Renyu's blog

Another post since I'm so free!!!

2009-08-27T23:12:00.002+08:00

Awarding the "Most loyal supporter" for my blog to Nicol!!!! For being the first person to post a message in 2009.
Its nice to know that there are still friends who drop by your blog every now and then to see whats going on with you. Appreciate it.

And now for another super short update!

Currently Watching
- 《命中注定我爱你》 - So addictive and loved the show! Not your typical Taiwan love story, I like the various plot twists and the gradual change in the 陈乔恩. Highly recommend this show, its so damn hilarious.
- The Ultimate Gift (Movie) - Apparently the book was highly recommended by various people. Have yet to watch the movie, but saw the trailer, looks damn good. Quite an old movie, released in 2007 i think.

Currently Wishing for
- 陈乔恩 <乔见˙巴黎> photo book, I'll give a big hug to anyone who gives me this or tell me where to buy it in Singapore!
- A ticket for Anthony Robbins Seminar to fall from the sky onto my lap.
- Some bright ideas on interesting activities to do in Singapore, need more spark in my life.
- A Snowboarding Holiday, I can't remember when was the last time I travelled out of SEA.

Currently reading
- Common Stocks, Uncommon profit - Philip Fisher. Heard that this is an investment classic, read first chapter and still finding it interesting
- Unlimited Power - Anthony Robbins. A good friend once recommended this to me 3 years ago, but I just shelved the idea. Looking back, I really have lost out a bit for reading it 3 years later, but better late than never!
- Retiring in Thailand - Some unknown author. Just a casual read to keep me motivated on my dream Phuket beach life retirement. Woo hoo!

Currently Listening
- 石欣卉 - 无能为力 - Just love this song
- 《命中注定我爱你》 OST
- Various Audio books - The only thing that is better than a book!
- Final Fantasy 7 OST - Some orchestra music can be quite relaxing at times

3 lessons learnt on a trip home

2009-08-19T20:22:00.002+08:00

At last, after close to 1 year of activity, my latest post.
Well you know what they say, good things takes time to produce.

And here goes the story for the day.

After a tiring and demoralizing day, I reached the shopping mall near my house to buy dinner home. Not certain whether its because I was full or I did not have any appetite, I wandered aimlessly around the shopping mall looking for any food that would attract me. After 15 mins of wandering across 2 levels of the mall and not having any luck, I stopped at corner and started to ponder on what to do.

Lesson 1 : When you are lost in where to go or what to do in life, sometimes the best option is to just stop moving and find your directions rather than move aimlessly.

After 5 mins of pondering, I decided to go to this vegetarian stall near my house for dinner. I guess it must be that i'm having such a bad time that I think I need to have a vegetarian meal to earn some Karma.
When I was selecting my items, I accidentally selected an item that I did feel like eating and I'm unable to change it since the guy has already put it on my plate.

Lesson 2 : We all make mistakes in life, the thing is to acknowledge the mistake, live or work around it and move on. If we could forgive ourselves in making a wrong food selection, why can't we forgive ourselves for other mistakes that we make and just move on.

Having purchased my imperfect dinner meal, I headed to cross the road home. I was crossing the road half way and suddenly I realised that the light has turned green. Stuck in the middle with cars moving both in front and behind me, another lesson came into mind.

Lesson 3 : There are times in life where we can't go back and the road ahead is full of obstacles and perils. Liken to being between a rock and a hard place. In the absence of any way to go back, the wisest choice would be to brace yourself and push forward.

And thus I skipped across the road, dodging hundreds of bullet fast cars and safely reach my destination....Home.

The End.

A quick recap for myself on a lesson learnt a year ago but that I have forgotten
"to stay positive in the most terrible situation and to actually stop procrastinating."

And to top it up with a quick update on my life now...............
.
.
.
I NEED A LIFE!

Current favourite song

2008-09-27T08:07:00.004+08:00

Just came across this song that I really love and its so touching. Should be a good encouragement for those who have been hurt in love.

记得爱 (阿沁,李玖哲)
天空不断下着无声的雪
而我只有思念
勉强能温暖黑夜
拥抱离我已经千山万水
每个男人都有
说不出的心碎 oh yeah
我还爱着一个人但愿
回到美好的从前
也许痛的感觉
证明了爱的深浅
不然为什么我还不撤退 oh～
记得爱所有幸福的片段
所以才一直忘记要离开
伸出手继续勇敢付出我的爱
原地不动的等待
就算风把我的头发吹乱
记得爱是我给过的答案
就不再考虑应该不应该
一滴泪落进无边无际的大海
至少我们都活得没有遗憾
只要记得爱就无所谓孤单

Currently i'm also very addicted to the songs from the anime Macross frontier, Kanno Yoko the composer is just such a genius.

Coming into the final quarter of this year, not much new resolution on my side except to survive through the next quarter.

COMEX 2008

2008-09-01T20:56:00.002+08:00

Went to COMEX 2008 and came out with a battered wallet. Gosh its not possible to go to such places without getting something back.

My 2 prized buy Sony Cybershot W170 and Samsung 2253 monitor.

Really love both my purchases, the 22" monitor was a real bargain at 330 and things really look so much better with 22" , its amazing how much difference 3" makes.

The Sony Cybershot was fantastic too, did not expect the camera to be powerful when I bought it. The irritating thing is that the memory stick is so freaking expensive.

I need more time in my life !! Weekend seems to pass by so fast, geez.

Another Quarterly updates

2008-08-25T20:54:00.002+08:00

Just realised I haven't blogged for ages, well since I left office early i'll spend a bit of time for a quarterly update.

Job
Settling well in my job though still have much to learn. Feels like i've grown quite a bit since I joined. Never once regretted joining, I think the things I learnt would go a long way in my life. This quarter has been a good quarter for me, so nothing to complain about. Probably the single most important two things I learnt would be to stay positive in the most terrible situation and to actually stop procrastinating.

Life
Just went on an 8 day trip to Bangkok and Koh Samui, really enjoyed the much needed break. Koh Samui was nice but I still like Phuket better, though it really felt good to stay beside the beach and to idle the whole day away. Went diving at the famous Ko Tao island which wasn't too bad. The problem about diving is that after awhile, everyplace seems to look the same. Bangkok was packed, fun and the shopping bazaar was overwhelming. But there's really unbelievable bargain there, i bought a T-shirt for $1.70 SGD. Can't believe it.

Next trip: Possibly looking to head to Hokkaido for a snow boarding trip, it has been ages since I last snowboard. Personally like snowboarding more than Diving. Year end would be the best time to go snowboarding as its winter season at Japan. Will see how things pan out.

Interests
Been reading quite a couple of books lately. My latest read
1) The power of positive thinking (Norman Vincent Peale) - Quite a spiritual book but the ideas does generate good effects, the content has a lot of correlation to God and though I'm no Christian myself, I think there are things to take away from the book. Even I believe that there is a greater force out there.
2) Why we want you to be rich (Donald Trump and Robert Kiyosaki) - Did not wanted to buy this book at first, but circumstances brought me to this book. I was looking for a book to read when I was at the airport to Bangkok and I chanced upon this book which was tiny, cheap and fairly more interesting than the lonely planet guidebook that I had. And since i knew there would be hours to idle by at Koh Samui, i got the book. Quite an interesting read as well, there are many ideas in the book, but for me the key takeaway would be that you won't excel in something unless you devote time to it and about positivity, which links to the first book.

Albums to recommend
I've always been a fan of music from other countries as I believe every country has its unique style of music.
Recently got acquainted to this Thai Rock band called Da Endorphine, quite a nice group and a good introduction to Thai music, forget Tata young, she's too commercialised. Da Endorphine's album Love Issues would be a good introduction to the band.

A couple of other interesting Singers/Group
1) Mihimaru GT (Japanese)
2) Loveholic (Korean)
3) Alizee (French)

Quick updates

2008-03-30T09:14:00.006+08:00

Seems like it has been ages since I last did an update. Time passes really quickly as I have already been with my company for 3 months time. Some quick updates.

Changed my chatbox
Changed my chatbox from flooble to cbox. The expiry thingy of flooble is really a major turnoff. Hope Cbox doesn't have such idiotic features. Well on a positive note, cbox looks so much nicer than flooble.

Core 1 training in Hong Kong
Was sent to HK to attend a core 1 training with colleagues from Robert Walters around the region. Basically core 1 is a training that teach you all the necessary recruitment skills.

Really had loads of fun there as I got to meet other consultants from our other offices. I think we all really hit off from the start as it seems most of us are pretty similar in terms of character. I think there is some sort of standardized selection of consultants. Haha. I have not met a quiet consultant ever. In fact most of us are pretty wild and the common thing is that though we all come from different countries, we all still uses the universal F work when we come across terrible candidates or clients.

Core 1 training colleagues

Along the streets of HK Causeway bay

Also had the chance to meet up with my HK friends during this trip, really enjoyed it as it has been so long since we met up. The last time we met, all of us were still schooling. Now everyone is already working. One thing we all agreed on was that we all miss our times in NZ. Sigh, if only we could go back in time.

Upcoming Holiday trip
I'm going Genting on 19 Apr, yeah! Haven't really had a break in awhile. Going Genting to catch Mayday in concert live, manage to get 3rd row from the stage. Wahaha. Will be damn cool man. I'm really surprised that for the same amount of money, I can get so much better seating than I get in Singapore. If i were to buy their Singapore concert, I would have been around 20-30 rows from the stage, which honestly in my opinion defeats the purpose for buying the most expensive ticket. A pity they don't allow cameras in the Arena of stars, or else given my close proximity, i definetly would be able to take a picture of them performing.

Robert Walters D&D

2007-12-23T10:05:00.000+08:00

Attended my new company's D&D last week. Was my first formal event and man did it took effort to prepare before going, D&D is such a tiring event. Thank god its normally once a year, but at least it feels good to look presentable going to such a event because everyone is so well dressed there. The free flow of champagne, wine, beer and hard liquor was good though, haha. Was a bit apprehensive about going at first because after all i only know like 2-3 people there. But i think my solo travelling experience helped a lot, because solo travelling exposes you to a lot of situation where you are at a place and you know no one at all. Turns out to be pretty ok, because my colleagues are a pretty friendly bunch and most people knows who i am because i'm the only unfamiliar face there. Haha.

Been in my new job for 1 week. Really like the environment and work, though facing a really steep learning curve. The combination of learning Recruitment, industry knowledge and system knowledge together is pretty challenging. Absolutely no regrets about leaving my previous company, hehe. Learnt a lot and there's are still tons of things to learn. Fighting!

Addicted to variety show

2007-12-13T03:27:00.000+08:00

Recently i seem to be pretty addicted to Taiwan variety shows, think it is pretty relaxing to just relax and watch some rubbish variety shows every now and then. Have watched a couple of episodes of this variety show called 爆桿賓果王, its basically a variety show that involved pool and its quite interesting because watching the show does teach you a bit about pool and i must admit those people in the show are really good. Another interesting factors are the girls in the show, really beautiful and i must say that Taiwan has undoubtedly the second most beautiful girls in the world, the first of course being Japan (Well i'm biased towards Japanese girls anyway). The only major drawback that i heard about Taiwanese girls are that after they become your wife, they control all your finances. Not sure how true this is, but no goddess on earth can make me relinquish control of my hard earned money. Wahahaha.

Anyway, below are the link to the photo albums of two of my favorite girls in the show 小CALL and 蓓蓓

蓓蓓 (Pei Pei) - http://www.wretch.cc/album/bugssapphire

小CALL - http://tw.streetvoice.com/photo/user-album-list.asp?sd=17637

I personally like 蓓蓓 more cos i think she's more fun and spontaneous in the show. Well there are tons of their photos posted on the links above, what really surprised me was that these photos were posted by them themselves.

Enjoy, I sure did =)

Phuket trip again!

2007-12-09T23:35:00.000+08:00

Went Phuket again for the fourth time, and its still as beautiful and relaxing as ever. In fact, i think the Phi Phi beaches look even nicer as compared to my first trip there. Coincidentally we met an old friend at the airport, quite a pleasant surprise and its always nice to see people working while we are holidaying, wahaha.

Beautiful Phi Phi island

The three musketeers

Touched by an unexpected touch of kindness

2007-12-03T23:37:00.000+08:00

Was taking my depressing tax exam paper today and midway till the paper, i realise i had no way of knowing what time it is and how long more i have left to do the paper. What happen was that the only clocks in the exam hall happens to be in the front and i happen to seat at the last seat, which also means i'm a WHOLE Singapore Expo hall length away from the nearest clock. To compound to the misery, my habit of doubling my handphone as my watch backfired on me because no handphone was allowed during the examination. Well,my thinking is that if a watch can tell you the time and a handphone can tell you the time and let you make a phone call, then why bother bringing a watch at all, but i digressed. Anyway, in my desperation, i turned to the nearest invigilator and asked her what time it was. She replied me the time and her actions after that surprised and touched me. She took out her watch and placed it on my table, and told me to return to her after the exam. It is amazing how a small act of kindness can really make someone's day and honestly, i'm really appreciate of it. My original intention was to ask the time after i finish a single question. Did i mention that she was a bijin too, well that is probably the icing on the cake. And i digress again. Anyway, for a moment, i remembered a sentence from Corrinne May's Song "Angel in disguise" "I can hardly believe my eyes, she puts on a halo and starts to fly". And on hindsight, i remembered this campaign about spreading kindness and it will return to you, the idea is simple, perform an act of kindness to a person, and in turn the person perform it to another, it will ultimately return back to you. Interesting concept, but unfortunately we have yet to evolve to that stage, i honestly doubt we will, just look at the number of pregnant ladies standing during peak hour train rides to town.

Finally bought my 32" LCD TV during the Sitex fair recently, thats the problem with going to these damn fairs, you walk in not expecting to buy anything but you almost always walk out with something. The word Sale, Discount, Last 100 pieces always have a hypnotizing effect on us and pushes us beyond reason. But 900 bucks for an LCD Tv is quite a buy, though my wallet took a heavy spanking, ouch!

Watched a couple of interesting anime / shows recently

Melancholy of Suzumiya Haruhi
Very interesting anime, didn't expect it because of the weird name it has. In fact i didn't take notice of it even though it has finished airing for so long. Well on a side note, i've found a site to ease my anime cravings that doesn't involve Bittorrent, so take that you Oppressive O-Organization, i hope you wind up soon too by the way. I like the unconventional plot and how everything flows coherently after watching all the episodes.

Deadliest Catch (I'm totally addicted to this)
This is somewhat like a documentary that depicts the Alaska Crab fishing through the happenings of 5 crab fishing boats. Maybe its the sense of adventure, the excitement and the allure of doing what they do that made me addicted to this show, but honestly, i really wished i would be able to try it once. Though the risk is really high for this job, there are people that dies in the harsh environment every crab season there.

Read an interesting quote in the newspaper recently. I think it pretty much sums up my thinking and many other people's thinking.
" If i ever work, it would be because I want to and not because i have to"

Girl Generation

2007-11-10T22:48:00.000+08:00

Found a new korean girl group while browsing crunchyroll. I've embeded the mtv below. I think they dance pretty well and as usual there are some eye candy for everyone in the MTV. A bit disappointed with the new combination of Morning Musume, probably because my favourite member Miki has left the group, but i think they now look like some delinquent group in their new MV.

Officially a Miki Fujimoto Fan

2007-11-06T15:51:00.000+08:00

I hereby declare that i'm now a Miki Fujimoto fan. Oh my god, she's gorgeous man.
Really like the shots in her various Photobooks and not to mention she's a Pieces too.

A little background on Miki Fujimoto.
She was actually one of the members of the Singing Group Morning Musume.
She was the group leader before she quit the group.

Well how i noticed her was that i once saw a taiwan singing group of 4 person on the tv, then i thought to myself, how can any group survive with so many members, then i remembered about this Morning Musume group that is pretty popular in Japan and has many members. So as usual, curiosity got the better of me and i went to obtain their Sexy 8 Beat concert to watch. And it was during the concert that i notice her out of the 8-9 members.

For those interested, can check out this fansite of her http://www.mikifujimoto.com/
This photo is courtesy of this website too.

Job Change

2007-10-27T21:54:00.000+08:00

Made a small effort to change my blog design. Still prefer the old layout that i used when i was in NZ, that one had nicer colour schemes. But lost the codes for the blog. Well this one has a similar layout as the NZ one that i used last time, but without the borders, background colours and font colours. Because it would simply take up too much time for me to replicate the old design, so have to make do with this. At least it looks better than the previous one, which was a pretty failed attempt, though i must clarify that the original concept of that design was really good, just that the execution was far from perfect. Dreamweaver seems so foreign to me now, probably the effect of giving up on programming almost one year ago.

Minor announcement to make
My last day with my current company ST Electronics would be 26th Nov 2007.
Will be moving to a new company Robert Walters to assume the role of Finance Recruitment Consultant. For those unfamiliar with this company, you can check out my future new company website here http://www.robertwalters.com/en-sg/default.do

Was asked a lot of questions by many of my colleagues about my move. So for those who are interested, i've prepared a mini faq on this matter below.

Q: Robert Walters? What company is that?
A: Robert Walters is one of the largest recruitment firms in Singapore, Its an MNC with many branches around the world. Our major competitors are Michael Page and Hudson (Can't remember their full company name, hope i spelt correctly =) )

Q: What will you be doing there?
A: I'll be part of the finance team working as a recruitment consultant. My major roles involves interviewing potential candidates and matching the right candidates to meet our clients requirement. Positions that i might be handling includes but not limited to Accountants, Auditors, Finance controllers etc.

Q: Aren't you doing IT? why the sudden change to Recruitment?
A: A few reasons, i did IT sales in ST Electronics, so pretty much most of the soft skill sets are transferable to other jobs. Needed a change from IT because i think IT is too technical for my liking, after working for this past year, i realise i'm more inclined towards the people focus jobs. Chances are high that i will be moving out of the IT industry with this job change, don't think i would want to go back also.

Q: How did you got this job? Did you apply for it?
A: Nope i did not applied for it, it was through fate and a bit of luck. Prior to this offer, i was looking at banking jobs out there and honestly i've never ever thought about doing recruitment. So what i did was i posted my resume on Robert Walters website hoping that they will help me get a banking job. What happened was that the director saw my resume and contacted me about this opening that they have there and asked if i was interested to find out more about it. And well the rest is history.

So with that i end my mini faq about this matter. Really excited about my new job, haven't felt that way before, I believe it will be exciting. A bit sad though to leave my current company, afterall, i've worked very well with my colleagues and made a lot of friends there. Will be sad to leave them.

Now all that's left is to hand over my current jobs on hand, go for my Phuket holiday and move into my new job. Perfect plan. Fighting!

Surprise encounter at NYP

2007-10-20T15:21:00.000+08:00

Went to NYP for lunch a few days ago. Though NYP is quite near to my office, we seldom go there to eat. This was our first time. Was brought to the Engine Canteen by one of my colleagues because she happens to graduate from there, was really shocked by the Engine canteen, as most NUS students would know, there is hardly any females near the Engine Canteen area, and I have the number of females in a Engine Lecture is pretty pathetic. But the engine canteen in NYP is crawling with females, which comes as a surprise to me, so both our stomach and eyes feasted there. After lunch, we took a walk around and I was asking one of my colleagues which faculty did the legendary one came from and we were discussing the chances of us meeting the legendary one, which was pretty remote because firstly we rarely eat at NYP canteen, secondly, its really hard to meet a single person in such a big compound. But guess what, to our pleasant surprise, we met the legendary one not long after our conversation. Talk about luck and fate, that was really the surprise encounter of the day man. Too bad the legendary one just walked past us and there was too many people around, so i didn't really get to take a clear look at the legendary one.

Had a small talk with one of my funny colleague during breakfast yesterday, he's the one that always ask me to jio him when i go Japan look for Jap girls, and guess what, he's married and his wife is really chio loh, look a bit like Felicia Chin, just proves that to guys, one is never enough, wahaha, i'm just kidding. Anyway, we always joke about such stuff and we discussed about an interesting topic which is why Attached/Married Guys always seem to have an easier time talking/Asking out/Dating girls as compared to Single guys. We came to a few conclusion on why this is the case
1) Attached/Married guys are less concerned about the opinions/response of the girls towards them, because they already have a girlfriend/wife, so they are more relax and daring in their conversation with a girl
2) Single guys are very concerned about saying the wrong things in front of the girls, especially to the ones they like, which pretty much makes them boring to the girls.
3) To the single guys, they have a main objective and that is to attract the girl. To the attached/married guys, attracting the girl is just an additional bonus and it makes no difference to them whether the girl is attracted to them or not.

So rule of thumb for all single guys out there, approach the girls as though you are attached, better yet act like you are married, wahahaah, somehow married man has a certain appeal to them. Wonder why, beats me. Well as the saying goes " The only thing a guy can understand about women is that women are not understandable" - Ryan the wise one =)

Reservist , New Computer and WOW

2007-10-14T07:48:00.000+08:00

Kanna reservist for 5 days this week. Though it was a low key, it was really xiong. Didn't expect reservist to be so xiong now. Super demoralised during this past week. I thought i would dislike serving NS less after i finish my active duty, but apparently I was wrong. There was one good thing about reservist though and that is that because we had so much waiting time, there was a lot of interaction between the reservist people and you get to know a lot of people. Coupled with the fact that most of us share the same feeling about reservist, there was a bond between most of the people since we all felt we were in the same shoes.

Just bought my new computer. Did a complete overhaul for my new computer because my old trustworthly computer is running on obsolete technology, so there was not much parts i could resuse in the new computer.

Old Computer:
AMD Athlon CPU, DDR Ram , SATA HDD, AGP Graphics Card, Old Power supply

New Computer:
Core 2 duo E6550
Gigabyte P35 DS3 Mobo
2 Gig DDR2 Ram
Leadtek 8600 GT PCI-E Graphics Card
Antec Sonata III Casing
Total Damage $1,066 Ouch!

Wahahaah , i feel so spoilt. But boys need their big toys, haha.
Really like the new Sonata casing because it is super quiet, i think my computer sound is reduced by almost half as compared to the old computer which uses the older Sonata III Casing.
The Core 2 Duo and the faster Ram also made my Vista OS much more responsive, no more 1 sec lag when opening menus, programs etc.

Borrowed a World of Warcraft account from a colleague to play. It was quite fun, though a bit of a waste of time. Somehow i just don't have that old passion for games when i was younger. Everytime i finish playing the game i would feel like i've wasted a lot of time playing and that i should have spent that time on doing the stuff that i haven't completed. Nonetheless, i'll probably play a bit every now and then to destress a bit. The graphics really look so much better now with my new graphics card..wahahaa.

Going for a holiday break in Mid Nov, can't wait for it to come man. Dying here, work is so xian. Can't really imagine working till 40/50. And i notice a lot of my juniors/friends who have just graduated not long doesn't want to become Software Engineer, haha, here a sad fact for you, not many people can escape this fate if they want to continue in the IT industry. The good news is that there's always a choice to switch industry.

Bought two new CDs last week. As you all probably know, i very very very seldom buy CD. This purchase was kinda by chance. I was queuing to withdraw money at Marina Square and the CD shop beside the ATM played a song that was really nice plus the singer's voice was really fantastic, very seldom have i heard such a nice voice. So after i finish withdrawing my cash, i went into the shop to investigate who is the Singer. Turns out that the Singer is called Olivia, not sure whether you all have heard of her, she's a Singaporean Singer who went Japan to build her career. Anyway, after buying the latest album of hers, i asked whether she has any other albums and i was taught a new vocabulary Bossa Nova. For those who are unaware like me, Bossa Nova is like a type of music that has a soothing brazilian style to it, hard to explain but after you listen to it you will know what i mean. Her second album "A girl meets Bossa Nova 2" is fantastic. It happens to be the kind of music that i have been looking for all along, the soothing music with a catchy tone. I used to think that i was looking for Jazz music, but I was wrong all the time, I was looking for Bossa Nova music.

For those interested to listen to her songs, i think you can sample a bit of the music here http://www.hmv.com.hk/product/jazz.asp?sku=667674

100th Post! Salsa!

2007-09-17T22:22:00.000+08:00

This marks the 100th post since i started this blog like 2 years ago. Yay!!! tough to hit 100 man, especially for a lazy person like me.

Went for an intro to Salsa class yesterday. Don't ask me why i went, didn't have much of a choice.
Anyway, the class was surprisingly fun. A good chance to make a fool out of yourself and just be yourself. Though Salsa is XIONG man, my legs, thighs and hips are aching after just one hour of intro class. We were taught 3 basic steps of Salsa, which was damn tough.

I made a huge discovery during this Salsa class, i realize that there are a lot of girls around my age taking Salsa, and the class was damn skewed with 3 guys and like 20 plus girls. Not that i have anything to complain, its just so hard to focus on the damn steps with so many girls in the class. Not to mention the "pain" of having to be rotated to be the male partner (Read male escort) for all the girls in the class due to a severe lack of males in the class. Another thing i notice is that most of the girls in the class are pretty slim. On a more serious note, i feel that such classes are like way better than agencies such as SDU. You get to interact with many people in a relax environment and you get to know many people too. So for those single guys, let me introduce you to your new opportunity ground. For those attached, its not bad to widen your social circle too. Plus you get to have fun and learn Salsa.

We just like to hear good things about ourselves

2007-09-07T07:42:00.000+08:00

Got this link from a friend. Haha, we just like to hear good things about ourselves, even though i know this description could have been written by some psycho hidding in a closet on the other side of the world.

Your Birthdate: March 14

You work well with others. That is, you're good at getting them to do work for you.

It's true that you get by on your charm. But so what? You make people happy!

You're dynamic, clever, and funny. And people like to have you around.

But you're so restless, they better not expect you to stay around for long.

Your strength: Your superstar charisma

Your weakness: Commitment means nothing to you

Your power color: Fuchsia

Your power symbol: Diamond

Your power month: May

What Does Your Birth Date Mean?

Bought a new book from PageOne recently. Its called "The 4 hour Work Week - Timothy Ferriss". Very interesting book, the ideas are quite revolutionary if you can maintain an open mind when reading it. Though i think if one were to follow everything that he says in the book, one could be out of job and run out of money in a very short time. There are merits to his book also, at least through his book, i realise what are the important things i want to achieve and that actually quite a number of things i want to achieve doesn't really cost much and can start doing almost immediately. Highly recommend this book because i think this book really set me thinking and challenges all my previous mindset.

Also bought another book called "The Richest man in Babylon" which i've finished reading. Its a pretty thin book. There is a story behind this book, during my travels in Cairns Austratlia, i chance upon a conversation between an old american uncle and a young polish chap. They were talking about money matters because the chap complained that even though he had a masters, he doesn't have much money. So the american uncle told him about this book and that he MUST go read this book. He went on to brag about how he got from heavily in debt to owning a house, savings etc after reading the book. So naturally, the curious me bought the book when i saw it on the bookshelf on pageone. The book was entertaining, but most of the concepts in the book i already know, so didn't really benefit much from the book. Think i only got $2 of knowledge for the $15 i spent on the book. It is a very enlightening book for people who have problems managing their daily finance or are in heavy debt, something like a Personal Finance 101 textbook. Well, after reading, i passed the book to my Brother, so hopefully he can help me earn back the $13 dollars i lost after reading the book.

A new post...Finally!

2007-08-30T22:57:00.000+08:00

Seeing other people's blog makes me realise how frequently updated my blog is. Haha. Been really plain lazy to update. So heres a quick update on what the more interesting events that has happened recently. Though i seriously wonder how many people still visit my blog these days.

Play! A game music symphony
Went to attend the this symphony concert where they perform all the classic games musics. Really refreshing to listen to some of the old classic tunes such as Mario and my favourite Zelda theme song. There's even Shinobi played, don't believe it man. Anyway, was a enjoyable performance despite the insensitivity of some Singaporeans who giggled in the middle of the performance, was so embarassed that i felt like hiding myself and pretend i'm not a Singaporean. We really need lots of culture training to remove the ugly side of us. Sigh, no wonder we are so notorious holidayers overseas.

Corrinne May Beautiful Seed Concert
I also attended Corrinne May's Beautiful Seed Concert, totally worth the 48 bucks that i paid. Didn't expect her live performance to be so good, and her voice is really powerful. Even bought her new album (The first CD album i've bought since a very long long long time, shows my strong support for her, well 20 bucks seem so much smaller now after I start working). Also went to queue like 1hour for her Autograph after the concert, hehe really feel like an avid Corrinne May fan. Was really pissed off because just when it was my turn to talk to her, my camera phone went low batt, how suay can one get. So in the end, i missed the opportunity to take a picture with her. Must take one picture with her if she comes back for another concert, which i definetly will attend.

Got my first ever Dividend Cheque
Was so excited to get my first dividend cheque, though the amount is not a lot, its really a very happy feeling to get some money other than your paycheck. Well, it means my ultimate plan of retirement at 40 is not far away. Have to think of more money making ideas, its so interesting trying to beat the odds and make money.

Alizee!
Was introduced to this really popular french singer Alizee by one of my colleagues. She's super chio and has a killer bod, youtube for it if you don't believe me. Anyway, I really enjoyed her songs, thought i can't understand what she's singing. It always interesting to listen to other language's song, because i realise that different language songs have different tune and arrangement. Did i mention that she's only 23, damn i'm missing out on a lot. Maybe i should go pick up french, bonjour!

My dogs, still as cute as ever, thought still as mischievious too
Brought my dog to grooming, which punch a pretty big hole in my wallet, now they look so Shuai now, just like their owner. I'm sure all the bitches out there will fall head over heels over them.

A little thought from myself
Been a bit sad for this past few months because two of my friends whom i was close with left my life. Not sure what happened, one of them just suddenly because very cold towards me, not sure whether i did anything to upset her during the last time that we meet. The other one i can understand why, but still it can be quite sad to lose contact with these friends whom i used to be very close with. Hopefully someday, we can resolve our problems and be like we used to be.

Financial 101
Just a little something to share the financial tools i've been using for the past year. Though these are insufficient to make you filthy rich, if used properly, these tools can surely shorten your retirement goal and make your existing money last longer.
1) Standard Chartered E-Saver account - 1.5% interest per annum, sure beats POSB
2) POEMS Treasury Bills -1.5-3% returns, Capital guaranteed, not too bad, but very mafan cos its 3mth bills and your have to buy another bills again after 3 mths
3) UOB ONE Credit Card - Just got this card not long ago, but the 30 dollar rebate every quarter is very attractive, sure beats getting points which can't really exchange for much stuff. You only need to spend 300 on the card for 3 consecutiver months to get the 30 dollar rebate, its close to a 3% rebate on your 900 spending, pretty attractive
4) Stocks trading account - you might not be buying stock now, but its always good to have one on hand.
5) SRS account - though i don't have one at the moment, for those really high income earners, this account can help reduce your taxes.

Hokkaido Trip!
Planning a mid length travel trip to Hokkaido Japan in Jan! Gonna do some serious snowboarding at the powder snow there. Really miss snowboarding, its so sad that the nearest snowboarding place to us is so far away, well that's the pain of living in the equator. Gonna do some travel to my favourite country in the world, imagine snowboarding in the day and then retreat to a soothing onsen bath in the evening followed by a good meal and a good sleep, heaven! Desperately need a break soon, pretty burnout with some stuff and work. Also need a bit of time off to slow down and reset my bearings in life. Getting pretty lost recently, seems like i'm heading in random directions. Well maybe its just a quarterlife crisis. But can't help feeling i'm wasting my precious life away now.

But as what my favourite celebrity Steph Song said before "I will not tiptoe thru life just to arrive safely at death!"

The best definition of financial freedom

2007-06-14T22:01:00.000+08:00

Read this phrase from an article which i think is the best definition for financial freedom

Financial freedom - How long you can sustain your current lifestyle without trading time for money.

Trading time for money is such a waste of time, but its not like we can do much about it.

It doesn't matter

2007-05-29T23:28:00.000+08:00

One of the interesting photos i took during one of my many trips to Wellington. I miss Wellington a lot because i had many wonderful memories there that can't be relieved even if i go back again.

All the NUS Exchange students at Wellington Midnight Cafe!

Me and my lovely cuppa partner at Olive Cafe. One of the first few cafe that i went to in Wellington. Minor boasting of accomplishment, i cleared all the cafes listed in the Wellington best cafe brochure, all there are at least 20 cafes listed inside =) .
I still can't understand why i would pinch on a 5 dollar lunch and spend 4.50 on a Cafe latte - Confession of a Cafe latte addict.

Passed CCNA!

2007-05-20T11:27:00.000+08:00

After 5 months of delay and procrastinating, I've finally passed my CCNA exams. Phew, was a tough one to pass. Now i have one load off my mind. After taking networking, i realise that networking can be quite fun and interesting. Though I won't go into a career doing networking, the limited interaction nature of the job scope will bore me to death. Totally different from the boring 2105 networking lessons that we took in school, school really kills a subject man.

Just realize i'm not the only one who seldom updates their blog. Nothing much to put anyway, not like when i was in NZ where i took pictures so often and had so much eye-opening encounters daily. In fact my Digicam is collecting dust these days.

Some quick updates for those loyal fans who are still chancing upon my blog every now and then.

Currently watching
- Anime : Bleach,naruto,one piece,Prince of tennis and Nagasarate Airantou
- HK Drama : 窈窕淑女, 覆雨翻云, 碧血剑.

Currently time available
- Limited because very busy for the coming weeks. For those dear friends whom i have not met for ages, please kindly contact me and lets arrange a time to catch up.
- I don't even have time for Mahjong, so sad man. Its been like months since i last played Mahjong.

Currently picking up during my free time
- Financial report reading
- Interior Designing
- Manga Drawing
- Shares and property investing

Things i wished i have time to do
- Do some exercise - Tennis or swimming
- Pick up Yoga
- Plan a big travel trip (Though i have no idea when i'll be able to realise it)
- Clean up my messy room
- Sort out my finance and letters, all in a mess now.
- Watch more animes, HK drama and play some games
- MAHJONG!!!
- Japanese language (Yes, i have not given up on this, though i suck at it)

I would have cleared many stuff after the first week of June. So hopefully I will be able to start doing some of these things. For those who want to meet up, anytime after 1 week of June would be good.

My tarot sign

2007-04-26T23:12:00.000+08:00

Grab this from a long lost friend's blog. Not sure what the comments actually mean, but the quiz results say i'm the sun. Just hope i don't burn out too fast,haha.

You are The Sun

Happiness, Content, Joy.

The meanings for the Sun are fairly simple and consistent.

Young, healthy, new, fresh. The brain is working, things that were muddled come clear, everything falls into place, and everything seems to go your way.

The Sun is ruled by the Sun, of course. This is the light that comes after the long dark night, Apollo to the Moon's Diana. A positive card, it promises you your day in the sun. Glory, gain, triumph, pleasure, truth, success. As the moon symbolized inspiration from the unconscious, from dreams, this card symbolizes discoveries made fully consciousness and wide awake. You have an understanding and enjoyment of science and math, beautifully constructed music, carefully reasoned philosophy. It is a card of intellect, clarity of mind, and feelings of youthful energy.

What Tarot Card are You?
Take the Test to Find Out.

Snow Wolf Lake

2007-04-14T23:44:00.000+08:00

One of my favorite songs from my favorite Musical Snow Wolf Lake. Praying that there will be a third performance, though i quite doubt there will be one. This song is just so touching.

雪爱狼
雪不用言语来分析
不用眼神来证明
我的心跳和旋律
都是跟随你走的脚印
喜欢对着你撒娇的自己
喜欢看见你为了我而生气
只要嗅到你的气息
内心都特别平静
晨光东起月照大地
我都想接近你
从今天起到天枯寂
为你悲为你喜
身体灵魂全都属于你
还有来生也要在一起
变作雪花我费尽力气
都想飘到你怀里
身体灵魂全都属于你
你就是我活下来的目的
我答应你
春夏秋冬这四季
每一天爱着你
唯一的爱是你

Back from paradise

2007-04-02T21:00:00.000+08:00

Just came back from Paradise!

Went on a super relaxing 4-day trip to Phuket at a really beautiful hotel.
Staying at the hotel really gives you the feeling that you have made it in life (Though i haven't =) ) The amount of pampering you get is out of this world. There was plenty of time there for everything and lazing around was such an enjoyment.

A short summary of our daily schedule.

Wake up slowly in the morning, head over to the dinning area have buffet breakfast while overlooking into the ocean. Head to the pool, relax on the pool chair, sun tan, read a book. Go back to hotel room to wash up at around 5 plus, take a shuttle to Patong Beach, eat our sumptuous seafood meal, walk around patong beach, head for our 2 hour daily thai massage, eat our favourite roadside beef noodle soup and thai pancake. Take a tut-tut back to our hotel. Ultimate indulgence, kekeke.

Let me give you all a preview of my hotel.

One of the 3 beautiful pools at my hotel - The Garden Pool

The infinity pool - Absolutely amazing.

The family pool

Our boat trip to our hotel's private island (Yes you heard me right, the hotel has its own private island)

The view that i saw while lazing around on the beach chair. Those dark patches in the sea are actually corals, there are lots of marine life there when we went snorkelling there.

The beach on the private island

Our sumptuous and delicious seafood dinner before our daily 2 hour cheap massage. We had two huge fish, tom yam soup, a big plate of mussels that cost just 6 Sing Dollars and Tiger prawn. We really felt like king. And the best part is it only cost us SGD$25 dollars per person.

I wanna go back to paradises!!! 4 days just ain't enough man.

Safe in a crazy world

2007-03-23T15:20:00.000+08:00

Today, i was listening to Corrine May's album on my work to course and out of a sudden i felt that her music has a really soothing effect on me. In the past, i love her album mainly because her songs are nice. It is not until today, that i realize how meaningful her songs are.

I personally find this song by her very meaningful. Perhaps its because I can relate to the lyrics.
I mean life has been quite good to me(Not much complains about it), I have a pretty ok job with an ok pay, good family, loving girlfriend (And many loving mistress ,haha, just kidding), good friends to support me. But i just can't seem to find an answer to how to lead the fulfilling life that i have always yearn for, there just always seems so many things to worry about.
I honestly have a strong admiration to those who dare to go after their dreams. For those who are as guilty as me for being pressured by this crazy world to lead a life of fast paced money focused rushed lifestyle, maybe its time to take a step back and to rethink whether this is the life that we really want to lead.

I have a choice to lead another lifestyle, I just lack the courage to go for it. My current life is pretty ok, but i just can't help thinking that there must be so much more to life than this.

I was walking out of the Harbourfront MRT at 10am today. I was not in a rush so i walked at a normal pace, the crazy thing was that everybody around me was rushing beside me and without knowing it, i was entailed into their hurried pace and i started to speed up to their pace. Slowing down just feels so guilty when everyone is rushing. But slowing down was what my mind and body really needed, been quite sick of my rushed lifestyle recently. So i slowed down, took a really slow walk to toastbox, even though i am already very late for my course, sat down and had a slow leisure breakfast. And believe me, that was the happiest 30 mins of my day, and that was the only time i felt i was alive and in control of my life. Though i was quite embarrassed when i reach my class.

I honestly think that i am living in a crazy world, or maybe i am the only one that is crazy.

Corrine May
Everything in its time

Sometimes I wonder what lies ahead
How long till my hunger is fed
They say it's hard to make it in this part of town
So many people on this merry-go-round

Some folks try astrology
Some turn to crystal balls
To find an answer,
To get through it all
I just fall on my knees and I try to pray
In the silence I can hear Him say

The river runs and the river hides
Out to the ocean and under the sky
I promise you, the answer will come
Hold on to patience and watch for the sign
Everything in its time

I often feel like I'm two steps behind
Somebody must have moved that finish line
There are a thousand reasons
Why I should give up
But I'm stubborn in the things I believe

The river runs and the river hides
Out to the ocean and under the sky
I promise you, the answer will come
Hold on to patience and watch for the sign

'cause maybe there's another plan
One I still can't see
A little surprise, like your love in my life
Funny how time changes how we see

The river runs and the river hides
Out to the ocean and under the sky
I promise you, the answer will come
Hold on to patience and watch for the sign
Everything in its time
Everything in its time

My favourite artist

2007-03-13T09:10:00.000+08:00

My favourite artist of all time..Boa!!!
Recently she released a new album with DVD, thus I have been listening to her songs and watching her performance quite a lot these days. Jacky Cheung's album is pretty good too, maybe i should go attend his concert in July.

She's currently holding concerts in Japan and Korea, so wished i could go attend just one of her concerts. But her tickets are so hard to get, even harder when i'm in Singapore and can't read Korean or Japanese. Any one with links to get her concerts ticket must inform me k. If only she would come to Singapore and hold a concert like what Rain did.

Attending her concert is one of the many must accomplish things in my life. Other must accomplish things in my life
1) Catch one of the Tennis Grand Slams (Quite possible since Australia is so near and the tickets are sold at Sistic here)
2) Work or Study in Japan for 1 year and master Japanese. Just feel so intrigued about their culture and lifestyle. Definetly worth spending a year to learn about their vast culture (Much harder to accomplish unless i get selected for JET)
3) Work in London. Earning in pounds and then unloading the strong pounds in european countries is the ideal plan to tour europe comfortably and affordability. Not to mention since london is one of the major gateways to Europe, transport to all other europe countries are especially efficient and cheap. ( Quite hard cos its hard to getting a working visa, too bad we are not linked to them like Australia or NZ, else we would be eligible for the free 6mths work visa). Tough though not impossible, cos i found out a way to accomplish this. Slim chance, but better than nothing).
4) Get my country house in NZ and spend my vacation relaxing there (Possible though takes time, due to money factor). NZ is just such a lovely place, living there makes u feel alive. Living here makes me feel like I am a slave to society.
5) Snowboard for the entire winter season!! Just love snowboarding, though i haven't been too good at it. (Quite possible to do it as a trip or just simply leverage on my future NZ house, cars are cheap in NZ).
6) Attend a tennis getaway training camps in America or Europe. There exist many isolated tennis training resorts, where you just go there, learn,play tennis all day and spend the rest of the time relaxing and enjoying the nature. (Quite possible, just need some money)

There are still many other things to accomplish, but for me these are the major ones. And most of them requires a fair bit of money. Hence the reason why i'm working so hard now and stuck in this endless and life sucking cycle of rat race here.

If i am to be a rat, i'll make sure at the end of the race, i become a free rat. I have no intention to continue this race forever. To my juniors in NUS who are graduating soon, welcome to the rat race.

Sad sad day

2006-12-29T18:09:00.000+08:00

Was a very sad day because one of my brother's dog Chase died yesterday. Chase has been with our family for many years and i had taken care of her when she was just a puppy. Its really sad to lose a family member, but i guess that is the curse all dog owners have to bear.

In Loving Memory of Chase (Left)

My darlings

2006-12-26T19:53:00.000+08:00

Found some old pictures of my dogs when they were still a puppy.

Hyper used to be smaller than Stun.

Chocolate frenzy

I'm a survey and pathfinding magnet

2006-12-09T21:32:00.000+08:00

Was waiting around Raffles Area yesterday and was approached to do two separate surveys. I swore that i'm not the only one in that area loh. Cos its off work time and there are many people there. One of the girl that asked me to help her with the survey was from NYP, they are actually doing a survey for an entrepreneur project. Seeing her reminds me of the time when i was walking around airport asking people to do my survey for my stupid TR2201 project. Anyway, i was quite shocked to realize how young she was, and then a shocking fact crashed on me => Its not that she's young, its that i'm no longer young. Another note was that i'm actually a pathfinding magnet too, cos many people just like to ask me for directions. Even though most of the time i have no idea about the place that they are heading. Maybe i have the helpful look *beams*.

Attended the CISCO CEO seminar yesterday, quite boring but at least the reception food was good. Also cleared the task of setting up my Wireless router which i have been procrastinating for a while. And i'm proud to announce that my house is wireless ready! Though it doesn't affect me much since my desktop is connected using lan cable.

For my dear Rachel

2006-11-21T20:03:00.000+08:00

I'm sure this photo has never been posted before.
I wanna go back to my NZ days! Somebody send me a time machine!

The "I don't know what i want" Syndrome

2006-11-20T22:56:00.000+08:00

This just suddenly came to my mind. I've noticed that i've constantly pondered about this question throughout at least half of my life. I'm not sure about others, but i'm quite certain many people would have thought about this too at some point in their life.

The question is "What do i really want?"

It can be about career, life, relationship etc. Ultimately it always boils down to one conclusion, i don't know and can never seem to know what i want.

Then creepy questions will creep up like, is this the career that i want, is this the life that i want to lead, is this the relationship that i want.

After many hours of conscious and unconscious thinking. I've realized that its hard to know what you want for certain.

Then another question will pop up, its "Then what am i supposed to do?"
Its a bit like driving without knowing your destination, u get really lost and upset because u feel like you are going nowhere.

After many more hours of thinking, I've arrived at the conclusion that when you don't know what you want in life, go with the next best alternative. Do what you want now. When we do things, we always tend to worry about will doing this leads me to somewhere that i want to go. Will being with this girl lead me to marriage, will living such a life lead me to happiness, will doing this job lead me to the career that i want.

Wouldn't it be simpler to just do what you want to do now, at least you know for certain that at this point of time, this is what you want to do.

It sounds easy to do what you want to do now, but it is actually very difficult for many people to do it.

This doesn't mean that we shouldn't plan things, in fact i always believe that planning is very important in life. But in order to plan things, u need a destination. For those things that you have a destination, by all means plan and work towards it. For the rest that you don't know the destination yet, i have only one thought for it "Just do it anyway", afterall Life is too short to hesitate.

This is a very philosophical post, think i just happen to be in such a mood. Oh well, i always have lots of theories about life, think if i write down all my theories, everyone would be bored to death.

What a steal!!

2006-11-19T22:15:00.000+08:00

I'm so happy today, i got a 4 gig Ipod Nano for $240! Retail price is at $348. What a steal man. Big thanks to my buddy for informing me about the Apple Opening Sale at Cineleisure. What happen was that there is a big Apple distributor shop opening today at cineleisure, and they have this partner with DBS to give a 30% discount for DBS credit card, which also happens to be the only credit card i have at the moment.Wahaha.

Anyway, have been delaying my Ipod Nano purchase for quite sometime, just couldn't justify my need to get one. For those who are unaware, my Ipod Mini got stolen during my trip to Vietnam, but it was a blessing in disguise because the travel insurance company compensated me for the lost, so I got returned $450 bucks, paid $250 for my new Ipod Nano, pocketed the balance $200 bucks and actually got sort of like a free upgrade to an Ipod Nano, which boast a much much smaller and slimmer size, 3 times longer battery life and best of all its new! haha.

On a side note, went to watch James Bond today, quite average but at least its an action film, which i like. The new bond girl is super hot though, but almost everyone could guess about her ending. Some parts of the plot got me quite confused though, its not until the end that you actually understand what happened in between.

A hairy experience

2006-11-05T19:45:00.000+08:00

Yesterday went Ding Tai Feng to had dinner and splurged on a Da Zha Xie, hairy crab. I didn't expect it to be so tiring to eat. But i must say its a very interesting experience. Eating it is almost like an art, and its freaking expensive. No way will i eat another one here man. But that was the first time i ate crab till i was so tired, not to mention that it is just a small crab. Haha, it was damn funny, because it was so expensive, we did our best to not waste a single piece of meat. But the problem is that the crab is freaking tiny and its so hard to get out the meat. Really takes a lot of effort and dedication to eat it correctly. But it was a very interesting experience.

Recently very crazy over One Piece Anime also, I've chased the anime to 200 plus episodes. Been so long since i watched so much anime. Satisfied =).

Gomu Gomu no tako! I simply love luffy.

张韶涵 - 遗失的美好

2006-10-26T21:27:00.000+08:00

海的思念绵延不绝
终于和天在地平线交会
爱如果走得够远
应该也会跟幸福相见

承诺常常很像蝴蝶
美丽的飞盘旋然后不见
但我相信你给我的誓言
就像一定会来的春天

我始终带着你爱的微笑
一路上寻找我遗失的美好
不小心当泪滑过嘴角
就用你握过的手抹掉

再多的风景也从不停靠
只一心寻找我遗失的美好
有的人说不清哪里好
但就是谁都替代不了

在最开始的那一秒有些事早已经注定要到老
虽然命运爱开玩笑真心会和真心遇到

Change of lifestyle

2006-10-22T21:49:00.000+08:00

Been noticing something recently, that is after working, its really hard to meet up with friends like i used to do when i was in uni. In fact, it has become so rare for me to use msn that i think even when i go online, it'll just be for less than an hour. Quite a lot of lifestyle changes. For those friends who want to look for me or wants to meet up, just simply sms me, you'll get a much faster response =)

For those that are moving on to work life from uni life. Here are some things you'll probably encounter
1) You might tend to sleep earlier than you used to, not because you want to, but because you might get really tired from work.
2) Night times are especially precious and you tend not to waste them.
3) You tend to sign in less on msn and lose touch with the msn world
4) Weekends are even more precious now =)
5) You lose contact with many of your friends except for a couple of close ones. Simply because there isn't so much time a week to meet everyone.
6) Group outings become a thing in the past, it becomes smaller group outing or one to one meet up.
7) You feel that everything you have learnt in school up till now is irrelevant and totally not useful. And you start to realise how inexperience you are.
8) You spend more lavishly, take more cabs, pay more attention to what you spend and go more restaurants to eat than food court. Its true, money corrupts.

Recently watched two new movies, Death Note and The guardian. I think both are pretty nice, a good escape from the past few month's barrage of romantic love comedies and cartoon. The thought of watching another one of those just simply disgust me, absolutely bore the shit out of me. Death Note i like the twist in plots and the way the two characters pit against each other. Though there are many reviews that says its quite bad and unrealistic, well it just shows how little they watch animations. It is unrealistic simply because it was adapted from a manga, so how realistic you expect it to be. Guardian is also quite nice though it'll kinda remind the guys about their army days.

Currently also watching Kindaichi animation, though its quite an old animation, i really love the way they show the ingenious way of commiting the crime and solving it. Probably thats why i love CSI too.

Current thought : Half the fun of living is pondering how best to live your life.

Current Update

2006-10-11T21:23:00.000+08:00

Been quite a while since i post anything. So just to inform everyone that i'm still alive and kicking, i'll post a bit about my current situation.

Work : If you want to know how my daily work life is like, just imagine yourself running across a minefield and trying to avoid the mines. In short, tiring. But at least I like what i'm doing.

Life : Still trying to find out my purpose in life and what I want in life. Currently doing some reading everyday, adding exercise into my life,learning golf and researching on travel stuff.

Latest big plan : Fly to London, travel across europe,hit Russia,take transiberian railway to China and fly back home. Trip time : Around 3 months, Execution time : No idea at all.

Current thought : Life should be simpler

Important reminder to myself

2006-09-21T22:05:00.000+08:00

A post to remind myself of the things that i love and to remind myself not to lose my dreams during work.

Beautiful Phuket - Sawadi Karp!

Enchanting Korea - Annyeong Haseyo!!

Taiwan Land of the best food and 2nd best girls!

Turkey land of Belly dancing and apple tea, turkish massage is a culture shock - Merah bah!

New Zealand - It looks as nice as in Lord of the Rings, sweet as!

Australia - Home of the biggest reef on earth and spectacular Bondi Beach! Cheers mate!

Japan - Land of Shrines,Ramen and the most beatiful ladies on earth - Konichiwa!

Hong Kong - Land of Beautiful night lights

Vietnam - Land of motorbikes,crossing the road safely requires training - Sin Chow!

And i've barely even scratch the surface. Nothing can substitute dreams, have you pursued yours?

Lucky day!!

2006-08-21T21:29:00.000+08:00

Today went for my first company event, in fact should be considered my company unit event. Its a bowling event. Originally i didn't want to go one, but i happen to know the organiser so i went. Hehe, i won 140 dollars metro voucher in the competition, really lucky. Cos i win the individual event and the group event my team won too, actually i just happened to be quite on form for the individual event, the team event is my teammates power, hehe. Anyway just lucky lah, and quite enjoyed the event. Especially since i haven't had much fun after i started work. At least it makes me feel i still have part of a life. Anyway the real gain today goes deeper than the vouchers,i'll leave it to your imagination to deduce what the real gain was =).

潘嘉丽 - 爱,无力

2006-08-15T21:58:00.000+08:00

最后我们分开了
虽然还是朋友
但做回朋友的情人
想摆脱关系不太容易
寂寞成了习惯
习惯靠着孤单
想念该遗忘
不该在身旁
陪着我的每个夜晚
我只想
对着夜空轻轻的呼吸
问自己最爱的人到底在哪里
在慌乱中
翻箱倒柜寻找记忆
有一种
爱它曾经住在我心里
陪伴我熬过多少个无声哭泣
不懂爱情
我的心如此无力
其实我很清醒
其实我很冷静
看着眼泪滴落在手心

First day of work

2006-08-14T20:19:00.000+08:00

Went on my first day of work today and this was how my day went.

8.30am - Arrive at the gate.
8.45am - Reach my office,then stare at wall in my tiny cubicle
10.00am - Short tour around the company,shaking hands and talking to people that i have no idea who they are and can't remember their names.
10.20am - Back to my tiny cubicle and staring at wall again.
12pm - Went for a quick lunch and got introduced to some new friends, this was the interesting part.
12.30pm - Talk to my project manager and get orientated.
1pm - Crash course by my friend on some basic IT stuff
2pm - went down one floor to know more friends and chat with them.
2.30pm - went back to my tiny cublicle and pretend to be reading some IT book while looking out for those big sharks lurking around.
5pm - Went for short break at pantry
6pm - Knock off. And thus ended my first day at work.

Thank god i'm starting my real work tomorrow. So i'm sure this would be the first and only uneventful day at work. It was pretty uneventful, but some of the interactions with the fellow colleagues are quite interesting, what surprised me most was that i think i'm more suited for working life than i originally thought i would be. So thats a good thing. Well, another 9 hours till my next work day.

Job update

2006-07-29T13:10:00.000+08:00

I've finally gotten a job, will be working in ST from mid August. Though the job is quite average, i really need the money now, so just take up the job. I would say its a good starting job but not exactly in line with the direction that i want to head in the future, so i'll just work through my contract and decide on my path after that. The pay is pretty average, but at least i won't starve =).

Compared to some others, i started a few steps behind, but this is where it all begins. I might be lagging , but i'll definetly do my best to catch up and overtake.

So let the race begins! To my other friends who are still looking for a job, good luck. And if you are interested in working in ST, i can help send your resume internally to HR. And in the event that you get selected, i'll get some cash incentive, hehe, but i wouldn't mind splitting half with you. Everybody gains right,haha.

My super overdued graduation photo - Taken with my two good friends Atsushi and Mirae, i'm so happy that i'm able to see them during my graduation period,they were a part of so many of my New Zealand wonderful memories. we had a wonderful eating spree during their stay here, drove across Singapore sampling all the best food, yummy.

Went to Aves's birthday yesterday, quite glad i was able to make it back for his birthday celebration, cos afterall he's my dear mj kaki. Was quite interesting because most of the people there i'm quite close with. And not to mention that place really has hot girls man, omg, bio till eyeball drop.

My good mahjong kakis, together we are North,East,South and West! Haha,so glad i met them cos its really hard to find friends you can really click well with in Uni.
From right - Aves our Birthday Boy or rather Uncle, Teck Leep the SGN, Me the charming and our beautiful Ting Ting.

What can i say, i'm the luckiest guy in the world. Man i just love Zuo Yong You Bao,haha. Bet you can't tell that they are sisters. Adeline on the left and Angie on the right. Sometimes i do wonder why we can only have 1 wife in Singapore, two's a company, three or more is pure bliss.

Vietnam Trip

2006-07-29T12:45:00.000+08:00

Just came back from Vietnam, didn't really like the place that much. We went 3 places, mainly Hanoi, Halong Bay and Sapa. Of the 3, only Sapa is worth mentioning, Halong bay is basically a bay of islands and its supposed to be a world heritage area, but it really is not impressive to me because i've been to so many beautiful bays in New Zealand. Probably it would be nice to other people. I call this symptom the Oversaturation Problem. Its like when you have seen the Great Barrier Reef, every other reef just don't seem that nice. And thus i'm currently starting to suffer from this symptom. So at the end of the day, its normally the culture that excites and intrigue me, but unfortunately i didn't really like the culture of vietnam that much, i've seen a couple of interesting things, but the people are generally not too friendly and basically everyone is trying to cheat you of your money, because they overcharge foreigners everything, and i'm talking about a 200% increase from the original price. I mean, the overcharged price is still relatively cheap for us, but i just freaking hate to be axed by them and having to constantly guard against excessive overcharging is one thing that i really hate about vietnam. Its like every single thing that i purchase and buy, i have to scrutinise the price, bargain and ensure i'm not being overcharged too much. And whats worse is that ultimately you'll still be overcharge. And my experience with the people is not too good because i left my ipod mini in the taxi and the freaking dishonest driver never returned it. In short, personally i quite dislike vietnam, probably will not visit it again in the coming 10-15 years. Despite all this, there is still a side of vietnam that i like, which is Sapa. And also i've drank the cheapest beer in the whole world in vietnam, i paid 20 cents for a 500ml beer, and the beer is pretty nice too, totally amazed by the price.

Beautiful Sapa

Waterfall in Sapa

My lovely and hyper tour guide. She belongs to the Tzao tribe but unfortunately this photo she's not wearing her traditional clothes. To know how hyper she is, think of her like a Jack Russel with Caffeine intake, unlimited energy.

One of the nicest shot of Sapa, absolutely mesmerizing.And this was one of the view from my hotel window, real beautiful.

Our beautiful hotel staff in Hanoi,really helpful and nice.

Ho Chi Minh Manusolem - supposedly the final resting place of Ho Chi Minh their war hero during the vietnam war. But to me its just a been there done that visit.

Addicted to this drama

2006-06-23T00:45:00.000+08:00

Currently i've beeen watching this new Jap drama called Attention Please! , its about how a rock girl becomes an air stewardess. Whats most interesting is that i actually saw an episode of this show when i was in Japan, though without the subtitle. I must take JAL one day and see for myself how the JAL air stewardess is like, yosh, i'll jot this down in my long list of things to do before i die.

Also listening to the new Jap band High and Mighty Colors, for those who watch bleach, you should have heard one of their song ichirin no hara. I use to dislike those rock music, but this one is quite listenable, though some of the shouting parts i still dislike, but overall quite nice.

I think i'm lock in to Jap culture and stuff. =p

Singapore travel trip

2006-06-22T13:59:00.000+08:00

Don't ask me why, but i took a short travel trip around Singapore. Doing what tourist do and trying my best to fit in as a tourist. Its interesting that there are so many things we take for granted just because its at our doorstep. On this trip, i discovered many new places that i never thought existed.

One of the most famous postcard view, not sure if this is clark quay or boat quay

Fullerton hotel, i believe this place must be photgraphed at least a million times.

Asian civilization museum, bet you didn't know such a place existed. Its pretty interesting with a lot of culture about SE Asia.

Final part of trip - part 3 - Hong Kong

2006-06-22T13:35:00.000+08:00

Taken at the a popular tourist hill spot in Hong Kong, can't remember the name though. It has a really nice view of Hong Kong, though i would really like to see the sight that they always show in Hong Kong drama, the one along a hill road and can look down on Hong Kong, still have no idea where that place is.

Me and wax figure of myself, haha. We were very lucky to be able to take with Andy lau, because minutes after we finish photo taking with him, he was moved for maintenance work. Really feel sad for those people behind me.

Me and my girlfriend. Told her go sightseeing with me don't need to dress so nice, but she still insist. Oh well. =p . On a side note, she's quite tall, didn't expect her to be so tall.

Flying dolphins, Taken at Ocean Park, somehow i feel there's less people now at Ocean Park compared to the last time that i went, must be because of the new Disneyland. However the dolphin performance is really quite amazing.

Me and Panda, i very suay, just when we were going to take the picture, the Panda started relieving himself on the wall. Hence the weird Panda posture..haha.

Our wonderful Hong Kong friends who took time off their busy work schedule to bring us to see the real Hong Kong, local style. Amy on the left and Corsette on the right. I think meeting up with them has been one of my major highlights for my Hong Kong trip, though i enjoy visiting new places and doing new stuff. At the end of the day,its meeting up with the friends that i really enjoy. Big thank you to Corsette,Amy,Cara,Alice and Thomas for bringing us around.

Its funny that a person like who's introverted enjoys mixing with people. This is something i notice. I dislike mingling/socialising, but i absolutely enjoy the time i spend with my friends. In fact i feel that the place/activity is not really important, its always the people. Hence explains the reason why i won't be able to travel the world alone, because my character needs social interaction yet i have problems socialising with new people. What a troublesome problem.

Our final meal in Hong Kong, was so touch that everyone woke up early just to eat our final breakfast with us, especially since everyone left so late the day before. Not to mention that quite a few of them will have to rush to work after eating with us.

And that wraps up my entire travel trip to Tokyo - Kyoto - Hong Kong.

Personality test

2006-06-22T02:03:00.000+08:00

Grabbed this link from a friend's blog
http://www.humanmetrics.com/cgi-win/JTypes1.htm

Haha, i'm a very rare type , no more than 1% of the population. Woohoo!!

The Portrait of the Mastermind Rational (iNTj)

Of the four aspects of strategic analysis and definition, it is the contingency planning or entailment organizing role that reaches the highest development in Masterminds. Entailing or contingency planning is not an informative activity, rather it is a directive one in which the planner tells others what to do and in what order to do it. As the organizing capabilities the Masterminds increase so does their inclination to take charge of whatever is going on.

It is in their abilities that Masterminds differ from the other Rationals, while in most of their attitudes they are just like the others. However there is one attitude that sets them apart from other Rationals: they tend to be much more self-confident than the rest, having, for obscure reasons, developed a very strong will. They are rather rare, comprising no more than, say, one percent of the population. Being very judicious, decisions come naturally to them; indeed, they can hardly rest until they have things settled, decided, and set. They are the people who are able to formulate coherent and comprehensive contingency plans, hence contingency organizers or "entailers."

Masterminds will adopt ideas only if they are useful, which is to say if they work efficiently toward accomplishing the Mastermind's well-defined goals. Natural leaders, Masterminds are not at all eager to take command of projects or groups, preferring to stay in the background until others demonstrate their inability to lead. Once in charge, however, Masterminds are the supreme pragmatists, seeing reality as a crucible for refining their strategies for goal-directed action. In a sense, Masterminds approach reality as they would a giant chess board, always seeking strategies that have a high payoff, and always devising contingency plans in case of error or adversity. To the Mastermind, organizational structure and operational procedures are never arbitrary, never set in concrete, but are quite malleable and can be changed, improved, streamlined. In their drive for efficient action, Masterminds are the most open-minded of all the types. No idea is too far-fetched to be entertained-if it is useful. Masterminds are natural brainstormers, always open to new concepts and, in fact, aggressively seeking them. They are also alert to the consequences of applying new ideas or positions. Theories which cannot be made to work are quickly discarded by the Masterminds. On the other hand, Masterminds can be quite ruthless in implementing effective ideas, seldom counting personal cost in terms of time and energy.

Emotional aspect of INTJ

This is very interesting, the emotional aspect of someone like me who is classified as INTJ.
Potential girlfriends for me should read this, its so true its scary.

Personal relationships, particularly romantic ones, can be the INTJ's Achilles heel. While they are capable of caring deeply for others (usually a select few), and are willing to spend a great deal of time and effort on a relationship, the knowledge and self-confidence that make them so successful in other areas can suddenly abandon or mislead them in interpersonal situations.

This happens in part because many INTJs do not readily grasp the social rituals; for instance, they tend to have little patience and less understanding of such things as small talk and flirtation (which most types consider half the fun of a relationship). To complicate matters, INTJs are usually extremely private people, and can often be naturally impassive as well, which makes them easy to misread and misunderstand. Perhaps the most fundamental problem, however, is that INTJs really want people to make sense. :-) This sometimes results in a peculiar naivete', paralleling that of many Fs -- only instead of expecting inexhaustible affection and empathy from a romantic relationship, the INTJ will expect inexhaustible reasonability and directness.

Probably the strongest INTJ assets in the interpersonal area are their intuitive abilities and their willingness to "work at" a relationship. Although as Ts they do not always have the kind of natural empathy that many Fs do, the Intuitive function can often act as a good substitute by synthesizing the probable meanings behind such things as tone of voice, turn of phrase, and facial expression. This ability can then be honed and directed by consistent, repeated efforts to understand and support those they care about, and those relationships which ultimately do become established with an INTJ tend to be characterized by their robustness, stability, and good communications.

Part 2 of massive post - Tokyo!!

2006-06-18T12:32:00.000+08:00

Yoyogi Park in Central Tokyo, our most surprised and favourite find in Tokyo. On Sunday, Yoyogi transform from a sleepy park to one of the most crowded place in Tokyo. This is at the Cosplay Corner of Yoyogi park, where girls dress up in costumes and just gather around here. I guess its the sense of belonging that attracts them here.But i must say they really take the cosplay seriously and the costumes look quite nice. This is one of my favourite cosplay girl, we even met her at disneyland the following day, talk about coincidence.

This is damm funny, i was taking a general picture of the Cosplay corner and then this girl just pose for me. Oh well, i can't help it that i'm so attractive, wahahaha.

Another side of charm of Yoyogi park, other than having a cosplay area, there are tons of band lining up along the park sidewalk and you get to see lots of live performance and many of them can beat all the Superband teams hands down. This is one that we exceptionally like. We just sat along the sidewalk and enjoyed her performance for almost 50 mins. One of my most memorable experience in Japan, you can really feel the enthusiasm she has when she performs. Thoroughly enjoyed myself here. Its hard to describe the feeling, but its something like i feel very alive and thoroughly enjoying life while watching the performance. The only thing that went pass my mind was that " There is no where else in the world i'll rather be at in this moment."

This is another band performance that we watched, its really popular as there are close to 50 people watching and many with video recorders and cameras. And FYI, they are locals, not tourist. But for us, the main draw was the girl in black and white strips. Its a pity i don't have a clear shot of her. But me and Teck Leep both agree that she is the chioest and sweetest girl we have ever seen in Japan, and FYI at that time,we have already been in Japan for quite a number of days and i dare say we have bio-ed at least 1000 not bad girls. We were both so mesmerized that we couldn't stop looking. She looks so sweet that we both really melted. Darn why am i not a Japanese, hmm wait a min, my brother Atsushi is japanese, so that should make me half Jap. Now i just gotta work on my Jap language. Wahaha.

DisneyLand!!!

Who says I am too old for this, totally enjoyed Disneyland man. The parades are just so mesmerising. The performance, the floats, the music and the atmosphere. I would encourage anyone who haven't been to disneyland to visit it, though u might want to skip the Hong Kong or Paris one. Well one thing you gotta remember is that most of the performers are locals, so if you like Jap girls/performers, you know which country's disneyland you have to go to.

Part of massive post - Part 1

2006-06-10T12:11:00.000+08:00

Due to overwhelming complains, i think i'll better at least start on part of my massive post. Our trip started in Tokyo , where we took an overnight bus to kyoto and then finally took the bullet train back to Tokyo.

This was our first meal in Tokyo, we walked around and finally chanced upon this stall, it is the cheapest we can find around the area and judging by the crowd, it must be the local favourites too. It was quite hilarious because you have to buy a ticket from a vending machine, but the problem is that there is no picture of the food at the vending machine area, so we had to run in and out of the stall to match the words on the vending machine to the words on the food model.

There are tons or even thousands of temples in Kyoto, so we only visited a few of the most significant ones, we got pretty bored of the temples after visiting few. This was taken at a supposedly very famous japanese garden. I must say it was really relaxing resting at the side of the garden.

In kyoto, our most frequent place must be the sheltered shopping arcade in city central, it comprises of a few stretch of sheltered area and is the best place to shop, relax, eat and of course the top spot for admiring japanese girls. It has everything from cafes, to cheap food joints, souveniours shops etc.

Parfait shop in the shopping arcade. I bet you must be envious about my Expresso strawberry parfait. Its delicious man, it taste a bit like strawberry cream, except that its nicer and the presentation is so nice. Oh and did i mention that all the cakes and ice creams in Japan look really pretty, especially those at the basement of the department store, it looks so nice man, totally don't bear to eat it. But things are really expensive there, this parfait cost me SGD$10.

Our favourite Ramen stall in kyoto, its super nice. Makes all the ramen stalls in Singapore feel like shit. Including my favourite Ramen stall in Cuppage and also Ajisen is like dog food compared to it man.

Our pretty hotel receptionist, really chio right. Looks a bit like Tammy. But for the record, this is just considered slightly above average standard there. Me and Teck Leep's radar was like sounding every 5 seconds loh, we bio till our eyes damn tired. One day i must really get a Jap girlfriend man, the holy grail of girlfriend/wife. Chio, gentle, patient and caring. What more can a guy ask for.

PS : Tips for Singapore girls, Guys are actually easy to please. Apply the right technique and they won't leave even if you kick them away. Hehe.

The shikansen we took back to tokyo, super expensive at 200 singapore bucks per ride, but really quite an experience.

~End of part 1~

You are my superwoman

2006-06-04T22:42:00.000+08:00

Superwoman
歌手：曹格

Early in the morning
i put breakfast on your table
一夜都没睡但我不曾如此清醒
我的早餐准备了你爱吃的东西
这次换我等一杯咖啡的香味叫醒
想要找回每天早晨对我微笑着的你
还能够做些什么代替我的歉意
总是望着我小心翼翼顺着我呼吸
而我竟然理所当然让你精疲力尽
you are my super women oh~~
安静地在身边无条件给我梦寐以求的温柔
but i am only human en~~
我怎么不懂你多寂寞残忍地犯了错不能失去你
oh baby~~
try to make it all yes for me
月光下紧紧靠着彼此只求夜深一点
有多久没有好好看你只是认定了我
无论在什么时候回头都有你的笑容
是我忽略了你也会有想要哭的感觉
没有一种付出应该永远心甘情愿
再给被宠坏的男人最后一次机会
换我等待换我等待不要这么拒绝
you are my super women
安静地在身边无条件给我梦寐以求的温柔
but i am only human
我怎么不懂你多寂寞残忍地犯了错不能失去你
oh baby~~是我把爱想的太简单
以为只要我存在就能让你取暖
心以为一个super woman 没有人能代替
不能想象更不能原谅这一段爱发生
you are my super women
安静地在身边无条件给我梦寐以求的温柔
but i am only human (可是我只是一个只是一个人)
我怎么不懂你多寂寞残忍地犯了错不能失去你
you are my super women
安静地在身边无条件给我梦寐以求的温柔
but i am only human
我怎么不懂你多寂寞残忍地犯了错不能失去你
you are my super women
but i am only human
我怎么不懂你多寂寞残忍地犯了错不能失去你

For those who can't see the words, change your character encoding in your browser display to unicode.

Quote of the day

2006-06-03T03:28:00.000+08:00

"I used to savour every breathe I take,
now every breathe is taken just to reach the next"
~Renyu the Great

Screwed up results

2006-05-26T16:05:00.000+08:00

Just saw my results for this semester. Bloody darn screw up. Got just a B for my 14 despite us spending so much time on it. So not worth it man, i suspect the culprit must be our project advisor, gonna add a few scatches to her beloved car someday, bleah. And my other modules suck too. Stupid, my cap drop during my final sem. On a bright note, i am proud to announce that i do not have a single C in my entire uni life. On the other hand, i also do not have a single A in my entire uni life. What a mediocre student i am. On a side note, i think it was quite a wise choice for me to drop my honours, after a certain point, you know that resistance is futile.

Still in Hong Kong, final day here, can't wait to get home. Starting to get bored here and missing my bed, my dogs and my loved ones. And not to mention that i'm running low on money too, haha. It has been a recharging holiday so far, the Japan trip was superb and relaxing, i simply love the place and i love their girls there even more, hehe. No wonder Japan girls are always referred to the holy grail of girlfriends, now i totally understand why. Now all thats left is for me to find a job soon and recharge my bank account which has been empty since eons ago. Will put more pictures when i get back.

In Hong Kong

2006-05-25T17:07:00.000+08:00

Blogging from Hong Kong. Did an interesting personality test just now cos was using the net at Pacific Coffee in Hong Kong, free internet is such a privillege.

You Have Low Self Esteem 32% of the Time

Generally, you feel pretty darn great about who you are, even when you mess up or fail.

Occasionally, a huge setback will make you question yourself, but you pick yourself up quickly.

How is Your Self Esteem?

Quite interesting cos i can quite agree with the second part. There will always be times when i question myself, especially when a huge setback happens, but somehow or rather i can pick myself up in a while.

Currently in Hong Kong and will be heading home on sat. Quite bored here cos i don't shop, so that excludes many places for me in Hong Kong. Tomorrow should be an exciting day cos we are going ocean park and meeting my Hong Kong exchange friends at night. Hope alice gets my last min email so i can meet up with her. Will do a massive post after i come back to Singapore.

Nice drinking session

2006-05-04T09:20:00.000+08:00

Went on a drinking session to Paulaner with Aaron and Yeesen, its been so long since we last went drinking. I think the last time was in Auckland. But its a real nice feeling to meet up with them after so long, meeting up with them really reminds me of the happy times we had when we were in Auckland. Even going groceries shopping is an exciting activity there.

Anyway, Me and Yeesen concluded that Paulaner is a really nice place to babe watch, so guys, if wanna go must jio me k. Haha, we were like saying that our taste has evolved to the OL type and there are tons of them there, almost like a feast for our eyes. But can't help but feel really out of place at city hall, especially when u see all the office workers knocking off work and i'm there in jeans and t-shirt. Quite a sian feeling cos now i no longer can console myself that i'm still studying. I'm going crazy of this boredom, argh!!! I need a job, hmm maybe i should go work parttime in Starbucks, at least that can help kill some time and also is something i like to do.

I just thought of something. Having too much time on hand has an exponential cumulative effect. This is the formula Total effect = Number of days spent rotting (squared) .

Have been contemplating about getting an expresso machine, but quite ex and a bit broke to buy. I saw one by Krupps that is pretty decent at a tag of 300 bucks, anyone wanna contribute to the "help renyu buy expresso machine" fund? haha.

New Look

2006-05-03T11:31:00.000+08:00

Latest look for my blog. Nice?
Well the design is pretty unrefined, cos i'm a bit lazy to beautify it further. But i'll do minor refinements every now and then when i don't feel that lazy, which is like never, wahaha.

Couple of announcement
1) I graduated, yes i'm a GRADUATE now, as unbelievable that it sounds
2) I'm also jobless now.
3) I'm really bored recently, so friends, if got activities must jio k.

Before exams, i keep wishing that i finish it and have time to do what i want.
After exams, i realise that having too much time on your hand is the greatest torture in life man.
Its quite a terrible feeling waking up and realising you have nothing to do for the rest of the day, and the day after. Of course one good solution would be to go out, but that needs moola and is the biggest bank account drainer. And you also feel disabled and useless person because u are not doing anything productive. Well that is my general thoughts recently and i'm not the only one suffering from this Too much spare time syndrome.

Luckily things are changing soon, hehe, there is a chalet next week and i'll be flying off on my trip for Japan on the 14th, well at least that gives me something to look forward to.

What cake are you?

2006-02-24T14:02:00.000+08:00

Just read through an email that deciphers your personality base on your favourite type of cake. Mine is Vanilla Cake with Chocolate Icing

VANILLA CAKE WITH CHOCOLATE ICING... Fun-loving, sassy, humorous. Not very grounded in life; very indecisive and lack motivation. Everyone enjoys being around you, but you are a practical joker. Others should be cautious in making you mad. However, you are a friend for life.

Well, seems pretty true to me, but probably my friends will be a better judge of that.

Currently listening to 2 albums that is keeping me sane from the immense amount of workload i'm having. Lin Junjie's Cao cao album and Liu Geng Hong's Cai Hong Tian Tang album. Liu Geng Hong's album is surprising nice. Absolutely love the duet he sang with Xu Huixin called xin dong xin tong.

Just received an email from Ispace in Auckland regarding the Rangitoto trip. Can't believe it has been 6 months since i went there. Currently experiencing a bit of deja vue feeling. Not to mention the sudden gushing of so many memories from the past in NZ and the many emotions and friends that i remembered. How have you all been, my friends whom i made in NZ. Hope you all have been well. Miss the times we spent there. Can't believe its the start of a new semester there already, darn i wanna join all the orientation activities there again.

Mid semester break

2006-02-22T22:44:00.000+08:00

Its half way through my 1 week midsemester break, and i totally miss the midsemester break in NZ. Although we have a 1 week midsemester break here, there is no time for break because there are tons of tests, assignment dues and projects after this break. So effectively almost everyone would be busy mugging or meeting up to do stuff. Whats the point of having midsemester break when its not actually a break, we should really learn from NZ, 2 weeks of pure holiday break. I freaking need a break from all this shit man. Well i expected this semester to be tough, but still it gets to me sometimes. I hope all of you all are having a better semester than me.
Yes i posted this picture before, but now i'm posting it again to show the contrast of last sem's mid sem break and this sem's one. last sem during this time i was travelling and snowboarding. This sem i'm stuck in a deep pile of shit. Welcome to my life.

I'm sorry there is no new pictures recently, because effectively, i do not have a social life this semester and thus there are no opportunities to take photos =)

I so miss snowboarding!!!!!!

Currently:
Listening - Lin JunJie's Cao cao album.
Watching - Chu han jiao xiong on SCV, Zhou Jielun's November Chopin MV
Most often drinked beverage - Coffee due to the many late nights i have to endure.
Wishes - To travel and snowboard
Latest Movie watched - Huo Yuan Jia
Dreaming - To be dropped on a resort island on Maldives and be surrounded by 20 gorgeous babes.
Missing - New Zealand honey kiwi ice cream and nice latte.

Chinese New Year Eve

2006-01-29T02:26:00.000+08:00

Hello everyone!! Today is Chinese New Year Eve. Hasn't been blogging cos not much event to blog about. But today i got good news for everyone. For the benefit of my friends abroad, i braved through hardship and went down to Chinatown on Chinese New Year Eve to take some pictures to show you all. For your info, Chinatown during Chinese New Year Eve is like a battlefield. You basically have to squeeze through tons of people and it gets really hot while squeezing.

Busy days now and in the coming future

2006-01-22T08:10:00.000+08:00

Recently i have been really busy. Learning JSP, ASP.NET, EJB , HTML plus Dreamweaver together in 1 semester is really no joke man. Well i had it coming for squeezing all my major modules into 1 semester,haha. But on the positive side of things, i'm pretty excited about it. The scary thing is i'm actually throbbing with excitement, haven't felt that way in a long time. One of the reasons that i came into a computer science course was because in the past, i would always borrow or buy computer books and just read on them on my own, and i don't mean casual reading, i mean immersed reading. I could still remember the days when i would go library and just borrow like 4-5 books and read for the whole night. I call this the thirst for knowledge. I know all my fellow peers will kill me for saying this, but i do have a passion for computer knowledge, probably that is why despite not really liking computer science modules, i still manage to do pretty ok.

One of my friends commented that i'm quite efficient recently, i do notice that i work pretty well under a certain level of stress. But the downside is that i feel i've reverted to the old me before i left for new zealand. The me that gets really busy and slowly neglect to appreciate the things around me. I used to think that i'm the cause for the hectic pace that i lead here, but then i realise that its not me but it is actually the surrounding. The pace is programmed into my society and it is all around me, sometimes i can't help but feel overwhelemed and swept in this wave. Speed, efficiency is the main concern here, we were taught to do as many thing as possible in a single unit of time, this was so well taught to us that doing nothing actually made us guilty. Well, i've lead both life, the fast paced and the casual paced one and though i cannot relive the casual pace i had in NZ here. I will still try to slow down sometimes to appreciate everything around me, afterall life is too beautiful to just rush by.

For my friends abroad, this is a picture of our famous East Coast Beach. Though not considered a tourist spot, it is a really popular recreational place for the locals and it can get pretty packed on a sunday morning. Also classified as a grade A babe watching spot. If you all come visit Singapore, i'll bring you here to catch a glimpse of the life the people lead here. =)

Special exclusive post

2006-01-14T20:56:00.000+08:00

Realise that after coming back to Singapore, there doesn't seem to be much things to post. Cos this place is familiar to me, so there really isn't much pictures to take. In fact, my camera has been taking a holiday every since i got back. But today i'll make an exception and post 2 very exclusive photos for everyone to see.

Exclusive picture of my room though it is slightly messy.

Many of the friends i met in Auckland seems to have the impression that i seldom study. Tada, i actually do study quite a lot in Singapore ok, haha. And to my 3214 project mates, see i'm studying,wahahaha.
Ok, that is all for the day. Take care everyone.

The start of a brand new year 2006

2006-01-01T11:02:00.000+08:00

It has been some time since i last blogged. Happy New Year to everyone!!!

I have already uploaded some of my favourite New Zealand and Australia photos, so for those who have been waiting to see it, here is the link http://community.webshots.com/user/stalgard
Sorry it took so long, was really busy with my daily life. But as an added bonus, i also uploaded some of my photos from my turkey trip in June, hope you all like it.

On the overall, 2005 has been a great year for me. Lots of new experiences and learnt many things.

Some of the most memorable and note worthy experiences
1) I got the chance to lead the FOCC team and experience first hand how it feels to work with so many people. One thing i'm most glad is that FOCC Committee turned from a group of people who didn't know each other well to a group of friends who can still meet up even though the event ended 6 months ago. I hope everyone would treasure the friends they made during FOCC and a great thanks to everyone who helped me out with it.

2) My New Zealand exchange trip. This has been the most interesting trip of my life and i have learnt so much from it, not to mention i've had so many first times there. Loads of travel, coffee drinking with my click of exchange friends, loads of fun, loads of beer drinking and loads of wonderful memories to last a lifetime. To all my overseas friend, i hope you all are well. Just to let you know that you are not forgotten, but just that after coming back, there are too many things to settle in my daily life. That is why you seldom hear from me, but i've never forgotten about you all and i really miss the times we spent together.

3) My New Zealand and Australia trip. I've learnt how to travel and take care of myself when i'm travelling alone. Sure, there were many times when i felt alone and lonely. But there were even more time where i felt the sense of freedom and so many experiences that i had that i'm sure i wouldn't have experienced if i didn't travel alone.

New Year Resolution
None. For the first time in my life, i'm pretty contented and happy with all aspects of my life. 2005 have really been a great year for me and i'm really thankful for having such a wonderful life.

Best bathe in my life

2005-12-18T12:00:00.000+08:00

Just had the best bathe in my life. In fact its 3 bathe instead of 1, hehe. Because i bathe my dogs today and while bathing them, they gave me a bathe too with all their shaking and flinging.

It feels good to be home. And the top 3 things i miss most in my room is Cable TV, blazing fast internet and my ultra comfortable queen size bed. Woohoo.

Now i wonder how i'm going to do the updates for all my travels. Well, i'll do periodical updates slowly, i hope. Loads of things to do, thankfully i have another half a month to do my stuff before school starts again.

Ok i guess i should start my updates from the latest to the earliest.

Sydney Bondi Beach - Currently my favourite beach in the world. It doesn't have the best beach, surf or location. But it had the best character and loads of beautiful people on the beach. And also loads of topless babes, well it is a topless beach after all. But seriously, the best thing i like about the beach is that although its hot, it gets frequent regular cooling breezes. Which makes it a real nice place to suntan without feeling the heat. The atmosphere is just really nice there.

6 More days to home

2005-12-12T10:37:00.000+08:00

6 More days till i head home, part of me is quite excited to go home and part of me is still yearning for more fun. But given the amount of finance i have available now, home is the best option. Plus i think its about time i head home,but i'm pretty certain my next trip won't be long. As long as i can save the money,hehe.

Just finished my Diving trip at the amazing great barrier reef. And it was fantastic. The visibility was not as good as Phuket, but the reef is just teaming with marine life, saw so many different fishes and had such great fun. I'm now officially an Advance open water Diver with 18 Dives under my belt. Wahahaha.

Went to the famous WoolShed pub for the famous Wet T-shirt competition the night before i dive and man was that a bad idea. Was having a hell of a headache on my first day of diving. But it was worth it man, i can only say one thing, the people here are freaking crazy and i mean really freaking crazy. But it was real fun, doubt i would get it at other places. Went to party with this 4 people from melbourne who stays in the same dorm room as me.

After the dive trip, partied again with the people in my new dorm and we ended up playing card games and i learnt a new game called Jack-changes-eight. Haha, it was really fun. Had my best time in Cairns. The air just feels with the party atmosphere. The most shocking thing was at the end of the game and plenty of drinking. The american guy brought out a water balloon launcher and we started launching water balloons at people walking across the streets. Totally crazy man, but thats the things we do when we travel, the absolutely crazy things.

One of my friends here warned me about the effect of counter culture shock when i get home. Have never experienced it before, but i'm sure i'll feel it the moment i hit Singapore. I probably would feel like a foreigner when i hit home, just hope its not too bad.

Cairns - Diving Capital of Australia

2005-12-07T15:45:00.000+08:00

Just arrived in Cairns, Diving tomorrow. As you all can see i'm pretty free recently, coupled with the fact that internet is cheap here, thats why i'm online more frequently. Have been taking many airflights recently, quite sick of the long journey but still got 2 more to go before i touch down at home. One thing that is really sucking up all my money is the shuttle from the airport to the city, bloody freaking expensive, almost like robbing you without a knife. It cost 10 Bucks 1 way from Airport to city or the other way. Just the shuttle to and from airport, i'm sucked of almost 80 Bucks, super crazy, one of the most unexpected expenditure. Arrived in Cairns and checked in to YHA Cairns against my better judgement and totally regretted it. To future travellers, refrain from staying in YHA hostels. Its has no character, is often pretty dull looking and old, and most of all, is often not the best hostel around. Thank god i'm only staying for a night. Never going to check into YHA again, the hostel always disappoints.

Was reading the book Fast Food Nation and read about how the fast food exploited young employees, how they add chemicals to the food and how unhealthy the food is. But still had McDonald for dinner tonight, haha. For a simple reason, its still darn cheap compared to other food here, and for the price, i don't mind an unhealthy meal. Will have better meals when i hit back home. Interesting book though it can get a bit draggy and boring at times.

Sydney, Sydney, Sydney

2005-12-06T16:36:00.000+08:00

Hello everyone. I'm in Sydney Australia now, really busy city and things are so expensive here. Lucky i'm only here for a while, or else my wallet sure burst.

To the people in Auckland, how have you all been. Its been just a few days and i'm starting to miss you all already. Hope you all are well there. And i didn't expect myself to say this, but after coming to Australia, i really miss Auckland and NZ.

To the people back in Singapore, i'm coming back soon. If got any activities after 17 Dec must jio me ok. Can sms my Singapore number anytime.

Just been to the Sydney Opera House and its really nice. One of the best sights in Sydney in my opinion. Photos will have to wait cos i'm at an internet bar. One thing good is that internet is cheaper and faster in Sydney. So have more time for internet here. Will be heading to Cairns tomorrow, can't wait. Diving at Great Barrier Reef, the single and most important reason for me to come Australia. Well besides the reason for visiting my dear cousin Elaine before she heads back home. Just hope i can remember how to dive and prepare my gear, its been so long since i last dived. But i'm sure the instructors will get me up to speed in no time. Plus my supreme intelligent, comfirm no problem, haha.

Ok gotta go. Take care everyone.

Third blog blah blah blah

2005-11-25T13:29:00.000+08:00

Still have another 21 mins on my internet card, so figured u should blog to expend it. Climbed up the queenstown hill thats 900 meters tall today. And it was a bloody tiring climb. Totally exhausted now. Will hit the sack early today. Just finish buying souveniours, and to those back in Singapore, no worries, i have all the souveniours for each and everyone of you =) . Shop till i crazy man,didn't know buying souveniours was such a challenge. Heading to Dunedin tomorrow early morning, hope i don't have to blog again because that would mean i'm very bored. But i strongly believe Dunedin would be nicer. Queenstown has spectacular views from the hill that i climbed today, and it has a shop that sells the best burger i've ever tasted. Its called Fergburger, really amazing man, the lamb burger was really tasty and huge. I ate the beef burger today and it was nice too. Just wonder why they don't have it in other cities or towns. Maybe i should franchise it back to Singapore, hehe.

Just saw all my results online today, its finally released. Well, realise i am an average B person. Wonder is it because i slacked too much here. 2 surprising results was that i actually got a B+ for my networks paper, totally unexpected. And the other surprising result was i only got a B for my management, which comes as quite a shock because that would mean i had really screw up the exams because i got an A for 40% of the grade. Well shit happens, just glad that i passed every paper and still managed to have a hell of a time here.

And to all my former FOCC people, when are we having an outing after i get back? Can some champion organise one outing? I'll be back on the 17th dec so anytime after 18th dec is fine.

And one last thing, NO OUTING == NO SOUVENIOURS!!!!!
Any Former FOCC person who sees this post, help me spread the word to others k.

Second blog of my travels

2005-11-24T15:41:00.000+08:00

Hi everyone, i'm blogging cos its damn bored at queenstown here. This has to be the place that i hate most in new zealand. Yet i'll have to spend another day here, its beautiful but very jammed packed with tourists. Probably will head up the mountains for a walk tomorrow. Been to many places and saw many beautiful sights. New Zealand South Island is beautiful beyond imagination man, and many places reminds me of scenes from lord of the rings. For those who didn't know, the area i'm at Queenstown is where many of the scenes where filmed. They even have a lord of the rings tour here, but its super expensive. almost 200 bucks, what a rip off. I'll just stick to the free stuff. Just got the results for one of my papers here, the one that i hated the most, and the one that with the lecturer that totally can't teach. But i made it, hehe..got a B- , not the best of grades, but hey i don't give a shit, i just need to pass. The longer i travel, the more i start to miss the many things back at home, my family, dogs, friends, FOOD, my bed, the warm weather, my animes and many other things. Will be back soon, in another 20 days. Also miss the many friends i made during my stay in Auckland, hope i can meet up with you all a bit before i leave. See you all then.

First blog for my travels

2005-11-14T13:35:00.000+08:00

Hello everyone, i'm somewhere near Picton in the south island. Currently staying at this beautiful cove in Marlborough Sounds. Absolutely amazing and tranquil place. Will be heading to Nelson in a couple of days. Just blogged to let everyone know i'm well, alive and safe. Too lazy to blog too much, hehe. So take care everyone.

Possibly the last post for a while

2005-11-10T06:45:00.000+08:00

This would possibly be my final post for a while. At least till until i get back to Singapore on around 17th Dec. Or unless i find some internet connection and have time to blog a bit in south island. 1 Day away from start of my 1 mth holiday and also 1 day away from my final horror networks exam. Studied finish yesterday, but after looking thru the past year questions, realise there are many things i don't know. Stupid networks, i farking hate it.

Fighting against time now, i just need to survive for the next 24 hours. And i totally don't know what else i can study for networks.

To everyone in Singapore, i'll see you all soon.
To everyone in Auckland, i'll really miss you all.

Renyu over and out.

Nice Song

2005-11-08T06:30:00.000+08:00

Just got my final dosage of anime from Singapore. Thanks a lot Borong.

Heard this song from the ending portion of the Bleach Anime, absolutely love it man.
The song title is Life, sang by YUI. Especially love this part
I think the japanese lyric composers are really good at filling in lyrics, cos i find a lot of their song lyrics really nice and meaningful. I should start making the effort to relearn Japanese, but the horror of taking Jap 1 in NUS still haunts me.

4 More days till i leave Auckland. I will miss the people here, don't even want to think about it.

Another beautiful though tiring day

2005-11-06T14:59:00.000+08:00

Went to Waitakere Range today, its like a regional park west of Auckland. Had to woke up at 8am this morning and thats really a struggle man. Was fighting with my bed and my body to get myself up, but it was worth it. We first went Piha Beach, then we went trekking into the forest for almost 4 hours and went past this beautiful waterfall, finally we went to the famous Kare Kare Beach where the movie "The Piano" was filmed. Really beautiful beach with almost endless stretch of shining fine sand, no wonder the movie chose here as a site. Really tiring day but thoroughly enjoyed it.

Picture at the waterfall. (From Left Alice, Mirae , Me, Robert and Atsushi)

Time flies without u realising it

2005-11-05T15:38:00.000+08:00

Just read a friend's blog and she commented that although she only have 1 week here, she still have not faced that reality of leaving. I really share her sentiments, even though i only have one more week here, i just can't seem to face that reality and every day just seems to pass like i have another semester here. I have a feeling that as i get nearer to the day that i leave, all the feelings will hit me at once. Its really hard to leave the friends here, goodbye is such a difficult word to say. The memories we shared will always be a part of me and i sure would miss them so much when i leave. It seems like just yesterday that we all arrived in Auckland and now the time has come for us to part. I can still vividly remember the first time we all met at international pub night, the time we went escape bar to drink, the many dinners that we had and the even more numerous coffee sessions that we had.

Solved my dilenma problem by adjusting my flight dates. By converting the time that i originally would spent idling in Auckland to the time i spent in Australia,i managed to plan my trip in such a way that i would be able to tour south island leisurely and yet get to hit Sydney and most of all Cairns to dive in the Great Barrier Reef. Going to get my advance open water certification in Carins. 11 Dives in the Great Barrier Reef, can't wait man. Just hope i still remember how to dive. Haha. Though to finance my diving trip, i had to cut short my whole trip by 14 days. But i'm sure its worth it. Well, South Island and Cairns are my two main priority, so as long as i achieve that, the rest of the places along east coast australia will have to take a queue number in my travel destination priority list.

Places i dream to go
1) Japan (Disneyland is a must place to go)
2) Kathmandu in Nepal (The holy grail for backpackers,u can't call yourself a backpacker or traveller if u have never been to Kathmandu)
3) Eastern Europe (Esp Czech, Austria , Belgium and Switzerland)
4) Canada (Vancouver and to see the Aurora lights)
5) South America (Brazil's Rio de janiro is a must visit place)
6) South East Asia (Thailand, cambodia, Laos, vietnam)
7) The rest of Europe (France, Spain, Italy)
8) America (New york and south beach miami in particular)

Will i ever see everything, maybe not. But i would try my best to experience as much as possible. For you only live once.

Places that i've been to
1) Seoul ,Korea
2) New Zealand
3) Australia (Gold Coast, Sydney and Cairns going soon)
4) Phuket ,Thailand
5) Malacca and Johor ,Malaysia
6) Taipei, Taiwan
7) Turkey

The Myth and super chio Kim Hee Sun

2005-11-04T11:03:00.000+08:00

Just watched the movie The Myth on DVD. And i must say that korean actress is so chio. Her name sounds very familiar, but can't remember where i heard it before. Her name is Kim Hee Sun , but still don't know who she is and Jacky Chan looks very weird in historic costumes. And the NG parts at the end of the movie also really funny.

7 Days till my next paper, i should be studying. But i wonder where has the motivation gone to. Better start a bit soon. Or else i'll never study.

Finally some time to blog

2005-11-03T18:59:00.000+08:00

Finally have some time to blog. Had exams on 1st, 2nd and 3rd Nov. I wonder if its me getting old or what, because i realise i get bored easily during exam. The adrenaline is no longer there, not as motivated to study for exam also. Have become motivationless and i guess this is a hint that i should end my student life soon.

1st Nov Exam : Information System Management
Feelings during the exam: Damn boring and long exam, the questions are so long and i've never been able to do well for this paper,did i mention i was information system major, shame on me. And again someone remind me why i'm in information system course. Anyway, just hope to pass this paper. Only got like 28 out of the 50% of coursework. Damn lousy.

2nd Nov Exam : Anthropology
Feelings during exam: I just need to write something for the essay part and i'm sure to pass. So no worries about this paper. Left half an hour early because i was too hungry to continue and needed to go grab dinner. Haha, the most exciting thing i've done all semester. And was too jaded by my 1st Nov exam to put in too much effort.

3rd Nov Exam : Management
Feelings during exam: Only need 45% of the exam marks to pass, i'm sure if i follow a good essay structure and answer the question i should be able to get at least 50% of the marks. The questions turned out pretty alright, not easy, but the way they structure the question, it is very easy to get half of the marks at least. The other half of the marks would take some effort. So as usual, i opt for the conservative approach, aim for just half of the marks.

Now stuck in a dilenma for my Australia trip.

Severe shortage of resources for my australia trip, both time and money.
Dilenma if i should go Cairns on my this Australia trip. Diving at the Great Barrier Reef has been the main reason for my Australia trip. But given the time shortage, i would have to take a 300 bucks flight to cairns and after that i'll still have to spend another 600 bucks to dive. And this doesn't even include my accomodation and living expenses. But then would be kinda stupid to just stay in sydney and its surrounding because Cairns was my main motivation for stopping over in Australia. Maybe my solution lies in the 9 Million Powerball lottery here, hmm, maybe i should go buy tomorrow.

And lastly, Jay's new album is freakin nice. Love it man.

8 More days till the start of my 30 Day NZ trip + 18 Day Aussie trip. Getting slightly nervous yet throbing with anticipation.

Uplifting therapy

2005-10-26T09:35:00.000+08:00

Current Mood : At peace with myself and savouring my life

Watched an interesting episode of Sex and the city today. It is about "How we can see our friends perfectly but when it comes to ourselves, we find it so hard to do so". Which i think is quite true, we tend to judge ourselves really harshly. And there's this quote by Carrie in the show that i really like
"When real people fall down in life,they get right back up and keep on walking."

This week is study break week and after close to 3 days of intensive but not really that productive study. I woke up today and told myself that i need a break. And thats what i did. Went out to queenstreet in search of a nice cafe where i can have a comfortable meal and most importantly, an even comfortable coffee. Found this really nice stretch in Vulcan Lane and i have a feeling this would be my favourite cafe stretch. Pity i found it so late in my stay here. The cafe i went was situated in a tiny street off queenstreet and it gives a totally differently feel compared to queenstreet. At the cafe, i felt like i was in some secluded and peaceful corner in the city, which is hard to find,considering i'm at the city central.

After my wonderful but hefty priced brunch, i went to borders and did some reading and retail therapy. Now i understand the wonders of retail therapy, though i wonder what my wallet is going to say about that. I bought a maori CD at borders. My first CD in close to 5 years. Really love the Maori music here, their synchronization and harmony is really amazing, its like every sound in the music complements each other and this CD is something i definetly have to buy back.

The return to innocence

2005-10-23T07:30:00.000+08:00

Woke up this morning and was listening to this song while lazing in my bed. I have heard this song since i was 16, really liked the song, but have never really processed the words in the song. The song is Return to innocence by Enigma, some of you might not recognise the song name, but i'm sure you must have heard of it because it was used in a few tv commercials. Anyway, while lazing on the bed, i was paying attention to what it was saying and found what they say to be useful and true. Really kick start my day and study week, felt so much more invigorated after listening to it.

Enigma - Return to innocence

Don't be afraid to be weak
Don't be too proud to be strong
Just look into your heart my friend
That will be the return to yourself
The return to innocence

If you want, then start to laugh
If you must, then start to cry
Be yourself don't hide
Just believe in destiny

Don't care what people say
Just follow your own way
Don't give up and use the chance
To return to innocence

That's not the beginning of the end
That's the return to yourself
The return to innocence

Not sure if i'm the only one that feels that way, but i do feel that i've lost some of the innocence i once had when i was young.

Chance upon the Australia Tourism Advertisement Song on the web. For those who have been looking for it, here is the link

Delta goodrum Sing a rainbow Advertisment

Really liked the advertisment, one of the reason why i planned australia into my end of year tour was because of this advertisement. They are so evil right, make such a irresistable advertisement to tempt me to go there. Somemore i'm so broke now after planning for my NZ trip. Oh yah, since we are at the tourism advertisement discussion, i'll post another link for the NZ tourism advertisement. Its almost as good as the australia one.
New Zealand 100% pure NZ advertisement

Survived a big scare

2005-10-21T08:08:00.000+08:00

Today , i survived from a big scare from networks tests. For those who are unaware, i had a network test today.

I survived the scare of being the first student on exchange to fail a paper even though i only needed to pass here.

This is the idiotic part about this test. The networks test today has a weightage of 12% of the final course grades. But to pass the paper, you need to at least get 60% for this test. Which is pretty darn idiotic because my pass/failure of this paper is dependent on a test thats merely 12%. How stupid i would have felt if i failed this paper because i failed this test. Spent close to a week preparing for this test, what a bloody waste of time. Totally have no motivation to study for it since its just a 12% weightage, but still have to mug hard for it, cos i need to pass it to pass the paper. I mean if you want to make the test so important, at least give a higher weightage for it like 20-25%, so at least the effort is justified. But well, as i would have expected from the compsci and infosys department, their thinking is just as inflexible as computers, amazing what studying too much about computers can do to you.

In the end, i survived it and passed the test. My tutor was so worried that we would fail, because she said if we fail she would feel very bad, cos it means she hasn't been a good tutor. But in my opinion, i think she has done a good job, though i still don't know her name.

Personality test - Fact or utter rubbish?

2005-10-20T16:12:00.000+08:00

I always believe there are certain accuracy to such tests. Not because i find the answers similar to me, but because i believe it is your personality that affects how you response to a question or how you behave in a scenario. Thus it is possible to know your personality from how you answer certain questions. But then again, i also believe that no personality test is 100% accurate, because human beings are far far too complicated and complex to be able to be described in a few short paragraphs. And that is what makes us interesting and spontaneous.

Your Personality Is

Rational (NT)

You are both logical and creative. You are full of ideas.

You are so rational that you analyze everything. This drives people a little crazy!

Intelligence is important to you. You always like to be around smart people.

In fact, you're often a little short with people who don't impress you mentally.

You seem distant to some - but it's usually because you're deep in thought.

Those who understand you best are fellow Rationals.

In love, you tend to approach things with logic. You seek a compatible mate - who is also very intelligent.

At work, you tend to gravitate toward idea building careers - like programming, medicine, or academia.

With others, you are very honest and direct. People often can't take your criticism well.

As far as your looks go, you're coasting on what you were born with. You think fashion is silly.

On weekends, you spend most of your time thinking, experimenting with new ideas, or learning new things.

The Three Question Personality Test

You tend to notice the big things in life...

But the details aren't exactly your forte

How Observant Are You?

Now this observation test result is quite true in my case, though i think the test is flawed because they assume everyone in the world is an American. I don't even know the american flag, let alone whether the red or white stripes comes first from the top. =p

Question : Assuming you are sick, would you decide to go see a doctor if you know that you have to make an appointment and you will only get to see a doctor 5 days later?

Answer : irregardless of whether you decide to go or not, you'll still be dead.

Fact : That is New Zealand health care services for you. I won't be surprised if i'm given a queue number when i have a heart attack here. And i always thought the 5-6 hours of waiting in Polyclinic (Singapore public health centre) was bad, guess i'll have to readjust my perspective.

High Score for the mouse game =)

2005-10-19T10:09:00.000+08:00

I got into the high score for the mouse game. Haha. This shows how much i have been playing it. But i seriously wonder how the top person did it, he or she must have played it a million times man. About time i get back to my studies. Link for the mouse game can be found here, though i doubt my score will remain there for long hehe. MOUSE GAME LINK.

Scary haircut session

2005-10-18T06:41:00.000+08:00

Went to a korean hairdresser for a hair cut today. This place was recommended by Aaron who in turn was recommended by another korean friend. So i figured should be quite ok. But man did i get a scare when i went in. It turns out the hairdresser did not speak a lot of english, and i was too embarassed to walk away after asking the price. So i grit my teeth and went for the haircut. I'm sure she must be quite freaked out too because throughout the haircut, my face looked very worried. And the limited conversation didn't do much to ease the uneasiness. But it turned out much better than i expected, i was expecting a disaster at first. Nontheless, its still a fun experience to try out a hairdresser from other country, because they are used to cutting for koreans, so maybe they would give me a korean look. Which would be quite interesting. I only used a few words during the whole session, Shorter, ok , a bit shorter and thanks. The way we communicate was totally hilarious. I took extra caution when she was cutting the front and kept reminding her to just cut a bit, because i figured that as long as the front is not too short, things probably can't get too bad. All in all, it was a fun but scary experience, but everything went pretty well. Would i do it again? Of course i would. No photos yet, maybe i'll take some when i go out tonight.

Just realise i look a bit nerd when i let my fringe go back. Maybe i should let it down. But well, who cares.

Got this game link from a friend's blog. Quite addictive, they have many games there but this mouse game is the one that i really like. For those interested this is the link GAME LINK (CAN YOU SEE THE LINK NOW STELLA?) .

Beautiful day

2005-10-17T07:20:00.000+08:00

Just got back my management essay 2, so happy because i got an A for my essay. Hehe. Quite satisfying even though i only need a pass here. And because this module has plussage, which means i have the option of choosing between

Essay 1 (15%) + Essay 2 (25%)
OR
Essay 2 (40%)

Which means i got like an A for 40% of my total grade. Now i only need to get 45% percent of my final exam to pass, which i think should not be too difficult since they are releasing the topics for the exam question. Quite happy not only because i got good grades for my management paper, but because now i can spend more time focusing on my information systems paper, didn't do well for one of my information system paper and the fact that the textbook is totally unrelated to the course and the lecturer sucks doesn't help much. Darn i should have taken this paper back at home. During my first lesson, i met this Hong Kong guy who told me before he left that based on his experience, he knows this lecturer can't teach. Now i know why he said that.

Its quite unusual and weird that i'm always doing better in business modules/papers than my own computing and information system modules/papers. Not to mention i always have much more interest in business topics than computing topics. Can someone remind me why i'm in computing in the first place.

Just realise Mario is a universal game in the world, everybody knows and loves mario. One of the first game i played when i was young.

Wonderful past 2 days

2005-10-16T10:35:00.000+08:00

Today is Shihui's birthday, big Happy Birthday hug. Will celebrate with you when i get back k.

Mirae! The past 2 outings are important ok,was going to blog it yesterday, but too tired to do 2 blogs in a day. But seriously had a good past 2 days, thoroughly enjoyed myself. Its just so enjoyable to meet up with my friends before everyone starts getting busy for the exams. Recently got news that 2 of my close friends got attached, so happy for them. Because i know both of this 2 friends very well, and i was sort of involved during their relationship development,hehe. Really happy for them.

14 Oct 2005
(6.15pm) Farewell party at iSpace for exchange students.Photos with my Hong Kong friends, Alice exclude because she's a Singaporean who is on exchange from Hong Kong,hehe. From left, Thomas, Cara and Corsair.

(7.30pm) Charity dinner by Tamar's church group here. Enjoyed the performance a lot.

(2.00am) Picture taken at 24 hour Esquires, our usual coffee haunt because there isn't much 24 hour coffee place except Esquires. But we always managed to stay till quite late during out coffee sessions, there's just so much thing to talk about. Moo kyung was our special guest for tonight because its so hard to get her out since she is always so busy with essays and assignments here. She looks quite angry, maybe its because Mirae keeps stepping on her legs, haha,poor MooKyung. From left Mookyung, Mirae and Atsushi.

15 Oct 2005
(11.00am) One tree Hill. Went One Tree Hill with Taegyu and Atsushi. See that tower behind us, that is beside where i stay. The other picture is me with Sheep, well this is sheep country, sheeps are everywhere, i think that sheep behind me likes me =).

(3.00pm) Mt Eden. Really beautiful place to go, the favourite hill among the 3 hills that i went today. Absolutely beautiful, it lets u see Auckland from another perspective.

(6.00pm) Mt Victoria, Devonport. We were to tired from climbing hills, so we ended up driving up the the hill. Was a good drive though. Me and Taegyu in the picture.

(7.30pm) Dinner at steamboat restaurant. What a way to end a wonderful day, steamboat buffet. A bit embarassed during the steamboat buffet because everyone else stopped eating after 2 hours, but me and Alice continued for almost 1 hour. For info, Alice is a Singaporean too, so i concluded that we are really very big eaters when it comes to buffet, but still so embarassed because we normally eat very little during normal meals, but we ate so much during buffet, guess its a Singapore trait. Hi five Alice,for being the last 2 survivors.

(11.45pm) Our last activity for the day, Coffee at Esquires again. Imagine going for coffee after a buffet, haha. Really fun. Group photo of the people here that made my life so wonderful and happy here, big hugs to every single one of you. From left Taegyu, Mirae, Mookyung, Alice, Atsushi and lastly me.

Currently listening to Sun Yanzi's new album, really very nice. Just what i need to get through the next 2 week where i need to study hard for the exams. Highly recomend track 07 of her new album, my personal favourite for the time being.

Pleasantly surprise chat with a friend

2005-10-15T18:59:00.000+08:00

Was chatting on msn 2 days ago and saw a very close friend of mine came online on msn, he's very rarely online and its been so long since i last talked to him. Anyway, we chatted a while and really happy to talk to him. Reminds me of the many close and important friends i have back at home, and makes me realise i'm happy being the way i am and i don't have to be too concern over how some people feels towards me, because i can't please everyone in the earth. The reason i felt this way was because recently had a very unfortunate string of events with a friend i use to be quite good with, many miscommunications and misunderstanding led to a pretty bad turn for our relationship. Was quite concern over where our relationship was heading and can't help feeling partly at fault for causing things to turn out that way, even had some doubts on friendship. But i've straighten out my thoughts and decided to let it go,i'm happy being me and if that friend can't know and see the real me, then its just too bad. Instead of focusing on not having something, i'll rather focus on what i have.

My best buddy Isaac, our msn plus webcam chat.

Now comes the xianz part, my buddy is going to Phuket this weekend. Argh!!! I wanna go, for those whom i've never told this to, Phuket is still my favourite vacation holiday location. Good massage, even better food, overwhelming friendly people, cheap drinks and accomodation, beautiful beach, happening nightlife and most of all cheap place to be. What more can i say. Anyway, here are some of my fav phuket pictures.

Crystal clear blue waters.

Unbelievable tasty and cheap food.

Beautiful beach

My hard to digest and comprehend deep thoughts and feelings

2005-10-12T17:25:00.000+08:00

Current song that reflects my feeling : "Life is like a boat" by Rie Fu, Bleach Anime Ending song

"We are all rowing the boat of fate
The waves keep on coming and we can't escape
But if we ever get lost on our way
The waves would guide you through another day"

I feel that my life is like a chess game with fate. A single wrong move, mistake or wrong strategy would cause you to lose the game with fate. How well you cope with fate is dependent on how well you anticipate what fate throws at you, what strategy you use, how far ahead do you anticipate and how you use your pawns. The problem with winning against fate is that fate always seem to have twice the number of pawns that you have, and it always seem that for every move that you make, fate makes two moves. It is like almost impossible to win against fate. Then comes the question, if i know i will lose, why am i still fighting against it?

The answer :
Because I am not contented to let my life be decide by fate and despite knowing that i'll lose most of the time, i'll still keep fighting. Because that is what makes me feel alive in this world and this is what makes me stronger.

And to quote what my favourite actress Steph Song said in an interview
"I will not tiptoe through life, just to arrive safely at death"
This has always been the guiding principle of my life.

Now back to the my vacation trip to Wellington again.

Was quite happy this trip because i was alone for quite some time during this trip because Peiyun had to prepare for her exams, so can't bring me around all the time. It is when you are alone travelling that you really feel the freedom. Sure, at times you really get lonely, but the freedom you get is indescribable. I've always wanted to be more confident in myself and in the things i do, and i feel this trip has helped me a bit. Because when you travel alone, you are forced to interact with people, i've met, talked and enjoyed many of such conversations on this trip. I've chatted with the sales person at Kathmandu, the sales person at honeybee hive, the waiter at starbucks, people on the bus journey. And the more i travel independently and meet people, i feel more confident in myself and happier, i wonder why. Really feel much more independent after this trip to NZ.

Can't help relating to Bleach anime as an analogy to my situation.
In the anime, everyone has a sword weapon called SoulSlayer, that they use to fight. The shape and size of your SoulSlayer is dependent on your spirit force(Kinda like soul power,hehe) , the higher your spirit force, the more powerful your SoulSlayer becomes.

Each SoulSlayer has 2 level of release for their power. The first level is Shikai (Beginning Release).

The second level is Bankai (Complete Release). Bankai is about 5-10 times more powerful than Shikai.

Confidence is like spirit force and SoulSlayer to me and i use my confidence to fight in my life. Currently i have only been able to achieve Shikai level of confidence and it is not permanent, meaning i can only release it in some situations and not all the time. What i'm trying to achieve is full release Bankai level of confidence, meaning that I want to be many more times more confident and release that level of confidence constantly. Its a vague concept, but i do believe that when you reach Bankai level of confidence, you exhibit an invisible aura around you just like the guy on the top picture and people around you can feel it.

I have achieved full release Bankai twice in my life, once in Sec 3 and another during JC year 1. But it seems through time, i've forgotten how to do it or how it feels like. All i can vaguely remember was it really felt good and you feel insurmountable.

2005-10-12T15:46:00.000+08:00

You are a Self-Discoverer

You're not religious, but you've created your own kind of spirituality.

Introspective and thoughtful, you tend to look inward for the divine.

You are distrusting of all forms of organized religion.

You especially dislike religious gurus and leaders, who you feel are charlatans.

What's Your Religious Philosophy?

Now this is so true. My religious philosophy. A friend told me that another christian friend told her that god has an assigned plan for everyone on earth. Maybe i'm just following his plan for me, who knows.

Just came back from a short break to Wellington. Still love that place, despite its crowded shortcomings and lack of 24 hours cafes. Yes, though they have one of the highest cafe per capital in the world, they don't seem to have a 24 hour cafe. But i still love the place, i think other than Auckland, Wellington could be my second home.

Loads of bad experience on the bus there man.
Got this plump lady seat beside me for the whole journey. Then she keep invading my space, end up i was so cramped and squeezed that i couldn't change position much. So imagined being fixed at a position for 10 hours. Whats worse is that she smells like she came out from the market. Double Combo. And there's an even worse third combo. When she sleeps, she can't sleep sitting front faced, she has to turn her body to the side, and guess what, she takes up even more space when she's at her side lah. And she can't stay in the position for long, so she keeps changing from front face to side face, and u can guess she keeps nudging me throughout the whole journey because of her changing direction. So i keep getting woken up by her nudge. The only time she can stick to her position and give me peace is when she's reading, but problem is when she's reading, she switched on the overhead light and with that kinda spotlight, who in the world can sleep well man. I concluded that next time she either needs 2 seats or she needs a more suitable form of transport. On a closing note, she is a nice person, just that she's not a very good bus partner to seat with.

And met two taiwan friend on the bus too, the way we met was quite hilarious. Cos i was listening to my IPOD and stoning. Then i noticed this head pop from the front seat, i looked up and thats how we met. Quite hilarious, but still nice talking to them. Did i mentioned they were the ones that used flash photography in the bus, for a moment i thought it was lightning. Then it dawned on me that its just tourist taking pictures, in the bus..haha.

(Photo taken at the railway station, Niki(In black) and Linda(in red))

Didn't really explore Wellington much for this trip because its my second time there. Only went to check out a few of the many cafes there and managed to check out the government building and the botanical garden. And i finally got to eat the fried carrot cake that i've been craving for so long, believe it or not, there is only 1 place in NZ that sells it, and thats in a food court in Wellington and the food court only opens in the weekends.

Met up with Peiyun again and had to trouble her to bring me around again. Thanks a lot for taking time off your busy schedule to bring me around again. Hope u have no test after that this time, hehe. She brought me to her favourite cafe, called Cafe L'affare and i must say i totally can understand why its her favourite cafe, i love the place too man and the coffee is fantastic.

2005-10-05T08:32:00.000+08:00

Now this is freakish....

You Are 23 Years Old

Under 12: You are a kid at heart. You still have an optimistic life view - and you look at the world with awe.

13-19: You are a teenager at heart. You question authority and are still trying to find your place in this world.

20-29: You are a twentysomething at heart. You feel excited about what's to come... love, work, and new experiences.

30-39: You are a thirtysomething at heart. You've had a taste of success and true love, but you want more!

40+: You are a mature adult. You've been through most of the ups and downs of life already. Now you get to sit back and relax.

What Age Do You Act?

And this is shocking.. Haha, well would be nice if its true. Oh man, i seem to be addicted to playing these surveys..i better go do my assignment =p

Your Seduction Style: Au Natural

You rank up there with your seduction skills, though you might not know it.

That's because you're a natural at seduction. You don't realize your power!

The root of your natural seduction power: your innocence and optimism.

You're the type of person who happily plays around and creates a unique little world.

Little do you know that your personal paradise is so appealing that it sucks people in.

You find joy in everything - so is it any surprise that people find joy in you?

You bring back the inner child in everyone you meet with your sincere and spontaneous ways.

Your childlike (but not childish) behavior also inspires others to care for you.

As a result, those who you befriend and date tend to be incredibly loyal to you.

What Kind of Seducer Are You?

2005-10-05T08:19:00.000+08:00

Got this link from a friends blog. So decided to try it out.
Verdict : Many are true, but there are a few that are quite totally opposite. hehe.

Your Ideal Relationship is Polyamory

You want to have your cake... and everyone else's.

Which isn't a bad thing, if everyone else gets to eat too!

You're too much of a free spirit to be tied down by a traditional relationship.

You think relationships should be open and free, with few restrictions.

What's Your Ideal Relationship?

How You Are In Love

You fall in love quickly and easily. And very often.

You tend to take more than give in relationships.

You tend to get very attached when you're with someone. You want to see your love all the time.

You love your partner unconditionally and don't try to make them change.

You are fickle and tend to fall out of love easily. You bounce from romance to romance.

How Are You In Love?

The Keys to Your Heart

You are attracted to those who have a split personality - cold as ice on the outside but hot as fire in the heart.

In love, you feel the most alive when things are straight-forward, and you're told that you're loved.

You'd like to your lover to think you are loyal and faithful... that you'll never change.

You would be forced to break up with someone who was emotional, moody, and difficult to please.

Your ideal relationship is lasting. You want a relationship that looks to the future... one you can grow with.

Your risk of cheating is zero. You care about society and morality. You would never break a commitment.

You think of marriage as something precious. You'll treasure marriage and treat it as sacred.

In this moment, you think of love as something you thirst for. You'll do anything for love, but you won't fall for it easily.

What Are The Keys To Your Heart?

How You Life Your Life

You seem to be straight forward, but you keep a lot inside.

You're laid back and chill, but sometimes you care too much about what others think.

You prefer a variety of friends and tend to change friends quickly.

Some of your past dreams have disappointed you, but you don't let it get you down.

How Do You Live Your Life?

2005-10-02T17:08:00.000+08:00

Just received my monthly dosage of animes from my friend in Singapore. So happy.

And judging from my new blog display picture, its quite apparent that i just watched FF7 Advent Children. Haha. Not as wonderful as the hype makes it out to be, but still really chio CG and even chioer Tifa. If my wife is as pretty and understanding as Tifa, i'll really retire for good man.

Just info for those interested to know, i saw this really chio girl at IH recently. But don't think its convenient for me to post her picture. Hehe, but man is she chio, the kind that you will consider retiring one. For those who are interested to see her picture, erm msn me and i'll consider showing it to you, not applicable to anyone who's currently residing in NZ.

Now rushing essay for my anthropology essay. But at least progress is still quite good, around 15% done. But recently very suay(unlucky), a lot of things not going very smoothly, really really wonder what have i done wrong recently. Maybe like what Jinyi always tell me, i should go and get some good karma, haha, she really has a unique way of looking at things, really enjoy talking to her sometimes.

Just got a latest gossip from a Singaporean friend, turns out she just got attached. Good for you girl, see i told you guys are not that bad. Well at least we don't appear to be bad. Haha. And then i come to realise again what i realise not long ago....................................................

THE WHOLE WORLD IS GETTING ATTACHED!!!!!

What a scary world........

And another even more scary thing happened, my brother's jokes are getting more and more cold. Today he msn me today this
"thanks... talk later. u take care. saving private ryan...heee hee"
The first thing i saw was lots and lots of crow flying across my head, the second was a sudden shiver down my spine.
Well maybe its due to the fact that i sent him this txt a few days ago
"Okie, you take care. May the force be with you"

Sometimes i wonder if my parents gave birth to 2 idiots...haha.

2005-09-28T20:01:00.000+08:00

Night of terror by f*cking crazy chinese bitch driver

Me and Atsushi almost got knock down by this f*cking crazy chinese bitch driver tonight.
We were walking back from Esquires and we started crossing the road the moment the green man appears. Then this crazy bitch driver came driving down and we heard a horn but didn't know what was happening. And while we were crossing, that bitch just drove on. And get this, she did not even slow down at all, in fact she accelerated. Lucky i noticed that she was not slowing down at all and managed to stop Atsushi from going any further. I swear she inched past us and if we had taken another step forward, we surely would have been knocked down by her. After she inched past us, me and atsushi was still quite in shock, i quickly take a quick glance at the traffic light to comfirm that it was red and it really was red. Which means that crazy bitch not only didn't slow down on a red light, she probably ignored our presence. I really wished she crash and burn. Which i think that at the rate and way she's driving, its probably only a matter of time. I just hope nobody else would get hurt by her crazy driving before she crashes and kill herself. To the f*cking crazy bitch, if you wanna kill yourself, die alone bitch.

So to all my friends in NZ, please please take extra care when crossing the roads here. Because tonight was really quite a close shave. Even the car beside that crazy bitch's car was also driving at quite a fast speed, only difference was that the car managed to make a quick stop. Please do always ensure the car is slowing down before you cross into the car's path, even if its your right of way.

Finally a post with a lighter mood

2005-09-28T06:20:00.000+08:00

Finally a blog post with a lighter mood.

My brother over from Singapore last friday and i brought him around to eat and drink. And of course to see a bit of Auckland, though there's nothing much to see. We ended going to the 24 hours coffee place esquires to drink coffee every night cos its just so boring here. Haha, and of course not to mention that place is a good place to people watch(Read bio girls) well, what can i say, we both share the same passion for appreciating beautiful things.hehe. Its really nice going out for coffee together rather than always stay at home to rot and waste my time here, these are the little things in life that i really enjoy and appreciate,chatting over a nice cup of coffee. Its kinda funny that for the time that we were here, we didn't actually take a single picture together. Maybe its a guy thing, we aren't really that particular about taking pictures. The only picture i need is in my head. We did went to the arcade yesterday night to play game, been so long since i last played the arcade. But it was still quite fun cos we raced in Daytona which is a game i haven't played for like ages. And we went to play time crisis 3 too, it was pretty fun.

Today went for management lecture, almost wanted to skip it, but realise i have to hand in my essay or else i'll have to go to school 9 am in the morning tomorrow to hand it in. There is this interesting thing that my lecturer said that i really agree with.

From his lecture (not exact words, but as exact as i can remember)
"I had a german friend who came over here to study"
"And everytime i see him, i would see him around german friends"
"I asked whether he is here to know NZ and to learn the culture"
"He said yes, and i said what the hell are you doing here if you keep mixing with german people"
"Go mix with the kiwis,the asians,everyone. Because isn't that what you come Auckland for"

This really sums up my thoughts and is partly the reason why i was upset the past few blog entries. Because i came here to learn and meet new friends and people. People from around the world. To mix around. That was what i originally planned to accomplish. But now seeing that my time here is going to end in like one and a half months, i can't help but feel that i haven't really accomplish that as well as i originally wanted to. I'm really glad i met many good friends like atsushi, mirae, moogyong,taegyu,alice,eri etc, and learn so much about them. But i just can't help feeling that i should have met so many more people. And kinda sad that i'll have to go back soon and i won't have much opportunity to know more people. How i wished i had one more semester here , damn i need a bloody miracle to happen.

Now i have to start doing the difficult anthropology essay that is due next week. Talk about ultimate boring.

2005-09-25T20:15:00.000+08:00

Current feeling : Not too good and no can understand what i feel.

A song i desperately need to believe in.









For those interested, english translation can be found at
http://www.animelyrics.com/anime/boysbe/daijoubu.htm

Maybe i should change my blog title to struggling emotions.
And to my friends reading this blog,
sorry for the recent negative entries.

Even the stupid blogspot is giving me alignment problems.

2005-09-21T18:15:00.000+08:00

Damn bored... So i'm gonna blog about my depressing mood, ain't that depressing. Oh well, just bear with me, i'll give u all some nice stuff at the end of the entry.

Recently has been super busy. I'm so busy that even my friends around me notice it.

Direct Quotes:
(Rachel) I've never seen Renyu so hardworking before.
(Mirae) I never knew Ryan goes to the library.

Well i should be busy, considering i have an essay due like next week and another super difficult,confusing cum don't know how to do essay thats due in 2 weeks time. And not to mention a test for a paper that i've been skipping for quite some time.

But on the brighter side, i've been doing quite well for my paper here. So well that its shocking man.

Networks test : 15/20
Management Essay 1: 11/15
Anthropology Essay 1: can't remember, but is a B+

Now that is pretty shocking..considering the amount of lessons i'm attending and the effort i'm putting in. Oh well, i just need to pass. But the competitive side of my keeps wanting to do better, irritating. I'll just aim to pass. I like peace, not competition.

Haiz..back to my depression. Loads of things, but probably is all the essay and tests thats cranking me up. And not to mention i just found out after talking to the exchange coordinator that i won't be able to extend my SEP here for another semester. Though i haven't decide if i really want to extend yet, a large part of my would really like to stay here for another semester. Its just so sucky that i don't even have such an option to make. Just feel there's so much stuff i haven't do here. Another semester would be quite a perfect ending. But life are full of ups and down, though i still wished to be up most of the time.

Well, went for my usual and last tennis lesson today, a tennis workout really ease all the frustration man. Feel much better now. But still wish for miracles to happen.

Ah, i'm sure most of you all must be waiting for the good stuff rite. So here it is

My Korean friend Mirae helped me find the link, thanks mirae, gamsa hamida(Hope i spell it correctly). By the way, she's gonna teach me about korean alphabets, so hopefully i'll be able to spell it in korean soon, cross fingers.

Korean advertisement

Oh man, this is a good advertisement, its a bit slow so might take some time to download. But hey, good things are worth the wait. And its not porn you perverts(To those who are hoping its porn)

But for guys, i'm sure you'll love it.
For girls, i'm sure you'll at least envy it.
Enjoy the advertisement.

2005-09-16T11:25:00.000+08:00

Ok now back to my normal life.

Yesterday received a shock of my life man, didn't expect so many things to happen in the short period that i'm gone. Looks like i need to update myself more with the stuff happening back at SoC. Though shocking, its still a happy event, so congratulations Junxian. Though i'm still shock, but good for you man. Sob sob, my Junxian Darling left me.haha

One of our many scandalous and incriminating photos. Thank god now i'm freed from his curse..haha

Today really very suay man, went to school for Lab test, then realised i studied the wrong chapter, end up i have to do a crash run through of the chapter before the test. But still genius prevails, i still managed to get 70%, muahaha... What can i say, i'm a genius. Minimal effort, acceptable rewards. My mum always say if i work harder, my grades will be much better. Well, trying to convince myself to work harder is always the difficult part.

Looks like some other genius notice the typo that i purposely put in this post. Good on you for being so observant. Hohoho... i'm a genius.

For those interested in my school timetable here, let me give u a brief overview.

Monday - 2 hour lesson (Almost always skip)
Tuesday - 1 hour lesson (Never attended before)
Wednesday 3 hour lesson ( Normally only attend the first 2 hour, and sometimes skip when i can't wake up in time
Thursday - 3 hour lesson ( Used to attend all 3 hours, recently dropped to 2 hours)
Friday - 4 hour lesson ( Only attend the 2 hour lab which is compulsory)

So effectively i only go school on weds for 2 hour, thurs for 2 hours and friday for 2 hours. Haha, i love my life here. And guess what, i got a B and B+ for my first 2 essays, muahaha.

Another super suay thing that happened to me. After i left school today, i walked to the free shuttle busstop, then when the bus came, i saw many people rushing up the bus so i decided to walk back to avoid the squeeze, not long after i left the busstop, it started pouring, and i got drench. But thats not the end. Half way home, i decided to go eat lunch while waiting for the rain to stop. I walked to BBQ king, then suddenly the rain stopped. Seeing that the rain stopped, i went in to takeaway my lunch home to eat, the moment i stepped out, it started pouring. So i had to eat at the place instead. But thats not the worse of my suayness, after i finish lunch and was just about to leave, it started pouring again. I walked home drenched for a second time. And guess what, the moment i stepped into my flat, the sun came out and even now its still bloody sunny. Talk about ultimate suayness man. But i think Rachel is even more suay than me,haha, maybe can check her blog to see if she got put anything about her suayness today.

For my international friends : Suay is actually a dialect term for unlucky, its pretty commonly used in Singapore and i think it has more or less unofficially become a singlish word.

2005-09-16T11:20:00.000+08:00

2 Week Mid Semester break - Part I

Hello everyone, i'm back from my 2 week mid semester break. Was fantastic, though not as fantastic on my wallet though. I'll be doing the update in parts, cos i will never be able to finish it in one short.

We first drove down to Rotorua, then to Mount Ruapehu(Which is slightly below Taupo), then to Palmerston North(Which is slightly above Wellington) , then to Wellington, to Napier(Somewhere between Wellington and Taupo), then to Taupo and finally back to Auckland

Rotorua

The most energetic thermal activity in North Island. Has many hot springs, geysers and mud pools.

Summary
1) Hot spa - went for an outdoor hotspring, the water was quite milky but man was the feeling good. Felt so relax after finishing the hot spa. PS: Also the first time seeing Rachel and Tamar in bikini, just one thing to comment,hobson apartment girls got standard one k. Of course not to forget the guys are of pretty high standards to =).

2)Luge and gondola ride - One of the activity i enjoyed the most, basically u sit on a mini cart powered by gravity and u drive down hill. The first time down was pretty cautious and kept breaking at the turns. But after the first one, me and yee sen just went on full speed totally ignoring the speed limits. i almost drifted with my cart and i was cornering so fast that one side of my cart got lifted up the ground. Totally awesome activity, must try for everyone.

3) Went for a maori culture night where there was traditional maori food and performance, pretty good but too bad i'm not that big on cultural stuff. The food was really nice though.

4) White water rafting at Kaituna River. Woohoo. Did my first white water rafting and we really choosed the most exciting one. We white water rafted down a 5 meters waterfall, one of the highest waterfall that you can raft down commercially. Surprising it was really easy, didn't really have to paddle much cos the guides did most of the paddling. I thought it would be more tiring, but turns out to be quite relaxing.

2005-09-16T11:19:00.000+08:00

2 Week mid sem break - Part II

After we left rotorua, we proceeded on to National Park to Mount Ruapehu for Snow boarding. Really feeling the excitement all the way to national park. Me and Aaron will be taking the Rocket Pass which is like a 4 days crash course to teach u snowboarding.

Me in my shuai snowboard pose.

Snowboarding is really hard man, on the first day, me and Aaron kept falling and falling and falling, we must have fell at least 50 times on our first day. And i sprained my left thumb during a fall. But things got better after the second day, and we finally managed to go down the whole stretch of the beginner area without falling down. Next we proceeded on to the intermediate area, this started our falling run again because the intermediate area was quite steep, but after the 3rd day, we finally conquered the intermediate area. On the last day, we went to the expert area higher up the mountain and we concluded that it was too much for us. We could stop ourselves from falling when coming down the mountain, but still quite a long way before being able to do it smoothly and quickly. Oh well, at least i'm already at the intermediate snowboard level. And that is after only 4 days of training. But snowboard is really fun man, plus its much cooler snowboarding than skiing.

Picture of the expert area and view from the mountain
After national park, we proceeded on to Palmerston north(Commonly called Palmy). Palmy is actually quite a small university town north of Wellington, but since Rachel's friend is there, we went there to check out the place.

One of the most interesting sights was the wind farm at Palmy. From far, the wind vanes look as though it was turning slowly, but boy did we got a rude shock when we got beneath one actual wind vane, the wind there was like typhoon man.

We also went to this nice restaurant for dinner and the food was really very nice. One of the nicest dinner i've had in NZ. The meat is actually served raw on this very hot stone grill, then u just cut and cooked the meat on the stone yourself.

The friends from Palmy also brought us on a personal tour of the Vet School in the Uni, cool rite. Really enjoyed the tour since its not something you get to see in Singapore, but i don't think i'll want to be a vet after doing the tour. We were also shown the flying school there and we get to see the practice aircrafts that they use to teach the future pilots of airlines.

2005-09-16T11:18:00.000+08:00

2 week mid sem break - Part III

After we left Palmy, we headed further south to Wellington, the Capital of NZ. This is my favourite city in NZ and its one of the most windy city in the world, really love this city man. Sometimes i wonder why i chose i Auckland. But Wellington seriously have a congestion problem, the streets are always jam with cars and the streets are all 2 way streets, which gives the city a very crampy feel. But the cafe culture more than makes up for this shortcoming. Really love the cafe culture here, there is so many nice cafe with individual character and the coffee is really of good quality.

On the first night, me and Yee Sen went to this microbrewery along the harbour. And we ordered the tasting palate for the beer there. They basically give u 6 mini glasses of the 6 types of beers they brew there. We drank till we almost KO man, probably due to the mixing of the types of beer and the fact that we only had 45 mins to finish everything since they are closing.

The next day, one of my new good friend brought me around Wellington to check out the cafe scene. Really appreciate her for taking the time to bring me around Wellington to cafe hop. But heard she kanna a surprise test the day after we went cafe hopping and because we had so much coffee, she didn't manage to sleep till 5 am. Haha, So sorry Peiyun.

Another of our cafe exploring pictures

2005-09-16T11:17:00.000+08:00

2 week mid sem break - Final part

After Wellington, we made a quick stop to the art-deco town of napier. Personally, i find Napier pretty boring, heard there was quite a number of things to do around Napier,but we didn't have the time to do it, so we just walked the city.

After Napier, we proceeded to Taupo, which is just beside Taupo Lake(like that comes as a surprise) Taupo Lake is said to be about the size of Singapore. When i first heard this, i was like, What? How the hell would anyone other than Singaporeans know how big Singapore is in the first place. Not a good comparison i guess.

Taupo really is a beautiful place, i never expected it to be so beautiful and relaxing. And the best thing is u can actually see Mt Ruapehu from across Lake Taupo. Lake and snow capped mountain always makes a good combination.

Also visited the beautiful Huka Falls

Okie, i'm getting lazy to continue posting any more pictures, hehe. Well that more or less sums up my 2 week mid sem adventure. For more stories, explanations and pictures, kindly proceed to Rachel, Tamar or Aaron's website for they are far more patient than me in terms of blogging.

2005-08-21T09:57:00.000+08:00

Can't get into the mood to study for the boring networking test on monday, so here i am blogging =p

Just watched the first episode of 101 proposal, my favourite japanese drama of all time. I seldom watch japanese drama, so as you can guess this must be really good. Catched it the first time on Cable tv in Singapore, then immediately bought the vcd from ebay. Now watching it for the second time in NZ, woo hoo.

101 Proposal

And this drama totally got me addicted to the song Say Yes by Chage and aska. Used to hate the song a lot, guess i changed my opinion on it. The lyric is also very touching, found the chinese translation for it.

One thing that i learnt from the show was

"愛には愛で感じ合おうよ
ai ni wa ai de kanji aou yo"

Which translated, simply means you must use love to feel love.

Previously,I've always thought about what it would be like to be in love. But then i realise that the reason is because i've never really learnt about how to love properly. You have to give love to feel in love, you don't feel in love simply because someone loves you, you also have to give love to feel it. A bit complicated eh.

Well, i've come a long way now. And although i still haven't learnt to totally love someone, i have learnt to love.

So to my future wife out there, wait for me, just need a bit more time =p.

Secret : I always weep when i watch this drama, one way or another it never fails to touch me.

2005-08-19T18:55:00.000+08:00

I can't work with kiwis with project man, totally don't know what is their style of doing project. The project is due on monday, and now, only one person has sent out his part, i just sent out mine and i have no idea when the other two person is gonna send out their part. And one of them was the person who keeps scrutinising the draft of my part that i sent out earlier. I mean come on man, if you have so much time to scutinise other people's part, just shut up and use that time to complete your own part.

There is no clear division of work, heck i'm quite certain there will be many repeated points and its already friday now. They are hardworking when it comes to research and scrutinising other's part, but they can't do or plan a report, period. Not saying that all kiwis are like that, might be just the people in my project group. Have a strong feeling i'll end up picking up the pieces that they leave behind, somemore i got a big test on monday and i haven't really prepared for it. I'm slack here, but i slack cleverly loh, i use the minimum effort to get an average work out. Whats the point in putting so much effort and still not be able to come up with a decent report, and what makes it horrifying is that of the 3 ppl i'm working with, 2 of them are actually working full time. Having serious doubt here man. And i thought with the work and practical exposure, such stuff would be a piece of cake for them. Guess i'm quite wrong, or am I?

2005-08-17T09:26:00.000+08:00

Skipped school today, the first time i skipped the anthropolgy and management lecture. A bit guilty, but hey my mood is more important than any lecture. And when my lazy mood kicks in, sorry lecturers and tutors.

Watched a very interesting sex and the city eps today. Its about why girls keep wanting their boyfriends to change for them and whether they can actually change a man.

Quote from the show
"Every girlfriend i've had wants to me change something, change my hairstyle,my job,my clothes. But the one thing i ever change is girlfriends"

Which sets me thinking. Its funny how people actually expects others to change. Whatever happened to i love you just the way you are. Maybe its the expectations that they have and when their gf or bf fails to meet the expectations, they try to change them to fit, just like you tailor clothes that are not your exact fit. Maybe if we could just ignore the expectations for a while ,we would experience a more fulfilling relationship.

"You don't have to change a thing
I love you just the way you are "
From the song : Nothing's gonna change my love for you

Just some food for thoughts after i watched that eps.

2005-08-16T17:01:00.000+08:00

I feel like a snow man now. Cos recently having some skin problem here. It feels ok when i'm dry and cool, but the moment i get hot or sweaty, my whole body will feel very itchy. And the itch is beyond unbearable. So i got my roomies to help me get calamine lotion and now i'm blogging while covered in calamine lotion, hence the snowman effect. The last time i experienced something like this was after i came back from field camp in army, and i also used calamine lotion the last time. Though i really miss the times when there was someone to apply calamine lotion for me instead of having to apply it myself and troubling my flatmate poor Aaron to help me apply my back. This lotion better work miracles man.

Yesterday went to watch the Island at the cinema, yes its the island, movie release is bloody slow here. Heck, Charlie and the chocolate factory has not even started to screen here yet. After that we met up with Gali and jeremey for dinner, they are Tamar's church friend whom i got to know during my first week in Auckland. They really helped me a lot and gave lots of advice for us, thats why we were able to settle down here so fast. We went for dinner at BBQ king and man was the roast duck good there man. Think this will be one of my favourite roast duck eating place here.

Quite relaxing this week cos i've finished my essays and sort of finish my group project. Probably will try to do a bit of reading during my spare time sometime this week.

We also booked the accomodation stuff for our 2 weeks mid-semester break.
So excited man, going to Snowboard for 1 week at Mt Ruapehu. WOoHOo. Also completed the PS2 game that i've been playing during my free time here. Now Aaron can have the PS2 all to himself. Haha.

Well, regarding the question in the previous post, the question that i keep asking myself is
"What is my purpose in life and what do i want in life"
Yet to find the answer, but still haven't given up trying to find it. Been pondering at this question for quite some time already.

Life is pretty good here. Just hope to have more things to do here other than stay at home and rot or study(Which,by the way is worse than staying at home and rot)

(FOCC committee with teckleep missing)