't signed any documents yet.

Deh! Who's the bugger out there spreading rumours of my imaginary employment?

Haha!

and someone also asked me saying he heard i've found myself a chio gf.

sigh. word spreads around like wildfire eh? hello. i where got chio gf. it's SUPER DAMN CHIO LOR!

:S

Emeritus Post 3: more angst?! :S

2006-03-23T18:15:00.000+08:00

yo. third emeritus post. my emeritus posts are getting "relatively" regular eh? once every fortnight / month... wonder if this will continue for long. anyway, this post contains two sections... one, rather angsty. two, rather silly. but the bulk of it will be in part 1... u can consider this yet another angsty post then. geez, so far every single one of my emeritus posts have had quite a bit of angst haven't they? queer. queer indeed. Ah well. maybe i have people to share my joy with but use this medium to share my angst.

Part 1: Dilemma
I'm not sure if i've mentioned this before... but I have very little respect for people who cheat on their partners. If I were to meet someone new and know that he/she's a player (through reputation, etc), I would normally have a very bad impression of that person. It's just the way I am and I never really figured out why. Maybe it's because I was single for a very very very long time and could have been subconciously jealous of guys with many gfs... which would in turn make me really pissed if they didn't appreciate their relationships.

Whilst I have little respect for players... Ok ok, I understand that if the person only fools around with willing parties... at least no one's being hurt in the process since everyone in that equation made the matured decision to do so. In such a scenario, I normally disrespect the act, but I'm still perfectly alright with the person since he/she did not hurt anyone.

I draw the line when it comes to someone cheating behind their partner's back. That person would be lying to and hurting their partner... someone they claim to care for and love. That is something I cannot in any way at all condone. A common excuse of some of these guys is that they've stopped loving their current partner. If that is indeed the case, then end the current relationship before moving on to someone else. Some have even more elaborate excuses but the fact is if you want to end a relationship, you can, regardless of the situation. It's not an easy thing to do but it's gotta be done. By keeping on to the current relationship while looking for someone else, you're lying to your partner and probably lying to the new third party by confessing you love the new party when in actual fact you're not truly doing so by holding on to an old relationship.

Love is about caring and giving, by being selfish and holding onto the old relationship whilst enjoying the new one... you're neither giving nor caring. You're only receiving and taking. The best word that comes to mind describing such a person is probably a vulgur one.

I could continue this entire tirade on why I feel such an act to be despicable but I'm pretty certain I'm not alone in feeling the way I do about it. There would be little value in me repeating things you already know. Or at least I HOPE you know. ;)

The dilemma comes in when someone I know and call a friend is guilty of such an act. I was very surprised at the amount of such stuff going on when I entered SMU. I guess I was just a little to naivete in the field of relationships because of my rather nerdy nature. Since coming to SMU, I've been able to close one eye to friends who cheat. Normally, I only find out a person's a player after I've befriended him / her. By then, that other party would already have called me a friend and have treated me with nothing but respect, concern, and kindness as friends normally do one another. Because of that, I know it would be rude for me to judge a person who has treated me well based on one of the things they do... and I end up closing one eye to their philandering, hoping that they change their ways one day.

The biggest dilemma, however, (and this has happened to me more than once with different people) comes when a friend cheats on another friend of mine. Now this is a lot more painful for me to make any decision on. The cheater has treated me well and deserves no ill-will from me. Yet the person who was hurt by the cheater is someone I also care for and for me to treat the cheater well... that would in some way be betraying my loyalty to the person who was cheated. And I find myself torn between to opposing loyalties.

Of course, in the end, like most people do, I "side" (not really side, but rather, remain closer to) the person I'm more familiar. But if that person's the cheater... I end up feeling like I'm part of the whole she-bang... a she-bang which I vehemently detest (yes, I believe these strong words are justified).

Is there a solution to all this? Probably not. Some guys and girls will continue going on to hurt more people and all I can do is just watch and from time to time warn people I know away from known philanderers... ah well. At least through this post, I've made my stand clear on this issue. At least I can sleep better at night. By a bit.

Part 2: Some Silly Stuff

Here at SMU, we have lots of presentations. From time to time, a professor might hint that he or she would like some entertainment thrown in. Some groups do skits, others do videos, and some do really elaborate and creative things... all in the name of impressing the prof. This field, of course, is LARGELY reserved for freshmen who think they're oh so cool cos they know how to do dumb stuff. yes my impression of some freshmen i've met is largely that of unimpressed and sometimes I wonder how I could have been so dumb :S. (argh darren... be humble! stop thinking like that! you must be humble! -mediate.... hummmm......- you can do it!) I'm glad to say, however, that I've met freshmen too whom I feel have potential. We need more fellas like those people.

As SMU students go into their senior years they begin to realise the UNimportance of videos in the real world and grow to see them as mere gimmicks to keep the class awake or to have a simple laugh or two about. It was thus to my surprise that my strategy prof was looking for an entertainment factor... and my group... being a bunch of corny loser idiots (aside from doreen of course) decided to do something stupid for our presentation.

We did 3 video skits... each one introducing one of the strategies we discussed for Raffles Medical Group's health tourism revenue stream: Battle (Doreen acts as a Japanese tourist coming to Singapore because it's cheap), Brawn (I act as an Indonesian Chinese going to Penang because of its location), and Brains (Weiyang and Lester act as Mainland Chinese coming to Singapore for an operation they can't get elsewhere).

http://www.yourfilelink.com/get.php?fid=52911 Battle

http://www.yourfilelink.com/get.php?fid=52919 Brain

http://www.yourfilelink.com/get.php?fid=52928 Brawn

many thanks to say eng for allowing us to use his photo :)

These videos have, by far, the worst editing that I've ever done... simple because they didn't need any. It merely relied on a damn retarded script. Hopefully you'll enjoy them as much as the class did.

and btw...

I'm an Audi TT!

You're not the fastest, nor the most nimble, but you're cute and you have style. You're not intensely competitive, but when you pass by, everyone turns to look.

Take the Which Sports Car Are You? quiz.

The Biasedness and Ignorance that is America

2006-03-10T14:04:00.000+08:00

Emeritus post 2 - DP World and the USA

Ok ok, so the title of this post is extreme ly strong and probably unwarranted. I just wanted to sensationalise the title a bit, can? Geez :p

Anyway, those in Singapore would know the DP world / P&O deal pretty well. PSA, our own local, govet-linked port operator was fighting against United Arab Emirates' DP world over UK company P&O for the longest time. While there was a big hoo ha in Singapore during the bidding battle over who will win and the possible reasons why each party might come out the winner... it was no surprise to anyone that the winner was the highest bidder... in this case, DP World. Fair and square eh?

So after this big hoo-ha in Singapore was over and done with... the very same deal caused a huge uproar in the states. Turns out P&O owned some American ports and the Americans were unhappy that a govt-linked Middle Eastern firm was taking over some of their precious ports. Anyway, to cut a long story short, here's the time line (without the exact dates cos i'm lazy to check)

DP world and PSA both announce they want UK company P&O
DP world offers, PSA counters, and DP world counters that counter to win the bid
FINALLY the americans notice the deal and are unhappy about it over "national security concerns"
DP world attempts lobbying but fights a losing battle. doesn't help that they aren't familiar with USA's lobbying system.
George bush says he wants the deal to go through
DP world voluntarily offers to have itself inspected by the USA
Congress votes overwhelmingly AGAINST the deal even BEFORE the inspection was done
DP world offer to transfer the american ports to an american company

here are some links that i got the above from
link 1: Dubai's progress
link 2: The senate's decision
link 3: transfer of assets
all 3 are from the new york times
of course there were many other stuff i read, but these are just some of the few i've found.

so what do i think of this whole issue?

The biasedness of the American media and the ignorance of many (I can't say all or that would make me a biased person myself. heh.) American people is most evidently expressed in this whole brouhaha.

The media

First let's look at the media's role. We all know the media's power in influencing our way of thinking. Even the slightest choice of words can cause use to decide one way instead of another.

take link 2's quote as an example:
"DP World's takeover was a special case: a state-owned company from the Middle East buying a sensitive American asset. Most multinationals that invest in the United States come from Western industrial democracies and are unlikely to be subject to such scrutiny."

The line, is technically, true. But doesn't it only tell a part of the whole story? The whole story is that DP world from the UAE (an ally of the united states, a country concerned more with progress than jihad, and a country that has NOT been churning out terrorists the way countries like Iraq and Pakistan have) is purchasing a UK firm which happens to own American ports, amongst many other countries'.

Yet that very line above insinuates the following... it HINTS that the company is from a zone which has acrimonious feelings towards america and that the company is intentionally purchasing ONLY american ports.

Of course if I were an American reading that line... i jus might get quite pissed and try ways to protect my country... but the fact is, the media intentionally portrayed it as such... a way which is obviously misleading.

The people

So since i've placed blame on the american media, why do i blame the american people? (some, not all)

national security is of course of utmost importance. ports of course are of utmost importance too.

the media gave many americans the wrong idea too.

the point here is that i personally believe that they jumped to a conclusion way too soon over way too little information. i'm not sure how the senators and congressmen came to their decision. i suspect that it has a lot to do with the hatred towards the deal in the population as a whole to begin with.

why do i say they jumped to a conclusion too soon with too little information? in every single report, it was said that the americans are afraid of having a middle eastern country controlling some of their sensitive assets.

without understanding the country that is UAE, the assumption here made by the americans is that the UAE has connections with countries or organisations that would like to cause american harm. whilst i cannot profess to be an expert on middle eastern affairs, i am fairly certain that the UAE has always been a proponent of economic progress and has not muddled itself in the religious wars that its neighbours are involved in. if the above is indeed true, it would seem that the UAE has no intention whatsoever of hurting the US' ports.

yet the assumption that all middle eastern countries are out to hurt the USA was wat lead the americans (Some, not all) to decide what they decided on.

Dudes, before you make such an important decision, please find out as much information as you can. I'd be willing to bet that many of them never knew that the world's biggest shopping centre and most expensive hotel are all in Dubai. Maybe a slightly smaller amount would think of Dubai as a land filled with people plotting the death of the USA :S

My belief seems to be supported further by the fact that the senate and congress made their decision even before a national security investigation on DP world was even conducted! if the americans had conducted an investigation and actually found evidence of security concerns that merit cancelling the deal... then i say fine, fair enough. but they made their decision before all the information was made available to them. they made their decision based on their own assumptions. that, in itself, shows the biasedness (which led to their assumptions) and the ignorance (cos they didn't find out the information that they needed to know) of the decision makers (and perhaps some of the american people) in this whole issue.

Conclusion
of course i have nothing against america. i spent 4 months there and thoroughly enjoyed it... but sometimes... some of the things some of them do... think... and believe... just strike me with a tad of arrogance mixed with ignorance.

ah well. we all have our cons. i ain't no angel either.

my first emeritus post... and it has to be something like this :S

2006-02-27T22:43:00.000+08:00

Howdie dudes... yuppers. first post in god knows how long. and guess what? it ain't a lovie dovie post... it ain't a funny post.... it ain't an impt post.... it's a completely inane, useless, and an utter-waste-of-time post! really lah.

this champion... added me to his msn out of the blue and started msging me. charan44@hotmail.com was his msn email, charan is his nick... not sure if any of you know him... unlikely... but anyway he added me and the following msn conversation ensued. He sure was irritating!

charan: kuta
charan: hru?
charan: bz konon
charan: donkey
darren: who are u?
charan: idiot
charan: am charan la
charan: the sabah charan
darren: i think you got the wrong person
darren: i don't know any charan
charan: lupa kawan
charan: hey
charan: enough is enough
charan: if you want to pretend don know me its k
charan: am bz 2
charan: bye
darren: (thinking better clarify i really don't know him so he won't disturb me next time) charan from where?
charan: charan jit kaur
charan: cherry? (excuse me, but which guy actually goes about calling himself CHERRY?! :S )
darren: you really got the wrong person then
darren: i'm darren from smu
darren: year 4
charan: i got the right person
charan: darren singh rite?
darren: darren lim (at this time i'm getting quite annoyed already)
charan: wat?
charan: bastard
charan: bye
charan: irritating specimen
darren: (now i'm just damn pissed at the irritating conversation) next time when people say you got the wrong person
darren: please believe it
charan: I know you are darren (duh, i said i'm darren LIM wat. not SINGH)
charan: n take the bastard
darren: (not wanting to take his insults without any retaliation at all) fuck you understand? i am darren lim, a chinese singaporean. i don't know who you are, where you're from, and what you do. don't come adding people wrongly and start hurling vulgur insults and insisting you got the right person.
darren: go call your bloody darren singh friend and ask him what his msn address is
darren: don't go making stupid assumptions
darren: i'm blocking you now, so don't bother replying.

yup. so that's the end of this completely unenriching unediyfing post. possibly the only takeaway you might have from this entire issue is that yes, i actually do lose my temper and communicate vulgarities to people every now and then, as rare as it may be.

btw, do any of you know what some of the words he said mean? i'm not sure. looks like malay. should be a malaysian indian chap judging by his name and the mention that he's from sabah.

Blogus Emeritus

2006-01-13T01:19:00.000+08:00

Been receiving a lot of questions as of late "why u want to close ur blog?", "pple read and talk abt u u dun like is it?", "dun close lah... u close liao i nothing to read", etc etc etc... ok. reasons for my actions are as follow:

Why i blogged
1. Thought I'd try it out to see what the big fuss about blogging was all about
2. It's fun to make fun of pple on the blog (relatively sincere apologies to pple like Charles, TSE, and Song though... heh)
3. It's nice to share fun events with people
4. It's a good place to share my views on both current affairs and other issues (as one can see from my "noteworthy posts of the past" section)

Why I don't like blogging
1. It's damn time consuming. 1 post takes at least an hour? yah yah. I know it's cos i'm luo sor... but that's just the way i am. too bad for u. :p
2. I find it damn weird when I'm talking to someone and they say to me, "Oh, I read that off your blog!" Yah yah, not their fault... just something i never got really used to.
3. I'm lazy. (which also explains the extreme lack of photos)
4. I feel bad when I don't blog for over a week cos I know some pple come and check only to find I've done nothing to the blog.

So I've decided on a way to have the benefits in the "Why I like blogging part" and avoid MOST of the stuff that make me not like blogging... I henceforth bestow upon this blog the status of "Emeritus"!

Main Entry: ¹emer·i·tus
Pronunciation: i-'mer-&-t&s
Function: noun
Inflected Form(s): plural emer·i·ti /-&-"tI, -"tE/
: one retired from professional life but permitted to retain as an honorary title the rank of the last office held

So for all purposes, you can consider this blog "retired". Regardless, it'll still work every now and then whenever I feel like putting stuff on it. Otherwise, don't expect regular updates and stuff.

ie: i happy then i blog. i not happy then i dun blog. :p

I MIGHT put a note on my msn nick whenever there's a new post or whatever... u can check in whenever you like... but dun expect too much from me!

Not all girls out with me are my gfs! Geez!
Perhaps luckily for you... i actually feel like blogging today. Ok. I was having tea break with Addie in school yesterday. People I knew walked past and gave me this naughty wink obviously hinting that they thought Addie was my gf. And then was out with old friend Shangyuan for dinner tonight and was walking in school to the car to send her back when AGAIN some dude saw us and later asked if tt's my gf.

Hello.

Help lah eh help lah...

Just cos I'm out with a female friend doesn't mean she's my girlfriend can? Not as if you saw me holding their hands or anything right? Chey! Haha! I'm pretty sure all the abovementioned would be puking at the thought of being linked to me romantically at all. As tempted as I am to say, I shall be kind and not say that the feeling is mutual. :p

Humility
I must continually remind myself to be humble. I must continually seek to see the best in people and to find impt learning points from each and every person I encounter... regardless of their age, experience, or their attitudes. I should never think that I am better than someone in any way at all. I must not be a person who says one thing and does another. It has been a challenge since coming back what with the ORD mood and the classes that I am taking... but no. I must remain humble. I must not forget what it is that I believe in.

coming to a close. but before that...

2006-01-09T14:28:00.000+08:00

ok i've decided that i'll be "closing" this blog (or something to that extent) soon... but before i do so... there's just a few things that i might wanna say before wrapping things up here. one thing that's really postponing this eventuality is a recent phenomenon that i've been hearing upon my return. and i find it most troubling.

since returning i've had a significant number of people coming up to me knowing EXACTLY which courses i'm taking ("Oh, I heard a rumour that you're taking this class", they seem to say)... and asking which specific class time slot i'm taking. this is, of course, quite surprising... surprising but not unplausible considering the fact that I've previously mentioned my courses online before and some people must have been spreading it. i'm only surprised that anyone would want to keep track of wat courses i'm taking.

and without fail... the people who ask me which class time slot i'm taking... will always tell me that they're glad that they're not sharing the same timeslot as me... that they do not want to be in the same class as i am... because they think "he'll take up all the As and not leave me with any."

now that part is something i find extremely disturbing. firstly, the notion that i'd "wipe up all the As" is absolutely ludicrous. I might have my pros, but I have my cons too. Do not think me to be a God. I am just an ordinary student. A lucky one perhaps, but a normal student nonetheless.

What's even more frightening to me is the notion that one shouldn't take a class because one believes that the As will all be wiped out leaving none for them. ASSUMING that it is true indeed that I or any other person in SMU is capable of the wiping up of As feat... is that reason enough not to take a class? Forgive me for being blunt here when I state outright that I believe such an act to be cowardly and weak... and also a strong indication of one having the wrong set of priorities.

The priority for that person is to obtain an A and nothing else. get a 4.0 GPA and not bother about one's learning process. That is the sort of impression I get from someone who chooses his/her class based on the least competition each class presents. Such a person will only leave the school finding that they are completely ill-prepared for life when they leave. A GPA is not what your employers want out of you. What they want is a person who has learnt well from their university experience... choosing the easy way out can NEVER provide such an experience.

I look forward to going into a class where someone can "wipe out the As". I shared the same class as Kong Wee (SMU's first valedictorian") once... and enjoyed every moment of it. Though he was one of those who you could truly say would "take up all the As", the learning experience I went through through my interactions with him was just plain fantastic. If you have the opportunity to interact with someone you believe to be better than you... why sacrifice that over an easy A?

Lastly, never consider yourself to be weaker than someone else... sure someone might have had a better grade record than you do... but to go into a class and say "ah he is sure to wipe out all the As" that's a self fulfilling prophecy! Go into a class and say "this is going to be a challenge but i will do my best!" Not that I believe I'm that special someone you should go up and learn from... it's more likely that I'll be learning from you than vice versa... but yeah, never lose that opportunity if you ever find that someone special like me from Kong Wee.

In short: 1. Getting an A shouldn't be your main priority. It should be learning. 2. Taking the easy way out is never the right thing to do. It is sad and cowardly especially if it's over something like grades. 3. Never let go of an opportunity to learn from someone you think you can learn from.

and 4. I'm no genius. Wanida will gladly tell you I'm a moron.

UPenn Grades

2006-01-08T01:25:00.000+08:00

They're out:

Fall 2005 WHARTON UNDERGRADUATE
FOREIGN EXCHANGE STUDENT

OPIM 101 COMPUTER AS AN ANALYSIS TOOL 1.00 CU A+
URBS 265 POPULATION AND SOCIETY 1.00 CU A+
HIST 096 LATE IMPERIAL CHINA 1.00 CU B+
MGMT 291 NEGOTIATIONS 1.00 CU B+

Of course I'm glad with the results considering the comparatively lesser effort I have placed into each and every one. Was almost certain I would NOT get an A (or even a B for that matter) at all if I had placed in that same effort for any of my SMU courses. Ah well, praise be to God and the Wharton curve.

Btw, I'm considering closing the blog. No reason in particular. Just feel like doing so. Will let you know of my decision soon.

Back

2006-01-05T10:19:00.000+08:00

That's right folks. The boring one is back. Stepped into Changi just 2 hours ago. It was almost surreal... heh. You can expect a post coming soon... now to stare at my luggage at hope it unpacks by itself. :S

The Last Penn Post

2005-12-17T23:47:00.000+08:00

It's 2am here... on my last night in Penn. Time for the last Penn post! Gosh. I'm sure this is gonna be a long and luo suo (long winded) post. Hang in there! I'll make it as painless as possible! (or try to at least)

An Ode to My Cooking
I still can't believe there are people who don't believe that I actually managed to do a bit of cooking here. Haha! Yah yah. I know I know. I couldn't cook even if my life depended on it back in Singapore. But well, since coming here I made a decision that I'd make use of the opportunity to learn some basic cooking. Here are some of my (barely edible) concoctions!

The First Attempt. Pasta. Tasted better than it looked... thought that doesn't seem hard to do.

The First Instant Noodle. Yup. It's with Egg and BAK KWA. Yummy! Eh, stop giving me that weird look.

Chicken Soup and Rice

Quesadillas. I'm gonna miss those back in S'pore

NY Strip Steak. Delicious!

Bak Kut Teh
Beef Stir Fry and Veggies Stir Fry
Macaroni Aglio Olio with Grilled Chicken Thigh
Chicken Fried Rice

What i'll miss here and what i won't miss here
What I'll miss about Penn
- Mexican food
- Salads
- Walking distance to school
- Walking distance to friends / food / other necessities
- Short distance from City Centre
- 24 hour areas in school
- Friends
- Freedom (kinda)
- Independence
- The Slack Studying Life
- Pass / Fail
- Navigating on grid system roads
- Yummy sandwhiches
- Genuinely nice people (regardless of nationality... not that there aren't any in Singapore... but you tend to be more appreciative of nice gestures when you're in a foreign country)
- Ludwigs' Garten the German bar

What I won't miss about Penn
- Impatient drivers / lots of honking
- Driving grid system roads
- PUBLIC TRANSPORT STRIKES
- Single ply toilet paper (yes. u miss two ply when it's gone. really)
- Ambulance / Police / Fire Engine sirens every other hour
- Almost a murder a day in the city
- Like, having to, like, say, like, the word, like, "like", like, every other, like, sentence.... ya know?
- Spelling words like behavioUr and coloUr funnily
- Driving on the right side of the road. That's cos the right side is actually the wrong side. The left side is actually the right side.
- Explaining that the Singapore Rice Noodles you find here can NEVER be found in Singapore
- An utter disregard to the beauties of Thousand Island Dressing and McVities Digestive Biscuits
- Explaining where in the world Singapore is
- Explaining that no, I don't get thrown into prison and sentenced to death everytime i jaywalk in Singapore
- The Penn "scenery" (kx should know what I mean)
- Sub zero temperatures
- Dry air and static electricity... -ZAP-

Are we tt different from an ivy league school?
I've been asked that quite a lot in different ways. How's Penn different from SMU? I have to confess that I cannot give you a totally objective view. One. I've only seen UPenn through the life of an exchange student... which is probably vastly different from a normal student. Two. I'm biased bcos I love SMU.

Despite this lack of objectivity, I honestly believe that the difference is not vast. I guess this could be because Wharton came to set up SMU's system. They've got MGMT 100, we've got LTB. They've got OPIM 101, we've got QM and CAT. The system is almost identical. They do have an advantage over SMU in terms of the number and variety of courses they offer because of their size over us. Then again, SMU has always had that problem because of its relative small size.

Their alumni network is HUGE and very strong too. They beat us hands down in that department. Something that 6 year old SMU needs to try to inculcate as much as possible while it still can. Now, if only the few culprits in our school admin (not all of them are guilty of this) can wake up their ideas and start treating students with an inkling of respect... that would be a good start.

Professors-wise... my opinion is based solely on the five professors who have taught me and is definitely not representative of the quality of the faculty at UPenn. Of the five... I felt that I only really learned from perhaps 2 or 3 of them. But of course, please do not take this to mean one school's worse than the other... I don't have a good enough understanding of UPenn to make an informed opinion. I'm certain they must have some famous professors here. I guess I was unlucky not to get a course being taught by one of them.

Students-wise... I guess this is where I can make SOME sort of an opinion. Again, the same disclaimer as above applies here. I came to UPenn hoping to meet the greatest minds of the States and to learn from them. Well, I guess UPenn is like any other school in terms of student make up... You've got the smart ones, the not-so-smart-ones, the hardworking ones, the not-so-hardworking ones... etc etc. Unfortunately, I haven't had the pleasure of interacting with the cream of the crop the same as above. In fact, I've had some experiences with some students that have soiled my impression that Ivy League students were really "all that". I won't share them here for fear that anyone uses those experiences as the sole basis of judging the students of UPenn, which would be unfair indeed. I'm sure each school has their black sheep. Perhaps, in a seperate post i might share it if any of you are interested. I can say though that the percentage of hardworking students here is probably higher than SMU. And an American friend said to me "We're really good at talking even if we know nothing." I guess those are about the only compliments that I can think of for now.

I'm sure UPenn is a great school. To maintain its reputation I'm sure there are some great faculty and great students here. My experience should not in any way be the sole basis of forming an opinion on the school. UPenn sure has its pros and cons like any other school... but it's a good school for sure.

I like UPenn. I love SMU. Trying to be as objective as possible... I believe SMU's best (or at least those that I have had the pleasure of knowing) can definitely compete on the same level as UPenn's best. I have no doubt in my mind about it. Past SMU exchange students have topped their classes here... (though I don't believe I will achieve anything anywhere close to that). This is not an insult to UPenn (I try not to) but a compliment to SMU's students. I only hope that the future batches will continue to do us proud.

On a weird side note... when I first came... I bought a Wharton Tshirt and a UPenn polo T... I only wore each shirt once and never touched it again... but I wore my SMU jacket in UPenn almost everyday during fall. Ha! Pride!

The best thing about Penn
There's no doubt on this one. The best thing about Penn? All the friends that I've made here! :D

The main exchange gang
Ryan - Rza (the one being kicked)
The Dutch Chinese dude... My original lunch buddy. Without him, I probably wouldn't have had the chance to meet the rest of the gang!

Nard
The other dutch. Tall, handsome, and super funny. International Blog Superstar!

Chris - C Biscuit
The Aussie Rocker/Mathematician/Philosopher. Yes. It's confusing. The dude who started calling me "Dazzler"... or would that be Andy?

Andy - A Dawg
The other dude who calls me Dazzler. One of only two men to have ever shared a bed with me this exchange

Djoulien - Juju
One of the three frenchies. My fellow protester in Washington!

Mathieu
Another frenchman. Loves the moose at Ludwigs. I've no idea why. :S

Anais - Ninis
The rose amongst the thorns. Hey Anais, do you know... in Singapore... Ni ni... actually means... erm... errr... breasts?

Fabian (the one on the left)
The german... and number one fan of German bar Ludwigs' Garten. True to german form... he really knows his beer!

The Chicago gang and others
Charissa (in the photo with Dounia)
Singaporean studying in Aussie... Ali claims she has a... err... never mind.

Chi
Another Aussie... this dude snuck into my bed while I was sleeping... and slept next to me... in nothing but his briefs! Yucks! :S Chi! You're gross :p

Ali
Moroccan who studies in France... and knows how to say KNNBCCB like the best of them. Courtesy of yours truly.

Ryota, Donald, and Byron
Jap, Scot, and Hongkonger... Didn't go to Chicago with these three. Didn't even get to meet them much (cos Ryota's always holed up in his lab!). But it's always a joy joining them whenever they eat out bcos Byron reallys knows how to whack his food. It's entertaining just watching him eat!

Chie, Yukino, and Noriko
The three jap girls who I will be going to NY with tomorrow. Don't you dare think funny! Ryota, Donald, and Fabian will be there too!

Sera
My Indonesian OPIM group mate who unfortunately could not finish the semester! Get well soon Sera!

Singaporeans
Renhua, Qiuwei, Gabe, Yanxiang, Kaixiang, etc etc etc... Aiyah. I've blogged enough about this group already. Surely you guys don't need another long profession of love now do you? :)

Anyway, yup! These people were the ones who made UPenn so so so so special for me. Thanks guys! For everything! :D It was really great getting to know all of you!

Penn SG pple are NICE! (but not the music moguls!)

2005-12-17T16:14:00.000+08:00

1 paper down. 2 to go. Can't say it was all that difficult. A combination of easy courses with an exchange attitude. Haven't had it this easy in a long while!

Christians: Tithing is not in the bible! (so he says)
Well, at least tithing the way we've been told... some of you might know that though I consider myself a Christian, I have little faith in most Christian churches in the world today. But of course, that view is my own and is not something that I wish to pass on to anyone else. Regardless, I found this site which presents interesting interpretations of the bible. Notice that I'm not putting down a judgement on whether he's right or wrong... I'm merely saying it's an interesting interpretation. I guess the only guy who'll know whose interpretation is correct is the big G himself.

Well, essentially this guy set up a website putting up his arguments for what he thinks the bible says. He claims that pastors out there are interpreting the bible to their own advantage (such as tithing) and he puts up LENGTHY arguments to counter what the pastors have been preaching. Since I ain't no expert on the bible and I can't be bothered to read such a long piece of essay... I gave that a miss but did take a quick browse through some of his arugments. They seem well researched and rather well thought out. A bit biased at times... but that's hardly surprising. Seems like a site that's not up for commercial reasons either. But I can't say for sure if he makes sense or not. Perhaps a staunch christian can give it a good read and let me know OBJECTIVELY (such a hard thing to get with some religious people out there) if it's accurate?

http://bible-truths.com/

All I'm trying to say here is that... when someone preaches... though he might point to the bible and say "do not doubt. have faith in god's word and what i am preaching to you."... it might be a good idea sometimes to think through what it is the pastor is trying to say... and the reasons behind it... regardless of the stature and reputation of that person. We're all humans after all. Even pastors.

I HATE the Music Industry (and other corporate bullies)

Recently, Warner/Chappel (the music company) threatened to sue a small time Austrian hobbyist developer that created a program called pearlyrics. All this program does is to search the internet for lyrics and to place it on ur iTunes which he provides for free. Warner sued him for copyright infringement, and the developer removed the program cos he didn't want to risk a lawsuit which he could ill afford over a mere hobby. Warner was being a )*@#&$)*@%*%&@$&*(%@*$%& bully. Yes. I am that angry over the matter. There was absolutely no copyright infringement involved! All the guy is doing is to take lyrics off the net and putting it on your itunes. It's nothing more than a search engine isn't it? It does EXACTLY the same thing that google does but in a more specific and automated manner. The people who are copying the lyrics isn't the developer... it's the people who put up the illegal lyrics sites to begin with.

Why am I so pissed? It's just another example of corporation LITERALLY BULLYING people who cannot defend themselves into getting things done their way for their profits.

The Starbucks Bully

Here's another example of another such scenario. Starbucks sued a person and won just because he owned a coffee shop named after himself. It's HIS fault that he's named Sam Bucks and decided to name his shop Sam Bucks Coffee. It's literally LAW that states that you cannot be sued for trademark infringement if you're naming your product after yourself. And yes, Sam Bucks has a circle for his logo... but it's a CUP inside the circle, not the starbucks woman. I am 100% certain that in ANY OBJECTIVE view, Sam bucks was not infringing the trademark. Why did Starbucks win then? Well, it's the USA... lobbying is as natural as brushing your teeth no? I won't say that there was any corruption involved... but I wouldn't be surprised if Starbucks did more than just attend court.

Back to the Music Industry

Thank GOD for that Austrain developer that Electronic Freedom Frontier (EFF. A group that I thoroughly support and have made donations to.) wrote a public letter to Warner Chappel and published it making clear their view on the whole shenanigan. Since then, Warner has issued a much deserved public apology to the Austrain developer. WOO HOO! EFF! YOU ROCK!

Despite that, the music industry, I believe, is still guilty of many wrongs. One is its impending attack on lyrics sites. They claim that lyrics sites copy their lyrics and make a profit from it through advertising. Yes. I believe that is a fair thing to say, to a certain extent. If I were to write a poem and someone were to post it up without my permission and makes a profit from advertising, I believe I deserve the right to tell them to remove it.

The problem comes with the way the music industry is treating the whole issue. They're looking at it as "We're doing no wrong. Everyone's a thief!" and sue the pants off everybody. They should wake up their bloody (yes, bloody) ideas and realise that the existance of such illegal sites is a BLATANT indication that there is a market waiting to be filled, there is a demand that needs to be satiated. By removing these sites without taking any action in providing a suitable replacement... they are depriving their customers who purchase their music off lyrics... which I think is a fair thing to say that people who purchase songs should be entitled to have a copy of the lyrics. (Like, how can you sell a song to someone and say "Eh, you cannot know the lyrics ah!") And by doing the sueing and not taking a proper good look at themselves and their strategies, they are leaving us customers high and dry without satisfying our needs... yet accuse us of theivery. Warner/Chappel... if you're so desperate to get rid of lyrics sites... here's an idea you *@(&$%$s, set up your own lyric site! :S Is that so difficult? Set up your own lyrics site... make money from advertising... and provide other services that illegal sites are not able to. For example, illegal sites have the problem of not having accurate lyrics and not having all the songs. You have a site providing all the songs and all the accurate lyrics... you'll literally drive the illegal sites out of business. If they copy from your site... you can sue them and your customers wouldn't mind since you aren't depriving them off anything. Think. man. Think. Is it so hard?

Another thing I don't get is their INSISTENCE on Digital Rights Management (DRM) technology. By putting copy control on cds and the legal music available online... you are literally restricting the rights your consumers have. Already... music industry people have mentioned that "Buying a cd gives you the right to listen to that song on your cd player, not your iPod." WHAT IS THAT ABOUT?! If I want to listen to an artist both in my car and when I'm walking the streets... in the past I could get a CD and listen to it both in my car and on my discman... but now? I can't! Cos I no longer have a discman! I must buy TWO copies of that song... one on CD format and one on mp3 format! If people are already purchasing cds from you... they (most) are already making a concious choice to support you and not piracy. Why do you treat them like criminals? Sure, there might be some who might go against copyright laws and spread it... but just to stop that one bunch, you punish ALL your other loyal customers?

And you claim that "oh woe be to the musicians who have their music pirated." Well, these two musicians seem to think otherwise you money grubbers. OKGo and Steadman. (By the way, steadman is offering all their music for free legally online. They're good stuff!)

The music industry wanted DRM. So apple agreed to put DRM on their music on iTunes. And all other online music sellers have to use DRM as well. So now, the only legally purchased (ie: DRM embedded) music you can listen to on your itunes / ipod are those bought from the itunes music store. And with Apple's near monopoly of the mp3 player market... the DRM technology FORCED on them by the music industry has given Apple a near monopoly on the legal online mp3 sales market. And now the music industry is literally bitching that apple should raise prices and all that. Dudes, you guys gave Apple the monopoly and you still wanna influence their pricing strategy? You merely took on a supplier role in this arrangement. You provide Apple with songs and they sell it online. Who are you to tell Apple what to do? Have you ever seen a supplier tell their customer "Eh, raise your price so I can get more profits leh." Rubbish I tell you. RUBBISH.

One music guy even said that all songs, like food, are different and should have different prices and hence everyone should pay more. (i don't have the link, i'm sure you can google it) Dude. I bet you didn't take any logic class. Yes, you argued quite correctly that perhaps different songs should be priced differently. But what's to say they should be priced higher and not lower? !)*#&$)!*#$

And again, the music industry can solve this problem by providing an online store which prices competitively and sells mp3s with NO DRM on it. People will buy from you now cos you have better prices. You have no DRM so your customers are no longer restricted to those only owning certain mp3 player. Yes you will have a tough fight with Apple, but that's your problem for having given them so much power to begin with. If you had only thought properly to begin with instead of stubbornly sticking to your old ways, you would have recognised the need for legal online mp3s and filled the void instead of letting other companies legally take it away from you. Serves you right.

And the dumbest music industry thing of all

But this one. this one TAKES THE CAKE. So Apple has a monopoly on online music thanks to DRM that was forced onto them right? So anyone in Singapore who wants to buy online music legally will have to use the iTunes music store... and no other place. They can't even buy a CD and rip it since the music industry is placing copy controls on all the cds out there. Problem is. iTunes doesn't have support for sales in Singapore yet.

So how? Singaporean buy iPod. Can't rip CDs legally purchased from stores onto mp3s. Can't buy mp3s legally off the net cos of DRM technology. What do you want us to do? Pay S$500 for an iPod and listen to static right? Or all the oldies in our dusty cupboards that does not have copy control on it? I wanted to legally obtain all the songs that I want to listen to. But you champions don't leave me much room to do things legally.

Idiots.

Gosh. I believe that was my ANGRIEST post EVER. Whoa. Didn't know I had that much angst in me over this issue. But well, I do honestly feel that way about it. Ok ok. On to nicer topics. :)

Penn SG pple are NICE

Ok, can't say I know all the Penn SG pple well. But I have to say that many of those whom I have met have been fantastically nice to me so far. Of course there's the gang that I normally hang out with (when I'm not hanging out with my exchange friends) such as Renhua, Qiuwei, Kaixiang, etc etc... Yeah they're all a great bunch and I enjoy being out with them of course. But in a way, because I'm closer to them, it's not surprising that I think they're nice people and that I feel so comfortable around them.

But interestingly... even people whom I barely barely meet give me a good feeling. For example, just today I had dinner with the freshmen... (wee siong, russell, mingjing, val, caleb, haresh, martyn, paul, and shijie. Fabian was there too but he ain't a freshman.) a bunch I very rarely get to meet because of timetables and stuff like that. This would actually be my first proper meal with most of them in fact. Despite that, I felt so comfortable just interacting with them and they didn't make me feel out of place even though I wasn't really in their clique. And even when I meet people like May and Kathy (they aren't Singaporeans per se, but have studied there before) whom I've only gone out with one time at the very beginning of the semester to Ikea... it feels just like we're proper friends and not people whom haven't seen each other for 4 months.

Of course, there are people around here whom I feel uncomfortable around... but that's to be expected from all social settings. That's a different story. :)

Regardless, I am indeed blessed to meet such a fantastic bunch of friends here... Exchange students, Singaporeans, and the IHouse people... really blessed indeed. Guess I should do a post on them of sort soon huh? I'm leaving soon afterall.

My Yr End Trip

To the people who are interested in my yr end plan... (ie: mum and dad, mum and dad, and mum and dad)

22nd Dec - Leave philly for NY with Fabian, Yukino, Noriko, Chie, Ryota, and Donald

25th Dec - Leave NY to reach Copenhagen on the 26th (2 stopovers! ouch!) to meet Joanne and Leonora

31st Dec - Leave Copenhagen for London with Bro Chew, Bro Chua, Ada, and Meijun where we will join Ken and Zoe and maybe Siew Shin. Hope to meet Michelle Lai and A-Dawg Sharman there too.

4th Jan - Leave London to reach Singapore 5th Jan morning, 7.50am (Thursday). Qantas Flight 32.

So.... with that in mind guys... I probably won't be able to blog much from 22nd to the 5th... If I'm even able to blog at all.

Quick update

2005-12-15T14:15:00.000+08:00

Exams start tomorrow with my first paper. The amount of studying time i've placed into preparing for tomorrow's paper? A grand total of 3 man hours.

Boy am I screwed. Ha!

On a side note. This morning, Kaixiang and I left to send Liying to JFK airport at 3am in the bloody morning... (yeah we needed two guys so that someone can navigate on the trip back) we reached the airport at 6.30am... walked out in the piercing cold for jus 2 minutes to get into the airport and in those 2 minutes I felt like I could have just frozen on the spot and died there. I think it was -10 deg celsius then? Plus a whole load of wind chill factor. The lungs were actually hurting a bit by the time I got into the airport. And that was only 2 minutes. And no, I'm not weak... I can do 0 to -2 deg celsius easily. But that just took the cake.

To further illustrate... Well, we left a pack of skittles (those fruity sweets) in the car when we went into the airport. By the time KX and I got back to the car, the skittles were rock hard frozen.

Shiok right. Like that, no one needs a freezer anymore.

:S

Wish me luck for tmrw's paper!

Finally, eh?

2005-12-11T01:37:00.000+08:00

My Rear End is a Penn Celebrity!
Penn, like most other American Unis, has its own newspaper, The Daily Pennsylvanian (DP). It's daily and it's pretty good. I don't read it all that much... but I do pick it up once in a while. Well, one day I was in my room doing my own thing when I received an group email from Andy (A-Dawg) Sharman asking Juju and I how we're dealing with our newfound fame. I was like... "Wha? What fame? How come I'm famous?!" Only then did it occur to me that I probably appeared on DP somehow. So I went to pick it up...

and lo and behold...

Wah. My ass is Penn Famous. :S

Eh. It's true alright? Like Nard noticed my rear and didn't even notice Andy and Ju in the shot. Nard, is that back so obviously mine?! :S

My First Ever Failed Job Interview
Well, it had to come sooner or later... I'm surprised that it took so long for it to finally happen to me considering my utter lack of intellect. Thank god for that. Most of you my recall a rather recent post where I explained how I screwed up my video interview? Yeah that's the one that I didn't get. Hardly surprising though considering my performance in that interview. Their reason for the rejection was only 2 things... one was the tough competition, and 2nd was my technical quantitative skills.... will I really can't expect the company to hire me when I couldn't answer the most basic of technical questions especially when the other candidates could probably answer that with ease. To be honest, I'm slightly thankful that I didn't get through the interview. I love Deutsche Bank. The internship program, the rigorous recruitment system I was put through, and the very fantastic recruiting dept... they actually made sure that they told me abt the rejection over the phone even though they couldn't get through my line several times... and they thanked me for investing so much time and all in then. Overall I feel like DB is a fantastic place that anyone who works there is really quite lucky. :) The reason why I'm glad that I didn't get the job.... well.... I know my skills, my strengths, and my weaknesses.... I know I'm probably techinically adept enough at doing the trading thing... skills wise, both qualitative and quantitative... I'm sure I can do a good job. But I think there's a slight mismatch in attitudes towards risk... I'm rather risk-averse as Kaixiang and the other poker guys will readily attest to. As such, I'll probably make a good trader, but not a fantastic one. And I probably would like the company, but I might not like the job scope what with all the risk taking I'd have to make.

So over all, I'm glad things turned out the way they did.

But there's one thing I'm hugely disappointed with. My performance! Doh! Haha!

Ok, the interview, as earlier mentioned was a breeze. But 3 questions fouled me up. 3 questions I ALREADY KNOW THE ANSWER TO fouled me up. Yeah, I'm quite riled up by it. Haha! So here are the 3 questions...

1. When interest rates go up, bond prices go down. Why? Model Ans: The NPV of the bond goes down as future receipts are worth less today as interest rates go up. My answer then: Err.... I'm supposed to know this... Haha!

2. When you play a game and flip it for infinity... every time u get to heads in a row you get 1 million dollars... what's the value of a single flip? Model answer: $250,000. That's because when you flip for infinity every single flip is a 50% chance (first flip) to get a 50% chance (second flip) to win $1,000,000, hence the fair value for each flip is 50% x 50% x $1,000,000 = $250,000. My answer then: If you flip the coins ONLY twice, there's a 25% chance of getting $1,000,000 so it's a $250,000 fair value for two coin flips, giving you a $125,000 a coin flip.

Note: My answer is technically correct if it's 2 coin flips only. The difference is that the question asks for an infinite coin flip. In an limited coin flip game, you will need to divide the fair value of the entire game with the total number of flips. (All flips have a $250,000 value with the last coin flip having $0 value... so you need to do the averaging out. Which gives the $125,000 value for a 2 coin flip game) Because the question asks for an infinite flip, you do not have to average out the value since there isn't a valueless last flip.

3. What is 269 x 3? Model answer: 269 x 3 = (270 x 3) - (1 x 3) = 810 - 3 = 807. My answer then: 269 x 3 = (270 x 3) - (1x3) = 710 - 3 = 707. (ie: I got the technique correct but made a careless mistake on the calculation.)

So yeah. That's the thing that pisses me off... The fact that I knew that I had the skills and knowledge required to BREEZE through the interview, yet screwed it up. -smacks forehead- DARREN LIM! WHY U SO CMI?! Hahaha! I guess I have to learn to work better at "getting back the groove"... even if I really couldn't get the first question cos I was taken by surprise... it's no excuse for me not to get the other two right.

Yeah, that's something for me to work towards. Always good to find yet another room for personal improvement. :)

And don't worry about me friends. :) No real harm done. The only thing that was hurt was my ego. And considering how immense an ego I have, I suppose a little hurt might actually do it some good. :)

Grouper
There's this real cool program on the net that Themin introduced to me. Grouper. It basically is a LEGAL P2P platform which allows u to share your stuff with your friends. I have my own "group" where I put up my stuff and I can invite only me friends to the group and they can help themselves to the files. very useful stuff.

Right now I've got almost every song that I have on it (note that the songs can only stream using grouper... it IS legal afterall) and I also have almost all of my project videos on it. Ok, I have to confess that I'm actually really proud of my project videos (most of them at least)... all of them were scripted / directed by me and though I know they aren't the best and I've made some really lousy ones (IT Law comes to mind)... I still like them very very much! :D I do try to experiment now and then with the videos using different themes. These include the black and white silent business law film... the MPW stereotype china kind of film with kungfu Zhiyang vs Ruffian Jon... the Company Law monologue-theme video which I like the best... the trailer-theme ITLaw which I didn't like that much... and the cheesy Finance videos.

Well, you can download Grouper and form your own group and stuff from this website. If you would like me to invite you to a group, just leave me your email address either thru msn / email / comments or whatever. :)

Disney goes entrpreneurship
This is just a silly game I found today online. You pick a business you want to set up and u try to earn as much profits as possible. Quite interesting for a game or two. Kinda like SimHospital, the game that Jon Ban was crazy over so so so so long ago. Made by Disney with the Kaufman foundation. If you're ever bored, try it here.

Soon lah soon.

2005-12-09T06:33:00.000+08:00

Eh.... haha... this blog very empty now right.... -scratch head-

ok ok. i update over this weekend ok? i update. really. promise. :D if i don't... erm... u can lock me up in a cage with Song in his Santa-with-tightie-whities-on-the-outside costume. :S Erm. Wait. Maybe not. I'd rather be shot. twice. in the balls.

back to my china history paper. woo hoo.

This Phase, A Haze of Lazy Days

2005-12-05T06:09:00.000+08:00

Been thinking of blogging about some stuff since the last gruesome post. I really sincerely hope that your eyes have recovered somewhat from those photos. As usual, please blame the source and not the mere messenger boy ya. Anyway. Yah. Been thinking of blogging but I'm feeling just too lazy to do it. :S

In addition to feeling lazy to blog. I'm also feeling lazy to do any productive work. Think I'll end up lazing the day again till 10pm comes around the corner and I'll start pia-ing all over again.

Was supposed to go gym too with Qiuwei... but I've yet to go...

It's probably the weather. Winter has this tendency on people, doesn't it? -Yawn- I need a butler to make me a hot cup of milo with marshmallows. And maybe some McVities digestive biscuits to go with it. I'm still extremely irritated by the fact that they don't have McVities here. Sheesh. Just cos it ain't laden with sugar doesn't mean it ain't good ok.

Porn : The Post Worth Waiting For

2005-11-29T15:22:00.000+08:00

Yup, Ladies and Gentlemen, here it is... finally... after all that waiting... Jem Loy has finally gotten his ass into gear and has sent me his plethora of porn. I've chosen the finest and have placed it up. But instead of showing u all that sin of flesh and lust now... I shall save it for the later... don't want ya running away from my blog just yet you know. Got other stuff to say first!

Thanksgiving Break
It was nice! An American Family invited me to their place for dinner and I brought Ryan (the Dutch) and Chris (the Aussie) with me. The meal was a FEAST. I think we started at around 3+ (yes, dinner at 3+)... took a short break to digest before dessert, and finished around 7. Dave, the husband cooks well. Carrot with spinach dip, Crackers and Mini-Pitas with mixed cheese dip, turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, mashed sweet potatoes, green beans, avocado salad, bread, apple and caramel crumble, raspberry pie, pumpkin pie, and ice cream. Wah. Eat until cannot walk. They were a very very nice family too. :D

Boston was a nice city too. Very european architecture. Rather different from the rest of the States.

Harvard has a very very nice campus. Architecture kinda like how u'd expect it to look back in the 50s... except it look grand and it covers BIG areas and everything looks very well maintained as if it was just painted before we got there. And oh, Djoulien pissed on a Harvard bush. Ho ho ho. Take that Harvard. :S

Boston Uni looked like a long stretch of European houses... nice. MIT, in contrast, looked mostly like a dreary industrial estate. Even Sloan business school looked it. The main building was very nice. Grand roman style architecture. The new Stata Center was very cool too. It's like Picasso suddenly decided to do architecture. I liked it. But apart from these too (and the huge and cool looking antennas and satellites poking out of almost every other building)... even Ang Mo Kio industrial estate looks more exciting in comparison.

My Bro's A Closet SNAG
He professed on his blog that he loves me (as well as his love for some damn super chio cars)! Awww.....

Offer
MAS has just given me an offer for Associate in Financial Markets Strategy Department under the MAS Graduate Officer Scheme. That's another option to consider. Thankful to God and everyone else for it. I'm quite keen on accepting this post... hopefully they'll give me some time to consider it in comparison to any other offer that I might (hopefully) receive in the future.

Video Interview
Had a video conferencing interview (not with MAS) last week. It lasted 1.5 hours... 3 different interviews of 1/2 hr each. I think I screwed up my first, did pretty ok for my second, did well for my third.

As some of you might have known, I was putting tonnes and tonnes of effort into preparing for the interview. I knew the Financial Times, WSJ, Economist, whatever from front to back for the past few days... took in all the info, summarised, and thought of opinions to share then. I was as prepared as can be for any "What is your opinion on..." question.

So the first interview was going smoothly... then one guy asked the SIMPLEST of SIMPLEST of questions that on any other time I would have had the answer on the tip of my fingers. It was so elementary that I knew I'd look like a complete buffoon if I didn't get it right.

And guess what? I didn't know the answer to it. With all that preparation I had done... I wasn't able to answer his simple question. It was a complete mind wipe. "Why is it that bond prices go down when interest rates go up?" I COULDN'T ANSWER THAT!!! It was very very embarassing... :S The rest of the first interview went downhill for me from there cos I kinda lost the groove.

and yes, for the record, of COURSE I know the answer to that question. It just didn't occur to me at that time. I didn't fail finance you know. Bah. Shit happens I guess.

Thank god there was some time for me to rest and gather my composure before the other interviews. Did good for the second interview. Where I think talking about my learning of poker here in Penn really helped somewhat. Heh. The third interview was smashing. It ended off with him saying that he was very glad that he had a chance to interview me today. I guess I felt some sort of a stronger connection with the interviews for the latter 2 interviews that I did the first one.

Hmm. 3 Interviews, 1 bad, 1 not bad, 1 good. Dunno what the result's gonna be. Well, if I don't get it... I know the reason why. Damn bond question and my inability to get the answer out of my head at that time.

Online Music Sales the way it's supposed to be
http://www.boingboing.net/2005/11/28/jane_siberry_opens_b.html
Jane Siberry opened an online music store that allows you to purchase MP3s that do not have DRM or Copy Controls on it for any fee that you choose. Jane Siberry, mind you, is not some small time singer, she ain't exactly mainstream, but she ain't small time either.

I applaud her brave, AND smart, move of venturing into this new form of distribution. Legal online music sales with NO drm (unlike iTunes and CDs) AND you choose your own price. Finally, customers are no longer treated as criminals. :)

Thank you Jane!

God Info Blog
http://godlorica.blogspot.com/
Some of you might find this information. It's a blog that posts up any information found that relates to God, religion, or science related to religion. It shows both pro-religion and anti-religion stuff so it's kinda well rounded. I'm not sure if it takes a stance per se. SOME of the posts do make for quite interesting reads. Like there's this guy who's trying to make a Christian version of snakes and ladders. :S

Porn
Yes. The moment you've all been waiting for. After ploughing through all the verbosity above... or just clicking "Page Down"... you've finally arrived at what all of you have been waiting for.

The Porn.

Well, allow me a disclaimer first, will u? Porn, by its nature... can obviously be rather grotesque. Sure, there are some porn which is just ur normal man and woman making out, but there are kind which just go beyond the scope of normal human taste. I'm pretty sure a quick search on weird sexual behaviors would bring about a plethora of "distinct" tastes. I, for one, loath to think of what they could be.

It is most unfortunate, thus, that Jem Loy is one who has these distinct tastes. So evidenced from what he has sent me... I know not what goes behind that head of his. I suspect I do not wish to know either.

With that in mind, friends, please be warned that the following is not meant for innocent eyes. It will tear a hole right through whatever innocence you have in you and rip your retinas right out of your sockets. Yes. It is that bad. This is going to be bad...

My disclaimer: I shall not be liable for any physical, mental, or emotional harm any viewer might receive from viewing the following. You see it at your own risk. This disclaimer include, but is not limited to, burnt retinas, eyes dropping out of their sockets, utter depression, megalomania, puking, and damaged laptops/keyboard from said puking.

Now that we have that over and done with.

Here it is.

Dear reader.

I present to you.

Porn.

Prepped and ready for some Hoe Hoe Hoe.
Is he telling me to be quiet? Or is he trying to grab some. Erm. Balls?

(Poor quality from source)

Sorry Song, I couldn't resist. :p

Weiyang. Hope you liked it. ;)

101 Post = No Porn cos of Jem Loy

2005-11-24T15:57:00.000+08:00

Yes yes I know I know... I've been lazy and haven't been updating my blog the last week. You see, I've got a pretty good reason... I promised Tangoh that I'd post up porn on my 101st post. Problem is, I'm an innocent nice little guy right? So OBVIOUSLY I wouldn't know where in the world to get porn... so like that how? Make promise cannot break right? Well, the solution was obvious... get the skankiest guy I know to send me porn of course. Well, it was a tough fight between Jeremy Nguee and Jeremy Loy (Goh Chee Kiat beats them both hands down in skankiness of course but I think his porn is all on VCDs... cannot send over) but in the end I chose Loy simply bcos at least he's in my time zone and is more convenient to communicate to.

So that bugger promised me the porn in my email... I was being nice and said send it when it's convenient for u.... and guess what? He went ALLLL the way to Orlando far far far away from his laptop and didn't tell me. So here I was waiting for Loy's Porn (not porn with Loy in it for goodness sake)... wondering what's taking him so long to send it.... then only today did I realise he was enjoying himself in sunny Orlando. Thanks Song for telling me. Geez. So Tangoh. My apologies. Hopefully we can get porn in 102.

Busy busy
Alright alright, ANOTHER reason that I haven't been updating is that I've been super busy as of late. Work, play, and everything else. The next few weeks will be hectic too what with all the final paper deadlines coming in. Hopefully I'll finish up my papers soon and jus breeze thru the last 2 final exam papers. Heh. We'll see. Either way, updates will be rarer from this one onwards.

:(

EFF
Some of you might have noticed the EFF button on my screen. It's at the bottom of my right bar. I donated 10 bucks to them (I'm a poor student man!) and I think they really deserve it. EFF stands for Electronic Freedom Frontier (i think) and these chaps are kinda like a non-profit organisation except that they fight for internet users' freedom. Having taken IT & the law under Prof Mary Wong has really opened up my eyes to the shitholes that some corporates can be. And as of late... many corporations have been trying hard to take away our freedoms so that they can benefit monetarily from it.

EG:
1. Sony placed hidden software in the music cds which laid hidden in your computer and the software allowed hackers to easily manipulate it to access your computer. EFF is sueing them now. So is Texas.
2. Music companies are now insisting that when u purchase CDs, you are not allowed to put the songs on your CDs on to iPods. They insist that if you want to listen to music on both your discman and your MP3 players, you gotta buy BOTH the cds AND the mp3s. WTF?!

There are many other examples where the corporations have been taking our liberties away from us which we have been unable to fight. This applies especially so (I personally feel) to the music industry where the financially strong RIAA and MPAA have been lobbying hard to ensure that we cannot do what we wish with the music we purchase. (ie: point 2 above)

EFF has been challenging all of the above as well as many many many other causes. Check out the achievement sections to find out their victories. I believe their cause is worth fighting for... well I don't expect anyone to donate to them just bcos of this post... but well, it's good to raise awareness no? My main gripe currently is with the music industry and how they're trying to put in place laws such that their customers will be treated like criminals (we can't do this we can't do that etc etc etc... we paid for our cds no?!) but the many other causes that EFF takes on are very impt as well. I really do hope they do well. Do check out their site if you're free. :)

What I've been up to the past week
Just a quick update on what I've been up to since the last post. Lots of things happened of course... but it's been a while and I can't really remember all. I'll just do this quick too. :)

Interview with MAS: took a train down for an interview with MAS in NY. Not sure how it went. Hopefully well.
Harry Potter: Watched it was pretty good i thought.
The Curious Incident of the Dog at Night: finally finished that thin book. I thought it was ok. Too much hype. But I really felt for the dad character. He's the hero in my books.
Thursday cookout: This time not with the Singaporean gang but with exchange students. (ok, plus 2 other singaporean exchange students whom I haven't had the chance of hanging out with)
WABC: Wharton Asia Business Conference followed by pasta dinner and then drinks. Interesting. :) Drinks wasn't as cool though. This women fell backwards and hit the back of her head on a glass table. blood spilling out. :S not nice to see.
Dinner with Renhua's family: It was very nice. Renhua has a very warm and friendly family. :) Ren, did you know I actually blogged about ur dad and his public speaking skills before? Ha! AND, your mum actually called me guai. Aiyoh. I so hai xiu leh. :p
DB video conference interview: consisted of 3 consecutive interviews. Messed up the first one. Did alright for the second one. Aced the third one. I think. Not sure how the final results will turn out.
Song visits Penn: Was nice meeting him and talking over coffee. And dude, I AMMMM guai and innocent ok? Geez! Why can't u believe the truth?!
Andy's BDay drinks: Happy Birthday A-Dawg!

What I'll be up to this week
Thanksgiving dinner at a kind and nice American family's place.
Boston over the weekend.

Will probably blog after the weekend. Hopefully with porn in hand.

Yes, I know I've been using very very short sentences this entry, especially towards the end. It's 3.30am and I wanna sleep. I sacrifice sleep to blog leh. I how kind. :S

Night!

The 100th Post! The Centennial!

2005-11-09T12:11:00.000+08:00

As promised, the 100th post has arrived. My apologies for the long wait... I only got down to working on this entry after some "concerned individuals" started bugging me to get off my lazy ass and start on the post already. My excuse? I was waiting for photos from Renhua and Qiuwei... but then again, I never really did bug them for them did I? Haha! Ah well. Regardless, here we go.

And what will I be talking about on this "momentuous" entry? Well... I've only had 2 requests so far... one from Kelvin who wants to see porn... which is kind of expected anyway... since when did Kelvin not want to see porn? Skinnyman porn. That has got to be quite the painful sight for the normal eye. But nope, there shall be no porn on my 100th post. I shall not defile it as such. I'll save the porn for the 101st post. I promise. Nothing on me either. Really. You see, I don't do it for free.

Second request was from the leader of the "Darren should wear contacts everyday" lobby group... she wants me to say that YEAR 2S SHOULD STOP BIDDING FOR MT2 CLASSES! ESPECIALLY TAX PLANNING! Seriously, I tried to put this across last year but it didn't work. I don't see how it'll work this year. But yeah, I agree with her. MT2 was created so that yr 3s can do their internship and still have courses to do after the internship. The courses in MT2 were designed such that yr 3s on internship coming back wld have just enough slots for them. With yr 2s coming into the equation... ur depriving deserving souls of their courses. Of course you can argue that it's a free market and all... but hey, simply put, you're taking something that was made for others and not for you. But I shall stop here... I ain't gonna make my 100th post about something as futile as this. Ha!

Since I'm rejecting the requests... I'll have to come up with my own topics... Eh... They might be boring to most of you... but I hope you'll like them to some extent nonetheless.

Birthday at Penn
My first birthday overseas was a great one... all thanks to the friends who made it great fun. :)

Even before my birthday I was already at the receiving end of many nice gestures... I get a nice sweet BDay card all the way from Copenhagen... I get a package from my parents and bro... with a nice wallet and note inside (so now I've got two wallets as gifts from the whole exchange. Ha! :D ) which took me forever to retrieve cos it came into some problem at customs... Fedex had to call me asking what material the wallet was...

"Excuse me Mr Lim? You're receiving a wallet from Singapore? What material is this wallet?"
"I am? Oh... oh... Erm... Yah. I mean I am. Yeah I am."

That kinda spoilt the surprise for my parents. Ha!

Received nice ecards too from the likes of a certain J Luo and the person who gave me a headbutt and many msgs from friends. Thanks guys. :)

There was also a fun bday dinner 2 Saturdays ago with the Singaporeans. Concert, followed by dinner, then drinks at QW's place. Thank god i didn't have to do the forecasted 24 shots. I survived the night with 9 shots and 2 bottles. Had lots of fun playing silly games like Truth, Dare, or Drink. Ha! It was a good night with good company.

QW was really really kind and baked me a chocolate cake too. KX helped by stirring the chocolate for like 10 minutes I think.

Yet again, another surprise was foiled with Fabian (the Singaporean one) asking KX during the concert, "Eh, QW baking a cake today, is it?"

Poor KX had to try to salvage the situation, "Err... yah. She's practising baking cos her mum's a baker you see..."

Nice try dude. Nice try. :p

But the cake was a good one. :) Thanks QW!

Renhua and KX also bought one of those Tshirt being sold by MGMT 100 groups for charity... from Peony... for me. All of them wrote nice notes on the back of the shirt before "surprising" me with it. And of course... it wasn't much of a surprise again since everyone who signed the shirt went into QW's room to sign it. And they all took turns. And once someone came out of the room another person would go in immediately saying "Oh my turn ah? Ok!" Sorry ah, but unlikely that everyone all needs to go toilet at the same time. :p

But it was a very sweet gesture nonetheless. Thanks for everything guys!

But of course, I can't let the Singaporeans take all the credit ya? Thanks to fellow Bday boy Chris Wilcox, I had a total of three additional birthday celebrations. :) Thai Singha dinner where Fabian (the German one) gave Chris and I german chocolates and Andy gave us each a Far Side card. Thanks guys. :) Then a Friday night at NY visiting the Museum of Modern Art, dinner at a small coffee place, and drinks at the Brooklyn Brewery. Smashing night. :) It was good beer, good place, good company. And lastly was a Family Guy Drinking game at Chris' place on Saturday night... where I ashamedly dozed off on his sofa during the last screening of family guy... sorry dude. Beer makes Darren sleepy!

Thanks again to all you guys for making my birthday this year such an enjoyable one. Probably more so than many many others. :)

Speaking of fellow birthday boys... come to think of it... I've come to realise that many people share the same birthday as I do... queer huh? These are the following people that I can recall right now:

Chris Wilcox
Shaunya
Tan Wee How
Pathmanaban
Buddy Goh
Jason Lim
Twin Yee
Me
Definitely a few more whom I can't recall this

That's at LEAST 7 people I know who share my birthday. Now, assuming that amongst the people I know... their birthdays are spread out evenly throughout the year... for me to know 7 people born on the same birthday, I'll need to know the birthdays of at least 7 x 365.25 (for leap years) = 2,556.75 people... which I don't I think. My Friendster (which I very seldom use now) has about 300+ people on it... assuming that this number is say.... 25% (arbitrary number) of the people I know well enough to know their birthdays... that would be a total of 1,200 people... which is less than half of 2,556.75. This indicates that there isn't an even distribution of birth dates amongst people I know and that there is a slightly higher tendency for someone I currently know to be born on the same birthday as I am compared to other individual dates.

Wonder why... :S

Ok enough about the birthday... now time for the REAL topic. Since my last post was about SMU... I guessed that it would be appropriate that my next post should be about the most important people in my life.

My Family
Like most other people... the most important people in my life would be my family. My parents, my brother, and my grandma. Without them, I wouldn't be who I am and where I am today. Dad, Mum, and Sam, I know you'll be reading this. This post is for you.

Dad
Lim Ee Seng. The man I hope to emulate in many ways one day. Sure, he has his flaws and quirks like everyone of us... but in him I see someone with a generous heart of gold. A person who has lots of love for his wife, his kids, his mother, and his siblings. He got from running around naked in a kampung having barely enough to eat to where he is today with sheer hard work (and support from his two elder sisters during his studies). His humility, always crediting his success to "a lot of luck", is something I wish to emulate as well. Yeah he does "brag" about his accomplishments to mum and Sam and I... but hey, if you don't share your accomplishments with the ones closest to you, than they aren't all that close to you are they? :) My dad also tends to give generously... sometimes even without thinking some might say. But haha! I think it's just cos he has so much love for those closest to him that it doesn't bother him the least bit that he's giving so much. :)

Dad, you know this but what the heck, I love you. :)
Mum
No other person has made as big a sacrifice for me as my mum. She was doing very well at Hewlett Packard as an engineer before I came along. Was even posted to the USA to work. Then one day I popped out of you-know-where and she gave up her nascent career to take care of me. Since then she has done part-time lecturing which allowed her time to take care of us while earning some income too. She was also a disciplinarian in many ways. "Eat your food! Cannot play cards! Cannot play computer games! Study! Must study! Go for tuition! GO!" Dad was always the more fun one. "Come Darren! Open your mouth airport! The food aeroplane is coming! EEEeuuuuuu.... aeroplane flying into airport! Ah! Good boy!" Haha! Ok, so I didn't like the disciplining and nagging back then... (and now still :p ) but hey... if it weren't for that, who knows how I might have turned out? :) One thing I hope to emulate from my mum is her never-ending desire to learn. Till today she's always looking for ways to improve herself... learning english, activities, current affairs, everything. It is something that I need to inculcate in myself.

Mum, I love you too. Yeah yeah. I said it. Quick go buy 4D lah. Buy 4D. :p

And oh, my parents are rather different from each other in many ways... yet they love each other so... they've taught me that with hard work and commitment... you can make any relationship work. :)

Sam

Then

Now. Kinda.

My evil younger brother. The one who terrorised me when I was young. Bite me lah. Bite my pillow lah. Yet I'm always the one getting punished. Ha! But it was fun back then ya? All the fights in Yi Mei Garden. The wrestling on mum and dad's bed. The battles with Uncle Wai Meng whenever we're at any uncle's place. Ok, I don't know why it all had something to do with violence... but it always did. Heh. Ok ok, the non-violent bit would be the bubble baths together. Also always someone to go through the sometimes-torturous chinese wedding dinners of people we don't know or the annual CNY dinners where we hardly know anyone. He has since grown into this young handsome men with girls going after him like bees to honey. Dude, do you know you've even got secret admirers in SMU? It's scary man. Scary. Ha! And they didn't even catch you doing your professional magic tricks at the first Asoc Day.

This is gonna be damn tough for me to say man... aiyah. Yah lah. I love you lah. Geez. :p

Ah Ma
Ok, I know my grandma will most likely not be reading this... but what the hey... She's also an important person in my life. She brought me up personally since young. Taught me how to use the utensils in fact. Heh. She loves me lots... I know that's for sure. Well, a piece of information that she's rather proud of... she's my zha boh peng you (girlfriend). Haha!

Ah ma zha boh peng you, I love you too. :)

Jon Ban

SM Jon: Smart and Manly lah!

Jon and his short... erm... stick.

Ok, this dude is more of an honorable mention. Grew up alongside this same age cousin. Staying over almost every weekend. :) Was in the same kindergarten but couldn't get into the same P / Sec / JC despite many attempts... finally ended up in the same school again in SMU. :)

And no Mr Ban. I'm not gonna proclaim any love for you at all. We've got enough people out there thinking we're a gay couple. :S

1 more to the Centennial, I Love SMU (warning: photo heavy post)

2005-11-08T01:50:00.000+08:00

This is post 99... one more to the hundred. any ideas of how i should mark my centennial post? any topic that you would like to hear me blabber about? Like if u want to hear me talk about myself... or... the pple in my life... or... give my views on any specific event (riots in france? cheney and the cia leak? SMU BOSS? Bush's claim that the US doesn't torture? )... or even post up porn... (ok, maybe not that) just leave a comment and i'll CONSIDER it ok? :)

I Love SMU
I've been meaning to do an entry on this for the longest time... but never really had the chance to do it... nor was I able to think of enough content to do this topic justice. But ah well, I shall attempt to give it a shot nonetheless... a rather appropriate issue for my 99th topic don't you think? :)

Yup, I seriously sincerely do love SMU. Now, I know this topic would probably be boring to my Penn friends and the other non-SMU people... and many of the SMU pple might not agree with what I have to say here... but please do bear with me. :)

I love SMU because the entire university experience has given me so many opportunities. It has given me the opportunity to learn in the classroom both information from textbooks, as well as skills that I will need in the future such as presentation and communication skills. It has given me the oppotunity to interact with so many great people... faculty, peers, and industry people... to learn from them through interactions. It has given me the opportunity to have a whoooooooole lot of fun as I go through all the abovementioned learning. Well, to make things easier for you, I'll break up my tribute to my beloved institution into the 3 main areas that I love about SMU:
1. SoA 2. CCA 3. Friends

1. School of Accountancy
Now, I know that SMU has its faults and its flaws... it has its mission which I think is a good one... and many offices which I believe are not meeting this vision as well as one might have hoped (which could be due to many obstacles in the way or whatever, it's not in my position to comment)... and there are many students who do not embody the school's values (which I, admittedly, have been guilty of from time to time.). Despite all that, I still love SMU. Whilst I might have given up hope on the university's mission... one office, to me, really does represent in many ways what attracted me to the university to begin with. That is the School of Accountancy, a school that I'm proud to belong to.

Well, some of you might say my account is biased because I was formerly the Accounting Society (Asoc) President... well, I believe it is exactly because I was in that position that my view is as objective as it can be... I've had a lot of interactions with the school because of my position and have always left each interaction feeling sincerely glad to be in the school.

Through my many interactions with the school of accountancy, I have found the faculty AND the administrators to BOTH be concerned about their students' well-being, which I think is a very rare thing indeed. Not only are they concerned that we learn what is required for the syllabus, they are concerned that we learn beyond what we see in our books and in so doing, be better people. They are concerned that we lead a balanced lifestyle, that we see things from another point of view, that we succeed in whichever path we choose.

Not only that, they have shown me that they are sincere in wanting students to be participative in the moulding of the school. Through chats with Dean Pang and the other faculty, I have come to understand that they constantly seek student views on how the school can be improved further... and the big kick is that they actually implement suitable suggestions. Having voiced many student concerns as part of Asoc previously, I have found that the School of Accountancy has been the office that is most receptive to differing views and has been the most open to two-way communications. Things that have been done which demonstrate SoA's commitment to students include things like having current students be part of the interview panel which admits future students. I do not know of any other school that does anything as close to this. I am most impressed.

Yes, curriculum and education is important. Yes, student well-being is important. It is this sense of involvement that I have with the school and the sense of respect that the school has for its students and their views that makes me love it so.

2. CCA
The CCAs that I've been in SMU have really contributed to the entire SMU experience for me. Asoc / SAC / Toastmasters / Aikido / YEP AEIOU / YEP Pyin Nyar Tagun / SIFE / Cognitare (only for a short stint in organising a case competition)... each has given me a real cool bunch of friends... lots of fun times... and tonnes of learning.

First and foremost... of course, there's Asoc. My baby (Rigan's the other parent) and something I very much have enjoyed being a part of. The setting it up... the recruitment of capable members... the conducting of events... the fighting for causes... and the knowing of all the accountancy people. Asoc has been really something extremely satisfying. :)

SAC was an interesting result of being in Asoc. Despite having been "forced" into it... it was a very interesting experience nonetheless. "Polar bear" was definitely the most fun part of any SAC meeting... but the whole experience of having to listen in on the meetings and be involved with finances and policies and politics... good learning experience indeed.

Toastmasters... what can I say? I love Toastmasters! Well, I like it that it has honed my public speaking skills lots... and that the meetings that I've attended were always tonnes of fun with lots of jokes with the old gang. :) I hear that the new group has been doing a pretty good job with the club now. Good job guys! :D

Aikido. Jabronee-central. The birth of the toe-breaker. I believe that in the whole of the SMU Bukit Timah Campus... the dojo is the place where I've smiled the most, laughed the hardest, and hurt the worst (physically). I love the Aikido club even more than I do Toastmasters... I do like the throwing, the rolling, the slamming, and even the being slammed... but I think what made Aikido special for me... was the presence of people like Denny, Mana, and the whole Jabronee crew. Who else could make Thursday nights (as they were back then) so enjoyable?

Samurai Wannabes

The 2 YEPs were both interesting experiences for me... working with the first group... taking on a leadership role as a freshman was fun in itself... a pity we couldn't go to Thailand cos of SARS! The 2nd one did get off the ground... and interacting with the Myanmar people was yet another good learning experience for me.

I wasn't in Cognitare as a case member... (I was given a choice between trying for that club or to run Asoc... I chose Asoc) but I was sort of in it for a while to help organise an International Case Competition. I left before anything REALLY concrete was done... but the tonnes and tonnes of planning that we placed into it... with such a great group of chaps to be working with. Priceless. :)

SIFE! I REALLY ENJOYED SIFE! :D Alright, I wasn't a member of the club per se. I was part of the first SIFE team... of which only one member stayed on to help with the formation of the club. I was in SIFE for a grand total of 1 week. Wee Swan had asked me to help loan a cable wire so that they could load their SIFE videos onto the laptop... then she asked if I could help with the video editing... then the team asked if I could go help them click powerpoint... then they asked if I could help them with the introduction... and thought heck, why don't you do the conclusion too? Hahaha... it was only by good fortune that I got to be part of the team. :) This was the first time SMU was in the competition. Because of a whole lot of factors (such as us not knowing about the competition until 1 week before it happened) our first meeting was two days before the competition and our first rehearsal was on the day of the competition itself. Haha! We were a rag tag crew of goondus and yet we left the thing feeling that we had done our school proud. We didn't win the competition that year, but given the resources and time that we had... we felt we gave it our best shot and really showed everyone we were serious contenders. And true enough, we've been winning annually ever since. :)

So yup, that's it for CCAs. Good stuff. Loved them all. :)

3. Friends
You guys know who you are. You made SMU life the way it should be. :) Thanks for everything ya'll. You're the best! :D

Ok I tried as much as possible to include as many people as possible, but I'm very sure I would have missed on some of you guys... sorry ya? Prob I dun have a photo of you... or in the shot with you it's only 2 of us so I can't really put ALLLL the shots up... or I jus looked plain ugly in that shot so u can forget about me publishing it. :p Cheers mates!

Men have more sex... or so they think :S

2005-11-05T00:27:00.000+08:00

BOSS Starts
Hey SMU guys... BOSS bidding is starting 7th Nov. Time for us to start fighting for courses. I'll be taking the following courses: Strategy / FIM / 1 GE(Science). If any of you are interested in joining me for any of the courses, please drop me an email or a msn msg.

Do note that I'll probably be taking Strategy with Tangoh and his short friend so you'll need to live with 3 "guai lan kias" if you choose to join me on that one. :) But this is assuming his short friend still wants us lah... want to reject us for another group liao. Chey! And FIM I should be taking it with the handsomest Charles Li Yourui. No, my nose is not getting any longer. Really lah. But yah, do join us. :)

What I Learn in Population & Society
So this is one of the courses I'm taking. An introduction of sorts into demography. Quite interesting in some aspects... boring in others... well this week's class was on marraige and its impact on lives. For example, married people tend to live longer than widowed, who in turn live longer than divorcees, and the singles are the first to die.

The Survival Curve for Males. Further out it is, the higher your probability of survival is

The Survival Curve for Females

So anyway, as interesting as the above graphs are... the following chart had me intrigued somewhat.
The chart above is quite self explanatory. It states that the average frequency of sex for males is higher than females in all categories. Single males have more sex than single females. Married men have more sex than married women. Cohabiting men have more sex than cohabiting women. This difference is greatest in the "married" category.

Whilst it sounds normal to say that the average XXX person has more sex than the average YYY person... do note that we're talking about gender here! Using the rather simple assumption of number of men approx = number of women... (i believe worldwide the difference between the 2 genders is around 5%... lesser than the difference in sex frequency tt we see here) but yeah anyway, we have that simple assumption... AND we know that ave freq of sex = total number of intercourse / total number in that gender.... since the total number for both genders are the same... the ONLY way for the average sex frequency can be different is if the total population of guys has more sex than the total population of females.

Then that leads us to the all-important question: If the total number of females have less sex in total than the males.... just who are these males having sex with then??? Surely the additional number of times that the average male has sex over the average female must be with another party ya? And this other party cannot be female since that would also increase the number of times that the total number times that females have sex.

There can only be two possible answers:

1. The men are having sex amongst themselves. So, are there that many more male gays than female lesbians? Perhaps. Perhaps not. I'm not an expert on this area but my guess is that the numbers should be about equal between gays and lesbians.

Problem is, we see that the greatest difference in sex frequency is in the married category. Married men (since gay marraiges are banned in most places) are less likely to be gay since they have made the choice to spend the rest of their lives with a lady. Of course, one could point out that the married men are screwing single women thus leading to a higher sex frequency... but the survey only asks them to list their sex frequency with their primary partners... which would exclude infidelity.

So this survey leaves us with only one real possiblity.

2. Men simply think they have much more sex than they really do, or women simply think they get much less sex than they really do.

Something tells me it's more the former. :S

Today
This is the first weekend that I'm actually spending in Philly. The weekly travels record has finally been broken... mainly because no one wanted to go to Baltimore with me... AND i wanted to catch the homecoming game.

Well, I went to UVA and caught a historic win by UVA. They won a team they hadn't beaten in 10 yrs. Now, in UPenn, I've caught yet another historic win........ by Princeton. Penn's archrivals. Whom Penn hasn't lost to in 10 years. Until today. :S I bring fortune now don't I?

The toast tossing ritual was damn interesting. Haha! Will post up shots if I ever get the chance.

Tonight
I'm scared. I'm afraid. Something tells me that Renhua, Gabriel, and just about whoever I'll be meeting tonight will ensure that I down 24 shots of liquor before going home tonight.

Dudes, I've never done anything above 6 before. Have mercy k? Can die one leh this kind of thing. Really! -pitiful look-

Lightning will strike me

2005-11-04T08:36:00.000+08:00

Source Site

Damn. I'm a one-kind lousy Christian. :S I claim that I love God. I think that I love God. Yet, I find the humour in the above strip most witty indeed. Guess I'll be seeing you in hell, mr tangoh.

Singlish and Non-Singaporeans
It has come to my attention recently that my blog has a couple of non-Singaporean readers who, I assume, don't really understand Singlish . Though I haven't used Singlish in its full "lah" and "lor" glory, I am aware that I've used Singlish grammatical shortcuts rather liberally in some of my posts. Well, my non-Singaporean friends, if you ever encounter any word in this blog that you're not familiar with (such as kena, hantam, etc) or grammatical constructs that make no sense... Wikipedia offers a really detailed explanation of the Singlish language. You can check it out here.

On my part, I'll refrain from using Singlish unnecessarily... Darn, it's so much easier to type in the really "shortcut" language of Singlish.

Joanne (Luo), this is for you
The Limonata Lover has requested that I fill in the below... I thought I've already posted most of my weird quirks amongst other stuff in a previous post? Ah well, here's a repeat.

Rules: Post 5 Weird and Random Facts about yourself, then at the end list the names of 5 people who are next in line to do this.

1. I enjoyed eating ants when I was a young kid. Red was spicy, black was standard, white was sweet.

2. I pooped in my pants a lot when I was in kindergarten because I was afraid of being alone in a toilet. You never know when the poop monster might attack ya? :S

3. The first time I was ever rejected by a girl was in kindergarten 2. I passed her a Post-It with the words "I Love You. I Love Charmaine." on it. She told me she "tore up the paper into a million pieces". Plus, I spelt her name wrong. Cos dad told me it was spelt that way.

4. Was told that he looked like the following people / animals / things before: Gay, Hamburger, Cricket, Beaver, Hamster, Wombat, Rabbit, Sponge, Shi Tou from Wu Yue Tian, Jay Zhou, David Tao, Andy Lau, Samo Hung, Shawn Heng. Don't ask me why. I don't know. I don't want to know. Scary.

5. I broke a friend's pinky toe while executing an aikido move before. Been labelled "Toe-Breaker" in Aikido ever since.

Tagged:
No one. If you'd like to do it, go ahead.

Being Blunt

2005-11-03T13:56:00.000+08:00

James Blunt
James Blunt was performing last night... I tried to get tickets but couldn't... until a hr before the show... MAx called me up and said that Debbie had pulled out and asked if I could go. I seized it... and it was GREAT! He sings well live... not like Hoobastank who can't do The Reason live for nuts. lol. The starting act Sarah Blasko was pretty good too. :)

I think i enjoyed it more than Jason Mraz actually... he was funny too. :) That was his very first performance in US actually. Cool huh?
Well, the performance was quite similar to his CD... really melancholic... all abt heartbreaks and such :S But i like the way he sings. :)

Blunt about Penn SG Girls
I'm guessing this particular entry might ruffle a couple of feathers here in Penn... but well... I'm only being honest and open with my opinions ya? Hiding stuff ain't good. :)

Alright before i go onto ruffling feathers... allow me to state for the fact that I do believe in chivalry. My friends would know that I open doors for ladies and stuff like that and I do it willingly and cos I think it's only right. So yeah, I don't think of myself as a brute or what not.

Yet since coming here... I feel that UPenn Singaporean guys are almost being bullied by the Singaporean girls here. It's weird to me I think. Maybe it's kinda expected over here... but I don't think it's something I've seen in Singapore. Seriously, I think the guys here are really being taken advantage of by SOME OF the girls here... simply cos it's hard for guys to say no to a girl without looking like an asshole.

e.g.: at a house party... if a girl wants a drink... she'd pass her empty cup to the nearest guy and say "I want a XXX" and sound as if it was expected for the guy to get it for her even though the guy might not be drinking at all. :S Or if she's carrying a particular item... she'd pass the item to the guy and say "Carry this for me". And the guy carrys it cos he's a nice guy.

Now, I'm perfectly fine getting drinks for friends and carrying stuff for friends (regardless of gender)... but 1. they sound like the guy must listen to them and 2. the thing is usually something that they can easily do themselves but they just ask the guy cos it's so much easier for them. Is it so hard to mix a drink urself without troubling someone else?

Now if the guy offers and u accept... that's a-ok... but if u just command the guy to do it (which seems to me to be the case ard here) then... i dunno. i feel like there's some sort of a disrespect involved? maybe i'm just being prissy but yeah it does feel that way.

So to distill the above into simple english... my main gripes are...

1. if u can EASILY do it urself... why do u want to trouble others just cos it's convenient for u?
2. if the guy did not offer... shld u still expect him to do what u ask?
3. even if u really needed the help... shld u sound like it's a command?

of course, allow me to reiterate... i'm a-ok with the singaporean females here. i enjoy their company cos they're nice people. just that i see the above 3 points being done by SOME of the girls here SOME of the time... and it just puts me on edge... whilst i believe it's expected for the guy to be chivalrous and open doors for ladies... it's a different story if a lady tells a guy "open the door for me". that's quite disrespectful isn't it? funny thing is... i've never ever had this feeling before until coming here and meeting club singapore.

i don't know. am i being sensitive here? Penn Singaporean guys... any comments? is this commonplace? rare? far too widespread? or am i just sounding like an asshole?

My 10K
Yup! I've received ONE email with a print screen of the 10k... it comes from a "Junior Aurelie"... but had no indication of who that person is apart from the name. Hey Junior! Why don't u tell me more about who you are? I'm interested to know! :D

Wily Willy Wonka

2005-11-02T06:26:00.000+08:00

More Halloween stuff that you might be interested in.

The President of Penn, Amy Gutmann, organised a UPenn Halloween party and invited all students to join her in the celebrations. Stupid me thought it would be some boring affair and skipped it in exchange for a quiet evening to myself last night.

Boy, was I wrong.

That's the President dressed up as Willy Wonka with one of the exchange students, Dickson, at the party.

It was a HUUUUGE affair... everything was Wonka themed. EVERYTHING. And that means... CHOOOCOLATE! The place was just surrounded with free chocolate everywhere. And where was I? In my dorm, reading a "Can Asians Think?". Ha! But at least I got to cook myself a pretty decent steak. And I got a chance to chat with my dorm mates, something I haven't had much of an opportunity to do.

But I sacrificed a trip to chocolate paradise for that. Dammit.

Many thanks to Dutchman Ryan for telling me about what I missed. For those who are vaguely interested in how it was like, you can see more pictures at Dickson's Blog.

10,000!
This is my 95th post.... 5 more posts to the centennial. And... it would seem that my big 10k should arrive within the next 24hours. WOO HOO!

Accentuate. Finally.

2005-11-01T09:03:00.000+08:00

Yay! A kind soul has FINALLLLY sent me a soft copy of Accentuate. Woo hoo! And guess who sent it?

Could it be...

a. Wanrong, the current Asoc president?

b. Chinser, VP cum layout person for Accentuate?

c. Denessa, current IC for Accentuate?

d. Addie, former IC for Accentuate?

DEH!!!! WRONG ANSWER!!!

It's NONE OF THE ABOVE!

Wah... Accentuate wasn't sent to be by anyone in Asoc at all... it was sent by Adeline Heng ah! Of all people. Tsk tsk. Need office staff to send me ah you all. You all good. :P Haha! Thanks Adeline! It looks great! :D

I've posted it up for anyone who's interested in reading that magazine here. I resized it to make it smaller so that I can upload it onto photobucket... if you want the original size, which has much bigger font... just email / msn me and I'll send it over.

CMI Terrorist!

2005-10-31T12:07:00.000+08:00

Halloween at Upenn!
Yup, in yesterday's post I did mention that I will be attending a Halloween party. And attend one I did. Possibly the craziest party I've seen to date. Pple were PACKED like sardines in the basement. Don't believe I've seen a club that packed before... Sure the dance floors might be packed but there's always areas where u can stand and have a drink in clubs... but this one. You can forget about having a proper drink. Drunk people are BOUND to come a-crashing into you. I bet half the alcohol available there ended up on the floor cos Julia couldn't stand right. :S No place to stand still. Nope, none at all.

Well anyway, "what did you wear ah-pek-boring-lim?!" you ask? Ok ok, maybe i'll go through the entire process for you ya? So I wanted something simple... unelaborate (is there such a word)... and cheap. Lynn had cat ears and I thought, hey... if I can't find anything... that would be a good free back up plan. But since everyone seemed so damn on about getting something, I decided I would put in SOME extra effort into getting something.

So Lynn, Kaixiang, and I went to South Street to find some stuff. Jim's Philly Cheese Steak (supposedly one of the best ard) was a good tea break... but anyway, finding an outfit was a huge pain cos all the costume stores around... were all jus sex shops who placed out their kinky female costume wear for the halloween. Yup. Very very very very few stuff for guys. But tonnes of kinky costumes for ladies. Nurses, prisoners, angels, devils, 1/2 angel 1/2 devils, you name it they've got it for the ladies. All using as little cloth as possible of course.

I was thinking maybe i'd do a pirate ya? It's common but not THHHAAAAT common. And all I had to do was get an eye patch... and a red head scarf. I could get a nice brown leather jacket of sort which would be something I could reuse after halloween. But alas, none could be found. The rest weren't all too nice either... monster lah... doctor lah... grim reaper lah... all looked really plasticy... might as well stick to cat ears I thought.

Until... lo and behold.... I saw this item... and thought... HEY! I COULD USE THAT! Yah, I never thought of being this character until I saw it... Haha! It was a spur of the moment spontaenity thingy... Ha! Turned out to be a good idea me thinks... I was definitely the only person in the whole of University City being that character. The costume I got myself was that of a...

robber

terrorist

hitman

whatever you want to call it

Yup! That was what I was. The item that I saw was a normal proper actual ski mask. I thought it'd go perfectly with this toy cleaver that I saw earlier and the jacket that I had at home... Think it did fit it perfectly. Plus! It was cheap! 6 USD COSTUME! :D

Me and Kaixiang the Chinatown Chef

SoA is better, you SoB!

I swear Michelle uses EVERY SINGLE photo opp to show off that long tongue of hers. Hao Lian! Hanar hanar, my tongue not as long as yours lar. My finger longer, can?!

Rarr...

So you're wondering now... "But Darren! Like that where got robber?! It looks like you're wearing a beanie and walking around with a Tyco Toy Cleaver deh! More like little geena pretending to be robber!" But ah... you see... i bought a ski mask ya? The photos above didn't have the mask down lah... in fact... most of my photos has the mask down. Heh. This is the real thing!

A shot of me trying to do the world a favour...

The shot above was taken outside Qiuwei's place when we went to pick her up. She was dressed like a little girl (ie: herself) and we did that pose there. The moment we took the shot... a COP in a car drove right up! HAHAHA! Wah! How stress :S What if I was thrown into prison?! Hahaha! :p

He came up... rolled down his windows... and said "Hey guys... for a moment there... I thought you were really going to hack her up!"

Heh. Along the way to the party, lots of random strangers seemed to get a big kick from the robber costume as well. Looks like the planning didn't go to waste. Best part... they wouldn't know who I am... no embarassment at all! Ha!

Anyway, here are a few more shots.

Gabriel trying to turn the tables

Jon in a Wet-TShirt contest winner costume. Yeah, I was trying to carve some of it for myself.

As earlier mentioned... the party was a bit far too crowded and had far too much drunk people for my personal preference (possibly because they got drunk before I did. It's not fun getting drunk when there's no one else to do it with ya. Heh.) Didn't feel like drinking cos of it... and did only 1 shot of whiskey. Was as sober as can be. :S (Ok, I confess, I pretended to be drunk at times to avoid having to down stuff.)

Act drunk then kena taken advantage of. Haiz.

We left the party slightly earlier cos I was keen on supper... and well... seriously... some of the people shouldn't be at the party any longer. Hazard to both themselves and others. Haha! Thank god Kaixiang sobered up real quick (not that he was very drunk to begin with). So two of us had to take some of the people to their respective homes or wherever. Think Gabriel also did quite a bit of shepherding too. Ha!

And wah. The person I was valiantly trying to get back home safely (HER PLACE! Sheesh. And no I had no intentions of going into her place. Tsk. You evil people.) Of course, there was the usual puking and stumbling all over... but there were many other... erm... not-so-usual-things too. Thinking back at it... it was really quite amusing (not so at that point in time of course). She was shouting loudly "Blacks always hit on me! It's DISGUSTING!" when we were erm surrounded by them... and trying to run onto the roads with cars coming head on such that I actually had to tackle her to the ground (she's quite a strong person... :S)... etc etc etc... Best of all... for all my efforts at trying not to get us killed (be it by car or by people)... she gave me a headbutt. A HEAD BUTT! Wah lau. Eh, you... next time ah... I think you drive motorbike don't need helmet liao. Your head very hard leh. Butt me already then still walk around as if nothing happened like that. Ha!

Scars of war

Of course the other sober guys had their hands full as well... but think mine was the most amusing what with the tackling and headbutting. :S But haha.. yeah... it wasn't fun at that point in time. :p

Eh. Mum and Dad. I know you're both reading this and thinking... "Wah.. that Darren! SOOO DANGEROUS! He should stop getting into such dangerous situations!" Haha! Dad, Mum... don't worry ya? No problem one. :)

All the photos taken at the party can be found HERE.

The VJ Gang Phonecall
So I got back late last night... slept even later cos of a nice phone call... so yeah slept like 5+ knowing full well I had to be awake at 9am for a call from Singapore! :D

The usual VJ gang called... not sure if you're reading this guys but it was very very nice to hear from all of you. Thanks so much for the call ya? I know I know... I was half awake and probably wasn't making THAT much sense. I don't remember ALL of the phone conversation... haha! But I do remember most of it... like telling you about the head butt... and wishing Joel Happy Bday... and the Bday song. Thanks. Was just nice to hear your voices again. Haha! But eh, how come almost all the time I only hear Jac's and SH's voices? Occasionally Nica's acerbic jibes... a bit o Ma and Joel... was WQ there? I don't think I heard her! :-O I almost didn't want to hang up :S but yeah... the Z monster pulled me back in quickly enough. Ha!

Anyway, thanks again chaps. :)

Six Flags. Finally.

2005-10-30T08:47:00.000+08:00

Six Flags
After trying for so long to get a trip down to the Six Flags themepark... I finally finally get the chance to do so... allowing me to maintain my weekly travelling streak... which I suspect will end next week since I don't know if I want to do so or not. :( I do want to go to Baltimore... but there's homecoming here in Philly as well, which I don't want to miss. Ah well. We'll see.

Anyway, went to Six Flag in New Jersey on Friday with John, Alex, Zhengyan, and Kaixiang. It was great fun man! Fantastic! Definitely worth the wait and hassle of getting there. If you love theme parks... Six Flags is the place to go. Eh! Joyce Khoo! Were you working there last time? If I recall you were saying you wanted to man the Kingda Ka ride right?

I don't think I've ever talked about my trips in detail before... Think I will for this one. It was really that fun. :) I didn't manage to get many shots though... I'm not exactly a huge shutterbug to begin with. Plus, it was hard to get proper shots when night fall came.

So anyway, we trooped down to Six Flags (many thanks to John who drove very much like a bat out of hell... albeit a rather safe one :) ) and reached at 4.30pm (the park opens at 5pm). Because it's Halloween, the whole placed was decked out in full Halloween Regalia complete with employees dressed as scary monsters scaring people all over. Was very well done!

Ooh! Fountain of Blood!

Regardless, we were there for one reason and one reason only. That was to accomplish our mission of riding as many rides as possible! So we went STRAIGHT to the first ride... Superman!

Now this ride might look deceptively simple in the photo... but there's a reason for it being called Superman. You do the entire ride... literally as if you were Superman! Instead of being in a sitting position, the chair folds backwards such that it looks like you're flying forward!

Yup, that's how you're positioned throughout the entire thing. It's a very different kind of rollercoaster experience. For one, all the force that you receive as you're hurtling forward is no longer on your body.... but coming down from the head... and when you enter a loop, it's so much more thrilling... I'm not sure why, but it does feel that way. I know it sounds silly but I had my hands positioned to look a BIT like i was superman flying through the air... having my clenched fists in front of me... while being restrained by the seat. heh. Unfortunately the ride wasn't a very long one... and there were all that many loops and such... which was a great pity. Good stuff nonetheless.

The next one was better. The Great American Scream Machine!

It's your standard rollercoaster ride... Good stuff. Lots of spins and such. Enjoyed more than I did Superman, partially cos it lasted longer. Fun!

From this point onwards... dusk came and went and night came. ie: No proper lighting to take nice shots of the rollercoasters with. It was rather dark throughout the park... for most parts.

So we went to Nitro. Heard lots about it... But on the way... we bumped into some White Tigers.

Beh Hor! Beh Hor! Sibei Hor!

Nitro was handsdown the best ride there. It wasn't all THAT different from your normal rides... only difference is that instead of a proper body harness... all you had was a really tight lap bar. Whilst this did give you more room to move about... I didn't think it made much of a difference. Think the best part was the utter freefall they sent you through... The ride started of with a vertical descent at an extremely high speed. Very very shiok. The ride was equally fast and furious for the rest of it. Think the speed (and the fact that it was almost pitch black because of the time) really made the trip utterly exciting. Yeah, so exciting that... -cough cough- John and KX had to... -cough cough- link arms!

Next one was Batman.

That's us queueing up for Batman. It's one of those where your leg hangs freely. I'd like to see a shoe fall from it one of these days. Well, we queued 1.5 hours for a roughly 30 second ride? It wasn't bad. But it was far too short... nothing to scream about for that long a wait. Plus, with the extremely high bar that Nitro set, it would be hard for Batman to meet it.

By that time, it was already 11pm... but we managed to squeeze ONE LAST RIDE in. Batman & Robin: Chiller. Now this one was good stuff. Short wait... and short ride... But very very good. The acceleration on that thing was near instantaenous... very fast and you did all the turns and loops and everything.... then u went through the same whole thing again BACKWARDS. Woo hoo... better than the "Boomerang" in Dreamworld Aussie (I think it's Dreamworld).

Well, that's all the rides for you. Mind-numbing fun it was! Definitely worth the 50USD i spent for the whole thing. I would have preferred more time there since there were soooooo many more rides we have yet to do... especially their most famous Kingda Ka which sends you hurtling down a 45 storey track perpendicular to the ground. If pure bliss should ever be on earth... I think its name would be Kingda Ka. Ok. So. Maybe not. Screaming ladies ain't exactly blissful...

I WANT TO GO AGAIN!!! -stomps foot- heh. ah well. :)

You can get all of the photos (not many though) HERE.

Asoc Day and Accentuate
Asoc Day '05 came and went... and I wasn't involved in it in anyway. That sucks! :( Ah well... I heard it was good fun! :D After a non-asoc student saw it... she told me "and yes, i think asoc rox. heh. and tt's a huge compliment coming from judgemental me ya". So kind!

But yes, not everything can be fine cheery and dandy ya? I know the theme didn't sit well with everyone there... some of the ah peks in the audience (and I consider myself an ah pek too... and so does everyone in the current exco :S) don't really enjoy the theme-y thingy. Not sure if ahpek me would as well. Haha! But ah well. Win some, lose some. :)

One of the many Accty Ah Peks there that night. I know. I thought he was wearing a halloween mask when I first saw the photo too.

And I want my Accentuate! Asoc's first ever publication! Wanrong? Can I slap on your remote control and get you to Fedex one over?

Bah. Thank goodness Wanida was kind (I think) enough to actually take a snapshot of ONE portion of it with her handphone camera... otherwise I'd have NOTHING! NOTHING!!! That's what I get after 1 yr of slavery... NOTHING! :P

You've got a WHAT?! :S

Ok. Don't ask me why of ALLLL the shots in the accentuate magazine, she HAD to take that pic. Geez... Can someone send me the whole thing soft copy PLEASE?! :D

UVA Photos
Jem has requested that I put my Virginia photos online. Here they are. I don't have all that many.

University of Virginia Photos

Speaking of Virginia. They're famous for these T-Shirts and stuff that says "Virginia is for Lovers." I saw one in Philly today which was printed in reference to the Amish Village called "Intercourse". It says, "Virginia is for Lovers. Pennsylvania has Intercourse."

Right... I for one have yet to witness any such thing here in Pennsylvania.

Ok maybe except for the occasional female moaning sounds from next door at 4am in the morning.

But apart from that... Really lah.

Really.

Ok time to get ready for the Halloween Party. Bye!

nearing 10k / 0.1k!

2005-10-27T13:43:00.000+08:00

This would be my 91st post on this blog EVER... yah yah. i know i blog slowly. i'm not as hardcore a blogger as the pet owl can? sheesh! slave drivers :p and according to my site counter... i now have around 9,600 site views. Wah... 2 milestones coming up. 100th post! And 10k visitor!

The likelihood is that the 10k visitor will come first... considering my slow blogging rate. So as like the first k, and the 5th k.... if ANY of you are the 10th k visitor... i'd be really honored if you could "Print Screen" and send it to me... just to let me know you're the 10thk ya? :) I know the site counting system's a bit iffy... several people can see 10,000 on their pages because of I.P. address issues. So....... to solve that problem.... the MOMENT u see 10k... IMMMEEEEEDIATELY print screen and send it over to my gmail account ok? my user id is darren81. so that's darren81(at)gmail.com. (I don't wanna type it all out as it bots can pick up on the email and start sending junk) And whoever sends it to me first... we'll know that you're the real slim shady k?

1k : WY and Annabelle both laid claims to it.
5k: WY and Jan both laid claims to it.
10k: I really really really really hope WY won't be in any way involved this time around.

As for my 100th post... hmmm.... maybe i'll make it a long post. -scratch head- we'll see we'll see.

At a nice restaurant...
Joined Kaixiang, Joan, and Lynn at the Marathon Grill (a nice place with good decor and steak) at 10.30 for drinks and "supper". I was late so I missed out on the 3 of them spotting a rat in the restaurant. The waiter came to us after that and said,

"Actually... the little guy you saw earlier? That's Tommy. He's an employee here. Really! He helps us keep the rest out. We pay him with breadcrumbs and all."

Erm... Ok...

All your movements are belong to us!

2005-10-26T07:36:00.000+08:00

Whoa. Check this out. They've actually developed technology that allows you to remotely control HUMANS. Yikes. And how appropriate, it was invented by the Japanese, makers of Aibo and all things electronically evil.

I need one of those contraptions man. Strap one on to Wanrong (my successor aka current Asoc President) and I can practice being our like venerable LKY. Don't play play ah. Turn right! Turn Left! Stop! About turn! Ho ho ho... the fun i'd have with something like that.

(ps: LKY is the abbreviation for Loo King Yew... duh! what were you thinking?! That ah beng always wear all black one ok. Not white!)

Snow
Somehow. Everytime I go to a cold climate. I get dandruff. It's really irritating. I shampoo daily, I switch shampoos, I wash my pillow case many times... it all doesn't work! Never does! Grrr...

And oh, tangoh posted on his blog many people read this blog cos i'm "popular in your social circle". And conveniently leaves the "write damn well" portion out of the description... eh. you're only half right lah brudder. :S Write damn well definitely doesn't apply to me... and i'm about as popular as our dearest golden monkey is... ok. maybe not THAT bad... but u get the idea :p got girl lose appetite before cos Rigan and I sat at the same table as her before ok! I'm like how detested lah! :S

How much is your blog?
With the relatively recent purchase of Weblogs by AOL... there have been people wondering how much their blogs were worth... afterall, that was in essence what AOL was purchasing (along with infrastructure and all that, but the price went mainly to the blogs). The current belief is that the monetary value of a blog is based on how many links there are to it. There's this site that calculated the value of each links based on the price AOL paid and came up with an estimate of $500USD per link. Ha! Obviously an inaccurate number... besides, site links have a much higher value per link as the number of sites linking to you increases I think. It shouldn't be a linear relationship. Regardless, that dude came up with a nifty device to tell you how much your blog is worth. This is mine. :)

My blog is worth $10,161.72.

How much is your blog worth?

Cool, huh? Haha! As if I could sell this blog for 10k. You've gotta be quite an idiot to buy this blog for $10k USD.

the weekend

2005-10-25T00:49:00.000+08:00

this is curious. i've been blogging almost everyday for the past week. considering my poor track record since coming here, this is an interesting turn of events no? well joan huang just asked me to blog more... so err... i'll blog more? It's Joan Huang the SINGAPORE YATCHING ASIAN GAMES GOLD MEDALIST LEH! WAH! Celebrity ask me to blog more leh... i can say no meh? how to? CANNOT!

haha nah... think the sudden spurt came from the midterms. i think i tend to blog more when i actually have productive things to accomplish in my to-do-list. heh. :p or maybe it's cos sunshine ain't around :S it's been getting colder these few days here in philly. 3 layers on and i still feel cold outside. dang. my room also no afternoon sun, unlike kaixiang's.

so the first half of midterms and stress are over. 2nd half starts tomorrow... should have spent the weekend preparing for it... but took a nice long break cos the previous week was rather tough. ha! ok, the key events were:

Cookout at Qiuwei's!
Gabriel called on Thursday asking if I wanted lunch on Fri... for some strange reason... I had a sudden urge to cook. Haha! So I told him I'd cook lunch and he was like "Cool!" I asked Kaixiang too. So the arrangement was lunch for 3. Somehow someway... it became a friday DINNER for Gabriel, Kaixiang, Renhua, Qiuwei, Michelle, Zhengyan, a bit for Max, and I. :S In the end had to ask QW if I could use her place since there were so many pple. (as a disclaimer for those who might say "why darren never invite me?!" I would have liked more people to be there of course... but I don't think I can cook for so many :S sorry! )

so anyway, the menu for the evening was... hmm... let's see if i can do it ristorante style and make everything sound so much cheemer and yummier and atas-er than it actually is. haha!

Simmered City Sliced Pork Ribs served in Oriental Herbal Broth with Dark Soya Bean Sauce
(aka Bak Kut Teh)
Premium Top Round Slices Sauteed in Oyster Gravy, accompanied with a Fried Onion Medley
(aka Fried Beef)
Sugar Snap Peas, Broccolli, and Carrots, tossed in Garlic and Canola
(aka Fried Vegetables)
Oriental-style Barbecued Pork Strips
(aka Bak Kwa)

Yup, so that was the menu for the evening. Qiuwei contributed white wine, gabe brought ice cream, ren hua brought chocolates and jelly, kaixiang... erm... did the dishes. ;) I cooked for 8... but Max couldn't stay for dinner, and Michelle and ZY went somewhere else for dinner too... and yet the 5 of us wiped out everything. Scary I tell you... :S maybe i didn't have enough ingredients. or maybe they were just damn greedy people. :S

The food was pretty good I guess. Considering this was only the SECOND time ever I did a chinese meal. Kudos to the other 4 for their bravery of trying my highly suspect cooking. Haha! Well, at least I enjoyed the cooking and the eating. Only problem was the Bak Kut Teh. I only had enough spices for 4 people? So I just used that amount of spice for a pot of soup meant for 8... and as expected the soup was damn diluted. But the pork ribs itself was somehow damn shiok with a dash of dark soya sauce. YUM! :D

And oh, I set off the fire alarm twice while i was cooking. Hahaha! -oops-

Here are some of the pics :)

Hmmm... It would seem that Kai and Ren are fighting to put the... erm... n'mind.

NY, again.
Six Flags was cancelled YET AGAIN cos there weren't enough keen people. Regardless, I still managed to keep up my weekly "away from Philly" track record... it was back to NY again to spend a day with Febrita. Was fun of course. :) The view from the Empire State Building at night was just fantastic!

Missing SOME Stuff
I never really drummed that much or pooled that much back home. Very seldom. Yet right now I miss the premier drums. :S (not pool though) Ah well. I'm probably rusty as shit by now.

The two things I miss: My drums. And my hair.

Bananarama

2005-10-24T05:09:00.000+08:00

I picked up a banana this afternoon. Wanted to eat it of course.

It zapped me.

Static.

Since when did bananas store electric charges?

Someone should have warned me. :S

Chicken Pee School

2005-10-22T04:30:00.000+08:00

Below, I posted an email Penn sent me. Thought their way of doing things was pretty good. At least in this sense.

Then I receive an email from SMU Office of Facilities Management... who I do not have all too good an impression of.

__________

Hi All,

After meeting up with the Office of Student Life (OSL) and the Student Association (SA) welfare secretary, it is agreed that at this point of time, students are not allowed to have barbeque (BBQ) sessions in the school campus. There is currently no provision for BBQ facilities. However the student hostel will have such facilities available. It is likely to be ready by the end of next year.

In view of the recent Avian influenza virus which may possibly cause a global outbreak, students are strongly discouraged to sleep overnight in school for activities.

Regards
Facilities Management

___________

Lol. I'm highly amused by their... precautionary measure. :S

The likelihood of Avian influenza passing from human to human is currently extremely low. The main (well, there are other ways but this is the main culprit until new mutant strains start running rampant) way in which this disease is passed from chickens to human is when infected chickens urinate and the fumes from the evaporating urine is breathed in by the unsuspecting human.

I know I haven't been back in school for a long time... But I don't believe I'll go back to a school filled with chickens peeing all over the place.

Typical.

Real student involvement

2005-10-21T13:25:00.000+08:00

I received this from the school today.
_____

The Department of XXX is considering the promotion of
Dr. YYY to the rank of Professor. An important part of this
process is a careful evaluation of Dr. YYY's teaching. We want to make a
more complete evaluation than is possible on the basis of end-of-semester
course review forms alone. Therefore, we are writing to you and other
former students to ask for a frank and thoughtful assessment of Dr. XXX's
teaching in the courses that you took with him.

When writing your evaluation, you might wish to consider aspects such as
Dr. YYY's course organization, clarity of presentation, concern that
students understand the course material, his availability and helpfulness
outside of class, and the extent to which his class enhanced your
understanding and appreciation of XXX topics and prepared you for
your subsequent courses.

You may submit your response by return email, or in writing to

XXX, Chair
Department of XXX
University of Pennsylvania
Philadelphia, PA 19104-6299

It would be most helpful if you could respond by November 1. Thank
you in advance for taking the time to assist us in this matter.
_____

Whoa. How come SMU don't have anything like this one?!

I could spend the rest of my life in this village

2005-10-20T13:25:00.000+08:00

This is the name of the village I visted in Lancaster.

Yup. The sign reads "Best Western Intercourse Village"

Who would have thought that the Amish were so... adept... at the "natural" ways of life... :S

UVA and the end of the world is coming

2005-10-19T04:19:00.000+08:00

UVA

UVA came and went. Many thanks to the superb hospitality of Jem Andrew Song and Liying. Enjoyed myself lots. You can find most of the details on Jem's and Song's blogs. What wasn't noted on those pages, however, was KX and my observation that C-Ville has TONNES of babes, mainly local blondes. Contrast this to Philly's lack of a chio bu population... it was definitely a difficult thing to ignore.

I'm curious. All those babes wear so damn low cut... in KX's own words, "They were SPILLING out of the dress I tell you!" and it gets pretty cold there... don't they catch the cold or something? :S or are they just damn healthy and strong?

Some genius told me it's because their more-than-ample-bosoms provide much needed insulation.

Right. I'm sure.

End of the world

In every period when countries have faced hardship... people have always proclaimed that the end of the world is coming.

The Europeans thought so with the black death and, later on, the Mongol invasions. ("Oh woe is us! The lord has beset us with the devils' children! Look at their evil advances! They with the slit eyes, black hair, and yellow skin... Oh God! Deliver us from this ching chong evil!")

The Chinese thought so with the shifting to Matreiyan Buddhism (Buddhism that believes the Matreiya Buddha will come "soon") and the popularity of the White Lotus Clan (yeah yeah, the same thing you see in those Wong Fei Hong movies) at the turn of each dynasty in the latter part of imperial China.

We are in pain, isn't it clear that the end of the world is coming. Come to our religion because we know the end of the world is coming and that you'll be well rewarded when that time comes. Think about it! It's like buying a short position! Stock market tumbles, everyone dies, you walk away laughing from the bank. The best deal ever man.

I choose to believe that Christ will one day come.

But do I know that he's coming "soon" (yeah, they always use soon but never put a date on it you see.)?

No. I do not know that.

I do not believe anyone knows when it will happen.

Hungry

2005-10-17T00:21:00.000+08:00

I'm in Virginia w KX visiting Song, Jem Loy, and Liying right now. Bunked in w Jem and his roommate. It's 12.30pm right now and I'm starving and I really need to get started on my China History studying. Really.

I'd start but I can't study on an empty grumbling stomach. But I can't fill my stomach till bloody Jem wakes up. Wake up u beached whale! Wake up!

-grumble-

Haha! Seriously, I'm having a whale of a time here.

And that's not just cos Jem's here.

Vaio's up!

2005-10-13T09:34:00.000+08:00

Ok the vaio is finally running well. Was a long and painful process. Emailed a friend on wat happened and since i'm too lazy to repeat everything in the email, here's a cut and paste:

"after the talk i bumped into this singaporean freshman... he decided to tag along w me cos he had nothing on too. so we went to max's place (in the rain) where i borrowed his windows CD. we borrowed it and went for dinner (in the rain). so after dinner i rushed home to install windows... but cannot! turns out the lousy cd was scratched and cldnt install so i went to the complab for a while to check email and all... then called John who had a cd and went over to his place (in the rain again) and did the windows installation there. installed then came back home to test out the computer... but cannot! cos even though there was windows, but it didn't have the drivers for my lan connection, my wireless card, my sound system, and some other stuff. wah damn pek chek! (it was then i received ur sms about u going to bed. SO LATE!) so again i took all my stuff and this time lugged everything to school comp lab (in the rain, wah so surprising). so at school i die die had to find some way to get the drivers on to my comp ya? problem is 1. i dunno wat drivers i needed. 2. i dunno where to get them from. 3. how do i bring it onto my laptop with no net connection. wah i was searching high and low for some hint until finally by a stroke of luck i found some software on the net (using school comp) that searched the comp for what hardware u have and told u waht drivers u needed. so i dled it onto school comp, used ipod to transfer to laptop. found out the drivers then searched using school comp and transferred to laptop one by one. wah seh. damn painful process... and that's excluding all the pain i went thru BEFORE going to the comp lab... hahaha! but still, me happy! me got working comp! :D"

forgive the poor broken english. Max and John, many many thanks. you guys saved me!

Was looking at the readings I've got to do for the coming week in prepartion for my midterms and other stuff.

Almost 2000 pages of reading. Excluding powerpoints. From now till Thursday. 2000. Pages. Of. Reading. Considering the fact that there's slightly more than 5000 minutes a week... something tells me that I'm screwed.

And oh, did I mention that I'll be playing poker tomorrow and will be visiting Song, Jem, and Liying in Virginia from Friday to Monday?

Bring on the pain. :S

Update

2005-10-12T05:09:00.000+08:00

Vaiochio
Got a call from the rip off computer fixer today. Collected my Vaiochio... and guess what? They didn't even install Windows XP for me! Like... WTF?! Repair computer dun need to put in OS one ah? You even called me and asked if i wanted it and I specifically said YES I WANT IT. Ah doi. Well, bright side is i wasn't charged for the XP installation. Think I'll hunt around for someone who has it... I sure as hell ain't going back to those guys!

Atlantic City
Didn't go to Six Flags on Saturday in the end because of the rain. Damn. Rain and Rollercoasters just don't mix.

On the bright side, back-up plan Atlantic City came through and my weekly travelling streak is still going strong! :) First time playing in a casino (went to some before and did some slot machines and that was about it) Played Texas Hold'em Poker... played against other normal players (not the casino). lost money. Duh. Of course. I went to the table and the players all could smell "Fresh Meat" reeking off my body. Hahaha! But it was an interesting and fun experience nonetheless. And I lost within the amount that I had set for myself so it wasn't all that much. :) Think I'll go back again. It's really interesting entertainment. Requires brain power for one.

And of course, the casino treats you pretty well (i don't have enuff cash to be treated like a king... but it was good euff) for one, as long as ur seated at a casino table they'd have people serve you free drink, beers, or mixes. Good stuff. But I still think paying that amount of money I did at the table in exchange for the Heinekens that I had isn't all that good a business proposition by itself. I paid for the gambling entertainment lah :) it really was a VERY DIFFERNT experience gambling at a casino as opposed to family stuff or playing with friends. was shaking when i played my first few games. ha!

and the servers, in true casino fashion, were dressed as scantily as possible... if the low cut went any lower it would have started to show the server's tummy. :S and they were all so "maximised" i wonder if they've got trouble breathing in their outfit. the server at our table was this chinese lady and kx and i both agree she was hot. haha!

Blogging groove might be coming back
Hmm... feel like putting up some thoughts and comments up here. Guess I probably will soon. Topics that I would like to post on:

1. SMU students and UPenn students
2. My love for SMU
3. Hang w S'poreans? Or w others?
4. How I might have grown
5. My next mp3 player will NOT be an iPod, I think

The devolving blog

2005-10-09T23:54:00.000+08:00

Yo

I think all of you who have been following this blog (for some strange reason) should have noticed this by now. My blog, despite keeping exactly the same name and author, is now vastly different. Isn't it?

The verbose entries are gone, the thoughts on issues that I try to act smart on are gone, the feeble attempts are being funny are gone, and everything is just... boring-er than it has ever been (who would have thought it possible?)

I've been quite amused at how my blog entries have gone so different. One might say it's the exchange, but those more astute would have noticed that the change actually started a few weeks before I left. Though I have changed since arriving here (it's hard to go to an exchange and not change. Rhyme not intended) but I have not changed drastically and I'm still pretty much the same boring guy. The change in blog entries is not a result of a change in my personality / behavior (see? i'm spelling like an american now! grrr... i need to add the U back into my alphabet!).

So since that can't be the reason... perhaps another reason could be that my life has been absolutely boring and there's nothing to blog about. That, too, would be wrong. My life has been very much more interesting since arriving here. Not interesting in the sense that it's better than my life in Singapore, but rather, the experiences are very much more new to me and I'm enjoying every bit of it. Plus, i've been travelling every other week and have encountered many funny situations. Yet, I don't blog about it. So this change in blogging is ALSO not a result of having a boring life.

Time constraints perhaps? Well, I'm quite busy now... juggling between play / travel / work / etc... but i was just as busy back in singapore with all the additional responsibilities that I had. So nope, time's not the problem.

Perhaps, blogging has lost its novelty and attraction to me. Or it might have lost out to other forms of entertainment now. I don't look at an event and say "hey! i must put that up on my blog!" anymore. Yeah, i guess this reason must apply to a certain extent.

Why should it have lost its attraction to me? That, I really don't know. Ting once told me her reasons for blogging in a reply to one of my comments, and I found that rather applicable to me. And I think those inherent reasons still apply very much to me. I still find those underlying reasons attractive. Yet I don't feel like blogging that much. -scratch head-

I guess I'll have to mull over it further. I would now, but the dryer needs clearing and KX is rushing me to dim sum.

Hmm... ironic that this entry talks about the "devolution" of this blog... yet the entry is reminiscent of the old entries, no? Perhaps, I just might be getting back to the old blog. Heh.

Perhaps I used the word perhaps too much. :S

The perils of having your parents read your blog

2005-10-08T02:45:00.000+08:00

Came online to see this on my tag board.

"mum: my dearest, stop using vulgarity."

Erm. Right. Of course. ( *^#$% )

Alright, so my parents didn't know about this site for the longest time (well, you don't really want your parents to know EVERYTHING about you now, would you?) but I thought it would be a good idea to have them refer to this site as an easy way to update them on how I've been doing.

You should have seen some of the other emails I've received from them since they've started reading this blog. It's really quite hilarious in a "ouch. poor you!" kinda way... But i've been told not to let others know the contents of the email, so too bad for you. heh. I guess parents just view things SLIGHTLY differently. :) Dad, Mum: Relax ya? Relax. :p

Maybe I should get a new blog address... hmm... Ha! Just kidding. :) -creates new blog address-

On a side note
Starting some time next week, I've got a total of 8 deadlines and 3 Midterms in a span of 8 days. Followed by 1 midterm, 2 assignments and 1 presentation a week after those 8 days.

Time to get down on it. Without my laptop. -cracks knuckles- This is gonna be fun.

...

Yah lah! I meant that sarcastically. I'm not Masochistic Rigan. Sheesh. :p

$$$ flies so fast!

2005-10-07T06:33:00.000+08:00

Vaio's at the repair shop now. Estimated cost break down (all in USD) as follows:

Harddrive : 165
Labour - Hardware : 100
Labour - Software : 75
"Express Service" : 50
Total: 390

Just to change one stinking hard drive.

I feel damn ripped off. Wait, make that i KNOW i've been ripped off. Bloody hell. The bugger even had the cheek to tell me "Oh, we've got many computers in the queue right now so we'll take about a week before we even LOOK at your laptop. If you want us to jump you forward in the queue so that we can look at your problem today, you'll need to pay for the express service"

And I got STUDENT price leh.

Wah lau eh. Wah lau.

I guess that's what you work with a monopoly. Pricks.

Ah well. Better 400 for a fixed laptop than 1k for a new one I suppose. Must. Save. Money!

Six Flags New Jersey (no it's not a soccer team uniform)

2005-10-06T12:36:00.000+08:00

will be trooping down to a shop to get vaio fixed tmrw. hopefully it wldnt cost too much, it's only a switch of hard drive.

Bright Side... going to New Jersey on Saturday! Woo hoo! Keeping up the track record... leaving philly 5 times (Chicago, NY twice, Washington, Lancaster, in as many weeks... and when virginia comes along next week... it'll be 6. Whoopee!

Death Becomes Her

2005-10-05T22:21:00.000+08:00

Operation Frankenstein failed. The Vaio is dead. ARGH!

Thanks anyway Qiuwei.

Will try to find a repair shop to get it fixed.

Should all acquaintance be forgot...

2005-10-05T00:24:00.000+08:00

My Vaio is dead. Gone. Kaput. Bye-Bye. Her last words to me were,

"SMART Failure Predicted on HardDisk 0: Toshiba MK3021GAS - (PM)

Warning: Immediately back-up your data and replace your hard disk drive. A failure may be imminent."

Sigh, such sweet sorrow in those parting words... even in her dying breath, my Vaiochio wanted me to back up my information. She still had my welfare in mind. Now, where can anyone else find such a loyal companion?

But alas, it is the end.

Well, tonight, Qiuwei and I shall attempt a Dr. Frankenstein. Dear dear QW has a spare hard disk! We just might be able to replace the hard disk and bring my Vaiochio back to life! We'll see we'll see. I dare not raise my hopes too high... for even if we do replace the hard disk... I've no idea where to get the proper drivers, OS, and software that I need for this coming 3 months. Sigh.

Wish me luck!

Don't die Vaiochio!

2005-10-04T09:30:00.000+08:00

My Sony Vaio (once christened "Vaiochio" by someone) that has served my so loyally, faithfully, and without any problems (hardware ones at least) for the past almost-2 years is now starting to die on me.

Shit.

This is the worst place for u to die Vaiochio! I need you! Just hang in there for another 3 months ok? After 3 months then u can die when we're both back in Singapore then I can send you to the Sony Service Centre! I received an email from the US Sony Service Centre saying they only deal with US models. WHAT THE ****?! EH! If i'm in the US with a Singapore-model Sony product, you can't expect me to fly back to Singapore to fix my laptop and fly back right?! IDIOTS!

Stay alive Vaiochio! Don't go!

My hopes aren't high though... it's showing the same symptoms my old Fujitsu demonstrated. Sudden shut down, weird scratchy noises from the inside, problems starting up, and overall slowdown in performance. Die liao lah... DIE! :S

Help lah eh... help lah...

2005-10-02T11:19:00.000+08:00

For some strange reason... my asoc successor thought the below post was about a product for use on "unmentionable" activities...

Those are bloody earphones lah friend. EARPHONES! You can't tell from the picture?! Lol! Etymotic ER6I to be exact. You can read more about it at the review here.

Aurgasm

2005-10-01T09:09:00.000+08:00

Oooh...

The aural pleasure that these babies give me...

And the best part?

I bought them at a BIG discount. Woo hoo!

Intercultural Communications

2005-09-29T22:40:00.000+08:00

No.

I have not converted to Riganism.

Numbers do not turn me on.

"How would you like you hair done?"

"Short, please."

"Alright, how about I cut of some and you let me know if it's short enough"

"Sure!"

-shaver turns on...-

-zzzzzzzzzttt-

So much for ORD eh?

Americans should go to BMT. They get the same hair for 1/10th the price.

Perfectionist

2005-09-28T21:12:00.000+08:00

I usually get wary when someone tells me he/she is a perfectionist...

it usually just means that person prefers things being done his/her way.

Shiver.

to the two of you...

2005-09-26T01:32:00.000+08:00

hurting sucks ya... :( have two friends in two different and seperate situations who feel shitty right now... i know there's nothing I can say that can make things feel any better... and in all likelihood, there's nothing i can say that you two already don't know... regardless... i'd just like to gently remind you that we're all here for you ya? You've got friends, you've got family... we're all here for you. Hang in there ya? Hanging in there always brings about a better day at the end of it all.

Take care.
Darren

Be careful with your words!

2005-09-23T10:40:00.000+08:00

Another MSN conversation.

Byron says:
u going to for the DC day trip?
!Darren : Negative Population Growth Rate means population decreases. How can my classmates not know this?! says:
this saturday? yes.
Byron says:
good~ let us have fun together!!!
Byron says:
heh heh
!Darren : Negative Population Growth Rate means population decreases. How can my classmates not know this?! says:
dude. that. sounds. wrong. man.

Yah yah, blame it on my imagination ya? But it's not everyday a guy goes up to another and says "eh... let us have fun together ya? heh. heh." Eeeww...

:S

soft porn

2005-09-21T22:05:00.000+08:00

was walking past the school's institute of contemporary art with kaixiang and peony jus the other day. then peony stopped us. told us to look at the BIG TV that the institute has facing the main road. we saw the TV showing some video of mountains and hills. Peony told us to wait.

The TV then switched scenes. It started showing a naked man and woman making out. Woo hoo. :S Peony said they show soft porn every night. We only stayed there for a few seconds, so I didn't get to see any RA scenes.

Tonight. Tonight.

i love this school. :S

mini-update

2005-09-20T03:55:00.000+08:00

got thru the first round of db phone interview. tot i screwed it up. lucky me i guess.

tmrw's the second round. hopefully they won't call in 1.5 hours late the way the first interview went. i heard none of the NUS interns got past the first round. that's shocking! but of course prof wee got the job already. a truly deserving candidate. congratulations prof wee! :D

i've got my photos from chicago and NY up already but i'm waiting for the rest of the photos to come in from everyone else before i place the link up here. It's confirmed that i'm headed to washington this week. lancaster next week to look at the amish. a 1 week break from travelling. then to virginia for jason mraz.

i bet u guys back in singapore are having lots of fun too. ;)

2 reasons to be happy

2005-09-17T12:21:00.000+08:00

1. I'm headed off for New York! Woo Hoo! Yup, you heard it right. Chicago last week. New York this week. Coming right up, Washington next week.

Study? Huh? What study? I'm exchange student leh! You do realise the term is a bloody oxymoron? Exchange student... where got study one?! (Ren, if you're reading this... my apologies eh... I know the high expectations you had of KX and I... are all down the drain. Pai seh lah... we aren't Rigan ;p )

2. Max loaned me his Altec Lansing 2.1 speakers for the whole term. They don't exactly bring about aural nirvana... but they more than suffice for my needs. :) Yeah! No more shitty quality sound coming from the puny Sony Laptop speakers. Ah... the sound of REAL music. I missed it. Dudes, treasure ur proper speakers man... you'll miss them when they're gone!

Don't Use DHL

2005-09-15T22:45:00.000+08:00

My "brother" Chua Bee Teng... she's in nice and cold Maastritch doing her exchange program and she's loving it. BUT! The whole experience was spoilt by DHL. Yes, the same people who claim they're the tiptop number one logistics solutions company around.

She asked them to ship over her laptop and ALLLLL her belongings from Singapore to Holland as she was going to travel before the exchange and had no plans on lugging everything with her during her pre-exchange travel. But after she reached Maastritch... lo and behold... her items were not there yet! In fact, it took DHL an ADDITIONAL 2 WEEKS to get everything shipped over!

That's horrible isn't it! You go to one of the most renowned companies hoping they'd do a good job because your livelihood is at stake with most of your essentials being in that box. But no, not only do they screw it up... they do it by 2 whole weeks! My poor brother had to last on nothing but the stuff she brought for her pre-travel tour for 2 whole weeks.

And to make matters worse... she called up customer service only to be yelled at and scolded by the lady on the other side! How ricidulous is that?! Your company screws up a delivery service, your customer calls to enquire, and your customer service representative says she doesn't know anything and there's nothing she can do and that she's TIRED of talking to the customer. She scolds and she yells. What sort of an attitude is this?!

I know it's probably a one-person thing and does not speak for everyone else at DHL. But if one such person is allowed to rant and rave (regardless of bad day or not, one has to at least maintain some form of professionalism) while the delivery package arrives two weeks late without nary an apology... there's got to be something wrong with DHL. DHL, it's time for you to wake up. It's time for me to switch to UPS dammit.

db

2005-09-14T09:26:00.000+08:00

telephone interview with deutsche in 5 minutes. i really appreciate it that they tracked me all the way here for the interview... but i'm still nervous about it. :S wish me luck!

Chicago

2005-09-13T01:10:00.000+08:00

Back from Chicago... safe and sound, tired as hell. unlike SOME pple who can ONLY visit other countries... I'm confined within the boundaries of the States for my term time travel. Bah. Will post some photos and comments on it soon.

And yet again, one of my posts has angered some people. This is starting to become a bad habit on my part I guess.

gosh it's been so long!

2005-09-09T12:42:00.000+08:00

indeed! gosh! it's been so long since my last post. Pai seh pai seh... i feel almost bad for not updating at all since coming here (except for tt one post where i complained about tangoh). Pai seh lah. No time at all man. It's been a rush settling down... making sure that i've purchased all the stuff for my room... getting courses... making sure the courses are alright... getting ALLLLL the admin stuff done... and most imptly, making new friends :) i'm hardly surprised tt my daily readership has fallen so much. haha!

and honestly, all of the above mentioned stuff? i still haven't completed yet! Ah doi. Ah well, hopefully i'll settle all of it soon enough. Had a couple of classes so far. Most of them were pretty good. International Corporate finance... (which i'm not transferring back to SMU... kinda like doing for fun) is good stuff. the prof is the kind tt has seen it all and knows it all kinda chap... advises tonnes of banks on wat to do... teaches all the MBA courses... knows his history and stuff... yet very nice and friendly. he seems to like singapore too. haha! negotiation's good too with this guy from princeton. gave us all nametags cos he wants to KNOOOW everyone of us, and he said he wants to know us all as frens and such. seems very sincere... and the class is all about fun exercises. shiok :) the CAT here seems to be squeezing both QM and CAT from SMU into a single course... so it's like double workload :S thank god for prof leong's QM back in SMU... population studies is by this german dude... reminds me of the kinda german who'd skip along the mountain side with his sheep yodelling in his green hat (with feather) and red suspenders. the course seems interesting enuff and also, yet again, another friendly prof :) astronomy wasn't tt fun though, possibly becos i didn't find the subject interesting... (he looked at the whole thing from a mathematical perspective) AND the exams are on dec 22nd when the nearest one is 15th. i've no plans on staying in penn for an entire WEEK jus for tt one exam. guess i'll drop astro for something else.

all the classes emphasize TONNES of assignments and homework. and the course outline looks tough... especially for Corp fin, CAT, and population. -scratch head- dilemma. to study hard or not to? exchange student leh... dun want to study... BUT intentionally doing half past six work just somehow rubs me wrongly :S

alright tt was just a quick spiel on my classes. more stuff to look forward to. Chicago this weekend, new york the week after, and washington the week after after. WOO HOO! and then take a 2 week break from holidays (heh. break from holidays.) then it's back to travelling with a tentative trip down to virginia for a jason mraz concert. life is good :)

tried to upload photos on photobucket but tt's giving me problems. bah. so here's some for now.

The International House. This is where I stay at.

These are shots of my room. Nice and Cosy. Even has its own fridge.

But is so small I can't even open my cupboard properly.

Huntsman Hall. UPenn's newest and most high tech building. (They've got TONNES of buildings)

The International House has FIVE churches around it. These are some of them.

My first cooking attempt. Was pretty good actually. :)

Some scenery shots. No I don't like to spoil scenery shots by having my face in it :p

Philadelphia Phillies vs Houston Astros
Hot dog + Coke = 12 Bucks SGD. Whoa.

Buying down IKEA

School organised Toga Party at the school museum

tangoh says he is not evil

2005-09-01T20:29:00.000+08:00

The past 3 days have gone past in a flurry... so many things to do... even more names to remember... something tells me i'm BOUND to forget to do something and i'm BOUND to forget names. Ah well, i'm excused I suppose... exchange student is supposed to = slacker! :D Despite the utter lack to time to settle stuff, I still managed to sneak in some time to check out a couple of blogs and, sad to say, was utterly utterly disappointed at weiyang aka tangoh.

That bugger... came to send me off before I left... I thought... wah seh... so kind ah. Even though he got a quintuple kill that night (I say credit goes to me cos my extremely over-sized tiny took all the hits for him!) still can come show face. I was how touched lah! Still want to hug me some more. Now I know. Now that I've read this entry, I know his true evil intention. That bugger just wanted to see if I would cry! I bet he hugged hoping that I would be touched and start crying right? Or maybe he was hoping our height difference would be made so much more apparent with u having to BEND OVER (ok that sounded wrong) and I would cry from inferiorty complex? Nice try dude! Don't think peppering your entry with compliments would help ok? Dun bruff. My eyes damn sharp one. Pple with quintuple kills are all evil arrogant dudes :p

Bet you were hoping to hear me say a hokkien vulgarity too!

Penning my first Penn entry

2005-08-31T23:31:00.000+08:00

So here I am folks, typing my very first entry of my entire exchange program. Its 9pm now over here but I'll only be able to post this tomorrow when my net connection is up and running properly (typing this on Notepad now to while the night away).

For those who are interested, this is what has happened on the first day of reaching here... today's the second, but there's too much to do now -groan- so this will do for now ya.

The farewells
The past 2 weeks were filled were packed quite to the brim with work / farewells. I didn't really get the chance to say bye to all the ppl I wanted to say bye too though :( Pple like Randy, Twinny, etc come to mind... but it was nice indeed to meet up with everyone else. The Asoc pple, Wee Swan, the Accountancy guys, Annabelle, Aikidokas, Joyce, Melvyn, Terry, Beefy, Joel, Prof Austin, Kexin, etc... it was all good. Well, long story short, here are the photos we took (for those that I did bring a camera to).

Chiu Ling! I'm still waiting for the aikido photos?! Where are they?!

To the guys whom I took photos with my HP camera... (Joel, Melvyn, Leonard, Terence, etc) My apologies... I didn't bring anything to transfer the photos from my HP to my laptop... so the shots are going to stay in my HP till I get back next year. Oops :p

Those who haven't seen me in person in a while would also notice I've lost quite a bit of hair too. Haha!

And here are the nice gifts! :D
The sendoff
Thanks all who came. :) It was a quiet one... (cos some pple sick lah... some got last minute got work lah... some even overslept and woke up the next morning lah... it's alright! it's ok! No problem one!) and again, here are the pics.

The journey
Left my house at Singapore 9.30pm. I reached the place I'm putting up at now at 5.30pm Eastern time (5.30am SG time). Nope, that doesn't mean the journey lasted 8 hours... it lasted 32 god-damn hours... since the flight officially left Singapore at midnight... so that's 29.5 hours of overseas travelling. Woo hoo. Ass-numbing I tell you, ass-numbing.

The flight from Singapore to Frankfurt for my stopover lasted 12 hours. Sat next to this brit couple... the husband (who was quite... erm... big sized) sat next to me. Tried to make conversation but I couldn't make out what he was saying half the time with his super heavy accent. Gave up and rested intermittently. Didn't want to knock out straight off cos I wanted to spend my trip from Frankfurt to NY fast asleep... to adjust myself to NY time.

Stopover at Frankfurt was damn boring. 2.5 hours. One would expect Frankfurt airport to at least sell frankfurters ya? (Ok, bad assumption, but you know what I mean) No, nothing was sold at the transit area! Geez... not even coffee!

Flight from Frankfurt to NY was not too bad! The seat next to me was empty so I could stretch my legs out from my aisle seat. The french middle-aged lady was quite glad that the seat was empty too. The 8 hours would have been much better had it not been for some crying... no... SHRIEKING baby... but ah well. Guess the girl wasn't used to the altitude and pressure changes. Poor kid. Poor me. Speaking of poor me, I spent quite a bit of time sleeping on that flight... but was woken up SEVERAL TIMES by the french middle aged lady. She needed to use the washroom. My sleeping body was blocking the way. The dude in front of me always had his seat tilted back to the maximum... so she stepped OVER me. That's right. OVER me. One leg on the empty chair on my side. The other leg on my ARM REST nearest to the aisle. Wah lau eh. Not everyday got middle aged french women step over me. Lucky for her I not pantang ah! Eh, wait a minute... how come it's always french?

So the flight landed at around 10.30. Had to wait bloody 3 hours for the van to come pick me up to Penn. Well, at least this time there was coffee and muffins available... at exorbitant prices albeit.

Passenger Rules 101 : Thou Shall Not Piss The Driver
Now this bit I'm was quite irritated by. So irritated it needs an entire section all on its own. So the van driver picks me and several others up at 1.30pm. So I'm thinking it'll be a 2 hours journey MAX and I'll be at the International House (IHouse) in time to check in and set up my net and what not... but NOOOO... cannot! Of the 10 passengers in the van (the van was obviously meant to fit 11 passengers + 1 driver) there were 3 Hong Kongers, 3 Jews, 3 Portugese, and me. So for some reason, although we were told way beforehand we could only bring 1 big luggage and 2 hand carry per person, the jews and the portugese brought a LOT... like between 2-3 luggages per person. I guess they had lots of stuff to bring. More than this 4 month staying student... anyway, so the boot was DAMN PACKED... and the boot is like those SUV kind where the bags if stacked too high will come close to the head of the pple sitting in the back row... which it did since there were so much extra luggage. And the jews (2 of them) and the portugese started telling off the driver saying how dangerous it was that he was doing that... how the luggage would slip to the front and break our necks if he braked suddenly or how if he accelerated too fast it would break the back window and send our luggages hurtling. And they also complained that the van was too squeezy. Now, those ARE legitimate concerns I suppose, but then again, what would you expect the driver to do? The van is meant to accomodate 11 passengers... he takes 10... but has to squeeze so so so many more bags into the boot all of a sudden, don't blame the poor dude lah! Not his fault you guys bring so many bags what.

So anyway, the driver's obviously damn pissed by their comments and their threats of complaining to his company about him... and I guess that's probably why he did what he did. He, apparently, was taking the long ways and driving in detours to get to his destinations (he drops us all at whichever stop we want). I wouldn't have known this but the portugese family actually stay here so they were telling me that this dude was taking all the wrong and long ways. Wah lau... if he hadn't taken all those long ways... I would have reached here in like 2 hours instead of the 4 hours that he took.

On a brighter note, 2 of the Hong Kongers are doing an exchange at Penn too! One of them is staying at the IHouse as well (had to help her carry her bag up some more cos she had DOUBLE the stuff I had... :S ) Good to know pple soon. One thing I've learnt that's bad about travelling alone, no one to look after your stuff while u go toilet :p

IHouse
So far the place seems rather nice. The necessities seem to be in walking distance so that's good. My room ain't very big as you can see from the photos below. Just enough space for a bed, a desk, a small fridge, and my wardrobe. The best part is, the room's so small... I can't even open the wardrobe fully cos the bed blocks the way. Ha! But I've no complaints. Cosy room :) Also spoke to some of the dudes staying in the same "suite" (each suite has 10 single rooms which share a toilet and a kitchen). Matthew who's Polish, studies Material Science in France and is doing an internship in Philadelphia, and Takeshi who's a Japanese doing Business at one of the colleges here. Nice chaps... and as expected, Matthew thought I was from China. Haha! I bet he still doesn't know where Singapore is yet. But ah well, show me an atlas and I probably won't be able to point out Slovakia without having to search for it either. Surprisingly, Takeshi knows that the S'pore govt worked with Penn to set up a Uni in S'pore! ie: SMU! Haha! Wah seh, I didn't know we were famous leh. :S

Dinner was from this korean / jap food truck... kinda like those hawkers from the old days which walk from place to place... but they use trucks... and they tend to stay in one spot. :) Think the "grand plan" of sleeping only during my frankfurt->NY trip is working... it's 11pm here now and I'm starting to feel sleepy. Phew :)Yay! Looks like jet lag won't be all that much of a problem. :)

Last Post from Lorong Melayu for the Year

2005-08-28T03:21:00.000+08:00

Apologies again for the lack of posts the past fortnight. And again, the usual excuse of leading too hectic a life... meeting up w friends mainly. Managed to catch a couple of shots in some of those outings... will post them up soon when I'm these in Penn and too bored in my hostel.

In less than 24 hours, I'll be on a SIA plane heading towards Frankfurt for a 1-2 hr stopover before heading to JFK airport at NY. Will be taking a "limousine" (van... but they call it a limo :S ) down to the International House at Philadelphia, Pennsylvania for my semester long exchange program at Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.

Terribly excited to go... a bit nervous because of my favorite Murphy's Law... but I'm sure everything will fall into place as they always do. Can't wait to be there... and I can't wait to be back too! Weird, huh?

You guys take care of yourselves ya? Especially you Asoc chaps! Take good care of my baby now! Ha! I'll post again when I'm over at the other end of the planet. :)

Hectic

2005-08-25T02:11:00.000+08:00

Have I mentioned how hectic life has been these 2 weeks? Oh yeah, I did. Yeah. hectic hectic hectic. But phew! Most of it is over and done with for now. So this slight reprieve is a slight relief. Now to tie up the many many many loose ends before I board that plane on Sunday.

Not much time to post, so here's the speech that I gave on Tuesday at the SMU Toastmaster Workshop. It isn't exactly what I said since I didn't really follow my speech. But the rough idea is there. Not able to put in the vocal emphasis and any possible sarcasm in here... too bad I guess. The speech ain't all THAT entertaining, but I hope you enjoy it nonetheless.

Good evening Mr Toastmaster, Mr President, invited guests, Ladies and gentlemen. I am Darren, a fellow SMU student into my fourth year and am taking an Accountancy degree with a double major in law. Having JUST heard from such experienced and illustrious speakers like Pradeep and John, I think I have a very very tough act to follow. BUT! What I can offer you in this 15 minutes, is relevance. Don't get me wrong! I'm not saying that Pradeep and John were being irrelevant, rather, because I’m currently a fellow student too... my experiences might be something all of you might have encountered, or might encounter soon.

I really have to thank Duy for inviting me here tonight to talk to all of you, because this evening, I'll be sharing with all of you something that I feel rather strongly for and is something that I'm really excited to share with all of you. This evening, I will be talking about what I personally feel makes a SMU student, a SMU student.

To start off, allow me to demonstrate the importance of knowing who we are by giving you a true-life account that I've shared with many people, and is one that I will continue sharing with many others, even after I leave SMU. This thing happened not too long ago, a few years back. My friend who's from another local university was telling me about their school's academic briefing for the incoming freshmen. Someone was introducing key faculty members to the school. He was doing so using a powerpoint slide and naming each faculty member after a picture card. For example, Dr X is the ace of spades, Dr Y is the Queen of Hearts, and so on. It sounded to me like a very interesting way of introducing faculty members. That is until my friend told me how that person finished off his presentation. He finished off by saying, "You can approach any of these people at any time. They're all very friendly. But if for any reason you do not like them, you can always go to the joker." And then he flashes SMU's logo onto the screen.

Now, the point of this story is not to get you worked up in a patriotic fervor, or for you guys to start cursing that person. What I'm trying to put across in this story is that, Singapore is watching us. Our rival universities are watching our every move, learning from us where they see best and laughing at us whenever they can. Employers are looking at us. They have not seen many SMU graduates in their company since we've only had 2 graduate batches out so far. So those guys are watching our every move too and are trying to discern if our graduates are worth employing. The public is watching us. The uncles at the mama shop, the kopitiam aunties, the taxi drivers, the people on the street... they're all watching us too, wondering who in the world we are to declare so proudly that "We are Different".

With the whole Singapore looking at us, and wondering just exactly what a SMU student is supposed to be, I believe it is paramount that we define for ourselves what it means to be a SMU student. If we do not know who we are, how can we expect the public to arrive at an accurate conclusion of what the SMU student is supposed to be like?

So, what exactly IS a SMU student about? We definitely are not jokers... I think I'm not very far from the truth if I say that we are different. I don't mean that we're better, just, different. We have our own pros and we have our own cons the same way that NUS and NTU have their own pros and have their own cons. In a perfect world, I would have loved to say that the SMU student is a person who studies only because he or she obtains joy and happiness through the process of learning. Unfortunately, we do not live in a perfect world. Our financial accounting textbook isn't a nice book to read. If I had a choice, I would never ever touch my FA textbook. In addition, Singapore is a very goal-oriented society. Vagrants are frowned upon here and everything is done with the purpose of achieving something, as opposed to doing something for the sake of doing it. Not that that's a bad thing, but that's just the way things are here.

SMU's goal has been greatly publicized by our benevolent government. It has been greatly publicized that SMU was created to produce a new batch of graduates who will become productive employees and become the business leaders of tomorrow. We all knew that before coming in, and I believe most of us are here, because we want to be the leaders of tomorrow. Very simply, that, ladies and gentlemen, is what a SMU student is: Someone who is learning to become the business leader of tomorrow.

But what does it mean to learn to be a business leader of tomorrow? Does it mean learning how to be curriculum smart and getting a 4.0 GPA? I think not. You don't hear of Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, Warren Buffet, Sim Wong Hoo, Olivia Lum, and even PM Lee Hsien Loong saying "Oh I was a straight A student during my uni days, I must be a fantastic leader."

We all have our different interpretations of what it takes to be a business leader, which is to be expected since different industries and different situations have different needs. But I personally believe that regardless of the industry you’re in, there are two main areas that we all need to concentrate on as SMU students. One, be knowledgeable. Two, communicate well.

I will first talk about the importance of being knowledgeable and how one can be knowledgeable before I elaborate on the importance of communicating well.

Now, when I say knowledgeable, I do not mean knowing what it takes to get the grades. It is a myth that only students with straight As get the best jobs. That notion, my friends, is a lie. I've seen it happen far too often. Two friends of mine would go for an interview... and many times, the one with the lower grades gets the job over the one with the higher grades because the one with the lower grades was able to exhibit during the interview that he or she was more knowledgeable. Knowledgeable in the sense that they knew how to carry themselves well, they knew how to answer the interview questions well, they knew how to sell themselves, they knew the important issues affecting the industry today, and they knew exactly what their opinions on those issues were.

Companies who are serious in their recruitment efforts will ALWAYS employ the more knowledgeable candidate regardless of their grades and will ALWAYS make the effort to find out which candidate it is that is the most knowledgeable of the lot. No one wants to employ someone just because he has the nicest grades around only to find that the only thing that employee is capable of doing is memorizing 10yrseries questions!

So to be a SMU student, to be a business leader of tomorrow, one has to strive to be knowledgeable. To me, one becomes knowledgeable through 4 main ways, read, converse, do, and think.

Read. Read newspapers, novels, business magazines, there are just so many reading materials out there for us to absorb. Converse. Talk to as many people as you can and learn from them. Talk to people of your age, people younger than you, older than you. No two people go through the exact same experiences in their lives, so there’s always something that you can learn from someone regardless of who they are. Do. There are just so many things out there for us to do, and through doing we learn. If you learn a martial art, not only do you learn to protect yourself, you learn to be disciplined as well. If you see the world alone, not only do you learn about the world, you learn to be independent too. When you do, you learn. Think. Always question what you know. Question what you've been told. Go through the thinking process to arrive at your own conclusions. Not only will you be able to sift out what you perceive to be false information, not only will you then be able to substantiate anything that you know, you now would have honed a critical and an analytical mind which is crucial for any business leader.

And that, is how one becomes knowledgeable. Much easier said than done, but if we never start my friends, we will never get there.

We need to communicate well too. These days, knowing is just not enough. We must be able to communicate what we know effectively and efficiently. If we are not effective, we will not be able to convey what it is that we want to convey. Can you imagine one of your new group mates saying during a project meeting, "I... I... haaaavee the ppeeerfect iiidea for the project." What would you do? Would you listen intently to what that person has to say? No! You would turn off your mind to whatever that person has to say. I know I probably would. How can it be a perfect idea if you're so so so afraid to put it across?

I had this JC lecturer who was teaching us physics and he was on the topic of magnetic flux density. The problem is, for some strange reason, he couldn't pronounce the word FLUX properly. He never pronounced the letter L in the word. So instead of saying FLUX, he said F__. Forgive me, I had to censor myself. But I'm sure you know what he said. He would always say magnetic F__ density. We were all laughing at him... someone at the back of the room actually shouted "I don't know what the F__ you're talking about!" Because of his poor communication skills, he was unable to gain the respect of his students.

I know it sounds superficial of me to say this, but the fact is that we do live in a superficial world today. In order to be a business leader, it is essential that we become effective communicators. In order for us to share ideas, give orders, inspire teammates, and persuade customers, we need to become effective communicators.

And just as important as it is to be an effective communicator, we need to be efficient communicators as well. We live in a shortcut world today. Everything around us is short cut. PIE, ECP, CPF, HDB, SMU, OSL, NKF... Even our language is "short cut" "Eh, what you want?" Short cuts surround us everyday because we all have very little time in our lives in this rat race that we live in. If you are going to be a long-winded person, no one's going to listen to you. For the perfect example, of such a scenario, just look at my mum! I cannot listen to her because she can never stop nagging!

To be a business leader, we must be both effective and efficient communicators. I congratulate all of you on your choice of coming to SMU as I feel that the many presentations that I've had to do and the many times in which I've participated in class have indeed made me a better communicator and I'm certain that all of you will benefit from our teaching style as well.

Another thing that has really sharpened my communicating skill is this. Toastmasters. Haha! Yes yes, I'm trying to sell the idea of toastmasters to you. I'm not doing it because Duy is giving me money. Really. He's not. Hey Duy, this doesn't mean you don't owe me that dinner anymore ya? You're still giving me a dinner! But seriously, being in Toastmasters has been extremely enjoyable for me because the meetings are always entertaining and enriching. It has allowed me to become a much better communicator in a supportive environment where no one is given a grade for their presentation... and I have fun doing it too. If any of you are really interested, I do urge you to approach any of the exco members for information on how to join this international organization that will both be beneficial and fun.

I have gone through with you tonight the importance of knowing what it is to be a SMU student. I have shared my belief that being a SMU student is about learning to be a business leader. I discussed the importance of knowledge as well as the ways to obtain it through reading, conversing, doing, and thinking. And I have demonstrated that knowledge is near useless without proper communication and joining Toastmasters is one of the many ways you can hone your communication skill set. I do hope that each of you will take something away from tonight’s series of speeches and seize this fantastic opportunity that is your SMU education to become the business leader that I hope you will be.

long time no see

2005-08-21T02:56:00.000+08:00

it's been a short while since the last post ya? 3 days? the past week has been crazy. i suspect the coming week will be even worse what with Asoc AGM, Toastmaster Workshop, blah blah blah blah blah... and of course meeting up with pple b4 i go. :)

don't think i'll be blogging much this week either. here's a quick mention abt today... Earlier on today there was convocation 2005 and a Penn dinner... Convoc was same as always... only reason to be there was to talk to frens and take lots of shots. will post them up when i get them next time. Penn dinner was nice too. Made new frens and I'm looking forward to meeting them again in Penn! Thanks Renhua!

Ok, the only reason i'm posting is cos twinny begged and pleaded and begged for me to finish the below tt she placed up on her blog. Since I can't bear to see twinny do all tt grovelling... here it is.

THREE NAMES YOU GO BY:
1. Darren
2. kor kor Darren (only by the little cousins next door)
3. Wan Bah Lim (back in army)

THREE SCREEN NAMES YOU HAVE HAD:
1. !Darren
2. ProzacAddict
3. supernoober

THREE PHYSICAL THINGS YOU LIKE ABOUT YOURSELF:
1. dimples
2. height
3. nose? (can't think of anything else)

THREE PHYSICAL THINGS YOU DON'T LIKE ABOUT YOURSELF:
1. complexion
2. hair (thin, floppy, high forehead)
3. lack of muscle mass

THREE THINGS THAT SCARE YOU:
1. Death. will learn to accept it with time. hopefully.
2. Growing old without grace
3. Spending my life alone

THREE OF YOUR EVERYDAY ESSENTIALS:
1. food
2. talk
3. drink

THREE THINGS YOU ARE WEARING RIGHT NOW:
1. glasses
2. singlet
3. boxers
(i know someone who wld have guessed it straight off the bat :S )

THREE OF YOUR FAVORITE BANDS OR MUSICAL ARTISTS:
(no specific faves, but here are the first 3 that come to mind)
1. dishwalla
2. matchbox 20
3. michael buble

THREE OF YOUR FAVORITE SONGS:
(no specific faves, but here are the first 3 that come to mind)
1. Angels or Devils (dishwalla)
2. Bright Lights (matchbox20)
3. A Wink and A Smile (harry connick jr)

THREE THINGS YOU WANT IN A RELATIONSHIP:
1. Love / Commitment
2. Communication
3. Respect
(sounds familiar?)

TRUTH OR LIE:
1. I enjoyed eating ants when i was young.
2. For the upteenth time, I'm not gay.
3. Prior to the only ex, i was single for over 22 yrs.

THREE PHYSICAL THINGS ABOUT THE PREFERRED SEX THAT APPEAL TO YOU:
1. smile
2. nose
3. carry themselves well

THREE OF YOUR FAVORITE HOBBIES:
1. chatting w frens (online or offline)
2. swimming
3. a draw between aikido and supper

THREE THINGS YOU WANT TO DO REALLY BADLY RIGHT NOW:
1. sleep
2. brush teeth
3. pee

THREE CAREERS YOU'RE CONSIDERING/YOU'VE CONSIDERED:
(3 tt i've considered in the past)
1. fireman
2. doctor (my uncles loved saying i wanted to be a gynae when i was young. they had a BIG kick out of it)
3. professor

THREE PLACES YOU WANT TO GO ON VACATION:
1. Europe (every single country)
2. Costa Rica
3. Bahamas

THREE THINGS YOU WANT TO DO BEFORE YOU DIE:
1. have kids
2. age gracefully
3. enjoy retirement with the one i love (will love)

THREE WAYS THAT YOU ARE STEREOTYPICALLY A BOY:
1. comp games
2. boh chup abt dressing
3. likes martial arts

THREE WAYS THAT YOU ARE STEREOTYPICALLY A GIRL:
1. zilch
2. zilch
3. zilch
(really lah. really.)

THREE PEOPLE THAT I WOULD LIKE TO SEE TAKE THIS QUIZ NOW:
1. no one in particular. unlike my twin.
2.
3.

2 offers down the drain

2005-08-17T23:40:00.000+08:00

As previously mentioned, I've been extremely fortunate to have had 3 job offers to far. I didn't add that two of the job offers were for two seperate posts in the same firm. The HR dept of that firm called me up on those offers and this is how the conversation more or less went.

HR: Hi Darren, I'm calling regarding the interview you came down for last week. I'm very pleased to inform you that we would be glad to have you in our company in that department. Also, if you would rather try out the other department that was previously offered to you, that option is open for you too.
Darren: Thank you! Could I check, how long can I hold this offer for?
HR: You'll need to get back to us by the 24th.
D: Will it be possible for me to get back to you on a later date? I still have another year of studies left to go and I think I would like to take this time to consider which job I would be most interested in. The manager who was interviewing me last week also suggested that I took this coming year to carefully make my decision as well.
HR: Oh, I perfectly understand where you're coming from Darren. What you can do is to sign with us now, and we'll leave both places open for you so that during the coming year you can decide if you would like to go to the xxx department or the yyy department. It's not a problem at all.
D: But that would still mean I'll have to commit myself to your firm by next week, which is a whole academic year before I graduate, right?
HR: That's right, but you'll still get the time to choose which department you want. I'm afraid I cannot extend the 24th deadline as we'll need to inform your school's career office by then on how many students who did internships with us have accepted job offers.
D: Alright then, thanks. I'll give you my reply by then.

I was really considering whether I should join the firm. I felt that my interviewers were both rather interesting and dynamic people whom I would like to work with/for despite the wages they were giving compared to some external companies.

But because the HR dept is insisting that I make my decision one entire year before my graduation, I have decided to turn them down. It is quite unreasonable for HR dept to expect any candidate to accept an offer before one can properly consider all the options before them. I do not believe that their employment practices can be restricted by my school's career's office. It sounds like a convenient excuse to me.

So there you have it, I'm left with one offer yet again!

Let me go already!
Eh, I'm leaving next week Sunday night 2350hours at terminal 2. All those evil pple who still insist on shooting arrows over... pls leh... be merciful. I'm already very busy trying to pluck the current ones out. A bit hard to board planes when my back's full of arrows you know. I'm pretty sure they wldnt let me in what with the sharp pointed metal edges embedded in my back and all. Heh.

LOOONG time ago, I was planning to go on a trip to the US before my exchange with someone. In the end, I had to postpone that trip till after the exchange semester because I was expecting that I would have to hang ard to ensure everything was a-ok with my commitments before I left. I was given a rather hard time about the whole issue on how I'd rather work on my CCA then go travelling with that person. Wah lau... do I look like I really like working all that much? I've gotta do what I gotta do cos I made a commitment to the CCA and to the students of Accountancy to see this thing through for as long as I can. It is my responsibility, one which I do not take lightly. In addition, Asoc is my baby (well, the interim committee's baby) and it should only be natural that I do not forsake it for personal enjoyment. And then after the whole brouhaha, that person tells me to postpone the travelling after exchange cos that person "wanted to travel further north alone cos a friend suggested that it would be a good idea". Ho ho ho...

Sorry, I've no idea where that came from. Hahahaha! But at least it's a story told ya?

But yeah, thank god I didn't go travelling as planned. Wah if I did... :S :S :S :S :S

Farewells
Past week I've been busy catching up with quite a number of people. Saying bye to friends whom I haven't seen in very long and saying thanks to people who've helped out in Asoc but I never really had a chance to thank them for it. It was good to catch up with Joyce and Wee Swan as always... Thanks Wee Swan for the doggie! Yup, will bring it to Penn with me.

Eh... I'd really like to take time out to meet all of you before I go... but not enough time! Only 1.5 weeks left! And... err... I've been quite tied up with work to clear so haven't really had time to make the necessary calls. Sorry about that! Eh, help me out lah... you can call me too! Haha!

Taking Stock
I've been playing ard with stocks a bit this year. Now I've let go of almost everything I've been holding on to since it'll be relatively harder to track the markets when I'm there... here's how it went if any of you are vaguely interested.

Tat Hong
Purchase price $0.415 / Dividends $0.022 / Selling price $0.56
Profit margin : 39.2%

WBL
Purchase price $3.20 / Dividends $0.15 / Selling price $3.52
Profit margin : 13.8%

Raffles Medical
Purchase price $0.505 / Dividends $0.025 / Selling price $0.505
Profit margin : 4%

Multivision
Purchase price $0.19 / Selling price $0.21
Purchase of warrants through rights issue $0.02 / Sale of warrants $0.075
Profit margin : 25%

Overall profit margin for closed accounts : 23.56% from Jan - Aug '05

Some were very lucky buys while some could have been purchased at better times. But ah well, overall I'm very thankful for how the first foray turned out. Phew!

I am still holding on to a buy on SPH though, it's currently slightly below my purchase price ($4.60) right now... but I'm holding it long term for dividends... and hopefully that'll turn out well.

2 new songs
Btw, 2 new songs on the radio. Sway by Bic Runga and Bu Zhi De by Dreamz FM. Old songs, but good ones.

big5k!

2005-08-16T02:34:00.000+08:00

Weird. Jan has sent me evidence that she's the big5k... and guess what? So did tangoh! And when I visited my own blog, I saw 5k as well!

I guess the IPs for some of us were recognised as having visited the blog recently, hence, did not increase the visitor count. But because I do now know which of the 3 of us visited the blog first... I hereby declare ALL THREE OF US as the big5k! Woo hoo... cheap thrill. :S haha!

And I did not promise a prize if I recall, so there. Don't ask me for anything :p

We also dare to be different
My bro is running for Law Club management committee. Kinda like Asoc but for NUS Law. Running for -Plesident- leh. How stylo milo right! He did a couple of posters which I tot were rather cute! :) Check them out at his blog!

My bro, Samuel, is the left-most one. Yah yah, I know lah. Don't look like me right (he how glad man)? Taller than me, O/A Level grades better than mine, nicer car than me, pple say he's more handsome than me (not that that's all too difficult to do), I get the hint ya? ;p See? So there are so many nice things abt Sam... so if ur in NUS law... Vote him already!

Boring Calm Before the Storm, etc

2005-08-14T17:22:00.000+08:00

The past two days... I have been rather... off? listless? Not sure. Perhaps it's a combination of having absolutely NOTHING planned this weekend + the departure of a (formerly email) buddy whom I've gotten too used to disturbing + Leonard took my WC3 CDKey so that's one less avenue of entertainment + the sudden realization that saturday night TV was invented to torture poor no-lifers like myself and Chloe (kudos to Nguee and JBan for first figuring that out).

It's like you're bored as hell... you're done reading your book... you're done with your chores... so u turn on the telly for some lazy, unproductive, entertainment... and all you see is Chevy Chase being chasing after by Dan Akroyd in a fat suit. Mediacorp, I swear, is an agent of the devil. Can't they at LEAST show something like wrestling? If it's gonna be dumb and irritating, at least throw some boobs in it ya? Ok, joking. Joking. :p

Anyway, yeah. Feeling off.

Either way, I'm meeting JC pals tonight which will be nice, PLUS my coming week's gonna be jam-packed back-to-back with meetings and appointments plus I'll still need to find some way to squeeze time out to attend to exchange preparation. Busy is good! Good, got things to look forward to.

Fantastic Singapore Service
Tangoh recently received rather good service from a GOVT BODY! Surprise surprise... well, you know how we always complain about bad service from the govt... I think now tt one of us has actually had a pleasant experience... we shld kinda "reward" them too by spreading the news ya? So here you go, Tangoh's kinda pleasant experience with the govt.

I really like M1's customer service too. :)

But wah seh... the "best" customer service I received today was at a pharmacy. The auntie SOOOO makes me want to go there over and over again.

-Darren enters shop looking for Multi Vitamins-
Aunty: Excuse me, can I help you? You looking for vitamins ah?
Darren: Yup, multi-vitamins.
-A takes D to get the multi vits-
Aunty: There, here. This one very good one.
Darren: Ok thanks.
Aunty: Do you want anything else?
Darren: Erm... I think I'll continue looking around a bit first. Thanks.
Aunty: You want pimple cream not? Your forehead ah... SOOOOO many pimple. You better buy lah. If not sure no girls want one. Come, come, I show you this product very good one.

Thank ah aunty.... thanks.... :S

The Big5K!
Last time around... tangoh was my BIG1K. I very buey gam guan. Not chio bu leh. Not shiok. Well, this time around... we're hitting the big5K! Yay! So same thing... if you're the five thousandth visitor, maybe just leave a comment or tag about it? Thanks! Better still if you can "print screen" as record of your monumental five thousandth visit? :D If you aren't sure how to, there are instructions here.

Telling stories and the release of pain
I've been reading Paulo Coelho's latest book, "The Zahir". Not as gripping as some of his previous works such as "The Devil and Ms Prym" or "Veronika Decides to Die"... but as usual I enjoy his book. I'm still intrigued by the life style that he paints in his books... I don't agree with all that happens (such as sleeping around after marraige) but it remains interesting to know nonetheless. The lessons in this book, like some of his others, aren't easily grasped on the first read... and as usual goondu me is left wondering what exactly it is that he is trying to put across at certain points. Regardless, there are interesting ideas that I've come across in the book... some of which I feel rather inclined to.

One idea his put across is the following. We all carry the burdens of our personal histories. No matter how much we try to heal. No matter how much time passes. No matter how deep we try to bury it. We carry these burdens with us. The only way, according to this particular character in the book, to release ourselves from this burden... is to tell the story that is your life. By telling what it is that burdens you... (and it might require repetition depending on the story) you release the burden that it bears on you for the story is no longer yours... the story now belongs to everyone.

Having released yourself from this story, we are left with a void that once was the story within us. One will then need to fill the new void or one will be left with an empty feeling... a feeling that we no longer have a story that is our own. This void is filled in by penning a new chapter in your life, living a new story, experiencing new experiences.

And that, according to the character in Paulo Coelho's "The Zahir", is how we release ourselves from the pain that each wound brings.

As always, we should remain skeptical, or rather, analytical, about any new ideas that we come across. Whilst I wouldn't say I know EXACTLY what the Coelho is referring to with regard to voids and all and I wouldn't say I agree TOTALLY that this is the only way to heal... I have realised that my relatively recent "story-telling" about events that have hurt me (whether be it on the blog or to a friend) have really helped to be at peace with all that has happened. At least, I no longer feel angry about the particular events that I have shared. And the filling in of the "void"... well, as per the previous post, this holiday has provided me with so many happy things to fill any possible void with. :)

I think I will have to try it again... I think I will have to tell more stories... perhaps I'll place it on the blog (but if I do, I'll have to be too damn careful abt the choice of words... which irritates me to no end) or to someone whom I can tell it to (which, I think, I'll have to be careful again cos most of the pple I know wld somehow in someway know the parties involved. Bah. I hate having to be careful.)

Regardless, worry not, I don't exactly have my heart ripped out or whatever. I'm extremely fortunate compared to so many others. :)

Goodbye Initial 5

2005-08-13T00:47:00.000+08:00

These holidays were a good one for me.

Despite what happened JUST before the exams (I'm glad tt it happened, but tt doesn't means I like it tt it happened... erm... ok... tt doesn't make sense... To think I was the one who initiated it all. Ha! Never mind!), I still felt that I rather enjoyed this holiday. More so than some of my other ones.

This holiday, my fourth internship was yet another good learning experience for me. It was another look at the trading industry for me and another evaluation of my performance in a professional setting. The social events were all very nice too! :)

This holiday, I received 2 additional job offers to make it a grand total of 3 for me to fall back on in case anything happens when I graduate in a years' time. Thank God! My parents are relieved too so that's good. There might be news of one more coming in in September so hopefully that'll turn out well too.

This holiday, god blessed me with a substantial amount of money almost literally falling from the sky for me to spend during the exchange. And again, my parents are relieved. Haha!

This holiday, I met a bunch of enthusiastic 2004 and 2005 accountancy students in whom I have every confidence will ensure that the good thing we started with Asoc will continue on in good hands.

This holiday, I think I learnt quite a bit more about myself through both work (school and internship) and through recovering from the pre-exam incident. Of course, there's still much more to be learnt.

This holiday, I started this blog which I've really enjoyed updating and sharing with all of you. :)

This holiday, I had quite a bit of fun getting my ass trashed at DoTA. Haha! But of course, I don't play half as much as the rest of them do. :)

This holiday, I THINK I've further impressed upon myself the need to be humble... which is something that I've been working towards for the longest time. As always, learning more about the people and events around me have further taught me that I am but a goondu in a big and massive world. ;)

This holiday, the best part... as always... has to do with friends. At the start, the friends who really supported me through that rather tough period... thanks guys. Though I don't think I really bothered anyone with sob stories and all ya? Haha! But I really did appreciate knowing that if I ever needed a hand or a shoulder, that you would be there for me. Thanks! Catching up with the old pals was also great, whether it be through drinks, suppers, meals, or hotel stays (which I doze through like a rock)... they were all great fun! Another nice part was getting the opportunity to meet lots of new people! Whether it be through internships/interviews (Ronnie, Kim, etc) or Asoc (the 2004/2005 people) or SAC (Wanida the post-spoiler, Cool Kai, etc) or even online (the DoTA gang, Val, well I only got to know u proper thru it, but not like ur reading this. heh.), it was really great getting to know all of you!

It was also a great pleasure getting to know the Initial 5! Haha! I wouldn't have guessed from the start that we'd meet up THAT often. What, it was at least once every 2 weeks if not once every week? We even have our very own fan club! Gosh! Kudos to SkinnymanSam for forming, Linda for organising, and Leonora for naming us. Ha! It was indeed very nice getting to know all of you (and yes, that even applies to you, HotstuffSkinnymanSam ;p ). But alas, the I.5. exodus begins today with two of our very own headed off for Copen for their exchange. I guess that means the weekly meetings will be coming to an end! :'( Ah well, regardless, I'm excited for all of us (except ms-no-exchange-Tanadi) and our respective exchanges. There'll be so much to see/experience/learn/enjoy!

Oi, Cry not in the knowledge of my absence but rejoice in the understanding that I will some day return. :p

There's always January!

Photos from Commencement and Royal Plaza
I've received ALL the photos from Commencement and have uploaded them. I also uploaded the VERY few photos taken during the hotel stay at Royal Plaza. The link is on the left bar.

Bloglines
Recently found this really cool website that lets you keep track of all the blogs that you follow. So now, instead of having to go to each and every blog tt you might wanna check out, all you have to do is visit this site and they'll let u know which of the blogs that you're tracking has been updated. How cool is that right? Ok ok, I know this has been around for some time now... but I'm still rather pleased to have found this thing. :)

Darren = CMI

2005-08-09T23:31:00.000+08:00

Darren = CMI Golfer
Went to the driving range today with Dad, Sam, and Uncle Ee Ann.
The only times I hit the ball straight were when the balls rolled on the ground... which was most of the time. The only times I actually lifted the ball were when the balls skewed at least 50 degrees to the right.
I don't think I ever hit past the 50m mark either.
I swear, I've got Tiger Woods' talent in me. I just gotta... erm... get it out...

Darren = CMI Drummer
Brushed off the dust from the good ol' Premier drumset. Still play like crap. Haha! Tried playing to the second song in the radio blog on the right (the japanese one)... and couldn't follow. Haha! Any kind soul out there care to write outthe drum tabs for me? Pretty please? :p

Darren = CMI DoTA Player
Erm. I think Calvin Liew actually managed to kill my hero once. 'Nuff said.

Darren = CMI Tank Mechanic
Wah... this year's NDP mobile column... as usual they had the whole shebang of armored vehicles rolling through the parade and all and it was on TV. I used to know all these vehicles very well. Usage, how to operate / drive, difficulty of repair, type of battery, model of engine, types of oil, blah blah blah were all at my finger tips. Now? I can't even remember the names of 75% of the vehicles I saw!

Die lah... like this... Singapore fight war. If all ur tank mechanics like me... u'd better flee now while u still can.

Darren = CMI Singaporean
Watched the NDP from my grandma's place again this year. And like EVERY SINGLE TIME that i watch the NDP on TV... I dozed off. Boring lah deh! Ha!

But you notice how all the ministers were spread out all over Singapore? Wah seh... our govt damn smart right! Now even if terrorist want to bomb Padang (touch wood!)... at least still got all the rest in Yishun / Marina South / Jurong / Tampines to continue working the next day. They want to kill our govt not so easy ok!

(cmi = cannot make it = cannot make the grade = LOUSEH!)

Erm... yeah... as u can see I'm not talking all too straight today. Must be the atrocious golf. :S

50th post!

2005-08-07T17:30:00.000+08:00

Says on my blogger dashboard that this is my 50th post! Wah... monumental event! Haha... ok... ignore that. But yeah, it's my 50th post. Didn't post much the past week... Absolut U (SMU Accty Freshmen Camp) ended and it was good, of course. Caught Charlie & e Choc Fac and that was great too... it was the first book I really fell in love with as a kid. Roald Dahl trashes Potter any day, any time. 3 weeks left till the 28th... which is when I'll be flying... the coming 3 weeks should be rather hectic for me, plucking out arrows and avoiding them as well. (Like hello! Let me leave in peace will ya?!)

This post, however, will be on something that I've wanted to blog about for some time now (point 3 in this post)... it'll be my personal opinion on what makes a romantic relationship work. As usual, I'll be the same old one-kind-luo-suo self.

My Relational Requirements
Ok, I don't profess to be an expert on love. I'm hardly experienced with BGR having only had my first and only gf at the age of 22 and tt didn't work out the way I had hoped it would. (Yes, yes, all you kaypoh cousins and relatives who keep asking me abt my love life, now you know it all ya? Congratulations.) Despite my utter lack of credentials and knowledge, I remain rather convinced on the following that I have to say. It will probably make dry reading for most of you, which is like the rest of my blog anyway. Ha!

Because I do not know what love is, exactly, I will not be talking about love per se. Instead, I will be focusing on relationships (the BGR kind) which can technically exist without love (and love can technically exist without a relationship). I personally believe that ALL (and I mean ALL) relationships can work if both parties to it make 3 important decisions with the underlying assumption that both parties are reasonable people. I will share with you each of these 3 decisions and the reason behind it, I will then talk about the reason for the underlying assumption for this "formula" to work, and I will end off by elaborating on why these 3 requirements are "decisions" to be made instead of " situational conditions", and how these situational conditions only determine the ease with which the 3 decisions are made.

Decision 1: Commitment
Yeah yeah... the stereotype of guys is that of the commitment-phobe yeah? What can I say? I seriously believe that this is perhaps the most important of all 3 decisions. I'm weird eh? Sue me. Well. Commitment, to me, is the thing that makes both parties want to work on the relationship. It's the glue that keeps the couple together, no? Relationships need to be worked on by both parties. Regardless of the chemistry the couple has, I believe it is impossible for 2 people to be such perfect fits for each other that no adjustment is necessary for both sides.

I believe both sides need to adjust, and not just one side... for relatively obvious reasons. As dear Eric Chua taught me, "It takes two hands to clap, but only one hand to slap!" Because relationships require work/adjustments from both sides, both sides must choose to commit to the relationship. If both sides choose to commit to a relationship, they are choosing to do what it takes to make the relationship work. If either side doesn't make that choice, that party chooses not to commit and is unlikely to make the necessary adjustments.

Commitment is the decision made by both parties to make the relationship work.

Decision 2: Communication
Yet ANOTHER thing guys are supposedly notorious for not doing. Unlike the above decision, this is something I personally feel I can further work on and improve in my future relationships (if any). By communication, I don't necessarily mean the "Oh I must tell you everyday that I love you and spill my hearts woes to you" kind of communication... The amount of communication required varies between couples since different people have varying needs. Regardless, communication remains essential.

Communication is essential for any relationship for 2 main reasons. 1: It provides the only mean for which both parties can "connect". (not really sure how one should define this "connecting", I guess each couple has their different way of doing so... but communication is required for it) 2: It provides the only mean through which both parties can learn how they should work on the relationship / adapt as per decision 1.

I really should elaborate on those 2 points... but erm... I'm lazy. Haha! Suffice to say, I can't think of any other way for the above two to happen without communication.

Decision 3: Respect
I'm not even sure if it's possible to love someone without respecting the other person. But as earlier mentioned, I'm focusing on relationships only, not love. This decision is a rather self-explanatory one. If one side doesn't respect the other... even if both people choose to communicate and are both committed to the relationship... we end up having one party who says what he/she feels (communicates) and really wants and is trying to make the relationship work (commits) but doesn't necessarily hold the other in high regard and may not listen to what the other party has to say. That, to me, is not a recipe to a good relationship.

Decision Inter-dependence and Example
You'll notice that all three decisions are linked. It's harder to commit to someone you don't respect or doesn't respect you. It's also harder to communicate fully with someone you haven't committed to, etc etc. Yup, you'll need all three decisions to be made... and it's easier to make the three decisions together than to make only one or two of the above alone.

An idea of how the 3 decisions above make a relationship work can be seen in the following example. Bob and Lucy are a couple who are as different as night and day. Bob's a full-time nerd who loves his computer gadgets while Lucy's a party animal who likes chionging at night. Despite their differences (or because of it), both have made the three above decisions and stick to it. However, not all's rosy for the two of them. Bob doesn't like it that Lucy's always out partying with her friends while Lucy doesn't like it that Bob doesn't join her every now and then. Now, because they have chosen to communicate, they share their feelings with each other instead of bottling it up. They now both know what the other party feels. And because they have made the decision to respect each other, they respect the others' views and feelings and consider what the other party has said. Their decision to commit has them both considering how they could both work together to arrive at an arrangement that would please both sides and this leads to a stronger relationship because of the way they both worked through the entire process.

Yeah yeah, I know I make it sound easier than the process actually is. Space / time constraints lah. But yeah, it's an example of why these three decisions are essential to the relationship, for me.

Assumption: Reason
Underpinning these three decisions is the simple assumption that both parties are relatively reasonable people. It's hard to arrive at joint decisions during arguments and discussions when one side's being unreasonable ya?

Why decisions?
Some of you might be wondering why I keep referring to the above as decisions instead of conditions. Surely the formula to good relationship can't merely be a result of man-made decisions.

I strongly believe that the above 3 are decisions that have to be made, and not conditions that must arise. Simply put... People choose to commit. People choose to communicate. People choose to respect. People don't "suddenly" commit / communicate / respect out of the blue. They choose to do so.

And before you shout "Bah! Unromantic! Love ain't merely a series of decisions!", do note that I'm not talking about love here... I'm talking about relationships. And besides, I do think the undertaking of these three huge decisions by both parties is rather sweet and romantic to.

And this is why some relationships work even though no one expects it to. Both sides make the above 3 decisions despite and in spite of everything else... and as long as these decisions are not changed... the relationship, I believe, will last. This, perhaps, could explain how some arranged marraiges become so successful... because both parties make these decisions (willingly or unwillingly) even in the absence of love and knowledge of each other in the beginning.

Now, of course circumstances could affect how a relationship turns out... I believe circumstances impact the relationship by increasing / decreasing the difficulty with which each person makes the above decisions. It's much harder to choose to communicate if both parties speak different languages. It's much harder to commit to someone who completely turns you off. It's much harder to respect someone who would otherwise deserve none. These circumstances could easily lead to someone NOT wanting to choose to commit / communicate / respect... which might lead to the breakdown of the relationship (which isn't exactly undesirable, since not all relationships are worth preserving).

But the decisions can still be made. Language barriers can be crossed if both sides try. Behavioral aspects can be fixed if both sides work on it. Respect can be earned too especially if both sides are committed to the relationship and both work hard to earn each others' respect. The decisions can be made... though that doesn't necessarily mean that the decisions are easy to make nor should they always be made. You could have a good relationship with, say, a company embezzler who commits to / communicates with / respects you... but that doesn't always mean that you should commt to / communicate with / respect the embezzler.

To end this damn long post
In summary, ALL relationships can work... but only if both parties choose to commit, communicate, and respect with the assumption that both parties are reasonable people. Each relationship's unique circumstances only determine the difficulty with which those choices are made. Whilst I haven't had the pleasure of having tried this out personally (I am, afterall, still single), I am convinced that any couple that practices the above will remain together happily.

I wish all my attached friends out there the very best in their relationships.

Side note
Found one of those silly personality quizzes found off Sam Leong's blog... Looks like I'm

The Slow Dancer : Deliberate Gentle Love Dreamer (DGLDm)

Steady, reliable, and cradling her tenderly. Take a deep breath, and let it out real easy...you are The Slow Dancer. Your focus is love, not sex, and for your age, you have average experience.

But you're a great, thoughtful guy, and your love life improves every year. There's also a powerful elimination process working in your favor: most Playboy types get stuck raising unwanted kids before you even begin settling down. The women left over will be hot and yours. Your ideal woman is someone intimate, intelligent, and very supportive.

While you're not exactly the life of the party, you do thrive in small groups of smart people. Your circle of friends is extra tight and it's HIGHLY likely they're just like you. You appreciate symmetry in relationships.

How to Get Girls Talking to You at Wala's

2005-08-02T12:32:00.000+08:00

Ok, apart from the time when I was footsied by frenchies, I've never been anywhere close to being picked up/hit on by a female, for visually obvious reasons. But now, -cue sagely voice- I know the secret -cue thunder and lightning-. Using my tried and tested formula, ALL you desperate men out there will be able to get ladies trying to initiate conversations with you at LEAST several times each time you pull this off. This is a 100% sure-win, guaranteed way of getting ladies to talk to you no matter how ugly/nerdy/perverted/idiotic looking you are. You have my word.

Now, instead of giving you an instruction manual (step1, step 2, etc) on what to do, I shall merely tell you what I did, and you can go sift out the key points yourself and adapt it to your needs ok? I too lazy to do that for you lah. So, here we go!

Last Friday, I was supposed to meet Twinny at 7pm at Wala's to help get a table for everyone else on the upper floor where the bands play. 7pm's a pretty good time to go get it cos that place fills up damn fast. So anyway, Twinny was 1.5 hours late. 45 minutes late cos she cldnt get parking. 45 minutes late cos she was doing a JIGSAW PUZZLE. But I digress, the main point is that I managed to get the ONLY free table left at 7pm. I was seated at the table nursing my beer and waiting for the next person to arrive... which meant I had nothing but my Heineken for company for 1.5 hours. As expected, a crowd was starting to form in the room and groups were starting to hunt around for empty tables that never came around.

Then lo and behold, this girl in a very tight top comes up to me and asked in a rather soft spoken voice, "Excuse me... are you alone?"

"Erm... sorry, nope. I'm waiting for some friends."

"Oh... I'm sorry... I didn't mean to disturb you. Thanks anyway."

Looking disappointed... she walks away.

So I thought, maybe... maybe it's the dark lighting... or she has stamps on her eyes. Unlikely to happen again since I believe few girls have stamps on their eyes. You don't see many people walking into lamp posts along the streets now do you? Exactly.

But then, it happens again!

This time, an even hotter lady struts up to me, looks me in the eye and says, "Hi... Is anyone else joining you?" and WINKS at me!

And again, I say "Erm... sorry, nope. I'm waiting for some friends."

And she walks off without even saying anything. I guess she ain't all that used to rejection perhaps, and I then realise it must have been the lighting... and went back to savoring my Heineken.

And as if to further remind me that Wala's needed brighter lights... a THIRD girl, hottest amongst the three, sidles up ON to the seat next to me... and she's wearing a completely bare back top (doesn't she feel cold with the blaring aircon?!)... places her hand on the table very near my hands and says "Excuse me... May I... join you?" and starts stroking the table with her finger tips! :S

WAH SEH! I think I must thank SingPost for making stamps that easily available!

But of course, I cannot disappoint my twinny and frens by letting their seats be taken up right? So, for the third time, I say, "Erm... sorry, nope. I'm waiting for some friends."

She frowns... and walks away... to her group of friends who are standing not too far off... where I hear her say,

...

"Aiyah! Shit lah! Couldn't get that table for us lah!"

...

Scholars / Healing wounds

2005-07-29T13:31:00.000+08:00

Overseas Scholars
Not too long ago, I had the pleasure of attending a Wharton Club Singapore dinner. It was held at one of the Singaporean Wharton student's houses and it was a nice affair. The people were friendly and nice! :) I was the only exchange student there while Rigan and Julian were the ex-exchanges. KX cldnt make it. A pity.

Now, Wharton being Wharton, most of the students there (or was it all?) at the dinner were scholars. A*, PSA, SIA, blah blah blah scholars. Since they were all scholars, it was natural that they would converse now and then about their scholarships with each other. After all, it is a common topic for them the same way Army is a common topic for all Singapore male. Of course, an idiot like me has never even smelled a scholarship application during his JC times.

(I can just magine my teacher going:"You? Scholarship? SURE OR NOT?! Hahaha! Your prelims got COE leh. COE!" and I replying "But 'cher, I prefer to think of it as CEO. More stylo" if I had even considered it.)

So yeah, most of their conversations I wasn't too familiar with. Darren: "So, how long is your scholarship bond for?" Other person: "6 years lor. Like all other overseas exchange scholarships what." Like how'd I know all of them were 6 years? My A level 3 subjects no S paper one leh. I simi mah em zai.

Haha! Regardless, all very nice people. Just that I get lost when they start talking about that particular topic. I did, however, overhear a line that got me rather miffed.

"Eh, my scholarship is quite lousy lah! You know, when I come back to serve my bond, I actually get paid the same amount as local graduates! How unfair is that? Overseas scholars get paid the same amount as local graduates!"

Now, this was said by a genuinely nice and funny guy who didn't seem like he knew what he was implying. My gripe here is with the line and its implication, and not with the person.

Overseas scholars are chosen because of their outstanding performance in A levels and their interviews. They are given a huge chunk of money to study on the condition that they serve a bond when they return. Sometimes, they get preferential treatment when it comes to promotions, usually in government bodies. Whilst I can understand the notion of paying a lot of money to an A level student to bond him to your company hoping that he will be a model employee, I have hesitation against the preferential treatment since (as any finance student will tell you) past performance is not an accurate indicator for future performance. You could be depriving a more deserving person off a promotion just because there's a scholar in the midst. And I do not believe the notion that ALL scholars are the cream of the crop. I know far too well that grades are not very indicative of work performance, both in SMU and during A levels. An overseas education, while valuable in many many ways, is also not sufficient, in itself, to determine the value of an employee to the company.

I have since been informed by someone who once did HR for the govt that the reason for this preferential treatment is simple. In such a scenario, HR always needs a reason for promoting someone over another person. It is MUCH easier administratively for the HR exec to point at school grades as the basis of promotion over, say, "he has produced better work for his boss". I guess that's the way the industry works. Painful facts of life.

But the idea that overseas scholars should be paid MORE than local graduates and local scholars. And to expect that to be the NORM more than the exception. That drives me up the wall. The expectation straight off from such a line is that the person with the better A level grades will hands down be the better person for the company.

Regardless of job scope. Regardless of any future learning experiences between the time of A levels to time of employment. Regardless of everything else. The better A level grade student will be the better employee than the one with the lousier A level grades. (and the frayed logic used here applies too to uni grades.)

This statement is one that I have huge detest for. I do not even wish to debate it out. It deserves no debate. Only rebuke. I rebuke that statement and all that it stands for.

Note: Someone has since informed me that perhaps the higher pay is sort of compensation for being bonded. I say that's rubbish. They're serving the bond because of the overseas education they received for free. There's no need for the higher pay to further compensate for what has already been compensated for.

Wounds do heal
Had lunch with MJ yesterday. Was nice catching up with her again... since she'll be leaving for Aussie to become a fish monger possibly before I'm back from exchange! :( Well as usual we did quite a bit of talking with her interrogating me (I bet you take enjoyment from that MJ, you evil person you).

We talked about a topic that's rather sore for me... about wounds that aren't exactly old. It's something that I've never shared with anyone (partially cos I feel in a sense that I'm not "allowed" to... but in the end I talked more about the actions than the person so I didn't do anything bad, I think). But yesterday, I shared with her some of the stuff that happened (some, not all. All would take quite a long time maybe. And lots of pondering on my side.) and shared it only cos she asked.

I was expecting the words that came out to trigger thoughts that hurt, to bring back at least some form of pain or anger, like they always did when the words appeared in my head. But interestingly, yesterday, it didn't.

I felt introspective... a wee bit of disappointment... not sure on this but MAYBE a wee bit of anger. But the emotions were very very much more subdued than what would otherwise normally have been the case in the past.

I guess this is a sign that the wounds are healing? Good. It's about time.

Hopefully, the scabs will go away soon. Then I can stop picking at them.

So my friends, here we have it. Living evidence that most wounds, sooner or later, will heal. :)

It's a sunny day today!

Leaving 28th
Fyi, I'll be leaving Singapore for the USA for my exchange on the 28th of August. Sunday night. Exactly 1 month from now. Most of my exchang-ing friends would have left by then I presume? But what to do... must hang around for Convocation and Asoc AGM. No matter, more time to hang out with friends who'll still be in S'pore. :)

a couple of things

2005-07-26T12:31:00.000+08:00

2 new songs
Sunday Morning by Maroon 5. Nice ditty. And a japenese theme song from Naruto (yeah yeah, I'm still a kid. -grumble-).

Yuri Who?
-Gasp- The Almighty Queen-of-All-Accountancy-News-and-Mother-of-2-but-doesn't-look-like-it Adeline Heng has a BLOG! Quick! Buy 4D! Haha! She told me not to tell anyone about it unless I add that her blog is boring... cos she shy. Since I'm advertising her blog out loud here, I am hence obliged to say the following, "HER BLOG IS DAMN BORING! EVEN WORSE THAN MINE!" And that's saying a lot. Check it out. :)

To those friends in need
These few days, for some strange reason, has been a bad period for quite a number of my friends. :( Some are facing current issues, some are facing past issues, some just just can't seem to let it go. Some of them know that I know what's going on, some of them know I kinda guessed that something's going on, while some of them don't know that I know... And I feel kinda hapless cos I know I can't be of much help. Regardless, if you're a friend and you're going through a tough time this message is for you ya.

Hang in there! No matter what you're facing, it'll pass, like everything else. Nothing hangs ard forever and neither will this bothersome matter. I can't promise you better days tomorrow (since I know not the future), my friend, but I can promise you different days. Days without what you now face. Days with a new set of challenges to battle. Days with things to look forward to. Let's look to the future together and discover what awaits us. Let's let the past be the past.

Unfortunately, too many things are far much easier said than done ya? I wish I could practice what I just preached. Ah well. At least we try. :)

And to the following specific group of people,
if you're reading this... this is my personal opinion of the issue. The issue has not changed my opinion of you (if I had any since I don't know all of you). If you wish to read and think about it, thanks. If you wish to not read it, not a problem. If you wish to read it and think it's trash, I'm sorry. But I do hope you'll at least give it some thought.

J (her BF) : I've only met you that one time and you seem like a nice guy. I think it was sweet that you tried to be protective, but I'm not sure if it was put across the best way possible. Either way, what happened that night should be a NON-issue. I don't really care "who's right" or "who's wrong". The only thing I care about is that my friend, your girlfriend, is hurting a lot right now. She's a strong person, yes. But she needs you now more than ever. Please, be there for her. I'm guessing you want to too. Thanks... I know you mean a lot to her.

S (male friend) : I'm afraid I haven't met you before... and from what I gather (which isn't much) I don't really think you were "in the wrong" that night since it's something that you do all the time. The whole thing is just a misunderstanding I think. And again, I reiterate that what happened that night = NON-issue. I do know that the words that you've said to your friend, over this thing that she was not directly responsible for, made her cry and have sleepless nights. To me, that action, regardless of the person doing it and the recipient, isn't right. Please don't make her cry because of this. I don't believe it's worth it.

S (female friend) : This part of the whole brouhaha I'm really not clear about. I'm not gonna take a stand on this because I don't have the information required to do so. But I do hope that the two of you can at least talk things out to ensure that both sides can have the full story. I'm sure it's all a misunderstanding blown too far out of proportion. Communication, I hope, might help matters somewhat.

V (His GF) : Don't think too much about the whole issue ok? Let's hope it passes soon enough. Don't give up on communicating either... perhaps you could try at another time when the angry emotions have kinda passed... and oh, it might help if vulgarities were left out of the conversation. Those words in such situations sometimes do tend to bring out the worst in people.

Looking forward
The two most common words you'll find in any annual report... heh. Looking forward. ALLLLLLMOST posted something from the past just to let it out. Not sure if I should. Ah well. In a (vain) attempt to practice what I preach, look forward I shall! No bitching about the past today! :)

Ok, so I might talk about it in the future as some form of catharsis... but not today. Not today. :)

Bright Side
And as I always try to do... I shall end this off on a brighter note! :) Was at Ma Maison at Bugis last night for dinner. It's a nice cute little Jap-styled Western (wafu burgers steaks, gratins, etc)place with pretty decent food. A pity there was this huge crowd that took up half the place and we had to sit at the counter which gave us a clear view of the kitchen... it was quite funny looking the the chefs preparing some of the food though. I swear the chef could have stuffed a booger into a hamburger steak and no one would be any wiser. Ha! Of course, I didn't order that dish. Then again, he could have done the same with my gratin. Ok. Erm. Never mind. Do check the place out if you ever have the chance. :)

And of course, no good meal would be complete without great company ya? :) Thanks for the evening ya!

http://postsecret.blogspot.com/

2005-07-25T11:15:00.000+08:00

Short post today. Chanced upon this site. PostSecret. It's an art project where the artist collects postcards from anonymous people all over America. Each postcard contains a secret that the anonymous person would like to share. Some are funny (Everyday I'm tempted to eat the skittle on my office toilet floor). Some are weird (I almost never wash my hands after using the toilet). Some are very sad (When I was young, I would wish upon a star for my dad to die).

Do check it out if you're interested.

Family Day

2005-07-22T21:12:00.000+08:00

Becky

Was planning to go down to SMU today to visit the new campus and say a hi to the people at the accountancy office. I did just that and decided to ask Rebecca (whom some of you might remember) along with me as well, after all, she is entering SMU Accty this year.

So we arranged to meet at City Hall MRT station (ah... the pleasures of a city campus) at 1pm, but being the bona fide starlet that she is, our dear dear Becky arrives at a nice time of 1.45pm. To her credit, she did tell me before hand that she was going to be 30 min late... problem was I only found out when I was already on the train. Ha!

We had our lunch, which of course poor Kor Kor Darren had to pay for (Eh! Becky! I'm unemployed now leh! You're the one with the income!). Went down to school after lunch only to find that we had to wait a while before we could meet Dean Pang. We dropped by Adeline Heng's office so that I could collect some forms and get suanned by both Adeline and Becky (so much for blood thicker than water)... and lo and behold we bumped into the 2 great minds of our internal audit team, Say Eng and Charles, which further convinced Becky that SMU accty guys... cmi.

Prof Pang's meeting ended and so we trooped up to talk abit. The new accty offices are NICE! The view from Prof Pang's room... pretty darned good! I like! But the morning + afternoon sun must get quite bothersome. So Prof Pang told me to get hooked up soon of course. Preferably with a Accty junior. Haha, she specifically mentioned those who've won the HP awards. If not them, she mentioned too that Korean girls make good supportive wives. Becky wasn't spared the same treatment too of course. Haha! I like Prof Pang. :) We also bumped into Suay Peng, Prof Leong and Themin... all of whom I also like. (Not much of a choice lah, I know Themin reads this blog. Hor? Themin? Cannot leave you out right? Cannot give u additional reason to trash me at DotA.

Let me state for the record that I'm jealous of Becky. Basket. She's currently 18 and she has a skin like a baby's bottom. I'll be 24 this year and I've got a complexion of a desperate 15 yr old kid first discovering the joys of puberty. Erm. Ok. I shall end my whining here. Before I sound even more like a sissy. Ha!

Brandon and Felicia
Some of you might know that I've got tonnes of cousins. Approx 20 on my dad's side and even more on my mum's side (I don't know how many). 4 of these kids stay right next door to me. We call them "the circus". They are (in order of seniority) Michelle, Sean, Felicia, and Brandon.

Now Brandon and Felicia tend to come over quite often to run all over the place making my house look like it was hit by a tornado. Felicia, in particular, likes to hijack my msn and call my friends pigs. So if I ever call you a pig over msn, you know it wasn't me ok. Really. Really lah. Really. This is how the culprits look like:

Brandon and Felicia, better than your duracell bunnies

They've been at it again today running into my room and my bro's room jumping all over the place. And this conversation ensues during the entire fracas:

Brandon: Kor Kor Darren. I am DASH INVISIBLE! (he can't say invincible very well. And I know it's supposed to be Incredible. Looks like Brandon's memory ain't all too good.) I can beat you!
Darren: But I'm big. You're small. You cannot win me.
B: But I'm DASH! And you're MR INVISIBLE! (and again, he can't throw the N into his tongue twisting) You're big, fat, and ugly. I so fast. You so slow. I win! I win!

-he proceeds on to pretend he runs very fast, punching my legs as he goes ard me in circles. of course, being the kind kor that I am, I pretend to die. Then he starts jumping ON me-

I'm glad you have an active imagination my dear cousin, but deflating my huge male ego was entirely unwarranted, don't you think? Ha!

Yeah, that pic you see is one of Brandon hiding in my wardrobe for God know's why. Felicia did it shortly after I pulled Brandon out. I think she wanted the attention too. Heh. Cute kids they are. :)

Sam
My brother Sam has a blog. Check it out! It's pretty nice writing. He sure write more poetically than I do, I think. Quite like Jon Ban's writing. And he has tonnes of chicks tagging on his tag board. Why don't I have stuff like that?! Sheesh!

Words of Support / Goodbyes @ Commencement

2005-07-21T01:33:00.000+08:00

Tangoh
Red leader Tangoh has been going thru a rather tough time over 2 "infamous" entries he posted quite some time ago. I probably wouldn't be able to do/say anything to make things better... just thought I'd say a hang in there yeah? So, "Hang in there!" I've had my fair share of crappy "blog controversy" when this blog first started... not exactly on the same scale as yours since few people thought it was all that big a deal. But some of the people I (then) cared for thought it a biggy and the incident did trouble/hurt me quite a bit. So ah well, it'll pass for you the way it did for me ya? :)

Eh friend, you took off a post which complimented me lah. "For example I could write a blog entry about how bad a person Darrr is but no one will believe. That's cos Darrr's a nice guy."... or something like that... You took that off!!! I how sad. Hahahaha... Sorry. Ego. ;p

Commencement 2005
Today was commencement 2005! That is SMU's graduation day. I was down helping out (ie: kena big fat ugly arrow that I was too kind to pass on to my asoc pple) as an usher. Chief Accountancy Usher, no less. (Wah seh, funky title leh. Don't play play. Next time I want to be toilet manager also. Can?) The event itself was damn long lah. From official start time of 1pm, it ended at ard 4pm for accountancy and 5+pm for business. The first half of the whole thing was quite boring too with the TONNES of speeches we had to sit (or in my case, stand) through. The PRE-ceremony "entertainment" was a grand total of 7 speeches lor.

Piang. I know we are different lah, but different not = luo suo leh.

Anyway... thank god the accountancy school went off to have the second part of degree giving by themselves. I can't imagine having to stand thru the 400 degree scrolls from the business school. Also, I've always liked being in the accountancy school since it's so cosy and everything's informal and all. The accty ceremony was quite that way too... rather informal, relaxed, cosy, and funny with the jokes and jibes. :) Even some VIP from Hewlett-Packard was telling me when I was ushering him out, "I liked this part of the ceremony more."

So yeah the whole thing ended and as usual there was all the photos being taken by everyone. Regretted not bringing a camera... so most of my shots are with the many other cameras elsewhere. I'll post them up here when I've received them. In the meanwhile here are some that I took with my phone camera.

Me and the SMU School of Accountancy Valedictorian (VJ pride part 1. VJ pride part 2 is the SMU-wide Valedictorian! :D)

VJ Pride Part 1 again: serving me head on a platter

The centre lady won EIGHT AWARDS. Wah lau. Fann Wong also don't have that many lah deh! Zuobolan, the dark guy on the right will repeat the same feat next year. See? Racism is non-existant in SMU!

Me with Annabelle

erm...

2005-07-19T17:13:00.000+08:00

The Uncle and the Umbrella
Yesterday... I was going to the new campus to get something faxed over to US thru office of international relations. I had an umbrella with me cos it was raining heavily when I was leaving the house. So while on the way, I had to cross a traffic light junction and it was drizzling. There was an old uncle standing next to me and HE didn't have an umbrella and was getting quite wet.

Me being goondu me, I decided to help shelter him with my umbrella too. (everybody now, "Awwwww....") So I stood close but not too close to him and held my umbrella such tt we both were covered. When he looked up at me to see what was happening, I merely smiled. (Yeah, lagi like guardian angel like that. All I needed was a halo.) The ah pek figured out what I was trying to help of course.

He shot me a disgusted scowl and walked away from me muttering curses under his breath in the rain.

Great. There went my only shot at nirvana.

i ain't popular. ah bengs are.
My bro says this blog like how popular in 2 months got 3k visitors. Like help lah... this is a boring blog me thinks. If you want a POPULAR blog... check out this "ah beng" man. hahaha Rockson's blog has had 200,000 over visits in 3 months. Now THAT'S popular. And it's good shit too. Super hilarious. Warning though, quite hokkienly explicit. But it's a must-read esp if u like stuff like "Lim Peh Ka Li Kong".

tangoh's thousandth f**k
I feel sad. I feel devastated. I am tangoh's thousandth f**k. How pathetic is that man. To know that I'm his f**k to begin with... that's bad in itself... but now i'm his THOUSANDTH?! geez. I think I wanna kill myself now. I've got no dignity left. Here's the evidence:

And this is how our thousandth f**k looked like. Raunchy yeah?

Heard from someone who heard

2005-07-18T00:21:00.000+08:00

Eric, my number 1 (yet useless) agent, was telling me how he heard the following just last night:

"kids in back seat cause accidents, accidents in back seat cause kids"

Worthy of Confucius indeed.

The Last Day

2005-07-16T16:27:00.000+08:00

Yesterday was an interesting day. Yup yup, you heard it right, today's post shall not be angsty or try-to-act-smarty (not even act smart, can only try to act)... I'm just gonna be relating some small events and stuff. If you're entertained, tt's cool. If you're bored. Erm. Well. Told you from the very start that this was gonna be a boring blog. :p

Now back to the topic, yesterday was an interesting day. Being my last day at my internship place, there were goodbyes and there were the intern presentations and there was the booze (though not intern related).

Goodbyes
There's this dude from mainland China, Jack. Nice chap. Looks a bit nerdy. Damn good with statistics. Quite cute (as in haha cute, not oooooh cute) in nerdy way. So he comes up to me at my desk just before his presentation to his desk people in the morning. His eyes are a bit reddish. The following conversation was in a splattering of Chinese and Cheena-accented-English but I'll translate it to English for you.

Jack: Darren, today's your last day right?
Darren: Yup, that's right. And you'll be leaving for Hong Kong today to complete the second half of your internship?
J: Yes, I am. Darren, you know, I am going to miss you.
D: Ah?! Erm... haha! Err... Thanks.
J: Yes, I will. You're one of the reasons I enjoyed my time here at Singapore so much! You're a nice guy to everyone. I'm sure you'll do well. The job here will definitely be yours.
D: Hahaha! You'll be the one getting the job. Your project is so impressive with that financial model and all. I'm going to be murdered in the presentation.
J: I'm going to die in the presentation too. Last night, I stayed until so late in the office to finish up the project I didn't get to go home. Then, I think I lost my working bag with my stuff and all. I'm sooo stressed you know Darren.
D: Oh no...
J: But it's ok. Because I know you're here, and when I see you I know everything's going to be ok.

-Jack's eyes start turning red and a tear trickles down his cheek-

J: You must take care of yourself ok Darren?
D: ... Eh! You're crying! Jack! Don't cry. Eh! Later presentation eyes red red not stylo leh!

........................

Why don't pretty girls cry when I leave the office?

On, a not so sobby note: Yeah, through this internship, I've found friends in US who I can meet up with during my exchange! Matthew Speaker's gonna be at Philly for a while and he'll be showing me how the best Chinese food in the world comes from America (yah. right.). Aytac might be at UPenn for a few months. And Serene from UBS would be at Windy City Chicago. Woo hoo. Tour guides galore! :D

Presentations
If you think you've had bad presentations, you haven't seen nothing yet. Ho ho. My workplace's internship presentations are some of the toughest shit I've ever had to do. You've got the ASIA HEADS (not Singapore heads) of the company's Trading Business (which is like their MOST IMPORTANT business to them) all within a single dark ass room and each intern goes in one at a time to be gobbled and spat out. This dude went in... and came out saying... "I thought my presentation was perfect. But they still killed me. Badly. Very badly." You can't win against them man. There's no winning these dudes. Scary shit.

I was the last presenter for the day, so I think that was to my advantage. I went into a room of bored heads instead of a ravenous pack eager for blood. One was blackberrying throughout my presentation. Haha! Phew! Another looked like he was gonna fall asleep. Thank god for the 2 HR people in there. They were the only 2 people in the room who didn't have a growl on their face.

Boss: So, tell me what are the flaws of your project.
D: There are 3 main flaws that I see in the methodology that I've taken, yiddi yiddi yiddi yadda yadda yadda, but because of the nature of the project, I've had to make certain assumptions and reduce the occurence of these flaws as much as possible.
Boss: So your project results aren't all that accurate are they?
D: No. They are ballpark figures. It would be impossible to get accurate results
Boss: I know this project was given to you, but if you knew that the results would be inaccurate, then why bother with the project at all?
D: ...

There goes my employment with that place. Hahah! Apparently I'll be informed of the results in Sept. But I already know it now. :) But it's good to know these guys are sincere and putting in lots of effort in employing the best. I wish that they choose the right guys for them.

Booze
Don't recall ever having had so many groups asking me for drinks in a single day before. They must have been very desperate for company to ask a boring guy like me!

But I ended up going to Wala's with Leonora and Joanne. Cos Ron only wanted me to join her and her oil trading/broking friends whom I've never met so that she can avoid drinking so much -rolls eyes- Why would my presence help with that?! Ha! And when the interns asked if I was joining them... the conversation kinda went like this.

Joel: Eh, will you be joining the interns for drinks later?
D: Huh? What drinks?
J: Didn't you get the email? Think some of them are thinking of going for drinks.
D: Err... I didn't get any email. My name must have been left out.
J: Yah probably accidentally. So are you going? Think they're going Balaclava.
D: You going?
J: Nope.
D: Kim going?
J: Don't think so.
D: Eh, like that got who going? Still on meh?
J: Erm... dunno leh.
D: Chey...

Yeah. So that's how I ended up with 2 of the initial 5 at Wala's and some of their pals. It was SUPPOSED to be an initial 5 thing... but no... kelvy WANTED to work and Linda was summoned. Ah well. Twas fun either way. It was surprisingly my first time at Wala's on a Friday. All previous times were on Thurs and Sat when the UnXpected plays. Well, EIC's good stuff too. :) And no, no one got drunk so too bad for you. No funny stories for you. Oh, apart from the fact that Joanne never realised Hoegaarden looks, smells, and tastes like piss. It does lah. To me, Hoegaarden is pissy beer.

(Riggy Shen: Please don't kill me with your flying calculators. I know you love piss too, but I respect your right to like anything that you like ok? I mean like, even accounting shens have quirks as well ya? Piss-drinker)

Speaking of which, some of the Asoc people are coming over for dinner. :) The turn out won't be so good though. Seems like EVERYONE'S over seas :( Ah well, still will be a nice night I hope. Know Rong's bringing her "home made brownies that look weird". hahaha. Hopefully that'll be edible.

My Passion

2005-07-14T21:00:00.000+08:00

Shared the following email with a friend (or rather, soon-to-be-friend, hopefully. Ha!) today. Thought I'd share it with all of you as well. It's a bit similar to my post on my priorities, but then again, not the same. Try not to snore too loudly thanks.

(Officer, I did make a few changes here and there, do forgive the slight lack of verbatim :p )

Good morning officer! I just stepped into the office and I'm ALREADY bored. So I guess that means... it's time for me to start typing that life/philo nonsense you wanted to read about. Eh... not really sure what exactly it is that you'd like to read about. Maybe next time you could give me a topic and let me have a couple of hours to let it brew in my head (empty heads tend to have more places for things to brew) and I'd give you the appropriate Darrenism.

In the meanwhile, hmmm... Oh! Ok! I will just share what I talked about during my presentation training which was "What are you passionate about?" Yeah think I'd give you what I said with a liiiiiittle more elaboration. Don't say I never warn you ah... if you're luo suo... then I'm extremely supremely luo suo!

So... what's passion? What does it mean to be passionate over something? The dictionary probably has a couple of meanings to it, but I guess to me, having passion over a certain subject / activity / cause / person... is to have an extremely strong desire for it. Yeah, I know that ain't exactly amazing discovery of the year, but definitions are always something that need to be laid out no? :) Now, people have strong desires for everything. Cravings for food, old pervs want to get some, nerds who want the high grades, etc. But when we talk about passion, we talk about that ONE thing we desire to do/have the most. And some people don't realize the gravity of the word when they attach "passion" to something that they enjoy. "I'm passionate about theatre." There are people out there who eat, live, breathe theatre... those people are passionate. People who just go watch musicals cos it’s hip and cool to be at the esplanade with the hoity toity. That is no passion. Passion over something, to me, is to desire that one thing even if you have nothing else.

It's hard to find out what we're passionate about. Often we enjoy something so much we think we're passionate about it and we don't realize whether we, indeed, can live without it or not. I used to think I was passionate about Aikido. Now I know it's just a fun past time for me. I guess one way to verify it... is to think of the thoughts you'd most like to have on your death bed. Sounds grave doesn't it? (pun not intended!) But yeah... I guess if you're on your death bed, and you're gonna die in like 10 minutes... what are the last thoughts and memories you'd like to have before you leave the world… that would be what you're passionate about.

There's no real right or wrong to what you dedicate your life too of course. It's a personal choice one makes. If you wanna think "I'm the richest man on earth. I am happy. I placed all my time and effort into achieving this, and I did. I can die happy." Then your passion is money. If you think "I climbed mount everest 10 times over" or "I found the cure for AIDs and saved millions of lives" or "I've served the Lord the best way I know how", then those are your respective passions.

The last thought I'd like to have before I die isn't any of the above. I like achieving things like getting good grades and earning nice money, but the feeling of achievement for me is only temporary at best… and isn't fulfilling when shared with no one. The idea of saving millions of lives by dedicating my life to kind deeds sounds intriguing, but I know I'm too selfish a person to truly enjoy acts of total altruism. I love God, but I'm not ready to devote myself fully to him. (Yes I'm a lazy and indecisive prick.) I guess it's partially because I can be quite the mushy idiot without even realizing it.. Because I think the last memories I'd like to carry with me would be the smiling faces of the people in my life. The memories of laughing at jokes, the sharing of tears, the giving of support, the joint moments of triumph… the life that passes before my eyes would be one filled with shared warmth and love. And if I'm lucky, it would bring a tear to those tired eyes and a smile to my wrinkled lips. That's what I'd like to think of before I close my eyes for the last time. Soppy as shit isn't it? Haha.

Well, I guess that's my passion then. My passion is relationships. My passion is the forming and maintaining of relationships with the people that matter to me. This includes family, friends, and, if I'm lucky, tt special someone. That's because, at the end of the day, the key things that I want to bring with me... is not money... and is not the knowledge of my achievements... but are the happy memories of the people I've known.

What's yours?

And you call yourself a friend

2005-07-12T21:58:00.000+08:00

Someone (who once told me she's someone I should consider a close friend and someone I should trust) just told me off because she heard about something that happened not too long ago. You know who you are. This post is for you.

You call yourself a friend, yet not once did you consider both sides of the coin. You hear a part of it and impose your biased views that all men are scum on it (That's something that really pisses me off, the assumption that the guy is always in the wrong. But that's a story for another day.) You did not ask what happened yet you made your judgment. And when I ask you to consider the possibility that there might be another view to it, you tell me you don't want to know.

How dare you. How dare you think you're on the moral high ground because you aren't involved in this. How dare you come to me thinking you know what you need to know to pass your judgment on me. How dare you see what you want to see and refuse to hear what you should hear before saying what you said. How dare you do all of the above yet call yourself my friend?

I suppose you're looking at this situation through your eyes made biased from your past experiences. Well your past does not apply to me. What happens in your life is different from what happens in mine. I challenge you now to go through what I've gone through and tell me if you would, or even could, have done things differently from the way I did it. I'm guessing you would not have deviated from the path I took by much.

Not that that would ever happen, considering how you have no wish to hear everything, then I have no desire to tell you anything. I find myself hurt by that person but instead of being a friend who provides support and an objective view, you punish me with your unfounded judgment. By imposing your biased views on me, you have shown yourself to be a good friend of that person's, but a poor friend of mine.

Goodbye. I wish you well.

On a brighter note
My apologies for the angst-y post earlier. It was just something I wanted to get off my chest. Back to the bright side of life yeah? Here's a list of things I'm looking forward to doing during the holidays before flying off:

in random order
1. Attending Shereen's wedding! :D
2. Paulaner Brauhaus with Twinny and gang.. but only after wakeboardg IVP. bah. you beer drinking, wakeboarding, primary school teacher you
3. VJ gang meet up to celebrate Nica's Bday
4. Asoc Dinner at my place this Saturday!
5. Catch up with Sun Nu Swannawsaurus. So long no see ms STB!
6. Meeting selected JP Interns and other peripherals (such as myself) group
7. Meal with ex-boss Chris Teo and any other ICSers
8. Asoc Freshmen Retreat
9. Viewing the draft copy of Asoc publication, Accentuate! :D
10. Possibly squeeze in an Aikido training session with the Jabronees
11. Someone's surprise tt I cannot reveal
12. Maybe a short trip with some friends? Anyone interested?
13. Start swimming again
14. Maybe learn golf
15. Trashing everyone at DoTA. G-G-GODLIKE!
16. Asoc AGM and my handing over
17. Visiting the new campus.. Becky, must come with me ok? I show you off to the deans, k? Haha!
18. Watching One Piece and Naruto. (ok don't ask me why, I also dunno why. But these are the only 2 animes that I've ever watched and enjoyed watching.)
19. Possibly another guy's night out with the accounting guys? :D
20. Wharton dinner at Renhua's place
21. Bathing with a pretty lady over at my place........ Not! (Linda, gotcha there, didn't I? Hahaha! :p)

Life is good. :)

Last week of db (not detention barracks lah)

2005-07-11T20:45:00.000+08:00

This is the last week of my internship. My boss and big boss were kind and offered me a second rotation at another desk for 4 weeks. I was VERY tempted to take it up. I'm very thankful and honored that they'd give me this opportunity. The money's pretty good of course, but the opportunity for learning would be huge since I would be dealing with a completely different aspect of the business. In addition, it would also be a good avenue for my employer to further scrutinize me. Considering I'm the ONLY intern with one rotation and tt my rotation project, as previously mentioned, ain't anywhere like the other intern projects.. they don't really have enough information to make a decision on what to do with me. The only avenue for me to fight for an employment opportunity would be for me to stay on.

Both fortunately and unfortunately, I won't be staying on as I have made prior commitments to far too many people. Asoc will be kicking into a higher gear with orientation / elections / publication / funds sourcing / AGM, my parents are nagging my butt off to start my exchange preparations, Toastmasters has recently recalled me to give some speech, arrows from SAC are bound to come a-flying (it's a foregone conclusion), I've yet to learn golf, and the school of accountancy is expecting me to pop by one of these days too. Practically, it would be possible to juggle all that with db, but I will definitely not be able to do well in all those tasks at the same time. I guess a huge part of me is also starting to grow tired of internships. No regrets whatsoever doing 4 internships, but I haven't really had a truly relaxing holiday since starting SMU. My holidays were always a constant juggle between internships and school work, internships and school work. Well, though ending db won't exactly be a break what with all the loose ends I need to tie up before flying, but at least now there'll be one less thing to juggle. I'm looking forward to waking late! :D

An Asoc Weekend
Had a mock camp run to test out some of the games on Saturday and a photoshoot the next day. Both were great fun and I made a couple of new friends too, which is always nice :) I'm looking forward to both the final products! And, and, and -hyperventilates- I got to pose with SMU Accountancy's Femme Fatale number 1, Serene (the accountancy 2003 batch one)! Ho ho ho. I smell many a jealous man aiming daggers at my back now. Well, you would have been in my shoes if you were accountancy's ladykiller. Bleah.

Haha! You should have seen Linda's face when she heard I'm the ladykiller. Her face had the MOST disgusted look of disbelief that I have ever seen. And Linda's like the most gullible person? She believed a pretty lady came over to my place to bathe with me. She believed Hotstuff Sam is an anorexic eurasian. I bet she'd believe if someone told her the sun rose from the west today. But no.. she can believe ALLLLL that but cannot believe that I won the award. Thanks ah Linda. Thanks! Haiyah, there's a logical explanation for all this.. I was saboed lah.. They chose the prettiest girl and the ugliest guy. Can? :p

I'll probably put up the photos from the photoshoot after I receive them. Or maybe I'll just save it so that you can go read the publication instead. ;)

second post for the day

2005-07-08T22:00:00.000+08:00

ok so the previous post was more of something i've been wanting to put in for the longest time so that i can put it in some sort of a "about me" section that i'll put somewhere on the template. Yup, that's my whole life laid out on a page for your reading entertainment. No. I refuse to do a Russell Crowe (Are you not entertained?!).

Becky as I know her
Finally, the moment many of you have been waiting so long for... -JZ. Wipe that drool off your face man. My shredder's already turned on... If you know what I mean. That applies to you too Scarlett.- The photos I took with Rebecca Lim (I call her Becky though, and will continue referring to her as that) at my ah ma's place. Do note that she looks red as a lobster in these shots cos she had spent an entire day at Sentosa.

There you have it. Ms-Potential-Mediacorp superstar and her cousin. She says I look like more ham sup than hamsum in this photo. I'm afraid I have to agree. Life is unfair no? Ah well. At least now you know. If I ever appear in the newspapers with the headline "REBECCA LIM SEEN DATING HAM SUP MAN!", please know that I was most likely just having a meal with a cousin.

And this is Becky with her number one fan: My Mum. I swear, my mum is just infatuated with the idea that her niece might one day be a star. During Ms Universe, Mediacorp must have made at least a 4 figure from my mum's smses. She even emailed friends she very seldom see to help vote Becky as well. Scary. I suspect my mum loves her more than she loves Sam and I. Heh. Ah well. Always knew my mum wanted a daughter instead of a son. Erm. I don't plan on telling you how I know that just yet :p

Ok, so now you've all seen Becky and know who she is. Stop bugging for her photos already ya? And remember you pervos out there... my shredder awaits you.

Brits in the Office
Just about everyone is talking about it. London's victory 2 days ago and bombing 1 day ago. I shall join the chorus of people sending their sympathies to the grieving. May the Lord watch over and protect you.

Having said that, perhaps a different slant on what happened might be interesting for some. There's an english oil trader who sits near me. He's a jolly chap. Terribly funny. Quite big sized. Perhaps I'll briefly describe his reaction to what happened.

On Wednesday night at around 7.45pm just before the IOC result was announced... he was jolly as always and couldn't stop teasing the french guy in the office. "Ho ho. I know we're gonna win. The french are going to surrender like they always do. Like in WW2!" And when the result was announced, he raised his arm triumphantly and shouted "YESSS!!! The french surrendered!!!"

It was hilarious.

The next day.

The first explosion had happened. Everyone thought it was merely an accident as that was what the news that came through seemed to imply. After all, it was only one explosion and it could have been a electrical problem as reported. The brit was telling off a junior trader for not having known about the explosion. "I told you before, you MUST keep updated on the news. How can you not know about this? What if some terrorist bombs Saudi Arabia? You need to know what's going on otherwise every other trader will be ahead of you!"

And the moment he said that, the news came in about the 3 other explosions. Someone shouted it across the trading floor for all to hear, "There are 3 more explosions! 3 more!". It took a split second for it to register. It was a coordinated terrorist attack. Everyone's faces hardened. The brit's face was the hardest of all. The oil traders shouted "Fuck!" and started shouting orders into their mikes. The trader that just got scolded was the slowest in doing so. He did not manage to sell his oil in time. He said the most fucks.

After the initial frenzy and things started to go into a tense rhythm of anticipation (all the traders were like cats ready to move at the slightest provocation)... the brit took time out to explain quickly why the sudden free-for-all sale. "4 bombs went off in London. It cannot be an accident. Accidents like these don't happen 4 times at the same time. It's obviously a terrorist attack. So what does that mean for u? These attacks create fear, and with fear, people will travel less. Fewer people will take the bus, cabs, and planes. There'll be lesser use of fuel and hence a drop in demand and price. We do not know the extent of the devastation so we do not know where the market will be. All we can do now is wait."

Despite having relieved himself of his position in the market (exposure he took as a trader), his face did not grow any less hardened. There was no hint of a smile. No hint of a joke. All he could do from where he was, was to sell... and wait.

Darren in a Nutshell

2005-07-08T21:09:00.000+08:00

8/11/1981 - Conveniently popped out at around 12pm. So inconsiderate. First deed he does is to ensure that the gynae can't have his/her lunch.

1983 - Shifts to Yi Mei Garden near Hougang South. Meets brother Sam for the first time. He could only make weird alien noises despite having been fed a constant diet of Sesame St by his previous babysitter.

1984 - Brother grows teeth and tests their sharpness often on Darren. Worried his parents further by continuing his magical feat of only making alien noises.

1985 - Begins nursery at Bethel Play Centre with cousin Jon Ban. Says first English word (yes it took him that long I believe) much to his parents' relief. Switched to worrying his parents by shitting in his pants every other day instead.

1987 - Receives first (of far too many) rejection from girl called Charmaine in K2. Suspects it could be because he spelt her name wrongly. Not really his fault since he did ask his dad for the proper spelling but dad gave him the wrong one. Doesn't notice hot kindy school advances of Charmaine's best friend though.

1988 - Goes to Monfort Junior. Wasn't good at tok kar cos fat boys don't jump well on one leg. Tried out class monitor / prefect / speech and drama during the next 6 yrs. Did badly in Chinese all the way. Not really his fault since they didn't show Mask, Transformers, or Sesame Street in Chinese. Stopped eating ants from the kitchen floor.

1994 - Went into 5th choice Zhonghua where just about everyone spoke in Chinese. Wasn't good at soccer cos fat boys don't kick well. Met the Annihilators and spent WAY too much money on card games and video arcades. Spent time in ELDDS and Prefects (for a while). Shifted to Jalan Girang sometime in between. Thankfully grew from short fart to present-height. He remains a fart till this day.

1998 - Became Victorian through God's Grace. Met the VJ gang during those 2 yrs. Heaved a big sigh of relief as English became the lingua franca. He did a geek upgrade from card games to computer games. Discovered a lack of masochistic tendencies when he became a punching bag in Taekwondo (fat boys make good punching bags), and uncovered a distinct sadistic streak while being in the percussion section of the Symphonic Band. (JACK!)

2000 - Army. Tank Mechanic 3rd Sergeant. Lost weight running. Peaked by completing 21km in 1 hr 45 mins. Slacked since then. Became known as Wan Bah Lim. Shifted to current abode. Got his (safety) driver's license. Broke a tooth. Likes to think it broke in a fight while protecting a damsel in distress. Didn't realise the fallacy in that. There are no damsels in the army.

2002 - SMU. Miraculously didn't fail, possibly a result of having no more Chinese courses. Somehow still found time to break toes in Aikido, break bread in Toastmasters, and break hearts (belonging to bah jiu tah stamp people) as the saboed lady killer / President of Asoc. Also did SIFE as the first SMU SIFE team (Ha! Take THAT Mr President!), started SAAT only to be chased away, wrote paper and presented in Canberra, tried to help Cognitare organize an international competition, participated in 2 YEPs, and attempted to avoid arrows in Student's Association Council. Did 4 internships. Met lots of good people. Started this boring blog.

Now - Getting ready to fly to UPenn for exchange. Can't wait!

Love and Forgiveness

2005-07-06T20:49:00.000+08:00

Fear ain't Love
A couple of guys told me recently, all in completely different situations, that when it comes to affairs of the heart, nice guys always finish last. Their theory is that even if a nice guy can get the girl, by being nice, he's opening himself up to the girl trampling all over his life, making use of him, and tossing him to the side. By being nice, girls wouldn't know what they have and how lucky they are to have it. By being nice, girls will take the nice guy for granted and maybe not even treat him with respect.

They claim that guys have to teach the girls' who's boss. They say that you have to instill a subtle form fear in the girl by mentioning things like how you do not need her in your life, how you can easily dump her the next day, and how she should work harder in order to keep you with her. And they say such a formula works wonders for them as it keeps their girls on their tippy toes by placing the fear of losing their bfs into the girls, and teaches the girls to appreciate what they have. They say I now am where I am because I never followed the formula and am too much of a nice guy. (I can't vouch if they're right on the last line.)

Is it true? Is it true that guys have to be that way to prevent themselves from being hurt/used? (Yeah, I hear girls scoffing at the idea of guys being hurt by girls.) If that is so, then Albert might just be right, but for the wrong reasons. I don't know. I'm not the kind who can be aloof and act like I don't care if it is otherwise. I can't say that I don't need a person if I love tt person. For all my minute acting experience in Sec School ELDDS, I can't incorporate the magic formula into my daily life. I smell celibacy just around the corner.

Must love be merely a game of power between two parties? Must it be a race to see who can proclaim that one doesn't need the other in order to be loved? It would seem that this mini-game works for many indeed. Well, if love indeed is such a game, then let me be a monk. I get enough of power struggles in my daily life and will be bound to meet many more such stuff on a grander scale when I start real work. I do not need love to give me that as well.

Why can't I forgive?
I normally am quite a forgiving person. I seldom get too pissed at much. When someone speeds on the road, I sometimes think that maybe it's an emergency. Sure I do get annoyed/pissed/angry from time to time, but I don't believe I do so more than the usual person.

Why then can't I forgive this person? The word sorry was said. The harm done has long passed. Nothing bad has happened since then. So why can't I think of the person without thinking of what happened and having feelings of anger attached to these lingering memories? Am I that vengeful a person? I hope not. I want to look at that person and say I want that person as a pal. But for some reason, I can't. How can you be close to someone whose mere image conjures feelings of anger and hurt?

Maybe it's cos that person doesn't even know what he did that hurt. Maybe it's cos that person never even tried to find out what it was that hurt. Maybe it's cos that person never thought once about changing anything to makes things better for all of us. Maybe it's cos the person thought a single sorry, one with a sincerity which I cannot verify, would make everything go away.

Ah well. I'll continue trying to forgive. If that option never happens, at least the other alternative remains. Penn will do me good in far too many ways.

If you agree that grades mean shit
I've received many notes saying that they agree with the previous post on grades. Cool! Unfortunately, far too many people in SMU think otherwise I think. Well, if you think you want more people in SMU to start considering the possibility that grades aren't everything... you might wish to forward that particular post to your pals. No, I'm not trying to jack up my site visits. I can do that by posting a nude shot of myself. People do enjoy horror shows you know. But back to the point... yeah I do wish as many SMU students as possible believe that grade-centrism is NOT the way to go... and hopefully the previous post would help to a certain extent.